PC games patches Consolidation

smogsy

smogsy

smogsy

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So with with the state of the PC gaming Community we are getting more and more launchers.
Which means you have to often open launchers to find if any new patches are available for your games.
Currently got
Steam, EA play, Xbox App, Epic, Origin, GOG, LoL, Rockstar Launcher, Ubisoft connect, battlenet

OR

open up a less open launcher & see 4 games need 20GB of patches.
Anything out their that Scans Game version numbers & Tell you which games require updates in collection?
Just wondered as if not thought be interesting program To try in my spare time

I know GOG displays all games but not updates

* Index Game location
* Extract Patch Version Number
* Pull information from Official sources
* Display update required symbol
 
I don't really see the need for this, I mean why do you care if a game needs a patch unless you are going to play it, in which case you'd open the launcher anyway? I appreciate if you have a slow internet connection it might mean a delay to starting but the counter point to this is some sort of universal patching software would be yet another piece of software you have running and it would also waste time prompting you to patch games you aren't going to play in the near future and then maybe get another patch by the time you want to play them anyway. It's bad enough having the likes of Steam wanting stuff updated when I open it without having something demanding updates across my whole portfolio.

The database for this app would need a lot of active maintenance too, you talk about "pull information from official sources" as a one-liner but in reality how easy will that be with thousands upon thousands of games, and dozens of new games coming out every week? Won't this app just get outdated because it doesn't have all the necessary APIs in place to gather this information with the end result it doesn't show games as needing updates and then you attempt to play them and find they do afterall?

The game launchers handle this process for identifying patching pretty well, an extra layer over the top just confuses matters IMO.
 
HangTime said:
The database for this app would need a lot of active maintenance too, you talk about "pull information from official sources" as a one-liner but in reality how easy will that be with thousands upon thousands of games, and dozens of new games coming out every week? Won't this app just get outdated because it doesn't have all the necessary APIs in place to gather this information with the end result it doesn't show games as needing updates and then you attempt to play them and find they do afterall?
Click to expand...

Yeah - maybe a niche there for an enterprising app developer to build a standard API and get developers to adopt it but a huge undertaking. Many game developers push out updates in an ad hoc fashion as well not even putting details on their normal release platform or even following any kind of conventional versioning system.
 
More to get hacked is good because it means you don't have all your eggs in one basket. If someone hacks an account you lose a subset of your games not everything.

LeMson said:
the world was better when everything was just on steam
Click to expand...
Some might say the world was better when nothing was on steam and you managed each game independently with no online DRM and no mandatory patching.
 
Or you just wait for the update when you launch the game?

If it's something like CoD with huge updates then I imagine you will be expecting them and open said game/manager prior.

BUDFORCE said:
Also more passwords and logins to remember, and more to get hacked.
Click to expand...

Use a password manager.
 
HangTime said:
I don't really see the need for this, I mean why do you care if a game needs a patch unless you are going to play it, in which case you'd open the launcher anyway? I appreciate if you have a slow internet connection it might mean a delay to starting but the counter point to this is some sort of universal patching software would be yet another piece of software you have running and it would also waste time prompting you to patch games you aren't going to play in the near future and then maybe get another patch by the time you want to play them anyway. It's bad enough having the likes of Steam wanting stuff updated when I open it without having something demanding updates across my whole portfolio.

The database for this app would need a lot of active maintenance too, you talk about "pull information from official sources" as a one-liner but in reality how easy will that be with thousands upon thousands of games, and dozens of new games coming out every week? Won't this app just get outdated because it doesn't have all the necessary APIs in place to gather this information with the end result it doesn't show games as needing updates and then you attempt to play them and find they do afterall?

The game launchers handle this process for identifying patching pretty well, an extra layer over the top just confuses matters IMO.
Click to expand...


it was more of a idea for fun project, than something viable for the masses, GOG kind of has API to pull in Games from all platforms, wonder if this is a feature request for their app. but either way would be a fun project to trial out

sad fact even on optics at 90Mbps games takes ages to update in a household as Users are watch Netflix/Amazon prime video which takes priority

Division was 50GB that took me 9 hours to download, internet is decent when house is empty but with a full house patches take ages, so scheduling them over night is a good method specially being a game hopper

I think you have a great idea for a new program !!
that be cool, if we could open just one application, and it scans and updates where necessary
rather than individual
Click to expand...

Done a far bit of app development in the past in C/C++/C#, little in python & played with RUST.

but could be a fun side project when I have time away from work.
 
smogsy said:
it was more of a idea for fun project, than something viable for the masses, GOG kind of has API to pull in Games from all platforms, wonder if this is a feature request for their app. but either way would be a fun project to trial out

sad fact even on optics at 90Mbps games takes ages to update in a household as Users are watch Netflix/Amazon prime video which takes priority

Division was 50GB that took me 9 hours to download, internet is decent when house is empty but with a full house patches take ages, so scheduling them over night is a good method specially being a game hopper



Done a far bit of app development in the past in C/C++/C#, little in python & played with RUST.

but could be a fun side project when I have time away from work.
Click to expand...
50gig taking that long even with streaming seems high. You sure you get that speed? That's roughly 1.5 mbps so 15Mbps or so.
 
theone8181 said:
50gig taking that long even with streaming seems high. You sure you get that speed?
Click to expand...
yup but when you have 3+ people stream youtube & netflix/Amazon at 4K it drops massively

No one i get 90Mbps 3 people stream it drops to 60Mbps or less

Noticed that Netflix can take about 12MBps & amazon greedy can take up to 30mbps in bursts

so I have to limit it to like like 5-8MBs overwise their stream stop & buffer.
 
smogsy said:
yup but when you have 3+ people stream youtube & netflix/Amazon at 4K it drops massively

No one i get 90Mbps 3 people stream it drops to 60Mbps or less

NOticed that netflix can take about 12MBps & amazon gready can take up to 30mbps in bursts
Click to expand...
Still seems slow. I know what you mean about patches though, I have steam starting on bootup, but ea, update, rockstar and gog I only open when needed. If I did need a 20 gig patch (I've not played cod for a while, but I remember that being pretty bad for it), even on my 400Mbps I'd be waiting a while.
 
For me this concept would be excellent, if we didn't already have a plethora of middle-man software layers. 20 years ago it would have been awesome.

I remember the first time I had to download Steam just to play Counter-Strike, it annoyed me then. Now? I have 7 platforms installed, and I'm aware of at least 3 more.

Buying a new game or playing one you own inevitably involves careful searching of up to 10 or more platforms. Modern PC gaming is already rather convoluted, if I had to run another client to keep them up to date, I think I'd turn to console.

Frankly, if a console didn't look so crap I'd switch.
 
WantoN said:
For me this concept would be excellent, if we didn't already have a plethora of middle-man software layers. 20 years ago it would have been awesome.

I remember the first time I had to download Steam just to play Counter-Strike, it annoyed me then. Now? I have 7 platforms installed, and I'm aware of at least 3 more.

Buying a new game or playing one you own inevitably involves careful searching of up to 10 or more platforms. Modern PC gaming is already rather convoluted, if I had to run another client to keep them up to date, I think I'd turn to console.

Frankly, if a console didn't look so crap I'd switch.
Click to expand...
Kinda agree but no reason it couldn't be web page that collates uodates hence no software installation
 
WantoN said:
Frankly, if a console didn't look so crap I'd switch.
Click to expand...

Whilst I don't play on it 100% I have pretty much made the switch to PS5. Obviously it depends on what type of system you are running, but for me I don't see any difference.

Maybe I'll switch back in a few years when PC prices are a bit more affordable.
 
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