It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionGOG GALAXY BETA(6179 posts) (6179 posts) 
(6179 posts) 
Pages:
1
100
200
226
227
228
229
230
400
412
This is my favourite topic
Posted May 06, 2015
high rated
!!! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING !!!

== BUG REPORTING ==

Please use: http://mantis.gog.com and include
1. steps to reproduce the bug (if possible)
2. screenshot or movie showing the bug (if possible)
3. Galaxy Client logs (see below)

Where can I find Galaxy logs on my computer?
On Windows 7 or later: C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\Logs
On Mac OS X: /Users/Shared/GOG.com/Galaxy/Logs

== FEATURE SUGGESTIONS ==

Please use: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy. For feature suggestions and votes on them please try do explain how Galaxy and its users will really benefit from it.

== IMPORT ALREADY INSTALLED GAMES TO GALAXY ==

1. For GOG games installed using installers from the last few months (so called Galaxy-compatible installers)
Click the Galaxy logo button on top of the sidebar and select "scan and import folders" - it will find all compatible games within that folder and add them to the Client.

2. For remaining GOG game INSTALLATIONS
Find the game in the Library (click on the image of the game), then click the More button and select "Manage Installation" -> "Import folder" and point the folder selector into the folder where that game is installed.

== KNOWN ISSUES ==
- throttling max download speed is not yet possible
- notifications related to incoming chat messages and friend requests does not always disappear instantly when consumed and may require reloading Store page
- games imported from existing installations will auto-update once, even if updating is disabled
- Moving Galaxy from /Applications on Mac OS X will stop the app from working
- Galaxy cannot be launched by other users on the same computer
Post edited October 03, 2016 by Liosan
Posted July 03, 2015
high rated
Hi Everyone,

Below you can find the changelog of GOG Galaxy.

Changelog 1.1.15 (September 7th, 2016):
Changes / Improvements:
• Added Wallet button in dropdown menu under user's avatar
• Performance improvements on UI speed and a little on CPU usage
• Enabled copying text in Galaxy forums
• History will now remember only the 100 most recent pages in history
Bugfixes:
• Fix for "Disk access problem" bug, which broke installation and updates of games. (Bug happened on Windows only, but general mechanism is better on OS X as well)
• Fix for Verify/Repair, which did not work in some scenarios (The above bug for example)
• Fix for "Server problem" while downloading backup installers or other goodies. They will now work, even if temporary download folder is same as destination folder
• Fixed situations in which Store page sometimes did not load properly after waking up computer

Changelog 1.1.16 (September 19th, 2016):
Improvements:
• Galaxy now supports H.264 codecs
• Much better handling of paying using third party processors (PayPal, paysafecard etc.)
• Friends and chat window now scale with the system scaling factor
• New and prettier GOG Eula will be used in games
• Better handling of loading timeouts

Bugfixes:
• "INSTALLED" label will appear all pages of the library now
• Fixed a bug with game time tracking for some games. Galaxy will now register more than one minute:)
• Fixed a bug in which Galaxy in rare cases could not be able to update the game (bug rather existed in rollbacks)
• Galaxy will no longer show a little bit of bare code upon launching
• Fixed blurred images in sidebar expanded list mode

Changelog 1.1.17(hotfix September 20th, 2016):
• Fixed crashes and 'Disk Access Problem' caused by updating Galaxy from 1.1.12 (and earlier versions) to 1.1.16

Changelog 1.1.18 (October 19th, 2016):
Improvements:
• More accurate game time tracking mechanism
• Improved mechanism showing current online status between friends

Bugfixes:
• Fixed a bug which caused Galaxy to stop tracking game time

Changelog 1.1.19 (October 25th, 2016):
Improvements:
• We have removed download size from Galaxy updater. It showed faulty data, as Galaxy Updater doesn't download > 100mb each time and only downloads differences. It will come back in nearest future, when it will show correct data:)
• The first check for game updates will be done 15s after Galaxy starts, instead of 5 minutes.
• OSX: Improved mechanism responsible for removing old files left by Galaxy updates
• OSX: Improved the way Galaxy handles installing games into protected locations like /Applications; you will receive a password prompt about a "Helper tool" installation

Bugfixes:
• Fixed "Essential components missing" error which sometimes appeared after fresh installation
• Fixed a situation where failure in Updater could lead to Galaxy not being able to launch
• Fixed self-update on OSX to properly delete leftover files
• Fixed friends window losing functionality after network loss and reconnect
• Fixed blurry Windows 10 Galaxy tray icon
• Galaxy will remember maximised window status

Changelog 1.1.20(November 2nd, 2016)
Bugfixes:
• Fixed installing XNA4 and other msi-based dependencies.
• Store page won't be reloaded twice upon logging in

Changelog: 1.1.21 (November 17th, 2016)
Improvements / changes:
• Added "with preview updates" suffix to Galaxy window title
• Small optimizations with memory and Galaxy loading time
• Small improvements with updater, it should fail less

Bugfixes:
• Fixed a bug with Galaxy refreshing pages
• Fixed occasional crashes

Changelog 1.1.22 (November 22nd, 2016)
Bugfixes:
• Galaxy will no longer freeze when downloading a game update and checking another game in library
• Galaxy should crash even less now:)

Changelog 1.1.23 (November 28th, 2016)
Bugfixes:
• Galaxy will be now able to reconnect to internet correctly, if computer was put to sleep and then woken up without (initially) Internet connection
• Downloading of games/updates should have less impact on starting other installations

Changelog 1.1.24(December 6th, 2016)
Bugfixes:
• Downloading an installer with Galaxy and using it to install the game should not result in redownloading the whole game again
• Updater should no longer report over 100% progress on download

Adjustments:
• Increased timeout for failures during sign in
• Increased timeout for "Loading Timeout"

Changelog 1.1.25 (December 20th, 2016)
Bugfixes:
• Fixed a crash when trying to install certain games (Game affected was 1979 Revolution: Black Friday).

Changelog 1.1.26 (December 23rd, 2016, Preview only)
Changes:
• Introduced new downloading mechanism

Changelog 1.1.27 (January 26th, 2017, Preview)
Bugfixes:
• Aborting or pausing downloads will be smoother (They will stop faster)
• Pausing downloads will no longer cause memory usage to go super high

Changelog 1.1.27 (January 31th, 2017)
Changes:
• Introduced new downloading mechanism
Bugfixes:
• Aborting or pausing downloads will be smoother (They will stop faster)
• Pausing downloads will no longer cause memory usage to go super high

Changelog 1.1.28 (March 10th, 2017)
Changes / Improvements:
- Better support for differential patches. They are now seperate depending on game's language and system bitness
- Italian & Japanese partial support + more Spanish translations
- Improved checking for new available updates of the games
- We'll sort available DLCs alphabetically
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a crash when Galaxy doesn't have permissions to the logs directory
- Fixed showing empty grey page after a while of inactivity
- Fixed infinite spinner after going to support page
- Fixed displaying of prices in cart when they were over 999 (Bug caused by a comma in the price)
- MacOS: Popup windows (for example chat) will no longer open as a tab but as a separate window instead
- MacOS: Fixed memory leak (~30MB upon GOG Galaxy launch)
- MacOS: Fixed memory leak while playing a game

Changelog 1.1.29 (March 14nd, 2017)
Changes:
- Changes in downloading mechanism, which allows for better control over download's flow
Bugfixes:
- Fixed displaying progress of differential patches (It did not display the "Extracting" status)

Changelog 1.1.30 (March 16th, 2017)
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a crash within games downloading mechanism

== PREVIEW UPDATES* ===

HOW TO ENABLE PREVIEWS?
Go to your Galaxy settings and check the option to receive preview updates.

HOW TO DISABLE PREVIEW?
- Uninstall Galaxy
- Download current installer from gog.com/galaxy
- Install Galaxy
- Import your games

Changelog 1.2.0 (March 22nd, 2017)
Changes and improvements:
- Cloud saves backup and syncing (supported games only)
- Screenshot capture with F12 (supported games only)
- In-game overlay with FPS counter and notifications (supported games only)
- Greatly improved chat, also in overlay
- Ability to enable or disable achievements, game time tracking, auto-updating games and more
- Desktop and in-game notifications system
- Ability to set bandwidth limit and scheduler
- New settings window
- Rarity information in achievements
- Abort button next to installation status
- Only one Galaxy Updater window will be shown in most cases
- GOG Galaxy updates will be downloaded in the background
- Games are now downloaded directly to their install directory, instead of a temporary location
- Galaxy changelog is displayed in Galaxy

Bugfixes:
- Fixed game time tracking issues
- Initial size of Galaxy Client window will respect Windows scaling
- Improved Windows 10 Galaxy tray icon
- Fixed a bug which caused Galaxy to redownload whole data in case of a failure of installation/update
- Thumbnail highlighting in media gallery now works properly
- Decreased client's network and CPU usage (especially for a lot of games)
- MacOS: Fixed situation when Galaxy Client could downloading due to App Nap
- MacOS: Fixed crash when logging out with "New post" popup open
- MacOS: Fixed game processes not being properly cleaned up after exiting
Post edited March 22, 2017 by TheTomasz
Posted March 26, 2016
high rated
For everyone who has a problem with missing api-ms-crt dlls in Client's versions post 1.1.5:
Please install one of those windows update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2999226 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3118401
You may need to update Windows to meet the requirements for these:
For Windows 8.1 and for Windows Server 2012: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2919355
For Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/976932

You can also try reinstalling Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables 2015 (x86) if you meet above requirements.
Available here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

If above instructions doesn't work for you, create a separate issue on mantis.gog.com and we'll try to help you individually.

Please note that this solution only helps with the missing api-ms-crt dlls.


========================================================================================


Answering this question: Why 1.1 doesn't work after updating to 1.2?

This is happening probably due to incompatible database from version 1.2, please delete this folder:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\GOG.com\Galaxy\storage
usually
C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\storage\

Then you'll have to use scan&import (menu under the top Galaxy logo) function to see your games back in Galaxy Client.
Attachments:
programsandfeatu.png (143 Kb)
Post edited March 27, 2017 by TheTomasz
Posted January 26, 2016
Ugh. I was trying to submit another bug report in Mantis just now and it ate my bug report and spat out:


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"APPLICATION ERROR #2800

Invalid form security token. This could be caused by a session timeout, or accidentally submitting the form twice.

Please use the "Back" button in your web browser to return to the previous page. There you can correct whatever problems were identified in this error or select another action. You can also click an option from the menu bar to go directly to a new section."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) My session did not time out, I am still logged in and can perform other mantis operations just fine.
2) I did not double-submit the issue because viewing the list of issues I've reported via another browser tab shows that this bug did not get submitted.

I've got about 4 or 5 more bugs to file, plus another one to say that mantis is broken. Is there a separate bug tracker to report that mantis doesn't work? :)

Reporting bugs today feels like a full time job. Where's my paycheque? :)
Posted January 26, 2016
Galaxy bug: "Lords of the Realm CD Version" sometimes shows up in the Galaxy grid library view with a red "Not Yet Available" warning, which is simply not true because it is available. What is important to note is that this error DOES NOT show up every single time the page is loaded, so people attempting to reproduce it may find that it works fine for them. Restarting Galaxy and trying to view the game library again may or may not get rid of this warning randomly. Once it does appear though it seems that it usually does not go away until Galaxy is restarted.

http://mantis.gog.com/view.php?id=3827
Posted January 26, 2016
When you go to the download page for a game in Galaxy client it shows rounded off file sizes for each of the files, however more often than not the file size given is nowhere near what the actual size of the file is. Sometimes the file is much larger such as the Medal of Honor main executable for Windows which Galaxy says is 2GB, but when you start downloading it it tells you it is 2.6GB. Others are smaller than what Galaxy says they are.

This suggests to me that the download screen is not getting the size of the actual current files on-disk and displaying that on the web page, but rather that it has a predetermined static file size that probably requires a human being to update it by hand whenever the file size changes. Yeah, that's not going to scale well at all. :)

It's better to not display any file sizes at all than to show completely bogus file sizes IMHO, but the proper thing to do is to read the file size from the disk. If there is concern of that putting too much burden on the webserver, then cache the data and use inotify or similar to have the backend get informed if the file size changes.
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
TomaszGOG: Yeah, i know what's up:) As the versions of these games aren't entirely compatible with Galaxy Client, the Client won't find them using Scan and Import Folders feature. To import them and avoid additional downloads (assuming you've got patched game with newest updates installed) go to Library, click on Wastelands/Rogue Legacy and from More -> Manage menu choose Import Folder and point to a folder where the game is installed. Hope that helps:)
Gave this a shot and... it just started downloading the game from scratch. :/

Not a huge problem, as I can just play the games without Galaxy. But it's rather odd.
Post edited January 27, 2016 by exosquadron
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
Paul31286: I've never had any issues with Galaxy tracking my play time, it seems to work just fine. Are you starting your games directly through Galaxy or through a desktop shortcut? As far as I can tell, Galaxy doesn't track the game time when using desktop shortcuts, unfortunately. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to work, though.
avatar
flying_phoenix: I always start games via client. Despite this I never have had any of my games track a single minute for me.
Weird, I've never had an issue with game time tracking when starting games directly through the client.
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
TomaszGOG: Yeah, i know what's up:) As the versions of these games aren't entirely compatible with Galaxy Client, the Client won't find them using Scan and Import Folders feature. To import them and avoid additional downloads (assuming you've got patched game with newest updates installed) go to Library, click on Wastelands/Rogue Legacy and from More -> Manage menu choose Import Folder and point to a folder where the game is installed. Hope that helps:)
avatar
exosquadron: Gave this a shot and... it just started downloading the game from scratch. :/

Not a huge problem, as I can just play the games without Galaxy. But it's rather odd.
It most likely isn't, there is bug with the import feature that list the entire game being downloaded when only a small part of it is. If you wait, you should notice the game install pretty fast. If you look at the !Downloads folder you can check the size of what is actually downloading. Typically this should be no more than a couple of MB. Though some games seem to be weird and want to download a few hundred or even a GB or more.
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
TomaszGOG: Yeah, i know what's up:) As the versions of these games aren't entirely compatible with Galaxy Client, the Client won't find them using Scan and Import Folders feature. To import them and avoid additional downloads (assuming you've got patched game with newest updates installed) go to Library, click on Wastelands/Rogue Legacy and from More -> Manage menu choose Import Folder and point to a folder where the game is installed. Hope that helps:)
avatar
exosquadron: Gave this a shot and... it just started downloading the game from scratch. :/

Not a huge problem, as I can just play the games without Galaxy. But it's rather odd.
avatar
BKGaming: It most likely isn't, there is bug with the import feature that list the entire game being downloaded when only a small part of it is. If you wait, you should notice the game install pretty fast. If you look at the !Downloads folder you can check the size of what is actually downloading. Typically this should be no more than a couple of MB. Though some games seem to be weird and want to download a few hundred or even a GB or more.
As BKGaming stated, Client won't download the same files over, if You've got the newest version of the game installed. The additional download happens if You've got version installed (Say You have Witcher 3 1.09 installed and you import it to Galaxy. Galaxy will import the game and synchronize with latest version available, that's when download happens (because patching, duh). If You've already had newest version installed, the Client, even though initially showing in queue 0/35GB downloaded, should progress through installation very very quickly, with downloading next to nothing) Hope that clears it out.
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
TomaszGOG: snip
avatar
BKGaming: Can you please give us an update on when we might see a new Galaxy update or if you guys are anywhere close? It's been a few weeks now so I'm just wondering where you are now.
Hey, i'll allow myself to quote Liosan on this matter. He stated few pages before (3203, page 160):
"Sorry for that folks - I guess this needs more than a single word of explanation.

As to the delay in releasing a new version of Galaxy Client - for now I can only say that we needed to revisit a crucial piece of our codebase to allow for better user experience and more games on GOG in the future. It means no Galaxy Client releases for at least a couple of weeks, but the end effect should be worth it. We'll get back to regular bug-fixing and feature-adding after that. "

We keep on working on this and we are making progress. Stay frosty:)
Post edited January 27, 2016 by TomaszGOG
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
skeletonbow: When you go to the download page for a game in Galaxy client it shows rounded off file sizes for each of the files, however more often than not the file size given is nowhere near what the actual size of the file is. Sometimes the file is much larger such as the Medal of Honor main executable for Windows which Galaxy says is 2GB, but when you start downloading it it tells you it is 2.6GB. Others are smaller than what Galaxy says they are.

This suggests to me that the download screen is not getting the size of the actual current files on-disk and displaying that on the web page, but rather that it has a predetermined static file size that probably requires a human being to update it by hand whenever the file size changes. Yeah, that's not going to scale well at all. :)

It's better to not display any file sizes at all than to show completely bogus file sizes IMHO, but the proper thing to do is to read the file size from the disk. If there is concern of that putting too much burden on the webserver, then cache the data and use inotify or similar to have the backend get informed if the file size changes.
The problem lays somewhere else. The Client displays only Integers for the extras download sizes and that's why You're getting 2GB instead of 2.6GB. I've added it to our bug list and it will be handled. Thanks for noticing that:)
Post edited January 27, 2016 by TomaszGOG
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
TomaszGOG: Hey, i'll allow myself to quote Liosan on this matter. He stated few pages before (3203, page 160):
"Sorry for that folks - I guess this needs more than a single word of explanation.

As to the delay in releasing a new version of Galaxy Client - for now I can only say that we needed to revisit a crucial piece of our codebase to allow for better user experience and more games on GOG in the future. It means no Galaxy Client releases for at least a couple of weeks, but the end effect should be worth it. We'll get back to regular bug-fixing and feature-adding after that. "

We keep on working on this and we are making progress. Stay frosty:)
Awesome, thanks for the update TomaszGOG! It's always better to wait a little bit longer and get a more complete and polished build IMHO. Cuts down on problems and support headaches as well as negative impressions that can be hard to shake off later. Definitely looking forward to the fruits of all the hard work the GOG gang is banging on though. :)

avatar
skeletonbow: When you go to the download page for a game in Galaxy client it shows rounded off file sizes for each of the files, however more often than not the file size given is nowhere near what the actual size of the file is. Sometimes the file is much larger such as the Medal of Honor main executable for Windows which Galaxy says is 2GB, but when you start downloading it it tells you it is 2.6GB. Others are smaller than what Galaxy says they are.

This suggests to me that the download screen is not getting the size of the actual current files on-disk and displaying that on the web page, but rather that it has a predetermined static file size that probably requires a human being to update it by hand whenever the file size changes. Yeah, that's not going to scale well at all. :)

It's better to not display any file sizes at all than to show completely bogus file sizes IMHO, but the proper thing to do is to read the file size from the disk. If there is concern of that putting too much burden on the webserver, then cache the data and use inotify or similar to have the backend get informed if the file size changes.
avatar
TomaszGOG: The problem lays somewhere else. The Client displays only Integers for the extras download sizes and that's why You're getting 2GB instead of 2.6GB. I've added it to our bug list and it will be handled. Thanks for noticing that:)
Hmm, I think you're probably referring to the sizes shown for individual game file/extras downloads perhaps? Those do appear to be integers, but they do seem to be accurate to integer rounding at least. The number I was referring to was actually the one that appears near the top under the game title which is a decimal number. That number either seems very inaccurate for some of the games, or it is representing something other than what I'm interpreting it to be perhaps. Screenshot of example attached although I can't remember off the top of my head any specific game titles that the numbers shown were way off.

Does that decimal number represent full download size, or perhaps the size of the game on disk after it is installed?

For the individual files that show as integers as you mentioned, they do actually show up as decimals in the download list though too. :)
Attachments:
galaxy-gamesize.jpg (90 Kb)
Post edited January 27, 2016 by skeletonbow
Posted January 27, 2016
It is just frustratingly annoying that Galaxy *always* spams the Windows Start Menu with useless shortcuts, folders and nonsense I don't want or need *every* time a game is updated.

Darkest Dungeon seems to get patches every other day now and every other day Galaxy puts that shortcut junk folder back into the Start Menu.

Stop it, please already for the love of pie and puppies, leave the Start Menu folder alone. Just don't touch it unless a game is actually *installed*, not just updated - and then at install *ask* if the user wants his/her Start Menu folder spammed with junk.

The gog.com installer allows the user to choose this, why not Galaxy?

Because Windows is kinda stupid, the only way to clean the Start Menu is to delete the shortcuts and log out or restart Windows.

Stop spamming the Start Menu with Galaxy, I beseech you gog.com, Galaxy is a game launcher and putting things in the Start Menu folder by default makes no sense to begin with.
Post edited January 27, 2016 by Atlantico
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
skeletonbow: This suggests to me that the download screen is not getting the size of the actual current files on-disk and displaying that on the web page, but rather that it has a predetermined static file size that probably requires a human being to update it by hand whenever the file size changes. Yeah, that's not going to scale well at all. :)
Yup, you're right, and I believe it's stored in a local config file as well, adding to GOG's client-sized bloat. Though admittedly not as much as junk like the images it hordes. The scalability is the real problem, you're right about that.

I think the issue is actually the website, however, not the client. The website also needs file sizes and Galaxy and the website are drawing from what I imagine to be the same, inaccurate, source.
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
Blackdrazon: Yup, you're right, and I believe it's stored in a local config file as well, adding to GOG's client-sized bloat. Though admittedly not as much as junk like the images it hordes. The scalability is the real problem, you're right about that.

I think the issue is actually the website, however, not the client. The website also needs file sizes and Galaxy and the website are drawing from what I imagine to be the same, inaccurate, source.
Either that or the number represents something other than what I was interpreting it to mean. Could mean download size, or could mean post-installed on-disk size perhaps if you click "Install", or something else. For installs I think perhaps "Recommended free disk space for installing this" would be the most valuable info to have, and for downloads "Worst case maximum size to expect", but whatever the number means, if it is based on statically configured numbers maintained by human beings then it's practically guaranteed to go out of whack regularly because humans make mistakes. :) Also, the sizes may vary from Windows to Linux to Mac etc. And for games that install generic DLLs and frameworks (DirectX, .NET, etc.) would that be included in the size calculations?

This is a lot of pure speculation which could be way off the mark as it's not clear what it represents, but I'm sure many people wonder the same. :)
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
BKGaming: Can you please give us an update on when we might see a new Galaxy update or if you guys are anywhere close? It's been a few weeks now so I'm just wondering where you are now.
avatar
TomaszGOG: Hey, i'll allow myself to quote Liosan on this matter. He stated few pages before (3203, page 160):
"Sorry for that folks - I guess this needs more than a single word of explanation.

As to the delay in releasing a new version of Galaxy Client - for now I can only say that we needed to revisit a crucial piece of our codebase to allow for better user experience and more games on GOG in the future. It means no Galaxy Client releases for at least a couple of weeks, but the end effect should be worth it. We'll get back to regular bug-fixing and feature-adding after that. "

We keep on working on this and we are making progress. Stay frosty:)
Thanks, was kind of hoping for something more by now since it has been a couple of weeks since that was posted... but regardless, thanks for the response.
avatar
skeletonbow: Awesome, thanks for the update TomaszGOG! It's always better to wait a little bit longer and get a more complete and polished build IMHO. Cuts down on problems and support headaches as well as negative impressions that can be hard to shake off later. Definitely looking forward to the fruits of all the hard work the GOG gang is banging on though. :)
I agree of course, but months with no noticeable changes or even significant bugs fixes also leaves a negative impression. Hell rushing Galaxy out left a huge negative impression that will be hard to shake of later. :P

I realize this re-write of their code base probably fixed a significant amount of bugs (and probably created a few more), but leaving Galaxy in this state for so long has left some negative impressions for sure. Unfortunately when you release a client, especially one being compared to Steam, people expect constant updates and changes, which so far GOG has been slow to respond to.
Post edited January 27, 2016 by BKGaming
Posted January 27, 2016
avatar
BKGaming:
I don't think they've ever stated it for sure either way, but I got the impression that they wanted Galaxy in a consumable state before The Witcher 3 launched so that they could cross market both with each other. If true, that was definitely a good idea and a good opportunity that was hard to pass up. But I also got the impression that Galaxy wasn't quite ready either once it all happened, so of course there would be problems from that. Still, I can't fault them for taking the chance as they don't have a huge game launch like that too often.

In the past, the client was frequently updated but introduced just as many or more bugs than it fixed, and some of those were deleting people's games or even deleting their hard drives apparently (according to feedback in this thread early on). Several people suggested (myself included) that we'd rather see focus put on stability with client releases less often than on more often releases that could delete your hard drive for example, and it seems that they took this seriously and changed their release engineering strategy for the better IMHO. The consequence is that they probably wont release major changes until they've had more time to get fleshed out internally and hopefully some strong internal QA first. I see that as a positive personally, but the side effect is that we will see public releases far less often.

We can't really have it both ways though, we either get more frequent releases that have more bugs and problems, or we get less frequent releases that have been more polished. Judging from the reactions of many average joe gamers out there, people just expect things to work and be stable even if it is a beta, and it's widely pushed at everyone on the website so I think they have some responsibility to only release when they have more confidence over the quality of the release and hit certain milestones now, otherwise consistent buggy releases that potentially destroy customer data will end up jeopardizing the success of the whole project.

Steam has been around for 12-13 years and in that time Valve has had ample time to refine their processes and build strong infrastructure around it. GOG is new to the game in that respect so it'll take them a number of years to be able to churn out code faster, more frequent releases and avoid quality problems. People's opinions vary greatly, and they can't play a tug of war between what people want which is in mutual opposition however. They need to find their own center, know their own goals and motivations and then set out to achieve that in the best way possible for their business whether or not any given customer understands the underlying reasons for individual decisions.

Additionally, we all like to get information on updates and various decisions and whenever they can do that it is great, but sometimes it is best to not give out too much information and explain things too much too because that can backfire and get used against you also. This is why so many game companies develop their software almost completely in secrecy and never say anything publicly. Public comments can breed speculation and tend to bring only more questions from people. It's a fine balancing act how to manage both software development, release engineering, QA, and public relations. GOG has made some blunders with this over time, but none that are unforgivable IMHO. I think they're constantly improving in just about every way over time, both from their own trial and error, and from various community feedback, but some of the feedback is contradictory too and it's up to them to figure out where the balance is between everything.

Hopefully they can get all of the heavy lifting done before too long, and are able to provide some smaller incremental updates more often that are low impact and well tested though. Implementing major features piecemeal and putting it out there is a recipe for disaster IMHO until it's baked in the oven long enough though.
Pages:
1
100
200
226
227
228
229
230
400
412
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGOG GALAXY BETA(6179 posts) (6179 posts) 
(6179 posts)