While logging into test i noticed....

[Aneova]

<p><img src="http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee308/Aneova/whatthe.jpg" /></p><p>so... where'd the little dragon come from? LOL</p>

[Rothgar]

<p>It's a secret!  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Actually you can read a little more about it on Autenil's blog.  We have a nice change coming soon for the client.</p><p><a href="http://kriegshauser.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://kriegshauser.blogspot.com/</a></p>

[Quicksilver74]

<p>I hope this is done with great care.   This was one of the major things that made Freerealms virtually unplayable for me, all the constant downloading anytime I wanted to walk 5 feet. </p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Crabbok@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I hope this is done with great care.   This was one of the major things that made Freerealms virtually unplayable for me, all the constant downloading anytime I wanted to walk 5 feet. </p></blockquote><p>There's no "constant downloading".  Its like patching on the fly.  Once you have the file it'll never download it again.</p>

[Sarriss]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Crabbok@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I hope this is done with great care.   This was one of the major things that made Freerealms virtually unplayable for me, all the constant downloading anytime I wanted to walk 5 feet. </p></blockquote><p>There's no "constant downloading".  Its like patching on the fly.  Once you have the file it'll never download it again.</p></blockquote><p>unless it's changed, right?</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Me personally I prefer the old school "download everything ahead of time" way of patching, but I can see how this style of downloading would be beneficial.</p><p>I assume that players will be given the choice of "on the fly" downloading and "download everything" downloading?</p><p>The last thing I want to do is hold up my guild's raid because I don't have the file, and I have to wait for it to load and download.</p>

[Landiin]

yea, I'ed rather download it all at once vs being lagged out when entering a new zone causing every one to have to wait if someone in the group has a slow connection..

[Macross_JR]

<p>yep, d/l first then play, not play, pause.........., play, pause........</p>

[Aneova]

<p>I already lag out myself as is so chances are i won't know the difference <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Give it a whirl see how it does, that's what test is for after all.</p>

[Neskonlith]

<p><cite>Aneova@Kithicor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Give it a whirl see how it does, that's what test is for after all.</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Good advice!</span></p><p><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/49869fe8223507d7223db3451e5321aa.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Autenil]

<p>Hi guys,</p><p>Glad to see some feedback on this.</p><p>The main driving force behind this is to get more people into the trial and eventually into the game.  However, the assets for the entire game are offered through this method, so the capability is definitely there to play the entire game using the streaming method.  This will likely be an option, though we're working out the details with the team that handles launchpad and Station Launcher.</p><p>An interesting benefit of this streaming system is that it can work as a fallback for the normal patching system for everyone.  Say for instance that you downloaded the full game normally but didn't download the optional Voice Over packages.  With the streaming system, you'll get the Voice Overs anyways since those will be streamed and everything else is already downloaded.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Me personally I prefer the old school "download everything ahead of time" way of patching, but I can see how this style of downloading would be beneficial.</p><p>I assume that players will be given the choice of "on the fly" downloading and "download everything" downloading?</p><p>The last thing I want to do is hold up my guild's raid because I don't have the file, and I have to wait for it to load and download.</p></blockquote><p>I'd encourage you to hold judgment until you see it in action.  The system works by streaming individual resources to your client, not entire pak files or large chunks of resources.  Its very fast and there's a good chance that you wouldn't notice much difference in zoning times unless you literally installed the client from scratch and have never been in a zone before.</p><p>The downside to patching on the frontend is that you're waiting on files for zones you may never even go back to or armor sets that you might not see in the game for several days.  The streaming client allows those resources to be fetched on demand.  By breaking it up like this, the downloads are very fast.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Once streaming is up on Test, I'll definitely be testing it.</p>

[Quicksilver74]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There's no "constant downloading".  Its like patching on the fly.  Once you have the file it'll never download it again.</p></blockquote><p>I like this part.  See, the good thing about just downloading EVERYTHING, is that you can let it run overnight, or while you are at work, essentially making the entire download process transparent to you.   This is especially important to me because I'm a sneaky employee and play the game while at work, and our network connection there is pretty slow. </p><p>   But so long as once you have it, you won't have to re-download it again (unless it changes), then I think it will be an acceptable change in my opinion, and if indeed it helps bring in more players, I'm all for it.  The new Halas Trial is probably going to be really good since you guys seem to be focussing ALOT of effort into bringing in more players. </p>

[Mynervia]

<p><cite>Autenil wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>An interesting benefit of this streaming system is that it can work as a fallback for the normal patching system for everyone. Say for instance that you downloaded the full game normally but didn't download the optional Voice Over packages. With the streaming system, you'll get the Voice Overs anyways since those will be streamed and everything else is already downloaded.</p></blockquote><p>Is there any way the on-the-fly could still adhere to the patcher's optional content settings? I've got the optional Voice Over packages deselected because I dislike audible NPCs in general, so the "enhancement" tp deliver the Voice Overs anyway would be a negative for me.</p><p>(there is the NPC voice volume slider, but there are some useful NPC vocalizations, and the fewer 'optional voice overs' around the less I have to juggle that slider between 'minimal' and 'audible' as I run around the world)</p>

[brammator]

<p>huh?  I think BITS system is old news?  or have you drop it for something similar?</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>brammator wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>huh?  I think BITS system is old news?  or have you drop it for something similar?</p></blockquote><p>While it's going to be using background downloading, I do not think it's not based on the original BITS system (Which was downright terrible).</p><p>They seem to be coding up their own background fetching system, which should fetch invididual resources as they're needed (instead of entire files), or at least that's my interpretation of what they've said.</p>

[brammator]

<p>Well, nice to hear that, especially if it moves towards controllable p2p system.  Many players here in post-sovjet space having slow and high-priced outer internet connection, along with fast and free of charge local traffic.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>I see the dragon on the default UI.</p><p>Is the streaming download system now enabled on Test?</p>

[Ventisly]

<p>One of my concerns is that LoN patches tend to get pushed a lot closer towards the end of the US day when most folks are logged in and doing instances or raids.  Is this new system going to force the LoN updates through while you are online?  The LoN updates do tend to be a bit large for the speed of some folks' connections.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Gaktar@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>One of my concerns is that LoN patches tend to get pushed a lot closer towards the end of the US day when most folks are logged in and doing instances or raids.  Is this new system going to force the LoN updates through while you are online?  The LoN updates do tend to be a bit large for the speed of some folks' connections.</p></blockquote><p>No.  LoN updates will probably be patched separately from the launcher.  Either way, they definitely won't stream down during gameplay.</p>

[Ventisly]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>No.  LoN updates will probably be patched separately from the launcher.  Either way, they definitely won't stream down during gameplay.</p></blockquote><p>Sounds good then.  Go go online patcher, form of baby dragon! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I see the dragon on the default UI.</p><p>Is the streaming download system now enabled on Test?</p></blockquote><p>No. It's just a UI resource that they put in ahead of time. The streaming download is supposted to go in with the new trial and New Halas/Frostfang, which would be February. So it would likely only get to test in December or January 2010, unless they finish the system well early.</p>

[Enica]

<p>I play on test several days a week and I've never seen a dragon.  Is this something that has to be turned on?</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>Enica@Blackburrow wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I play on test several days a week and I've never seen a dragon.  Is this something that has to be turned on?</p></blockquote><p>No. When first logging on, you see more windows than you normall have up -- it's just stuff in the background as the game loads. If you have a full-screen zoning window (which the OP does not seem to have, obviously) it obscures all that so you don't notice it.</p>

[Gargamel]

<p>I see it being great to get new players in faster, but I also think it would be helpful to explain to new users that they have an option.</p><p>Maybe something like if streaming is on, put something in the welcome screen, or in the MOTD like "If you are enjoying everquest and plan to keep playing you can set it to download all game files overnight and speed up loading by clicking on blah blah blah"</p><p>I see the case where someone tries the game some saturday afternoon... likes it enough to buy it that day, but would rather let it patch over night sunday and while he is at work on monday, rather than slow down while he is trying to do some questing monday night.</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>Gargamel wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I see it being great to get new players in faster, but I also think it would be helpful to explain to new users that they have an option.</p><p>Maybe something like if streaming is on, put something in the welcome screen, or in the MOTD like "If you are enjoying everquest and plan to keep playing you can set it to download all game files overnight and speed up loading by clicking on blah blah blah"</p><p>I see the case where someone tries the game some saturday afternoon... likes it enough to buy it that day, but would rather let it patch over night sunday and while he is at work on monday,<strong> rather than slow down while he is trying to do some questing monday night</strong>.</p></blockquote><p>If the system works like they want it to, there will be *no* slow downs. It's plenty doable. The worst case scenario I can think of would be someone logging in next to you in armor you don't have textures downloaded for - the game would likely have to use a generic placeholder texture for a few seconds while the proper one was fetched.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gargamel wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I see it being great to get new players in faster, but I also think it would be helpful to explain to new users that they have an option.</p><p>Maybe something like if streaming is on, put something in the welcome screen, or in the MOTD like "If you are enjoying everquest and plan to keep playing you can set it to download all game files overnight and speed up loading by clicking on blah blah blah"</p><p>I see the case where someone tries the game some saturday afternoon... likes it enough to buy it that day, but would rather let it patch over night sunday and while he is at work on monday,<strong> rather than slow down while he is trying to do some questing monday night</strong>.</p></blockquote><p>If the system works like they want it to, there will be *no* slow downs. It's plenty doable. The worst case scenario I can think of would be someone logging in next to you in armor you don't have textures downloaded for - the game would likely have to use a generic placeholder texture for a few seconds while the proper one was fetched.</p></blockquote><p>Actually the player just wouldn't render until the textures were fetched.  In most cases this delay would be less than a second and if they were just logging in you wouldn't notice the difference.</p><p>To answer some of the questions...</p><p>The client that is currently on test actually supports streaming assets with a one-line INI change.  But, since you're running the normal patcher, all of the assets would be patched down to you before the game starts.  This means there would be nothing to stream except for optional assets that you didn't download.</p><p>We hope to be ready to beta test the streaming client in the next couple of weeks.  When we're ready, we'll make a post that explains how to test this out.</p><p>Players will have the option to continue using the patcher to download all assets before entering the game, or to use the streaming client.</p><p>More info will come later.</p>

[Guy De Alsace]

<p>Currently, if I go back to the GH it can take anywhere from 30-45 seconds for the broker or mender guy to appear. Same for the flag guy and the mailbox. Oftentimes, the fluff items appear well before the important vendors/NPC's.</p><p>What happens when you are two-boxing on the same machine? Would that be impossible with this system? I use one installation of EQ2 when I two box.</p><p>What happens if you are on a Griffon and you fly over a raid forming up? Will the streaming be that efficient you wont notice the HD lag?</p><p>Just curious.</p>

[JoarAddam]

<p>can you use this to stealth in some fun stuff?  Suprise, you just went to Enchanted Lands and goblins have taken over the docks...  we didn't put it in the patch notes, and you didn't see anything downloading in the patcher cos it's a suprise.</p>

[Boli32]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Crabbok@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I hope this is done with great care.   This was one of the major things that made Freerealms virtually unplayable for me, all the constant downloading anytime I wanted to walk 5 feet. </p></blockquote><p>There's no "constant downloading".  Its like patching on the fly.  Once you have the file it'll never download it again.</p></blockquote><p>I hope there will be an option where you can still download everything in one go.. say you are heading out for the day and want to make sure you don't have to worry about waiting outside instances fotr 50min whlist you dl the relavent files.</p>

[Wilderbeast25]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gargamel wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I see it being great to get new players in faster, but I also think it would be helpful to explain to new users that they have an option.</p><p>Maybe something like if streaming is on, put something in the welcome screen, or in the MOTD like "If you are enjoying everquest and plan to keep playing you can set it to download all game files overnight and speed up loading by clicking on blah blah blah"</p><p>I see the case where someone tries the game some saturday afternoon... likes it enough to buy it that day, but would rather let it patch over night sunday and while he is at work on monday,<strong> rather than slow down while he is trying to do some questing monday night</strong>.</p></blockquote><p>If the system works like they want it to, there will be *no* slow downs. It's plenty doable. The worst case scenario I can think of would be someone logging in next to you in armor you don't have textures downloaded for - the game would likely have to use a generic placeholder texture for a few seconds while the proper one was fetched.</p></blockquote><p>Actually the player just wouldn't render until the textures were fetched.  In most cases this delay would be less than a second and if they were just logging in you wouldn't notice the difference.</p><p>To answer some of the questions...</p><p>The client that is currently on test actually supports streaming assets with a one-line INI change.  But, since you're running the normal patcher, all of the assets would be patched down to you before the game starts.  This means there would be nothing to stream except for optional assets that you didn't download.</p><p>We hope to be ready to beta test the streaming client in the next couple of weeks.  When we're ready, we'll make a post that explains how to test this out.</p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Players will have the option to continue using the patcher to download all assets before entering the game, or to use the streaming client.</strong></span></p><p>More info will come later.</p></blockquote><p>I just want to make sure that I can still just download everything before hand and NOT have to use streaming and in fact turn it off in a way that it will never happen.</p><p>It isn't that streaming isn't cool because it is, BUT there are times (and networks that I'm on) that I would not want to this happen at all.</p><p>Thanks!</p>

[Cyberlink]

<p>The interesting thing about this feature is, it is crashing my router (Netgear WPN824). The dragon appears, it is downloading 8kb and then the network connection goes away (LAN not WLAN). I have to manually reset the router to get the connection back again -> log into the game, 8kb -> crash again aso.Currently the only option is to directly connect my PC to my cablemodem (well..cablebridge) then it works like charm.Strange thing and I need to do some further testing on this I think.</p>

[ke'la]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gaktar@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>One of my concerns is that LoN patches tend to get pushed a lot closer towards the end of the US day when most folks are logged in and doing instances or raids.  Is this new system going to force the LoN updates through while you are online?  The LoN updates do tend to be a bit large for the speed of some folks' connections.</p></blockquote><p>No.  LoN updates will probably be patched separately from the launcher.  Either way, they definitely won't stream down during gameplay.</p></blockquote><p>Would this allow people to opt out of LoN downloads all together, and only download those resources visable to them in the world, like Armor, or house items?</p>

[Hiburp]

<p>How do we get rid of this window now that it is on the live servers?</p><p>It's non movable and the Z-order makes it under some hotbars and over others.</p><p>As it stands, I can't heal without redoing my screen layout.</p>

[Dartanianx]

<p>yes please give us a method of hiding this window.</p>

[Cucuy]

<p>Anyone know if this will break things for Linux users?</p>

[Hiburp]

<p>This '<span >Norbert' window still exists as non movable and is still causing issues.</span></p>

[ZexisStryfe]

<p>While I have no problem with the idea of streaming content, I don't think this is a good idea.</p><p>The insinuation of this change is that there will no longer be a big upfront download. Everything will be pulled on the fly. I distinctly remember Autenil saying they were trying to get the client down as small as they could (<a href="http://kriegshauser.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">60meg? seriously?</a>). Some major problems SoE needs to keep in mind-</p><ol><li>Not all internet connections are created equal. I may have a 25 meg line to my house, but that doesn't mean that Bob in my Guk group does. I don't want to be waiting for him to download the content over his dial-up connection when I am ready to go.</li><li>Bandwidth caps. As much as I hate it, more and more net providers (like Comcast) are capping bandwidth. Downloading a 500mb patch is bad enough of a hit to the monthly bandwidth, but having to constantly redownload? Give me a break.</li><li>As already mentioned by Cyberlink, I have noticed that most home/consumer wireless routers will reset when too much data is attempted to be pushed through them at once (particularly true of Linksys routers). I had a wireless G router that did this quite often. I have since upgraded to a new wireless N, however I am still able to reset the router if i try to copy large (2+gb) folders between computers on my network. I plugged my old router in and tested, and sure enough I got a wireless crash.</li><li>Lag. I play on Antonia Bayle. There are lag issues there... big ones that even the devs have acknowledged. ANYTHING that could possibly make this worse should not be attempted until the existing issues are fixed. Period.</li></ol><p>Do I have an issue with using this streaming data delivery as an <span style="text-decoration: underline;">alternative</span> to the upfront patches? Absolutely not. But there definately needs to be an option and a way to turn it off if we don't want it. Even then, it shouldn't be on the fly, but instead a way of downloading content while playing. Everything should still reside on the client's machine.</p><p>With all the issues in game right now, I am kind of amazed that SoE would put resources in something like this. Just the netcode for this must be monstrous, nevermind the client changes. How about we balance the classes, items, zones, playstyles, etc. before implementing stuff like this.</p>