Hi Guys & The Concept of Patching.

[sesune]

Hi guys,

Obviously I am new around here, so I shall introduce myself.

I am Sesune, 19 year old girl from Japan. Now staying in India with my cousin, infact, It's been only 4 days. My cousin has been playing Ryzom since the days of beta I figure. I usually avoided trying out this game to keep its wonders intact, now that I am bored with rest of the online worlds, I thought why not. Since I am now here with my brother maybe I wouldn't have too much problem getting started

First thing I had realized when I got here in India is the connection speed and its costs. I while in Japan I used to have a 100mbps connection, very fast, not too expensive, nice and just dreamy. But here all my cousin had was a 128k cable connection with too many ISP imposed limitations as well. I had been pestering him the minute I got here to get at least a 1mbps connection as I will after all be staying in India for two years the least. But I am out of luck, though he promised me that it will be possible next year *sigh* I'm so a persistent type of person and I cant wait that long so I asked my dad in Japan to buy me a satellite broadband hope it gets here soon ^_~*

I have to say this though, I just realized how much dialup or slow connection users had to cope up with. O well.

About my character & race(not yet created), I would prefer to keep it unmentioned for now until I fully settle in this community *^^* Also its for RP purposes, no worries it will show up on my signature some time soon.

Ok enough about my introduction.

The Concept of Patching (Technical Response Required)

Ryzom's internal patching machinism IS nice, but I wouldn't call it friendly or really that fast. People with fast connections wouldn't probably mind it. But don't you think external patches of executable downloads on a high speed dedicated server be more efficient? The users can pause or resume - efficiently. I know some people will say that the patching is resumeable but assume the system freezes when a ..say 198MB file reaches 99.5%. The next time the user starts they will have to start that file from the start.

This will take a serious toll on slow connection or dialup users as they may even have to let go other internet activities just to download this.

So I was wondering, what exactly is the infrastructure behind the client patching process? I assume:

1) A check for new files
2) The new files are downloaded
3) Check for old files that may need to be replaced, then they are deleted.
4) The new files take their place.
5) All required files list is refreshed
6) ryzom client is relaunched.

I guess... so could I get a response from Nevrax? or anyone that knows how it works. You see what I'm thinking is making external downloadable well programmed .exe patches if nevrax agrees to it. Anyone else think its a good idea? the files too will be hosted on a dedicated server with 200mbps bandwidth (my dad owns several data centers, so its obviously no problem).

So anyone care to voice their suggestions, yes, nos and welcomes? please do!

- Sesune

[karmelit]

Welcome Sesune
I hope you will be able to play and enjoy the experience.

You mention you got high hopes for a satellite broadband, are you sure that will work out ok with online games? I was once among the 30 first persons (private as opposed to corporates) to get one when it was introduced in sweden. But I found myself utterly unable to play online games, not from lack of bandwith... but from the delays - high ping. I would start to move in a game world trying to go through a door, next I found myself trying to run through the wall duh, repeated attempts didn't help.
The signal after all has to travel up to the satellite and back down to the server of your isp.
Be sure of what delays you will experience before running of to order one. I guess you don't worry about the initial cost, neither of the dish and sat modem, seeing you want to put it on your dads bill

[sesune]

Thanks for the warm welcome Karm

Well as per my knowledge a good satellite broadband depends on the range of its band. Personally I have not used a satellite broadband before but yes I have heard some negative comments about them from my mom and few of my friends, saying that there would somewhat 0.25 second delays especially if there are too many interruptions and such.

Well it wouldn't hurt to try, if it turns out to be horrible I may just have to arrange to get me a t1 connection here - but its just a waste for just two years... *sigh*

[odyvek]

Hajimemashite Vekshin Odyssey desu yoroshiku. Latvia kara desu. And thats about all the japanese i can muster without thinking too hard. Welcome to Ryzom Sesune-san. I'm trying to teach myself some japanese so, i'm not very good but trying my best.
Not really sure whats the architecture of patching servers is so i wont even try to say anything about that. Just thought to greet you and to give you a customary *huggle*.

*edit*
I was here first Kibs.

[pugmak]

the only reason you'd need a big bandwidth pipe is for the downloads. The game should run ok on even a 56k dialup. The 125k would do you fine for playing.

The biggest concern in game play connection will be about ping rate and not so much about bandwidth.

[sesune]

Maybe so but umm Ryzom is not friendly with ICMP disabled connections it seems, when it comes to playing, that is. Anyhow now that I am patched up I met up with the so salled famous yubos, they are cute *^^*

[acridiel]

Anyways. Welcome to Ayts, new, nice Girl from Japan, currently residing in India....
Maaan, we´re truly international now

Greetings from Germany

Acridiel

[sesune]

Thanks acridiel, and of course the community is truly international *^^* you see SoR has good potential. I am amazed that such a small company as nevrax can do this much actually

And love your site acridiel, its great to see so many player made content together.

[sx608]

Greetings Sesune ^_^

I'm not even going to comment on the technyfull stuff, cos I am just completly hopeless with anything more advanced then a screwdriver :P

I do however wish you a happy stay on Atys, may you enjoy all it's lovely wonders ^_^

*hugs from lil me*

[kaetemi]

The client patching is done by downloading a patch delta, then applying it and then downloading the next ones. On slow connections this can take some time, indeed. It would have been better if it started to download the next one, while it was still applying the other one.
However, it shouldn't be too hard to write your own patching system (if you have some programming skills), since most of the patching process is open source, afaik.