Actually while I'm sure there will be disasters... I dont really agree that some how bandwidth is going to be the root cause of them.
If they tier the rollouts, and dont auto enable the preload there should be minimal issues from a pure bandwidth perspective. It would of course be helpful I'm sure to release a base installer on distro sites of say < 650mb compressed that either does a clean steam install and gets some base content installed on the client, or simply installs the base content to an existing install and they can pull the rest via steam. (probably make a big difference doing that since you lighten the load significantly by making the first gig basicly pre-loadable via distribution systems beyond steam, ie, p2p,ftp,http. No idea what thier plans actually are but I wouldn't worry about it to much as there's bound to be a disaster of one type or another reguardless. I'd me more concerned with the stability or problems of what's actually being distributed. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Whisper . > Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 6:42 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [hlds] 2 off the topic questions (apologies) > > [ Converted text/html to text/plain ] > > I should have also added that many ISP's will gladly mirror > the file for you for their users, since it saves them > downloading X Gigabytes worth of the same data across > networks repeatedly. > > Hello Valve are you listening? > ----Original Message Follows---- > From: "Whisper ." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [hlds] 2 off the topic questions (apologies) > Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:34:49 +0000 > [ Converted text/html to text/plain ] > Networking Maths for Dummies (Something you have to wonder > about with Valve) Total Available Network Bandwidth for STEAM > Content Servers: 8Gb/s Total Number of Counter-Strike Players > > 1,000,000 (Probably a lot higher if you consider actual > STEAM Clients) Total Size of HL2 = A Few Gigabytes (Lets say > 2GB's compressed just to be charitable, actually lets make it > 1 Gigabyte to simplfy the maths) Lets say only 25% of the > people who want HL2 try to download it, thats approximately > 250,000 people ( I know that every man and his dog is waiting > for HL2 from all the games on our service who would not touch > Counter-Strike with a 10 foot pole, so any number I come up > with is going to be worse!) To keep things simple 8Gbps = > 1,000,000,000 Bytes Per Seccond 250,000 people trying to > download through 1,000,000,000 Bytes Per Seccond total > bandwidth = 4000 bytes per second per client or more or less > 4KB/s (Yay) Time to take to download 1GigaByte at 4KiloBytes > per Second = ?? > 4KB/s will get you 240KB a minute so lets be charitable and > say you are going to get 15MB per hour Thats means 360MB a > day or just under 3 days to download 1 Gigabyte through STEAM > content servers, and thats downloading 24 hours a day for the > full amount of time. > If they double the available bandwith then they halve the > time for 250,000 users, but I'm making the assumption that > its only going to be 250,000 users, who here thinks its only > going to be 250,000 people trying to download HL2??? > Who here thinks HL2 is only going to be 1 Gigabyte in Size? > Who here thinks only 250,000 people will be wanting access to > Half-Life 2? > Can any of you see any of the problems I foreseen being > resolved even if Valve double or triple or quaddruple their > STEAM Content Servers Bandwidth?? > Hell, Valve can barely keep up with with those people who > have Condition Zero and ATI vouchers without their network > falling into a heap! > I predict another disaster > I know how they can alleviate the problem though, but I do > not know how big a deal it is, but Valve definitely did not > have a problem preloading Condition Zero on my computer and > its updates without my consent, I cannot even turn off the > fact that its going to do this, which shits me to no end. > But in any case the way to help solve the bandwidth > limitation problem would be to release the HL2 gcf file(s) to > all the major file distributor sites and let people download > it through there and pick up any pieces through the STEAM > Content Servers, thats how it should be done until Valve have > access to a STEAM Content Network with at least 100Gbps worth > of Bandwith which even then probably wouln't be enough, but > at least it would not be a total disaster! > >I couldn't get in at all last night. If you think this is a circus, > >wait until HL2 comes out - it will be a friggin' zoo for > weeks unless > >they actually do something different to ensure they have the > bandwidth. > >I hate to be negative, but Valve has not yet been able to handle a > >major roll out without serious bandwidth problems. Bandwidth costs > >money - a lot of money - and Valve may be content to have us > just wait > >our turn. They probably think we want it badly enough to put up with > >crap it takes to get updates during peak bandwidth periods. > > > > > You do realize that they increased their bandwith to 8Gb/s > for the CS:S pre-load and only used one half of that. When > Hl2 release approaches the plan is to increase it another 4Gb/s. _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
