Steam is in the process of downloading a 9.3GB update for The Witcher 2. I already had all of the bonus content downloaded, so I am really wondering what this is...

It's the game. Thanks to Steam not really distributing the patches themselves, but rather patched games, that's how it goes sometimes.

Its the "Steam" size, which does not correlate to any actual sizes or download amounts.

It likely sees the pack0.dzip as 1 download, even though its only downloading the parts that changed.

Note, if actually enough of the pack0.dzip changed it might really download the entire file from scratch... i guess that would suck ;p

Incorrect. These forums are the most active for Witcher 2 boards, seeing as the actual forums aren't up (lolwut?)

A lot of people use these forums like the game's forums since they are the most active.

No, it is downloading all 9,381.8MB.

Watching my network traffic monitor and it has been pegged at 1.5MB/sec+ since the Steam download started.

That sucks then, but if it redownloads the entire pack0.dzip, that'd be hilarious waste of time and network resources.

And it looks like every time the pack0.dzip gets a 1MB patch, us Steam users get to download 9GB.

Ugh.

Steam often tends to say something like "Team Fortress 2.... 14%...." when it's just downloading a few MB update rather than the whole game, but it seems to think it's redownloading the whole thing sometimes. It'll go up from 14% to 16% and then 100% in an instant.

I can report the same thing, Steam downloads a 9GB file... not quite sure what to think... seems like its being reported by others all over the net.

Apparently Steam doesn't distribute patches, they instead distribute already patched game files... which in this case includes a 9GB file.

So yes, every time there is a 1MB change to the 9GB pack0.dzip data file, we get to redownload 9GB.

What server are you downloading it on? I can download at 2.0 mb/s but im only getting about 600

I don't see how posting about it here is going to make Steam change how they patch the game. But, sure, whatever floats your boat. :p

yep. there were other games that had to do this as well. some companies did come up with solution though, which was the separate the patched files into small folders that sat outside of the main pack. but because of the compromise in file structure and resource placement, the game performed considerably slower. these are things steam would wish to keep a secret.