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[I Wanna Be The Guy]

So, Tekken 7 day. Preordered it and preloaded it on Steam. I'll be able to play it as soon as I get up! Nope. Been sitting here for 20 minutes while the game"updates". I don't know what it's doing, but it's taking ages and I might as well have downloaded the whole thing on release instead. The progress bar is like a third of the way. If that. I genuinely could have downloaded the whole thing today instead and it wouldn't have been slower.

Preloading implies it would be ready to go as soon as the game officially releases. This does not happen. There is literally no point to preloading a game on Steam. What is it even doing?

 

[Breads]

I haven't preloaded too many games but I remember Fallout 4 and Dark Souls 3 working right away so I think this anecdote may be an outlier that shouldn't represent the whole.

 

[texhnolyze]

Don't preload if you have a pretty good internet.

Unpacking might take 30 minutes if you're on HDD instead of SSD.

 

[YuriLowell]

It's decrypting the files.

 

[B_Signal]

I don't mean to be one of those people who shrugs and says "it's always alright for me", but generally speaking I'm never waiting too long

 

[Chairmanchuck]

I don't know what it's doing, but it's taking ages and I might as well have downloaded the whole thing on release instead.

You download an encrypted version of the game and when it releases its decrypting it.

 

[Blam]

It's most likely decrypting the game as most times with preloads they are encrypted when downloading and will "unlock" when it's available.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

I haven't preloaded too many games but I remember Fallout 4 and Dark Souls 3 working right away so I think this anecdote may be an outlier that shouldn't represent the whole.

Happened with RE7 too. Which is the only other games I've preloaded. Dont think I'll be doing this again.

 

[JigglesBunny]

If the game is "updating", your game was pre-loaded. It's just, ya know, "updating."

Well, moreso unpacking, but still.

 

[tuxfool]

It is quicker for me to download them as it goes live than it is to wait for decryption.

 

[arts&crafts]

Steam is so fast (with decent internet) you dont even have to preload and can download 50GB in a few minutes. That said I always preload and have never had to wait more than 5minutes to update.

 

[Dusk Golem]

I don't preload, but I understand the use for it. It takes longer for me to preload than it does for me to just install on release, but that's not true for everyone.

So preload files are partially for security, a way to download something and not let those files leak. The files have never been decrypted to my knowledge so they do a great job on security since Steam is basically needed to decrypt them.

But they're for people either with internet limits or super slow connections. There comes a certain point that your internet connection may be faster than what your computer and unpack them at, but if you have legitimately shitty internet it can actually be faster to preload rather than download it. add to that pre-loading for a period of time can allow those with an internet cap to pre-load part of the game bit by bit and have it available to just unpack and play without internet cap worries for those who have to deal with that.

It's not for anyone with half-way decent internet, though.

 

[KINGofCRA5H]

Preload files are encrypted for obvious reasons. They need to be decrypted before the game can be used. Large preloads can take a while especially on slower systems.

 

[Ibuki]

This is why I don't use it anymore. This is only beneficial for people with slow internet.

It took 24 minutes or so for me to download Tekken 7 from scratch.

Would have taken longer just to unpack...

 

[SSPssp]

Basically, if you have slow internet (DSL, etc.) then pre-loading is worth it. Otherwise decryption actually takes longer.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

I see.

 

[C.Mongler]

It downloaded an encrypted version of the game when you pre-loaded, OP. What it's doing now is decrypting it. The time it takes can vary depending on how big the game is, how and what exactly needs to be decrypted, your internet connection, and occasionally the load on Steam's end. Most times when I preload it decrypts in the span of minutes. On some rare occasions it's taken hours though.

If by your expert opinion it would be faster to just re-download the whole thing, why not just delete it and do that then?

 

[Q8D3vil]

I have a shitty ass internet and preload is huge thing for me.
Had a ptoblem once, but it was game specific.

 

[Falk]

Preload is a godsend if you'd otherwise have spent 2 days downloading a game when the switch gets flipped.

Yes, these situations still exist in 2017.

 

[Mivey]

They could just encrypt a random 10% of the chunks of the game, distributed over the game files. Would still make it unplayable for anyone before the game was out, but reduce the decryption time drastically. This isn't a hard problem, they just never addressed this issue.

 

[terrible]

For me it's around the 30GB mark where it's quicker to just download than it is to preload.

For those with very slow internet the ~30 minutes it can take to unpack some games is still significantly faster than spending days downloading.

 

[fantomena]

Don't preload if you have a 100/100+ connection and not downloading on an SSD.. My family have 100/100 as far as I know and I downloaded Tekken 7 in 1h30min. Unpacking would take a few hours since Im downloading to a HDD.

 

[Cross-Section]

Isn't the common solution to this just switching the download region in Steam to a less-populated one (ex: from Los Angeles to Sacramento or San Jose)?

It's definitely worked for me in the past, in regards to decrypting faster.

 

[ambar_hitman]

Never EVER preload if you have good internet. I deleted Rise of Tomb Raider because it showed 50 minutes to unpack and required twuce the HDD space. The download was done in 30 minutes. Never preloaded anything on steam again.

 

[Vital Tundra]

If you have bad internet, decrypting for 30 minutes to an hour is probably great. If you have good internet, it is the most useless garbage feature. I preloaded GTAV and spent so long decrypting it for no real reason. I just ended up going to bed that night. First and last time I use preload.

 

[Sini]

It downloaded an encrypted version of the game when you pre-loaded, OP. What it's doing now is decrypting it. The time it takes can vary depending on how big the game is, how and what exactly needs to be decrypted, your internet connection, and occasionally the load on Steam's end. Most times when I preload it decrypts in the span of minutes. On some rare occasions it's taken hours though.

Pretty sure CPU speed is the biggest factor.

 

[SmoothRunningGun]

I agree it's much better on console. The game just works when it goes live.

 

[Regginator]

This is why I don't use it anymore. This is only beneficial for people with slow internet.

It took 24 minutes or so for me to download Tekken 7 from scratch.

Would have taken longer just to unpack...

Yep. I used pre-load maybe twice until I figured out the unpacking is slow as FUCK and I could literally just download it quicker on release day. Never went back since.

Only good for people who need a full day or two to download 50/60GB games.

 

[roytheone]

Don't preload if you have a pretty good internet.

Unpacking might take 30 minutes if you're on HDD instead of SSD.

That's what I do. I have seen unpacking taking upwards to an hour, and redownloading the whole thing would have been faster -__-

 

[CryptiK]

So, Tekken 7 day. Preordered it and preloaded it on Steam. I'll be able to play it as soon as I get up! Nope. Been sitting here for 20 minutes while the game"updates". I don't know what it's doing, but it's taking ages and I might as well have downloaded the whole thing on release instead. The progress bar is like a third of the way. If that. I genuinely could have downloaded the whole thing today instead and it wouldn't have been slower.

Preloading implies it would be ready to go as soon as the game officially releases. This does not happen. There is literally no point to preloading a game on Steam. What is it even doing?

Your thread title is completely wrong.

1) It isn't, a lot of people do not have fast internet preloading allows things like GTA that is roughly 50GB to be preloaded over a couple of days instead of being stung with it on release.

2) Its decrypting the files you downloaded. So if you can download the game faster than 20 minutes it takes to decrypt some games preloading isn't generally targeted at you.

 

[Plumpbiscuit]

It's decrypting the game files. Welcome to DRM.

 

[madjoki]

Isn't the common solution to this just switching the download region in Steam to a less-populated one (ex: from Los Angeles to Sacramento or San Jose)?

It's definitely worked for me in the past, in regards to decrypting faster.

Issue with preload is that you're decrypting data files from same drive as writing game to.
This is very slow on HDDs. Normally Steam would decrypt files as received before writing to HDD. (Steam always downloads encrypted files)

There is no download involved, so it's just placebo effect.

I agree it's much better on console. The game just works when it goes live.

Problem is PC is open, so leaving files unencrypted is security risk.

Pretty sure CPU speed is the biggest factor.

HDD/SDD read/write speed is and more specifically doing both at same time.

 

[spindoctor]

There is literally no point to preloading a game on Steam.

Go and tell that to somebody who has an internet connection that needs 24 hours to download a 35GB game like Tekken 7.

 

[C.Mongler]

Pretty sure CPU speed is the biggest factor.

Ah, this is probably true, totally overlooked this.

 

[Sini]

HDD/SDD read/write speed is and more specifically doing both at same time.

Oh yeah this, I completely forgot about storage speed.

 

[iceblade997]

So, Tekken 7 day. Preordered it and preloaded it on Steam. I'll be able to play it as soon as I get up! Nope. Been sitting here for 20 minutes while the game"updates". I don't know what it's doing, but it's taking ages and I might as well have downloaded the whole thing on release instead. The progress bar is like a third of the way. If that. I genuinely could have downloaded the whole thing today instead and it wouldn't have been slower.

Preloading implies it would be ready to go as soon as the game officially releases. This does not happen. There is literally no point to preloading a game on Steam. What is it even doing?

Preloading saves you from having to download the game once the game is released, which, if you have a slow internet connection, could take a long time. Instead what it does is it downloads the game in an encrypted format, then once the release time hits, it'll decrypt the game and you can play as normal once it's done.

As has been mentioned for big games like Mafia 3, GTA V, etc, having that additional time to download the game before release helps a lot.

 

[JBwB]

Preloading a game onto an SSD will reduce the time needed to unpack and decrypt the files.

Also preloading may be pointless to you but it isn't to others like me. I have slow Aussie net and I'd rather wait 30 mins to an hour decrypting files than wait an entire day for a game to finish downloading.

 

[drotahorror]

Never had an issue with it taking more than 10 minutes, probably much less most of the time.

SSD is necessary for todays games.

Even a 1TB samsung SSD is cheap as hell now.

 

[Forsaken82]

Preloading saved you hours of downloading and installing... so it did do what it said.

Even a 1TB samsung SSD is cheap as hell now.

What in your mind is cheap... because 400 dollars is certainly not cheap to me for an SSD.

 

[ArjanN]

Don't preload if you have a pretty good internet.

Unpacking might take 30 minutes if you're on HDD instead of SSD.

There's probably still tons of people for whom it would take hours and hours to download it though.

 

[drotahorror]

Preloading saved you hours of downloading and installing... so it did do what it said.



What in your mind is cheap... because 400 dollars is certainly not cheap to me for an SSD.

True yea I was about to edit my post quickly but something came up. Yeah it's not cheap but it's a good investment. I thought I paid $300 for my ssd but I didn't, it was a bit higher. A couple years ago you'd have paid over $1000 for sure though.