How Patching Works

What happens to your build after you upload it, and why updates are small

You upload a full ZIP every time, but your players almost never download a full game again. This page explains what the platform does in between.

Everything here is automatic. There is nothing to configure and nothing to change in your game.

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Build Processing Stages

Every build goes through the same pipeline:

1. ⬆️ Uploading: file upload to cloud storage
2. ⬇️ Downloading: server retrieves the file
3. 📦 Unzipping: extracting build contents
4. 🔧 Creating Patch: comparing against the previous build and generating delta patches
5. ✅ Completed: build is ready for distribution

Processing time (depends on build size and file count)

• Small builds (under 1 GB with about 500 files): 5 to 30 seconds
• Medium builds (1 to 5 GB with about 1,000 files): 3 to 5 minutes
• Large builds (5 to 50 GB with about 25,000 files): 5 to 25 minutes

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Delta Patching

Game Launcher Cloud compares your new build with the previous one and ships only the difference.

Benefits:

• 90% smaller downloads on average
• Faster updates for players
• Lower bandwidth costs
• Automatic, no configuration needed

Example: if you change 100 MB in a 5 GB game, players download 100 MB instead of the full 5 GB.

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Smart Bundles

Games with thousands of tiny files pay a heavy per-file overhead when downloading. Smart Bundles group small files into optimized packages during patch generation.

How it works:

1. Analysis: the system identifies small files (under 5 MB)
2. Bundling: groups related files into optimized packages
3. Compression: applies efficient compression
4. Distribution: the launcher downloads and extracts bundles seamlessly

Example impact: a 1.16 GB game with 309 files becomes 1.07 GB with only 5 files to download.

Cost: about 20% additional storage during patch generation, in exchange for much faster downloads for your players.

Availability: Smart Bundles apply to newer builds. Older builds keep using standard patching without issues.

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File Verification (xxHash64)

Every file is verified with xxHash64, which is 10 to 20 times faster than MD5. That means quicker patch generation on the server and shorter verification times for players during updates.

• ✅ Backward compatible: old patches created with MD5 keep working
• ✅ Automatic detection: the launcher knows which algorithm each patch uses
• ✅ Nothing to do: no action needed from you or your players

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Excluding Files from Patches

Log files, caches and user data do not belong in a patch. You can exclude them per application in App Settings → Build & Patch → Ignored Paths, and the rules apply to every future build.

Full syntax, defaults and limits: Ignore Paths.

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Best Practices

🎯 Keep builds small

• Remove source code, temp files and development tools
• Compress textures and audio appropriately
• Use your engine's compression settings
• Test the build locally before uploading

🔄 Release safely

• Upload to a Staging environment first
• Test thoroughly before promoting to Production
• Keep build notes detailed, players read them
• Schedule big updates during off-peak hours

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Next Steps

📦 Upload Builds

Back to the upload guides

🌍 Environments

Test in Staging before going to Production

⚙️ Application Settings

Ignored paths and other per app options