Force full download?

Biostem

Biostem

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2007

I have a laptop that is pretty decent, except when it comes to downloading content for an outpost/town I haven't been to before on that machine. Anyway, I was wondering if there was a way to basically have it download all of the town/outpost/other data ahead of time, so once I do get to a new place, it's ready for me.

Basically, if I've been to a town already, then loading into it is quick, but if I haven't been there yet, it takes a while to load it...

RPGmaniac

RPGmaniac

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Right click on the GW icon and go to properties. In the command line after everything else, add a space and type in -image. This forces the client to download all the data ahead of time. The only thing is it won't actually launch the game for you. Either take off the -image when you're done or copy+paste the shortcut and add the -image to that icon's command line.

Biostem

Biostem

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2007

Excellent! TYVM.

Woop Shotty

Woop Shotty

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2006

Ruthless Mafia [RM]

Mo/

I prefer to go to run and do "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" -image. This way, any time I want to do it all I've got to do is hit Windows+R buttons and Enter. Anyway, it's my preferred way.

Nemo the Capitalist

Nemo the Capitalist

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

Trust me you dont want to know my Chasms of Despair

Zaishen Brotherhood

N/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by RPGmaniac
Right click on the GW icon and go to properties. In the command line after everything else, add a space and type in -image. This forces the client to download all the data ahead of time. The only thing is it won't actually launch the game for you. Either take off the -image when you're done or copy+paste the shortcut and add the -image to that icon's command line.
someone jsut told me about this 2 days ago if i woulda knows this 2 yrs ago .............

glad to have known it now

Fril Estelin

Fril Estelin

So Serious...

Join Date: Jan 2007

London

Nerfs Are [WHAK]

E/

FYI, the thread about all the available command line switches is here:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=94814

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

The complete download if you have all three chapters is about 3GB, så don't do this if you're on dial up.

RPGmaniac

RPGmaniac

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius
The complete download if you have all three chapters is about 3GB, så don't do this if you're on dial up.
It doesn't matter whether you have a certain campaign or not. You still download all the files for all the campaigns. And if you run on dial-up, this is something to do overnight.

lennymon

lennymon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Seattle

Odin's Hammer [OH] - Servant's of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

I gots a GW image icon on my desktop, I run it before I load the game every time. Does that make me 'troubled'?

RPGmaniac

RPGmaniac

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Who called you troubled? I do the same thing.

T1Cybernetic

T1Cybernetic

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Uk, Nr Earth

Alternate Evil Gamers [aeg]

N/

Luckily for anyone who needs to know i had to reformat yesterday and i left my guild wars downloading with the -image command last night so currently starting from scratch with the -image command the guild wars .dat file is 3.54GB

Quote:
Originally Posted by lennymon
I gots a GW image icon on my desktop, I run it before I load the game every time. Does that make me 'troubled'?
I do that every time i know there is an update

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

It takes me an hour to download the full -image pack, and I have a 100MBit connection - why on earth do you guys use the -image thing every time you run the game? That's just... well, silly. The game engine is made to be patched on the run, there's no need to ever do the -image thing except to avoid downloads when entering a new area, or if you've got a bad HD and some files have become corrupted.

By the way, for a dial-upper with a 64K connection, that's not an "overnight download", that's a solid four days worth of blocking the phone, downloading.
If you have lower-end broadband, say a 2MBit, then it's a good over-nighter.

BladeDVD

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2006

Hawaii

Clan Of Elders

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius
It takes me an hour to download the full -image pack, and I have a 100MBit connection - why on earth do you guys use the -image thing every time you run the game? That's just... well, silly. The game engine is made to be patched on the run, there's no need to ever do the -image thing except to avoid downloads when entering a new area, or if you've got a bad HD and some files have become corrupted.
Partly for the reason I bolded in your post.

But also, when there is a new update, not all the files are downloaded at once depending on its size or how many areas the download affects. If it doesn't d/l it all when you first log on then it streams it.

That takes away bandwidth for playing the game. Not much of course, but I have a cable connection to the net, so it just seems to make sense to avoid that and get it all in one go.

I do it before I start up the game because you never know when a bug fix is going to happen. Updates usually get rolled out on Thursdays, but even those are sometimes put out on days other than that. It takes about 5 seconds for my -image shortcut to check, if that, so no real harm done.

:shrugs: