question: why the launcer download so slow?

[kira]

why doesn't it download at full speed?

when i am downloading my top speed usually reach to 3 MB\s , so why here the launcher is up to 60 KB\s?

[Fffreak9999]

It will depend on what you are trying to download,

If you are downloading a patch, there is a good chance it is downloading from a poor mirror choice for you.

If you are downloading a custom map then it will be a poor connection to the CT map Repository.

Or it could just be down to you, and your line. It may be many people using your network or provider in the area, which may have an impact on your speed.

[DrSilence]

I had similar problems but this helped me (post link).

The reason in my case were the slow czech servers, but now the german ones are quite good.

I hope this may help a bit.

[kira]

i am talking about donwloading an update for ren x and also while in game downloading some sort of patch (it was 980 kB kind of and took minutes to download it )

[yosh56]

i am talking about donwloading an update for ren x and also while in game downloading some sort of patch (it was 980 kB kind of and took minutes to download it )

The in-game downloader is the base UDK downloader and maxes out at 10KBps ...... yes, 10. Everyone downloads about that slow, unless the server has an HTTP redirect setup, and that times out after 30 seconds to go back to 10KBps.

The launcher downloading slow probably just has more to do with you somehow ending up on a terrible mirror, as I download ~8MBps on it, and most of us get our full speed with the occasional spike

[vocux]

I'd like to report that this problem still persists. The only mirror I get connected to (after cancelling and trying to reconnect many times!) is czech1.renegade-x.com, a very slow mirror with many interruptions. It would take me several days (!) to download the 7GB for the game at this speed.

This is a very effective way to scare away potential new players! I doubt many people will leave their devices on for days just to download a game.

Please fix this.

Edited December 1, 2017 by vocux

[iTweek.]

 

if it is not possible, would be an alternative. The problem is like other games (see LoL) the single package must be downloaded. A request to a server -> Download -> Save -> Request to server -> ... and so on. For example, WoW a complete package package and unpack it. Of course, this is a major effort to do something like that. Maybe there will soon be a solution.

 

lg iTweek

 

 

[MVN050]

Yes... Something is completely wrong with all Renegade X Downloadserver. Allways when I will download something from the Website here or over the Launcher my downloadspeed is ~30-500kb/s. Over Steam my Downloadspeed is ~5MB/s. Funny thing is that I have a Root Server in a Data Center with 100GB Internet Connection (normaly in a Data Center) and the SDK Kit downloaded with 300KB/s   I downloaded the SDK Kit from my Server with 5MB/s Maybe the Website and the Launcher must send all Data between Mars, Moon and Earth. Or the Server is a raspberry pi in a very dark cellar and someone need to crank the power generator.

Mayby someone can give me all the Files and I can Upload it to my Server and all can download it faster? But I don't know how to get all the files and I don't know how the Download Server here works... The Downloadpage only have the 8MB RenX Setup File and you need to download the Game over the very slow Download Server...

[iTweek.]

That's not that easy. Since Steam takes a different software and runs many RZ.

Since the servers offered here are not in a CDN or similar. The performance of the line varies considerably.

100GB? you mean 1gbits = 100MB / s

It also depends on many factors. How is the connection from you to the affected data center. How is it routed?

you can of course try the file via wget on your server zuladen if you have a better connection to the.

 

 

as an alternative I can give you a different rz than full build times to test if it downloads faster. Depending on the verumte I the RZ is very busy.

try plz would interest me.  is another RZ

http://backup.file-server.download/

 

how fast does it get down there?

 

[MVN050]

I really mean 100GB Connection. But you don't get this connection all the time. normaly you get ~1-10GB when you download a big file from a other server. Very often from the Microsoft Page I get the full speed But the file must be larger than 5GB. You must think that more than 1 internet-Cable is connectet to your Computer (Server) and you get this connection not only over 1 cable. That means you can download more than 1 file with 25MB/s  permanent with a Server in a Data Center. But you only need this power when you host Amazon, Facebook, Steam or Microsoft

I tested your server over my root and the max speed was 25Mbytes/s. But the file was download in >30 seconds. So the maxspeed from my root can't reach because the servers need some time to synchronize the connection but... the file was downloaded before that . From my home the maxspeed was ~5mbyte. Thats ok for me! And we don't need more I think.

But it is very stupid to download 7 big parts and unzip it... better is to download 1 part... Yes you use a free hoster but I never will do it when I will play a Game! Your Hoster have a 1Gb file limit right?

[iTweek.]

Ok i thank you. I have checked my current server that there is another Renx on it. seems to be wrong. I'll get drunk tomorrow if I get support from rz.

I will fix it the days. I thank you. I would never have noticed otherwise

[Cronus]

Some mirrors are on shared 1Gbps connections, other dedicated 100Mbit, depending on the server load it may be slow.  Report any slow mirrors and I'll remove them from the list.

 

@MVN050 the launcher does not just have one huge file to download, it checks for new versions, downloads the manifest for what patch data to download.

 

Many Europeans have some instanely fast internet, or those like you with 100Gbit servers... RenX can't afford all these giant pipes around the world, we do the best we can. Just let us know if any are slow and we can improve it or remove the mirror.

[MVN050]

@Cronus

The Downloadspeed from the Launcher is very bad! I know that the Launcher download file by file but that is not the reason why the downloadspeed is very slow! I talk about the downloadspeed, not about the prozess behind it! When I will download the Full Game (not a Patch) I DON'T like to download 7 Parts! I will download 1 Part with 8GB and Install it! But I only find the 8MB Setupfile and this Setup download very very slow all files... I don't understand what you doing wrong? I downloaded with 300KB/s the SDK Kit from this Website here over my server! 100% is something wrong here with the Website! I see it too when the Website will show me a picture... it need very long to download and show me the picture. It needs ~5-10seconds to show me the picture (from a Map). Yes that is exactly the downloadspeed of 300KB/s if the Picture is 1-3MB big... Sorry but I have a better downloadspeed to a Siberia Server that to this Website here... I only talk about the downloadspeed! not about the Ping or something other!

With a normal downloadspeed (in privat area) of 5MB/s you need ~3 Minutes for 1GB. That means you need ~25Minutes for 8GB or the complete full Renegade X Game to download. When you use the Launcher... you need 3 Days?... What is wrong here?

Can you please remove the Website and the Launcher? booth have a very slow downloadspeed Ahhh! and the Setup? It have a very slow download too! 

And can you use a faster Website and a faster Launcher?

Thank you!

 

[Cronus]

We need some more information, screenshots of the launcher downloading will help.  There is nothing wrong with the current setup, its not changing.

The SDK uses different servers than the launcher.

 

I have the slowest internet around here with 15Mbit down, and i download the game via launcher in an hour or two...

[yosh56]

15 hours ago, Cronus said:

We need some more information, screenshots of the launcher downloading will help.  There is nothing wrong with the current setup, its not changing

This ^ 

I live in Japan, and even before we had a Chinese server I still downloaded at ~5-10MBps. Need to know what mirror is actually doing it. 

[MVN050]

I tested it again to downlad the Game and the downloadspeed was between 1-15mb. This is a big bullshit!

Verify Game needed over 15 minutes... Sorry but you really have a big problem... I restartet the Launcher very often and it was always the same Source. I tested it again on my RootServer and private and the Source was the same. Is it the only Source or is it the Server with the best Ping? I hope the Launcher don't use the Server with the best Ping... Ping is not downloadspeed...

[Cronus]

So it took 15 minutes? Thats... pretty fast.  Also in your screenshots, i see it hitting 5-15MBps thats Bytes,  so its going around 50-100Mbit

 

With what you posted I see no issue,  It takes me an hour or two on my slow 15Mbit internet.

[MVN050]

Sorry?

Verify Game + Download = over 60Minutes = fast? Sorry NO! that is NOT fast! that is very slow!

If you download 10GB with 5mb/s you need ~ 30 Minutes to download it. And you say that 60 Minutes for 8GB is fast? Fast when you reach a downloadspeed of over 15Mb/s? Why is the Speed jumping between 1-15MB and not constant? Why need the launcher longer that a normal HTTP download? I think I should check if the launcher don't lying about the downloadspeed? wait... yes... the Launcher is lying   look here...

 

 

[Cronus]

yes that is fast, its alot of data 7GB, and it downloads parts of files so the speeds will fluctuate.  There is no issue here, you just are spoiled by your insanely fast internet.

 

Verifying the game and then installing takes up the majority of your time it seems.

[Guest once upon the time]

Hi

One stupid question.

I see in your screenshoots  3.50 GHZ Processor ( Quadcore or Eightcore) and 16 GB RAM, could it be a part of your problem too?

regards 

Silent

[MVN050]

did you learn to calculate?

10GB ~ 10.000MB

If you have a downloadspeed of 5MB/s you need (10.000:5=2000) 2000 seconds= 33minutes to download 10GB. That is a normal private internet speed. that is NOT fast if you download from Server to Server but in privat area it is ok!... The Launcher show me it have a speed of ~10Mb/s. Normaly it should use 15minutes to download the game. It is the double of speed of 5MB. But no... the Launcher need the double of time and double of downloadspeed. that is not fast! that is very very slow! And the Launcher is lying about the downloadspeed. I am not sure what exactly you did in the Launcher but this is really a big issue! The first problem is that it needs very long to verify the Files. I am not sure what the Launcher is doing but but if you say that there is all right than you have a very big logic trouble in you Launcher

I don't talk about MY downloadspeed! I talk about that the Launcher don't download with fullspeed! That is the same what kira means.

My calculate is right bacause Microsoft calculate the same if I download the SDK from a other Download Page.

 

[MVN050]

@SilentKnight

no it is a normal Server CPU. The Server have 2 CPUs and 12 Cores. I tested it from my Server to by sure that my Internet connection can't be the problem.

 

[Cronus]

I am not a developer of the Launcher,  I merely maintain some of the mirrors (the cncirc ones)  Some of those are only 100Mbit capped.  I'm not sure what the czech one is on, but it could be 100 or 1000Mbit, not sure.

 

I'd love to help you more, but your english is a bit broken and hard to read.  You also seem to use Mb and MB, im not sure which you are always referring to.

 

We always welcome some criticism,  Everyone else that had issues with the launcher were downloading in KBps... Since yours is hitting up to 10MBps I honestly can say thats insanely fast (Compared to the rest of our slow internets)  So im not sure how much faster it could be.

Do you have something more specific we can do to increase speed? Also the Launcher and Task Manager will show different speeds, thats a given, and normal, they both operate differently.

 

Our system does use a delta patch system, so its not downloading one 8GB file, nor is it installing one 8GB file, it is many many thousands of small tiny files.  If you don't have an SSD it can definitely take awhile to install.  I don't think the launcher devs are gonna change this anytime soon, its an integral part of our release system and was made years ago and set in place.

 

I'd like you to keep in mind this is a free volunteer based game, no one is paid for this,  So while we'd love to have something like steams mega servers to send out updates and game downloads, alas this is not possible.

 

I would note I downloaded and installed the game on my personal server in less than an hour.  I was downloading around 20MBps (200Mbit)

[MVN050]

Sorry I always try to talk about Mbyte. Not Bits. About my calculate. I use a easy calculate and rounded it.

If you have a download speed of ~5mbyte per second and you will download a 10Gbyte/10.000mbyte file. You should need ~30 minutes to download it. If you download 99999files and all files together have 10Gbyte you don't should use more than 30minutes to download all files! Maybe 5 minutes more are ok but not many more. If you need the double of time than you have a very big issue or a logic issue. And you can't say that this is fast when you need more time to download it. Lets say my Server have a downloadspeed of 10mbyte all the time to download all files. it should use 15minutes to download it. If the download speed is jumping from 1mbyte to 25mbyte there are something wrong... You say that you have a download speed of 200.00mbits? you should have a download speed of ~25mbyte. I downloaded the SDK Kit over my Server from a other Server in >10minutes...

I did my test over my Windows Server because to be sure that my internet connection are not the problem. And many other People reported that they have some problems with the Launcher and it is not using the full download speed.

The Taskmanager in Windows is using the network driver to show the download and upload speed. That means it (should) is always showing the right network speed.

About the Launcher... There are NO information what the Launcher is doing and what not. I am a (german) software developer and I think I can help but I don't find any information about the logic behind the Launcher and the update System. And I don't find any Source Code of the Launcher in the SDK Kit. For me it looks like the RenX Team don't will use any help. But I think I know the problem. And there are no information how to get the Server List. Other people can't create a own Launcher...

You are talking about that the Launcher is downloading file by file right? That means the Launcher open a connection to the download Server and start downloading file1? After File1 was dowloaded the Launcher do something (maybe to check if its really the original file or something else like that) and will close the connection to the download server. Then the launcher open again a new connection to the download Server and downloading File2. Check the file... open again a new connection and downloading file 3... and so on... and so on...If the files are 50kbyte... it need longer to open a new network connection and check the file than to download it...That is a know beginner mistake You should use Multithreading and downloading more than 1 file at the same time. you can downloading 5 or 10 files at the same time. if you download 1000files at the same time the network driver and OS manage to download always with full speed and split the speed to all files. If you have a download speed of 5mbyte and you downloading 5 files at the same time all files use 1mbyte or your OS and network driver manage it other. But there is no issue that you can have about downloading. Look to FileZilla. It uploading or downloading always more than 1 file at the same time! And you don't have a problem. The internal downloadmanager from the Launcher can easy do it! my colleague always talk to me " if the processor is not 100% loaded then you still have performance open! Dig in! then you can come back". Same with the Hard Disk. If the Hard Drive is not 100% loaded then you still have performance open! First you should check if the hard drive is really the problem or the logic of the Launcher. You can download the Game with the Launcher and check in TaskManager if the HardDrive is 100% loaded or not. I think not! If you hard drive is 100% loaded with 5mbyte/s than you have a big problem

I hope you understand why I mean and I really sure that the Launcher is here the problem. maybe some Download-Server but that is not the big problem. Maybe the Launcher and some download Server are the problem. You should check all the Server if they have a download speed more than 3-5mbyte per second. I hope you don't check with a ping or download a small file withch Server is the fastest one... I hope you do it with logic and not with bullshit But I can't help here! No information about it!

 

[ShrewdTactician]

To nick this argument in the butt, internally, we have been talking about utilizing torrent style downloading.

There isnt really going to be any major changes that are going to happen to the current http style of downloading, so just accept the download speeds (or offer to host a mirror, if you are so inclined) or wait until the torrenting support is added.

[Cronus]

I wasn't gonna say that @ShrewdTactician but ok

 

I think your main issue is the extreme overhead of how it downloads and patches files.  I still think its quick, alot quicker than say GTAV

RenegadeX Isn't open source, so you wont find any source code anywhere

 

@Agent could possibly reply with some specifics later.

[Agent]

So, there's a few topics to highlight. Let's start with the part @ShrewdTactician mentioned we plan to improve.

Downloading mechanism
The current downloading mechanism uses HTTP downloads, technically across multiple threads but only allowing a single HTTP request to actually process at a time. Once upon a time, the launcher actually attempted to download every single file simultaneously, which led to issues where people's downloads would cease halfway. While we could get a slight performance boost by setting up an HTTP thread pool to permit some arbitrary number of simultaneous downloads (~4), it's not currently worth the risk of reintroducing the previous issue where downloads ceased entirely. Such a regression would require additional development resources to resolve, which could be caused by anything from running out of socket descriptors, to threads failing to spawn, to unreported socket timeouts/closures. Stability is far more important than performance here, especially when there are limited development resources.

HTTP mirror selection
A critical part of the HTTP download mechanism is our mirror selection algorithm, since we only download from one of the mirrors at a time. It's not based on ping though (though it was in the past). Instead, we send out an HTTP request to every mirror listed for a small (10 KB) file, and we queue up the mirrors in the order that the requests complete; if you have connectivity problems with a mirror (i.e: it goes down), you'll failover to the next server in the queue. So theoretically, the server you are downloading from should be the one you have the best connection to. However it's not guaranteed that the mirror will have a particularly large pipe.

HTTP mirror maintenance
While this isn't directly a part of the launcher, it's definitely worth noting that all of the distribution mirrors are donated by various members of the community such as @Cronus, @iTweek., and Speedy059. Those people are paying out of their own pockets for those mirrors. As such there's minimal requirements and quality control for the majority of these mirrors, and their pipe sizes cannot be guaranteed. Downloading patch data at 100 Mb/s (12.5 MB/s) should be considered optimal given that many of the mirrors only have a 100 Mb/s pipe. Anything beyond 100 Mb/s is excess.

CDN Performance
This isn't directly a part of the launcher, but the official downloads are served through our own little adhoc CDN formed by a subset of the HTTP mirrors. In addition to the details mentioned in "HTTP mirror maintenance", there's actually very little going on in the background to make sure you're getting the best mirror -- currently, it's just a round-robin setup. Some of the files may be moved from the CDN in the future to a higher availability platform (such as AWS), which I will pay for out of my own pocket, but this is not presently a high priority item. This would also only affect very commonly accessed items, such as the installer and some versioning files; larger or less frequently downloaded files such as the SDK would not be migrated.

Future downloading mechanism(s)
The aforementioned processes will actually be improved if/when we add the p2p based solution @ShrewdTactician hinted at by downloading simultaneously from multiple sources and therefore also providing significantly better load distribution and download performance. The above process will still exist though as a fallback, because not all users can actually use p2p protocols for a wide range of reasons.

Download speed calculation
The download speed is calculated simply by getting the average speed over a number of data points as progress is made on downloads; this is not going to be identical to what Task Manager might say, nor should it be. Task Manager is showing you your exact total download speed over the last second. The launcher just calculates the average over the last 10 samples to give the user an idea of how fast they're downloading on average. So if for example the launcher collects these points over the course of 5 seconds {5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 2, 2}, where these numbers are in MB/s, the launcher would report 4.4 MB/s while Task Manager would report 2 MB/s. Neither of these numbers are actually wrong; they're just calculated differently, and the number the launcher currently reports will be more useful to the average user trying to estimate how long the download's going to take.

Verification
The verification phase determines which files are necessary to download by downloading the patch instructions and validating hashes of every single file by comparing SHA256 hashes of files to the hashes in the instructions file. If the file is missing, or the existing file's hash does not match the new files hash, the file is going to need to be downloaded. This process actually runs in parallel with the downloading phase -- as files are determined necessary, they're queued up to be downloaded. The primary constraint here is going to be disk operations, so SSDs will be faster than HDDs for example. This process could probably be optimized so that we don't need to recalculate the hashes of files that haven't been modified, but it won't anytime in the foreseeable future.

Patch files
There are 2 types of patch files the patcher will download: deltas and fulls. Deltas contain the differences between the old version of a file and the new version of the file, while fulls contain the entire file to be downloaded. If you're skipping patches and a file has been updated multiple times, then some of the deltas will be ignored and the full versions will be downloaded instead. If you want a visual aid, take a peek at the patch directories themselves and their file structure. All patch files are compressed -- both the deltas and the full files.

Tip
Don't be a pretentious cunt when talking to people, and think about problems before calling something a "beginner mistake"; give people benefit of the doubt if you want to come across as a team player who people will want to be around. Don't just come into other people's spaces and complain. Problems and processes are often more complex than they might appear at first glance, so it's important to get as much context as possible when trying to understand a problem.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Agent
Added "HTTP mirror maintenance" and "CDN Performance"

[iTweek.]

Currently my server is still causing problems. But I'm about to fix that. However, the computing center is easily in default .. 

currently you can only download with 2mb / s .. that should change soon again. Sorry guys

[iTweek.]

hey, I have the server new ssd install it should now go again.

Thank you for the note again

[Ant]

Same here. I was downloading a new game overnight and then it got stuck. I retried this late morning PST, and still slow (up to 3 MB/sec). Also, my old updated 64-bit W7 HPE SP1 PC was very slow with its HDD going nuts.

[NodSaibot]

16 minutes ago, Ant said:

Same here. I was downloading a new game overnight and then it got stuck. I retried this late morning PST, and still slow (up to 3 MB/sec). Also, my old updated 64-bit W7 HPE SP1 PC was very slow with its HDD going nuts.

What version of the launcher are you using?

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by Sarah!

[Ant]

6 minutes ago, Sarah! said:

What version of the launcher are you using?

 

See my other forum thread. It doesn't seem to update my v0.00 at all.

[NodSaibot]

Just now, Ant said:

See my other forum thread. It doesn't seem to update my v0.00 at all.

I replied there