File Corruption

[Zig131]

I've always had problems with audiosurf randomly 'slowing down' and then hastily rushing through to catch up with the music. A temporary solution was to pause the game and leave it for a bit but I have to wait until i'm safe as the game continues on slowly (to catch up with music) while paused hitting any greys that may be in front of me.

At first I presumed it must be some background task such as the Zero Configuration Wireless thingy but disabling a load of non-essentials makes no difference.

After reading somewhere that validating the game cache could fix problems I did so. It came up saying that ~132 files were corrupt and would be required. Naturally this really shocked me until I realised that I had deleted the orange box soundtrack for the sake of space. Still that only accounted for ~101 files.

After the download had finished I ran the game to find it had reset to the default windowed mode, I had to manually login and I was presented with the tutorial screen. However overall performance was generally improved (mainly load time after pressing 'play' on the first menu) and I didn't experience slow down... at least for a while. Even so, it wasn't as bad as before.

Next time I came to play I thought I would verify again just to see. ~3 files were corrupted :eek:

This is the case EVERY time I play the game now and it's kinda stupid. I'm sure I can't be the only one as this occurs on both my desktop and my netbook. If anyone can answer any of the following questions I would be grateful
1)How to you find out what files have been re-downloaded
2)How can I reduce or stop corruption of the game cache
3)What permanent solution is there to this problem
Thanks!

[Zig131]

Okay worked out what the files were that were replaced (this time anyway) by listing all files within the Audiosurf folder in order of date modified. There's 9 that were modified at the same time today when steam re-downloaded a load of files that failed to verify (listed below) but steam claims it only downloaded 8 files...

ASR_Asynchronous_LoveSimulator.cgr
ASR_PedroCamacho_DrivingForYourLife.cgr
ASR_Asynchronous_INeverWantTo.cgr
QuickPicks.cgr
LocalScores.cgr
channels.lst
Options.cgr
SavedConstants.cgr
config.ini

[eydeeb]

First you install the game clean or verify the cache. This way you get files that are not corrupt according to the Steam application. However, when you launch the game, it saves login info, graphics settings and things like that into it's own files (listed in your post).

So Audiosurf itself is the one who actually makes your files "corrupt" but on purpose: to save your data. The file corruption here means that your files are different from the ones on Valve's content servers.

So in the case of this game, this is perfectly normal. Solution: don't verify unless the game stops working. In that case, you enter your password again, skip the tutorials and try not to be annoyed by the few popups. It's not that unbearable.

[Zig131]

I thought that might be the case, but the fact is I do see performance degradation over time which is corrected by re-verifying the files. The amount of files that are re-downloaded also fluctuates (with a trend towards more files when I have played for longer) which would not be consistent with ONLY config files bring replaced. Besides, it always remembers my preference for minimal graphics settings and until last reset; my preference for no sounds.

I suppose what you're saying is possible if the game runs better without stats etc but thats just silly and it really shouldn't cause such a performance hit.

Solution: don't verify unless the game stops working. In that case, you enter your password again, skip the tutorials and try not to be annoyed by the few popups. It's not that unbearable.
The game doesn't exactly 'stop working'- slowdowns are only temporary (which would be consistent with a program occasionally running in the background if it weren't for the fact it only starts happening when it has been 10 minutes or so since last reset; from then on it occurs sporadicly). However performance degradation it enough to justify to me a reset. I'm just fishing for an alternative/asking for a fix.