RTB Development

[lilboarder32]

For the content downloading, say you download Weapon_BigAssGun add-on through the content downloading through RTB, does it show up in your add-ons list?

[Ad Bot]

[Ephialtes]

For the content downloading, say you download Weapon_BigAssGun add-on through the content downloading through RTB, does it show up in your add-ons list?

No. The files you download from RTB as you join a server are content-only cached images of add-ons. They only contain the files required to use the add-on on another server (textures/sounds/shapes/icons etc) and none of the scripts. There will be a new list which shows all the content you have downloaded and you can then choose to download the full add-on for any of those.

[Freeze]

-snip-

Sounds good Ephi!  ;D

[Chrono]

The third benefit is that this overrides the user's network settings which are set to not download content from the server by default. Of course people can disable the RTB downloading entirely, but it will be enabled by default. This means people will always see the correct model and not some inappropriate placeholder.

Cool. Now I don't have to throw guns that explode because I refuse to wait through slow downloads.

[lilboarder32]

Cool. Now I don't have to throw guns that explode because I refuse to wait through slow downloads.

Molotov Pistol. 

[Melting Plastic]

Content downloading should be awesome!

[Ephialtes]

Yeah, there are so many benefits of using it over the standard Torque file downloading.

 - Faster download speeds because you're getting the add-ons from our high-speed server.
 - Ability to download maps, custom bricks and kill/item icons without decal datablock hacks.
 - Users will download updated content if the server has a newer version of an add-on which the user has outdated content for.
 - Overall progress indicator and download time estimates.
 - Easily remove all your downloaded content at the click of a button from the Mod Manager.

My only concerns are:

 - Servers that have crazy numbers of add-ons.
 - The speed at which the RTB Webserver can serve static files. It may be that I need to get another server and configure/optimise it more appropriately for static file serving to give users a better latency.

[Makingblah]

Yeah, there are so many benefits of using it over the standard Torque file downloading.

 - Faster download speeds because you're getting the add-ons from our high-speed server.
 - Ability to download maps, custom bricks and kill/item icons without decal datablock hacks.
 - Users will download updated content if the server has a newer version of an add-on which the user has outdated content for.
 - Overall progress indicator and download time estimates.
 - Easily remove all your downloaded content at the click of a button from the Mod Manager.

My only concerns are the servers that have crazy numbers of add-ons, and the speed at which the RTB Webserver can serve static files. It may be that I need to get another server and configure/optimise it more appropriately for static file serving to give users a better latency.

Possibly make a maximum number of content downloading at once, if I understand you correctly.

[Ephialtes]

I didn't mean the two problems were related. I just meant if a server has 200 add-ons you may be sitting there for a while, although it would still take phenomenally less time to download via RTB. I'll have to do some tests to see how fast it can go, and I should be able to avoid TCP connection lag using the keep-alive directive which should also increase download speeds significantly.

Editing for clarification ...

[Melting Plastic]

Would this service also download Prints and Player Decals?

[Ephialtes]

It would by default but I may need to put some thought into downloading player decals. If the speed tests go OK I could leave it in, otherwise I'd take it out because it's hardly one of the most important things you'll want to be downloading.

[KINEX]

There sounds like a catch is involved with something too good like this.

[Ephialtes]

Oh I forgot to mention that all the content is pre-zipped on our server which reduces the overall filesize of the content you'll need to download.


Also on another note, I've just added banlist clearing into v4/v3.4 (whichever comes first) and this is accessible to super admins only at the moment. This includes an entry to the console like so:

BAN LIST CLEARED by Ephialtes BL_ID:150 IP:XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
  +- bans cleared = 14

[No2mad2]

Amazing, this will help everyone out so much!

[Chrono]

What about a checklist for the admin/unban menu?