does terraform=client side?

[Got Haggis? offline]

[mDiesel offline]

[PJ offline]

[Mccannon04 offline]

[mDiesel offline]

thats retarded
they should just include the .ter file with the .mis
or, since the the .ter files are always really small, theyshould make it where T2 autodownloads terrain files from the server thats running it
itd be so much better, people could play more custom maps which are kickass, and mappers could enjoy seeing more people play on their map.
Downloading a map yourself isnt that much of a big deal, but it could be nonexistant

[Got Haggis? offline]

before t2 was released, they said autodownloading of maps was a feature that would be included...........

just another dynamix broken promise

[xgalaxy offline]

EDITED:

After further testing on my own I now humbly retract my statement. :/

[Bytor offline]

Xgalaxy, you know this is Tribes 2 we're talking about right? What game are you referring to?

[xgalaxy offline]

I thought this was Doom 3 mapping forum :P

[PJ offline]

Hehe.
-PJ

[powdahound offline]

i wish they had enabled that auto-download :|

[Spawne32 offline]

damn dose darn dynamix dudes

[Got Haggis? offline]

maybe we could try to get Dynamix's attention to this matter...I'm just wondering if some of the code to auto-download maps is in there, but it's just not enabled for some reason? Because I remember them stating in the past that this was going to be a feature. Just as with Demos. And now they are going to add the demo support. So maybe if we make enough of a stir, they will include auto-downloading...of at least the .ter file!

[t-b0n3 offline]

I think what they meant when Dynamix said that they'd support auto-download, is that it would automatically D/L maps using default terain files.... Imagine on a server with 64 people playing... the server would have to upload the .ter file to 64 people at the start of the map... that's almost 16 megs using standard compression. Not too bad for servers on T3s, provided all the players have broadband connections, but even at T1 speeds, this can slow down the game startup dramatically.... not to mention that a lot of residential broadband services (DSL, Cable, Wireless LAN) are starting to cap upload speeds, making it even worse for servers running off those...

Also, say you had a server running with most everybody playing on broadband, but a few people with 28.8 or 56k. Would the server wait until everyone had the .ter file before continuing with the map, or just let each client load at their own pace, giving those players without broadband a severe disadvantage (Moreso than they normally get... damn HPBs) at the beginning of each map, because they would load the map slower, therefore joining each level slower?

Make sense?

[Bytor offline]

Auto-download definitely has it's issues ... I can understand why Dynamix chose it as one of the features to delay in order to get the game out the door.

t-bon3, I would think that people on the slower modems would just have to join the game after it has already started. That's the case now with computers with limited RAM ... some people don't finish the "Loading map, loading objects, lighting mission" sequence until after the match has already started.

I think I will see if I can open a dialogue with QIX and some other DEV team members about auto-download. Personally I think the best solution would be to automate the retrieval of maps from a trusted site, such as the central downloads site, or this site. *crossing fingers*.

I could easily script this site so that just the .ter file could be retrieved programatically via script code in the game client. I think it would be GREAT if when you connect to a server that is running a custom map, if you don't have the .ter file, or your .ter file has a different checksum, it gives you the option to connect to the download site to retrieve the proper version of the file, based on the checksum of the file on the server. Then you could choose yes or no. The option must be there, in my opinion. The system should not force the user to download a file just because they joined a server.

This would require the download site to maintain multiple versions of each .ter file, with checksums. This would be very easy for me to implement here at tribes2maps.com. The hard part is getting Dynamix to either write the script code to implement this proposed system, or allowing us to write the code ourselves, and getting them to certify it and include it in a future patch.

I have been waiting for the right time to broach the subject with QIX, but I think the time has come. I'll let you all know how well the concept is received.