show space requirements in GB with pie chart

[pinecones_sx]

Hello,
Just wanted to suggest a quality of life feature for the steam client.

When you go to install a game, it shows the required and available space in MB. Can you add an option to show the required and available space in GB instead?

It would also be nice to include a pie chart to visualize how much of the free space will be used up be the game you are installing.

Might also be nice to be able to force the pie chart to show overall drive size in GB as well as the free space and the amount of space the installation will take of that.

[The Chicagoan]

Publicado originalmente por pinecones_sx:

Hello,
Just wanted to suggest a quality of life feature for the steam client.

When you go to install a game, it shows the required and available space in MB. Can you add an option to show the required and available space in GB instead?

It would also be nice to include a pie chart to visualize how much of the free space will be used up be the game you are installing.

Might also be nice to be able to force the pie chart to show overall drive size in GB as well as the free space and the amount of space the installation will take of that.

I don't really see the point. If the game was 70,000MB that is 70GB.. It's rather simple to see that. And simple math really isn't hard. Just check the hard drive space left, subtract how ever big the game is and there you go that's how much space you'll have when the game installs.

[pinecones_sx]

... glad you don't see the point. very constructive response.

[🆃🆄🅺🆂🅾🅽]

Hmm. Nice response.

[Mailer]

Publicado originalmente por The Chicagoan:

Publicado originalmente por pinecones_sx:

Hello,
Just wanted to suggest a quality of life feature for the steam client.

When you go to install a game, it shows the required and available space in MB. Can you add an option to show the required and available space in GB instead?

It would also be nice to include a pie chart to visualize how much of the free space will be used up be the game you are installing.

Might also be nice to be able to force the pie chart to show overall drive size in GB as well as the free space and the amount of space the installation will take of that.

I don't really see the point. If the game was 70,000MB that is 70GB.. It's rather simple to see that. And simple math really isn't hard. Just check the hard drive space left, subtract how ever big the game is and there you go that's how much space you'll have when the game installs.

There's definitely a point to having storage spaces be visualized prior to making decisions on whether or not to let Steam allocate vast amounts of space, especially for people that don't have a lot of it to spare. Visualizing the proportional difference between the space that will be used, as opposed to the space that is avaliable, with something appealing to look at, rather than having nothing but numbers to crunch, would be a big improvement for a lot of people. It's true that anyone can do the math, but it's always easy to be misled about one less or greater zero when it comes to big numbers, even if you are a skilled mathematician, and once you've rung the bell...

That being said, I don't agree on using a pie-chart since pie-charts are pretty much always inferior when displaying proportions in comparison to say... solid blocks stacked up against each other, and it's also a lot more rendering than there has to be.

[Start_Running]

So you want steam to draw pictures becausedividing by 1000 is too much work for you?

Secondly think about how that looks for games of a gigabyte or less.

They show in megabytes becaus ethat is the last truely signifanct measure in these things. We stopped thinking in kilobytes by the kearly 90's.. And as said imagine what that pie chart looks like when showing the space useage for 2 gb on a 500gb Drive.

[Grima The Fell Dragon]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

So you want steam to draw pictures because dividing by 1000 is too much work for you?

Secondly think about how that looks for games of a gigabyte or less.

They show in megabytes becaus ethat is the last truely signifanct measure in these things. We stopped thinking in kilobytes by the kearly 90's.. And as said imagine what that pie chart looks like when showing the space useage for 2 gb on a 500gb Drive.

Ok, the condescending comment wasn't necessary, but it doesn't hurt to know exactly how much space a game plus all the dlc you've bought or the current updates will take.

I mean if its a small game than it should show in megabytes, but once it hits a gigabyte I'd like to have the option to show big is it in gigabytes as well. Like this: this game is 7,000 mb or 7 gb. That way I know exactly how big it is.

I mean my file system shows something as mb until it hits the magic thousand, and then it shows it in gigs. I'd just like the size to be shown on steam as a convenience.

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por Grima The Fell Dragon:

Ok, the condescending comment wasn't necessary, but it doesn't hurt to know exactly how much space a game plus all the dlc you've bought or the current updates will take.

And do you want a more exact display than megabytes? Because that'd mean using Kilobytes.

I mean if its a small game than it should show in megabytes, but once it hits a gigabyte I'd like to have the option to show big is it in gigabytes as well. Like this: this game is 7,000 mb or 7 gb. That way I know exactly how big it is.

Except the latter readed is actually less exact.

I mean my file system shows something as mb until it hits the magic thousand, and then it shows it in gigs. I'd just like the size to be shown on steam as a convenience.

That's because from the OS stand point storage gets a little more complicated due to file system overhead.

I'm not against the idea of toggling the display between Megabytes and gigabytes but really.. what's the difference between

7313 Mbytes
7.313 Gbytes

[Tito Shivan]

To be honest I've never found Steam's space requirement window that much user friendly.
Sure I can tell if a game fits on my drive free space, but it's not that easy to guess how much of that free space is going to take.

I'd choose a bar instead of a pie chart though. Pie charts take too much space on a window, a bar graph though would display the same info in a much smaller (and more window-friendly) format.

[pinecones_sx]

the issue is that the fonts are not fixed width and they are left aligned. there is no need to force the user to do mental gymnastics when simple formatting will allow the user to get important information at a glance.

for example, a random game i picked to install just gave me this info:
required: 1033 MB
available: 16098 MB

can i look at that and guess there is plenty of space? SURE. but it isn't exactly obvious what the ratio is between the two.

i also really, really do not understand anyone who's response is "DERR, BUT IT'S JUST A BIGGER NUMBER DAEUURR. IS EASY." sure. but it could be easier, more useful, and present information in a clearer way. that's why i made the feature request.

to anyone continuing to poop on it, have fun with your graphing calculators.

[pinecones_sx]

Publicado originalmente por Tito Shivan:

To be honest I've never found Steam's space requirement window that much user friendly.
Sure I can tell if a game fits on my drive free space, but it's not that easy to guess how much of that free space is going to take.

I'd choose a bar instead of a pie chart though. Pie charts take too much space on a window, a bar graph though would display the same info in a much smaller (and more window-friendly) format.

yeah. whatever works. i think there is a bunch of wasted space in that diagogue box as-is, so i figured a pie chart would probably fit and present the information more clearly.

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por pinecones_sx:

the issue is that the fonts are not fixed width and they are left aligned. there is no need to force the user to do mental gymnastics when simple formatting will allow the user to get important information at a glance.

This has been brought up years ago. It's stunning that it's still an issue.

[BloodShed]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

I'm not against the idea of toggling the display between Megabytes and gigabytes but really.. what's the difference between

7313 Mbytes
7.313 Gbytes

7313 MB is 7.141 GB
7313 GB is 7488 MB

That's the difference.

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por BloodShed:

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

I'm not against the idea of toggling the display between Megabytes and gigabytes but really.. what's the difference between

7313 Mbytes
7.313 Gbytes

7313 MB is 7.141 GB
7313 GB is 7488 MB

That's the difference.

Technically, no.

7313 MB = 7.313 GB
7313 MiB = 7.141 GiB

[BloodShed]

Publicado originalmente por cinedine:

Publicado originalmente por BloodShed:

7313 MB is 7.141 GB
7313 GB is 7488 MB

That's the difference.

Technically, no.

7313 MB = 7.313 GB
7313 MiB = 7.141 GiB

Oh right the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ "comsumer" standart.
Because they can only use base 10 conversion, instead of the proper base 2 that computer work with.

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por pinecones_sx:

Publicado originalmente por Tito Shivan:

To be honest I've never found Steam's space requirement window that much user friendly.
Sure I can tell if a game fits on my drive free space, but it's not that easy to guess how much of that free space is going to take.

I'd choose a bar instead of a pie chart though. Pie charts take too much space on a window, a bar graph though would display the same info in a much smaller (and more window-friendly) format.

yeah. whatever works. i think there is a bunch of wasted space in that diagogue box as-is, so i figured a pie chart would probably fit and present the information more clearly.

Except where the size on your drive is going to be that much larger compared to your software.. I mean if you've got a 500 gig a 10 gig install isn't even going to visibly register on a Pie chart without a zoom finction.. Even on a bar chart.

them laying it out as a table rather than text string would be much better. that way they can alighn the colums to the right. and make it easier at a glance.