Valve strengthens Steam setup
System of a download
Valve has announced an update to its Steam games shop which promises to make the download system "better, stronger and faster".
Data will be sent through an HTTP system more firewall-friendly than before, automatically taking advantage of web-caching proxies installed at ISPs.
The new system will also make updates smaller, allowing customers to download the tweaked parts of a patch, rather than the entire file again.
This will pave the way for Steam to eventually install features such as download scheduling, bandwidth throttling and download prioritisation. Users will be able to download an update for a game while playing it, with the update applied only after exiting.
Some Steam content is already delivered through the new system. Download an HD trailer from the Steam store to give it a try. Other content will follow soon. ®
COMMENTS
Finally!!!!
So one question - how are they making it so it's cachable when it's spread around so many servers? Or at they making the URLs all the same regardless and doing the magic in DNS?
I'm all for them going HTTP and cachable - we'll save hours and GBs of downloads some months if our local proxy can catch it all... *IF* it can catch it all that is.
The six million dollar download huh?
... and when it breaks down they can rebuild it?
Nice
Perhaps they can improve the client while they're at it. I'd even be happy for it to improve from "molasses" to "warm molasses".
