BitRaider: The bad, the ugly, and the Force-awful.

[WillCaedes]

So hey Bioware, it seems you all decided to install BitRaider as your new streaming delivery service. I just gotta ask you one question though, did you actually do some research?

 

I mean, I spent maybe 5 to 10 minutes googling and came up with this:

http://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/6848/proof-that-bitraider-is-doing-our-game-no-favors

https://www.facebook.com/marvelheroes/posts/637291076298903

http://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/6857/bitraider-low-download-speed/p3

 

All of this months prior to your installation of BitRaider as your streaming service. Oh, and it was FROM ANOTHER MMO NO LESS. Brilliant Bioware! Brilliant! Next time, do some friggin research before you shovel this crap down your players throats for a change.

 

“BitRaider’s mission is to make it as easy to download games as it is to get music or books online. The player comes first, it is the belief behind everything we do. Get in. Get playing. Get updates without the pain. And in the process, make the PC play experience as effortless as console.”

 

Should probably be:

 

“BitRaider’s mission is to make it as hard as possible to download games as it is to get music or books online. The player comes first, it is the belief behind everything we do. Get in. Get patching for 24hrs+. Get updates with the pain of redownloading your entire game and or client. And in the process, make the PC play experience as awful as possible.”

Edited September 26, 2013 by WillCaedes

[Alec_Fortescue]

Try to get retail discs.

[kidatwood]

I was worried last night if I was going to have this problem cause I haven't played since Monday and I experienced no problems updated the launcher in a minute. Can I ask where are you from?

[PlacidDragon]

If i were to guess, the only thing that was a factor in their choice was cost. Cheaper...good.

 

As to how it actually performs.. i mean seriously...who cares about that.

 

 

@kidatwood :

 

They may have "fixed it" now, but it sure affected an absolute ton of people, from all over the place.

Edited September 26, 2013 by PlacidDragon

[xbeemox]

Lol. I just had fun re-downloading the entire game.. took me about 2 days.

 

Then when I hit play the launcher closes and nothing opens. So the fix is to delete the BitRaider folder and run the launcher again. Ok.

 

So. Now I have to download 20% of the entire game again. 1/5 of 26 GB = 5 GB

 

My internet sucks.. that's ok. I don't care about not being able to play (even though I am... was a subscriber)

 

But, I just have to agree that BitRaider is horrible

[JediMasterSLC]

It's like, pretty terrible.

[kidatwood]

If i were to guess, the only thing that was a factor in their choice was cost. Cheaper...good.

 

As to how it actually performs.. i mean seriously...who cares about that.

 

 

@kidatwood :

 

They may have "fixed it" now, but it sure affected an absolute ton of people, from all over the place.

 

The reason I asked is from reading all the threads it seemed a lot of people from Australia and a few out in the boonies in America here had trouble. Not saying that it doesn't stink for them cause it does and would be upset if I was in there shoes

[PlacidDragon]

The reason I asked is from reading all the threads it seemed a lot of people from Australia and a few out in the boonies in America here had trouble. Not saying that it doesn't stink for them cause it does and would be upset if I was in there shoes

aha. Yeah, i dont know where most were from, but im sure i saw 3 - 4 countries mentioned at least in the various threads. I myself am from Norway, and also had to reinstall the entire game (or rather, the "patch" kindly did it for me without letting me know, hehe).

[Andryah]

The reason I asked is from reading all the threads it seemed a lot of people from Australia and a few out in the boonies in America here had trouble. Not saying that it doesn't stink for them cause it does and would be upset if I was in there shoes

 

There reason it does not impact everyone:

I. Streaming vs. Non-Streaming Patching

 

We introduced a new (streaming) patching technology to the Launcher and SWTOR client on July 30th 2013 that allows you to begin playing before the entire game has been downloaded. This new technology brings with it some new troubleshooting steps, so you need to first determine which patching technology you’re using.

 

You are using the original (non-streaming) technology, if:

•You installed the game from physical media (DVDs)

•You installed the game from an installer downloaded from http://www.swtor.com prior to July 30th 2013 and logged in at least once before that date.

 

 

You are using the new (streaming) technology, if:

•You installed the game using an installer downloaded from http://www.swtor.com after July 30th 2013.

You can also determine what technology you are using by logging in and looking in the lower left corner of the Launcher screen. If you see “ST” you’re using streaming.

 

Source: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=419492

 

Edit: They patched the launcher this morning to fix the problem. Anyone who pulled the trigger on switching from BR to SSN will still have to do a complete redownload.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Andryah

[WillCaedes]

The reason I asked is from reading all the threads it seemed a lot of people from Australia and a few out in the boonies in America here had trouble. Not saying that it doesn't stink for them cause it does and would be upset if I was in there shoes

 

I actually had issues with this downloader in a meteropolitian area near Indianapolis on a Comcast 25+ MBs internet connection.

[johnduane]

If i were to guess, the only thing that was a factor in their choice was cost. Cheaper...good.

 

This is almost certain. Blizzard has been streaming patches and updates for a long long time with no problems. They use BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) which is a Microsoft product. I imagine they paid for the licensing to be able to use it, and EA probably did a cost comparison with BitRaider and went with that instead.

 

Boggles the mind.

 

Btw, I live in the capital city of Wisconsin and Have a 30 Mbps fiber internet connection and it took 10 hours. People need to understand, it isn't their internet connection or speed, because Bioware is throttling down on their end to get more users on their bandwidth.

[Bstr]

I actually had issues with this downloader in a meteropolitian area near Indianapolis on a Comcast 25+ MBs internet connection.

 

I'm by Lansing, MI and a 5 MB/s internet connection and had problems where I had to redownload all the English assets that took all of last night.

 

I don't think the slow download speeds are entirely due to BioWare's throttling:

 

Here is the weird thing: the launcher never goes over 1 MB/s. However, when I open up Task Manager, it shows that the BitRaider process is using all 5 MB/s of download speed, so I know the BioWare isn't doing any throttling to my PC. CPU, Memory, and Disk access are low, so its not that it is having trouble installing the patch. I am wondering what is it doing with the 80% (4 MB/s) that its downloading but not part of the game.

 

I'm wondering if this is the problem with BitRaider: it inflates files by 400% when it packages them and sends them across to download. That is a lot of overhead.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Bstr

[Draqsko]

If i were to guess, the only thing that was a factor in their choice was cost. Cheaper...good.

 

This is almost certain. Blizzard has been streaming patches and updates for a long long time with no problems. They use BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) which is a Microsoft product. I imagine they paid for the licensing to be able to use it, and EA probably did a cost comparison with BitRaider and went with that instead.

 

Boggles the mind.

 

Btw, I live in the capital city of Wisconsin and Have a 30 Mbps fiber internet connection and it took 10 hours. People need to understand, it isn't their internet connection or speed, because Bioware is throttling down on their end to get more users on their bandwidth.

 

Actually the problem is Bit Raider, after I turned bit raider off, my download speeds for patches is 3-4 times faster.

 

Bit Raider is throttling you, not Bioware. You also don't have to live with it either, since you can do a quick edit to remove it, and full install to download. Given that it only took 3.5-4 hours for the full download, I've saved myself alot of aggrevation, and about 6 hours of time. You could save yourself the full install download if you have the game discs still, but it would still need to patch to current.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Draqsko

[WillCaedes]

Actually the problem is Bit Raider, after I turned bit raider off, my download speeds for patches is 3-4 times faster.

 

Bit Raider is throttling you, not Bioware. You also don't have to live with it either, since you can do a quick edit to remove it, and full install to download. Given that it only took 3.5-4 hours for the full download, I've saved myself alot of aggrevation, and about 6 hours of time. You could save yourself the full install download if you have the game discs still, but it would still need to patch to current.

 

I agree with this. I took out BitRaider and it only took me 2.5-3 hours on the standard download. And you know what? I did just fine without being able to stream the game so I could play on the Starter Planets. =_=

[mmjarec]

Just another example of booware cutting corners at the customers expense. I really cant beleive how mich you guus put up with and still expect things like space mini game to not be an absolute failure. Their whole track record has been nothing but fail

[Alec_Fortescue]

Installing the game from disc won't install a bit raider and goes faster and smoother. You can get used discs for almost nothing!

[WillCaedes]

Installing the game from disc won't install a bit raider and goes faster and smoother. You can get used discs for almost nothing!

 

Ah pre-order discs blow this out of the water because they ****ed the client.exe up in that one too. :<

[kesildas]

SOOO disappointed in the forced use of Bitraider.

 

I dread patch days so much, the reorganizing of data and installs take so freaking long. (and We have to go thru another one tomorrow, %($@!#.) My main concern when dealing with these patches is the fact that using bitraider slows my machine down to a crawl.

 

Yesterday I was feeling very ill when I woke up so I decide to go ahead and do the patch and go back to bed. I woke again about an hour later needing to vomit but when I try to sit up my gut feels like I've been stabbed. Turns out I needed an appendectomy.

I came back from the hospital this afternoon and my client is s...t...i...l...l... patching.

 

WTH bioware/ea. I do a little research and it turns out there are numerous posts concerning how bad this Bitraider is.

 

It's so insane that we have to use, user fixes to get the game running. I am ticked off right now because I know I have to spend the next few days reinstalling the game in order to bypass bit raider. What's worse is, those are days I lose every week on my subscription.

[theonetruebleed]

Ew, necrothread.

 

Meanwhile, on topic: I have never had a problem with updates, the last one the other day there took less that fifteen minutes to download and install. No glitches, no stoppages, no crashes, no total ruination of the launcher or client. Clearly this indicates that the 'bitraider problem' is not universal.

 

To that end, I recommend you contact support. I mean that unironically, as unhelpful as support have a rep for being, some help is better than none at all.

Edited December 19, 2013 by theonetruebleed
Addition of further cogent point

[WillCaedes]

I was wondering how the hell one of my old threads resurfaced.

 

Meh, your best bet is to avoid Bioware Customer Support and meander through that section of forums looking for player fixes. Sad but true. Hell 2 weeks ago I got stuck with some kind of login bug where I couldn't even log onto my toons on Jedi Covenant. Browsed the Support Forums for suggestions by PLAYERS not the actual support staff and lo & behold, within 2-3 hours of doing player suggested fixes, viola I'm back in-game.

 

Bioware Customer Support should be ashamed of themselves.

[OddballEasyEight]

Try to get retail discs.

 

For some reason my retail discs won't install... :/

[Stoofa]

Try to get retail discs.

 

I have the retail disks. What's more I copied these disks onto a USB stick and did a little monkeying around with the manifest files.

I can now install SWTOR from USB in around 10 minutes. Sure I've then got to patch it. But my 10 minute install followed by quick patching gives me a nice, stable client that does not get messed up after every patch.

[Gawlron]

I have the retail disks. What's more I copied these disks onto a USB stick and did a little monkeying around with the manifest files.

I can now install SWTOR from USB in around 10 minutes. Sure I've then got to patch it. But my 10 minute install followed by quick patching gives me a nice, stable client that does not get messed up after every patch.

 

I keep a back copy of the file install, and when I rebuild, I just copy it back and Origin fix the registry stuff... I didn't even know about this BitRaider garbage until a friend of my complained about it and I was like "What's that? I don't have that... sounds like spyware."

[Sabinanus]

hello

same problem in Europe. New installation is a complete desaster with 512 KB/sec and bitraider using much more!

[OwenBrooks]

There is this option - http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=673714