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In a rather significant change to the tried and true method for patching and downloading World of Warcraft, Blizzard has introduced background content streaming for the current Cataclysm beta.
This new system will allow you to download just a small percentage of the total game before you can jump in and start playing. Everything else will be downloaded in the background. The percentage that you can begin playing at will vary depending on your connection speed and those with connections slower than 1mb/s will continue to utilize the old system.
The new system utilizes a three color system for informing you when you are able to play. Red for the download or updater indicates that critical content is still downloading and you cannot play just yet. Once the download gets to "yellow" status, streaming will continue in the background but you will be able to play. Performance may take a hit here and there as new content is streamed as it is needed. Once the download reaches "green" status, gameplay should be unhindered even if there is still some content left to download.
Cataclysm players have been instructed to uninstall the old client and reinstall using the updated client download on your Battle.net beta page.
Personal experience: The new system is a bit hit or miss. The system indicated that I could play and shortly after it hit the "yellow" status I attempted to load into Stormwind. It sat at a loading screen for about 20 minutes before I gave up, closed the game and restarted the downloader. Cue a couple of hours later and attempt #2, and it did manage to load the game successfully. There were no real performance issues encountered, but I did not travel very far to fully test it.
Keep in mind, this is from a completely refreshed install of the updated client, meaning roughly 18GB of data needs to be re-downloaded and reinstalled. Theoretically, this system will be much better used for patches, which are typically much smaller in size. It's also possible that patches, as they were released before, may be done away with all together given how new content can simply be streamed to the end user behind the scenes.
This new system will allow you to download just a small percentage of the total game before you can jump in and start playing. Everything else will be downloaded in the background. The percentage that you can begin playing at will vary depending on your connection speed and those with connections slower than 1mb/s will continue to utilize the old system.
The new system utilizes a three color system for informing you when you are able to play. Red for the download or updater indicates that critical content is still downloading and you cannot play just yet. Once the download gets to "yellow" status, streaming will continue in the background but you will be able to play. Performance may take a hit here and there as new content is streamed as it is needed. Once the download reaches "green" status, gameplay should be unhindered even if there is still some content left to download.
Cataclysm players have been instructed to uninstall the old client and reinstall using the updated client download on your Battle.net beta page.
Personal experience: The new system is a bit hit or miss. The system indicated that I could play and shortly after it hit the "yellow" status I attempted to load into Stormwind. It sat at a loading screen for about 20 minutes before I gave up, closed the game and restarted the downloader. Cue a couple of hours later and attempt #2, and it did manage to load the game successfully. There were no real performance issues encountered, but I did not travel very far to fully test it.
Keep in mind, this is from a completely refreshed install of the updated client, meaning roughly 18GB of data needs to be re-downloaded and reinstalled. Theoretically, this system will be much better used for patches, which are typically much smaller in size. It's also possible that patches, as they were released before, may be done away with all together given how new content can simply be streamed to the end user behind the scenes.