[Launcher] New Launcher

[LiL T]

You can start the game directly via the neocronclient.exe, you just need the Launcher for Updates - You can also use the Update batch inside the _nclapp folder for it.


X.

That is good to know

The launcher is working fine it is only my connection that is poor, so many time outs during the day will probably mean I will need to redownload a few files that got corrupted. Internet speeds where I live currently are rubbish, its actually better using mobile broadband for any decent speeds.

[LiL T]

Every time I do a repair and cleanup it will randomly (it seems) redownload files, it has just redownloaded terrain.pak and I compared it to a backup of the file it originally downloaded, the file is the same size and same md5 hash 8877FAFB67F53B9E92AF36CDF781DE52. So wtf is it doing?

Here is the applog


https://pastebin.com/kEW8FbkL

The timeout needs to be decreased imo, it can sometimes sit there doing nothing for ages it seems before it picks up again, also why does it redownload that video over and over? Cannot it not retreive a cached copy from that Inet folder or where ever it saves it?

edit: while my connection isn't the best it never fails to download files, it can timeout occaisonally but the files can always be resumed and are always none corrupted. So that launcher probably isn't hash checking those files correctly considering the file it just redownloaded is identical to the one it was replacing, i find it hard to believe the exact same cock up could occur twice.

[ThunderSix]

Every time I do a repair and cleanup it will randomly (it seems) redownload files, it has just redownloaded terrain.pak and I compared it to a backup of the file it originally downloaded, the file is the same size and same md5 hash 8877FAFB67F53B9E92AF36CDF781DE52. So wtf is it doing?

Here is the applog


https://pastebin.com/kEW8FbkL

The timeout needs to be decreased imo, it can sometimes sit there doing nothing for ages it seems before it picks up again, also why does it redownload that video over and over? Cannot it not retreive a cached copy from that Inet folder or where ever it saves it?

edit: while my connection isn't the best it never fails to download files, it can timeout occaisonally but the files can always be resumed and are always none corrupted. So that launcher probably isn't hash checking those files correctly considering the file it just redownloaded is identical to the one it was replacing, i find it hard to believe the exact same cock up could occur twice.

I have the same issues you have as well. It basically does its own thing each time I start it up. It says things are missing or corrupted. Now, what I found works is install the old launcher. Copy some of those files over to the new launcher that your having issues with and it will bypass everything and work. You just got to play Dr. Frankenstein with the new launcher. It doesn't matter how many times you uninstall the thing and clean your registry files or even place it on another drive. It just doesn't work right period for some people. Then you get to the point where you get frustrated. Just play Dr. Frankenstein on the thing I'm sure you will get it to work. I know they spent a lot of time on the new launcher but the old launcher worked no matter what. There was never an issue with it regardless if it was harder for them to update the game or not. It was a solid working launcher. Old is good. It works. Mine right now is constantly trying to download the sound.pak and a month ago it said terrain.pak. It's something different each month and cycles through the same files over and over and never fixes or replaces them. Then it says it can't connect to Pegasus because it times out. Then you take down your "security" like firewalls and uninstall AVG and all that good stuff. It will still do the same thing. I don't know if you have the same bug I do but I have three copies of the Neocron icon on my launcher and its only installed in one place. I constantly sit on updating image for hours. I could go to sleep right now and it will still be stuck there. What would truly fix this issue is if they made it so the new launcher was an option and not a mandatory thing. Problem solved. Not everything is about looks its about working code that communicates correctly. But with that said mines working now. As messed up as it looks its working. Copy and paste the files it thinks are bad or can't download my friend. With that said I'm not even going to ask for a SLI profile for this game. That would be too amazing. But, I bet there is a way to rig it. I may try to figure that out.

[LiL T]

I have the same issues you have as well, it basically does its own thing each time I start it up. It says things are missing or corrupted, now what I found works is install the old launcher, then Copy some of those files over to the new launcher that your having issues with and it will bypass everything and work. You've just got to play Dr. Frankenstein with the new launcher, it doesn't matter how many times you uninstall the thing and clean your registry files, or even place it on another drive. It just doesn't work right for some people.

Then you get to the point of frustration, but Just play Dr. Frankenstein with the thing and I'm sure you will get it to work. I know they spent a lot of time on the new launcher but the old launcher worked no matter what. There was never an issue with the old launcher regardless if it was harder for them to update the game or not. It was a solid working launcher, old is good and It works. Mine right now is constantly trying to download the sound.pak, and a month ago it said terrain.pak, It's something different each month and cycles through the same files over and over and never fixes or replaces them. Then it says it can't connect to Pegasus, it just it times out.

Then you take down your "security" like firewalls and uninstall AVG and all that good stuff, it will still do the same thing. I don't know if you have the same bug I do but I have three copies of the Neocron icon on my launcher (what do you mean?) and its only installed in one place (humm that is strange). I constantly sit on updating image for hours, I could go to sleep right now and it will still be stuck there, what would truly fix this issue is if they made it so the new launcher was an option and not a mandatory thing, Problem solved. Not everything is about looks its about working code that communicates correctly, but with that said mines working now. As messed up as it looks its working, just copy and paste the files it thinks are bad or can't download my friend. With that said I'm not even going to ask for a SLI profile for this game, that would be too amazing! But I bet there is a way to rig it, I may try to figure that out.

Ok I'm not nit picking at you, only trying to help you with your grammar a little because that was honestly very hard for me to read, I am one of the worst when it comes to the English langauge, so I'm not trying to appear all high and might, but I had to edit your post in order to understand it. Don't abuse the period '.' use commas and for goodness sake break down your posts into paragraphs, for every 4 sentences (real sentences) create a new paragraph, for each time you change subject slightly make a new paragraph, there is no hard rule but you can learn to use proper judgment over time.

Don't let the above paragraph upset you, it was not meant as an attack at your character, only a gentle push into a better forum posting you. And again I'm rubbish my self with grammar and many that know me will attest that I'm bad at grammar, so if it is hard for me to read goodness knows how others will read it, for me I read your post and could not see what you were trying to converse, so I put edits in brackets with red lettering. Now on to those red lettering above, I don't know how you have many launcher installs, that should not be the case, you have obviously clicked install many times? But yes there is something wrong with the launcher and it needs to be fixed, not oh just install the old launcher and copy files over, that isn't a solution! From what I can see as I've listed in my previous posts is it isn't hash checking the files correctly, it is also redownloading the video file over and over again which appears to be a 30MB file stored in some hidden windows directory /user/user/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/IE/**** Random generated folder name no doubt.

That alone before we even start with the redownloading of game files boils my piss, because if it has been wrote in C# then I can think up a method in my head that would take 5 - 15 minutes to implement to prevent that, there are libraries for accessing the directoy placing all files into List<> then checking if one of these files has same size attribute, simliar partial name and file hash, then reusing said file, there are many ways to do this.... 30mb file download each time launcher is opened is unacceptable, HA I just checked that directory it has been cleaned out, and the launcher is no longer loading the video, maybe they listened, however due the number of times i used that launcher there was like 10 copys of the same cryovaultrestoration (approx name) file created in that directory, windows it seems clears this folder upon reboots. I don't care about the technology used, if that technology is doing things like this then that technology is fucking rubbish, therefore devs need to look for issues like that which are built into the way that technology works and create workarounds to prevent. Windows is a pain in the arse, like it litterally uses peoples bandwidth by defualt to upload to other machines files as part of the windows update process, that might be great if you have a decent homebroad band connection but fuck those (ever increasing number) people with data limits right?

I god damn hate microsoft and their piece of bloaty fucking garbage, it sits there and just does what it fucking pleases, wasting data on what? telemetry OMFG... I have as a PC user legit reasons not to want that shit running in the background!

/rant...

I just looked at it and shook my head, giving I'm using a data connection that is limited to 20GB each month before they slow me down between certain hours, between hours 12 AM and 8AM I can download at fullspeed even if I used my 20GB, however I like to conserve my bandwidth because they are known to ban people that become a problem to the network.

This new launcher needs to do its job, it should be able to resume from broken downloads, it should probably use httpwebrequest and not webclient, httpwebrequest has a timeout property, it can also run asynchronous, webclient is easest to use for downloading files but with a little effort one can stream directly to a filestream using HttpWebRequest

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...e-from-a-web-s

I'm only assuming from the applog file that it is using the WebClient class, its not something I'd use if I needed it to do more than just download a file from a URI...

I'd provide configuration options within the launcher it self, things like max download threads, I would break each file up into chunks which could then be hashed so that broken parts could be found much easier and redownloaded, a bit like bit torrent, then I would probably implement p2p to take up a small amount of a users bandwidth (if there are enough users downloading) to act as redistributers of the file chunks, speeding up the process of downloading and reducing the costs of hosting said files.

[Hazard]

Hey! I wanted to get a nostalgia fix and try Neocron again after about 15 years. It's amazing that the game and even the accounts were preserved all this time. Logging into the game account on the website works, but when i enter my account data into the launcher it'll just crash without an error message after a short moment. The applog.txt seems to indicate an issue in the server session management.
Here is my log: https://pastebin.com/vfVnBHBW
Any help is greatly appreciated!