[Request] Manual workshop check

[TheDanaAddams]

Okay, so, this is entirely beyond me.

But is nobody else completely and thoroughly annoyed by the way Steam auto-checks and apparently re-downloads the subscribed mods every damn time you enter the mods menu??

 

Would it be at all possible for someone to mod in a 'check subscriptions' button, and stop it doing it automatically?

 

If I want to try different mod combinations, I don't want to sit there for five minutes waiting for subscriptions that downloaded ten minutes ago to download again... every single time I have to enable/disable something...

 

I have really limited bandwidth, too... so it's a nightmare, on that level too...

[tehMugwump]

I'm with you.  At any given time I'm running 15+ mods and I can't imagine waiting for Steam to RE download the whole lot every time I fire up the game.  

 

Seems the devs (either here or Steam) have missed a fundamental part of the process: Check first before you re-download everything.

[TheDanaAddams]

Is there at least a line of code we can comment out to stop the auto-check, and manually uncomment it each time we want it to check for updates, or something?

 

The idea of the workshop keeping things up-to-date for me, rather than having to install each update myself, has really grown on me... but the constant auto-checking and re-downloading EVERY SINGLE TIME is making it plain excruciating to try out different mod combinations.

[simplex]

Is there at least a line of code we can comment out to stop the auto-check, and manually uncomment it each time we want it to check for updates, or something?

 

The idea of the workshop keeping things up-to-date for me, rather than having to install each update myself, has really grown on me... but the constant auto-checking and re-downloading EVERY SINGLE TIME is making it plain excruciating to try out different mod combinations.

I believe I just wrote a mod that suppresses the Workshop autoupdating when enabled. But since (as you may know by reading around) there's currently a bug in the Linux version of the game making it crash (at the engine level) whenever any mod is enabled, I can't really test it, let alone upload it.

[TheDanaAddams]

I believe I just wrote a mod that suppresses the Workshop autoupdating when enabled. But since (as you may know by reading around) there's currently a bug in the Linux version of the game making it crash (at the engine level) whenever any mod is enabled, I can't really test it, let alone upload it.

Yeah, I saw that was an issue. =(

Hope it's fixed posthaste! It's really quite a shock that such a massive bug slipped through!

[simplex]

Yeah, I saw that was an issue. =(

Hope it's fixed posthaste! It's really quite a shock that such a massive bug slipped through!

Apparently when I'm not around there are no Linux public previewers, since it happens in it as well.

The crash happens inside the function kleifileexists(), which is an engine-level function (and should, in theory, be quite the harmless one ). This is quite strange, since there's no reason to implement that function differently in Linux and Mac. Its standard implementation would be:

 

#ifdef __unix__extern "C" {#	include <sys/stat.h>}#include <cerrno>int kleifileexists(lua_State* L) {	struct stat st_buf;	if(stat(luaL_checkstring(L, 1), &st_buf)) {		if(errno == ENOENT || errno == ENOTDIR) {			lua_pushboolean(L, 0);		}		else {			lua_pushstring(L, strerror(errno));			return lua_error(L);		}	}	else {		lua_pushboolean(L, S_IRUSR(st_buf.st_mode));	}	return 1;}#endif

and there's no way for that to cause a crash.

EDIT: The above implementation would also work for the PS4, in theory, since it also runs on a Unix operating system.

Edited October 5, 2013 by simplex

[Cheerio]

Apparently when I'm not around there are no Linux public previewers, since it happens in it as well.

The crash happens inside the function kleifileexists(), which is an engine-level function (and should, in theory, be quite the harmless one ). This is quite strange, since there's no reason to implement that function differently in Linux and Mac. Its standard implementation would be:

 

#ifdef __unix__extern "C" {#	include <sys/stat.h>}#include <cerrno>int kleifileexists(lua_State* L) {	struct stat st_buf;	if(stat(luaL_checkstring(L, 1), &st_buf)) {		if(errno == ENOENT || errno == ENOTDIR) {			lua_pushboolean(L, 0);		}		else {			lua_pushstring(L, strerror(errno));			return lua_error(L);		}	}	else {		lua_pushboolean(L, S_IRUSR(st_buf.st_mode));	}	return 1;}#endif

and there's no way for that to cause a crash.

EDIT: The above implementation would also work for the PS4, in theory, since it also runs on a Unix operating system.

 

Sorry about the trouble guys.  Give it a try now.

 

Posthaste indeed!

[Brook]

Okay, so, this is entirely beyond me.

But is nobody else completely and thoroughly annoyed by the way Steam auto-checks and apparently re-downloads the subscribed mods every damn time you enter the mods menu??

 

Would it be at all possible for someone to mod in a 'check subscriptions' button, and stop it doing it automatically?

 

If I want to try different mod combinations, I don't want to sit there for five minutes waiting for subscriptions that downloaded ten minutes ago to download again... every single time I have to enable/disable something...

 

I have really limited bandwidth, too... so it's a nightmare, on that level too...

 

Hi @TheDanaAddams,

 

We get that this is a problem for some people and will look into providing an option for those who want to avoid the constant re-check each time.

 

If you're curious, "downloading" is actually a bit misleading here, the way it works under the hood is that Steam keeps the files downloaded to your computer pretty much all of the time, and will download data immediately after you subscribe or the mod author updates their mod.

 

What happens when you go to the Mods screen is that the game requests the subscription list from Steam, and then unpacks all of the data (zip files) that Steam has probably already downloaded. Unfortunately, it's usually the first step of just getting the list that can take the longest, because the Steam client may take some time to talk to the Steam service, and if Steam or your internet connection are experiencing issues this could take a minute or so before the request times out.  Once that check is complete and the game has the results, unzipping the probably-already-downloaded files should only take seconds, or less.

 

So the actual data isn't being re-downloaded each time, it's only being un-zipped which is quite fast.  It's the initial status check from Steam that tends to hold things up.

 

Brook

[TheDanaAddams]

Hi @TheDanaAddams,

 

We get that this is a problem for some people and will look into providing an option for those who want to avoid the constant re-check each time.

 

If you're curious, "downloading" is actually a bit misleading here, the way it works under the hood is that Steam keeps the files downloaded to your computer pretty much all of the time, and will download data immediately after you subscribe or the mod author updates their mod.

 

What happens when you go to the Mods screen is that the game requests the subscription list from Steam, and then unpacks all of the data (zip files) that Steam has probably already downloaded. Unfortunately, it's usually the first step of just getting the list that can take the longest, because the Steam client may take some time to talk to the Steam service, and if Steam or your internet connection are experiencing issues this could take a minute or so before the request times out.  Once that check is complete and the game has the results, unzipping the probably-already-downloaded files should only take seconds, or less.

 

So the actual data isn't being re-downloaded each time, it's only being un-zipped which is quite fast.  It's the initial status check from Steam that tends to hold things up.

 

Brook

Thanks for the response!

 

Every time I go to the mods menu, I am presented with a "downloading" message, with percentage, that takes at least five minutes to reach completion.

I don't have a very good connection, which clearly exacerbates the problem.

 

Glad to hear you're working on something, though! <3

[Brook]

Thanks for the response!

 

Every time I go to the mods menu, I am presented with a "downloading" message, with percentage, that takes at least five minutes to reach completion.

I don't have a very good connection, which clearly exacerbates the problem.

 

Glad to hear you're working on something, though! <3

 

Hmm... that's good to know, since it isn't something we've observed in our testing.  Thanks for your patience while we look into it.

 

Brook

[Heavenfall]

I also face the same "downloading" message every time I go to the mods menu. Even with just 3 mods from the workshop (arguably some a few MBs) it would take me a minute or so to get past the "downloading" message. It got to the point where I just unsubscribed from everything and downloaded it manually instead, because as a modder I go into that screen 60 times per hour when building my own mods.

[Brook]

I also face the same "downloading" message every time I go to the mods menu. Even with just 3 mods from the workshop (arguably some a few MBs) it would take me a minute or so to get past the "downloading" message. It got to the point where I just unsubscribed from everything and downloaded it manually instead, because as a modder I go into that screen 60 times per hour when building my own mods.

 

Which platform are you running on? Are there any mods specifically that take a long time?

[Heavenfall]

Steam (edit: windows 7 64bit), my guess is mods that take a lot of size take a lot of time. The Link Hero of Time mod. The Wario Nintendo mod.

Edited October 7, 2013 by Heavenfall

[Brook]

Steam, my guess is mods that take a lot of size take a lot of time.

 

Sorry, by platform I meant operating system. Windows/Linux/OSX?

[simplex]

@TheDanaAddams

@tehMugwump

Is this what you had in mind?

ManualWorkshopUpdate.zip

[TheDanaAddams]

I'm on Mac OSX (10.7.4) - so it seems to be a problem across-the-board.

I have a fair number of mods subscribed... but I can't recall them all.

 

Among others, I have Wren, Pikbits, Krampusnacht, Wilton, and Willette.

 

I imagine the characters do put a bit of a jump on the download size.

[TheDanaAddams]

@TheDanaAddams

@tehMugwump

Is this what you had in mind?

[simplex]

@TheDanaAddams (et al.)

Updated to the new layout (and with untested controller support):

ManualWorkshopUpdate.zip

Edited October 28, 2013 by simplex

[Blackbow]

@TheDanaAddams (et al.)

Updated to the new layout (and with untested controller support):

 

oh that's rly cool big thx

[Silentdarkness1]

OHHH THANK YOU.

 

It was so bad for me, with the constant downloading at the mod screen, that my computer, for no real reason would randomly CTD Don't Starve while I was stuck on that screen. THX.

[simplex]

The mod had been broken by a change in the game. It's now fixed, and properly uploaded here.

[chromiumboy]

Excellent, thanks @simplex!

[seronis]

Oh thank you.  Only been modding less than a week and this 'issue' had started making me twitch

[Silentdarkness1]

The mod had been broken by a change in the game. It's now fixed, and properly uploaded here.

Really? I didn't have a problem with it. And I have 1.1 D:

[simplex]

Really? I didn't have a problem with it. And I have 1.1 D:

That's strange, do you have the latest hotfix (Rev. 88571)?

But anyway, the functionality and look in 1.1 and 1.2 are the same. If 1.1 is still working for you, consider updating it optional.

EDIT:

Actually, @Silentdarkness1, it's entirely possible the change made in this hotfix was only directly affecting the mod when Up and Away was also enabled, since by modding the main screen U&A causes its file to load earlier. Version 1.2 will work under both scenarios.

Edited November 10, 2013 by simplex