New PR Installer. (beta)

[Oddsodz]

Well I think there should be a better way to install PR apart from downloading 2 installer files. So I have made one.

I Bring you the "PR Downloader"

A lot of new PR gamers run into the issue of only downloading the "Core installer" and forget or miss the part about the "Maps installer". So I have made a "All in one" downloader.

This has been tested on Windows Vista Ult x64 only. But if it works on that. Well I am sure it will work almost anywhere else.

http://www.oddsodz.com/downloads/prdown ... loader.exe

Now remember. This is a beta and is in no way a official R-DEV release. Speeds of the download will be about 200KB only. That is the limit I have in place on my web server (I Need speed for my web site stuff also).

Now if the DEV team pick up on this and like it. I Will hand over all code and info needed to place in the full hands of the DEV team.

I Hope this helps you guys out.

Oddsodz

[Rudd]

excellent, works on vista 32 here.

Great work mate, even looks nice

[Scot]

Very nice, worked on Vista 32 no problems, obviously didn't download the whole file though(stupid download limit) but looked and worked well.

[Robbi]

nice mate, good work

[.blend]

Theres a reason y they split the download into two files.

[Rudd]

those of us without download limits can ignore those reasons?

[Scot]

Theres a reason y they split the download into two files.

Well considering this just put the files together, it wouldn't make a difference, because you would have to download both files to play normal PR anyway.

[Oddsodz]

There are many reasons why the Normal installers are in 2 parts. If I remember rightly, The main one was on older XP 32 bit OS. You could not have a 2Gigz (or was it 1Gig?) file in data size. This was to do with "FAT16/FAT32" and and "NTFS" filing table systems. Also if there was a "timeout" with downloading, You would have to download the whole thing all over again.

My PRDownload gets around all this. Now if you have a "timeout" with my Installer, You just restart it and it will continue from where it left off. Torrent Hashing is a wonderful thing. So you don't have to go and download the whole lot from scratch. My only draw back right now is downloading speeds. If I had the money. I Could hook it up to a faster bandwidth seed box and so the speeds would be faster. One thing I do know. This will be a super thing to have this going on 0.85 release day. AS it uses a Torrent backbone. The more users downloading it, The faster it would become. It could max out your own download speed.

[Scot]

There are many reasons why the Normal installers are in 2 parts. If I remember rightly, The main one was on older XP 32 bit OS. You could not have a 2Gigz (or was it 1Gig?) file in data size. This was to do with "FAT16/FAT32" and and "NTFS" filing table systems. Also if there was a "timeout" with downloading, You would have to download the whole thing all over again.

My PRDownload gets around all this. Now if you have a "timeout" with my Installer, You just restart it and it will continue from where it left off. Torrent Hashing is a wonderful thing. So you don't have to go and download the whole lot from scratch. My only draw back right now is downloading speeds. If I had the money. I Could hook it up to a faster bandwidth seed box and so the speeds would be faster. One thing I do know. This will be a super thing to have this going on 0.85 release day. AS it uses a Torrent backbone. The more users downloading it, The faster it would become. It could max out your own download speed.

Also for people who don't know much about torrents, and want faster downloads, this makes it a lot easier. +1 for this.

[Oddsodz]

Also. This is NOT going to replace to current installers. Why. Well I have not come up with a way to back the installer up to say a DVD or something like that. If you used my "PRDownloader" to install PR and you uninstall PR you would have to download the whole thing again to install and play PR again. But I am working/thinking on how to get around that. I Might try and build a "Backup/burn to Disk" utility. Not sure how that will go yet. Will have to think hard about it. And do some real good googleing.

[Oddsodz]

Any words from an [R-Dev]? Go on. Tell me you like it

[.blend]

I dont rly see the advantage of this. One might as well just download the two seperate installers via torrent. Since u'd have to first put together your special installer, it'd be a long wait til you release it.
The only thing missing from the installaton routine is a way to patch changed files instead of having to download the whole thing again.

[Oddsodz]

No not really. If a new patch was to come out. I would just update the torrent and tell you all to run it again. Torrent hashing would take care of the rest. The advantage is the fact that you only have to download one installer. This is really more for the new PR player. As if you was to search the forums, I Am sure you will fine posts from new players saying they "Can't join Servers". The Answer is that they have forgot or missed the part about downloading the "MAPS" install as well as the "Core" install. For none PR vets, It can be confusing for them. Most of the public are used to just downloading and install "One" file. Just look at what you have to do for the "Single Player PR" mod. For that you have to download and install 4 (last count) files just to get that to work. With my system. You only download one file/installer. And that's it. And you don't have to worry about your interwebz getting knocked off line, interrupted, disconnected and having to download the whole thing again. Think about it. Your Downloading the 0.85 "Core and you are at 99% of the 1.2Gigz (guessing) file. Then somebody in your house pulls out the modem/internet. You will have to start all over again (if you are not using a download manager witch most people don't). My system takes care of all that. You go off-line during downloading. No problem. Just rerun and it pick up where it left off.

The wait time for me to redo my installer for 0.85 is 5 minutes to make the needed changes, and about 24 hours to upload to my seed box. Now. If I was to get the final 0.85 update a day before release day. I Could have it ready on release day. Or if the Devs was to work with me on this. I Would tell them hwo to code the Torrent and have them seed it on there own seed box.

[Oddsodz]

You may want to add the option of D/Ling SP to this too, and stuff for the editor. If you had it all in one place it would be VERY convenient. But, you would need to be ready to debug across multiple OSes each release cycle to make sure it all works well (ie, auto patch features).

Interesting idea. I Can make a version for PR-SP easy. Adding them to the same installer will be tricky. That will be something I may looking into latter if this is picked up by the DEV's. But I my self don't have the all that much bandwidth on my own seed box. And right now I am just going to Stay with PR it self.