Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Originally posted by bidulless:

if i partially remind me , we have access to our cloud save trought our client ( top menu/help/steam support/somewhere inside ) and if the cloud is applying zstd on save , i guess we will be able to use 7zip with the addition of "codecs"

https://github.com/mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd/releases/tag/v24.09-v1.5.7-R1

It's here: https://steamhost.cn/account/remotestorage
These files download as expected - the file is decompressed before Valve serves it to your PC as a download. This could be used as workaround later, if needed.

Also, for anyone who is worried about losing access to their cloud saves, you can use a tool like this:
github dot com/pyscsd/steamCloudSaveDownloaderGUI
to batch download the cloud save files for all your Steam games. This tool's platform and interface sucks but it will automatically download all your cloud saves, which is better than manually downloading 3000 files from the steam website by hand.

hello

nice tool and glad you get the cloud link too, thx @TiberiumFusion

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Originally posted by bidulless:

what i hope in our issue, it that it won't be apply to cloud save and dl ...
because, it will be a bit more annoying ...

This concerns me a lot. If Valve starts converting all our cloud saves into zstd-compressed payloads, then our clients won't be able to download them back after uploading them to Valve. That would be another extreme problem.

Originally posted by bidulless:

glad i've helped you a bit on analyzing our issue xd

Yeah, thanks adding what you know. Maybe there will be a proper solution to all this somewhere down the road.

hello

Aye it will be a bit more annoying because cloud is been access on start and end of game and that without any action of our side ( automatic ) ..

if i partially remind me , we have access to our cloud save trought our client ( top menu/help/steam support/somewhere inside ) and if the cloud is applying zstd on save , i guess we will be able to use 7zip with the addition of "codecs"

https://github.com/mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd/releases/tag/v24.09-v1.5.7-R1

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Yeah... when a game is already installed, steam only downloads and applies a delta patch, instead of full versions of each affected file, and that really complicates things. That's where the decryption & decompression (zstd) in one whole go as a stream is likely how it works and makes external manipulation of the process almost impossible.

In this case, forcing a full redownload of all files (or at least the affected ones), could be a way to still make use of a potential tool like the one I talked about yesterday.

hello

glad i've helped you a bit on analyzing our issue xd
i guess a delta patch is the difference between original files and new one

and do not worry about "waiting for analyse ..." it often happen to myself and most often i've forget to verify my post under a browser because under the steam client they are correct and i can see them

what i hope in our issue, it that it won't be apply to cloud save and dl ...
because, it will be a bit more annoying ...

hello
good point, let me check if some on my game have beta branch
https://i.postimg.cc/BvnVVQbt/Capture.jpg
it downloaded perfectly
but if i choose another beta
https://i.postimg.cc/P534Nbfr/Capture.jpg
it failed : i guess it's the current game
but this time i have 2 files .delta and .patch and allready know some files are missing because no exe at root of the 457140 folder and allready recognize some missing files i've seen before ( https://steamdb.info/depot/457141/ ) like OxygenNotIncluded_Data/level2 (also missing here )
ok, uninstalled it and redownloaded it as current game
https://i.postimg.cc/KYTJVkFG/Capture.jpg
note that the file .delta is not here anymore and i have now the .exe but still not OxygenNotIncluded_Data/level2 and some others
https://i.postimg.cc/cCcscL6T/Capture.jpg
3 files are missing ( around 5k )

this is my post without your quote inside , so no worry xd

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

It is censored. The information is not available as intended and most of the time it stays like that permanently. One of your own comments from a week ago on page 2 is censored right now. You really shouldn't make excuses for Valve while they're raping you... I certainly don't.

I didn't know about the quote trick, though, that is pretty useful, thanks. I will have to remember that and I hope it stays working.

We all really would benefit from a better place to talk about these things that is less hostile and censored.

hello

keep in mind you do not see your own "waiting for analyze" post only thoses from other people but the quote is doing the job fine ,at least you will be able to read the post but quoting a "waiting for analyze" will get your answer also "waiting for analyze"
i think there is words that trigger this

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Oh wow my prior comment was censored too?

Here it is as an image: https://i.postimg.cc/MZ0S4FQv/censored-2.png

hello
it's not censored but i guess there is some words that trigger this kind of thing.
when it happen just verify with a browser and under the steam client , just quote the "waiting for analyse" like i did with yours in order to see what you posted xd
your quoting answer will also be "waiting for analyze" but at least you can answer like i did with your post

hello

hehe
https://i.postimg.cc/G34VJ2Tp/Capture.jpg
steam bugg xd
even the post on main thread is "waiting to be analyzed" on the guide xd

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Steam censored your last comment
postimg dot cc/G9tPcRfR

hello
because i quoted yours xd
just quote me and you will see all the content, it happen sometimes when you post too fast on steam ...

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

SteamPipe initially splits each file into roughly one megabyte (MB) chunks. Each chunk is then compressed and encrypted before being upload to the Steam content-delivery system. They remain compressed and encrypted until downloaded by each client, where they are decrypted and expanded and placed in the necessary file location(s).
From: partner dot steamgames dot com/doc/sdk/uploading

This is a huge problem. Decryption and decompression probably(?) happen in tandem while the client is downloading the chunks, in a stream, as opposed to being atomic with files on-disk. If that's true, then the entire "do zstd decompression ourselves" concept I put forth in my message last night won't work. Damn.

Originally posted by bidulless:

what i still do not understand is why some current updates does not use it when , in fact , they should because dev does not have any control on which compression scheme to use
on my side nearly all games update are sadly affected now ( on the 20+ games i have allready setup ) and it was progressiv

Have you tried downloading a beta branch of any of your games? Try it with gmod if you have that, or any other game that has 1) a beta branch, and 2) the beta was updated recently. More data points are always useful.

hello
good point, let me check if some on my game have beta branch
https://i.postimg.cc/BvnVVQbt/Capture.jpg
it downloaded perfectly
but if i choose another beta
https://i.postimg.cc/P534Nbfr/Capture.jpg
it failed : i guess it's the current game
but this time i have 2 files .delta and .patch and allready know some files are missing because no exe at root of the 457140 folder and allready recognize some missing files i've seen before ( https://steamdb.info/depot/457141/ ) like OxygenNotIncluded_Data/level2 (also missing here )
ok, uninstalled it and redownloaded it as current game
https://i.postimg.cc/KYTJVkFG/Capture.jpg
note that the file .delta is not here anymore and i have now the .exe but still not OxygenNotIncluded_Data/level2 and some others
https://i.postimg.cc/cCcscL6T/Capture.jpg
3 files are missing ( around 5k )

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Originally posted by bidulless:

not really sur if all this efforts are necessary imo because we allready have 2 working and easy solutions for old steam client :
using steamcmd or depotdownloader

If I understand the process right (correct me if I'm wrong), these ^ are not easy, and they are not solutions. They are slow workarounds.

- Option A: Steam downloads game update like normal. Done.
- Option B: Steam starts to download game update, update fails, you have to manually move all existing game files so Steam wont find them, then uninstall game (or leave it and just validate files later), then interrupt whatever you were doing to 1) exit Steam, 2) launch other steam or steamcmd, 3) type commands to download game, 4) wait for download, 5) close other steam/steamcmd, then manually move all downloaded + updated/patched-over files back to original location, then relaunch older steam client, then install game (or validate files), then wait for file discovery (long time for big game), then you can finally play game. Multiply all this pain by how large the game's files are (twice).

I like Option A a lot more than Option B.

I don't have time to keep throwing away needless hours of my life to Valve for absolutely nothing in return, and especially doing that by manually updating all my of games every day is insane. That amount of time slavery is beyond unacceptable.

A somewhat better version of Option B, which I'm going to try setting up for myself, is to install a post March 2025 Steam client side-by-side, add my library folders to it, and use it to update games as needed, like I previously did with the Oct 2 2019 client and the first year of the half-vgui half-cancer clients. This should reduce the number of manual steps and absurd wasted time by half, maybe, I hope.

Originally posted by bidulless:

it seems valve does not recompress the whole game but only the new files ( and it's anought to failed ...) and the good point is that valve does not seems to recompress old games without update

I've noticed this in my experience as well. If I download games that have not been updated in years, they download fine. However, if the game has any Steamworks Common Redistributables dependencies in its depots, then the game download initially fails because the Steamworks Common Redistributables download fails (because zstd is being used on the entire(?) Steamworks Common Redistributables depot now). Clearing download cache and resuming the game download after the client restarts fixes the issue and allows the game to finish downloading properly. (Noting this here for anyone who has yet to discover this trick.)

However, not all new game updates are using zstd depot chunks.
Example: the x86-64 beta branch of Garry's Mod just had two updates today (2025-07-31). This update successfully downloaded and installed using my May 2023 Steam client. The previous x86-64 branch update on 2025-07-25 also succeeded under my May 2023 client. So have all other x86-64 branch game updates succeeded since the zstd introduction in March when installing using my May 2023 client.
This must mean either: 1) game publishers can choose to opt-in to using zstd on their games, which I think is unlikely, or 2) Valve is only forcing zstd depot chunk compression on updates for select depot chunks - maybe only the main game branch gets zstd? (beta branches still get lzma)
This is worth noting and potentially useful, especially for games like gmod where the beta branches are the best way to play the game.

hello

aye agree it's not a solution but a slow workaround and it's not 'transparent' nor 'automatic' sadly ...

what i still do not understand is why some current updates does not use it when , in fact , they should because dev does not have any control on which compression scheme to use on the background :
let me find it
ok got it
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading
check the video inside the link , may be a bit old i guess but it explain what kind of choice and backend they are using for uploading their games to steam
@Nosteru a friend,have many dev on his friendlist and allready confirmed that they do not have any choice about that ( and personally i found that weird because not all update has been affected ...)

funny we are using nearly the same client xd

on my side nearly all games update are sadly affected now ( on the 20+ games i have allready setup ) and it was progressiv ;
- some still worked till last month again but not anymore

and not all the depot , even games with update, is not using zstd but only the current update ( few files )
i've found this recently with OxygenNotIncluded :
- i've sha-1 checked files downloaded with depotdl and current currupted download from the \steam\steamapps\downloading folder and discovered than few files were missing on it and were surely inside .patch files located into this folder (91k) and no .delta files like for the other games.
but now if i uninstall OxygenNotIncluded and try to do a new setup it will failed and shown as corrupted on the download page of the client