Since I've switched to linux, a lot of games have been starting doing shader pre-caching updates regularly. Might be that.
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For me, the Vulcan shader pre-caching is different. It is a pop up with a percentage indicator. This is a regular steam update like it used to be on windows.
I get those popups too at times, but they are not what I am referring to. The shader pre-chaching updates I mentioned work in the same way you described your phenomenon, through the regular update menu.
Interesting. I get the vulcan shader render popups every single time, on all games. But only NMS will dowonload updates like this through steam
Sometimes you see a little (i) icon besides the download item. If you hover over it you can see what Steam downloads
I think it's just the game, because I also run Linux and NMS is the only game that does this. No other game that I can think of is routinely downloading relatively large updates like this.