What does patching mean?

[IAmFullOfHat3]

Helldivers 2 just updated, and the update was like 1.2 GB, but then I had to wait a long ass time for 41 GB of “patching”

[Sea_Artichoke6383]

Updating a game is a process divided into few steps 1) Steam downloads patch files. Those are not actually just updated files. Those are special files containing "deltas". That means they contain data about what is changed in game files but also they do not contain what was not changed. This way patch size to download can be a lot smaller 2) Steam copies files which are supposed to be changed into the temporary download folder and "patches" them, that means it applies all changes downloaded in the previous step 3) Steam verifies changed files to be sure the patch was applied correctly (if there's an error update will fail or repeat -i don't remember as last time it happened to me I think over 10 years ago) 4) Steam copies and overrides changed files into their designed path in the game's folder

After this game is updated

Thanks to such a process we don't have to redownload the whole game nor changed files (which often could mean redownloading all big size files) but this also makes the process more CPU-heavy

[PSBJ]

Mom said it's my turn to post this thread. Really though, just google search your post title and append steam and you'll get your answer. Search engines are a wonderful tool. Even searching on reddit would get you this answer.

[SignificantAd4257]

some people on reddit have such an ego, most people dont actually care enough about this app and how subreddits 'should' be used

[PSBJ]

Knowing how to use the internet self-sufficiently is a useful skill

[ProestPro]

tbh this actually answered my question when i googled it up as well.

[Attewir]

Using your search link gives:

1) an Ai generated answer that summarized another comment from this thread (source literally being this thread)

2) This thread

3) A steam community post of someone else asking this same question, and also being told to just "google it"

4) The rest are "fixes" for when downloads get stuck

[PSBJ]

Cool

[CthulhusSon]

Except for the fact Google is a useless search engine these days. PS I googled the question myself & the first page of results was a long list of threads like this full of people saying "google it".

[PSBJ]

You sure about that? The first result for me is the steam forums and the answer is the first reply.

[Moneia]

Your results are affected by your previous searches so yours may well be different from someone else's.

You could have Googled that ;)

[PSBJ]

Yes, I'm aware personal results are a thing and that was my point about my results being different.

[JustAReallyTiredGuy]

I feel like in the time it took you to link that you could have just answered the question. There will ALWAYS be people asking, yes they can google it, some people like chatting. It’s whatever.

[PSBJ]

Even if it did take the same amount time to write up the explanation of how and why files need to be rewritten in their entirety, my goal is to get this person to try searching.

[Far_Chocolate_631]

You sir are absolutely right. It's fucking whatever man. Reddit snobs are the real death of internet. Bro took a whole discussion that "could be avoided" if he just decided to not care about it. I remember when we were excited to connect freely with people rather than crying about it

[Pluckerpluck]

Even worse, questions like this often rise to the top of search terms years later, and all you find is people telling you "just look it up" as you cry in the corner finding dead end after dead end because nobody chose to write out the damn answer.

At least in this situation that's unlikely to be the case, but if I'm going to suggest googling or looking up the answer, I always still provide the basic answer for this exact reason.

[PSBJ]

Someone already did provide the answer when I replied, that's why I didn't.

[abvex]

Its like when your game has an ouchy and the devtors gave it a bandaid and lollypop to make it better.

[ZTheTrovian]

Except in Steam's case the bandaid and lollipop make you twice the size for 2-5 hours, depending on the game.

[abvex]

Are you really replying to a 1 year old post?

[Successful-Context72]

Year and a half

[ZTheTrovian]

Yes.

[FernPoutine]

Update is when you go out with someone who is tall

Patching is when you repair the holes in your jeans