If this is True, SE is TOO EVIL!

[Crevox]

I have forwarded the proper ports to get a better DL speed from the patcher. It didn't work.

Then you didn't do it right.

Also Folks if you are having issues Downloading the patch and you dont like to torrent it (which is very fast) check out this site it is a direct DL of the patches.

http://tehkrizz.net/FFXIV/downloads.php

It's against Final Fantasy XIV rules to download patches through other means than the downloader, and posting links is probably worse.

[Cairdeas]

If you installed at launch and did all updates, these are all the updates:

D2010.09.18.0000 5.2mb
D2010.09.19.0000 423mb
D2010.09.23.0000 6.58mb
D2010.09.28.0000 17.9mb
D2010.10.07.0001 18.3mb
D2010.10.14.0000 18.5mb
D2010.10.22.0000 18.8mb
D2010.10.26.0000 18.8mb
D2010.11.25.0002 239mb
D2010.11.30.0000 6.6mb
D2010.12.06.0000 6.82mb
D2010.12.13.0000 251mb
D2010.12.21.0000 7.2mb
D2011.01.18.0000 9.5mb
D2011.02.01.0000 11mb
D2011.02.10.0000 11mb
D2011.03.01.0000 73mb
D2011.03.24.0000 103mb
D2011.03.30.0000 103mb
D2011.04.13.0000 325mb
D2011.04.21.0000 327mb
D2011.05.19.0000 328mb

Total: 2.23gb

If you do a fresh install, the following are ALL you get:

D2010.09.18.0000 5.2mb
D2010.09.19.0000 423mb
D2010.11.25.0002 239mb
D2010.12.13.0000 251mb
D2011.05.19.0000 328mb

Total: 1.21gb

Where is my other 1.12gb?

Last thread I posted this in got locked, I hope SE does not lock this one

Anyone who played FFXI or XIV's dat system knows the answer to this.

The .Dat Files that are used to store data for the game encorporate huge chunks of graphics for the game into one singular semiencrypted file. a .dat file.

Each .dat file houses different chunks of graphics. One .dat could house all of the UI icons used for status effects. One could house all the animation skeletons and pathings. One could contain all of the textures used for the environment.

As such if even one small change is made to this file it must be updated. SE doesn't currently have a system that can unpack, update, repack these files on the fly on your desktop when you patch so you have to download the entire file even if only one small texture out of 100's of possible textures packed in is changed.

When they add a new status? The dat file that houses all the status icons is gonna be updated.
When they add a new class? the dat that houses all the class icons for the UI is going to be updated.

[Crevox]

Anyone who played FFXI or XIV's dat system knows the answer to this.

The .Dat Files that are used to store data for the game encorporate huge chunks of graphics for the game into one singular semiencrypted file. a .dat file.

Each .dat file houses different chunks of graphics. One .dat could house all of the UI icons used for status effects. One could house all the animation skeletons and pathings. One could contain all of the textures used for the environment.

As such if even one small change is made to this file it must be updated. SE doesn't currently have a system that can unpack, update, repack these files on the fly on your desktop when you patch so you have to download the entire file even if only one small texture out of 100's of possible textures packed in is changed.

When they add a new status? The dat file that houses all the status icons is gonna be updated.
When they add a new class? the dat that houses all the class icons for the UI is going to be updated.

This is really wrong, but... good try?

I already explained the reason for this, and the files for the game aren't encrypted into a single .dat (even for similar things). They're spread across MANY dats, which is why patching FFXI took so long (you'd download tons of tiny files, and you'd end up patching 30000+ files). FFXIV downloads patches compressed, and then just extracts them over all the files that need to be updated, which saves a lot of time (and you're downloading one file versus 10,000).

You can just go look at the game folder to see this. My data folder has over 110,000 files (this is not "semi-encrypted into a single .dat file").

I have no idea where you got this idea.

[Ilean]

You need to forward your ports set in the ffxivconfig.exe in your router. uTorrent uses upnp, the FFXIV downloader does not. You have to forward the ports if you want good download speeds, otherwise you're stuck with uTorrent or HTTP links.

Duh, many of us have reported how open ports, DMZ, etc. don't do anything for official patcher. While most of the people may not know about port forwarding, etc. it's widely know that even setting ports up doesn't work for most people.

Bad internet? I can download at 650kBps, switch to official patcher and it will stay at 12kBps.


And of obviously we see that the current patching process is "optimized" for installing from scratch. Dumb as that is, for most of us 300MB is peanuts, except for the broken patcher.

[Ilean]

SE doesn't currently have a system that can unpack, update, repack these files on the fly on your desktop when you patch so you have to download the entire file even if only one small texture out of 100's of possible textures packed in is changed.

Sad part is, grabbing two files A and B and generating a third file that contains only the differential info and can be applied on A to produce B has been around for many many years.

[Punainen]

I think the point is that every previous update has been just as big as the latest one.

The sad part isn't that we have to download redundant data, but that the patcher is crap and they don't care to fix it.

If you DIDNT have to download redundant data, then reinstalling would be like updating FFXI... Install it now, play in two days when it finishes downloading several years worth of updates. You get redundant data so new folks don't have to spend an effing AGE getting outdated files.

[Punainen]

Sad part is, grabbing two files A and B and generating a third file that contains only the differential info and can be applied on A to produce B has been around for many many years.

I'd rather not have all that extra space being needlessly taken up on my comp.

[Chrees]

This is really wrong, but... good try?

I already explained the reason for this, and the files for the game aren't encrypted into a single .dat (even for similar things). They're spread across MANY dats, which is why patching FFXI took so long (you'd download tons of tiny files, and you'd end up patching 30000+ files). FFXIV downloads patches compressed, and then just extracts them over all the files that need to be updated, which saves a lot of time (and you're downloading one file versus 10,000).

You can just go look at the game folder to see this. My data folder has over 110,000 files (this is not "semi-encrypted into a single .dat file").

I have no idea where you got this idea.

I'm glad at least someone here understands how it works. The three largest files in my FFXIV folder are 16, 33.9 and 47.5 MB, the rest being much smaller, so that right there is enough to throw the "when they change one small thing, they have to replace a giant 300+ MB .dat file" theory. Plus a little hex editing in the patch files would be enough to know what's going on behind the scenes, but I haven't done any of that myself...of course not.

Now, what I don't understand is why they can't make separate files for different update paths. I know of a lot of other games that do this as well. Say we're on 1.17a and need to upgrade to 1.17b. They should make a small ~1 MB file (since 1.17a was apparently ~327 and 1.17b ~328 MB) available for those people, as I'm sure the vast majority of players updating would be going from 1,17a to 1.17b anyway. For people on a version prior to 1.17a, they would have to suck it up and download the large update because they can't accommodate everyone, but again, they would most likely be in the minority, so it's really not that big of an issue.

This would make patch day a much smoother process, yet still keep the large catch-all files available for those reinstalling or updating from a much older version. But hey, I'm no programmer. Maybe this wouldn't be possible for them, so who knows?

[Ilean]

If you DIDNT have to download redundant data, then reinstalling would be like updating FFXI... Install it now, play in two days when it finishes downloading several years worth of updates. You get redundant data so new folks don't have to spend an effing AGE getting outdated files.

Doesn't have to be that way, they could send you each differential patch as needed for a reinstall too.

I'd rather not have all that extra space being needlessly taken up on my comp.

What extra space? The file you had gets patched into an updated one, the result in disk space is exactly the same except that you only downloaded i.e. 10MB instead of 330MB.

[Kajika]

You have got to be kidding me. What a waste of space this thread is.

1) We are redownloading stuff we already downloaded. Who cares! SE, please fix all other things, add all other features, and add more content, before even considering wasting time on saving us 10 minutes of download time.
2) We have only had 300 MB of patch data. Who cares! Does the amount really matter? Have you not been in game and seen the changes? Are you upset that the changes we have fit in 300 MB? Have you seen new content added and are surprised now to find it really wasn't? Seriously, if you are going to complain about lack of updates, then talk about the lack of updates and forget about how much HDD space it takes up.