Garry's mod extracting addons in 2020 (.gma / .bin)

In this guide, you will learn how to extract addons in the new archiving system. After the addon system was updated, some addons became impossible to extract using the old methods, but I managed to fix it.

Introduction.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Shark_vil:

I translated my manual into English. Original:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1992169728

Good day. After the new add-on system was introduced, unpacking with old methods became not quite convenient. Half of the add-ons are loaded as before in addons, and the other half in content.

As I understand it, all mods packaged by the new method, namely in .bin, are loaded into content, and then their contents are unpacked into addons. At the same time, the mods remaining in the .gma format are not extracted in addons, and remain in the content folder.

It is not clear why this was done so. In this guide, I’ll show you how to conveniently extract mods from the content folder.

Video-tutorial

Program installation.

I created a console application in C# in Net Core. This application can work on both Windows and Linux systems (In the second, tests have not yet been conducted, so the application will appear a bit later if it is claimed).

1. Download and run the installer

Download GMOD Extractor v2.0 (Installer)[github.com]
Download GMOD Extractor v2.0 (Archive)[github.com]
Source:
https://github.com/Shark-vil/Gmod-console-extractor-2020

2. Choosing the installer language.

Select the language of the installer.

3. Welcome window.

After choosing the installer language, you will be greeted by a welcome window. Click on the button - Next.

4. Select installation folder.

In the next window, you can specify the path where the program will be installed.

WARNING!

It is advisable to specify a non-system drive, otherwise it will be necessary after installation to change the launch properties to "As administrator"!.

After selecting a folder, press the button - Next.

5. Create a shortcut.

In the next window, you will be prompted to create an application shortcut on the desktop. At your look. After selecting, press the button - Next.

6. Starting the installation process.

In the next window, you will be prompted to start the installation process. If you are ready, click on the button. - Install.

7. Complete installation.

After installation, a window appears to complete the installation process. Check the box "Run Garry's Mod Extractor 2020" and click on the button - Finish.

Configuration setting.

1. The first launch.

After the first launch, the console application menu appears, but it is too early to get started. After starting the console application, close it after about 2 seconds.

2. Open the folder with the program.

If you created an application icon on the desktop, you can use the context menu. Right-click on the application shortcut and select "File Location" in the list. Or manually open the folder with the installed program.

3. Open the configuration file.

After you open the folder with the installed program, you will see that there is a "Config" folder there, go into it. There is a file in this folder called "config.json". Open this file with any text editor. In this example, I am using Notepad ++.

4. Configure paths.

After you open the file, you will see three lines with paths there. Customize the paths based on your location of the game Garry's Mod. Remember to use double slashes "\\".

Work with the application.

After you configure the configuration file, you can start working with the application.

1. Menu items.

There are three menu items in the application.

• Opens a list of addons for later work.
  
• Extract all addons from the content folder.
  
• Closes the application.

2. List of addons.

When you initialize the list of addons, you use an Internet connection to get information about the add-on. After the list is fully loaded, all information about it will appear in the "cache.json" file in the folder with the installed program.

Reference:

If you suddenly have problems with the list, you can go to the folder with the installed application and delete the file "cache.json", and then download it again using the Internet connection.

3. Unpacking addons.

You can select one or more addons to extract using the space bar. To back the main menu, enter the number - 0 - and press the button - Enter.

Unpacking process.

The result of unpacking.

4. Drag & Drop

You can extract addons by dragging and dropping folders and files from the content folder into the application’s EXE file.

Conclusion.

I hope for someone this article will be useful. Thanks to those who have read up to this point: 3

If you have questions and suggestions regarding the application - ask and suggest. I will do GIT a bit later, when I’ll make out the code more clearly.

[EL BANDITO]

This application is a bit sketch, and the uninstall feature doesn't work. But it works a lot better than the aids that Gmad is.

I didn't have to use double slashes for the config file though.

[Alex]

The extractor can be installed in one of two ways, a portable .zip file or the install .exe. The executable does EXACTLY the same thing as the zip file. If you want to be "safe", download the .zip and extract to a directory instead. The installer is not needed.

More importantly, the GitHub source code can be found above, so there's no excuse for the fear-mongering bullshit.

[Alex]

Barry, I've decompiled the install .exe and the extractor program itself since nobody would shut up about malicious code. I can confirm that it does NOT contain anything malicious.

Everything that gets installed is installed purely in the directory you specified. No Windows registry edits or anything else of any kind were done. To uninstall, literally just delete the directory you installed it in.

[Barry]

oh yeah this is definitely a virus, there's no way to uninstall it, the uninstall app doesn't even work

[NocturnalZero]

When I used to use that thing, most of the things that needed to be unpacked were for Legacy files

[Alex]

@ModderOfGames for some addons like that, you can just go into steamapps/workshop/content/4000/ and grab the files from the folder of that ID.

[ModderOfGames]

I tried to extract a .bin and it told me "Invalid list id selected! Press any key to continue."

[Alex]

Guys, all this is is a CLI that scans your addon folder. How is this in any way malicious?

In order for it to be able to do remotely anything malicious, it would have to require administrator privileges, which it doesn't.

I've been using this for years and have had zero issues.

If you're all going to continue complain about how malicious it is, the least you could do is elaborate on what exactly it's supposedly doing that is apparently so malicious.

Thank you.

[Lee Harvey Oswald]

dont download this shit its malicious

[NocturnalZero]

Forget about that, I found the new approach: The exact location of the legacy.bin (Remember the number of the folder and locate the GMA file in the following format.)
.
about: F:/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/GarrysMod/garrysmod/cache/workshop/
I think that except for some cache files, it should be the original .gma file