When will hl2 preloading begin?

[Go Go Codgo]

This i why i'm just buying it from a shop, i've pre-ordered mine with GAME, downloading it is cool, but when you have that CD in your hand and that lovely case you really FEEL that you own it! Saves all that bloody downloading too.

 

[poseyjmac]

wonder if SDK will come before hl2 preload

 

[Apos]

You know, they don't -have- to wait until it goes Gold to pre-load some of it. I'm sure there is data there that is signed off and not going to change at all, for example some textures, music, sound files and such.

Maybe, but you never know what is goiing to cause a bug and have to be changed somewhere along the line. They are also not going to focus on ramping up their server power just for some random release of content: they'll wait for the whole shebang.

 

[Go Go Codgo]

wonder if SDK will come before hl2 preload

Tis surpose too.

 

[Lanthanide]

I address that in the rest of the post, Apos. It is also doubtful that a texture or sound or similar would suddenly cause a 'bug' that hadn't been noticed before.

As for ramping up server power - it makes more sense to spread the demand over a longer time period than it does to try and cram it all together. It also gives them a chance to test out their servers - if they can't handle the distribution (crashes, slow-downs etc) of a small part of the game, there's no way they'd be able to handle distributing the whole thing.

 

[Epsi]

Maybe, but you never know what is goiing to cause a bug and have to be changed somewhere along the line. They are also not going to focus on ramping up their server power just for some random release of content: they'll wait for the whole shebang.

Models, sounds and textures aren't gonna cause bugs. Code causes bugs. Code is also small.

At this kinda stage in production, they're just touching up the game, which means they're not gonna be doing any work to the vast majority of the art assets, which also form the bulk of the game data. You don't need 5 gigs for code, for example.

 

[Apos]

It is also doubtful that a texture or sound or similar would suddenly cause a 'bug' that hadn't been noticed before.

Nonsense. They might want to tweak the plot. A soundfile might be too long, or a texture not the right quality or not appropriate for certain areas, etc. Any of this stuff is certainly possible, so they aren't going to waste time and effort doing a piecemeal release.

 

[Epsi]

They're not gonna change the plot now. There comes a point where you just freeze things where they are, then drive towards getting the game release-worthy.

Anyways, the *vast* majority of the content is finished, why hold up that for one or two textures? They can always alter what they've preloaded, it's like patching the preload.

 

[Lanthanide]

Nonsense. They might want to tweak the plot.

That's not a bug, it's a design change.

A soundfile might be too long

So send a new copy of it out later, as I originally said.

or a texture not the right quality or not appropriate for certain areas, etc.

Use a different texture, or send a new copy out later.

Any of this stuff is certainly possible, so they aren't going to waste time and effort doing a piecemeal release.

Yes, so that is why they select areas that are very unlikely to be changed. And it isn't that much more effort, particularly if their servers crash while they are trying to distribute the main game and have thousands of fans screaming down their throats. Better to be safe than sorry.

This way they can spread the risk (and hence minimize it) as well as get a test-run for what the server load is likely to be like. In my experience, software companies always under-estimate how much bandwidth they are going to need to run some server for a new game being released. So releasing some of it would allow them to get a better idea of how good their estimate was.

 

[Voodoo_Chile]

You know, they don't -have- to wait until it goes Gold to pre-load some of it. I'm sure there is data there that is signed off and not going to change at all, for example some textures, music, sound files and such. They could package some of it up into a smaller file and start distributing that, and distribute a program that re-packs it all together in the correct format once it's gone gold.

And maybe 1% of the stuff they thought was finished actually gets changed? Well they can re-distribute that later and alter the re-packaging program to use the new data instead of the old (and delete the old data, if they were so inclined).

I doubt they'd do something sensible like that though.

I agree,the big selling point is that it can be constantly updated.If Valve we so inclined they could start preloading HL2 now even if it wasnet finished and make various modifications/additions/subtractions through updates.It would allow them to really test out steam aswell and also they could start preloading in waves.As everyone has a steam ID given out in a chronalogical order from how close they were to signing up at the big release they could take the first 200,000 users and allow them to preload it.Then the next week and another 200,000 and so on.There is about 10-12 weeks between here and Sept. 1.They could have nearly everyone wanting a preload serviced by then.(Assuming its a Sept. 1 realease date which hopefully is undue pessimisim on my part)

 

[Wraithen]

I was going to ask if they could do that; patch before it was unlocked, but I guess you answered that one. I guess we're just going to have to wait for Steam users to get excited over losing a few gigs of hard drive space. Seeing as no one's said that yet, I guess I won't be playing Half Life 2 in the next couple of months.

 

[Epsi]

Well, if they can't patch the preload, then I'd be mightily disappointed, and it would be really inconsistent with the way Steam seems to work at the moment. If Steam just monolithically downloaded .gcf files, they'd be no point.

 

[RMachucaA]

Expect preloading in late August

 

[Rygir]

It's a pity they can't just broadcast it... (as opposed to unicast).

How do you choose to preload it? or heck, can you choose NOT to (the E3 binks were preloaded without consent iirc)?

 

[Wesisapie]

a litte birdie told me it was going to start tomorrow.
then the cat told me to mix my tablets.

 

[jimbones]

wow, woesiapie. Can I have some of that?

 

[ACLeroK212]

i'd expect a preload is not too far off. steam updated yesterday and there was a few preload changes/additions and the like. most likely gearing up for the hl2 release.

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news

 

[712]

i'd expect a preload is not too far off. steam updated yesterday and there was a few preload changes/additions and the like. most likely gearing up for the hl2 release.

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news

Yes, and in the information from valve thread, valve says that they properly will fix the friendslist bug.

Is that fixed with this Steam update? Havn't installed Steam since my last formation.

 

[Razor]

I would of thought that the preloading would begin just after the game goes gold, giving people enough time to download it for 2 weeks and then unlock it as soon as it appears in stores.

 

[RogueShadow]

Valve Confirmed it will beguin uploading one week before its release date.

As far as I know they only confirmed it would be pre-loading a while before it was released, i'm not aware of a specified time.
Where did you get your information?

 

[ACLeroK212]

As far as I know they only confirmed it would be pre-loading a while before it was released, i'm not aware of a specified time.
Where did you get your information?

agreed

pure speculation

 

[ACLeroK212]

Expect preloading in late August

evidence??