User:Webb/Better GitHub FastDL

This article outlines a better method for hosting your FastDL on GitHub.

First of all, upload your files to a GitHub repository. Unlike the GitHub Pages method there is a total repository size limit of about 100GB and individual files can be up to 100MB (you can use bzip2 compression like any other FastDL to get around this limitation somewhat.) You do not need to wait for GitHub Actions so file uploads/changes will be instant. Most maps should work this way.

First, create a GitHub repository and upload your files using the typical FastDL file structure. You can find the repository I use [here https://github.com/webbongithub/fastdl].

Next you'll need to set your sv_downloadurl console variable to a specific value to have it download directly from the repository. In the case of my repository, that is https://github.com/webbongithub/fastdl/raw/refs/heads/main/tf2c/. You may need to adjust this value depending on the name of your branch (which is by default "main") and what subfolder you chose (or if you chose one at all.) A simple way of getting it is to go to, say a map file and copy the raw link:

https://github.com/webbongithub/fastdl/raw/refs/heads/main/tf2c/maps/4arena_downtown_rc.bsp.bz2

Then strip the end off until it's the root of where the files are stored.

https://github.com/webbongithub/fastdl/raw/refs/heads/main/tf2c.

If you do this, then it should just work.