MrSmite

Yeah, I already do that. Oh, I see. It's been a while since I've looked at profiles, I didn't realize you could give people stars, I just thought it had something to do with how active you were on the forums. It's too bad we can't convert this stuff to cash

This is strange... I let the client run for several hours and when I noticed the internet activity had stopped I closed it. There was this "placeholdertemp" file in the Data folder that was about 2.5 GB. Problem is, the client doesn't start anymore, it says "can't stream required patch data". Also, it replaced my MFIL file with MoP.

Ok, so I finished patching and ended up with a 20 GB client. I ran it and it shrunk to 15 GB and now it's downloading something without me being logged in. All the MPQ files have "lock" files so we'll see how long this takes and what the final result is.

Interesting. The forums seem to be a bit broken compared to a few months ago. The "likes" list doesn't appear in any post, you can't view likes that you've given in "my content" and you can't see who liked your post in "my content" either. I have 5 stars under my name in my profile but it doesn't tell me what they're for and I sure as hell don't have the power of a 5-Star General around here Editing posts screws up formatting Sometimes the cursor gets stuck inside the quote box so you have to submit the post then edit it I'm using Firefox too which supposedly is the answer to all your problems...

+Guybrush, thanks for that explanation. I must've disable notifications a long time ago and forgot. +CDawg, I wonder if it's because you have two caps. at the beginning.

What does putting a "+" sign near someone's name do? I thought it might PM them that they were mentioned in a thread but I haven't seen any messages when people "+" me. Also, why does it sometimes not work? In this post, I used two of them (alysher and CDawg) and only the first name is clickable.

+alysher I've seen that method mentioned on another forum and I thnk +CDawg might have tried it as well. The method that I'm using does not stream any additional data and the wow folder is more than 20 GB before launch. Most likely the 6 GB you're streaming is what would be obtained via the patch / BGD method. When I finish, I will try your method and then hash all the files to see if they're identical. Note: I remember one of the ways I tried resulted in that same "Performing initial setup" but I don't remember what I did to get that and I haven't seen it since. Also, with that version of the client I would see messages on the loading screens like "Since this is your first time playing this race, it may take a while to load. Please wait..." and internet activity would be present.

The older BGD was simply a torrent client that would only download the pieces you need. Those torrents used to say "streaming" in the URL. The more recent 4.x torrents now say "direct" (and also "use pieces 0") which to me indicates that it no longer downloads parts. This is probably why most of the 4.x patch websites used to say you didn't need previous patches. I've done similar before and the client works fine with only 3 errors in the extractors about missing files. I typically end up with a 20 GB client that gets trimmed to 17 GB after login. One thing to note is that without running BGD I get a streaming icon while playing and when I use the BGD method I do not. I'm mostly doing this to see if I can get consistent results with my last 2 attempts. If so, I will update the guide with the newer, more detailed process about when to run BGD and when not to. I hope my ISP doesn't flag me for downloading over 100 Gb of data in the past week

Right now I'm trying a new method, only running the backgrounddownloader for certain patches. So far I'm up to 4.1.0.1407 and have a 16 GB client. One patch downloaded 8 GB and I still have 8 patches to go with 7 of them where the download doesn't error with "not authorized"... Edit: Up to patch 4.3.2.15211 now and have a 20 GB client. This is the second patch which the download is authorized and it actualy downloads something (another 8 GB). The files are art.mpq, sound.mpq, world.mpq, world2.mpq and wow-update-base-15211.mpq which incidentally total 8 GB in size. It doesn't appear to be streaming but rather downloading the whole file(s).

Here's an interesting reply to a question about MoP downloading 17 GB of data: It seems that the final tally for MoP is 19 GB which would indicate that the supposed "23 GB" for Cata is incorrect. In the 13+ times I've messed around with patching to Cata, I've always ended up with a 21 GB client that, after logging in once, finalized at 17 GB.

Interesting. I wonder how many Chinese players used Ladik's MPQ editor to just replace the files inside with those from a "normal" client. Anyway, I wish I was better with a disassembler. From what I can tell, the Launcher always contacts a patch server to overwrite the MFIL with one from MoP. If you stop it outright then it says it can't find patch info and quits. I was trying to edit where it decides this is an error and force it to parse the existing MFIL file but, to no avail. I found where it calls InternetCrackURL() but you can't simply NOP that because it needs to use it later when downloading MPQs and stuff. I also tried to simply stop it from writing the MFIL but well, I sucked at that too

This is interesting (maybe)... After 12 BSODs during installation from the Cata DVD, I finally got to 4.0.0.12911. Since I've been through this a bunch of times with varying degrees of success, I thought I might just see what all the fuss is about with the MFIL files. I grabbed the 4.3.4.15595 MFIL and put together the URL to download the following: Once downloaded, I extracted it using Ladik's MPQ editor. This file contains Launcher.exe, WoW.exe and other files you'd find in the root WoW directory. Here's the interesting part though... notice above it says fileversion=15050 which indicates that this MPQ file is current up to 4.3.4.15595? Well guess what version the WoW.exe is in that file? Right, it's 4.0.0.12911 even though the MFIL is for 4.3.4.15595. Now not every patch has an MFIL and also some of the MFIL have this: 12911.streaming instead of 15050.direct. The MFIL started using the "direct" label at patch wow-4.3.0.15050-to-4.3.2.15211 and interestingly enough, this is the first patch where you could patch any version of WoW without needing previous patches. Just for kicks, I decided to check base-Win.MPQ from an older, streaming version: Not surprisingly, this file comes up as 404 on all four of blizzard's distribution servers if you use 12911.streaming in the URL but changing it to 12911.direct nets you a healthy MPQ file with identical files as the ones with fileversion=15050. In fact, it's the same MPQ. The filesize is equal to the size from the 15050 URL even though the size for the 12911 URL clearly indicates a different file. A theory I'm testing now is to direct download all the MPQ files in the 15595 MFIL file because it appears that the streaming versions of the files have been removed. Edit 1: Well after pre-allocating all the files, it only comes out to 14 GB so I doubt that direct downloading these is the way to go. The downloader must be doing some sort of "diffing" but my skills with OllyDbg are pretty crap so I couldn't figure out what it's really doing. Edit 2: It's interesting that in all the MFIL files, locale_enCN and locale_zhCN have an alternate.mpq which is not available to any other locale. I Wonder what's in it considering it's over 1GB in size.

+KingPin, +Aokromes IMO those threads shouldn't be merged. One is a guide about TortoiseGit, the other about commandline. Now when a user has a question about one method, they have to wade through posts of unrelated information about the other method. That's like merging a thread about driving cars with a thread about flying planes because they both use a similar underlyng component: fuel. If you want less stickies then you should implement the "Guides" subforum I suggested months ago. Then you wouldn't have to combine vaguely related threads and people could browse them at their leisure.

How To: Maintain A Remote Fork For Pull Requests I got a PM from Guybrush who was updating the readme on Trinity's repo but he said the link is 404. Sure enough, it doesn't exist. It also doesn't show up in "My Content" nor does it appear in a forum search. It's been around for over a year and it's still the top 2 results in a Google search and also linked to in Google Groups. Four days ago I linked to it in this topic, where did it go? If someone deleted it, a PM would've been nice so I could copy it for reference.

Sorry, my bad. I guess I should go back and read the first post Anyway, I forgot that I didn't upload that one to Atomic. I found it on Fileplanet so I didn't bother duplicating a 4 GB upload. If you're using Firefox, the plugin DownThemAll will get that one. It supports resume so you should be able to just pause / restart if the download gets stuck like that. You could also try this mirror: http://www.shacknews.com/file/21253/world-of-warcraft-manual-patch-33x-to-400-us-full

Did you even read the first post? I uploaded all the patches to Atomic Gamer and the largest one I split into 6 pieces.

Apparently Bliz hates PC users. This official 4.x patch mirrors has every patch from 4.0.0.12911 to 4.3.4.15595 for MAC users: Although some of the links are broken now, it's too bad they don't value their PC customers enough to have done the same for this series.

Yes, I never removed the TFIL / MFIL. You said you had a 26 GB client which is why I figured you had the MoP data since the files in the "TempMig" folder total 6 GB which, if you removed those would put you closer to the 20 GB I ended up with. Hmm, found this Blue post from May of 2012 where someone was complaining about a 34 GB client:

The problem is that nothing streams for me. I've run around and even teleported myself all over the place and my router shows no activity at all. Your 26 GB probably included the MoP data in the "migration" folder, right (that can be obtained by using someone else's MFIL / TFIL besides the one I supplied). Makes sense, hadn't thought of that. Blizzard isn't known for optimization

Did you run backgrounddownloader.exe after the final 434 patch? You should have about 11gb of data to download. Incidentally I just ran my 20 GB client and connected to my Trinity server. I created one of each character and logged in and when I exited the game my client had shrunk: Before running: 20.9 GB (22,516,212,269 bytes) After running: 15.8 GB (17,053,306,389 bytes)

For me, I already have Classic, TBC, WotLK and Cata (enUS) on CDs and DVDS so it just makes sense. I can't take an existing enUS WotLK and apply enGB patches and I don't need to download the full client. Essentially all I need is a binary diff of 3.3.5 and 4.3.4 (ie: a patch). Besides, I think there is more than just minor language differences. Otherwise the only patches that would get a specific enUS / enGB distinction would be the various locales*.mpq, everything else would just be called "windows" or "mac".

I just recently finished patching and after the 4.3.4 patch I ran the downloader. It downloaded 11 GB without any complaints, bringing my final client to 20.9 GB. I haven't logged into my server yet though to see what, if anything, the client streams. I'm thinking it won't because I think those rumors of a 23 GB client are exaggerated. Maybe copyright issues? I know other countries are a bit loose with their copyright laws to which the US has been bullying the rest of the world about. The upcoming (and secretive) Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is poised to make that change. There are stipulations that other countries must bring their copyright laws in line with the US in order to keep doing business...

Actually it is fine to revert back as long as you use the "most recent" one you can find.

You should never let the Launcher run, period. It will update the tools which include Backgrounddownloader and Blizzard Updater among others. There are updated tools in the guide I wrote which can be used at the very end of the process.

That's because you downloaded the 5.x updated tools from the Launcher. These tools are not compatible with old patches because they want to connect and download MoP content, not Cata content. I don't know why, after being told NOT to, you decided to let the Launcher run. Hell the guide even says in bold, red letters not to let it run. You'll most likely need to start over.