Perfect Dark mini-FAQ, replacement for Share

BudEWiser

Active Member
Dec 24, 2008
224
112
Any way to speed up the process of getting the unity up to size? I have it set to 8mbps cable connection, and am slowly downloading as it said (to fill up my unity) but it's super slow at about 2~3 kbps.
I can try adding files to the upload, but I have no idea if that will even help.
Any help is greatly appreciated, as I give up on share. Can't even stay connected to any peers for more than three seconds, and even when adding triggers for popular files, it ain't finding shit.
 

elgringo14

Survived to Japan
Super Moderator
Apr 28, 2008
9,094
337
Keep in mind that:

Unity size limit: This must be at least 40GB, there is no way around this, and it is part of what helps make PD a more secure network than Share/Winny. While your Unity (cache) is < 2GB, you will receive a message every time you start PD notifying you that your downloads may be slowed in order to prioritize filling up the Unity. However between 2~40GB, your downloads will move like normal.

If you have already reached the 2 GB limit, and still don't get reasonable speeds, there could be a problem. But your download speed is also the upload speed of someone else, and this person could be limited in bandwidth.
 

Milligram

New Member
Oct 2, 2007
96
0
Any way to speed up the process of getting the unity up to size? I have it set to 8mbps cable connection, and am slowly downloading as it said (to fill up my unity) but it's super slow at about 2~3 kbps.
I can try adding files to the upload, but I have no idea if that will even help.
Any help is greatly appreciated, as I give up on share. Can't even stay connected to any peers for more than three seconds, and even when adding triggers for popular files, it ain't finding shit.

You can always upload some files if you have something you would like to share. If I remember correctly these files will add to your unity directly.
 

Summer-Time-Fun

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2007
529
271
Great lesson above Guy, Thank you!

Just had two questions; Firstly, The program seems to be working great, in that I'm getting results on searches, but the status for downloads has ( something in the parentheses) and zZz. Is this normal for the download to take some time? I set the Unity folder to 60G.
What I don't understand is that, the progress shows 0.0% for downloads, while at the same time I'm seeing a strong send rate of 180 to 200KB/s and the receive rate is about the same...give or take a few.
I'm assuming the receiving is the cache/unity building? When should I expect the downloads to start?

Now as far as uploading, if I wanted to share some files, can they only be uploaded to BBS boards and lists? I mean is there a directory option like Share where you can put files in a folder and PD will just grab them?

Thanks
 

guy

(;Θ_Θ)ゝ”
Feb 11, 2007
2,079
43
PerfectDark Unity differs from other P2P cache (such as Share) in that the Unity consists of any file being shared on the network, not just the files you are downloading. So in the background, PerfectDark will download other files into your Unity, and upload them to other peers who are trying to download those files -- even if those files aren't the ones you are trying to download (which is why your downloads will show 0.0%).

As before, PerfectDark not only utilizes shared/pooled bandwidth (which is common in multi-peer P2P such as bittorrent), but also pooled storage; and letting it build up the Unity is necessary to ensure you will be a good peer on the network.

In principle, PerfectDark requires you to have at least 2GB in Unity before it will begin trying to download your files. After your Unity reaches 2GB, it will try to begin downloading your files, but at a slightly reduced download speed. Once your Unity reaches about 10GB, you should have no limitations (aside from the number of files you can queue at a time, depending on your Unity size). A portion of your bandwidth will still be used to continue filling up your Unity, although the files you are downloading will also count towards Unity size.

But again, just because your Unity is full does not mean your files will download right away. It still depends on the file's availability, and whether or not PerfectDark needs to redirect the files through other peers before it can get them to you, and any number of other network conditions.

(´-ω-`)zZZ File is not currently active/downloading (kaomoji of a sleeping pig)
(`・ω・´)シャキーン File is currently active/downloading (kaomoji of a raging pig)

If a file in your download queue suddenly shows up highlighted in red, it means another peer has given it a bad rating, and you should take care and make sure you're downloading the right file (beware of TXT files or other small files that might have a virus, or RAR files that might have passwords which you don't know).




For uploading; I don't upload to PerfectDark so I can't help you there.
 

Summer-Time-Fun

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2007
529
271
Thanks Guy

The downloads started just after I made the post above! And I did have one red download that turned out to be not what I expected. not a Vir, but just not what the file said. The rating system is cool.

PerfectDark Unity differs from other P2P cache (such as Share) in that the Unity consists of any file being shared on the network, not just the files you are downloading.

I didn't know that, I always thought that Share stored it's cache in the same way, in that remote data from others passes through your client and is stored and accessed. I didn't realize Share only stored "your own" downloads in cache. Off topic; I've never used FreeNet, but from what I've read they have a similar kind of system as you described that they refer to as a (data-store). So essentially it becomes a huge world wide encrypted hard drive. For the longest time I thought this is how Share worked.

What through me off at first was that PD creates a default unity folder in the root of it's program folder, but when you go to assign your own folder, the browse window is label as cache. At first I had the impression that there were two folders for cache: a Unity and a Cache folder, but I guess PD just called it's cache "Unity".

The speed setting is a little odd for me. Because my ISP allows a download rate of 800+ KB/s but caps the upload rate at 130KB/s. It doesn't seem like you can set upload and download rates independently. the limiting seems like it would throttle both up and download rates, but still not independently. For now, not knowing what to do, I just set the main bandwidth to 300 and set a daily quota of 1GB.

Once again, Thank you guy! as always, your
support was, and is always appreciated.
 

elgringo14

Survived to Japan
Super Moderator
Apr 28, 2008
9,094
337
About the cache handling, as far as I can tell or understand, the most recent japanese P2P programs (Winny, Share, Perfect Dark) deal in a similar fashion with the cache directory.

On top of the files you try to download, they fill the cache with random chunks of random files, until the maximum allowed size of the cache is reached. The exception is Winny which doesn't have a limit (so beware!).