Regarding zip files, what is preferred / better?

[StableIT]

Say someone were to make single file downloads of Orbiter with all of the textures so you could snag the entire release, or developers package(s), all at once.. This normally would be a number of zip files, is it preferred to download a zip of zips or a zip of the folders with files unzipped into textures / alike?

I have the feeling a zip of zips is better, for newer folks it would keep the items sorted from the get-go and let everyone pick based on system resources / whatever. But I could be off the point.

 

[Hielor]

Zip of zips won't get you much more compression...

 

[Pipcard]

For some reason, I get this message when I load this page:

A username and password are being requested by http://downloadorbiter.com. The site says: "Secure Area"

 

[StableIT]

Zip of zips won't get you much more compression...

I wasn't so much after compression, more in the idea of storing zips or storing folders of files. Thinking about it, it is just a matter of who to inconvenience. I suppose so it may be easiest to just make a zip of a folder structure with no zips...

For some reason, I get this message when I load this page:

A username and password are being requested by http://downloadorbiter.com. The site says: "Secure Area"

It was Seth, I swear

It was on hold for a while while I dealt with life, putting something together for it now. DownloadOrbiterSim.com is still online however

--- Added a few minutes later ---

In retrospect I should have some redirect up there, will look into that shortly.

 

[orb]

If a complete Orbiter-release package with all the optional textures included, etc. then the final folder structure in one archive would be the best. If a do-it-all-yourself package with an archive full of zips, then the fastest to do such package would be to use the store method.

For some reason, I get this message when I load this page:

A username and password are being requested by http://downloadorbiter.com. The site says: "Secure Area"

That's because of embedded picture in StableIT's signature (which isn't showing up, BTW):

[PLAIN][IMG]http://downloadorbiter.com/forum/download/file.php?id=2[/IMG][/PLAIN]

 

[Quick_Nick]

Zip of zips won't get you much more compression...

Usually it even adds a few bytes.

For some reason, I get this message when I load this page:

A username and password are being requested by http://downloadorbiter.com. The site says: "Secure Area"

And it's driving me crazy.

 

[orb]

And it's driving me crazy.

No worries. It has been temporarily fixed on our side. :thumbup:

 

[JEL]

I have the feeling a zip of zips is better, for newer folks it would keep the items sorted from the get-go and let everyone pick based on system resources / whatever. But I could be off the point.

If you are not 'pre-installing' all the items wouldn't it then be more advisable to NOT use the zip of zips method, and instead let the user only download the zips they want?

Thereby more efficiently saving bandwidth and download-time by not including things the user don't really want anyway. And they can also always update later by downloading the extras.

 

[StableIT]

If you are not 'pre-installing' all the items wouldn't it then be more advisable to NOT use the zip of zips method, and instead let the user only download the zips they want?

Thereby more efficiently saving bandwidth and download-time by not including things the user don't really want anyway. And they can also always update later by downloading the extras.

After Orb's post I thought it over and decided on a structure of everything sorted in folders and zips added little if any gain for their sure annoyance at the end of the day. That being said, I worked the structure over to make sure I used as little as possible to very clearly present everything. Once decompressed you are presented with Base and Textures folders. From here you can install the base or go copy texture files to add to your installation. So far that's the extent of the builds for the files, right now I am testing all of the loose files, once that gets done I will focus on the file packs such as this.