Pre-cache all the maps and vehicles prior to playing?

[macintoxicated]

Sometimes if it has been a while since I last connected, when I join OMNI it takes forever to download all the vehicle and map files when I try to connect. Is there a way to run a script on my computer that constantly caches the latest files so when I connect it will never make me download anything?

[Anonymous.]

ut2004.ini
PurgeCacheDays=0

[pooty]

Not easily.

The downloads should be pretty fast and should only re-download if
- Map Changed
- Vehicles/Textures/etc Changed
- Cache expired (see Anon's note)

You can always get the latest files directly from the Redirect: https://www.omnipotents.com/omni-ut2004-redirect/
However this includes lots of past stuff. The are uz2 compressed. To uncompress go to you UT system folder on windows it'd be something like C:\UT2004\system> ucc decompress somefilename.uz2
That needs the full path of the file and you need to make sure the right files are in right directories (maps - ut2, textures - utx, sound - uax etc)

The largest current file is 32 MB compressed, which shouldn't take more than a dozen seconds to download, unless you're on really bad internet.

IMO its just easier to let UT download them for you. If you do download all them, and they change, maps will re-download into cache, and system files (vehicles) will give you a version mismatch error (Why, oh why UT2004 uses two different schemes I don't know, and makes no sense).

[macintoxicated]

ut2004.ini
PurgeCacheDays=0

Thanks. Theoretically I still want cache to be purged. mine is set to 30 right now. So if I set it to 90, I should see less redownloading?

[pooty]

Yes, so every 30/90 etc days anything older gets re-downloaded. So set it to 180 or something and you won't redownload anything for 6 months, unless it changes.

[buttface1]

Is there a list of dependencies for each map, like which textures, sounds etc to download to be able to use the map?

[captainsnarf]

Not really. The easiest way to play the maps offline is to use cache extractor. You can download it here as a part of the UT2004Tools package.

1) Join the server and play the maps online that you want to also play offline.
2) Quit UT and run CacheExtractor. Extract everything, ignore the warnings.
3) The maps with all dependencies should now be available for offline play.

The caveat here is that sometimes the packages will change on the server, and you'll no longer be able to join. You get a 'package mismatch' error when you try. If that happens, the easiest way to fix is delete the package on your system it's complaining about, then join the server. Then after, re-run CacheExtractor to get the updated package so you can play offline again.

UT2004Tools also comes with a UTDeps program that will show you all the dependencies of a package. But grabbing them that way and downloading individually is the tedious way.

[buttface1]

Thanks so much!

[pooty]

You can use this: https://www.utzone.de/forum/downloads.p ... le&id=3669
UTDeps.

The caveat here is that sometimes the packages will change on the server,

But it works differently for maps, those will autodownload if the server version is different. Why UT chose to do it two different ways is puzzling.

But yes grabbing all the maps, textures, meshes will save a bunch of time. However also check the PurgeCacheDays and make it something large. 30 days is default. Make it more like 365 or something, that way it gets saved in cache for a year.