New Patch "Cloud" Impact on Map Section

[tulee]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering what this "cloud" thing is all about regarding the new patch. I decided to look it up on the internet, and it implies the maps will be stored online. I went to some SC2 websites for the first time in my life and noticed the "map" pages for the ones I visited are just "front pages", with links to the map/project ID in the official blizzard server.

If this is correct, and this will be implemented for wc3, does this mean map sections will just be approving/moderating links to maps and not the actual maps themselves?

 

[deepstrasz]

I don't understand. You're saying we can't have the map file on our storage devices anymore?

 

[tulee]

That is how I understand it. It is seemingly removed automatically after you play it online. But---- I am confused about this as well, so I could easily be wrong. Was just curious what it would mean for the map section if this was the case.

 

[deepstrasz]

That is how I understand it. It is seemingly removed automatically after you play it online. But---- I am confused about this as well, so I could easily be wrong. Was just curious what it would mean for the map section if this was the case.

Alright, but what about when you make one? Is it saved on their servers instead of our storage devices or both? I'm really not a fan of being always online to run the editor (save a map included) if that's the case.

 

[tulee]

Alright, but what about when you make one? Is it saved on their servers instead of our storage devices or both? I'm really not a fan of being always online to run the editor (save a map included) if that's the case.

Based on what I was reading of the SC2 system, you have your own editor, but when you "publish", it uploads to the server. So you would have the world editor version, but the published map would be online.

Edit: The editor is offline it seems.

 

[Ralle]

I believe it will function like a CDN. Basically, when you pick a map to host like normal, it checks if Blizzard has the map. If not, it is uploaded to Blizzard so people who join can download it from their fast servers instead of your supposedly slow server. It is a transparent feature that just speeds up the time it takes for you to host a game and for the game to be ready for everyone who joins. A cool feature for sure. The map will probably be fingerprinted with a hash of some kind to compare your local version with their list of server versions. We do the same thing if you upload the map to Hive twice. The site will recognize that the two maps are the same and only physically keep one of them.