How are External Changes to Mods Detected?

[digitaljc]

Does anyone know what Vortex looks at to determine any changes to installed mods?

As a test, I backed up and restored my mods folder, downloads folder, vortex app folder and associated profile via fastcopy.

 

Once restored, if I attempt to install a new mod or change mod state for any existing mod, an 'External Changes' dialog comes up to inform that all installed mod files have changed. Options to resolve are either 'apply' or 'undo'.

 

If I select the 'undo' option, everything appears to continue to work as expected. The message no longer triggers on subsequent mod install or mod state changes.

If apply is selected, Vortex attempts to redeploy all mods previously installed (even though there really have been no changes) and I have had no luck with that redeployment completing.

 

My restored files appear to retain the same file info compared to what was originally backed up; e.g. file size, create date, modified date, location etc.

 

I did notice that the 'mods' folder date itself is updated to current time of restore. Manually 'touching' the folder to restore the original date/time did not appear to make a difference. The 'External Changes' dialog continues to trigger here as well.

[SkunkMonkey]

When you change files outside of Vortex, it won't detect them until you issue a Deploy command. At that point Vortex will give you the option to Apply or Undo those changes. When you select Undo, Vortex replaces any changed files with those from the original mod. Selecting Apply will update the mods original files with your changes. This is why you hit Deploy after making changes.

 

Just remember, until Vortex runs it's Deploy routine, it has no idea what has or has not changed.

[digitaljc]

Thanks for your reply.

 

That's the thing though, not clear as to what/how changes are being detected by Vortex.

 

Outside of the parent 'Mods' folder being recreated with a different date/time on restore,

have not detected any other changes following the restore (testing was immediate; backup followed by immediate restore).

e.g. The actual 'Mods' folders & files remained the same where dates/times and sizes are concerned.

 

All mod content 'appears' to be an exact copy following a restore. No complaints from Vortex about deleted links or anything like that. (using fastcopy /linkdest option)

 

Also, while it's certainly faster to 'undo' vs. 'redeploy' in this circumstance, is there any reason to consider the option to redeploy all mods?

[SkunkMonkey]

Vortex detects changes to files it installed from the mod. It knows nothing about files created by other processes such as the Bashed Patch. I have a bunch of merge patches that I zipped up into a mod and installed with Vortex. Now when I update one of these merged files and deploy, Vortex picks up those changes and lets me Apply or Undo them.

 

As to how it knows what changes, I know when I modify a file Vortex is managing, the actual file replaces the link that Vortex installed. So I assume that Vortex sees this and knows the file has changed and asks what to do about it.

[Tannin42]

Vortex only notices that the file in the game data directory is no longer a link to the file in the vortex mods directory.

It doesn't know if the data changed because comparing content (or hash of the content) for tens of thousands of files would take ages.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "redeploy", you have to either apply or undo the changes in the "external changes" dialog, please do not try to "trick" your way out of that dialog.

If all your mod files are exact copies it doesn't really matter which one you pick, though undo will be faster than apply.

If you hit apply, Vortex will copy all files from your data directory back to the mod directory (which will do nothing but take time since the files are the same), then delete the files in data and create new links.

Hitting undo simply skips that first part: It deletes the files in data and creates new links.

[rmm200]

1) How does Vortex know which mod folder to copy the changes to?

2) I am still trying to figure out how Vortex managed to delete the FNIS executable when I clicked Apply.

In fact, every file not generated by FNIS was deleted from the FNIS mod.

[SkunkMonkey]

It knows because it keeps track of what files each mod installs. A simple comparison between the files in the Mods folders to the Data folder.

 

Not sure why the exe would be removed, but the files generated by FNIS will not be touched by Vortex because it did not install them. Your best option is to take the files that FNIS generates and create a custom Mod and let Vortex install and manage it. Then when you run FNIS again and apply the changes, your custom mod will be updated with the changed files.

[Pyro2677]

Yeah I'm confused about this also. When i click on the Apply at the top left and also click apply on the right everything reverts back to original. however I tried clicking the top left apply and not touching the right but it didn't seem to change any files.

 

Update: Just deleted an ESP and if you click on the apply buttons it will revert back to the original however if you click nothing but confirm all changes will be saved. I was wondering why things were not sticking. So yeah only click confirm if you want the changes to stick.

[simsrw73]

The external changes dialog is definitely one of the most confusing dialogs in the application. It's just not clear enough exactly what it detected and what it's going to do. The UI needs to be clearer and maybe could use an expandable detail view to show exactly what operations are going to be performed.

[SkunkMonkey]

The external changes dialog is definitely one of the most confusing dialogs in the application. It's just not clear enough exactly what it detected and what it's going to do. The UI needs to be clearer and maybe could use an expandable detail view to show exactly what operations are going to be performed.

 

When that dialog opens, it means that Vortex has detected that it's links in the Data folder have been replaced with the actual files. This happens when you edit a file in the Data directory, you open it via the link and when you save it saves the actual file.

 

Now the dialog is asking you what you want to do about this, do you want to update the mod with the changed files with Apply (Vortex will update the source and redo the links), or do you want to Undo the changes (Vortex deletes the edited files and redeploys the links). There is a bit of linked text that tells you how many files it detected and clicking it will give you a list of the actual files.

 

Once you've set your choices for each mod detected, click Confirm to seal the deal.

 

I'm sure the documentation will include a better explanation of this, but at this point there isn't going to be much. That's one of the last things you do or you can waste a lot of time rewriting it.