Patch 8.2 issues - no models for now
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:42 pm
The reason datamining has slowed down is because Blizzard have removed file names from almost everything in the database. So, we no longer have any handle on file purpose or directory structure, or whether two files belong to the same model. Imagine if every file on your computer was renamed to a random string of numbers and placed in a single folder and you had to go about your daily tasks anyway.
Major sites like Wowhead can afford to puzzle it all together, but for now the rest of us cannot. We’ll need to band together to make up our own names for models and link them to the numbers and make our own file structures, but that will be slow. If files are associated with each other in the database (like a skin file is referenced in a look entry for a model) we can determine that they belong together. But for others it’s going to be hard. Beforehand I could ascertain that an unused skin belonged to a certain model by guessing at its name and path, but now I can’t. It might belong to that model or it might just look like it does but belong to something else. It's a nightmare.
At this stage I don’t know how it’s going to affect us in the long run. For now I have to wait and see what solutions smarter people than me come up with. So I don’t know how long before we have images and data up.
Major sites like Wowhead can afford to puzzle it all together, but for now the rest of us cannot. We’ll need to band together to make up our own names for models and link them to the numbers and make our own file structures, but that will be slow. If files are associated with each other in the database (like a skin file is referenced in a look entry for a model) we can determine that they belong together. But for others it’s going to be hard. Beforehand I could ascertain that an unused skin belonged to a certain model by guessing at its name and path, but now I can’t. It might belong to that model or it might just look like it does but belong to something else. It's a nightmare.
At this stage I don’t know how it’s going to affect us in the long run. For now I have to wait and see what solutions smarter people than me come up with. So I don’t know how long before we have images and data up.