Download Time For Delta Index?

[NavyAce]

How long would someone estimate it would take the delta index to download to DCS World 2.5.6 as mine has been running now for over 10 hours. I know the files are huge but I'm not very computer savvy so would like to get an expert opinion. I'm going to bed now and will let it run overnight and check in the morning.

NavyAce

[SmirkingGerbil]

Loaded question sir, as in my case I can download several files, terrains etc. that equal hundreds of gigabytes or 4 to 9 terabytes in less than an hour (minutes in cases), no more than 3 hours.

 

What is your Internet connection speed?

[NavyAce]

Hi SmirkingGerbil,

I am a hopelessly inept person when it comes to things computer-wise. How would I find out my internet connection speed? I used up all of my high speed connectivity earlier in the month trying to install DCS World v 2.5.6 and finally had to take it to a professional installer. Now I need to get my modules installed. By the way, I was about 15 hours into the delta index download (these as above are I guess huge terrain files) with the program still running as evidenced by the moving green and when I got up I found our power had gone out. I rebooted the computer but don't see any modules installed. When power is lost and the computer shuts itself off does this mean that all of the downloading I had accomplished was lost and I'll have to start over? Or is it saved somewhere. If I have to restart from scratch should I click on the OK button in the module install box or click on the Install button off to the right. I had previously used the former. Thanks.

NavyAce

[SmirkingGerbil]

Hi SmirkingGerbil,

I am a hopelessly inept person when it comes to things computer-wise. How would I find out my internet connection speed? I used up all of my high speed connectivity earlier in the month trying to install DCS World v 2.5.6 and finally had to take it to a professional installer. Now I need to get my modules installed. By the way, I was about 15 hours into the delta index download (these as above are I guess huge terrain files) with the program still running as evidenced by the moving green and when I got up I found our power had gone out. I rebooted the computer but don't see any modules installed. When power is lost and the computer shuts itself off does this mean that all of the downloading I had accomplished was lost and I'll have to start over? Or is it saved somewhere. If I have to restart from scratch should I click on the OK button in the module install box or click on the Install button off to the right. I had previously used the former. Thanks.

NavyAce

 

 

DCS downloads will check, and pick up where you left off. It may have to refresh some files, but it won't start from the beginning based on what it finds previously downloaded.

 

As long as you are invoking the DCS updater (which it should run and check every-time you start Open Beta or Release), it will figure things out for you, and take care of it.

 

For the module, I would stick with the OK to install. I use a different method from the command line, but we will hold off on that depending on what issues you run into.

 

A way to get a rough estimate of your download speed would be to go to a speed test site like this one (after the download is stopped, finished or paused):

 

https://www.speedtest.net

 

We can figure out from there what we are up against.

Edited August 12, 2020 by SmirkingGerbil

[NavyAce]

Hi again SmirkingGerbil,

I found a link on internet connection speeds by using the search engine and found out according to that link that, using a wireless connection I have a rate of between 39-72 Mbps. I am glad that my work should be saved. So if I understand you correctly if I log in to the DCS World website, go to the Module Manager and find the install module box (with six checked items) and click OK the program should pick up where I left off. If I don't see the delta index download when I do this I would assume the download is starting over? I look forward to hearing from you again. Thanks for sticking with me as this is very frustrating.

[SmirkingGerbil]

Hi again SmirkingGerbil,

I found a link on internet connection speeds by using the search engine and found out according to that link that, using a wireless connection I have a rate of between 39-72 Mbps. I am glad that my work should be saved. So if I understand you correctly if I log in to the DCS World website, go to the Module Manager and find the install module box (with six checked items) and click OK the program should pick up where I left off. If I don't see the delta index download when I do this I would assume the download is starting over? I look forward to hearing from you again. Thanks for sticking with me as this is very frustrating.

 

Glad to help. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience with the GUI module installer so I am "assuming" it works like the updater utility that applies patches. I could be wrong insofar as if it will pick up where it left off. Also I use the command line utility to install modules, and they are small enough that they run pretty quick and I don't interrupt those.

 

Regarding your speed, you should not be taking all night, even if you installed DCS World new, with those speeds at most factoring overhead etc. It should take more than 4 or 5 hours. So it would seem something is throttling you??

 

Just call me "Gerb", "Smirk" or anything, you don't have to go through the agony of typing out my full handle. :megalol: On other gaming platforms I also go by "Cognitive Dissonance" so "Cog" works too!

Edited August 12, 2020 by SmirkingGerbil

[NavyAce]

Hi Gerb,

Thanks again for such a quick reply. Perhaps the long time involved is because I used up all my high speed capability on my failed DCS World install attempt. At any rate I will try the module installs again and see what happens. Oh, by the way another guy told me that perhaps I didn't have enough disc space. I checked that and found that I have 609 GB remaining of 930 GB, so roughly 2/3 remaining.

[NavyAce]

Hi Gerb,

I just thought I'd let you know that I am trying the modules install. I went to the home page after logging in clicked module manager and OK in the install modules box. This time I got the updater but it only ran a short time the it searched cached files and then flashed on checking Open Aplpha 2 files but never downloaded any (as I had done so previously) then it went to downloading delta index for a few seconds then I got another screen saying downloading 29,782.9 MBytes. Since this came after the delta index message this is either for that (which wasn't displayed before) or something that comes after. Either way I think I might be progrerssing. I'll keep you posted.

[NavyAce]

I forgot to add that I have a variable 28.3-74.1 KB/s download rate so this will take a while if it works!

[SmirkingGerbil]

I forgot to add that I have a variable 28.3-74.1 KB/s download rate so this will take a while if it works!

 

Hope I didn't misinterpret something, I thought on your earlier post you mentioned 39 to 74 Mbs (as in Mega) bps, here you reference Kb (Kilobits), if you are actually burning Kb then yes, it could take days!

 

Also for reference. MBs would mean Mega Bytes / second. Mbs (lower case b) would mean Mega Bits /second.

 

Same for KB vs. Kb, Kilobytes vs. Kilobits.

 

Bytes = 8 bits, so something downloading in KiloBytes would be downloading quicker than something in the same amount of KiloBits. 10KB down, would be quicker than 10kb down.

 

Just in case, you may have known this. FYI

[NavyAce]

Hi Gerb,

 

The 39-74 Mbs I quoted earlier was the internet connection speed I got from the link I found in the search engine. The variable 28.3-74.1 KB/s download rate was quoted later was taken from the dialog box that popped up when I restarted the download. So far after two hours I have downloaded 750 of 29,782.9 MBytes at the variable rate of 39-74 Mbs. It's gonna be a long one! I wish I hadn't previously used up all of my high speed transfer capability.

[NavyAce]

Hi again Gerb,

 

I just checked my download and found that it had stalled at 1288.9 Mbytes. It's been sitting there for probably over half an hour. I'm not sure why. I checked my disc space and I have only used 2 GB since I started so I still have 607 to go out of 930. The only thing I can think of to do is cancel the download and start over. What do you think?

[SmirkingGerbil]

Hi again Gerb,

 

I just checked my download and found that it had stalled at 1288.9 Mbytes. It's been sitting there for probably over half an hour. I'm not sure why. I checked my disc space and I have only used 2 GB since I started so I still have 607 to go out of 930. The only thing I can think of to do is cancel the download and start over. What do you think?

 

Navy,

 

There seem to be a couple possibilities. I am not familiar with your carrier, so I am guessing here.

 

It sounds like you are being "metered" or hitting a policing policy for consumption. Or, your own cable/modem router has some policy on it, hard to say.

 

I hate to guess at this point, but since you are stalled, restarting is your best option, but I cannot say how it will behave as I am only certain of behavior for Release or Beta patches. So my assumption is the module manager may function the same. Regardless, since it is stalled, you really don't have any other option.

[NavyAce]

Hi Gerb,

 

I am with Verizon for my internet connection. I am being metered in the sense that I have only so much high speed transfer data per month and I already exceeded that with the attempt of my DCS World install, so I am now slowed down until my account resets on the 21st. However this is only a slow down. The download should proceed at a slower rate. Anyway. I am going to start again and see what happens.

[NavyAce]

A final thought for the night. If this restart doesn't work, what would you think of trying another way to do this. I have six modules to install. Three airplanes (P-47D new, P-51D, Spitfire IX from V 2) two terrains (big files Normandy and Nevada Test Range) and the WW II Assets Pack, these latter also from v 2. I was thinking maybe I could speed things up by unchecking all but one of these modules and try installing just one to see how it goes. Then I could install the others one at a time. What do you think?

[NavyAce]

Hi Gerb,

I wanted to let you know I've learned something and had a bit of success. After another failed attempt to install my six modules I called my internet provider (Verizon) to see if something was going on with them along the lines of what you suggested, namely a metering or watching data consumption. The first tech I spoke to said there was no such thing on my account but passed me to a tech on another tier for further consultation. It was here that I learned that although I have an unlimited data for my monthly plan, this was for basic use only, as in internet connection. But, I have a 22GB/day cap on data transfer, in other words downloading files. So evidently what was happening was that I would start that big download and after I hit my daily limit it would stop. This explains the stalling I was having. So basically trying to download and install all six of my modules at one time was simply overloading my computer because it didn't have the capacity to handle what I wanted in one day.

Once I knew this I tried another tack. I went to the Module Manager and closed the box with the six modules in it and then clicked the install button for my latest purchase, which was the P-47D. I got a dialog box saying "Found 3035 files with 32996835598 bytes left from an unfinished download which are not needed for the current operation. Do you want to delete them? Yes. No. Well I figured I didn't want to lose what little data I had already collected so I clicked No and the install started immediately. It went through the usual checks in about a minute and then I got a dialog box that told me the plane download only had 371.9 MBytes to download, in stead of the 29,000+ I was getting when I tried to install all six modules at one time. This took a little less than an hour and the install and cleanup went quickly. So now I am thinking that the way to go is to install my other two planes and the Assets Pack seperately, popssibly on different days, and leave the large terrain files for the techs at Best Buy.

One thing, though. After getting the plane installed I decided to test it to make sure everything was working correctly. I selected the P-47D and tried a Free Flight with the module's default scenery, which is the Caucaus. The loading took a long time, which I attributed to the fact that this was the first time this action was being done and the computer was therefore a bit slow. I anticipated successive missions to load faster. However, when the loading finally stopped and the start screen appeared and I used the Pause/Break key to start as directed, when the plane appeared the screen promptly froze, stuttered a few times, and then locked up solid. I couldn't get any response to any of my key commands, including when I tried to exit back to the main page. I finally had to shut down the computer using the power button on the tower to get it to turn off. I rebooted and tried a similar mission using the default TP-51D, which wasn't much better. The screen didn't get totally locked up but there was a lot of stuttering and when I moved my joystick, instead of smooth movements, there was a lot of jerking around. So apparently the problem doesn't lie with the newly installed P-47D. I have since disabled the module for the default Russian jet and the jsAvionics, which I did't purchase or install but just seems to have showed up on its own after all the key punching I did earlier.

Anyway, long story long, this is where I am as of the end of today. Any further comments or help you would like to impart to me (especially regarding the screen freezing) would be most welcome.

NavyAce