Godot: Suggestion: Upload releases to Github

[noidexe]

Bugsquad edit: Use this unofficial mirror if TuxFamily is too slow.

---

I've noticed that both tuxfamily and op.godotengine.org very often offer very poor download speed (sometimes less than 100KB/s). Maybe this happens only in Argentina but I've tested it with different machines and different ISPs. I've spent an hour downloading export templates with the same connection that would otherwise download the same amount of data in a couple of minutes.

I never had issues downloading releases from the release tab on github projects. Github allows creating releases and uploading binaries of up to 2GB. Is there a reason why you're not using that feature?

More info: https://help.github.com/articles/about-releases/

[mhilbrunner]

Definitely doesn't happen only from Argentina, experienced that from germany and UK sometimes as well. Made a bad first impression on my initial download.

[Shin-NiL]

Yeah, very slow download from here too (Brazil).

[ShyRed]

Might want to start to include manually created source tarballs as requested in #18347 while we're at it...

[Phoenix1747]

Also experienced slow downloads before, but it's quite random. Sometimes it downloads with my typical internet speed and sometimes it's just like 200 KB/s.

Your suggestion to upload releases to Github applies to the export templates right? Because the engine release are indeed on Github. Maybe the Godot team should consider adding the export templates to the individual releases and linking the website downloads to the releases here on Github.

[mhilbrunner]

The download link on the website points to https://downloads.tuxfamily.org/godotengine/3.0.2/Godot_v3.0.2-stable_win64.exe.zip for me. Not GitHub.

Also yes, it varies a lot: sometimes it saturates my workplaces fiber connection, sometimes its < 20kb/s.

[Phoenix1747]

The download link on the website points to https://downloads.tuxfamily.org/godotengine/3.0.2/Godot_v3.0.2-stable_win64.exe.zip for me. Not GitHub.

Yeah but they are already (also) here on Github https://github.com/godotengine/godot/releases

[mhilbrunner]

They aren't? That are only the sources, as far as I can see, not compiled binaries.

[Phoenix1747]

That's true but you can easily compile the sources, you don't need precompiled binaries ;)

[mhilbrunner]

Don't know why we're offering binaries on the website then.

Seriously though, I'd wager 90% or so of users don't compile the engine themselves.
Even more, new users don't bother to compile the engine, probably. So by not having a binary, or a slow to download one, we're probably losing users.

[Phoenix1747]

It's much more easy to compile on Linux than on Windows because you already have most if not all requisits. And because Windows has the biggest market share on the PC market and not at last because it's unnecessary you have binaries. Although I have to say having a bit of backend experience doesn't harm you if you seriously want to create your own game from "scratch".

If you're really that annoyed by the extremely slow download speeds then just download the source from github and take your time to compile it, maybe that's faster for you ;)

[mhilbrunner]

If you're really annoyed by the extremely slow download speeds then just download the source from github and take your time to compile it, maybe that's faster for you ;)

On a first compile? Thats slow too. Honestly, if I'm annoyed by the extremely slow download speed, the solution is to fix the download speed. Because otherwise, I'm not going to try to fix it by compiling myself, I'm just going to download . Not sure why this is an argument.

Edit: besides "just compile it and fix it yourself" is always a bad argument. Otherwise we could close all bug reports with "just fix it, compile it yourself and submit a PR, its open source after all" as well.

[Phoenix1747]

1. I've never said "just compile it and fix it yourself".
2. Compiling didn't take very long at all on my rather slow laptop.
3. Servers cost money and sometimes they can slow down because of too much traffic.
4. If the download speed's the only thing keeping someone from switching to another engine then they should just leave.

Anyways, I'm genuinely sorry to have mentioned compiling as an option.

[noidexe]

@Phoenix1747 I'm trying to say this as politely as possible so I hope it doesn't offend you. There is always at least one person and usually more than one with that "RTFM" attitude in every OSS project and it drives users away much more effectively than download speeds and asking every user to waste time learning how to fix what could be easily solved from the developer end is just bad engineering. .

So:
1 - Yes you said exactly that here and here
2 - It doesn't matter how fast it compiles. We already have prebuilt binaries for every release. Why on earth would you force the user to learn how to do it when it's not necessary.
3 - AFAIK Github doesn't charge for hosting binaries so this is irrelevant
4 - Hell no. If your users have a problem and you can easily fix it you fix it you don't blame them.

[Phoenix1747]

I'm not going to respond to your list like I would have since this whole discussion went in the absolutely wrong direction.

I'm not against the idea of hosting the binaries on Github, don't get me wrong here. That would be great. I was just mentioning the other option since ATM it seems there is just the source and the slowish bin downloads.

[mhilbrunner]

@Phoenix1747 Sorry if I got you wrong then, I agree that compiling from source is a good way to avoid the download if someone is comfortable with it.

But we should see to it that downloading is a good experience too.

[Shin-NiL]

If there's no charge from github for hosting the binaries I can't see why don't have a mirror here.

[eon-s]

I have issues only downloading templates from the game engine, not outside (still slow but not slow as downloading from the engine).

Maybe, as an extra option, some releases of GodotBuilder can be linked on this repository and official site.

[akien-mga]

I could upload binaries to GitHub easily yes, but that's not my preferred solution. The advantage of using the TuxFamily repository as the main download point is that we get stats about the number of downloads, which are basically the only data we have to guesstimate how many users are using Godot.

So instead of just deferring it all to GitHub, I'd prefer that we set our own mirror infrastructure (e.g. with MirrorBrain) and get downloads mirrored all over the world from a single entry point.

[vnen]

@akien-mga you can get the download count of release assets using the GitHub API.

[Calinou]

I've set up an unofficial mirror for Godot releases here, in case anyone stumbles upon this page because downloads from TuxFamily are slow.

[Xyrio]

github shows downloads using the api which is publicly accessible. so unless you want to keep it a secret you can see download counts like so:
https://api.github.com/repos/electron/electron/releases/tags/v8.0.0-beta.9
https://api.github.com/repos/godotengine/godot/releases/tags/3.2-stable

[Calinou]

@Xyrio I noticed this yesterday after setting up Refined GitHub with an API key :wink:

[Xyrio]

just for clarification: the links dont need an api key or github login.

[decepticlown]

@Calinou any chance for those unofficial links to become official? Like, integrated in Godot? BTW thanks for the uploads. Way faster than tux.

[Calinou]

@decepticlown I don't think so, Akien still needs to look at setting up a proper mirror infrastructure. Alternatively, we could migrate away from TuxFamily to a more capable host to solve this issue.

[Xyrio]

sigh and again waiting for hours to download 56.5 MB.
well found this mirror from gotdot contributor Calinou for now: https://archive.hugo.pro/godot-tuxfamily/
from https://www.reddit.com/r/godot/comments/ew5fqt/export_template_slow_download/

[nikhilCad]

I only get 80kBps on a fast wifi connection. Please fix this issue. Unity is so easier to download despite its huge size because of fast servers.

[Calinou]

@nikhilCad Use the mirror linked in the first post in the meantime :slightly_smiling_face:

[wmnnd]

@Calinou Thanks for the mirror. After waiting over 20 minutes for the official download, I was almost about to give up on Waiting for Godot :wink: