Allow private models, or prevent unlisted models from showing up in tab

Hello!

I absolutely love the workshop feature, but the fact that you can’t make models private is very disappointing for me. I’d love to keep the stuff I make myself to myself. This allows us to keep exclusivity :slight_smile:

If you set it to private, it doesn’t show up for others. Unlisted is the closest we can get to making it hidden currently, but people can still nab it in-game. The least that could be done is making unlisted models not show up when clicking someone’s profile in the tab list.

Thank you!

For Steam Workshop, models need to be public to be downloaded and displayed by others.

If a model is listed as Friends Only, only your friends are able to download the model and display it, but no one else will be able to see it.

This is a limitation with Steam Workshop. In addition, the second someone downloads the model to view it, they can theoretically get all the files they need regardless of the privacy setting, as they physically need to have the file in order to display it.

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It would still greatly improve the ability to keep it from others by having it hidden in the in-game profile menu. There’s no need to show an unlisted item there really, as it’s unlisted.

By hiding the model, it would be impossible for players to block a model if they wished to do so.

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Wouldn’t it be possible to just simply remove these buttons if they are unlisted? You can still block the item, and view what it is, but you can’t use it.
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By showing the profile, it wouldn’t really be unlisted anymore. There’s nothing stopping a player at that point from going to the item page for the Steam Workshop model, and downloading the model manually.

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I mean, showing the model isn’t even necessary, just a block player model button seems sufficient.

If you have it be the same layout, but with 0 interactivity (you can’t click the name to go to the page anymore either), there’s no way to find it. You can’t search it by name because it’s unlisted, and there’s no indication as to what the ID is or anything.

You would want to display the profile of the item, so that the user knows the model they are blocking is the correct model, and that they didn’t accidently click the wrong profile. On top of this, you would want the Steam Workshop page to be clickable, so that a user could report a inappropriate/rule violating workshop model.

In addition, to block the model, the ID is required so the client would know not to display the workshop model, and that would be stored in a config file which the user could simply use to get the ID.

The model would also be stored in every user who encountered it’s workshop cache as well, and while the cache is organized by ID (so it would take a while to identify which model is which), it’s not impossible for someone to obtain the files they need.

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I don’t mind it being not literally impossible in any way shape or form, but if it’s a challenging way to get it it’s a lot harder for someone to go “haha that’s cute let me use it now”.

It’d already be a huge improvement in my book if that heart button was just gone for unlisted models.

This would be highly appreciated by people spending many many hours on the task of learning to create and creating their own model or spending (possibly) hundreds of dollars on a custom model, just to have someone press a single button in-game because they literally can’t do anything about it being that easy.

And yes of course there’s people that want to provide for the community and I appreciate that, but not everyone wants it to be easily accessible by the public. The unlisted feature is pretty pointless if it just shows up.

To my knowledge, even if the heart was removed, a user could still add a model to their favorites via the Steam Workshop page for the item itself.

This all comes down to being limited by how Steam Workshop operates. Steam Workshop isn’t build for having models and addons that only specific people can use.

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I completely understand that, and I doubt Valve will ever change that, but now all I am asking for is making the process of using it a little more challenging for unlisted models.

Isn’t there a way to detect if the player is trying to load an unlisted model that isn’t theirs?
Couldn’t it be hidden (unlisted, if you will) from their subscriptions/favorites tab in-game? I’m sure you could remove those from the list.

That would be absolutely perfect.

While I understand the idea of adding “inconveniences” to obtaining unlisted models, the workshop isn’t setup nor intended for models that are only locked to one Steam Account. Due to the nature of how it works, there’s always going to be a way for someone to get the model if they really want it.

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But you can, completely in your own code, remove the items that are unlisted and not your own from the model list. It’d make it physically impossible for someone to use it and you don’t have to rely on the workshop.

It wouldn’t make it physically impossible though. The item would exist in their favorites on Steam, where the model can be downloaded manually.

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It can be downloaded, but not used in-game, if they want to go through the trouble of uploading it themselves it’s stealing in the first place.

Why do you want the devs to re-write Steam for your need for exclusivity?

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Just wanted to pitch in to say that even if private models were possible, I don’t think they’d be healthy for the game. Other than backer items, there is not a single feature or item in the game that is inaccessible, so I feel that having exclusive Workshop models would be very out of place.

I understand the desire to have some unique model but, in my opinion, TU isn’t the kind of game for that.

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I feel like private models goes against the general spirit of both modding and and the workshop. I’m probably just old and from a different era of modding but it’s just weird to me that this would be a wanted feature.

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Code to add (educated guess, it’s very unlikely that it’s much more)
if (item.visibility == Visibility.UNLISTED && item.creator.id != player.id) continue;

I don’t think you can really call that “re-writing Steam”.

It’s quite a small effort and it would benefit people. If you want to support the community then you don’t make it unlisted, it’s as simple as that. Why would you not let that decision to the creator of the item?

I don’t agree with this at all. This goes against the spirit of Workshop.
I can’t possibly think of a single benefit this would have on the community other than pleasing a few people who want to have unique models for themselves.

I’m glad this is not a thing.

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