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Packaging mods in dzip format


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Hey,

 

So thanks to Rick (aka gibbed), we have a pretty easy to use DZIP packer and unpacker. Right now we're mostly just pasting folders into CookedPC, but sooner or later we're going to run into file conflicts. Edit: he mentioned in a thread that it hasn't been extensively tested yet, but I don't know of any case where it's failed yet for my stuff...

 

Plus, if we could keep mods isolated to their DZIP, somebody could even possibly make a mod manager that could warn you about conflicts, make it easy to uninstall, backup, disable (rename the extension maybe?), or reinstall mods without keeping track of too many files manually.

 

I've seen some mods already start to throw things in DZIP files, and at worst users seem to think they need to extract them - but I think they'd get used to it if it became the norm.

 

I was wondering if anybody would even be interested in taking it a step further. Try to adopt some standard naming scheme - at least something like mod_[yourmodname].dzip, so it hopefully wouldn't clash with any patches or downloads CDPR come out with.

 

Plus, I suppose we'd need to figure out the loading order if multiple DZIPs contain the same file.

 

That and maybe even some kind of standard XML manifest, listing things like author, URL, version, etc. I wonder where that I've seen that before...

 

Anyway, I think I'm going to start packing things in DZIP format myself, but just wanted to see first what other people think of that, any issues doing it that way, complications where a dzip might not override the files, or whatnot. Hopefully it wouldn't encourage people to start naming their files zzzzzzzzzzzz_mymod.dzip if the loading order is alphabetical for conflicting mods (haven't tested it yet).

Edited by FollowTheGourd
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I don't see a repacker in that link, though, unless quickbms also handles that easily.

 

There's also a project here: http://svn.gib.me/public/red/ with the whole shebang.

 

You'll want to get an svn client to check it out, and then it should compile with Visual C# 2010 express even. That includes a repacker, which in another thread, the creator mentioned hasn't been completely tested - but I haven't run into any issues using it. The source code licence would explicitly allow it, but I don't know how he'd feel about people hosting compiled versions of it (not on the Nexus site) since it still appears to be a work in progress somewhat, or even if it were complete.

Edited by FollowTheGourd
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  • 4 weeks later...

Just dredging up my own thread here...

 

So anyway, for sure .dzip files are loaded in alphabetical order (unless there's a surprise), and those that come first take precedence over those that come later. So one big gotcha is to name your .dzip something so it gets loaded before pack0.dzip. I've been naming almost all of mine with the pattern MOD_[ModName].dzip, which should be fine as long as there isn't anything in those DLC .dzips I need to worry about. Same reason I've named some of my mods MOD_AAA[ModName].dzip if I need to make sure it comes before some of my other mods so it overrides the files they use. I try to do that as little as possible, since otherwise it'd probably lead to an arms race of AAAA...AAAAA.dzip.

 

That way it's also convenient for the players to later know what's a mod instead of all the free DLC, and to be able to sort them all alphabetically in case they need to remove them for whatever reason.

 

There doesn't seem to be any restrictive length on the .dzip filename either, so there shouldn't be a problem making the mod's .dzip filename something meaningful. Just some I've seen have completely nondescript names, probably following the pattern of the game's dzips.

Edited by FollowTheGourd
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If they work anything like Morrowind mods then numerical digits were read first, although load order depended mainly on time-stamp, for ease of finding stuff I was working on I used to start all the names with a zero (0).
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...

hey im new to modding the witcher 2 and i need help ihave 4 mods that use the same file base scripts.dzip and i need a full detailed instructions guide on how to do so also here are the mods i need to have merged

 

"The Dark Geralt of Rivia"

"Always Win Dicepoker and Armwrestling"

"Win more orens Dice Poker"

"No Dark effects"

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