Quote:1) But will it also download data.pak (as a regular file)
if you request it to be downloaded, then yes, it will get downloaded as a regular file, but it's not recommended to upload files as paks (read below)
Quote:1. Just replace each pak completely when something changes in there. This works only if the 'file mode' patcher also replaces pak files completely. If pak files are a special case which should be handled by the pak updater, it won't work.
2. Adding all paks to the the 'pak mode' patcher, search for new or changed files and store them in patch.pak. This is the approach that I'm afraid will become messy over time. (But it will certainly work.)
3. Adding only one pak a time to the 'pak mode' patcher, look for updates and add them to that pak. But I don't think the patcher compare function knows what file goes with what pak. And the index you download just contains every file in every pak. So it won't work either.
no
storage of data:
on your (developer computer) keep all files unpacked (don't use packs at all)
uploading files:
upload all separate files using uploader to the server
(read ineisis documentation for file hierarchy, uploading files)
downloading files:
-use patcher class, obtain info about which files you have (by looking in data pak, patch1, patch2), just like tutorial
-download modified files
-store modified files in latest patch pak
(read documentation about paks, it mentions that you need to load paks in order, because loading newer paks will overwrite existing pak files if they were listed in previous paks)
there is no need to use 3rd party programs, uploader/patcher can handle what you want with minimum required patch sizes.