If you already had access to a downloaded Steam version of the game, you could do this, but it doesn't always work with other versions of games. To be certain, stop the download, right click on the game and open properties, and delete all local content (after making sure you have your two 1.5GB files somewhere else). Then put the files back in the Dark Souls folder (you may have to recreate it, so write the exact folder name down somewhere). Now tell Steam to download it again. There is a step in the download where it checks for existing data. If your files will work with Steam, it will detect them now. Otherwise, it sounds like you're out of luck.
Well, no. You just forgot to wait.
Garry's Mod downloads all the updates before decompressing new workshop files downloaded through Steam.
When you start Garry's Mod, it does the following:
- Check for any updates on existing addons.
- Mount all addons that does not have an update.
- Download all the updated files for addons that are unmounted (needs updating).
- Mount all addons that have been updated.
- Check Steam for any downloaded addons.
- Extract these downloaded addons.
- Mount them.
As you know, when subscribing to an addon from the Garry's Mod Workshop (and not through the in-game addons menu), Steam automatically downloads the files (compressed in LZMA format), which sit somewhere inside your Steam folder.
When you boot up Garry's Mod, it follows the list of procedures as listed above. It checks for any updates to existing addons, and then mount them. Then, it decompresses new addons (downloaded via Steam) and mounts them too.
The cause of your problem is because you have so many (about 1,268 addons), and that there are many updates, you're not waiting for them to complete, thus stopping the update process before the point where it unpacks the new addons (that are downloaded through Steam), which happens after all updates are finished.
All you had to do is wait!
Answering your questions:
- When Steam downloads an item from the workshop, where is it stored? In the addons folder or elsewhere?
They are stored in the workshop folder; <Steam Library Directory>\workshop\4000\<file id>\....
- Why is Garry's Mod downloading my addons again? (And is it downloading it twice or only updates?) I've noticed that both steps involve using a lot of bandwidth...
It isn't. It is merely updating out-of-date addons that have been currently installed.
As for the extraction stage, it doesn't use any Internet usage.. It's not like you can download 400MB in 3 seconds with Aussie Internet speeds?
- If the addons downloaded by Steam are stored elsewhere, is there any way to make Garry's Mod copy-paste instead of downloading them again (if it is doing that)?
You don't need to do this. See your question 1.
Best Answer
The bar at the bottom represents the download progress, which is measured simply in amount downloaded vs. total amount to download, both in bytes.
The bar for the individual games represents patching progress, measured in patch changes applied to the game files.
The two bars may progress in a different way:
There may be many small changes in an update. These small changes can be easy to compress, thus having a tiny effect on the download bar while accounting for most of the patching progress.
Combined with new, larger files which will weigh much more on the download bar than on the patching bar, you get a discrepancy.
In your specific case, I imagine the "many small differences"-bit was downloaded first, representing most of the changes needing to be made, before larger, single-change files (new content?) were added.