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Originally Posted by Rugal
What is the exact function of this plugin? I couldn't understand, is he a type of "FastDL" ?, please, can someone explain to me in detail?
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Here's one way to think of it... A downloader plugin tells clients that connect to your server which custom content such as models or sounds needs to be downloaded to their computer.
Without this sort of plugin the client won't have the custom content on their computer. If the custom model is worn by any player it won't be visible to anyone that hasn't downloaded the model. Instead, they'll see a big red ERROR. When a custom sound is played anyone who doesn't have a copy of the sound on their computer won't hear it.
A FastDL server is just a fancy name for a web server. In fact, if you know the address of the FastDL server you can browse to it with your web browser. A FastDL server can transfer files much faster than your game server can. It is good for players who connect to your game server because it relieves the game server of having to download files players to players. If a FastDL server is used it will take over the responsibility of downloading files to users. But there is a big catch to this.... A FastDL server knows what map a player needs when it is played but it has no idea which custom content files players need.
So... Players that connect to your server will need to be told which custom files they might need while on your server. The downloader plugin does that. It basically tells players which directories and or files contain custom content that needs to be downloaded to players. If you use a FastDL server the players will quickly get their custom content from that FastDL server. If you don't have a FastDL server the players will slowly get their custom content from your game server, and possibly lag other players while downloads are taking place.
My server plays the Jeopardy theme song when a map vote is displayed. If I didn't use a downloader plugin nobody would download the music. Music doesn't play for the player and models don't display for the player unless they exists on the players local machine
I hope this helps explain what a downloader plugin does. You really only need it if you are hosting custom sounds or models on your server.