This release contains some minor fixes and improvements, and bumps the version to 1.0.0, in preparation for putting Game Pipe on a few digital marketplaces (Amazon, Windows Store, and Itch.io are planned for now.
Despite Valve's recent news that it's going to scrap Greenlight in favor of "Steam Direct", I've been told by my Greenlight contact that they will not be changing their policy on utility software. So sadly, Game Pipe won't be appearing on Steam anytime soon.
Features
- Increased the stream buffer sizes, this further reduces CPU load while transferring files. Thanks @f1ac for pointing this out.
- Removed the annoying popup for new versions, now there's just a small message at the top of the window with a link to the releases page (or you can click ignore to get rid of it).
- Updated the way Game Pipe handles deleted games, now you will be prompted to restart Steam (just as if you had moved the game).
- Improved the functionality of the background program Wingman.exe, and renamed it to GamePipe_Helper.exe. Now, Helper will monitor system activity (and Steam) for a period where no Steam games are running and the system has been idle for 5 minutes, and do an automatic restart of Steam. This helps prevent cases where Steam could start an update on a moved/deleted game before a user bothered to restart it. This is particularly important for folks who don't restart their computer very often.
Bugs
- Add handling of IOException when calling BeginRead() during transfers, which can occur reading corrupt files from the disk (such as a failing hard drive). Now, if reading fails, the file will be queued for a few retries before giving up. If Game Pipe can't copy a file, it will either cancel the transfer or let you know you need to Verify Game Cache (depending on how much of the game failed to transfer). Thanks @opcon for catching this one.
- Added logic to immediately start GamePipe_Helper when Game Pipe starts. There was a race condition here where attempting to connect to helper too soon after it started would foul up the service host (preventing it from accepting incoming connections). Ultimately, this bug would result in nearly always being forced to restart Steam before closing Game Pipe.
Supporting Game Pipe
In preparation for getting Game Pipe out on various markets, I've also setup a Paypal account to accept contributions through. If you enjoy Game Pipe and have some spare change, any contributions are very much appreciated.