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Is there anything we can do to make the new vehicles load better? I use a cache extracter and still have to go and delete files for I can join. Today I had to delete the fire vehicles files, cached the new ones after joining, and then couldn't join the very next match because of the very same mismatched vehicles, so I have to delete them again.

It sucks. I'm not sure there is a better way.

For my last update to the Pallas, I made a new version 2 package. In this case you wouldn't have had package mismatch, but you would now have two versions of the pallas vehicle and two versions of the mutator with the same name. This caused a lot of problems for pooty too, where he had to update every map that had a pallas on it. And everybody had to download the new maps. It sucks for everybody.

It's really a lot of work to try and maintain multiple packages. If you add up all the man-hours it would take for the modders to make new packages every time vs the time the players have to delete mismatch packages when they change it's just not worth the effort. It can also cause bugs of its own resulting in more churn and more releases.

If it's any consolation I have to do it every single time I play - my mods are always modified.

Sadly no. UT isn't sophisticated enough. Why not just download the vehicle files and cache them?
Increase your cache size if needed, and cache expiry.

Would it be helpful to have a .zip or directory of all the current vehicle files, so you could download the latest? Its a bit of work for me though, as everytime there's an update I have to rebuild it, but I can probably automate it.

Is it possible to have two UT installs? One for playing cached files. Download the latest automictically to the cache and the other have all your favorite maps + packages installed for offline play. Update your offline install at your leisure.

I'll throw this out there. But what if there were a designated day to upload new files? Then players can update once a month and it saves you guys from uploading numerous versions of the same file during a given month. Unless there is a bug that breaks game play. Call that a critical update. That would also make the idea of zipping all the updates easier. You could also keep using the test maps for trying tweaks, new stuff and confirming fixes.

Omni February Update
Vehicles_v2.zip
Map_Edits_v19.zip

Omni March Update
etc....

So, does the cache extractor cause the issue? The only files in my cache folder are a bunch of uxx files and one ini file. I run the extractor at the end of gaming anytime there was a download while I was gaming. like I said, I had to delete the three files for the fire vehicles, download the new ones, used the cache extractor, and then had to go through all of that again on the very next map for the very same vehicles.

Sort of. It the UT engine. It doesn't seem to handle the .u files being changed. So if they don't match exactly you get the error, so if you cache extract -- then we make an update, you'll get the error.

Is it possible to have two UT installs? One for playing cached files. Download the latest automictically to the cache and the other have all your favorite maps + packages installed for offline play. Update your offline install at your leisure.

I don't think you can, only because of the Windows Registry crap, it puts the UT directory in the Windows Registry. You probably can on linux.

I'll throw this out there. But what if there were a designated day to upload new files? Then players can update once a month and it saves you guys from uploading numerous versions of the same file during a given month. Unless there is a bug that breaks game play. Call that a critical update. That would also make the idea of zipping all the updates easier. You could also keep using the test maps for trying tweaks, new stuff and confirming fixes.

I was thinking there'd either be a zip file, or just a directory off the www.omnipotents.com server that you can download the latest. Its not a ton of extra work to put them there. Right now all the files are on the redirect www.omnipotents.com/omni-ut2004-redirect and they are uz2 compressed which is the UT compression, you have the uncompress in your UT system directory. I think I could just mirror that with the uncompressed files, newer ones anyway, and maybe make a "starter" zip file. Meaning, I could make the Monthly Update zip, then just the directory would have any individual updates -- which is usually just a couple of files here and there.

I had done this a couple times previously and made the Omni download so might be good to do this again.

Its still just way simpler to just cache them. Increase the cache size, cache expiry.

Can you expand on increasing the cache and cache expiry?

In the UT2004.ini file:
[Core.System]
PurgeCacheDays=90 (or whatever, 0 will never clear it)

I thought there was a size parameter but I think there's no limit..

in the same file there is:

[Engine.GameEngine]
CacheSizeMegs=64

Is this what your are talking about?

No that's for internal engine caching...not for content/downloads.