An update on Vortex development

[BeowulfSchmidt]

 

In response to post #55826861. #55826971, #55827211, #55963086, #55981276 are all replies on the same post.

 

The way I understand Symbolic Links is that they are like advanced shortcuts .

Not sure how the links will be implemented but my guess is that Links to the actual mod files will get inserted into the Data directory at game startup via Vortex and when the game exits those links get deleted leaving a clean Data folder that way you can have multiple profiles and such without problems.

 

 

WRT what symbolic links are, that's pretty much correct. To running programs, at least with regard to opening, reading and writing contents, they are the file to which the link points.

 

Honestly, if I were doing this, I'd be tempted to investigate making the Data folder itself a link, and have separate "Data" folders for each profile, then fill each of those profile data folders with links to the individual files, which would be in still other locations. That way, switching profiles is a matter of changing the Data directory link, and not copying. The heavy lifting (relatively speaking) of filling up a profile data folder with the appropriate stuff would be handled interactively with the user, rather at game start up time.

 

I haven't done much with links though, so I don't know the performance characteristics, and how well links to links to links are handled.

[ErusPrime]

With the new mod manager will there be functionality for distributed modpacks via nexus? I know developers don't want third party distribution but nxm is the distribution. The entire system is already in place to have curated lists of mods and configurations that doesn't violate the distribution requirements of the author and gives a nice little one click instead of having to download manually, merge and patch, load order, CTD, google it, find nothing helpful, ask on reddit/discord/forums, get told to google it, say f*#@ it and go play something else.

[ThD17gj692]

I'm not technical nor a mod creator, so my question may be naive. My favorite Fall Out game is FO3, however, after upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10, I can only get about 10 to 20 minutes of playtime using all the mods I like (140 including merged mods) before my game crashes. Before the upgrade, I could play several hours before crashing.

 

Will Vortex extend play time? That is, will the game engine perform as if there are no mods added? It seems to me that a major reason for creating MO was to deal with all the problems of the buggy game engine used for Skyrim. Of course, this may not be the case, but if you only have a choice of a few mods you don't really need a mod manager, but if there are thousands of mods to choose from, then a manager is essential.

 

Only the Bethesda games have thousands of mods to choose from and Skyrim has the most. So all the merits of virtualization aside, will these games perform better using Vortex? I hope so and plan to find out because I will use Vortex to rebuild my FO3, NV and Skyrim games as soon as it becomes available.

[Ethreon]

In response to post #56028266.

ErusPrime wrote:

With the new mod manager will there be functionality for distributed modpacks via nexus? I know developers don't want third party distribution but nxm is the distribution. The entire system is already in place to have curated lists of mods and configurations that doesn't violate the distribution requirements of the author and gives a nice little one click instead of having to download manually, merge and patch, load order, CTD, google it, find nothing helpful, ask on reddit/discord/forums, get told to google it, say f*#@ it and go play something else.

Mod packages are not allowed according to the rules, not because of technical limitations.

[ErusPrime]

In response to post #56028266. #56029941 is also a reply to the same post.

ErusPrime wrote:

With the new mod manager will there be functionality for distributed modpacks via nexus? I know developers don't want third party distribution but nxm is the distribution. The entire system is already in place to have curated lists of mods and configurations that doesn't violate the distribution requirements of the author and gives a nice little one click instead of having to download manually, merge and patch, load order, CTD, google it, find nothing helpful, ask on reddit/discord/forums, get told to google it, say f*#@ it and go play something else.

Ethreon wrote: Mod packages are not allowed according to the rules, not because of technical limitations.

I feel like you don't understand what I mean when I say mod pack. What I mean when I say mod pack is that nexus has the technology in place to create curated collections of mods without changing distribution. Say I want all the Sim Settlements mods. I go to each page, hit download, configure and load order and all that stuff. With a collection, you only have to distribute the links. A list of those links in a format readable by vortex. One click, all the mods, no broken rules.

[Rogdonlp]

In response to post #56028336.

ThD17gj692 wrote: I'm not technical nor a mod creator, so my question may be naive. My favorite Fall Out game is FO3, however, after upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10, I can only get about 10 to 20 minutes of playtime using all the mods I like (140 including merged mods) before my game crashes. Before the upgrade, I could play several hours before crashing.

Will Vortex extend play time? That is, will the game engine perform as if there are no mods added? It seems to me that a major reason for creating MO was to deal with all the problems of the buggy game engine used for Skyrim. Of course, this may not be the case, but if you only have a choice of a few mods you don't really need a mod manager, but if there are thousands of mods to choose from, then a manager is essential.

Only the Bethesda games have thousands of mods to choose from and Skyrim has the most. So all the merits of virtualization aside, will these games perform better using Vortex? I hope so and plan to find out because I will use Vortex to rebuild my FO3, NV and Skyrim games as soon as it becomes available.

ThD17gj692

If you are using the Fallout Stutter Remover and installed the Fall Creator W10 update your FO3 crashes are most likely due to the fact that the W10 update made changes to W10 that were incompatible with the settings in your Fallout Stutter Remover ini file. See the discussion here: http://forum.step-project.com/topic/12717-problems-with-fallout-stutter-resmover/

My FO3 was crashing and freezing. I changed the ini file and my problems are gone.

Good Luck

[Ethreon]

In response to post #56028266. #56029941, #56037291, #56037296, #56037301, #56037306, #56037311 are all replies on the same post.

ErusPrime wrote:

With the new mod manager will there be functionality for distributed modpacks via nexus? I know developers don't want third party distribution but nxm is the distribution. The entire system is already in place to have curated lists of mods and configurations that doesn't violate the distribution requirements of the author and gives a nice little one click instead of having to download manually, merge and patch, load order, CTD, google it, find nothing helpful, ask on reddit/discord/forums, get told to google it, say f*#@ it and go play something else.

Ethreon wrote: Mod packages are not allowed according to the rules, not because of technical limitations.

ErusPrime wrote: I feel like you don't understand what I mean when I say mod pack. What I mean when I say mod pack is that nexus has the technology in place to create curated collections of mods without changing distribution. Say I want all the Sim Settlements mods. I go to each page, hit download, configure and load order and all that stuff. With a collection, you only have to distribute the links. A list of those links in a format readable by vortex. One click, all the mods, no broken rules.

ErusPrime wrote:

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ErusPrime wrote:

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ErusPrime wrote:

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ErusPrime wrote:

I think I just found a bug.

If you are posting, press Submit once and wait. This isn't a bug, just server lag.

Mod packs are not allowed, regardless of what you want to call them or how you think they should be done. Even if they were to pursue this and now allow it, what you want would simply not work.

[ozoak]

I think everyone who's mentioned "mod packs" in this thread is using it as convenient naming only - I don't believe any of those people are actually suggesting downloading, combining and republishing the mods.

 

I'd be more inclined to call the concept a "playlist", because I believe what people would like to see is something that has more in common with that principle than what we typically call a modpack.

 

And I don't see how it *wouldn't* be possible, if not in the core utility but at least through the API that has been spruiked a couple of times.

It would essentially be a sub-set of a profile, simply an ordered list of ID's with min version numbers without the rest of the profile data.

Will Vortex be smart enough to alert users when mods listed in a profile are missing? I hope so, because even without playlists of mods users will from time to time screw up and manually delete mods when they shouldn't.

So a very non-complex solution would be: create profile, import playlist, Vortex alerts user to which mods are missing (all, or assuming the user may have already downloaded some, only some of), uses Vortex to download them.

 

None of us know the specifics, of course, of what the API will allow but if it allows interactions with the Profiles, then as I said, I can't see how it wouldn't be possible.

It'll be interesting to see what the API is capable of when it get launched.

[Ethreon]

In response to post #56044656.

ozoak wrote:

I think everyone who's mentioned "mod packs" in this thread is using it as convenient naming only - I don't believe any of those people are actually suggesting downloading, combining and republishing the mods.

 

I'd be more inclined to call the concept a "playlist", because I believe what people would like to see is something that has more in common with that principle than what we typically call a modpack.

 

And I don't see how it *wouldn't* be possible, if not in the core utility but at least through the API that has been spruiked a couple of times.

It would essentially be a sub-set of a profile, simply an ordered list of ID's with min version numbers without the rest of the profile data.

Will Vortex be smart enough to alert users when mods listed in a profile are missing? I hope so, because even without playlists of mods users will from time to time screw up and manually delete mods when they shouldn't.

So a very non-complex solution would be: create profile, import playlist, Vortex alerts user to which mods are missing (all, or assuming the user may have already downloaded some, only some of), uses Vortex to download them.

 

None of us know the specifics, of course, of what the API will allow but if it allows interactions with the Profiles, then as I said, I can't see how it wouldn't be possible.

It'll be interesting to see what the API is capable of when it get launched.

Congratulations, you now have a broken game.

[ozoak]

 

In response to post #56044656.

 

 

 

ozoak wrote:

I think everyone who's mentioned "mod packs" in this thread is using it as convenient naming only - I don't believe any of those people are actually suggesting downloading, combining and republishing the mods.

I'd be more inclined to call the concept a "playlist", because I believe what people would like to see is something that has more in common with that principle than what we typically call a modpack.

And I don't see how it *wouldn't* be possible, if not in the core utility but at least through the API that has been spruiked a couple of times.

It would essentially be a sub-set of a profile, simply an ordered list of ID's with min version numbers without the rest of the profile data.

Will Vortex be smart enough to alert users when mods listed in a profile are missing? I hope so, because even without playlists of mods users will from time to time screw up and manually delete mods when they shouldn't.

So a very non-complex solution would be: create profile, import playlist, Vortex alerts user to which mods are missing (all, or assuming the user may have already downloaded some, only some of), uses Vortex to download them.

None of us know the specifics, of course, of what the API will allow but if it allows interactions with the Profiles, then as I said, I can't see how it wouldn't be possible.

It'll be interesting to see what the API is capable of when it get launched.

Congratulations, you now have a broken game.

 

 

Fairly certain that you're not comprehending what I'm suggesting.

Why on earth would a game break by having an ordered list of mods with version info as a template for what is required?

It would be a trivial logic to work through:

* create new profile

* import mod list

* check if any mods in imported list are available because they have been previously downloaded

** If mod has not been downloaded, mark mods as "missing, requires download"

 

If Vortex is already linking, and not copying/moving, mods then I am hoping it would already have a mechanism to detect if a mod downloaded has gone missing.

 

Why would the game break?