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Home ? Tech Help ? Muvizu updates - in what form?

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27/08/2010 08:09:49

mcmillan-raExperimental userMuvizu staff
mcmillan-ra
Posts: 164 		Hi Kaynine,

The program that runs when you Launch Muvizu does a quick check on our servers for a more up to date version. If it finds it, it will tell you that new parts are available - and ask if you want to download them. It should then download the relevant bits and install them (if you want to - of course).

There is one known problem with this on Vista machines, where it will download all the parts and then unfortunately it won't be able to install them. So Vista machines will need to do the full download thing again. The new installer is sitting at around 500MB (quite a hefty one - sorry.) The updates would still be in the region of 200MB (off the top of my head - maybe a bit more.)

I'd recommend uninstalling before re-installing - if you're using the installer - but I think it should work if you don't.

This all seemed a good idea when we started, but I'm not so sure about it now. So it may change in subsequent releases, and then again - it may not.
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27/08/2010 14:11:18

Hermit
Hermit
Posts: 36 		mcmillan-ra wrote:
This all seemed a good idea when we started, but I'm not so sure about it now. So it may change in subsequent releases, and then again - it may not.


The problem I have with updates and having to connect to servers before starting an app or game is that I feel uneasy about doing it. It's one of the reasons I don't use STEAM, or play games connected to it, as I don't like being forced to ask for permission to play a game or app that I've already paid for (and it looks like console games are going the same way as PC ones on this ). I see it like having to always ask a publisher for permission before I read a book

Alright, Muvizu's free and it's still in it's beta stage, but when it reaches it's final v1 release it may be worth thinking about giving people the choice of what patches and updates they may want afterwards. Looking into the future, the specs for using Muvizu may increase with later versions and updates, so for those with slower machines (and mine is just borderline at the moment!) automatic updating may cause problems and they may prefer to use v1 rather than v2.

Also, I don't always have my internet connection on when I start Muvizu, and on other occassions I'm on a user login account on my PC that tends not to allow updating. So if I want to update, I would deliberately go onto my admin account to do that.

It's all a question of the user keeping control and having choice, y'see
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27/08/2010 16:54:00

mcmillan-raExperimental userMuvizu staff
mcmillan-ra
Posts: 164 		Hello Hermit,

I generally agree with you. Personally, I'm not a big fan of "dial home" software.

However, our version check is really just that - it connects, sees if there are differences and asks if you'd like to upgrade, you are allowed to say no. If you find that annoying you could bypass the Launcher application - and run the Muvizu application directly.

It should work whether you are connected to the internet or not. (Caveat: with the current installer there are three cache files missing - and it requires a quick chat with the server when you first run it to create them. After these files have been generated then you don't need to have an internet connection to run Muvizu. And this will no longer be an issue with the release next week, as it will install these files and it doesn't check for this data any more.)

We've not done this for tracking purposes or for anything nefarious, it is simply to allow people to know when we've updated the software.

As I said above, I'm not that happy with the way it's working at the moment anyway, and it may change in future releases. I'll take this on board - I understand and agree with you.
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28/08/2010 11:47:39

pyrrho
pyrrho
Posts: 123 		Hermit wrote:
Looking into the future, the specs for using Muvizu may increase with later versions and updates, so for those with slower machines (and mine is just borderline at the moment!) automatic updating may cause problems and they may prefer to use v1 rather than v2.


I'm rather hoping that, given updates to the core tech we use since creating Muvizu that we must soon incorporate, processing demands may well fall initially rather than rise. As far as the risk of losing a preferred version because of a mistakenly applied update (you do get the choice, as Robert said) or anything else out of left field, it's worth - as with any software you like - keeping the .exe file somewhere safe. That way you can always say, "This far, but no further, thanks."
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28/08/2010 20:54:44

Hermit
Hermit
Posts: 36 		I dunno, for some reason the Muvizu that I use seems to just go online to check for updates without asking first (when I do use the launcher) and I think it does change the app slightly from time to time. I mean, there was a slider function for the stubble facial hair before, where you could adjust it, but that seems to have gone now I thought that was a good idea, and worth incorporating for hair and beard length too (as well as other physical features). It could also be used to adjust the size of things like hats and the like
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31/08/2010 09:45:13

mcmillan-raExperimental userMuvizu staff
mcmillan-ra
Posts: 164 		Hi Hermit,

The only updates that should be happening are about once every two months. It does do the check without asking, but won't install the updates without asking - and as I say, if you run unconnected then it really won't mind - and will just run.

It's possible that Muvizu it will have updated the configuration (the three files mentioned before) but no one should have been changing things - and if they have without notifying me then I'll be having words. In the new release the configuration update has been disabled, because there's too much config data to transfer about now - and we never really used it.

It does still do the version checking thing on startup though.

As far as I can see the beard slider is there in the current release, and it's certainly in the new one. But only on the "stubbly beard" though. It's not there on the others. I'm fairly sure that has not been changed. (In the new release, this will be classed as a "fake beard" - as we've got more acurate "morphing" beards now.)
edited by mcmillan-ra on 8/31/2010
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