Steam Converting to a More Efficient Format ... Again

[Beef36]

Hi,

I was impacted by the last time Steam tried to move Race 07 to the Common folder in September 2012.

http://www.racedepartment.com/forum/threads/steam-race-07-on-gtr-evo-changes-on-01-09-12.55329/

Last weekend (24 August) Steam did it again. When presented with the option to convert Race 07 to the more efficient format, I declined, but meant Steam wouldn't let me play the game.

I had a backup of my files, so I selected yes and as expected Steam moved Race 07 from the username folder to the common folder.

This is where it gets really strange.

When I launched the game, it asks me to download and install the game. After this is completed, I go back to having a small 235mb Race 07 folder in my <username> folder, plus the game in the <common> folder. Upon launching the game (GTR Evolution), it creates a new "Race 07 Install Folder 2" in My Documents and runs the game from the <username> folder, using the "Race 07 Install Folder 2"

Exiting the game and relaunching GTR Evolution, it loads the game from the <common> folder, and uses the original "Race 07" folder in My Documents. I can tell it's loading from the different folders as each has different mods and tracks installed.

This behaviour of first loading the game from the <username> iteration of the game and then subsequent loads from the <commom> folder is consistent when launching Race 07 or GTR Evolution after a PC reboot. I also have the GT Power Pack and Retro Pack, but when launching games from those icons, it consistently loads the <username> and the "Race 07 Install Folder 2" version of the game.

So I effectively have 2 versions of the game installed

I've deleted all of Race 07 twice and reinstalled and same behaviour is exhibited. I would rather have only one install, preferably the <username> folder as that is where the GT Power Pack and Retro Pack are available.

Has anyone else been impacted this month by Steam converted to a more efficient format?


Thanks

 

[Justin Swan]

I have noticed that SRM now sees all tracks and cars as mods but I can live with that as there are no ill effects. I will get everything running then see if I can get XD patched in.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

@Arc Anjil
can you give me a link to the helmet mod ill have a look.
is all your game content now showing in the common folder under race07

 

[Rupe Wilson]

XD works

 

[Warren Dawes]

It now appears that when you validate a a game file for the contents of race 07
it first validates the let say GTR evo then in a second sweep it validates race 07 again. and downloads a few files 42 in my case
if you then go back to validate race 07 it shows there are files that are wrong,
and downloads then a second time.
repeat the procedure again with GTR evo and it alter the files again..
and again repeat race07 and it alters again.
Each time the game will work, it could be a structure thing more than a incorrect file.

Thanks Rupe, it's exactly what I'm experiencing now.
It didn't happen for me prior to the recent "update", hence why I'm dubious about my installation.
It certainly isn't happening with my other Steam games eg. F1 2012 and RRE, which are still validating correctly right now.

I think I'll sit by and watch for a bit to see if Steam are working on fixes.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Why steam has to brake $hit, I'll never know. I paid for Race07+, NOT steam! . But after hours of messing about it's all working again or until They back track and I have to do it all over again lol

 

[Arc Anjil]

@Arc Anjil
can you give me a link to the helmet mod ill have a look.
is all your game content now showing in the common folder under race07

Yeah, everything is working OK now. I thought I moved my old Gamedata folder to another part of my HD, but... IDK. The car and track folders are there, but they're empty - no files!

I just re-ran the RAR files for the cars and tracks and installed them to the Common\race 07 folder. I used my visor DLL file to overwrite the one in the new Teams folder and FRR folder.

Looks OK now, but I sure wish I knew what happened to the files.......

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Hey all (who not yet have it done)
If you install from DVDs, maybe you don't have the game installed. But the files are on your harddrive! So then when you redownload the "whole" games/addons, magically the status bar jumps from 1% to 70-90%!
Maybe useful for slow connections...

 

[Dennis Phelan]

Watch out for the "double folder" extraction!

I have the driver visor mod in the Teams folder and it works, haven't been on track long enough to see if nobug works. Don't forget to rename the visor files to get it to work!

 

[Justin Swan]

I seem to be all OK after the update. If it helps anybody this is what I did.
Removed all local content for Race 07 and all DLC/add ons using the STEAM UI. Copied my MY Documents/Simbin/Race07 folder to desktop (for later use) then deleted the SIMBIN folder from the Documents folder. Then deleted any reference to Race 07 inside the following path Program file (x86)/Steam/steamapps/<username>

Then proceeded to click on install on Race 07 and all DLC/add ons on the Steam UI. When everything was installed, I copied my custom skins, controls, car setups etc from the folder I saved to the desktop. I did NOT copy back ALL of the folder (NOT advised) I only copied back my personal settings and skins etc.

I now have race 07 installed in the common folder and not the <username> folder. I do not have an INSTALL 2 folder anywhere and the game most definitely boots faster than it did before.

I will add, this is DAY 1 who knows what DAY 2 onwards brings lol

 

[Paul Bennett]

Tested all seems okay took out a car in each class, does seem to be running a bit better but I'm no expert

 

[Craig Stevenson]

I did mine today and it seemed to go pretty OK, two minor issues.

It has been a while since I have run Race and when I went to my Steam Library today to do this conversion it was showing as being uninstalled (I'm guessing by Steam in anticipation of this conversion), all the expansion packs were still showing as installed though, clicking on Race 07 said it needed to be installed before playing, it re-installed very quickly and then proceeded to convert itself to the new format, when this was complete I launched the game and allowed it to create a new Profile (using the same name etc), I then exited the game.

I then went back to the Steam Library and ran GTR-E, the message popped up about the conversion which I allowed, after that I ran GTR-E again and simply allowed the game to run, shutting it down once it had successfully.

Back to the Steam Library and I worked my way down all the expansions starting with GTR Power Expansion, this is where I had a minor problem, on every expansion it failed on the first attempt, the message I got was something about a "Timeout", not sure if that was caused by Steam or my ISP but it always completed on the second attempt. After every conversion I ran that Expansion.

At the end of this everything had been moved to the Common folder, including from what I can see all the Mods I had installed and the game seems to be running fine and launching very, very quickly compared to before.

The only real issue I found is that it created a RACE 07 Install 3 folder in My Docs\Simbin and my Skins weren't showing up. I had copied out the Simbin folder before doing the conversion so I deleted Documents\SimBin\RACE 07 then renamed Documents\SimBin\RACE 07 Install 3 to RACE 07 and copied the CustomSkins, CarSetups and ControlSet folders back over and everything is hunky dory again.

 

[Ernie]

Just to quote Martino (Valve) from Steam-forum:

There is a bug in the content layout of RACE 07, file validation always says that a few files need to be updated. We are looking into that.

 

[Dennis Phelan]

do tell

 

[Rupe Wilson]

I told them so
also online files for set up are not working again...
any body get them working yet

 

[Mark Guy]

I can't seem to make a back-up through steam anymore? Does anyone have this issue?

 

[Rupe Wilson]

just tried it and it works for me Mark

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

I can't seem to make a back-up through steam anymore? Does anyone have this issue?

I had the problem yesterday. A second try made it work.
Must be connected to the validation bug. That bites me just now. All Race parts need some megabytes of new files. For whatever reason...

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

Well, i kinda like the new format. Seems to me that this sim now starts up and loads a bit quicker and another cool thing is the ability to delete files, for instance I'm not a fan of the Formula RR cars so after i downloaded the expansion i deleted the vehicle and sound files and kept the Hockenheim tracks the expansion comes with

 

[Mark Guy]

I tried again and my back-up keeps failing, but it fails with COD as well. Will my back-ups in the old format still work with this conversion?

 

[Rupe Wilson]

That sounds more like a steam fault.. Mark
you can of course force steam to reinstall its self
you can delete everything inside the the steam folder apart from the
steamapps folder were all your games sit and the steam application itself that start up steam, you can then fire up steam and it will update reinstall
you will need to fill in all your details user name and password.