Steam Update

[Pharlap]

-:Nighthawk:- wrote..

» The crappy huge text. I like the idea of updated text, but the execution of this effect is poor currently.

» Web pages for MotD screens. This makes every new map an excercise in ripping myself out of the game to remember that crappy white IE windows are present in the new world of VGUI2. The scoreboard isn't doing well either.

» The ricochet sounds. These are the most arcadish cartoony aspect of CS1.6b, and are quite frankly completely terrible right now. I replaced the default ricochet sounds with those from Operation: Flashpoint back a while ago for my main CS installation, and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that yet again if these remain. They're really that bad.

» The gun sounds. People complained about the guns sounding bad, but oi, these are even worse. I guess it's a good way of showing people that they should be grateful for what they had, but yeah, pretty poor. I can't think what game the FAMAS sound reminds me of now, but it's certainly not realism-based.

» The knife. Wasn't even incorporated into the shield animations, so you've got inconsistant animations as it is. The animations are decent for the new knife, but the model (and blade in particular) just doesn't fit in with the other weapons, or the general theme of CS, really.

Anyway, hopefully those changes can somehow be tweaked and/or fixed in general before this sucker goes final. It's good to see things progressing, regardless. :)

that large text is open to abuse from admin mod, and annoying admin text messages etc.

web pages for motd screens are just a haven for advertising.

ricochet sounds, while they sound realistic, they seem to drown out all the other sounds, valve should increase the number of sound channels.

new rifle sounds, galil and famas sound a lot better, and scout has more punch to it. how can u say previous galil sound was good? it was rediculously awful. new famas sound is on par with the other weapons.

shield, still can be shot through, even when standing still.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

A new Steam/Counter-Strike 1.6 BETA update has been issued by Erik Johnson, via the Steam forums. This update will automatically be downloaded when you launch Counter-Strike 1.6 BETA from Steam.



Steam is the only way to test the new version of CS. You can download it from us at CS-Nation , FileShack or FilePlanet. Sadly you must be a paying member of one of these sites to be able to get Steam through official means.



A notable bug fixed for this update is the legendary radar bug.[break="changelog"]

changes/additions


• bots now buy armor more often.
  
  
• added "bot" to the scoreboard for players who are bots on the server.
  
  
• reduced entity count in aztec to improve server performance.
  
  
• improved bot navigation on aztec.
  
  
• improved bot navigation on airstrip.
  
  
  
  bug fixes
  
  
• fixed bug where radar would disappear during gameplay.
  
  
• fixed bug where tactical shield wasn't removed during a round restart.
  
  
• fixed bug when drawing fonts with full screen anti-aliasing on.
  
  
• fixed bug friends and serverbrowser settings not being saved correctly if edited in-game.
  
  
• fixed bug where sounds weren't played properly when using friends.
  
  
• fixed bug where progress bar would only show the first file you're downloading from a game server.
  
  
• fixed bug in keyboard settings list where you could scroll selection bar off the visible page using the arrow keys.
  
  
• fixed bug where the first mouse click wouldn't work after exiting the ui.
  
  
• fixed bug where the scoreboard would be incorrect when users were connecting.
  
  
• fixed bug where the m4a1 silencer animation wouldn't play the sound at the correct time.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

About an hour ago, Erik Johnson posted on the Steam forums that they've released another update. It "is mostly targeted at improving the stability of the Steam Authentication server."



Just reboot your Steam client and it will automagically update. Yay![break="read the full post"]

We've released a new version of the desktop components of Steam to the beta. If you restart Steam, you will automatically receive this update.



This update is mostly targeted at improving the stability of the Steam Authentication server. There are no changes to any of the games with this release.



We'll will be doing a new release in the next few days of Counter-Strike 1.6 that will address a number of the issues that have been posted in these forums. We're constantly working on making Steam and Counter-Strike better, and appreciate all of the feedback from everyone. Everyone working on the beta reads these forums each day.



We'll also be releasing a Steam enabled version of the Linux game server, which will increase the number of quality game servers the beta.



Erik Johnson

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

VALVe's Erik Johnson has posted a changelog for the latest Steam BETA 2.0 update that is being automatically pushed to clients. The BETA has been suspended so we cannot offer a download of the installer.

• progress bar when downloading steam desktop elements works properly now.
  
  
• friends network server capacity increased.
  
  
• fixed bug in friends that would cause long pauses when bringing up friends list. this fix only applies to the desktop version of friends.
  
  
• load balancing improved when downloading content for the desktop elements of steam.

Friends capacity increases will always be a good thing! Erik also says that the new build of CS 1.6 BETA will be available soon over Steam. Good news since the new build sounds cool.



I wonder which name is more manly, Erik or Eric? I'm leaning toward Erik since the k automatically indicated strength. You must, however, respect the c. Such a difficult choice.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

We have received word about the latest Steam update. Here's what we hear is included in this release:

• our instant messaging system, tracker, is included in this release.
  
  
• the first phase of anti-cheating is now implemented and integrated into cs 1.4.
  
  
• a new counter-strike map "cs_havana" is included in this release.
  
  
• the hostage pathfinding improved in counter-strike
  
  
• major structural overhaul of steam backend for scalability .

That is a bit of the e-mail that Valve sent to all beta testers today. I'm really happy to hear that hostage pathfinding will be improved in 1.4 as it has always been something that annoyed me. Like we already knew, the new Valve anti-cheat solution will be coming out in Counter-Strike 1.4... let's hope it works!

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Steam has updated again. No, you're not the only one shocked of this unexpected, unpredictable release.



This release fixes the startup/shut down issues people have been having. Your Steam client will update the next time you execute it.



Also: Another short Half-Life 2 video, showing the headcrap-docks scene. rizzuh thinks they're all going to be subtle ads for full screen anti-aliasing.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

A new Steam update has been released. This update will not require you to download any patches, but you'll need to restart Steam in order to continue using the system.



Here's what's new:

• reduced the need for clients with fully populated caches to connect to a content server
  
  
• reworked some of the retry logic for content server tickets on the steam backend
  
  
• fixed weirdness with next/prev buttons in conversion wizard
  
  
• fixed failed login potentially opening two error dialogs
  
  
• added conversion wizard any time a cache for a game is created, if there is an existing installation to convert from
  
  
• fixed bad error messages for connection issues when logging in
  
  
• enabled cancel button on conversion wizard
  
  
• optimized friends searching with wildcards
  
  
• fixed "numregisteredchildern" assert

Looks like Steam is starting to shape up.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Update: The Steam patch is now live, restart your Steam client for it to update.



SteamPowered.com has reported a new Steam update that is set to go live sometime soon tonight. You'll get a message before it goes live telling you to restart Steam in order to get the patch. Want to know what's new?[break="click through for changes"]

• fixed bug where favorite servers would not get saved to disk if filtered out
  
  
• increased max servers listed from 10,000 to 20,000
  
  
• fixed 'add friends' and 'game info' dialogs showing up over gameplay in game
  
  
• fixed problem with not always being able to re-add friends after removing them
  
  
• fixed case where authorization request dialog could appear multiple times from the same user
  
  
• fixed chat messages & authorization requests stealing focus and not starting minimized
  
  
• fixed auto-away not working
  
  
• removed 'about' dialog
  
  
• fixed add-on (checkers, etc) invites when in game appearing over the top of the game, instead of just in the gameui area
  
  
• removed unnecessary bind() calls for client udp sockets
  
  
• chat dialogs now add a message into the text whenever the other user changes status
  
  
• fixed spurious character in game info dialog
  
  
• change 'time' info in game info player list to be in hours:minutes:seconds instead of just seconds
  
  
• changed game info player list to default to sorting by score, then time

And Steam continues to shape up! Thanks to pinchet for the submission.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Quick, restart your Steam before it's too late! A small platform update was released tonight fixing the bug for the empty strings problem. Remember that #Steam.roo? Well now it's a thing of the past. Other that that, there are probably a few small tweaks here and there, but we will have to wait for more information. Please post any bugs over on the Steam Forums.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Update: The update has been released. Restart Steam to download it.



A Steam update is scheduled to be released tonight. It fixes the same bugs and adds the same features as the last recalled update, but also adds support for ATI bundle product keys.

We've also added support for ATI bundle product keys. So when the update is released it will be possible for purchasers of new ATI video cards to use their product keys for subscriptions to the Valve Premier Pack. (Half-Life 2 will be added to the subscription when it comes out.)

Hopefully this update will go over smoother than the last week's one. No specific time is posted for the release of the update, so stay tuned to CS-Nation for coverage.[break="Click for changelog"]

• added support for "trickle update", which will allow updates to games to be delivered over time before they are activated.
  
  
• optimizations in steam targeted at reducing cpu and memory load on some systems.
  
  
• progress dialog always shows now during startup.
  
  
• fixed handling of cache fingerprint mismatch on reconnect
  
  
• fixed case which would cause the preloader ignoring errors to send extra messages to the steam servers.
  
  
• fixed bug in steam that would cause cache to be validated too often when steam started. this would cause hard drive thrashing.
  
  
• fixed a potential lockup case and access violation case in steam.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

True to their word on updates every Wednesday, VALVe has released an update to Steam. This update will now fix the "User ID Ticket Error 34" error which numerous users have been receiving when trying to connect to game servers. Like any update, just restart Steam and start downloading this new update. Or if you want, head on over for the entire message and full information.



Note: Once you have updated Steam, go to Settings and click "Logout". Restart Steam and then login, this fixes any remaining "Invalid User Ticket" bugs.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

As is usual at this time of week, Steam has been updated. VALVe says that "this update will not have any direct impact on any games" but there are some interesting changes anyway. Thanks to tolarian for this report.[break="Click for the ChangeLog"]Steam:

» Fixed bug in create account wizard where it would stall if a failure had previously occurred.

» Switch minidump generation back to small memory dumps, instead of full memory dumps.

» Localized content caches now mapped into app dependency list dynamically

» Add progress bar for cache validation



Server Browser:

» Added history tab showing servers most recently connected to

» Added ability to add/remove columns from server lists

» Added secure server & ip address columns (off by default)

» Set bots column to be hidden by default

» Changed location filter control to appear on every page, but disabled when appropriate

» Changed location filter to use '' instead of 'world', to match the other filters

» Double-clicking between column headers in ListPanel now resizes the column to fit the widest text

» Fixed HTML control not laying out properly the first time the scrollbar was made visible



HLDS Update:

» Improved load balancing randomization.

» If InstallRecord.blob is not found, it will verify the current install instead of starting over.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Steam News reports of a very small update to Steam. This fixes a minor problem that only a few number of users have been noticing.

Users who experienced this bug would see the initial progress bar reach 99% and not progress any further.



Users who are currently in this state should download and run this installer in their current Steam directory.

If you happen to be part of the minority that is unfortunately experiencing this problem, you should check out the full details right over here.

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Update: Cliffe reposted a better version of the changelog that explains what the changes mean.



About 6:20 PST, Steam went down for a scheduled maintenance. They are once again back up with a whole slue of bug fixes. The biggest fix was the "game not available" if your system time was too far off. Restart your Steam client to download the updates.[break="cliffe's post"]An update to the Steam client and HLDS update tool has just been released. Steam will update itself automatically when you restart. Here is a list of the changes:



STEAM CLIENT CHANGES / ADDITIONS:

• steam will now generate a recipt when you purchase a product, instead of sending it via e-mail
  
  
• removed email verification
  
  
• all steam error messages are now localized
  
  
• improved offline behavior if no steamui.dll or steam.dll present
  
  
• improved content server responsiveness
  
  
• disabled background preloaders when any game is running
  
  
• preloader checks to see if an item will fit in the cache (improves going offline)
  
  
• improved behavior of content "tickets" (thrown out if system clock more than 4 weeks off)
  
  
• improved loading progress bar time calculation
  
  
• improved startup speed of steam
  
  
• improved responsiveness of user cancel
  
  
• changed legal characters in new account names to only be 'a'-'z', 'a'-'z', '0'-'9', and '_'

HLDS UPDATE TOOL CHANGES / ADDITIONS:

• added "-retry" flag -- auto-retry to get content every 30 seconds

[CSN NewsBot]

Steam Update

Ever since people found out how to backup your cache files, Valve decided to go ahead and release a more polished backup tool with additional support. Also included is the availability of purchasing with more credit cards such as Discover, American Express, and JCB.[break="full news post"]A platform update is available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The changes include:

• Added backup game files feature (right click on game)
  
  
• Added purchase support for American Express, Discover and JCB credit cards