In order to prepare your server for patching, there are a few pointers we can give you here.

If you host your game files with our in-house patching service, we can assist you and help you to get things up and running. If you are using your own hosting/servers or your own solution for the file hosting, we can only provide limited support and guidance as we can’t possibly provide deep support for a service that isn’t ours.

GZIP, Compression and Caching

Ensure the directories your files are uploaded to are not affected by GZIP compression. GZIP compression applies a compression to the binary inside your files, the problem is with this, it actually modifies the data inside the file from server to client. This will result in file mismatches galore. Either disable GZIP from your server completely or just exclude your patch directory on your server. If you are hosting your game files on the same server as a WordPress website, you will probably run into problems as WP locks down web directories. Consider moving it to a subdomain or another server.

If your server has any form of compression applied, please disable it. If your server relies on compression, just separate your game files from your compression routines or exclude if possible.

Caching is not really an issue, as the patcher will send a cachebuster query to your game patching files as it downloads. We append a random set of numbers and strings to the file download, for example…

https://mydomain.com/game_files/thisfile.exe?rand=483843?glcseed=343439493

If you DO have caching enabled on your server, ensure you don’t have any options on there which also include ‘cache queries’, you must not cache any queries sent to that directory.

File and Folder Permissions

Whether you’re using Windows or Linux for file hosting, you need to ensure you have set/allowed directory and file permissions on the fileserver for the patcher to access. It will require the same access level as ‘Public’. When you are debugging any errors in the patch debug log, you can copy the URLs the debug log produces and try them in your web browser to further diagnose what the issue could be.

No Dynamic URLs

You should refrain from using any hosting, webserver, htaccess rewrite rules or plugins that could cause URL rewrites. This will cause massive problems with the patcher as it looks for static URLs such as

https://mydomain.com/game_files/thisfile.exe not https://drive.google.com/dhYurjjI

You cannot use Dropbox, Google Drive or any other service that produces dynamic URLs. So long as it’s a valid webserver setup with absolute URLs to the files, you should be good to go.

You can use a Dedicated Server, VPS, Shared Hosting or even Free Hosting. So long as it’s a webserver. We recommend straying away from any free hosting as support will be limited, features will be limited and it may not even be compatible with the requirements needed. Some people have had success with free hosting, but we don’t recommend it.

We can only provide support via our website and our help section if you are self-hosting or are using a third-party hosting service for your game files. We have no control or access over any third party servers and/or hosting.

If you do not have a server or hosting to store your game patch files on, we can provide this service for you. Take a look at our game patch hosting solutions here.