Alternate downloading software/methods for shaky connections?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Are there torrent mirrors for the official engine build, or a way to make the Epic Games Launcher resume a previously disconnected download, or other tools for slow/shaky internet connections to get these modding tools and the game engine?

I know there is Github, but I don’t care for source code access (I am an UE noob, so I wouldn’t know what to do with it) and as such do not have a Github account. Plus I don’t think Github can be partially downloaded, not easily anyway.

I restart often when I use my PC during the day, so I really need something I can treat like Steam or Origin where it will resume, or a way to download the engine in smaller chunks that only take a few hours instead of days. And installing overnight is not an option for me.

I’ve been trying to install these 4 things:

-ARK Modding Tools (this is the main one I wanted to check out, since I own ARK on steam and wanted to use modding it to learn Unreal Engine.)
-Unreal 4 Engine Itself (it’s only 5 gigs but still errors on me after around 2-3 gigs)
-Unreal Tournament 4
-Unreal Tournament Modding Tools

For all of them, I keep getting a “The package could not be downloaded or installed” type of error with the Epic Games Launcher that the site installed. This error happens sometime during the download, at seemingly random intervals. Clicking OK causes the launcher to not only wipe the current download, but also forget the other 3 installs I had set up to download.

I should mention that I have been able to download installers like the Unity installer(which is over 500 MB as a single file). Steam and Origin also are working fine, though I think those work through a torrent system. My internet does not have a cap, but sometimes it is a little shaky or slow.

So I think the problem is my connection is just too slow/unsteady to make a 5 gig (engine itself) or 65 gig (ark modding tools) install file practical. Are there ways to get these files without needing to completely download the whole kit at one session/bootup of the system?

2

You can pause a download, but I don’t know that you can resume after closing/restarting

Torrents are not allowed because it is required that users agree to the EULA to be able to download and torrents circumvent that. Steam/Origin definitely do not use torrents, they download from their servers and you can pause and resume.
Github is probably your best choice, it’s not that difficult to use and it shouldn’t have a problem with an unstable connection since it’s not downloading an installer but rather lots of source files so if the connection goes out you won’t lose what you’ve already downloaded.

3

Thanks for the reply darthviper107. Ah, I forgot about the licensing issue. Yes, that would be a good reason not to offer a torrent.

Wouldn’t you know it, the download launcher went back to working perfectly and allowing me to pause/resume the moment I submitted this thread for moderation.

I managed to download Unreal Engine, and then downloaded Ark’s modding tools over 6 hours of a perfect connection. LOL, this is how the universe works. :stuck_out_tongue:

I still would love a way of doing partial or resuming downloads using the launcher. I understand the legal reasons for having to use the launcher instead of a third party downloading tool. But it should at least be able to resume downloading instead of just giving up entirely on a failed connection. I noticed it verifies itself after the download, so couldn’t it just grab it in pieces like other update programs, then run the verify and re-download only the broken/missing chunks? Just a suggestion for improving it, since the files are so large.

I shall keep the github solution in mind for the future. :slight_smile:

But personally, I am now ready to hit the ground running and learn how to use this thing. Horrible Newbie Game 2000 here I come! :wink: