Post by trog @ 11:31am 11/02/09 | 28 Comments
There's a new Steam Beta client available. To access the Beta, go to File -> Settings, and on the Account tab will be a drop down. Select Steam Client Candidate, and then allow Steam to restart itself. Here are the specific changes:I've just fired up the beta but I get nothing in the dropdown list which I'm guessing might be a bug, so stay tuned.
- Added more download regions for Australia
- Fixed several update news links for games going to the wrong page
- Added more information to the game launch display when first-time install steps are being ran
- Several Steamworks updates
- Fixed HL2.exe hanging on shutdown
In response to these new changes in the Steam client, we've swapped a few emails with the Valve Software guys to figure out how these changes might affect Australians. Valve have confirmed to us that these settings will not guarantee that your download comes from those servers. For example, if you select the region for your ISP (assuming there is one), Steam will use those servers if it can - but in the event that it can't (for example, if the content isn't on those servers or the server is overloaded), you'll be directed to another server.
The practical upshot of this is that, at the current time, you need to be careful when downloading from Steam if you're on a limited download plan, as it is possible your downloads will be metered - even if you have set the region for your ISP. Beware!
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Posted 11:56am 11/2/09
That's good from a probabilistic point of view, but generally if you're in a position where you care about your download source then this feature achieves very little. gg valve.
Finally. So sick of that black screen when quitting TF2. Hard to End-Task as the crashed black screen HL2.exe is the top-most window and doesn't let Task Manager show (have to bring it up on the second monitor in advance).
Posted 12:24pm 11/2/09
I think valve could possibly add a check box that says "Only download content from selected mirrors" with a notice that this could mean content may be delayed unavailable. Then people can manually authorize content from other servers as they deem necissary.
Posted 12:34pm 11/2/09
By itself it's not a very elegant solution (can cause Steam to give up before it even tries your whitelisted servers). Combined with Steam's region/server selection it would be good - Steam will deliberately try your server first, then Steamwatch will stop it from going anywhere else. Win for Bigpond users (who need all the help they can get!)
Posted 02:04pm 11/2/09
Posted 03:01pm 11/2/09
Posted 03:26pm 11/2/09
Posted 03:28pm 11/2/09
Btw, a Bigpond user on a 12GB plan wanting to download their newly purchased L4D (~4GB download) would probably care if Steam could not guarantee that their free mirror would be used.
Posted 03:39pm 11/2/09
how safe a bet do you reckon that is? should we defer to the database?
besides, I thought my response as pretty fair especially in light of the exaggeration of yours
Posted 04:16pm 11/2/09
Posted 04:19pm 11/2/09
You have the choice of:
3FL WA
3FL NSW
NSW
SA
Internode NSW
Telstra NSW
QLD
VIC
WA
Internode SA
Gamespace VIC
EGN WA
GamingSA SA
Also I read this from some valve guy:
Some guy from gamearena also made this little website to tell you what games are hosted on AUS servers. http://files.w3k.mbpv.org/demos/sid_convert.php
Relatively simple to use... has a bug though if the game you are searching has an age verification (such as CoH)
Posted 04:29pm 11/2/09
Posted 04:31pm 11/2/09
Posted 04:32pm 11/2/09
Posted 04:34pm 11/2/09
Normally I'm on a 25gb plan, a couple of times I've kicked it up to the next one if I think I will run out
Anyway I'm not saying bigpond users don't care about steam usage - I'm saying, in direct response to 'bigpond users need all the help they can get', that I'm on bigpond and manage fine without steamwatch and/or a region selector - I don't need any help thanks.
Posted 05:10pm 11/2/09
How did you check, the banner? That doesn't necessarily correspond to where it's getting most of the data from.
Good for you. But as I said, many people are on low quotas (by choice or otherwise) that they are absolutely fine with most of the time, unless something goes wrong with unmetered traffic. I know some people in this situation and I've helped them monitor/control their Steam traffic when downloading big games.
Anyway it's already been proven that people care about region/server selection, so I don't think further defence of this point is necessary.
Posted 05:12pm 11/2/09
Why not just do it that way?
Posted 05:12pm 11/2/09
Posted 05:19pm 11/2/09
well, I'm a bigpond user with over 100gb of steam games and I'm fine with help from noone so f*** you and your anal retentive comment buddy!
hardly cause for your claim that I've just come along purely to disagree with you either
Posted 05:23pm 11/2/09
That's what I do to, but it'd be nice to have the functionality built in.
Posted 05:28pm 11/2/09
Posted 05:31pm 11/2/09
Posted 05:33pm 11/2/09
you're still going on about this?
It would also be good if "Do not automatically update this game" actually worked. Sometimes it just starts by itself, so I've uninstalled games/mods I don't play anymore to minimise these surprise downloads (along with the lag they bring!).
Posted 05:34pm 11/2/09
Posted 05:55pm 11/2/09
Posted 07:08pm 11/2/09
Posted 08:00pm 11/2/09
Setting it to Australia QLD or Telstra NSW still has steam downloading content from freaking internode.
Humf.
Posted 09:31pm 11/2/09
Anyway the client took a while to switch over to the beta mode, almost to the stage where I was about to end-task and give up on it. Eventually it delivered ...
Posted 05:49pm 27/2/09