Tutorial: How to Download & install BotF & Mods

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Tutorial: How to Download & install BotF & Mods

Post by thunderchero »

Hi Everyone,

I have updated many files for the multi-installer project.

I suggest using a download manager when downloading larger files. firefox works very well.

What was updated in Main installer "BOTF_1.0.2_English_German_e.exe";

All safedisc files removed.

only 1 hades option using direct3d setting.

trek.exe updated to joker final release.

some error were corrected in how hades was being installed.


Before you install any files below Multi main installer above must be installed first.


Note; Main multi-installer requires 645mb of temp files, each mod could use up to 250+mb of temp files. these are deleted as soon as installation is completed

Note; with Main multi installer and all 18 mods installed it uses 7.33gigs and all are playable with no file swapping.

What was updated in "Error_Correction_mod.exe";

all trek.exe updated to joker final release.

What was updated in "UDMIII_3.0.1c.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch

Mentat's Dominion Wars - Scenario save added to installer.

What was updated in "All_The_Ages_mod_j.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

No changes were made to Gowron's "Balance_of_Power_1.2c.exe"

What was updated in "ULTIMATE_MOD_4.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

some minor errors corrected

What was updated in "Fluids_Multiplayer_Mod_2.0.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Flagship_Mod.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Planet_Mod_English_German.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

English and German both in 1 installer.

What was updated in "DELTA_MOD_English.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Babylon_5.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Colonies_Mod_English.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Stargate_Universe.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Mirror_Mirror_mod.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Borg_Incursion_Mod.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

What was updated in "Building-mod.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

new file old mod "Resistance_Is_Futile.exe";

trek.exe was updated to jokers latest patch.

No changes to this mod yet :wink: "UNCivil_Wars_English_a.exe"

All files have been checked (downloaded) without any corrupt files.

Enjoy,

thunderchero

Now for a few install suggestions;

If updating from CD or older version of multi installer you need to uninstall everything all mods first than multi main installer or CD install. then delete BOTF folder.

But before you do that you should run MPR test in utilities folder of any BOTF install.

This will tell you if you should install hades or software.

after running mpr test you should have a window that looks something like this;

Image

You see my system supports both software and direct3d

but if you do not have direct3d area as above you should install using software option.

if you have data in "glide" section you could also use hades and change the stbof.ini to "3DFX" from "DIRECT3D" (this would be very rare since video cards that support this are over 10 years old)

Before you install any mods you should also run tests with your install.

test 1

start screen saver and view models.

test 2

start a game with each race and view models in research screen.

You should also test each mod in this way before installing next mod.

The installer will allow changing of install path but it is suggested not to change them unless you need to do so.

if install path "****/program files/botf" is used this will cause error loading multi player games. Due to the space between program and files.
Last edited by thunderchero on Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:51 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Post by Tethys »

Nice... looks like i will have to update soon
Not for the weak of heart...
Galaxies MOD v0.4.0 <--- GALM/Galaxies Mod latest version
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Post by anjel »

niiiice, seems that the error problems who had those downloading the multis, are now solved with this, and just learned what is it MD5 verifier, will help to know if the download it´s ok or not. And mprtest looks really interesting, i would like to see what does support my machine :D
When i finish downloading everything, i will post what happened :wink:
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Re: Multi-Installer Updated 11-22-2010

Post by KrazeeXXL »

Once again great work tc. :)
thunderchero wrote: No changes to this mod yet :wink: "UNCivil_Wars_English_a.exe"
aw. too sad :(
thunderchero wrote: All files have been checked (downloaded) without any corrupt files.

I have also created these MD5 hashes if you want to verify your download (not for downloading).

All MD5 programs should give same hash for each file listed, But the program I used was an easy and free MD5 Checker from here.
Although I noticed some bad (not that new) server-based lag (20+ seconds sometimes) I was able to download all files w/o problems.

As there are many ppl who are surpisingly not using any download-manager a kind advice to do so in your post would be good imo.

So lets hope ppl will read this new sticky thread (and also do whats suggested in it) ;)
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Post by HsojVvad »

I deleted my old copy of the Multi instaler. I thought no big deal, I can always redownload it. I redownloaded it twice now. When I click on it, I get an error message saying it's corrupt.

What can I do?
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Post by thunderchero »

HsojVvad wrote:I deleted my old copy of the Multi instaler. I thought no big deal, I can always redownload it. I redownloaded it twice now. When I click on it, I get an error message saying it's corrupt.

What can I do?
read post above
thunderchero wrote: I suggest using a download manager when downloading larger files. firefox works very well.
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Post by HsojVvad »

Are you talking about a "download manager?" I have no idea what that is. Maybe that is why when I read it, I didn't understand it.

Can you please explain.

*edit* I have googled Download Manager. I installed something called Free Download Manager and I am using it now, since I don't know what else to use. Is this correct?

If not can you please explain since I don't understand.
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Post by KrazeeXXL »

A download-manager does as its title says: it manages downloads.

ok a very short 'n easy explanation:

F.e.: you want to download 10 files or a hundred or even more and don't want to do this one by one as it would cost you a lot of time. OR you just don't want corrupt downloaded files.

For this case you have download-managers. get one, put all those links of the files you want to download in its queue and it'll start downloading then.

Most of them have useful options like to pause/stop downloads and resume them later (needs server support).

But more important and even necessary for downloading from AFC is the very important ability of download-managers to verify the checksum (MD5 and/or SHA1-512). So you can be sure that the file you got is conform with the sourcefile you wanted. (and not somehow corrupted through packet-loss/whatever).
Last edited by KrazeeXXL on Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:01 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by anjel »

nicely explained KrazeeXXL, as it was mentioned in another post, "DownthemAll" it´s a nice plugin for Mozilla, that allows you to do the same as KrazeeXXL explained.
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Post by HsojVvad »

I have never herd of it in my 15+ years being on the internet. I guess you learn something new every day.

I am curious though. How come I had no problems before downloading from this site, but I do now? I am not complaining, I am just trying to learn and understand.

Thanks for the explanation Krazee, I didn't know about all this "corrupt and packet loss". I didn't know a program could could chafe out bad corrupt data.

Thank you again for your time and explanation, I lernt a bit more now.
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Post by KrazeeXXL »

np, therefor we are a community :)
HsojVvad wrote:How come I had no problems before downloading from this site, but I do now?
To some part it's the (new?) server since there were some problems some months ago. Now it has some big lag from time to time which causes these corrupt downloads.

But packet-loss is most common within the internet. Because it's a heavily crowded place. There must be billions over billions over billions of data-packets "flying" around.

And some of them get lost. Downloadmanagers use end-to-end checksums to verify if some amount of data was transmitted correctly. If not the d-m makes a new request of these packages to the server which will send them again. Until the verification of the whole file is correct.

The bigger the file the more likely you'll have packet-loss/corruption of data. And the main multi 1.02 is 449 MB big which is a huge size for a file. So the chance to get a corrupted download is very high (almost a hundred percent).

If your downloads in the past were mainly small files of some megabyte size the chance of corrupt downloads was a tiny one (but even 13 years ago this fact existed and I had to use getright to prevent that).

Cables and connections got worsen and need to be replaced, defective servers - hardware-blackouts or hacker attacks, earthquakes - continental drift, clouds, solar storms, you name it ;)

The internet isn't static. Every day there are blackouts and packets got lost because of a million reasons.

If you want to test this just use Voice over IP with a person on the other side of the world. Not every spoken word will be sent/received so you cannot fully understand everything at all times.

That's called packet-loss.
Last edited by KrazeeXXL on Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by anjel »

i could download UDM III multi, AAM without any problem, because in comparison with main multi, they are smallest files, and have less chance to be corrupted when the download finish.
Over the years i have the same problem with most downloads, the demo games for example. I remeber when i´ve downloaded Armada 1 demo, with a 56k connection LOL, that were hard times :lol:
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Post by KrazeeXXL »

yea, even a 5 mb download could often take the whole evening.

And if you got bad luck then it was corrupted. ;) It's a mistake you do just once in your life :P

btw. 56 k was quite fast. I started with 28,8 which really was a pain (not only the "speed" but also the costs)
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Post by HsojVvad »

Ah I get it. So when I use Skype, I can't hear them sometimes. It starts to make sence now.

Thanks again.
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Post by thunderchero »

Hi all,

Thank you for explaining KrazeeXXL, I doubt my explanation would have been near as good.

HsojVvad, I hope your downloads worked out this time.

Also I will adjust file size later (I am away from my main computer) but it is slightly smaller now (426 mb) for multi main installer.

thunderchero
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