New Cataclysm Beta Launcher coming soon

[voodoodad]

Blue post on the O-Forums;

The new Cataclysm Launcher allows you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading, installing, and patching World of Warcraft. We will be releasing this new Launcher into the Cataclysm beta soon, and we’d like to get your feedback on the toolset and gameplay experience. To continue playing in the Cataclysm beta after the next patch, you will need to do the following: Uninstall your current Cataclysm beta client Windows From your Start Menu, click Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs Mac Select your “World of Warcraft Beta” folder and drag it to the Trash icon on the dock Right-click on the Trash icon and select “Empty Trash” Download the latest version of the Cataclysm beta client Visit http://battle.net/ Login to your Battle.net account Select “Account” at the top of the page, and then select “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta” from the Game Accounts list. From the Download Game Client box, select Windows or Mac to begin downloading the installer. What’s changed: Launcher We've redesigned the Launcher to explain your installation progress. You will see a new progress bar with sections (Red, Yellow, Green) that represent the amount of data you currently have installed. There are three stages of download progress: - SETUP (RED): Core game content is being prepared. You cannot enter the game at this time. - AVAILABLE (YELLOW): Major game content is not completely applied. You can play, but your game experience will not be ideal. - PLAYABLE (GREEN): Final game content is almost complete. You may experience a few game issues with playing at this stage. Updater and Downloader The Updater and Downloader have been integrated closely into the Launcher, resulting in less application switching when patching and installing. Notes: All World of Warcraft data will continue to download and apply whether you wait in the Launcher or are playing in-game. If you find the play experience undesirable, you may exit the game and allow the Launcher to continue the download. This may improve the play experience for users with low bandwidth. Let us know about your experience with the new Launcher. When sending feedback, let us know what your connection speed is and what stage (Red/Yellow/Green) your progress bar is showing. This will help us optimize the Launcher and get you in the game faster.

I'm assuming this will be today (Tuesday)... Gonna be lots of downtime on the beta while all this gets downloaded all over again...

[yj589794]

hmmmm, hopefully all the patch download files I have saved will still work. It will be annoying to have to download everything again

[Sideshow]

how much GB is it actually ?

I requested a beta key, but I can only download 10GB per month
(i'm on a special network for students .... i'm not a student anymore though)

[yj589794]

Since I have been beta I've probably had to download ~10GB of patches and installers.

Recently there was combo update patch that contained all previous minor updates. So, if you installed now you would need to download about 2.5GB for the installer and 2+GB for the patches.

[Vlad]

I doubt any patches will work, but on the bright side when a patch is released -existing files will be replaced instead of new files being added on-top the current installation. This means we may save up to 1GB of HD space, yay!
For example, when I had the trial client that used streaming technology, I could download files in the background and still play. I only got to like 3-4 zones so in the end the client was around 1GB instead of 12GB.

Reason I doubt the patches will work is because they want to test their stream based client (Trial has been using it for a while). If there are bugs, it's nice that we discover them instead having everyone download the patches and simply apply them onto the game.

[voodoodad]

Bump.

Had Cairrenn retitle the thread to accurately represent what its about.

I've been following the o-forums regarding this and I gather that no one's really sure how big the new build will be as everything should be consolidated into one build, as opposed to one patch overwriting another several times.

While I like the idea of using a more streamlined patch downloading system, the idea of unininstalling and reinstalling worries me just a tad.

Discuss.

[voodoodad]

More info.

[Ferous]

I don't see this 'new' launcher. I deleted mine, and am now redownloading it, and it looks like this:



Do you delete your Cataclysm Installer Folder as well? That is what I did, if not, I'll restore it. THanks

[Quokka]

Originally Posted by Ferous I don't see this 'new' launcher. I deleted mine, and am now redownloading it, and it looks like this: - don't need image - Do you delete your Cataclysm Installer Folder as well? That is what I did, if not, I'll restore it. THanks

I did a complete unistall with the option off removing the folders, and than just downloaded the new client and installed it.

Works like a charm.

The new Launcher shows up after installing the 658MB that you are downloading. (The Cataclysm core version)
That new launcher downloads a patch nearly 15gigs.

ps anyone found an option to disable the p2p in the new launcher?

[voodoodad]

Ferous, what you are seeing is the old downloader in the process of downloading the NEW launcher.

1. The 658 Mb file downloads

2. This file installs. Which apparently can be a lengthy process all on its own, accounting for your computer's speed.

3. When the installation completes, the NEW launcher should come up. You will recognize it by the little colored bars located on the main progress bar.

4. The "play" button will be grayed out initially, but should become active somewhere around 5%, depending on your download speed (I think)


As far as deleting your previous data folder, I don't think it makes any difference at all, other than freeing up probably needed hdd space. The new launcher (at this point anyway) doesn't seem to use any of the old files.

Hope this helps. Spent a good chunk of the night trying to say the same things over at the o-forums, but getting through the screams of sheer terror from the panicked masses is almost impossible.

[Hamstah]

Originally Posted by Quokka ps anyone found an option to disable the p2p in the new launcher?

Not 100% sure on this, but my understanding is that if you open the game launcher (i.e. for Wrath) and click the options button, you can disable p2p from there and it *should* work for the new downloader/installer thingy.

[voodoodad]

Originally Posted by Hamstah-Emeriss Not 100% sure on this, but my understanding is that if you open the game launcher (i.e. for Wrath) and click the options button, you can disable p2p from there and it *should* work for the new downloader/installer thingy.

Yes. Also if you disable P2P in the initial dl of the new client, it will stay disabled.

[IQgryn]

So I think I like the new launcher/patcher/whatever you want to call it. But, it still has some quirks.

Any terrain that hasn't loaded has a mottle blue translucent box about 30-50% larger than the object itself that you can't enter (but can get stuck on the corner of) that will disappear once the texture itself is downloaded. It's possible to glitch these out and get through them, but it often results in falling through the world. You usually get thrown back up into the air after you fall far enough, which works well for my druid and priest but not my other toons.

EVERYTHING is loaded in parts. The map. The minimap. The freaking talent trees. I had 1/3 of my talents available (one spec) for viewing for a good ten minutes. Sounds seem to be put behind a lot of other things, which is probably better than hearing but not seeing stuff.

Also, for those running it under wine: you may need the patch at http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=29301 to get the installer to get past 2%. Once you get the game installed, the launcher will freak out until it gets past a certain point downloading the patch/game...but it will keep going in the background even if the launcher itself closes. You can verify that by watching your download activity or checking that Blizzard Downloader.exe is running. If it isn't for some reason, you can also open Wow directly (run wow.exe instead of the launcher) and leave it at the login screen; it will download in the background (though much more slowly). I was getting 300-500 kB/s with the background process and 20-30 with Wow open.

Of course, this is all during the yellow part, where they tell you it'll act weird. I don't have the patience to wait for green. I only stopped to post this because the world server crashed.

EDIT: it seems the download after the Launcher closes is not as consistent as I thought. Running Wow directly will still work though.

[phiobos]

Installing the beta client was a terrible experience.
But the new launcher is also crap.
The first time I entered the game, there was no sound effect.
And I don't like downloading file after logged in. It takes me too much time to wait.

[Seerah]

Well, phiobos, you can still do it the old way, where you wait for it to finish downloading before you log in.

[acapela]

thank you, WoWI, for the beta key.

however, this new download process is going to be very unpleasant, going forward (over a 768Kb rural DSL).

in fact, Blizzard seems to have invoked a catch-22. the launcher lists (or, originally listed) a 14.5Gb backlog of stuff to download (which seems a bit excessive, for a game that should release on a single DVD)... but while the launcher+game subsume enough bandwidth to render web browsing and all other network usage basically impossible, it also seems to be throttling itself well below my maximum available bandwidth, such that the huge backlog is going to take 4-5 days to complete (even running around the clock).

is there any way to configure this new launcher to use "as much bandwidth as it can get", so that i can get this over with and get my network access back? or should i just not worry about it (i.e. allow the game to download only while it is up, in which case it could take months to grab everything)?

[voodoodad]

Acapela, the first thing you should do is start the "live" launcher and disable peer to peer transfers and throttle download in background. Disabling these two things will speed up your download by as much as ten times.

As far as the size, you have to keep in mind that in the beta you're downloading the ENTIRE client. When Cata goes live, there will be a downloaded prepatch that everyone will have and then the stuff you install from the retail disk will all be added to your original WoW client. So, yeah the retail most likely will be only one DVD.

Hope this helps.

[Quokka]

Originally Posted by voodoodad Acapela, the first thing you should do is start the "live" launcher and disable peer to peer transfers and throttle download in background. Disabling these two things will speed up your download by as much as ten times. As far as the size, you have to keep in mind that in the beta you're downloading the ENTIRE client. When Cata goes live, there will be a downloaded prepatch that everyone will have and then the stuff you install from the retail disk will all be added to your original WoW client. So, yeah the retail most likely will be only one DVD. Hope this helps.

I'd be more than happy if the give you a standalone installer, so that if you setup a new system, you don't have to install all WoW & 3 expansions. But just the latest version. Would save a ton off time, since between the version there is allways a patch.