twinj

How about turning this into an XCMM mod so people can install it! This is pretty cool work!

lol

How do you find this stuff! :armscrossed: lol

XCMM - Xcom Mod manager Test version. GitHub repository - https://github.com/twinj/XCMM Git Hub removed download support... LATEST VERSION 1.08a BETA - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/54222881/XCMM-v108aBETA.zip Drop box. Portable Installer with demo mod.http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=28237 This version has caused me a headache. It has a new uninstall feature which has caused me to write a lot of new code and to refactor even more.... I have not added improved XShape yet. I have not added FMods interop yet. Console is broken this will now only get fixed once all gui components work properly. Uninstall features and direction Can make a mod 'active' and 'inactive by installing and uninstalling. Can NOT currently overwrite same resource with new mods. Resource example: CreateTSoldier.Function Can write several patches to a upk. Writing in a game state and install state feature so can track the current state of each resource and change the search as per the install. Install tracking is half active where an Xmod saves its install log. The data here can be used as the new Resource so as to input new search when updating. Not as yet sure how to tackle when a resource offset is in conflict with two mods. But there will be a solution. Gamestate will allow modders to patch in any small mods and the create a mod based on the gamestate. In progress. I would highly appreciate any testers and new testers as this is becoming quite large. I WILL need to reqwrite much of the GUI event handling as it is proving too sensitive to changes even thought the logic is the basically the same. PI features: PI is not yet updated this is a test version only. Install upk changes from embedded install.xmod.export.xml Install ini changes from embedded install.ini ( Currently only supports XComGameCore.ini or DefaultGameCore.ini ) XShape XComGame.exe automatically. Ability to restore game to state before install. (This is done by files copies NB: The installer only works for one mod install >> uninstall. It currently does not support multiple mod installs. If you want to modify further uninstall mod. Edit install to incorporate new mods then reinstall. Ability to patch in small HTML to act as a readme for the mod. Console output for debugging. XMOD XML EXAMPLE OLD VERSIONS

I think I broke XShape when I made Ini Patcher. I implemented a search algorithm for finding specific parts in the exe more quickly and shrunk the region that gets read into a buffer to use less memory. :D Should be fixed though for 1.06. This is why still Beta lol. Anyway. Portable is looking slick. I added an Editor pane which will read a html file! So mod makers can get creative. Dunno if you noticed but I chucked you in on credits too for all of the help!

I'm currently working on a Portable XCMM Installer which will allow mod makers to distribute mods to anyone who just wants to install. The aim is to allow it to patch ini's, upk's, xshape and uninstall. For now I am working on a one mod package at a time rule. It is not currently working yet. It will install mods. But not XShaping correctly yet. Still need to add uninstallation and ini patching. The code base for these already exists from XCMM so it wont take long to finish now. Would welcome suggestions while I am working on this as it is this part of the tool that will make XCMM worthwhile using and easier for everyone to install and back up mods. For those who would like to see it so far.

For those who have tested previous version you should find this version much more robust. FULL PACKAGE Latest update - https://github.com/downloads/twinj/XCMM/XCMM-V1.05-BETA.zip XCMM UPDATE JAR Latest update - https://github.com/downloads/twinj/XCMM/XCMM.jar

I recommend trying an incremental approach. Instead of 8 try 7. Look to the code that handles the Officer Training.

UE? Looks like it isn't getting the full name due the space inbetween it, perhaps that might be it.. but then again why am I not experiencing this issue :wallbash: I'm off to sleep, thanks for keeping on trying guys. I'm getting the same issue here. Is there a fix for this. Tool looks phenomenally useful. EDIT: Odd, got it to work by launching the executable from the install directory. This didn't work last night, it just blew up instead. Yeah i had the same not working then working issue from install and short cut. Newer build allowed it to work in install path for me :D. Works great so far!

Nice! :D

I will change the way the config saves and do part verification: saving errors if need be. I get the feeling that repacking will be needed too.. hope not. Refresh button is below the mods list. Should I move it? I like the idea about renaming the files and just putting in one directory. May implement that. Should nt take long. We already have full uninstallation. lol Just restore all backups and XShape. :tongue: hehe I was thinking of just doing the same thing backwards. Create an uninstall xml which has the original hex and offsets in it. The maker could generate this. It could get messy when there are lots of different mods. I am thinking it would be best to keep mods atomic: i.e. each mod has a singular purpose that is not capable of being broken down into smaller parts and where adding more parts would make it capable of being made smaller. Take the mod I merged with the year 1999 and gender equality. This can be broken down into two mods. Rather than one mod this should be made into a package where we can install as a full package or in parts. That way everyone can work with different mods like lego blocks to build particular packages. I do think though that what we are doing at the moment is also too static. Take for example take the year 1999 mod. It is capable of being changed. What is the range of values that can be changed and how to enable on the fly changing. I want to add some flexibility. I want XCMM to be able to read the xml and out put a menu to edit current settings and save them on the fly. Then export those as an installable package. The good thing about this is that it means the modding is not hard coded and can be updated by anyone who can handle text files. I also want to handle ini files as part of a package. It also means that those who work hard to find the hex offsets and values to change can somewhat document those changes too. I really need others to get on board though if this is gonna happen.

It's getting easier with the tools that have been made.

I am getting the same issue as as I posted above with new version. Am I downloading the right one? When installed I noticed that the install version is not updated. Is it checking versions? Scratch that. The new shortcut was just broken.

Currenty the upk file is found from the relative path e.g: XComGame/XGCaharacterGenerator/CreateTSoldier.Function. This is why original files must be dropped from the unpacked directory. I am looking now for a better way to handle this as it has been a painful source of bugs. And it is not easy to realise this without knowing that you MUST use these files. The above example would evaluate to XComGame.upk. I would welcome suggestions that you think might be easier?

Its always the simple stuff that eludes us for hours... PAINFUL!

Not working for me at all. :(

Thanks for the help. At the moment the unpacked original files must be from the unpacked path. I do appreciate that this makes it harder to drag and drop files. The config file will not be created unless the setting have been fully verified. Wait for extraction it can take some time. I will add a wait state to the program for this. XCMM does not handle more than one unpacked decompressed area. It is best to let XCMM handle from scratch fresh game. This way you can edit resources. Restore them with the "Restore Original" button and run XShape. XShape output coming. At the moment there is a beep! lol Missing edited file - just rename for now - not sure how to handle this yet. Edited files can from any path. Original file are now saved in relative paths. I will change it so original files are the same. Will be adding mod patching support. There is a refresh button. The mod.export.xml can be given to anyone to install your mod.

https://github.com/downloads/twinj/XCMM/XCMM-V1.03-BETA.zip New version is up much more robust.

Thank you for all of the hard work!

Nice work.! Time to go boom town on aliens I think!

I'm still working on the settings part to streamline the process and ensure it works. Best way to deal with the settings is to allow the download of the extractor and decompressor. These tools are then used to decompress and unpack the Core.upk. It is best to wait for the message box "Resources have been decompressed" and "Resources have been extracted" It may take a while but just wait. I am planning to put up a progress box to replace the many pop up windows... these are easy to create to get confirmation that things are working as they should... its fiddly. Once this message has come up then try to save again. Works for me every time this way. Once its done all good. I also recommend using a fresh unpacked folder as any extracts and decompressions can be restored if they are. This error only ever happened to me when I had the resource open in UE Explorer. It was the reason why I put it in. UE seems to lock the files where I also got no IO errors to tell me why... if there is something else happening I am worried lol might have to create an Exception log just to find out. This is a bug I will add paths. These files are however not yet needed. I just added the save for convenience as a before and after for installing and possible uninstall support for the future. Do not worry about them just yet. Thanks for the help by the way. Your responses are giving me insight as to what a new user will experience I can improve the program based on this. This is why I wanted black box testers. The XCMM MAKE output is correct and the same values mine was for installing a mod. Also when installing or anything else ignore the errors involved with teh progress bar.. having programmatic issues with them. However, do not cancel until there is no output coming through. If teh system wants to decompress or extract wait for the pop up. Little things like this will be improved naturally.

The work I did today is up on the other page. Or here :D https://github.com/downloads/twinj/XCMM/XCMM-V1.02-ALPHA.zip

No worries. I added the GenderEquality mod to it as well to diversify the files that XCMM needed to check. I am able to make and install the below mod and xshape XCom using XCMM. It still needs some cleanup and extra features but in its current state it works. My start year was 1999!

The byte sum is correct. The sum is calculated from the byte array of the IsFirstDay.Function where each byte is being converted into an int value by a cast. The reason why it is negative is because of the way integer's are stored in bits. E.g: the hex value of 88 in binary is 10001000. This number can be read in several ways. I wont go too much into it but think of the range of values in say an int of size 8. You could have 0-255 or it could be a signed value of -128 to 127. The left most bit is the sign. This means in our example of 10001000 we have a negative number -120 instead of 136. While this has no negative affect on the mods calculation of a byte sum. As the byte sum when attempting to find the right bytes part of the upk will still hash the same. However, I think it would be best to change it so as to avoid confusion to users. So the byte sums will be different for all mods now. This means that mod creation is working for me. I am working on the improved version of XCMM. I will release this sometime today.

Thanks guys. I will get on those and update. The Tools tab is useless at the moment I will remove it. Forgot to. This is the danger of programming without making unit tests. Most of this simpler stuff was working before I had to make some changes to the way threads and exceptions were handled with the background tasks like making, x shaping and downloading. I will do another test overhaul.. and report back. I will make sure all aspects are working.