September 1st, 2023 Video

Delta Encoding

https://youtube.com/embed/Hdn9tYv_iLw?autoplay=1&start=518&end=583

Topics

• Technology

Transcript

Steam and epic uses Delta encoding when patching games this is how they've done it since the dawn of time essentially so it's not that they've suddenly changeed the system or anything like that, and then it's like it's not because of that change you're seeing bigger patches like it's it's nothing like that it's always been like that, it's probably just circumstantial if you notice that the patches are big or anything like that, anyways the the way Delta encoding works is that each platform encodes and manages like how the build is distributed over the internet and it attempts to look at what version you have installed and what version is to be downloaded and they only send you the delta or the difference between your local version and the latest version and then locally it will sort of recreate the build using the data from the Delta, this system isn't always perfect as it sometimes can mess up when you when it recreates the build locally this is why it's so important to verify your game files if you run into any weird issues with the game so using Delta encoding reduces the download bandwidth but it also means that it might take longer to unpack and recreate the build locally if it's not installed on an SSD for instance so we don't manage the