Very happy to see the new update but I think I’ve hit the final straw with Unity’s updating “system”. Unity probably should think about making a patching program that only downloads the needed files. I fully understand there are other things for me to do during these once a while updates but the fact is that redownloading the same files over and over is quite unneeded. Some people with limited bandwidths can’t handle this. Their internet becomes slow after awhile and stays like that till either the next day or the end of the week/month.
Updating options I would like to see:
Magnet Link type torrents. Be able to use Utorrent. Utorrent allows for pausing, bandwidth limiting, etc.
Standalone patcher. Be able to download the updated files only instead of the whole program
File packs. Be able to download the updated files right from Unity’s site.
Package-Management
EDIT: OP seems too vague and harsh in a way. Reworded it to make it seem “friendlier”.
EDIT2: Can’t add “Package-Management” to polls. But thats an option to think about.
Well honestly if you programming a game you should consider that Unity is doing you a favour. You don’t need to be surfing YouTube and various sites if you’re trying to write a game do you? Use the free time to get outside for a change.
My problem’s not the speed, it’s the bandwidth cap. Cable companies have a complete and utter monopoly in where I live, and exercise it by only giving you ~60-100 GB (depending on the price) before you start paying exorbitant fees per GB.
I’m not the only one home most of the time. Currently my little sister is home today from school. She likes to be on the internet. During large updates like this ill work on non unity parts of my projects to pass the time like you said. Sometimes ill play offline games to pass the time.
I live in Sandisfield “Berkshire County” Massachusetts and we are only given 3 options for internet. This is the boon docks. We can get 756kbps dialup, 2.5mb by .75mb DSL, or satellite internet with a daily limit of 1GB. We currently have the 2.5 by .75mb DSL for $30 from Verizon. This is the fastest DSL package too. The only good part about the DSL is no limit.
Just hang in there.
Once the download is completed you should be good to go for the next time. Well, unless this release is buggy and they release another, fixed one next week. But let’s not assume that.
UK’s not so different actually - we have our own boonies, everything’s just more tightly packed. We also have a lot of “heritage” sites where the locals refuse to let anyone dig up the roads to lay cable. I was in one of these quaint villages for three years on 2.5Mb myself, then I moved a mile up the road earlier this year and now have 120Mb… a case of the old world doesn’t want the modern world, regardless what century it is.
Ok, take it easy. I understand 1 hour isn’t bad. I probably should of worded my OP better to say that I hate having to reinstall the same files over and over again when we should be able to just install the “updated” things. It would be nice for people to understand how my family works too. My family tends to flip their lid and point fingers at who is killing the internet because they can’t use it too. Its’ really childish around here. I would like to see a much better alternative to how things work with unity’s updater. Maybe even a magnet link type option in which I can use UTorrent to download the updates. FireFox, chrome, etc won’t allow me to pause if needed. I could just easily download the update at night but thats whole different rant there.
Today I learned that dial-up is still a thing…
I have Unlimited 100Mbps Internet for $25/month, and I live in, what is considered to be, the poorest country in Europe…
That’s a neat idea you have there. Using the bittorrent protocol for the updates. It would be a win-win situation. The load on the Unity servers would be greatly reduced and people could pause and resume the download as often as needed, plus the added bonus of having download verification build-in.
It must be a pain for people with unreliable internet connections (unreliable, not slow) to download such a package only to find out that the file is corrupted later.
@Devil_Inside:
Even in rich countries like here in Germany there are problems. It’s mostly about fast interenet being available in less populated areas. In large cities you must be very unlucky to get a poor connection. If you don’t, you have to be lucky to get a decent one because the carriers don’t feel like investing in a better infrastructure.
EXACTLY! Thank you for saying that! I’ve had firefox pull this stunt on me multiple times in the past back in the mid Unity 3.x series. Took me almost 2-3 times till FireFox downloaded the file correctly.
True. It doesn’t bother/hurt/“insert whatever” me, so it shouldn’t bother/hurt/“insert whatever” you attitude of some people, I’ll never understand.
I’ll be sure to never take a look at anything you create, and will do my best to steer people I know away from your work, with a shitty attitude like that. Are you and Adam Orth friends?
The possibility of using option 2 or 3 of your OP is highly dependant on how modular Unity is. I’m not talking about the usage of Unity, which is very modular, but the engine itself, which is closed source software so only the developers know.
If the potential Unity 4.2 to 4.3 patch would be 900MB instead of 1GB large, it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
Still, if Unity is so modular such a system would be feasible, it would be amazing.
And while we’re at it:
Having small patches that update you to the next version would be nice, but having the Unity updating process be like updating a modern Linux distribution (package management) would probably be the best news in years.
I feel bad for Windows and OSX users who don’t know package management and how much easier it makes your life. Having it in Unity would be… :shock:
ZeroBounds is most likely having a bad day. We all have those so I’m not holding anything against him/her. It would be different if there was any rediculous name calling then id be mad.
I hope an official Unity backend dev says something on here. I would like to know if theres any info about an updater or some type of change.
