I’m planning ahead for my release and I am seriously thinking about how I will handle the update problem. I understand the way UE handles this with the PAK files and the numbering scheme. However that means that the clients will potentially accumulate a lot of old data that has since been superseded. Also it means that I have to transmit a lot of unnecessary data.
For instance if you change a large texture just a tiny bit, a new PAK file with the texture must be created although you may have just changed a few pixel.
Indigo Rose’s delta mechanism on the other hand creates a delta file between two versions of a PAK file and then only the difference information is transmitted over the net. The PAK file is modified on the client side and the client does not need to hold two version of the PAK file and neither do I have to transmit two versions to new players who download the patched version as their first game version.
So how are people here handling this problem in practice? I am interested in real world experiences and I want to hear about successes and failures people had with either method.
Thanks