hello

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

but yeah it could be an improvment if we do not need to use third party tools and a new process done outside our client , but at least they exist and easy to use and both working ...

i tested with games prior to the new cef ( 126 ) and they do not suffer from the issue... at least till they do not have any update because now, old game or not, from i've seen, update part is using zstd and so can't be correctly applyed ...
eg :
don't starve together
astroneer,
rimworld
keeperRL
all are old games and have been released far before this year but they has been updated recently and all have the issue now
else other games without update can be downloaded without issues

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
aye it will be simplier without error like before for sur because all games with update will be affected ...

hello

nice find about steamclient.dll ( Steam_CreateSteamPipe )
sadly if we replace both dll ( normal and 64 ) steam is complaining that there is issue with your steam setup and refuse to run ( both dll are comming for the last steam client )
and also using steam.cfg
note that both dll does not have the same release number and size
https://i.postimg.cc/nLq4K1RY/Capture.jpg
but they have the same entry points numbers but not it in size( 41 functions )
https://i.postimg.cc/prKr40jq/Capture.jpg
and same result with dll comming from steamcmd or the last steam client

if i remember i've tryed some time ago to replace the old cef by newer one without a good result as steam refused to launch )
but i can redo one again , it cost nothing
funny because you can replace the steam.Exe till the one released on 2024-7-14 without issue , i stopped checking after this date under my april 2023 client ...)

and talking about vxkex, what i am sur it's working but only with the 2 new projects :
- vxkex-next ( https://github.com/YuZhouRen86/VxKex-NEXT/releases )
- doteexe ( https://github.com/dotexe1337/VxKex/releases )
sadly out of using it under a vm, i've never played game with it
mostly people are using it without the "child" feature on and no one really know what are the composant of vac ( only on client side -steam client/game - or server side ?? ) i think it's both like most anticheat
talking about vac, what i am sur is that steam is checking everything you run on your comp, also check your dns cache ...( may be because of drm or vac no really clue.... )

i just re-setup steam on my vm using the last w7 working client ( using steamsetup and after deleted the content of package folder at failed setup , it download the last working steam on w7)
https://i.postimg.cc/Bvx4pWc7/Capture.jpg
i will try to mix it with the last cef and see how it goes

replacing old folder by the last one from w10+ ( cef.win7x64 ) with/without vxkex-next ,steam refuse to load ( also using steam.cfg because else it will update and replace files )
https://i.postimg.cc/xTnXwRF4/Capture.jpg
and if it worked we've lost all "benefices" from old steam ( low memory usage ...)
https://i.postimg.cc/VLQ9ZpMQ/Capture.jpg
last client is not really friendly with memory usage and it use cef 109

one interresting point is that during corrupted download , not all chuncks are affected ,only the new one ( i guess zstd but nothing in the header of the chunk is telling you it's std so may be zstd is able to handle both compression scheme unless knowing the structure of the file because no header but somehow some 'marker' on it structure...)
i can run some files allready downloaded ( they have been correctly uncompressed )
https://i.postimg.cc/fbSTFw6M/Capture.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/RFNSfvLk/Capture.jpg
so from my point of view it's a mix of old compression scheme ( gz or deflate ) and new one , zstd
https://i.postimg.cc/gjMk6rCb/Capture.jpg
i guess state_361420_361422.patch is used as compressed datas ...

hello

@Vittorio
yes agree it can work

but it's easier to run a new os (w10+ or linux) without any issue and use the last steam client ...
the issue running it under w7 , is the following :
- the last client is using more than 1go under w7 because it need to load tons shit of dll present in w10+ when some older one that are still working like mine ( april 2023 ) are just using 400+ mo
and just a remind ...
https://steamhost.cn/help_steampowered_com/en/faqs/view/6639-EB3C-EC79-FF60#beware
injecting dll are part of vac check but yes avoiding child process can avoid vac game to check that but who really knows about the client itself , none atm ...

and to @jonny pro gamer
no need , the steam client is allready using tls 1.3 ...
because it use it own network stack - openssl-( use wireshark or tools able to find strings on exe ... )
please stop posting misinformation because you do not have the knowledge ...

note for @@jonny pro gamer
https://www.chromium.org/Home/tls13/
so also webhelper.exe is able to use it ... ( cef 85 from april 2023 )
and last, whatever update from esu or windows server 2008r2 you will apply on your own w7, it won't and will never support nativly tls 1.3 , only tools that rely on openssl will like steam client, browser, that have their own network stack , etc ...

hello

funny to discover than when you're banned you can't post on main guide comment despite there is no big read banner .
and you just discover than when trying to save your post ..
anyway

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

Originally posted by bidulless:

if the solution is easier till now and use the same process , uninstall the faulty update/game,then download it using depotdownloader or steamcmd, copy back files to the right steam folder and then , initiate a new download of the game :
- files will be verifyed and at end it will show you that you succed on downloading the game.

Good to have a workaround, but this is an extreme amount of work, especially for games that may update multiple times daily (such as Garry's Mod). Workshop content also is a problem (is zstd being used on UGC addons yet?).

Maybe steamcmd could be used to make this painful, like always launching steamcmd before launching the library, and having steamcmd pointed at your client's library folders so that it can update the games in-place (hopefully no need to move files, uninstall, move back, re-"install", etc).

Originally posted by bidulless:

till now it's easy but i fear that it will be a game over when zstd will be use for cloud save/download because you will need to manually download/uplooad them to/from your account and it will become really, really annoying ....

Yeah... this could be pretty bad.

Maybe we should revisit the old idea of shoehorning a newer Valve CEF build (post M123) into the older clients. It might be the best way forward (eugh...).

hello

sadly i, now have this issue recurring for exemple :
rimworld ...
https://i.postimg.cc/GpC29hcX/Capture.jpg
https://steamhost.cn/app/294100/RimWorld/
this game got frequent update and was released long time before cef 123+ ...
what does it means ?
it means if you are using an old client running under w7, and want to play this game because you have a long list of backlog unplayed games, you won't be able to download it under w7 unless using depotdownloader or steamcmd
https://i.postimg.cc/rFJX51LX/Capture.jpg
this is what you get after uninstalling it and initiate a new download

curiously, the job ( uncompression ) is not done by cef itself but by steam.exe and probably trought chromehtml.dll or serverbrowser.dll
the main issue with this dll is that there is only one entry ( createinterface ) and for serverbrowser.dll (2 entries points : createinterface and joingsecureservercall )

note
the current steam does not use serverbrowser.dll so more chance with chromehtml.dll
but again here, nothing is impossible to do, you just need the right people with the right knowledge and it's not my case

Originally posted by TiberiumFusion:

This just started affecting me last week. I didn't realize it started as early as May, and it's sad that there is no solution here yet :c

Assuming VAC wont throw a fit, shimming the necessary zstd interface into the older clients may be all that is needed.

hello

aye but not really sur if something like that can be done ...
what is sur is that it's spreading trought update for games released after cef 109 ( zstd has been added to cef 123+ ) but now also on any game update ;
- even games released before the date of cef 126 , if they are updated ithey will use zstd (steam backed has been changed to use zstd and dev does not control the compression scheme that need to be used )

if the solution is easier till now and use the same process , uninstall the faulty update/game,then download it using depotdownloader or steamcmd, copy back files to the right steam folder and then , initiate a new download of the game :
- files will be verifyed and at end it will show you that you succed on downloading the game.

till now it's easy but i fear that it will be a game over when zstd will be use for cloud save/download because you will need to manually download/uplooad them to/from your account and it will become really, really annoying ....

hello

agree or may be just move to linux or w10+ because you won't have to deal with the current issues that start to happen in w7 and that will grow with time ( it was chat, now it's download and update, so what will be next ? )

Originally posted by krzychuzokecia:

Originally posted by DAOWAce:

The only workaround is to effectively 'dual boot' a new Steam client which you should be doing anyway

How would you do that, just install new Steam in separate location?

Edit: for posterity - searching on Google for "two/dual steam clients" just gives me pages about using two Steam accounts (using same client).

hello
because i am using sandboxie ++
https://sandboxie-plus.com/downloads/
and i can run my old client ( steam from april 2023 and using cef 85 ) along the last steam working under w7 ( using cef 109 )

Originally posted by DAOWAce:

It's working on Win7? That's weird, 'cause I'm on Win10 v2004 and the program doesn't work at all; errors (Assert failure) trying to run. Both versions.

Valve staff replied to the thread and confirmed what was suspected: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/3238670/discussions/0/594022859095939680/?ctp=2#c594023708174098589

Weirdly I was able to update a couple games that had updates today.. maybe they didn't roll it out across the entire backend yet?

hello

https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader/releases/download/DepotDownloader_3.4.0/DepotDownloader-windows-x64.zip
unless you install .dotnet 9.0 .... even on w10+ but with this file you do not need .net9.0

Originally posted by DAOWAce:

My assumption is that the old Steam client before a certain point (at the very least February 2025) does not support the new zstd compression Valve is now publicly using as of some point in May (earliest report I see is the 7th, but I tested the 9th).

Any chunks compressed with zstd error on attempting to download.

The only workaround is to effectively 'dual boot' a new Steam client which you should be doing anyway because of games that refuse to work on the older API, and use that to download games and patches from now on. May require a bit of fiddling to get to work properly with your game library setups (symlink junction easiest way imo).

Alternatively there could be a tool to do it with partial depot downloads, but I can't use the 'DepotDownloader' tool due to an older Win10 build, and obviously nobody on Win7 can either, so another solution needs to be found for that.

hello

i am on windows 7 and used it to download new game demo...
as show by the screenshot posted
and yes old steam client, even the last one using cef 109 do not support zstd, because it has been introduced to cef 123 ... so it's now use under cef126
https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader/releases
if you do not want to install .net 9.0 just download the DepotDownloader-windows-x64.zip and not the
DepotDownloader-framework.zip (that need .net 9.0 and yes it's working on w7 xd )