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RendCycle 13 Feb, 2019 @ 6:33am

Steamworks Common Redistributables?

This morning, all of my installed games suddenly got download updates. I let them finish processing and then I exited Steam. When I was shutting down my PC, I was prompted to update Windows. So I did and then turned off my computer. Tonight, I left Steam and my PC run for a while and when I came back, I noticed Steam made another update: Steamworks Common Redistributables which downloaded about 592MB file. This is strange and I cannot find any info about it. When I click the image, it just redirects to my Library. Is this normal and what is the Steamworks Common Redistributables?

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1654423940

Last edited by RendCycle; 13 Feb, 2019 @ 6:51am

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Originally posted by sfnhltb:

This isn't part of Steam as such, it is a number third party installers used by lots of games/software, such as the Microsoft C++ Redistributable runtime files (which allow programs written entirely or partly in C++ to run on a system).

Previously to this every developer that needed to install one of them as part of their game had to write the script to install it, and it would have to be downloaded for each and every game you had that needed it, and the install run (the second and all subsequent times it would presumably work out nothing needed changing, although this can still take a little while as it has a lot of files to check are the right minimum versions).

Now the first game you download that uses a particular version of a shared component will download and install it, just as before, although it is downloaded to a different place, but later games that need it will not download it or install it again, saving disk space, download capacity and time.

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Showing 1-15 of 127 comments

ReBoot 13 Feb, 2019 @ 6:36am

Its normal and its a set or redistributable runtime installers bundled together as many games use pretty much the same.

#1

RendCycle 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:02am

Originally posted by ReBoot:
Its normal and its a set or redistributable runtime installers bundled together as many games use pretty much the same.

Interesting, this is the first time I encountered it. Do you have a link containing more details on this?

#2

ReBoot 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:03am

Theres Valves own Steamworks pages. But what info do you want, I can tell a couple things.

#3

RendCycle 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:17am

Originally posted by ReBoot:
Theres Valves own Steamworks pages. But what info do you want, I can tell a couple things.

I visited https://partner.steamgames.com/ and found some info on Steamworks. It describes it as:

Steamworks is a free suite of tools available to any developer to use in their game or software on Steam. Here is a small sampling of the available features:
- Matchmaking
- Steam Inventory Service
- Anti-cheat technology
- In-game economy with microtransactions
- Management of user-generated content
- Per-User cloud storage

It's just weird how the update for this was pushed by Steam. Before, I noticed a Steam software update happens when I launch Steam, not in the Download page, and shows a loading bar. I hope Steam posted an official announcement on it just to lessen worries. Anyhow, thanks for the information.

Last edited by RendCycle; 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:17am

#4

ReBoot 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:26am

Theres no official statement, but theres no (justified) worries either. That's just another update, just like countless others.

Last edited by ReBoot; 13 Feb, 2019 @ 7:48am

#5

The author of this thread has indicated that this post answers the original topic.

sfnhltb 13 Feb, 2019 @ 8:38am

This isn't part of Steam as such, it is a number third party installers used by lots of games/software, such as the Microsoft C++ Redistributable runtime files (which allow programs written entirely or partly in C++ to run on a system).

Previously to this every developer that needed to install one of them as part of their game had to write the script to install it, and it would have to be downloaded for each and every game you had that needed it, and the install run (the second and all subsequent times it would presumably work out nothing needed changing, although this can still take a little while as it has a lot of files to check are the right minimum versions).

Now the first game you download that uses a particular version of a shared component will download and install it, just as before, although it is downloaded to a different place, but later games that need it will not download it or install it again, saving disk space, download capacity and time.

#6

RendCycle 13 Feb, 2019 @ 9:11am

Originally posted by Kaldaien:
Originally posted by RendCycle:
It's just weird how the update for this was pushed by Steam. Before, I noticed a Steam software update happens when I launch Steam, not in the Download page, and shows a loading bar. I hope Steam posted an official announcement on it just to lessen worries. Anyhow, thanks for the information.
You, uh, accidentally stumbled onto SteamAPI's documentation. SteamAPI is what developers use to add Steamworks features to their games, it's not what this is.

If we ignore the somewhat misleading name of this download, this is basically a single download that contains Visual C++ 2010, 2013, 2015, .NET, DirectX Redistributable, OpenAL, PhysX, etc.

This is a necessary change because if you go into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\<pick_a_random_game> for any game installed more than a few months ago, you will find a directory called _CommonRedist with potentially 200+ MiB worth of installers that were run once and Steam just left there for all eternity.

This new thing is designed to stop packaging that crap into every game you download and instead do it one time. The last time I counted the total file size of all the _CommonRedist subdirectories on my backup drive, it was sitting at 20 GiB. That is 20 GiB of installers that are 1. increasing download size and 2. wasting space on disk.
Read more about this here

I guess this kind of update will happen from time to time now especially if one or more included package components has changed or gets patched up. I just wish when the Steamworks Common Redistributables thumbnail image is clicked in the Download list, it will at least redirect to a page containing a brief description of what it is. Anyhow, thank you for the explanation and the link. I appreciate it.

#7

RendCycle 13 Feb, 2019 @ 9:17am

Originally posted by sfnhltb:
This isn't part of Steam as such, it is a number third party installers used by lots of games/software, such as the Microsoft C++ Redistributable runtime files (which allow programs written entirely or partly in C++ to run on a system).

Previously to this every developer that needed to install one of them as part of their game had to write the script to install it, and it would have to be downloaded for each and every game you had that needed it, and the install run (the second and all subsequent times it would presumably work out nothing needed changing, although this can still take a little while as it has a lot of files to check are the right minimum versions).

Now the first game you download that uses a particular version of a shared component will download and install it, just as before, although it is downloaded to a different place, but later games that need it will not download it or install it again, saving disk space, download capacity and time.

Great! So this update optimizes the amount of files and help save on download bandwidth. Thanks for the clear explanation!

#8

45 28 Mar, 2019 @ 5:08pm

Yea how do I disable this?

#9

AnoMorgan 29 Mar, 2019 @ 4:09am

More info will be found at https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/common_redist

#10

Vilo_le_Loup 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:47pm

Steamworks Common Redistributables !?

Hey guys,

since the last update ... I got ""Steamworks Common Redistributables" in my "Installed" Folder. It looks prety ugly ... not even has a big thumbail ...

What is this and why is is it in my installed games section!?

Greetings

Vilo

#11

Forcen 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:49pm

You mean Installed Tools?

#12

Vilo_le_Loup 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:50pm

Originally posted by Forcen:
You mean Installed Tools?

Nope. Just in my "Installed" Folder. Nothing about tools!

https://s16.directupload.net/images/190417/hdhtq5yv.jpg

https://s16.directupload.net/images/190417/rv9yydfv.jpg

EDIT: Weird part ... it says 33 but with this thing it should say 34.

Last edited by Vilo_le_Loup; 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:56pm

#13

Snapjak 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:56pm

It's all the various redistributables that games require put into one folder instead of them being scattered in each game's folder. Just leave it alone.

Visually it's probably a bug.

Last edited by Snapjak; 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:57pm

#14

Vilo_le_Loup 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:57pm

Originally posted by Snapjak:
It's all the various redistributables that games require put into one folder instead of them being scattered in each game's folder. Just leave it alone.

But why is this shown in my "Installed" folder? Normaly there are just games in it!

Last edited by Vilo_le_Loup; 17 Apr, 2019 @ 2:58pm

#15

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Date Posted: 13 Feb, 2019 @ 6:33am

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