Aug. 29: WorldGate Software

Based on a suggestion on this forum, I took a couple hours to delve deeper into the WorldGate software for updating files. I need to have some players test it out to see if it is a viable system, especially since I keep making hak updates (and the updates hak keeps getting bigger as I add new content like the upcoming dragon changes).

So, if your are interested in doing a test run of the software, I packed up the player client files and a readme. You can get them here: .zip, .rar, or .7z. At the moment, I've only got an incomplete (but functional) version of a newer aeneahak_updates.hak uploaded for this for testing.

If you try it, please replay here and tell me how it works out for you. It looks very promising now that I've got a test run set up.

Minor bug related to this...once you update the hak file, it'll mess up ogre and some giant animations. I'll be fixing that for the real hak update, so you might want to make a backup copy of your aeneahak_updates.hak file before you run this.

It seems to work pretty well. I'd have to update on a new version of the hak to see if it works completely, though.

, if this test run is "successful" will this then be "needed" to update the Aenea hak files or will it/ can it still be manually.. ..

I'm asking because I have a few icon "overides" I always place into the aeneahak_update files (I think I've only got 7 away from finding and overiding the originals - in the haks they are in normally, to not need to do this anymore but.. )...

It's not alot of work on my end to merge any new aeneahaks with the old one, just checking that I don't override the icons I like by seeing whats in them first... but if I'm correct in thinking how this works, it does that auto-overwrite thing on it's own - to keep files up-to-date ?

Nevermind... I'll give it a go anyway... dl'ing now... will fire it up tommorrow..

I simply ask that you keep a section for Worldgate, and a section for those who wish to download and install manually. I never liked worldgate, and I did try it before. I found it was more hassle that it was worth, but that's just me lol. Call me old fashioned.

evilkittenofdoom wrote:I simply ask that you keep a section for Worldgate, and a section for those who wish to download and install manually. I never liked worldgate, and I did try it before. I found it was more hassle that it was worth, but that's just me lol. Call me old fashioned.

That's the plan.

I'm just trying it out for those interested because as I add new custom content, the aeneahak_update.hak file tends to swell...the newest one is already over 30 MB (compressed) with the new dragons and such, and I'm not even done with the work for it...makes for bigger downloads every time I do any hak updating (even if it's just changing a couple of lines in a .2da file).

As far as a hassle, I don't have much experience with it yet. The admin side seems more complicated. I did one test run on my other PC of the client (player) part, following the directions I put in the readme file...pretty straight forward. But that's why I'm looking for some test cases, so I can see if it's worth the effort on my part or on players' part to use it.

I updated mine with it, pretty easy. Unzip, put in the url, click button, wait.

I think it's worth the effort.

It runs quick and easy. It only took a few moments to set up.... but being able to update now by just a couple mouse clicks? Far easier than the manually updating the haks.

For those not in the know, WorldGate requires that you have Microsoft's DotNet Framework installed (at least, mine did). You can find it here!

As far as the test goes, so far so good...

Okay World Gate up and running.. and the "lengthy" installation process finally completed.. (It really is quick and easy to do)...

Download of files took less then 30mins on 2meg broadband, was quick and easy..

Lets see how the next update goes... ...

I added a little to the test version of the hak for this last night, so if you've already gotten the first download before that, care to try out a smaller update with WorldGate?

I just did a little clicky-clicky ... seemed to do something. If WorldGate really is this quick for updates, it is truly a find. Won't have a chance to get in-game for a bit to see if all is well, but it looks ok from this end on this PC (not this PC).

I installed the worldgate software the other day and have just been clicking it everytime before logging in game, love it so far.

DL'ed the smaller update. Seems to be working fine, although I didn't quite catch what was actually in the update since it downloaded so fast. I *think* I saw some files for ogres... update to fix their animation problem?

MannyJabrielle wrote:I saw some files for ogres... update to fix their animation problem?

Hopefully. Plus a spell icon, some update versions of the improved undead models, a few updated item icons, some 2da files...basically a bunch of the changes for the next aeneahak_updates.hak file update, a bit added at a time for testing of WorldGate.

My problem is that the message window usually obscures whatever it is that WorldGate is downloading, and by the time I get the window closed, update is done!

Eric of Atrophy wrote:My problem is that the message window usually obscures whatever it is that WorldGate is downloading, and by the time I get the window closed, update is done!

I noticed that as well, but it's not really a deal breaker for me.

So are those updates available elsewhere? Or are they needed yet/implemented yet?

evilkittenofdoom wrote:So are those updates available elsewhere? Or are they needed yet/implemented yet?

I'm using incremental updates to the hak for testing of the WorldGate software (adding a few files at a time). The full update to the hak isn't ready yet, but when it is ready, I'll compress the whole file and upload it. So far, it's up to 166MB before compression. The completed update should be done in the near future.

In the meantime, wizards and sorcerers please ignore the new mount spell...it doesn't do anything yet since I haven't written the script for it.

Going to go with WorldGate as an option for players that like it. I'll also be uploading a larger compressed version of updated files like normal.

Woot!

Ok, I'm currently adding all the Aenea hak files to the WorldGate list. It will take quite a while, since my machine has to compress each little part of each hak file, then upload it to my webserver).

This means that the next time you run WorldGate (after all 26,453 parts to the hak files are done compressing/uploading...1 GB of data), it will be a long download as the software builds the full file-part list. I recommend starting it as you head to bed.

After the initial loooong download, further updates will download much faster, as the software really shows it's purpose by downloading only the parts of the hak files that are changed in an update.

World Gate Aenea software update undertaken ... took 20 minutes... easier then doing manual update...

Question - I wanna vote for it, but when I did a look-up on the Vault, I found two entries - can you direct us to the proper one?

Still uploading from my end...it seems the admin client has issues with running for long periods of time, so I have to upload a chunk of files at a time.

It's the WorldGate 1.8 version, a NWN2 tool. Here's the link.

Seems the player client has issues with large file downloads too... worldgate software kept crashing (not responding) on me... was taking near on four hours plus to run the last update (where the message window says : all files now uploaded to worldgate) ....

Finally gave up waiting for it to finish.. closed it down...

Went to vault and got the Aug 29th update from the external website (aenea server ?) .. as the vault one kept reading "page load error" ....

.. took 7mins to dl ... and approx 5 mins for me to sort out/unpack/copy/paste/move .... sorted ....

Not a good second experience for use of the worldgate software.. and it was looking so promising.. ...

Hmmm....maybe I'll have to set it to just ignore the pre-July files....

.. See how some others get along first... I just found out it went and found every little file difference between my haks and the server ones...

(In this case some 200+ icon files - - namely scrolls, skills, feats and a few others .. .. sorry but I use a mix of MyOwn/Enhanced/Aenea icons and I edited all my aeneahaks to accomodate my tastes in colouring, because the haks were overiding my overides folder !) ...

This long experience may be caused by that.. lets not give up on the software yet ...

I haven't had any issues with it yet. I don't know how long it took to finish, as I started it and then did other things, but there are no problems that I can see. Runnin' smooth!

RustyDios wrote:.. See how some others get along first... I just found out it went and found every little file difference between my haks and the server ones...

(In this case some 200+ icon files - - namely scrolls, skills, feats and a few others .. .. sorry but I use a mix of MyOwn/Enhanced/Aenea icons and I edited all my aeneahaks to accomodate my tastes in colouring, because the haks were overiding my overides folder !) ...

This long experience may be caused by that.. lets not give up on the software yet ...

You might want to try placing your desired icons in the cep2_custom.hak file. It's likely an empty file for you, and it's contents should override the client-side files on your end (since the Aenea module places it higher in the hak order (I use it for server-side scripts, blueprints, etc. that I don't plan on editing).