How big is the Guild Wars trial? - Guild Wars Forums

kakaislegend · Sep 29, 2009, 08:41 AM // 08:41

Yeah, I am downloading the trial straight from the official website of guildwars.

Just wondering, how big is the trial? 2GBs?

Kendil · Sep 29, 2009, 09:35 AM // 09:35

A quote from your other thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silmar Alech

The download is a one-time download, since it is all cached locally in one big gw.dat file. It is approx. 3.8GB. If you install GW from a retail dvd, this cache file is preinstalled and the download is only the game updates since the manufacturing of the dvd. If you installed without dvd directly from the ncsoft website, you download these 3.8gb during gameplay. There is one big initial download of perhaps 1-2GB, and the rest is pulled on demand every time you visit a yet-unvisited area or outpost until you have visited every place.

The every-day bandwith is very small. The game was originally designed to support even 56k modem users, I was told.

So I guess it's ~3.8GB.

waeland · Sep 29, 2009, 11:02 AM // 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendil

So I guess it's ~3.8GB.

Question was not about whole game cache, but initial download you need before you can play and it is much less than this.

kakaislegend · Sep 29, 2009, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by waeland

Question was not about whole game cache, but initial download you need before you can play and it is much less than this.

Yeah, it is just the trial I am asking.

Surely it must be less than 3.8 GB hahhaha!

Covah · Sep 29, 2009, 12:51 PM // 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by kakaislegend

Yeah, it is just the trial I am asking.

Surely it must be less than 3.8 GB hahhaha!

Nope, all gw.dat files are the same size. Even if you don't have the other games you need the textures to see other players and their armors etc.

MasterIceSlayer · Sep 29, 2009, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Covah

Nope, all gw.dat files are the same size. Even if you don't have the other games you need the textures to see other players and their armors etc.

No, they can't be. The dat file stores info depending where you have been. It isn't 3.8 gb unless you have been to all the zones in all the campaigns. That is why you get longer load times the first time you zone into a place (if you change PCs, you will hvae the same problem, reloading, since the dat file is stored on your local drive).

But I have no idea how big the cache is for the trial, depends on how far you go. Maybe less than 1 gb?

caballo_oscuro · Sep 29, 2009, 01:15 PM // 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterIceSlayer

No, they can't be. The dat file stores info depending where you have been. It isn't 3.8 gb unless you have been to all the zones in all the campaigns. That is why you get longer load times the first time you zone into a place (if you change PCs, you will hvae the same problem, reloading, since the dat file is stored on your local drive).

But I have no idea how big the cache is for the trial, depends on how far you go. Maybe less than 1 gb?

Nope actually gw will download all you need to get playing, which is approximately 2GB depending on the campaign you load first. Then as you play it downloads the rest of the whole gw.dat file in the background as you play.

As you rezone, if you don't have the requisite elements for that zone, these are prioritised as you can't play til you get to where you are going, but eventually the entire ~3.8GB will be downloaded.

The trial is linked to a key which gives you 14 hours of play over 10 days.

Dzjudz · Sep 29, 2009, 02:13 PM // 14:13

One thing you can do is do a -image before creating an account. That way you can enjoy all the trial time without having to download anything while playing.

wilderness · Sep 29, 2009, 03:45 PM // 15:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz

One thing you can do is do a -image before creating an account. That way you can enjoy all the trial time without having to download anything while playing.

Just to clarify:

Right click the GWs .exe, go to properties, find the 'Target' field and add the command '-image' to the end. Hit apply, Ok, then let the client download all files before creating your account.

Remove the -image command when you're done.

Sep 29, 2009, 08:41 AM // 08:41	#1
kakaislegend Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Sep 2009	How big is the Guild Wars trial? Yeah, I am downloading the trial straight from the official website of guildwars. Just wondering, how big is the trial? 2GBs?

Sep 29, 2009, 02:13 PM // 14:13	#8
Dzjudz Furnace Stoker Join Date: Jun 2005 Guild: gwpvx.com/user:dzjudz	One thing you can do is do a -image before creating an account. That way you can enjoy all the trial time without having to download anything while playing.