Now that the dust has settled on the new Steam Library design, along with various other UI overhauls like the Properties page for games (and the recent SteamPal console leaks) - Valve will be fixing up the Steam Downloads page now too.
The Downloads page in the Steam client hasn't really been touched for a long time. It does the job, sure but it could be a lot more useful. That's set to change, although we don't know when, you can test it yourself right now if you go to "steam://nav/library/downloads".
It seems it's supposed to look something like this (thanks to Pavel Djundik of SteamDB on Twitter):
Weirdly though, it's not the same for everyone.
Trying it myself sort-of gives me it, but not quite and this was tested across both the Stable and Beta versions of Steam. So they're clearly not quite ready to roll it out just yet. This is what I see which has a few adjustments but not quite the overhaul as seen above:
Hopefully Valve will finally add a "Download All" button, so we don't have to keep pressing download on individual items to queue them up. Although, that might only be an issue for people like me, who set Steam to only download between super-late hours to prevent it just auto updating everything all the time. As that seems like the only way to have a bit of control over downloads.
Apparently they're also working on a new settings page too, although not easily accessed.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: GuestI've tested it myself now and i get this version:Am I the only one who, every time I see "Master Chief" always thinks "Master Chef"?
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ElectricPrism May 27, 2021
I've literally been using Big Picture to access the Downloads and manually que the updates for over 500 games. It's my biggest annoyance since the new UX update.
I can't welcome a "All Downloads" page fast enough. Godspeed Mr Gaben.
I can't welcome a "All Downloads" page fast enough. Godspeed Mr Gaben.
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not really an improvement if you ask me - no new features, but more space wasted and a more boring, flat design (while the old one was flat to begin with!).
But i don't see much room for improvement anyway...maybe it would be nice to have an easy way to alter the scheduled times, but other than that i don't really see anything amiss ^^
But i don't see much room for improvement anyway...maybe it would be nice to have an easy way to alter the scheduled times, but other than that i don't really see anything amiss ^^
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What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing. It's called letting a computer be a computer. Am I going to play like 5 games in the same day? No. Am I even going to play one of those games in the next week? Unlikely. Let it be.
You know an application hasn't gotten a facelift in a long time when a tiny UI change with no new functionality is newsworthy! Ha.
You know an application hasn't gotten a facelift in a long time when a tiny UI change with no new functionality is newsworthy! Ha.
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Quoting: 14What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing. It's called letting a computer be a computer. Am I going to play like 5 games in the same day? No. Am I even going to play one of those games in the next week? Unlikely. Let it be.
You know an application hasn't gotten a facelift in a long time when a tiny UI change with no new functionality is newsworthy! Ha.
I know I do, but for me it's a combination of having slow internet for a very long time (not so much anymore, still slower then "city-folk" speeds along with my complete lack of ability to stand pending anything). Some people can ignore pending notification/unread counts on their phones for instance, and some cannot (of course, on my phone, this is solved by just turning the notifications off). When you have slow internet, you think differently, because if an urge to play a game comes up you typically want to play it now-or-soon, not in a day or two. This is also why I have ~1500 games installed at once. I routinely run through all my clients and install any updates that are pending.
That said, I'm surprised so many people here don't seem to grasp why Steam doesn't update games immediately. Of course they wouldn't, they're pretty obviously staggering updates to ease pressure on their network+servers, but _giving the option to do it now anyway_. I'm sure it's the same reason an update all button does not exist (although I would love that as well, but I do understand it).
I assert again that it's still friendlier then other clients, take uPlay for instance. That one only auto updates games you recently launched; If you haven't, you actually have to launch the game to get the current update to download.
Last edited by dibz on 30 May 2021 at 4:16 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestIt will *never* do its thing because the download times are *always* when my computer is turned off.
Did you actually try this? Because I'd expect a semi clever program to maybe try that once or twice, but then download when it is active. Which would be fine with the goal to not have huge load on the servers when an update for a popular game has been released.
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Quoting: GuestHow sure are you about that? My computer goes to sleep all the time. Not only that, I don't run Steam all that often. My computer is absolutely not online during most of the scheduled updates, yet they happen automatically. I dare you to test it. Of course, if it's just a pet peeve of yours, then that's what it is and that's that.Quoting: 14What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing.1) It will *never* do its thing because the download times are *always* when my computer is turned off.
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I absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.
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Quoting: idk-manI absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.
Well... They weren't good. I mean, from a usability perspective. If I understood correctly, I can now define the download queue with drag and drop, while before, I had to push the up arrow on the games in order... but in reverse order. Same for library places: The new interface can do more. And in my humble opinion, it also looks better, but well, that's just taste, isn't it?
Last edited by Eike on 10 September 2021 at 5:46 pm UTC
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: idk-manI absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.
Well... They weren't good. I mean, from a usability perspective. If I understood correctly, I can now define the download queue with drag and drop, while before, I had to push the up arrow on the games in order... but in reverse order. Same for library places: The new interface can do more. And in my humble opinion, it also looks better, but well, that's just taste, isn't it?
Agree. While I don't think it's especially great, it's still slightly better than it was before. I don't get the "oversimplification" argument, since it was even more lacking in functionality before. As far as I can see, they didn't remove anything, but they did add more features, some of which I find somewhat helpful.
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