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[Boss Doggie]

Or at least a variation.

I know PS3 has this but only for system updates. The Wii U has "download while in standby". But I'm surprised clients like Steam don't have this.

I mean, I guess it's because downloads nowadays are "scheduled", but couldn't it at least make it so for current queued downloads? Like after all queued downloads are done, the system goes into sleep or standby?

 

[Okami Haundo]

Are you talking about PC OP? Automatic downloads while in rest mode are a standard on PS4/Xbox. I probably wouldn't be playing games on console if they weren't.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Are you talking about PC OP? Automatic downloads while in rest mode are a standard on PS4/Xbox. I probably wouldn't be playing games on console if they weren't.

Did the PS3 have it?

Yeah mostly on PC. Surprised Steam doesn't have it even though other programs have that feature.

 

[BigEmil]

Did the PS3 have it?

Yeah mostly on PC. Surprised Steam doesn't have it even though other programs have that feature.

Yeah the PS3 has it has the option to shut off the console after the download is done

 

[Boss Doggie]

Yeah the PS3 has it has the option to shut off the console after the download is done

I always thought it was only for system downloads since that's where I only saw it.

So judging by this... seems like Steam is the only one that doesn't have this.

 

[Leafhopper]

Did the PS3 have it?

Yeah mostly on PC. Surprised Steam doesn't have it even though other programs have that feature.

I suppose it's because people use their PCs in such a multitude of ways that they haven't added it yet.

They could though for like the nights you need to download a big game but don't have the fastest internet connection.

 

[Kyuur]

Did the PS3 have it?

Yeah mostly on PC. Surprised Steam doesn't have it even though other programs have that feature.

You have software on PC that automatically shuts down or sleeps your PC after updating? Sounds like a nightmare.

 

[Rellik]

You have software on PC that automatically shuts down or sleeps your PC after updating? Sounds like a nightmare.

It's optional and it's a great feature.

 

[Boss Doggie]

You have software on PC that automatically shuts down or sleeps your PC after updating? Sounds like a nightmare.

it's good if the update is long and it's nighttime.

 

[Kyuur]

It's optional and it's a great feature.

it's good if the update is long and it's nighttime.

Its a great feature on dedicated devices where downloads are managed by the OS, but I can't think of any instance where I'd want individual software to be managing the power state of my PC on their own. Steam decides its done but oh wait, there's another software that is trying to do its updates too! How do they interact?

Can you guys give examples of software that already do this on Windows besides the OS itself? Every auto-updater I've encountered prompts for restart instead of just doing it; for good reason.

 

[ViolentP]

it's good if the update is long and it's nighttime.

The problem I see is with the other available options you have on a PC outside of Steam itself, I will constantly be enabling and disabling the feature depending on what other applications are running at the time. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Its a great feature on dedicated devices where downloads are managed by the OS, but I can't think of any instance where I'd want individual software to be managing the power state of my PC on their own. Steam decides its done but oh wait, there's another software that is trying to do its updates too! How do they interact?

Can you guys give examples of software that already do this on Windows besides the OS itself? Every auto-updater I've encountered prompts for restart instead of just doing it; for good reason.

The problem I see is with the other available options you have on a PC outside of Steam itself, I will constantly be enabling and disabling the feature depending on what other applications are running at the time. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

It's more of a priority thing. Most of the time it's usually just steam downloading in the background anyway and OS updates don't forcibly restart themselves.

 

[Stevey]

You can't expect STEAM to take over your OS like that.
That's why it only works on consoles.

 

[InsaneTiger]

The PS3 can auto shut down for all downloads. I wish the PS4 could do the same. Expecting Steam to take control of Windows to auto shut down is a bit much and I don't want it.

 

[ViolentP]

It's more of a priority thing. Most of the time it's usually just steam downloading in the background anyway and OS updates don't forcibly restart themselves.

Depends on the person's priorities, really. Many people have Steam installed but it's used only a fraction of the time. If you had SteamOS deployed however, I agree it would be a useful feature.

 

[Boss Doggie]

You can't expect STEAM to take over your OS like that.
That's why it only works on consoles.

The PS3 can auto shut down for all downloads. I wish the PS4 could do the same. Expecting Steam to take control of Windows to auto shut down is a bit much and I don't want it.

I've seen programs like streamers do it though. And it's not so much as "take control" as much as "do this after download or stream" which automatically reverts to "do nothing" after that has been done.

 

[ViolentP]

I've seen programs like streamers do it though. And it's not so much as "take control" as much as "do this after download or stream" which automatically reverts to "do nothing" after that has been done.

How would you handle the case where both Steam and Origin had this feature enabled and both were downloading updates?

 

[Baron Von Beans]

Yeah the PS3 has it has the option to shut off the console after the download is done

Not only that, but it also installs everything you have ready to go, too. With the lengthy install times, this was an amazing feature.

 

[dottme]

Yeah the PS3 has it has the option to shut off the console after the download is done

Even the WiiU and Nintendo top notch network technology can do it.
I'm a console player and I did not realize that such basic feature are not part of Windows.

 

[oneils]

I have steam, battle.net, origin, gog galaxy, ubisoft's thing, geforce experience, razer synapse and probably a few other clients installed. I'm not sure how this would work.

 

[ViolentP]

Even the WiiU and Nintendo top notch network technology can do it.
I'm a console player and I did not realize that such basic feature are not part of Windows.

There's good reason for that.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

How would you handle the case where both Steam and Origin had this feature enabled and both were downloading updates?

Obviously it would have to be something for user to decide (a checkbox like "Shutdown system after downloading is finished", or something like that). And in the case where two applications have such an option enabled and two would download something at the same time, the system would be shutdown by the one that finished downloading first.

 

[Kyuur]

It's more of a priority thing. Most of the time it's usually just steam downloading in the background anyway and OS updates don't forcibly restart themselves.

This is a pretty limited view on PC usage.

I've seen programs like streamers do it though. And it's not so much as "take control" as much as "do this after download or stream" which automatically reverts to "do nothing" after that has been done.

Seems I was a bit off-base here though; I thought you were proposing such a system work in tandem with auto-updates and the like. I can understand a one-time manual command.

Regardless, there isn't much of a reason for Steam to implement this when its trivial from the OS level. Just did a quick test on my own -- set the sleep to 1 minute inactivity and downloaded something on Steam, computer went to sleep 1 minute after the download was finished.

 

[petran79]

torrent clients have this feature I think

 

[Regiruler]

How would you handle the case where both Steam and Origin had this feature enabled and both were downloading updates?

Have a manager that checks for flags that nothing is updating/downloading?

 

[ViolentP]

Obviously it would have to be something for user to decide (a checkbox like "Shutdown system after downloading is finished", or something like that). And in the case where two applications have such an option enabled and two would download something at the same time, the system would be shutdown by the one that finished downloading first.

It would be for the user to decide. It just seems to me with the large number of potential applications on the PC that could have this feature, it wouldn't be long before they all become pointless as a majority of your updates will not execute due to the quickest download.

The only solution I can think of is a global priority list for all applications that the user would have to define. But the work involved in fine tuning such a list wouldn't be worth the menial benefit of an auto shutdown. May as well just schedule a shutdown on the OS level while all your applications are running.

Have a manager that checks for flags that nothing is updating/downloading?

Valid. If access to every client's API were available and someone wanted to develop it, it could work.

 

[Big Chungus]

On pc cant you just look at the download estimate and set your pc to go into standby/shut down around that time?

 

[Mr_Zombie]

It would be for the user to decide. It just seems to me with the large number of potential applications on the PC that could have this feature, it wouldn't be long before they all become pointless as a majority of your updates will not execute due to the quickest download.

I think you're overthinking it. If "shutdown after completion" would be a case by case (and not something you enable once and then forget) the user would still have a full control over it. How often do you download huge files with different applications that you would need something like an universal queue?

On pc cant you just look at the download estimate and set your pc to go into standby/shut down around that time?

"Download estimate", heh. There are times when Steam shows me that there's "20 minutes left"... for an hour or so. And don't let me even start with Windows Store that can go to 99% and then randomly restart the whole process and go back to 0%.

 

[ViolentP]

I think you're overthinking it. If "shutdown after completion" would be a case by case (and not something you enable once and then forget) the user would still have a full control over it. How often do you download huge files with different applications that you would need something like an universal queue?

I certainly don't need a universal queue. The current system sans feature has worked fine for me up until now. It does make sense however that the checkbox would be instance based as it would ultimately be left to the user how to manage multiple downloads.

 

[Boss Doggie]

How would you handle the case where both Steam and Origin had this feature enabled and both were downloading updates?

In my case I only open Steam/Origin when I want to play their game, though I haven't used Origin for a long time since Sims 3 is independent.

This is a pretty limited view on PC usage.

Seems I was a bit off-base here though; I thought you were proposing such a system work in tandem with auto-updates and the like. I can understand a one-time manual command.

Regardless, there isn't much of a reason for Steam to implement this when its trivial from the OS level. Just did a quick test on my own -- set the sleep to 1 minute inactivity and downloaded something on Steam, computer went to sleep 1 minute after the download was finished.

Yeah, the programs I've seen with shutdown/suspend are more a one-time thing. Basically after that session of shutdown/suspend, when you boot up your PC again you have to command them again.

That's what I want Steam or some other services to have.

 

[Fisty]

Both PS3 and PS4 do this, in one form or another. Wii U as well. Is it just steam that doesn't have it?

 

[UnemployedVillain]

it's good if the update is long and it's nighttime.

If it's nighttime why wouldn't your PC automatically suspend from inactivity, unless you didn't enable/disabled that, in which case that would make infinitely more sense than adding this random functionality in

 

[Hexa]

If it's nighttime why wouldn't your PC automatically suspend from inactivity, unless you didn't enable/disabled that, in which case that would make infinitely more sense than adding this random functionality in

The suspend activity thing doesn't take into account downloads AFAIK, only actual human input. Though it shouldn't be that hard to write a script that measures network activity and if it's below a certain threshold for a certain amount of time then it puts the PC to sleep.

Edit: Quick google search brought me to this: http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/WinOFF.php

So you could set it to something like if network traffic below 100 Kbps for 5 minutes then put computer into hibernate. It's not perfect because it'll screw up if where you're downloading from or your network is having network issues for longer than 5 minutes, but I think it'll work in most cases.

 

[duckroll]

It's a good question why Steam doesn't have this feature, when it already has so many more advanced features like remote downloads, remote streaming, Big Picture mode, etc. It's a function that's in pretty much every downloader these days.

Steam's so goddamn fast for me that I haven't had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for any download for quite a while now though. So...

 

[miller.skippins]

The PS3 can auto shut down for all downloads. I wish the PS4 could do the same. Expecting Steam to take control of Windows to auto shut down is a bit much and I don't want it.

i don't think you understand how PS3 works.

There is NO suspend/rest download in PS3. The way it works in PS3 is that it will power on the machine via a scheduled time (that is specified in the settings) and download updates and shutdown it after the downloads. This is different from suspend/rest mode downloads.

Here's the prime example for ps3 versus ps4.

PS3: Go to PSN webstore and pushed a purchase game to download on your powered off PS3. Your PS3 will NOT download the game until the scheduled time settings. Your whole PS3 will be powered on during that specific scheduled time, which in turn power on all other wired peripherals connected to it. My PS3 Eye camera LED lights up at 4am everyday due to this. If you turn on your TV and switch to the HDMI port connected to PS3, you will see the PS3 is turned on.

PS4: Go to PSN webstore and pushed a purchase game to download on your rest mode PS4. The PS4 will download in rest mode. The PS4 is still technically 'sleeping' and is not outputting any HDMI signal to the TV unlike PS3.


Ultimately, PS3's way is more archaic. It will power on itself everyday on the specific time settings everyday regardless of downloads. PS4's method is much more 'modern'.

 

[FlyStarJay]

ps3 does download, install and shut down, not just downloading

 

[miller.skippins]

ps3 does download, install and shut down, not just downloading

yes...but it will only do it on the specific time in the settings. Not via demand. It will not wake up automatically just to download whenever a new update is release. That's the 'scheduler' method i.e. the 'ancient' way.

The 'modern' way is via demand, that the system is smart enough to download news updates as and when it detected it has been released.

 

[Fisty]

i don't think you understand how PS3 works.

There is NO suspend/rest download in PS3. The way it works in PS3 is that it will power on the machine via a scheduled time (that is specified in the settings) and download updates and shutdown it after the downloads. This is different from suspend/rest mode downloads.

Here's the prime example for ps3 versus ps4.

PS3: Go to PSN webstore and pushed a purchase game to download on your powered off PS3. Your PS3 will NOT download the game until the scheduled time settings. Your whole PS3 will be powered on during that specific scheduled time, which in turn power on all other wired peripherals connected to it. My PS3 Eye camera LED lights up at 4am everyday due to this. If you turn on your TV and switch to the HDMI port connected to PS3, you will see the PS3 is turned on.

PS4: Go to PSN webstore and pushed a purchase game to download on your rest mode PS4. The PS4 will download in rest mode. The PS4 is still technically 'sleeping' and is not outputting any HDMI signal to the TV unlike PS3.


Ultimately, PS3's way is more archaic. It will power on itself everyday on the specific time settings everyday regardless of downloads. PS4's method is much more 'modern'.

The person you quoted and the OP are talking about something completely different than you. On PS3, if you start downloading a game, choose to download in the background, and then choose the power off option, it will ask you if you want to shut down the system after the download completes. This is the feature they want on Steam.

 

[Boss Doggie]

It's a good question why Steam doesn't have this feature, when it already has so many more advanced features like remote downloads, remote streaming, Big Picture mode, etc. It's a function that's in pretty much every downloader these days.

Steam's so goddamn fast for me that I haven't had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for any download for quite a while now though. So...

third world internet sucks though