Playing a game while downloading it

[Rickle Pick]

Right now I am downloading Path Of Exile, now it isn't a very big game it's only 2.9 gigs but I have seen games that go anywhere from 10 to 15 gigabytes that take days for some people. I think that you should try to implement a feature for games where when you download the game it chronologically downloads and you can play the game at the same time as it downloads. This way players can play the first level or two while the game is still downloading in the background. This isn't imperative but I think it would give you an even bigger leg up. Sorry if this isn't worded very well after all this is my first ever post and am only 13.

[Deleted]

Good ideia, right now I´m downloading Bioshock Infinite 25gb. for example: if you could start playing after downloading the first 5gb or so that would be nice but I think its to hard to inplement such a feature.

[JuCeDoGi]

Only game I've seen to actually use this is world of warcraft.
Frankly I don't think it's possible to do this since game content is dependent of the company that created it and valve has no control over this.
Unless a standard was created for game content to achieve this that every company ended up using I would think that this cannot be accomplished.

[BC]

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/666827315534995029/

[Spawn of Totoro]

While a nice idea, games would have to be coded in a way that would allow for it. That means every game would have to be re-writen to support this single feature.

Right now Steam uses multiple download servers, downloading a bit at a time, in order to get you the game as quickly as possible. They are not downloaded in a specific order, so you may have the last 50% of the game, and none of the first 50% needed to play.

To completely redo the structure of the downloads, and games, would require a very large investment from Valve and every developer. Not to mention those developers would most likely be against the idea.

Originally posted by L-r | Sari♥:

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/666827315534995029/

He means partly download the game and play it while it continues to download. Not download while playing a different game.

Originally posted by jucedogi:

Only game I've seen to actually use this is world of warcraft.

They still required a large chunk to be downloaded before you could play. Over 50% I think. Performance was severely lacking when doing so too.

[aiusepsi]

Steam had this feature when it first launched, back in 2003. It doesn't work as well and isn't as beneficial as you'd think.

[Golden Grandpah]

For single player games thats fine, but it prob will never happen. So much needs to change to make your suggestion happen.

So as your request, lets say you want to play a multiplayer game that is a quarter way finished downloading and start playing the single player part of the game. It can't decipher whether you are playing the multiplayer part of the game or the solo player part of the game. Even if the game was just a solo player game, it just wouldnt work.

Its a bad idea overall though. Steam got rid of this a long time ago because people were using lag to cheat.....Someone posted the link a few posts previous to this that explains why it will never happen. I suggest you read it. Downloading and playing an online multiplayer game is considered cheating.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/666827315534995029/