How to prepare steam to install Arma3 on your ssd

[johncage 30]

does steam feature binary patching now or are they still stuck in the stone age?

[tonygrunt 10]

does steam feature binary patching now or are they still stuck in the stone age?

If you mean differential patching to reduce download size then yes, for all new games. Some old games still on the old content system still use the update via downloading whole files.

[kernriver 4]

May be a little bit offtopic, but I have a question:

How do you activate BIstore key on Steam?

[roberthammer 582]

May be a little bit offtopic, but I have a question:

How do you activate BIstore key on Steam?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5414-TFBN-1352 ;)

[kernriver 4]

Thanks, RH. :)

[CHB68 10]

Can anyone see the ARMA 3 for pre-purchase on Steam? I'm looking for and not in the Steam games list, can anyone tell me anything about this?.

Yes, this is really strange. No information, no advertising, no reservation....nothing. Very unusual for a Steam release and an interesting way to promote a new game.

[kemo 10]

aww only 14gb left, i hope it's enough for arma 3 alpha.

Alpha needs 20 Gigs of freespace while full version will require 25 Gigs according to the official requirements on http://arma3.com/buy

EDIT: well, minimum is 10Gigs / 15 Gigs respectively.

[Nicholas 5]

To those who are unsure of how to activate ArmA III with Steam, here's a screen snippet of where to add ArmA III to Steam.

[kernriver 4]

Could someone please briefly explain how to set up Steam folder on another drive?

Thank you.

[Hud Dorph 22]

Could someone please briefly explain how to set up Steam folder on another drive?

Thank you.

Look at first post

[kernriver 4]

Thanks, Dorph.

I've actually done that, and then tried to install Serious Sam 2, but I guess that game doesn't support it, so I was confused.

It works with Arma 3 though.

Thanks again. :)

[chortles 263]

I installed Steam on an SSD at C:\Games\Steam, then I created a folder on the storage drive for non-Arma games at D:\Games\SteamLibrary which I added to my Steam Library Folders (View -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud -> Steam Library Folders from non-Big Picture Mode view). As such when I download/install a game the install prompt asks me to "choose location for install" with the choices being "Install under C:\Games\Steam" and ""Install under D:\Games\SteamLibrary"; I chose the former for the Arma 3 alpha and the latter for everything else, and I find this arrangement very neat, clean, and organized!

[andersson 285]

Hi,

As a new steam user I was momentarily quite agitated that I couldn't define my own installation folder for Arma3. I installed steam on a hdd raid I have, but I want arma3 installed on my SSD.

After some googling I found this program, steammover: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

With this simple program it's possible to move a steam game to whatever folder/hd you wish, so now I can have my less demanding older games on the raid and arma3 on its dedicated SSD.

It's not about arma3, but as we are forced to use steam this program might come in handy. It's very strange that this simple feature is not in Steam..

If there's a dedicated steam thread on this forum feel free to move this there. I could only find the discussion about steam, but I figured this didn't fit there.

[chortles 263]

Hi,

As a new steam user I was momentarily quite agitated that I couldn't define my own installation folder for Arma3. I installed steam on a hdd raid I have, but I want arma3 installed on my SSD.

After some googling I found this program, steammover: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

With this simple program it's possible to move a steam game to whatever folder/hd you wish, so now I can have my less demanding older games on the raid and arma3 on its dedicated SSD.

It's not about arma3, but as we are forced to use steam this program might come in handy. It's very strange that this simple feature is not in Steam..

If there's a dedicated steam thread on this forum feel free to move this there. I could only find the discussion about steam, but I figured this didn't fit there.

You're speaking of a past implementation... is your Steam client up to date? Steam Mover is no longer needed to install Arma 3 onto an SSD... though to be honest the simplest answer if you're new would be "install Steam itself onto the SSD as well".

[andersson 285]

Ok, I obviously missed this thread... After reading this thread I see it's possible to install on another location in steam app now. BUT when I activated my arma3 product it downloaded it without asking where I want to install it.

Do I have to copy the steam folders to another location before downloading, or can I do it now and then use steam to move it?

This is probably simple stuff, but it's news to me and I haven't got a choice yet from the steam app to choose folder to install arma3 into...

edit: I installed steam for avp classic 2000. Back then I installed it where it is today and I have only used it to start avp classic until today. I do not want steam on my ssd.

So how do I move my arma3 installation using steam app? Right now arma3 is in R:/Games/steam/steamapps/common/arma3, I want it into G:/arma3 ?

Edited March 6, 2013 by andersson

[Mack. 59]

I've already downloaded and installed Arma 3 and I now want to move to an SSD.

Is it possible to do it in steam quickly without downloading again?

[chortles 263]

I just tested things by moving an already-installed Shadow Warrior Classic (1997) from my HDD to my SSD where Arma 3 was already installed, so here goes:

My SSD has Arma 3 installed at C:\Games\SteamApps\common\Arma 3 ; the Steam client and my games in general are installed on the HDD at D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\ and then the corresponding subfolder. In this case, I moved the Shadow Warrior Original folder to the corresponding common folder (from D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\ to C:\Games\SteamApps\common\) and moved its corresponding Steam application file (extension is .acf or .ncf) to the corresponding folder (from D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ to C:\Games\SteamApps\). As both folders were already in use by Steam, the Steam client seemed to auto-detect the moved Shadow Warrior Classic installation and I had no apparent issue attempting to run it.

Hint: If you're not sure which .acf corresponds to which game, go to a game's Steam Storefront page and the URL portion following "/app/" is the number to look for in the .acf file name. For example, Arma 3's Steam Storefront URL is "http://store.steampowered.com/app/107410/", so in appmanifest_107410.acf is the file to move.

In order to have the choice of where to install a game when you download it, you have to create/designate that second Steam Library folder (the one on my SSD) before attempting the download.

EDIT: My second test was to download and install Cogs to another folder created just for this testing (D:\Games\SteamLibrary), closing the Steam client, and then moving the Cog installation (the Cogs folder and appmanifest_26500.acf) over to their corresponding locations within D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ and then reopening the Steam client... the move appears to have worked without a hitch as well.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Chortles

[tonygrunt 10]

My SSD has Arma 3 installed at C:\Games\SteamApps\common\Arma 3 ; the Steam client and my games in general are installed on the HDD at D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\ and then the corresponding subfolder. In this case, I moved the Shadow Warrior Original folder to the corresponding common folder (from D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\ to C:\Games\SteamApps\common\) and moved its corresponding Steam application file (extension is .acf or .ncf) to the corresponding folder (from D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ to C:\Games\SteamApps\). As both folders were already in use by Steam, the Steam client seemed to auto-detect the moved Shadow Warrior Classic installation and I had no apparent issue attempting to run it.

If a game is still using .ncf as a Steam application file, it isn't on the new content system, only games using .acf can be installed in other folders.

You also might have problems if you move .acf files. Inside them, most of the time, there are paths and if you move them these are not updated, they would be still pointing at the previous folder. Paths also inside config.vdf under ".\Steam\config\" won't be updated. I have seen problems while moving games where if you checked properties under steam, the game would appear to be still on the previous drive.

I prefer now to copy the game to its new location, delete local content with steam and install the game at the new location. It should discover the files and it will update the config files with the new path.