MoroseTroll on 9/10/2009 at 05:46
I think that all accessible ways should be used: BitTorrent, FTP, whatever. TDM Team just need to sign their package, for example, with MD5 for those taffers who would like to verify its authenticity.
mudi on 9/10/2009 at 06:10
md5sum darkmod.zip > darkmod.zip.md5
Done! :D
codereader on 9/10/2009 at 06:36
Whether we'll be providing a torrent somehow depends on the availability of a good tracker. We're not very fond of the thought of using the usual suspects like piratebay and company.
So, is somebody around here able to run a torrent tracker for us?
edit: does anybody have experience with this one: (
http://www.legaltorrents.com/)?
MoroseTroll on 9/10/2009 at 06:37
Quote Posted by mudi
md5sum darkmod.zip > darkmod.zip.md5
Zip is too...old and inefficient format. What about 7-Zip or even NanoZip ;)?
Brian The Dog on 9/10/2009 at 07:44
The thing is that everyone can extract zip files (it's even built into Windows now), so if teams go for a release that the most people can use easily and hassle-free, then zip wins all the way, even though it's not as good quality. Of course, a 7-zip self-extracting archive would be the best :)
codereader on 9/10/2009 at 09:53
We are aware of the superior compression algorithms of 7-zip, but we won't be using that, sorry. TDM is going to be delivered in PK4/ZIP format, for several reasons.
Ringer on 9/10/2009 at 10:16
ease of unzipping being the most pressing reason I imagine...Nothing worse then downloading something, then having to find and install a program to unzip it...
van HellSing on 9/10/2009 at 10:33
That's what you have self-extracting 7-zips for, duh.
MoroseTroll on 9/10/2009 at 10:41
Quote Posted by Brian The Dog
Of course, a 7-zip self-extracting archive would be the best
Yes, but only for Windows. Not sure about Linux.
Quote Posted by codereader
TDM is going to be delivered in PK4/ZIP format, for several reasons.
Yes, I understand.
Quote Posted by Ringer
Nothing worse then downloading something, then having to find and install a program to unzip it...
7-Zip is a free archiver available from (
www.7-zip.org) for many OSes ;).
codereader on 9/10/2009 at 10:52
There will be no reason to unzip TDM. Our resources are packed in so-called PK4 files (which are just renamed ZIPs) and the Doom 3 engine handles them natively.
Compressing those PK4 files won't yield any significant spacesaving, so there's no point in discussing which compression program is suitable best.
We will be providing two or three separate ways to download TDM, but our recommended method will be to use our custom installer/updater application. Download that program (5 MB) and execute it in your Doom 3 folder, the rest is fully automatic. The installer will download the darkmod resources from one of our 5 mirrors, which are weighted according to their bandwidth allocation. The installer is available for Windows and Linux.
Once downloaded the same updater can be used to keep your TDM installation up to date. Which is important, as we'll provide updates, additions and bugfixes over time.
For people who don't like the installer for whatever reason, there will either be a torrent (if there's a tracker available) or a huge ZIP/sfx7zip on some random filefront-style mirror.
