SteamPipe is Valve’s shiny and relatively new content delivery system, the vehicle by which nigh on everything on Steam is downloaded and stored these days. Some poor middling-to-old Valve games – namely TF2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch – have been making do with rather more rickety means of transport for years, but Valve have been working to get them upgraded.
Find out what that means for those who like to shoot after the break.
Valve tell us that the result on the user end of things will be:
- Faster and smoother downloads
- Faster game boot times and map load times
- Easier distribution, installation, and management of mods
- Smoother dedicated server distribution and update rollover
All good stuff for those still mooching about 2005’s finest, or indeed rocket-jumping about in hats.
Developers of client-side mods, however – any that need downloading and extracting into your installation folder from a zip file – will need to switch to the new distribution system. Similarly, if you’re using any custom versions of game files, including HUDs and models, you’ll need to make some changes, and if you’re running a server you’ll need to switch to new download tool Steamcmd and come to terms with a new filesystem.
Check Steam’s FAQ for further instruction if any of that applies to you. Otherwise, look forward to a faster and more accessible Day of Defeat: Source. Wow, DoD. When was the last time any of you lot played that?