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Over the xmas break, I finally got around to it...
HerculesSAS
Member Posts: 1,272
I had started a thread in the MO forums about "how to create a patcher", detailing a simple method that could be used to fix the patching situation that SV is using for MO. Since I was in the process of re-learning (I am a bit rusty) .NET, I took about 4 days to create a custom patching application that does everything I had mentioned, and it's templated so you can customize the look and feel of it through XML. At some point when it's completed (it's not 100% yet, lots of bugs I have but the basic idea works), I'll probably sell it to whomever needs a custom patcher for their game or software.
Here are the features, and if I can do it myself as an occasional programmer in 4 days (good learning lesson though), then it's rather sad what MO has now.
- Torrent support, FTP, or WWW support for downloading (able to be enabled/disabled as needed)
- Wizard interface for software developers to 'create a package' (does a file compare on a directory, spits out changed files into XML, and ZIPs them for deployment/distribution -- this part is buggy and needs more work)
- Fully customizable interface through XML which allows you to change placement of buttons, change backgrounds, and customize the interface entirely. The screenshot below is a mimic of WOW's interface with no graphics (I'm not an artist), but could be changed to match Darkfall's, or whatever else. (work is needed here for the ability to have close/maximize buttons be graphical rather than forms based)
- Ability to view seeders/peers.
- Supports multiple formats of distribution, whether it be downloading all files changed, downloading an entire client, downloading a ZIP and extracting to directory, and also supports versioning through the registry and/or XML -- just list the key location in XML, or add a file to check the build version on the file itself.
- Multiple language support through variables -- download patches using {LANG} variable to allow for localization.
That's about it -- like I said it's buggy and rough around the edges -- and to boot, I'm building it in .NET 4.0 beta (so it won't be finalized for a while) in an effort to learn the new framework, provide new utility for users, and ultimately I can sell it when the time comes along. It will probably grow as I think of more ideas to put into it, but right now I'm trying to fix up the problems I have, like the patch creator (it's shoddy cuz of the recursion, and I know it!), and I also want to create a UI 'editor' so you aren't trying to figure out pixel placement in XML because it's going to take too damned long. The GUI is loaded after the XML downloads off a server, so you can change the look and feel of the patcher on the fly, and since the XML has encoded variables, it's not simple for an average user to go mess around with it.
A few components I used for building this app, so I didn't have to recreate the wheel and in the case of the torrent support -- it's beyond my skill level.
Here's a screenie in the development environment.
I'm hoping to have it ready in a few months time for purchase, so you can ask SV to line up some cash now 
Comments
The patcher actually works as intended these days...but you wouldn't know as you were banned like three patches ago.
Well...You'll always have Age of Conan to go back to *snicker*
What MO needs is a patcher that only updates the data in the file that were changed, not the entire file. This to cut down the enormous size of the patches.
There's software that does that already -- and you can launch an executable from my patcher too, so if that's the way you want to distribute then that works too. To send each file with only the bytes that have changed over the wire one by one is actually really inefficient, sending a single bundle is easier, because you can get it compressed for one, and secondly it's easier to use for "resume" operations.
Plus the one by one won't help with a P2P distribution.
Oh so the reason that it takes days to patch is because their servers are overloaded with the 10's of thousands of people trying to download the patches? The whole torrent downloads in less then an hour, last time I tried the patcher it still wasn't done after 2 days. If that is your version of working then I will pass.
ROFLMAO, nice try, BTW get that September shipment yet??? LOL
Herc, I don't know why you waste your time here to be honest. The sycophants don't care about the facts and truth that you are writing, they only want to live on what Lord Matts says....sorta brings back memories of the sycophantic fawnbois and Lord Tacos doesn't it?
"If you were as smart as you think you are, you would realize that you are an idiot"
Oh so the reason that it takes days to patch is because their servers are overloaded with the 10's of thousands of people trying to download the patches? The whole torrent downloads in less then an hour, last time I tried the patcher it still wasn't done after 2 days. If that is your version of working then I will pass.
ROFLMAO, nice try, BTW get that September shipment yet??? LOL
Herc, I don't know why you waste your time here to be honest. The sycophants don't care about the facts and truth that you are writing, they only want to live on what Lord Matts says....sorta brings back memories of the sycophantic fawnbois and Lord Tacos doesn't it?
I spent the cash, so I'm still following along until release. Much as they dislike it, I could really care less.
Oh so the reason that it takes days to patch is because their servers are overloaded with the 10's of thousands of people trying to download the patches? The whole torrent downloads in less then an hour, last time I tried the patcher it still wasn't done after 2 days. If that is your version of working then I will pass.
ROFLMAO, nice try, BTW get that September shipment yet??? LOL
Herc, I don't know why you waste your time here to be honest. The sycophants don't care about the facts and truth that you are writing, they only want to live on what Lord Matts says....sorta brings back memories of the sycophantic fawnbois and Lord Tacos doesn't it?
I spent the cash, so I'm still following along until release. Much as they dislike it, I could really care less.
Well at this rate you will have comedic posts to read for the next several years, or until the inexperienced CEO and his daddy make off with all the assets.
"If you were as smart as you think you are, you would realize that you are an idiot"
I spent the cash, so I'm still following along until release. Much as they dislike it, I could really care less.
Darkfall will take you back. I doubt you would even recognize as it has changed so much.