fomod upload

[sedaleare]

Good evening :)

 

Is there a reason, why *.fomod files - already compressed to ultra by 7z - have to be zipped, or rared again, before they can be uploaded?

That way it is a little confusing for less experienced users. They download a *.zip, or *.rar file, and try to add it as a fomod to FOMM - of course that doesn't work.

 

It would be really great, if the .fomod extension would be added to allowed file extensions for upload.

 

Sorry for my lewd english and happy trails!

[DarkeWolf]

Heyas! Yeah, that is kind of a pain, and something that new users to modding have to learn, and deal with. But there's a couple of reasons for it.

1) Multiple files. Many upload services only upload one file at a time. It takes more work uploading more than one file when you have to upload each one of them by themselves. Much easier to upload a single .zip, .rar .7z or whatever type file.

Its also much easier for the user to keep track of, and sometimes install one file, rather than having to download say, 5 files, keep track of where they downloaded them to, and then copy over all those different files to where they need to, rather than just extract from the .zip or whatever into the folder that they need to go into.

But yeah, when you have mod installer programs involved, it gets to be something that people have to learn about.

 

2) Network security. Many network firewalls are configured to not accept file types that they do not recognize. Same with network anti virus programs. In that particular case, when the anti virus programs sees an incoming file that it can't recognize and does not know what it is, it kicks it out. It will not allow it to be uploaded onto the computer. In that particular case, it would be a need to for the company that made the antivirus program, to update their software to read and scan the new file formats.

[sedaleare]

Howdy, thanks for your reply!

 

I can't really see point 1 - (multiple files, keep track of...) a fomod is a single file instead of multiple ones. Even better - its an ordinary 7z package, with its extension renamed. Thats the point i have. There is absolutly no difference between packing the files with WinRar, WinZIP or FOMM. In addition to that, there is no problem to unpack a fomod with one of the mentioned programs.

 

A point i might add is, i dont believe that many people run a thorough compression with zip or rar, FOMM compresses to 7z ultra by default.

Plus: consider mods like BEWARE OF GIRL skins (as the most downloaded mod), there are multiple different body packs, each of them contain all textures, whereas the only difference between the packs is a single file (femaleupperbody.nif). A fomod can contain all 5 of the packs and still have a smaller filesize than 2 of those packs compressed by zip, while being much more userfriendly due to allowing the user to choose his favorite setup. Surely an interesting point, given the incredible amount of file transfers on this page, and there are lots of mods with semi-different packs just like BOG skins.

 

As for reason 2 - I myself didn't come across a firewall or antivirus app yet, wich had a problem with fomods. The ones i use at the moment recognize fomods as what they are - 7z packs. I came across some quite restrictive systems too, but most of them were never ment to play games and all of them were used by highly experienced users, who told the firewall what to do and not the other way around ;)

But i do understand, that there might be a bunch of security apps wich actually have a problem with renamed extensions.

 

Well, i guess i made my point, thats all i wanted - thanks for your time and happy trails :happy: