Questions on mod filesystem layout

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Moe479
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Post by Moe479 »

hellcatv wrote:first of all... you shouldn't be running in fullscreen for development purposes...
that bug you note is an SDL-bug sort of issue where an early crash in fullscreen leaves the mouse defunct until you run another noncrashy 3d app

secondly ace123 mentioned earlier that you need to have at least 3 files in your mod:
vegastrike.config
weapon_list.xml
and communications/ folder full of the faction speech to each other
what r the reasons for having these files if i u dont modify them? i mean a texture mod or sound mod thiswise very fast gets incompatible while using latest svn-checkouts ...

perfect would be that a mod even without a single file (only the folder) can be loaded, and when using -m the game checks first for replacement files before it loads them form the vs-dir, that would be perfect for developing mods.

before u releae a mod u include a filelist that help the game to speed up the loading, not having to check the entire data ... (needs to be tested if it speeds up anything on a nocible level)

well for now i still have to mod in a seperate directory,copy it to vs directory, test it, restore the overwritten files (if go steops back in my mod), correct bugs and try it all over again , very exausting procedure ...

the other thing that might work is to not using a mod folder anyway and using some kind of modmanager like written vor freelancer, but this got the backdraw of getting verry fast heaviely defragmentated disk when switching the mods for testing, and also activating a mod with decent filecount might take some time ...
legine
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Post by legine »

perfect would be that a mod even without a single file (only the folder) can be loaded, and when using -m the game checks first for replacement files before it loads them form the vs-dir, that would be perfect for developing mods.
I agree on this. I could bring in one file after another and mod it as needed.
before u releae a mod u include a filelist that help the game to speed up the loading, not having to check entire data ... (needs to be tested if it speeds up anything on a nocible level)
Hmm, you mean a ToC -File for configuring the load behavior?
So you can specify which Directories or Files to check for overrides?
the other thing that might work is to not using a mod folder anyway and using some kind of modmanager like written vor freelancer
To me a modmanager is a simple gui to mod stuff we want need anyways...
ace123
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Post by ace123 »

I'm sorry about the confusion. The bug indeed happened only in certain cases... such as in Windows and certain filesystems in Linux. When I tested it in my home directory in Linux it worked perfectly fine... but then I tried it in the 0.5 Beta and it did not work.

The code should be fixed in revision 11660, however a WIndows binary might not be updated for a while... If you have Linux or otherwise compile your binary you should be able to test it.

Make sure it says
"Adding mod path : some/directory/name"
Right after SIMULATION_ATOM and before MISSION_NAME.
If it doesn't show up then that's a bug with the directory listing code.
If you see that message and it still does not work, then there's another bug I don't know about it.

You should not need any of the communications folder (that was nothing more than a misconception because of it being the first error message), and weapon_list.xml is not needed...

I have been able to make a mod folder that only contains the changed files. For example, I tested it by making a "New_Game" that changes your starting ship and credits, and running vegastrike with "-mtest" uses the proper mod directory.

If you are unable to get the mod system to work with an updated executable, please post your console output or stdout/stderr.txt on windows as well as the command line you used to start vegastrike with.
ace123
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Post by ace123 »

I have updated the Wiki to be more accurate on all the facts:
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/HowTo:MOD

In addition, I have posted a workaround for Windows users until the next beta. Basically put it in ".vegastrike/mods" folder, and then make an *empty* folder corresponding to your mod in the "data/mods" folder... this is to avoid a stupid fatal error message saying that no mod exists.

In the future the recommended way will be to put it directly in the data directory, but there was a small bug included with the Beta that prevented this way from working.

Keep in mind that vegastrike pollutes the home directory, especially generatedbsp and other big files, so keep that in mind when you package up or copy your mod directory.

Hopefully everything should work now... happy modding :-)
DualJoe
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Post by DualJoe »

I need a model-viewer universe, how do I create one? In other words what's the absolute minimum required for vegastrike to run?

It only has to load my model in a neutral lighting environment and nothing else. I don't need anything apart from maybe the possibility to spawn a large number of the same model to test framerates.

It has to start up very quickly. Currently previewing models by restarting the standard vegastrike game just to view the result of an alteration to the texture is just ridiculously slow.

Btw this would be a useful mod to have for all the vegastrikes modders, modelers, texture-artists and csv-editing-gurus.
ace123
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Post by ace123 »

You really don't need to load much at all...

I recommend a simple mission that uses a blank system like testsystems/absolutelynothing or testsystems/nothing ... Though you might want to modify the lighting values for those systems... they look kind of weird. The mission file just needs to specify the ship you want.

To set a default mission edit "vegastrike.config", search for where it uses "main_menu.mission" and change that to your custom mission file.

As to removing data files, you should be able to remove most units, and you should be able to remove most animations... This process would have to be trial-and-error to some extent.

It will in fact load the 150 frames of explosion animations each time, so the solution to that is to move away the explosion folders inside animations. Aside from that the loading process should go smoothly.

Basically it should load at least as fast as it normally takes to get to the main_menu if you use a custom .mission file and remove the big animations.
legine
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Post by legine »

good work on the wikki ace123! :D
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