Low-Bandwidth mode for Steam

[You Win!]

What about a low-bandwidth mode for Steam where only what is absolutely necessary to run games is loaded and/or fetch from the server and/or servers.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Steam is pretty bad about this. Like, it downloads updates to itself without telling you until it's done, and you can't even throttle that.

There is a "Low-Bandwidth Mode" and a "Low-Performance Mode" for the Library, and in the main Library you can turn off game icons on the left sidebar. However, you still get tons of images loading.

You can try running it with the launch parameter -no-browser, which should turn off its desire to load a gratuitous bunch of images. If you do that, you can still access your games via Small Mode (make sure to turn off game icons there as well), but you must go into Big Picture Mode to uninstall them.

You can also run Steam in Offline Mode. Doesn't always work for everything.

And you can also try to run your games without Steam running, since starting Steam will itself burn through data transfer.



So yeah.

I've suggested a Steam "lite" edition that only does the bare minimum of downloading/installing games and authorizing the player to play them. I doubt that Valve will ever make such a lite edition of the client, but hey, doesn't hurt to suggest it.

[kamilson]

Developers do read those forums, I've had issues get fixed after posting them. Even by very small development houses. Posting about a technically issue you're experiencing, is not in vain.

Of course, it depends on the developer, and how you write your post. Some are more cooperative than others. But if you put effort into your post, and post constructive comments, and cooperate to some extent, there is a good chance they will read it, and try to fix it for you, because they can release updates, if they want.

Steam support is probably not very good at fixing bugs, and may not even be able to do that, because they don't manage the software that is put on Steam, but the developer might.
If you have a serious issue running their game, then the developer probably wants to know about that, as well. Its only in their best interest to help you in any way they can.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Exeline:

What about a low-bandwidth mode for Steam where only what is absolutely necessary to run games is loaded and/or fetch from the server and/or servers.

Small mode is a thing.
There's allso already a setting for Low Bandwidth in settings.

Also, what if someone is on Africa and/or traveling and by chance got no access to a good and/or stable internet connection? - Maybe went there trying to save people and need a distraction or time to check on the steam account?

Many steam games can be played in Offline mode. YOu just have to pre install them ahead of time. Not all games mind you but quite a few.. Heck some games don't even require the steam client to run.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Exeline:

What about a low-bandwidth mode for Steam where only what is absolutely necessary to run games is loaded and/or fetch from the server and/or servers.

Define what is absolutely necessary. Or rather, define all the extra fluff you believe is being included in games...

Originally posted by Exeline:

Some people (like me), actually struggle with really low internet speeds and internet access due to being in a really disgusting place with really disgusting people (Venezuela).

Sometimes the infrastructure problems of your city, county, state, country isn't a problem for some foreign business to solve.

I grew up in rural nowhere, I started out on dialup. I know your pain. The world wasn't going to accommodate me however. I moved to a city for better internet and opportunities.

Originally posted by Exeline:

Also, what if someone is on Africa and/or traveling and by chance got no access to a good and/or stable internet connection? - Maybe went there trying to save people and need a distraction or time to check on the steam account?

Sounds like they should buy their games from GoG instead. Steam is online, and it's one part DRM. And it wasn't designed around accommodating every edge case where a person doesn't meet the requirements to use the system.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Exeline:

What about a low-bandwidth mode for Steam where only what is absolutely necessary to run games is loaded and/or fetch from the server and/or servers.

What it fetches is already really small, unless you're on sub-dialup you should be fine.

Originally posted by Exeline:

Some people (like me), actually struggle with really low internet speeds and internet access due to being in a really disgusting place with really disgusting people (Venezuela).

That's not a Steam issue, though.
You can block images with programs, you can limit other things that load, and in DOWNLOADS > DOWNLOAD RESTRICTIONS you can set Bandwidth Limits. You can also attempt launching in offline mode and playing singleplayer stuff. But again, it's not really a Steam issue, you have options you can use at any moment even with a basic program or addon.

Originally posted by Exeline:

Also, what if someone is on Africa and/or traveling and by chance got no access to a good and/or stable internet connection? - Maybe went there trying to save people and need a distraction or time to check on the steam account?

There are programs for essential use access, which likely does not include entertainment. Even warships have something of the sort, but going to certain places you know in advance the access to electricity/an internet connection might not even be a thing or if so; very, very poor of a connection.

You wanting to play games, and people going to help starving areas in africa are entirely different things. Given where you are, the countries politics is making the nation starve, so you should all do something about that...
There's not going to be any one thing at any given moment that you want. Things happen, people go places, sometimes stuff is just down - these are the realities of the modern world, and often we cannot get what we want especially with the issues your country is having in general, which Steam cannot fix.

But none of that is a Steam issue.

[Re-oL]

Maybe make a "Steam Lite". A client with abolutely minimum feature, just your library and the old-lightweight "friend" feature. Sometime i'm using steam to play small game on small laptop and steam hogging up more of my laptop resource than the game itself.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Re-oL:

Maybe make a "Steam Lite". A client with abolutely minimum feature, just your library and the old-lightweight "friend" feature.

Yep, an excellent idea. Well, you'd need more than just Library and Friends; you'd also need basic DRM processing since some games use Steam DRM.

But meanwhile you could cut out Friends, since there's Friends webchat.

Perhaps ideally the Steam client could be built modularly -- only download those pieces that you actually want to use.

Originally posted by Re-oL:

Sometime i'm using steam to play small game on small laptop and steam hogging up more of my laptop resource than the game itself.

Yeah, it can be quite silly.

Can always check to see if those games can be made to run without Steam though.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Re-oL:

Maybe make a "Steam Lite". A client with abolutely minimum feature, just your library and the old-lightweight "friend" feature. Sometime i'm using steam to play small game on small laptop and steam hogging up more of my laptop resource than the game itself.

Small Mode.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by Re-oL:

Maybe make a "Steam Lite". A client with abolutely minimum feature, just your library and the old-lightweight "friend" feature. Sometime i'm using steam to play small game on small laptop and steam hogging up more of my laptop resource than the game itself.

Small Mode.

Small Mode only hides things visually. The whole standard client is still loaded up.

I can't believe you didn't even say -no-browser, since that would do much more to benefit the person you're replying to, compared to using Small Mode.