Guild Wars 2

Title. I know I can set it as needed, idle, and max, but on a slower connection all of those aren’t good. I was hitching every few seconds – everything would stop – while it was writing the info into the .dat file, every single thing took forever to load into the scene when I had just entered a map, all of the ui stuff was slow to appear.

It also needs an info bar telling me how much bandwidth it’s using. It would be great if it would cache the downloaded stuff and pop it into the .dat file when I wasn’t doing something but not idle – which btw, no one knows how long you need to be afk to be ‘idle’. Is Idle your character not moving?, you completely afk?, is chatting ok? is doing other stuff in the UI ok? Info, you need to work on the INFO part of the game cause it’s missing a lot of that.

Anyway, I usually have a scheduled -image shortcut do the work but I logged in for the heck of it before that and got to experience the content streaming first hand and it seems to be ok for the most part but it still needs a little tlc.

Just to be very clear: I have a 1000kbit/s internet connection, and am sharing it with at least one other user for active gaming. GW2 itself runs just fine under these conditions, though map loading is of course a little slow. I CANNOT, however, afford to have all remaining bandwidth sucked up by a stupid streaming option which I can neither monitor nor fully disable. Streaming is cool and all if you have the bandwidth to support it, but those who don’t need a properly labeled OFF button WHICH ACTUALLY DOES THAT, not an obscure “On Demand” option which may or may not work depending on how “demand” is defined.

If this is merely a communication issue and the “On Demand” option does in fact (and will in the future) only attempt downloading if the game would otherwise crash due to missing data, then communicate this clearly and ensure it actually works that way!

In case this sounds too melodramatic, sorry but the past patches have left me in severe doubt regarding the reliability and quality control of Anet coding.

Those of you that are concerned by this should just NOT log in until any downloading is complete. The option is to allow those that WANT to log in sooner said option.

I’m not sure how this change makes anyone think the game will now require more bandwidth than it ever did before…?

Brother Grimm.5176:

Those of you that are concerned by this should just NOT log in until any downloading is complete. The option is to allow those that WANT to log in sooner said option.

I’m not sure how this change makes anyone think the game will now require more bandwidth than it ever did before…?

In principle, for a reasonable developer team, yes, just waiting until everything has fully downloaded before starting the game should not cause any issues and work exactly the same as it has before the update.

Knowing bugnet’s lack of quality control, as well as the questionable practices of other always-on data distribution systems, I want a full opt-out so I don’t have to deal with the inevitable “oh sorry, we didn’t think of that particular situation”.

What, for example, will happen if they upload a new patch while I’m still playing? Previously you could go on for an hour with a tendency to get kicked out when changing maps. With this new streaming setup however the game might decide there is a “demand” for the patch while I’m still on the map, and render the game unplayable before I get to finish whatever was keeping me from downloading the patch right away.

Or they simply, silently, break the “On Demand” verification code to allow downloads when it shouldn’t. It wouldn’t be the first time we get a bug that can be universally reproduced in under 5min of playtime. (do any testers ever join WvW/sPvP? if yes they were on holiday recently…)

Still don’t see how ANY of that will result in ANY different bandwidth requirements than prior to the streaming updates addition. Explain to me how you will now have to download more data?

A better explanation of how the streaming system works (and exactly how the settings apply to the system) is a valid request, but demanding a feature that may not be needed is not. I have no reason to believe HOW and WHEN a new content update STARTS is going to change….if you have other information, please share.

Second poster was concerned with bandwidth or something, I only mentioned it because I have limited bandwidth and the streaming actually affects my gameplay. I also mentioned that I use the -image shortcut on a schedule so I don’t have to deal with it, I just happened to play before the schedule happened.

Photoloss.4817:

nevitable “oh sorry, we didn’t think of that particular situation”.

What, for example, will happen if they upload a new patch while I’m still playing? Previously you could go on for an hour with a tendency to get kicked out when changing maps. With this new streaming setup however the game might decide there is a “demand” for the patch while I’m still on the map, and render the game unplayable before I get to finish whatever was keeping me from downloading the patch right away.

The reason you’re kicked off the game if you transition maps within that hour, and once that hour expires, is because of version controls. To dumb it down enough that I can correctly explain it (I’m running on like 3 hours of sleep right now), it’s similar to why NA players cant play with EU players, despite having the same maps available. The NA/EU tag is analogous to say, V1.0 and V1.1. They may both be the same game, but there’s minute/major differences, whether you can see them or not, that can become a serious conflict if they were to attempt to run concurrently.

Also, a client update may also include a server update, which is probably another reason. Client and server must both be running the same version.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Still don’t see how ANY of that will result in ANY different bandwidth requirements than prior to the streaming updates addition. Explain to me how you will now have to download more data?

Not more data in total, but more data during times when I’m not asleep.

Basandra Skye.4031:

Also, a client update may also include a server update, which is probably another reason. Client and server must both be running the same version.

I don’t mind getting kicked off the way it always has been, obviously they want to get everyone off the old version as quickly as possible. My concern is that if a patch goes live while I’m playing, I will not get kicked earlier, but will be burdened with an immediate “demand” for downloading the core patch during the 1h grace period. In my case this renders the game less playable than the fps lag caused by a full Karka Queen map on the highest graphics settings. Plus whatever else they manage to break, if they can wreck Distortion in a patch with no Mesmer changes they can “accidentally” set the streaming client to download 2 copies of each and every file on the download server.

Where do we go to select between On-demand, Idle, and Max? I don’t see it in the pre-login launcher and as I’m about to take a food break I’m not going to launch the game to look at Options — that’s a great way to get sucked in to playing and then I’ll faint with hunger and that’s not good

Thanks. I’m fine with it doing whatever it’s going to do automatically, as I have a nice fast connection and no competition for bandwidth. I was asking because it seemed like you were discussing situationally appropriate settings. If On-demand is useful for those with data caps, is there some way for them to specify that only On-demand should be used?

I do believe you will find the options in, well, Options. So, the player will have to enter the game at least once to choose.

Good luck.

Ahah! I am in game and you are right, Inculpatus! The “Streaming” option is at the very bottom of the Options page, needing a scroll down. That was my query, Mr. Olson.

/sets hers to Max

Jon Olson.8439:

On-demand asks the game to download content only when the game requires it. This setting is useful for those who have data caps to worry about. This setting may cause issues of models popping in. This is the exact behavior “Off” had, we simply renamed it to better indicate its behavior.

Idle will stream in content while your connection is generally idle. This is useful if you’re going to be playing in the same map for some time, so that the general impact to your gameplay should be minimal.

Max will stream-in content as fast as it possibly can. This is most like leaving the launcher to fully patch.

The Streaming Client will prioritize items you interact with in your inventory, wardrobe, gem store, etc. When a piece of ui content is interacted with, if the content isn’t already on disk, it will overlay the spinner to indicate that the content is being downloaded. Do note that if you interact with a bunch of inventory items it could degrade performance as those items are given much higher priority. Once downloaded it may take a few moments before the item displays on screen in the wardrobe, for example.

What happens when a new client becomes available? No behavior has changed in this regard. You will need to update your client first before the streaming starts back up.

How do I opt-out? The best way to avoid being impacted by the streaming is to fully patch in the launcher before you start the game.

I apologize for the thread necromancy, but rather than make a new thread, with the exact same concern, I decided to post here instead.

My question is this: I have noticed since the streaming client was launched that my data usage has gone up considerably. This is a problem for me, since I have a capped data connection.

You say that I can avoid being impacted by streaming if I fully patch in the launcher – however I do this by default and I’m still noticing a significant increase in the game’s data usage since the streaming was implemented.

What can I do to fix this problem? It’s getting to the point where if I play more than 30min of gw2 a day I risk running out of cap before the end of the month.

It isn’t the streaming client that is using more bandwidth. Once you fully patch that part is done. However, I will say that basic patches are bigger now than they were a year ago. When there is an update, the client downloads an initial file something like 10?16? MB, reloads, downloads something else of similar size ~8 generally I think, could be more, then begins the ‘patch download’ which itself is now bigger as well.

As for ways to save bandwidth:

If you want to basically afk, but want to stay in game to chat, do not sit in LA. Go into an instance: home, hom, etc. Difference in bandwidth while idle from a moderate populated LA near the crafting stations compared to an instance is ~30:1. If everyone moves around and uses skills in LA? could hit 50x the instance usage. Going into an instance and fighting, will still use less bandwidth than afk in LA (which should make sense, there’s fewer people to move around in an instance, up to 5. Every movement of every player that is visible to you is subsequently sent to your client). I have noticed an overall increase in bandwidth usage by GW2, but I believe the removal of culling was by far a bigger impact than what they’ve done to the client since.

Zerg fights in WvW can easily hit 100 KB/s. If you decide to do the world bosses for 30 mins a day? I believe you would only be using 50-150 MB in that time, most likely toward the lower end, but perhaps it could go up to 200 if the fights drag on for a long time, but those kinds of fights tend to have people standing still so usage will still be lower. Run with a zerg in WvW, you could hit as much as 150-300 in that same 30 mins, although that would be near constant fighting.

Additionally, do not leave the trading post open. It now regularly keeps loading.

For other bandwidth saving suggestions:

I’d suggest using chrome if you aren’t, although firefox has similar plugins, and run adblock and scriptblock so webpages can’t generally run videos and ads. This saves bandwidth (although blocking scripts breaks so many sites, but it’s easy to enable them, and pays off to do so in long run). So does not touching youtube, or doing so sparingly. Making sure it doesn’t run videos is a hassle though since it’s html5 now. I think chrome has settings but forget exactly how, could have been another extension. Most youtube extensions do not work now as they were more for non-html5, but however I finally got it working, I have to click for it to play any videos. Make sure it is set for slower connection in youtube settings. Even with that, even a small video can use a lot.

If you use an antivirus (which most people should…) I wouldn’t let it upload files to a cloud if it wants to, or uses a cloud in some way. Would suggest not using anything that uses a ‘cloud’ for that matter, as by the nature of it, it has to transmit a lot of data.

source for advice: limited bandwidth.
Additionally, I would suggest watching your usage with some kind of bandwidth monitor. I’ve used NetMeter for years, although I’m using an older version. http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/

Sorry for length, hope something can help. And hopefully your limit isn’t as low as 10 GB or less a month…

Also if you’re using Windows 10 (and maybe Windows 8 as well), you can go to Settings->Network & Internet->Data usage tab->Usage details and see what programs are using the most data over the 30 days, to get an overview of what’s using up the most bandwidth on that computer.

Roy.7405:

Also if you’re using Windows 10 (and maybe Windows 8 as well), you can go to Settings->Network & Internet->Data usage tab->Usage details and see what programs are using the most data over the 30 days, to get an overview of what’s using up the most bandwidth on that computer.

I keep forgetting 10 has that now. But 10 is a bandwidth hog itself. As things stand I would sincerely hope no one on a limited connection would use 10 by choice without a lot of research.

I don’t think 8 really has a data usage on it, but don’t quote me on that as I despise 8.