There is now simple website added that allows you to add your mods to system.

http://packages.springrts.com/

There will be 1 account per mod, if you want account for your mod, drop me or CarRepairer (author of that upload web) a message or post here.

After you login you can upload file with mod - or point to URL where it already is and set optional tag (like "latest") and version name for it.

File you upload must be in sdz format, because system unzips it and it cannot handle 7zip.

Benefit of these packages is that they can be automatically updated on changes and let clients download and store only those small changes instead of whole mod.

Time for car to add his pig-tossing game. He said he would once det got sorted out the mod hosting.

Could support for 7zip not be added in the future?

Also, it would be a good idea to enable http downloading (a la, I can point it to a web address and have it fetch the file from there).

Maybe, no plans for now.

Oops... my bad.

Edit: I can tell you right now though, that until 7zip support is added that it will be a serious pain in the ass to most of the rest of us.

Windows does weird shit to sdz's, and the majority of us don't want to be limited to a single distribution platform. So yeah, sd7... kind of a big deal.

You can still offer sd7 version on websites..

This is just for rapid - it unzips it and discards archive ..
archive is not stored anywhere..

You can just un7z your sd7 and zip it using winzip and upload that to rapid while keeping sd7 on springfiles..

Hmm, will sdz and sd7 versions of the same thing sync? Moreover that's still uploading the same thing twice... Annoying, but doable.

Yes it will sync.

Does this have support for multiple dependencies? For example, I was going to package the music separately to avoid the need to include it each time. Much the same for unit models and textures and anything large of consequence.

Edit: Nice work btw!

It will work with dependencies if you provide the correct name for the dependency.

Right:
Wrong:

But the whole point of Rapid downloader is that it only downloads changes between updates. Splitting the dependency will only benefit people who download the mod archive not using rapid, and for them it will cause complications of getting the dependency. I would anticipate it to be a new EVO FAQ for "Why am I desynced???". My suggestion is for people to just use SD if they want small updates. For an example, install ba:version:7.04 and then install ba:version:7.1 too see how fast the second is.

In other words, the whole reasonforbeing of dependencies is gone when using this rapid system. You can upload the 200mb version 1 of your mod that contains all your music, then make a change to a single unit stat and upload version 2 which is still 200mb, and no one will notice the tiny update which will happen automatically for them in a split second.

SD is currently the only thing that supports this system, effectively enslaving anyone who uses it to only it, assuming that dependencies are involved.



This is not clear at all. Please clarify.
My question was this: If I split things into dependencies for the large stuff, will rapid download the dependencies for rapid users automatically?

If the answer is no, then that is a big enough problem to qualify as a bug. Which leads into my first sentence:



Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Edit: Edited for conciseness.

Edit2: @Car, The whole point of storing big stuff that never changes in dependencies is so I don't have to upload 200 megs of crap everytime.

For example, I can put models, bitmaps, sounds, music, unittextures all in a dependency, which means that when I make an update, I'm uploading maybe at most a few mb of crap.

Yes, SD Rapid handles dependencies.

Ok, in that case you can safely ignore all the bull I posted in my last post. The whole reason I'm asking these questions (besides simple curiosity) is because as I said before, SD is currently the only system that handles all this stuff, and until anything else does, it is still very necessary to distribute content in -other ways/by other means- as well.

That's true, it sucks for you to have to upload. But the benefits of ease and simplicity are good.


Valid point. Let's hope that changes. This system was purposely designed in the engine to benefit the distribution of content by reducing file size on everyone's computer, and download bandwidth greatly reduced - get 10 different *A mods (and their incremental versions) all with 90% of the same art assets, why download each one separately?

That's true, it sucks for you to have to upload. But the benefits of ease and simplicity are good.

Well that's why dependency support is so crucial. This way, you(in other words, "I") can have your("my") cake and eat it too

And I did mean it when I said good job on this stuff, it really is excellent work and something I've been whining for for a long time. It seems as though a lot of attention to detail has gone into it and I greatly appreciate that. I've been looking forward to the day that I can chuck SMU out the nearest window, and it looks like that day is coming very very soon.

Last question I think, does it work with SL? I thought I read somewhere that it and SL currently don't get along, but was I mistaken?

No, rapid is not supported by SL.
Braindamage promised he would interface SD with SL though - so it asks for mod when you try to join game.

What if we want to distribute a mod or game that consists of multiple data packages? Say, I make a new version of Merc Squad, and it uses SoundModule and LUPSModule and expects World Builder to be installed?

If those packages are listed as dependencies, then theoretically rapid will see that and maek download.

Really?

That sounds pretty awesome.

Can maps also call for such things? I.E., if we package maps with World Builder (or a fork or whatever) as a dependency, will it fetch it if the end-user doesn't have it?