BF2S Forums Official BF2 Verify Client Data Survey

Thanks for the sticky! After I get about 100 surveys I'll post the data.

The only thing is I had different verify times when I did the test, it took like 30 seconds to verify on the initial loading, and like 12 on the re-loading.

Anybody else noticed a file called "generate_md5.py" in their bf2 install directory?  I'm pretty sure this is the culprit for the long verification times.  I don't know for sure if this is how the verification is done, but MD5 is a popular way of authenticating that a file is the same on both a client and server, and a .py file is a python script.

Implementing the MD5 algorithm in C/C++ would take a lot longer than doing it in python.  However it would run extremely slow by comparison.  The performance can be improved greatly by compiling the python script into bytecode, which is not that hard to do.  However, it would appear that was not done here, since the .py files would then be accompanied by .pyc files.  I'm assuming that if this is the case, and EA has it's act together, that this will be fixed in the upcoming patch.

Now to stay closer to the topic, I don't know why the time varies so much from user to user.  My brothers machine with an AthlonXP 2800+ and GF 6600GT verifies in a minute or so, while my system with an A64 2800 and GF 5900XT can take more than 5 minutes.  Hopefully the survey will shed some light on this issue, good thinking.

woot for my dual raptors in raid 1

Dunno about you guys but with the following configuration it takes me about 30 seconds maybe a bit more to load the game and another 5 - 10 seconds for the verifying

I just checked with a stopper it took exactly 38 seconds to load up and exatly another 12 seconds for the verifying on first time

P4 3.0G Socket 478
1.5G DDR400Mhz
FX5600 128MB
SATA 7200 RPM 200G ( has the game installed )
UATA 7200 RPM 250G ( has the OS Server 2003 installed )

Last edited by bad-dog (2005-08-17 22:14:26)

What's  "Verifying Client Data"?  Is that the thing that appears for 1 second, hahah.

AMD 64 3200+
2 Gigs DDR
WD SCSI Ultra2 drives

I haven't timed mine yet, but on my own gaming machine, I'm almost always 1st one in on a new map.  I have 2GB RAM and dal 10K raptors in a RAID 0.  I notice that the drivelight is solid during the verification process, so if it is a issue of streaming data from the drives, then a RAID 0 array will always be the fastest solution.

note, there's no RAID option in the survey.  Might want to add that.

well, I'll just need to get faster harddrives then...I'm obviously a minority with an IDE drive....

I think I may have the answer.

I have just added another 1G RAM (512Mb x 2) to my computer, i.e. 2G RAM in total (running dual channel).  Previously, it was 1G (512 Mb x 2).  The improvement is obvious.

I have filled in the questionnaire twice, with all other settings the same, one with 1G RAM and another with 2G RAM.  The time for loading and verifying client data is much much shorter.

And one more thing.  When I joined the game (with 1G RAM), the screen was still laggy and my motion halted for a few more seconds.  Usually, I would die once I respawn for the first time because I could not move.

When I have 2G RAM now, the screen is so smooth.  There is no halt whatsoever.  Cheers!!

Come on! guys! Go and get 2G RAM for the game & ENJOY!!!!

I have 1.5GBs, and sometimes there is just a tiny bit of jerk and lag at the start of the game while the rest of the scenery is loading in, but not that much.

lowyaukee wrote:

I think I may have the answer.

I have just added another 1G RAM (512Mb x 2) to my computer, i.e. 2G RAM in total (running dual channel).  Previously, it was 1G (512 Mb x 2).  The improvement is obvious.

I have filled in the questionnaire twice, with all other settings the same, one with 1G RAM and another with 2G RAM.  The time for loading and verifying client data is much much shorter.

And one more thing.  When I joined the game (with 1G RAM), the screen was still laggy and my motion halted for a few more seconds.  Usually, I would die once I respawn for the first time because I could not move.

When I have 2G RAM now, the screen is so smooth.  There is no halt whatsoever.  Cheers!!

Come on! guys! Go and get 2G RAM for the game & ENJOY!!!!

You're probably right, I remember the first battlefield 1942, I had 512 DDR and it would load like total of 2  - 3 minutes, I got another 256 and it loaded twice the speed then I added another 256 and it took about 30 seconds to load and that's all.

so i need to buy 2G RAM, in order to get the game going i must buy 2G's of RAM!!, i'm at 768 right know, and my mother board cannot handle 1gig cards and only has two slots!!  There has to be a way to fix this