Poster: Exicuter at 3/21/2006 12:21:33 PM PST
Subject: "background downloader" OSX |
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So I'm runnin around in AB and then I start to lag a bit. I look down at my dock and there's this icon that looks like the blizzard downloader. I mouse over it and it says "background downloader." It disapears after a couple seconds. This happens quite often, what is it?
OS 10.4.5
1.42 G4
1g ram
http://www.houseforsaken.com/
www.crazzy8ss.tk
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post196960 |
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Poster: tigerclaw at 3/22/2006 4:16:20 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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How many times are you seeing it launch per game session? It should only run once per session.
It will be possible to completely disable the BG downloader in a future release. Basically you will have the option to launch it once "by hand" and access a prefs dialog.
But based on the predicted size of the patches that are in the works, I think you're going to want to run it at least sometimes to make headway on those uber downloads.[ post edited by tigerclaw ]
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post198820 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/23/2006 4:45:57 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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It will enable us to stage the release of large patches over a period of time leading up to the official release date.
Say a 250MB patch came out right now, all in one big piece. No one would be able to play until it was all downloaded and applied.
But, if we were able to freeze-dry segments of the new patch content and ship them out ahead of time, and you were able to download them and keep them handy on your HD while still playing the previous version, then we could re-shuffle this process a bit, so when the official patch day rolls around, the amount of data left for you to obtain would be smaller. You would have most of it already.
Of course, you will be able to opt-out of using the BG downloader, it may still launch just long enough to check its preference setting though. If you don't partake in the BG downloads, then you would have to download the large patch all at once on patch release day - it's up to you.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199461 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/23/2006 6:10:13 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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It might not have been common knowledge but the downloader offers the option to disable P2P mode and receive data from our seed servers directly. Performance tradeoffs may ensue.
The BG downloader is being tested on PTR right now for some of the patches that have been sent out. The files that it downloads accumulate in a folder called "wow-patch" right next to the game app, so you can have some idea of its progress.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199509 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/23/2006 6:21:13 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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The BG downloader is the same engine as the non-BG downloader, but it has its throughput deliberately capped to avoid impacting game play.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199513 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/23/2006 9:29:46 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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The expert on Downloader is out of town at GDC so I don't have the super-precise answer on that. We'll be sharing more info about BG Downloader as we get closer to activating it for real. (BG = background...)
But, let's look at the options available to the user.
a. let BG Downloader do its thing while playing WoW.
b. run BG Downloader on its own, outside of WoW play time ("time to call it a night, start up BGDL and let it run").
c. opt-out of advance BG downloads, and download the whole patch on patch day.
d. use Downloader or BG Downloader with P2P mode disabled.
e. opt out of all Downloader transfers entirely, and obtain the patch from a mirror site of your choice.
f. Get a copy of the patch from a friend by other means.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199562 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/23/2006 11:39:53 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Not a bad idea at all. We'll look at it.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199583 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/24/2006 10:04:01 AM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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My point in posting the list of options is that they are all valid choices, and we fully expect the users to choose whichever one best fits their needs and constraints.
If Downloader works for you (and watching our stats across the entire WoW user base, we feel that percentage of users is pretty high) - use it.
If Downloader isn't yet performing well for you - you have other supported options and this will continue to be the case.
Whichever one each user chooses, we will still continue to improve Downloader and monitor its performance across the WoW user base. Does that seem reasonable?
Lot of good ideas posted about controlling the schedule of downloading. We can't guarantee that any or all of them will make it into the next rev but some of the ideas are pretty good.
There are a couple useful optimizations going into Downloader for an upcoming rev, if you have had trouble with it in the past, don't assume the new version will have identical behavior - give it a try.
Edit: posted once and it disappeared, posted again and then both posts showed up, heh[ post edited by tigerclaw ]
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post199743 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/24/2006 1:48:33 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Q u o t e:
Isn't the "default" setting for this "on"
In which case how can your statistics be anything but compromised and false?
I can see I wasn't clear enough.
The download performance is one of those bell curve things. Some people get the patch insanely fast, some OK, some not so good. Amongst the people that participate in patches via Downloader, we keep stats on how well they do (how many complete, how many abort, how long each end user takes to get the whole file). We don't have any way to measure the number of users obtaining the patch by other means.
We keep trying to push the peak of that curve "to the right" by improving Downloader, so the percentage of users getting the download in a reasonable amount of time increases as new revisions come out. We have another revision pending which we think will continue this effect.
My cable modem at home can do 6 megabits per second. The internet pipes at our key data centers can do somewhere between 100 to 1000 times that speed, so theoretically up to 1000 users like me could all download directly from one of our data centers at top modem speed. make sense so far?
Now think about a million users wanting to get a big patch directly through those pipes, no one is going to get anywhere near peak modem speed with these kinds of ratios involved. This underscores why we did P2P download technology to begin with, and why we keep working to improve it.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post200041 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/24/2006 1:55:10 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Q u o t e:
My 16.5kb/s connection does not need a patch downloading in the background while I play WoW, even if it's for a few minutes.
Options "C, D, E, F" are probably your best choices, see above.
It makes perfect sense for each user to choose the method that works best for them.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post200058 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/27/2006 11:31:31 AM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Q u o t e:
As tiger already explained, future patches are going to be 250+ MB from now on.
Whoa whoa, hold on there... I definitely did not mean to imply that all or most patches would be this big. But some may be, and BG Downloader is part of the plan to handle them.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post201666 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/29/2006 3:57:48 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Q u o t e:
I am a dial up user and the idea of somthing runing in the backround using more of my precious bandwith makes me sad. I am lagy enough as it is during raids and i could imagine that this would make raids even harder to play through, but as long as i have the option to turn this off i guess it would be allright and that i would have to cry myself to sleep at night.
Not only do you have the option to turn it off, you have the option of running it whenever your machine is free, like when you finish playing for an evening. You could run it overnight now and then. On dial-up I could see how this isn't a super attractive option... depending on if you are paying for the phone call. YMMV.
Say you get 3KB/second, about 6 minutes per megabyte, or 10MB per hour.. 8 6-hour overnight sessions would get you 480MB of data. Many modems will get considerably better than 3KB/second.. Machines are pretty patient and they will work all night without complaint.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post202314 |
Poster: tigerclaw at 3/30/2006 6:42:52 PM PST
Subject: Re: "background downloader" OSX |
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Q u o t e:
Am I just stupid, or is this discussion of "options for how to use the background downloader" entirely theoretical? When I manually launch the downloader, it just quits.
this will be fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=196960&p=#post202406 |
