❓How it works

Learn how the Launcher works.

Install, Patching and Repair

When you create a patch for your game, you need to upload the content of the Output folder to your host which contain these 3 folders:

InstallerPatch: The complete game in a single file. (If your user doesn't have the game, this will be downloaded.) [This is Optional]

RepairPatch: If some files are missing or damaged, only these files will be downloaded.

IncrementalPatch: If your user has an outdated version, this files will be downloaded.

The patcher always analyze which method is the best by comparing the size of the update, it will select automatically the smaller patch size.

Creating my own patches

You can create your own patches for your game and for the launcher, these are separated and managed on his own workspace.

If you want to learn how to do it follow this: Creating App Version Creating Launcher Version

Binary Diff vs Normal Patches

The RepairPatch contains every file of your lastest version of your game.

If any file of your client is damaged/missing, the Launcher will detect them, and it will download these files.

The IncrementalPatch is the patch data to update files from a previous version to another version.

For example: You have a MyEnvironment.map which is a 10 GB file.

If you, in your game engine updated something, like a simple song, then, when you create the patch, the GameLauncherCore will detect that something changed (using Binary Diff) and a new patch will be created to update only the neccesary.

So, the client will receive an small update, this is called a patch, which contains only the needed changes to perform.

The MyEnvironment.map file of the client will be patched by the Launcher.

That's is the magic of Binary Diff Updates.

Without that, the user will receive a 10 GB update, because he will need to download the whole MyEnvironment.map again because that file is different, no matter if it was very small change (1 byte or less), if it was modified, then is different, and must be downloaded again. Not great right?

That's why Game Launcher is great!