Steam Update Adds New Downloads Page and More

By Tanner Dedmon

Valve released a new client update for Steam this week to give its users a refined downloads page for managing their games. Under this new download system, player should have a better idea of when their updates are actually completed. Perhaps the most important part of this downloads update is the ability to quickly view patch notes for a recent game update thanks to a new button dedicated to that purpose.

In the image provided below by Valve, we see what the new downloads page looks like. Total progression for a downloaded game or update will now be displayed in the page to make it clearer when, exactly, a download will be finished. You can also see the patch notes button next to the size of the Necromunda: Hired Gun listing.

The patch notes for the downloads page portion of the update can be seen below.

New Downloads Page

  • When a game/update is actively downloading it will now display the total progression completed for the download or update. Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update to appear completed when it was not.
  • Any partially completed downloads/updates in queue now will show a faded progress bar and percent completed next to it to clearly display its current state.
  • A new (i) icon next to the game's title will reveal a tooltip displaying the types of content that is included in that update. Types consist of: Game Content, Downloadable Content, Workshop Content, and Shader Pre-caching. This icon only appears if the update is not solely game content.
  • The download queue is now fully reorderable using drag and drop.
  • The context menu for the actively downloading item now includes an option to launch the game when the download is complete and an option to suspend download throttling (if enabled) for the duration of that download.
  • The "View News" button is now a "Patch Notes" link that will open an overlay to the most recent relevant patch notes for the game. This will only display for games that have entered patch notes into the new event system. The patch notes link will only show up on updates, not fresh installs. For workshop updates, a page of subscribed items ordered by update date can be accessed by selecting "View Updated Items" from the context menu.

While the downloads page update is the highlight, it's far from the only thing in the patch notes. You can see the full set of notes here.

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