--"I won't be the only person to have worked out this solution to the problem, not when there are a million plus users around the world and again I point you towards the foolishness that is the gcf file. Yeah it prevents people from tinkering with the maps, models etc, but it is a single point of failure. One minor corruption and the whole lot is gone, 400mb download here we go!!! Instead of a map or a model getting corrupted and the download being no more than say 6mb and may be as little as a few kb. --"
Really should not be neccessary unless the gcf headers get all screwed up. In theory one should be able to run a verify\update tool against the file similar to the hldsupdatetool -verifyall option which would at the very least compare the checksums stored in the existing gcf against thier datacontent stored in the other areas of the file. (or maybe a masterfile that could be fetched) If different then it could update said file in the gcf.. such a utility might prevent the need for a massive re-download. http://www.wunderboy.org/3d_games/utils/gcfformat.php has pretty good dump of the format spec and what I'm basing my speculation on. Perhaps we'll see a clientverifytool with hl2 from Valve? I dont really think the entire concept of the .gcf or similar format is all that bad idea, I would agree though an improvement or two could solve some problems. To be honest I think Valve got it mostly right on this one. Shame they have not released thier own extractor. I'd rather them split up the .gcf's if possible though so none were larger then 250 or so mb a piece.. that way if it did get totally toasted you'd only have to regrab 1/3rd the game. Not a huge issue with 400mb files.. but come a few months from now could be an issue if we're going to see gigabyte gcf's. /2cents _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
