Launcher needs work

Elite dangerous launcher unable to validate game files… Keeps writing zero length files… stuck in "Sync Files" mode.

• Disable anti-virus.. no effect

• Check logs.. 4 files with issues like this

  20201219/145737: { "action" : "Null file detected", "LocalFile" : "C:gamesFrontierEDLaunchProductselite-dangerous-64Win6466bb73233dfb40ac4019a69492c511ac6006dff51", "LocalFileSize" : "11517878", "date" : "20201219", "time" : "145737" } ;
  20201219/145745: { "action" : "DownloadedDataMismatch", "Downloaded" : "936c60c7cc52b3622ef9f1774d4b9676cd189f41", "Expected" : "6bfe4a7a7021a7b1ef72c53ba59cfc7769a6a085", "LocalFile" : "C:gamesFrontierEDLaunchProductselite-dangerous-64Win6444a50c1490d35c2e6e76bc018291f4e88882e106c", "RemoteFile" : "http://cdn.zaonce.net/elitedangerous/win/files/6b/fe4a7a7021a7b1ef72c53ba59cfc7769a6a085", "date" : "20201219", "time" : "145745" } ;
  

• Check files with hex editor.. filled with zeroes… strange

• Download one of the files using the URL in the logs using a browser.. looks fine… run SHA1 on it.. matches the SHA1 in the log…. but the one in the Elite Directory is wrong

• Give up on launcher.

• Write program to parse log and download the files from server and overwrite the ones in the elite directory

• Re-run validation.. now works.. no issues.

Launcher needs a bit more love and I wonder what those without my programming background would do if faced with this.. Probably nuke the install and start from scratch…