Download-on-Demand Is Coming To Singularity!

Greetings, Capsuleers!

The Download-on-Demand (DoD) client is now coming to the Singularity test-server. What does this mean? If you have not read the Dev blog about Download on Demand Client for EVE Online by CCP Snorlax, I strongly recommend you have a look!

This changes how we deploy the EVE Online client.  No longer will you have to download an install package that is 7GB in size.  The installer size will now be around 350-400MB and will install the game code, but all resources (textures, models, etc.) will be downloaded on-demand by the EVE Client.  

The default location for the resource-files on Windows is “C:\ProgramData\CCP\EVE\SharedCache”, but you will be able to choose your custom location.  On Mac, the path is /Library/Application Support/EVE Online/p_drive/Local Settings/Application Data/CCP/EVE/SharedCache.  This location is not configurable. The main driver for this change is to get players into the game quicker, both players that are coming to EVE Online for the first time and battle-hardened vets players patching after updates.  The EVE Client will then download the resources as it needs them and cache them to disk, so any given resource is only downloaded once.

Since everyone playing EVE Online already has an EVE folder, you might ask if you need to download the full client in this manner again. You will not. We have included a way to unpack your stuff file (resources) to the cache location of your choice. 

When you first log onto SISI after DoD deployment you will be asked if you want to convert your existing resources to the new shared folder.  I recommend doing so. When you have done so, you will have a shared resources location that all of your EVE Clients will eventually use.. Tranquility (TQ), yes! SISI, yes!  Multiple clients, yes! The upshot here is that apart from helping us testing this client, when we deploy the DoD client to TQ, you will already have the majority of resources and therefore the patching will be minimal.

This brings us to a very important thing:

You should have a separate Singularity- install for the initial DoD deployment.  This is already stated in the instruction-link on How to setup a Singularity Test-server, and I'd imagine that anyone that's ever tried to run both Tranquility and Singularity off the same install will tell you it is not the best idea. This is even more important now, as failing to do so will force you to re-install your Tranquility client. I repeat – do not simply point your Tranquility launcher to Singularity.  

We are very much interested in hearing how the unpacking process goes, as this is something we do expect most, (if not all) players currently on Tranquility to go through. If you do go through this unpacking step, you should not experience any difference in your gameplay.  We will most likely ask the good citizens of SISI at some point to participate in a mass-test where we will ask you to not use the shared resources.  This would mean moving the resource folder to a different location while we run the mass-test.  The purpose would be to see how the DoD-client performs in heavy scenes when every player is downloading assets on demand. We will message this when the time comes.

Bottom line:

Apart from this one-time step of converting the existing resource files into new files in a shared location, you should really not notice any difference in playing EVE Online with this version of the client. 

On behalf of Team RnB,

o7

CCP Maxwell.