Mods folder

[kektopus]

The game looks in the mods folder for zipped outfits. It might be a good idea to use that instead of the outfit folder.

[HongChina]

Oh really now? That's real nice

[HongChina]

Actually, seeing as the packs themselves are just zips, I think it might load any actual mod in zipped form in there

[zero]

Not really You can make them load from wherever you want but I recommend creating the Actors folder and put your mods there

[antales]

I recommend using Mods folder. Pack files are loaded at first from Packs folder and then from mods folder. This way Mods's packs get a priority over Pack's.

If you make you own zip packs, use zip archives without compression. Do not use compression, or they would not be loaded properly.

[Kein Zantezuken]

How does the structure of "Mods" work? Is it just:
Mods/ -> file structure/hierarchy akin to game root i.e. "Props", "Textures", etc
or
Mods/ -> ModName -> file structure/hierarchy akin to game root i.e. "Props", "Textures", etc
?

First one is exceptionally messy, 2nd one might need priority system to load properly if more than 1 mod.

[antales]

Sorry, I can't understand the difference.

All the game resource names start from the game root. So all the names inside zip packs should have the same naming. If you wand to add Textures\Texture.dds, then you have to create a folder Textures inside you archive and add your Texture.dds inside this folder.

[Kein Zantezuken]

The difference is fairly obvious.

Case #1:
We have mods folder where we have to reuse the same folder structure as the root. Therefore, for whole Mods/ folder we have one Props/ folder, one Textures/, etc. Any additional mods will overwrite the existing data if conflict. No priority issues by default since mods (that change in some way default game data) will overwrite each other. However, since in this case Mods/ is basically a shadow copy of root game structure it is messy and you cant just "uninstall the mod"

Case #2:
Mods are separated by either their own folder containers or "paks". In this case there are no issues with organization or removal of specific mods but there is no way to specify priority. Let's say BigMod has issues and a small "patch mod" was made by another user. Now we have 2nd pak "BigMod_patch1" but we cant specify the order it loads so if fixed script MyCoolScript.dir loads first from the patch and then game loads the other pak - it will be overwritten by original. This is just basic example, of course you have to fix original mod, but I'm talking in the general context of mod interaction where 2 mods can co-exist but only if one loaded before the other.

[antales]

The mods do override each other in the sequence in which they were loaded. Yes, there could be and would be conflicts. Currently any pack from Mods folder will override any pack from Packs folder. But there is no priority inside Mods folder. Technically it's possible to create some config to force mods to be loaded in exact sequence. But we need more data to implement this solution.

Also, to be clear, any pack (zip archive) should contain only those files it overrides/adds to the engine file system.

[kektopus]

If i modify and re zip a mod with 7zip the game cant see it even if i set it to the store setting, why is this.

[antales]

It depends on what you modify, what you zip and where you put it. Please, be more specific.

[kektopus]

Just trying to do a simple texture mod of preexisting zipped mods. If I unzip one change nothing and then rezip it the game cant see it anymore. However if i place the original zip back into the mods folder it can see it again.

[kektopus]

Im doing this without compression by the way.

[antales]

That's interesting. Could you send me an orginal zip and your rezipped version to [e-mail]. I will see what's wrong with it.

[antales]

Your paths inside the rezipped files are wrong. You need to repeat contents of the root folder of the game.

[kektopus]

Thanks