Allow Background download when in single player only games

[TehOMGfather]

Understandably, you don't want a download to occur in any multiplayer games for all the obvious reasons. But it would be nice if there was a global setting to always allow background downloads while in known single player only games. The only exception being software or other non-steam games/software.

This would be so much easier than having to cherry pick every single player only game and update the prefs to allow downloading in the background. Wouldn't it?

[󠀡󠀡󠀡]

I just start whatever game I want to play, tab out, go to downloads and hit the start button again

[TehOMGfather]

I used to do that as well, but I still find it rather bothersome because it requires user interaction.

[Washell]

Settings -> Download -> Allow downloads during gameplay.

[TehOMGfather]

Originally posted by Washell:

Settings -> Download -> Allow downloads during gameplay.

I don't think you understood the original suggestion. What you're saying here allows background downloads for ANY title, the suggestion was to allow background downloads for single-player games *only*.

[Gwarsbane]

Steam itself doesn't know the difference between you playing a single player game or a multiplayer game. It doesn't know if the game you are playing is multiplayer only or single player only. It would have to be programmed to look at each and every individual game on steam to know the difference, and even then I'm not sure it can be done without access to the programming of the game which will never happen because Valve has no legal right to see the source code of any game.

[Washell]

Originally posted by -ßЯҢ- TehOMGfather:

I don't think you understood the original suggestion.

Correct, I misunderstood it. Problem is, Steam can't tell whether you're playing single or multiplayer most of the time.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by -ßЯҢ- TehOMGfather:

Originally posted by Washell:

Settings -> Download -> Allow downloads during gameplay.

I don't think you understood the original suggestion. What you're saying here allows background downloads for ANY title, the suggestion was to allow background downloads for single-player games *only*.

You can set this for each game individually in addition to a default setting which can be overridden by individual settings.

[TehOMGfather]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Steam itself doesn't know the difference between you playing a single player game or a multiplayer game. It doesn't know if the game you are playing is multiplayer only or single player only. It would have to be programmed to look at each and every individual game on steam to know the difference, and even then I'm not sure it can be done without access to the programming of the game which will never happen because Valve has no legal right to see the source code of any game.

This has nothing to do with the actual programming of the game, in fact I believe your confusing yourself here a bit. Steam "knows" what kind of game you're playing and as mentioned you can select each game individually to ignore global settings and allow background downloads.

Specifically, if you look at the store pages for any of your games steam will list what kind of game it is in the right hand column. Single-player only or Single + Multi + Co-op and so on… This option would fall under games that don't even have a multiplayer or coop component.

That way you don't need to set the option to override global settings for each game individually.

Originally posted by Quint the Globular Springtail:

Originally posted by -ßЯҢ- TehOMGfather:

I don't think you understood the original suggestion. What you're saying here allows background downloads for ANY title, the suggestion was to allow background downloads for single-player games *only*.

You can set this for each game individually in addition to a default setting which can be overridden by individual settings.

I know this, it's one of the first things I mentioned… I want an all-encompassing option instead.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Washell:

Correct, I misunderstood it. Problem is, Steam can't tell whether you're playing single or multiplayer most of the time.

Not to mention there's games that jump back & forth from single to multiplayer on the fly.

Been on the wrong end on this feature this very same weekend. Getting to download Evolve but notice the download has been idling while I played Subnautica...

[TehOMGfather]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Been on the wrong end on this feature this very same weekend. Getting to download Evolve but notice the download has been idling while I played Subnautica...

I've noticed that when you have multiple downloads, they queue and set a download time for themselves and I agree that if you have something just sitting there idle it can be annoying. The only option then is to manually give it a kick start. Valve needs to fix that.

[Penix 3 <=3]

We got a new library since then that makes full use of the "Steam Feature Tags". Now that these are integrated into your local library, making a switch in the settings to enable "downloading games that do not have any Online Features listed on Steam" shouldn't be that hard.

Sure, this would still mean you'd have to change the game specific settings for a lot of games as there are a lot of games that have online features listed that you'd probably play in singleplayer. But this would still decrease the effort you have to put in to make a working system for yourself so you don't have to manually restart the downloads every time you start a game.

[Gate]

I could get behind this feature in a slightly different worded way.

Disallow downloads during multiplayer sessions.

However; having said I support it, I do believe it's a niche feature.

Somethings to note; Tags are not always guaranteed and/or correct.
Not all games register online sessions with Steams' server browser or MP Auth system.
Detection will _not_ be 100%.

[TehOMGfather]

Welcome back to ~6 years later and this is still rather annoying when you have hundreds of titles to play through. Why is this suddenly popular again?

[Penix 3 <=3]

Originally posted by TehOMGfather:

Welcome back to ~6 years later and this is still rather annoying when you have hundreds of titles to play through. Why is this suddenly popular again?

It's not "popular again". I searched for exactly this problem, this Steam Community Thread was the only thing I could find, so I reopened this thread again because with the library overhaul from 2019 it's one step closer to being something any intern at Valve could do within 20 minutes.

Then this thread was the first thread in the "Suggestions / Ideas" forum of Steam and @Gate saw it because of that and answered after just a look on your inital post and not my last comment that made a simpler suggestion.