Steam/Suggestions

This page contains suggestions for the Steam client.

Better management for files outside of GCFs

Some files (e.g. EXEs and DLLs) need to be extracted from the GCFs to work. This is currently done by extracting the specific files into SteamApps/<account>/<gamedir>. And that's quite inefficient as it's done for every game and every account even if it's a file like hl2/media/valve.avi, which is the same for all Source games. This process consumes time (when first starting a game) and disk space (as long as the game is installed).
In my opinion there should be a directory like SteamApps/shared that contains files which are needed by multiple games and/or accounts. This maybe even a good place to store custom content (e.g. maps) so that multiple accounts can use already downloaded maps. --Koraktor

SteamDrv for media files

Red Orchestra uses a feature called SteamDrv to mount a GCF to a virtual drive. This enables RO to access the GCFs without using the Steam API. This should also be used for Steam's media, because in the moment disk space is absolutely wasted by extracting the videos from the GCFs and saving them in SteamApps/media.
At least that's the most obvious way, but maybe there's even a way to enable Windows Media Player to use the Steam API. --Koraktor

Steam for Linux and Mac

Current Steam games are already cross-platform compatible:

• Half-Life and Source Engine Server (Windows, Linux)
• Darwinia (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)
• Red Orchestra (based on Unreal Engine Technology which is available for Windows, Linux, Macintosh)

so people [1] including myself, think the Steam platform should follow. -- Matthias 09:57, 3 Aug 2006 (PDT)

Linux might just be on the way. :-) --TomEdwards 10:15, 3 Aug 2006 (PDT)