[dains]

Hi, I had an attack of nostalgia and bought FS2 from GOG.com. While reading the FS2 articles there, I found descriptions of and links to the FS2Open project.

First off- wow. I love it when people do insane things because they want to and they CAN. When they do it for a game I used to play and just bought again, I'm just speechless. I can't wait to play FS2Open and some of the upcoming TCs.

So I did the automated installer thing last night, and ran into a couple of minor issues on which I'd like to make some suggestions. First off, having an installer is great! I'm always scared when manually installing mods, so this is a big peace of mind thing.

But (you knew it was coming, right?) the installer had a couple of issues. I'd like to describe them here and make a couple of suggestions to see how they sound to everyone.

One, it was tough to run (Java version, the only one directly linked from http://scp.indiegames.us/ I did find the Windows version later after  tracking through the wiki). I eventually just made a batch file with the requisite command to run the .jar file (once I'd looked it up on google 'cause I had no idea), so allow me to suggest sending out the installer zipped up with a batch file to run it? Download, unzip, double-click and you're on your way, vs download, .....?? readwiki, googlesearch, command line /make batch file, etc.

Second, once running, I selected the second FS2Open + MediaVPs option and ran it, and the installer came up with a bunch of directory errors about Windows, Linux and Mac executables. No idea what that meant, but there's a message saying "it's ok, you can download missing stuff later". So I went forward, and it essentially didn't download anything except a bunch of text files . The log file is also blank,  no idea why either, so I can't give you the log
So after messing with it a bit, checking the firewall, etc. I just clicked all 3 downloads at once. It still came up with the executable directory errors, but it did start downloading stuff, including MediaVPS stuff, so hey, something's happening, right? But that doesn't mean it will work :\ .

The suggestion for this one is tied to the next problem, so I'll just make the suggestion after.

Third, once running and downloading, I left it going all evening. And then into the night. When I got up in the morning, my comp had sleepmoded itself and the installer wouldn't continue the download, so I restarted the installer. It checked stuff and restarted the file it had stopped on, so good deal, time to go do RL.

It's still going now. I would say it's had roughly 10 solid hours of downloading time between yesterday and today. I have VERY fast internet, because I pay for a premium package. My last speedtest showed 30.1mb/s sustained download speed. As a test, I went to FileFront (now Gamefront, when did that happen?) and started downloading a demo with the installer still downloading. I pulled between 1.5 and 2mb/sec all the way from Gamefront.

So, allow me to suggest something that may help issues #2 and #3.

1, that the same packages available from the automated installer be made available on file download sites like Filefront or Fileplanet (so long as it doesn't cost you anything, I think both of those are free? Fileplanet has FS2 patches and mods on it now, actually). I know there's "manual install" packages, but read on for why I suggest this anyways.

2, that the installer(s) have an option added to select the packages you downloaded for installation. That way there's no issues with any downloading, firewalls, etc., we can get the files dowloaded fairly quickly, and you also won't have any bandwidth charges for hosting these files.

I realize this means asking Turey to make changes to his installers, or making self-extracting .exes of the packages, etc. But I have to say it would be better than what I described above. I'm not even sure this will work because of the errors, but I have no choice except to continue the download for as many more hours as it takes. Only then will I find out if things are all right, or messed up :\

Thanks for reading!
D

[General Battuta]

We had someone run the installer for about ~20 hours recently, also allegedly on fast internet. I wonder what's taking it so damn long.

[The E]

*Sigh*.

The problem is that the servers where the files are hosted _aren't_ that fast. Even the fastest connection ever can only receive as many bits as can be sent out by the server.

1, that the same packages available from the automated installer be made available on file download sites like Filefront or Fileplanet (so long as it doesn't cost you anything, I think both of those are free? Fileplanet has FS2 patches and mods on it now, actually). I know there's "manual install" packages, but read on for why I suggest this anyways.

We are working on getting filehosting via moddbs' Desura service, which should help. And the problem with free download services is that they usually do not allow direct downloads, which is something we need for the installer. When it comes to individual mod releases, they are of course free to use those hosting services, but the installer won't work with them.

2, that the installer(s) have an option added to select the packages you downloaded for installation. That way there's no issues with any downloading, firewalls, etc., we can get the files dowloaded fairly quickly, and you also won't have any bandwidth charges for hosting these files.

I think you need to elaborate on this, because I have trouble understanding what it is you're suggesting here.

[Iss Mneur]

2, that the installer(s) have an option added to select the packages you downloaded for installation. That way there's no issues with any downloading, firewalls, etc., we can get the files dowloaded fairly quickly, and you also won't have any bandwidth charges for hosting these files.

I think you need to elaborate on this, because I have trouble understanding what it is you're suggesting here.

I think he is talking about a sort of offline install, in that, you manually get the files needed from somewhere (DVD, download, etc) and then the installer looks at these and uses them instead of downloading the files directly.

[Goober5000]

The installer is in the process of being upgraded to address many of these concerns, including the option for offline installation.

[dains]

Woot, awesome! Update on my status, I eventually stopped the madness and figured out how to do a minimum manual install. I didn't get MediaVP working though, as there's quite a few separate downloads and two different kinds, and I haven't made the time to figure them out yet.

2, that the installer(s) have an option added to select the packages you downloaded for installation. That way there's no issues with any downloading, firewalls, etc., we can get the files dowloaded fairly quickly, and you also won't have any bandwidth charges for hosting these files.

I think you need to elaborate on this, because I have trouble understanding what it is you're suggesting here.

I think he is talking about a sort of offline install, in that, you manually get the files needed from somewhere (DVD, download, etc) and then the installer looks at these and uses them instead of downloading the files directly.

Yup, exactly. One could then get the files from whereever, and the installer would copy them in, fix things up and handle updates from there.

I did note that it's actually very simple to get FS2Open and MediaVPs working, you just copy in the files / folder and run the launcher, then you need to fix the intro movie locations and you're up and running. So I wonder if those could be packaged and deployed via self-extracting zip on file-hosting sites as a quickie solution.

Or maybe the launcher update will fix everything so it's not worth bothering. But at least since I posted it here, it's not rattling around in my head anymore

[General Battuta]

Woot, awesome! Update on my status, I eventually stopped the madness and figured out how to do a minimum manual install. I didn't get MediaVP working though, as there's quite a few separate downloads and two different kinds, and I haven't made the time to figure them out yet.

Just get the 3.6.12 MVPs.