Mod Distribution/Automation Program

[Daemonjax]

This thread has nothing to do with XSHAPE, but, yeah... just have java 7 installed.

 

If they're getting: "Java is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

 

Then, they don't have java installed correctly, period, regardless of version.

 

UPDATE1: Working on batch files now, so we won't have to wait for a working GUI. Should be done shortly.

 

UPDATE2: Beta is up.

 

http://code.google.com/p/xcom-modmanager/downloads/list

 

Example mod and files included. It lacks a GUI (existing one is broken), so you'll have to do a lot of stuff manually (editing of xml files), but it's otherwise functional.

 

 

 

Any feedback is appreciated, of course... but keep in mind that ModInstaller and ModMaker are intended to be back-ends to a GUI front-end.

 

Please direct all GUI (or lack thereof) comments at dose206 ;)

Edited November 1, 2012 by Daemonjax

[Wolfgeist451]

Hi Daemonjax, thanks for all your work on this!

 

I got to run the modmaker on a copy of the files you included as an exemple. But the installer... all I get is :

 

:ERRORLEVEL5

echo One or more of the upk files listed could not be found in your "...\XComGame\CookedPCConsole" folder.

echo Most likely the ^<XCOM^> tag in "config\config.xml" file does not point to your main xcom game folder.

goto END

 

I'm pretty sure it is pointing in the right spot but before I go on searching I was wondering... is there more than XComGame.upk required? (Its the only one I unpacked, decompressed)

 

Thx

 

 

P.S. About the 'Java not recognized', I had to fix the PATH in environnment variables on Win7... dunno why installing Java didn't do that or if its an issue with Windows. This might help kill that discussion from this thread :)

http://java.com/en/download/help/path.xml

[BlackAlpha]

Some other users were able to fix the Java issue by going here:

 

http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

 

And then downloading the correct bit version for their OS. So if you got 64bit Windows, get the 64bit Java. Vice versa for 32bit. After that, Windows recognized Java correctly.

[Daemonjax]

ERRORLEVEL5

 

One or more of the upk files listed could not be found in your "...\XComGame\CookedPCConsole" folder.

Most likely the <XCOM> tag in "config\config.xml" file does not point to your main xcom game folder.

 

 

You'll have to edit the config\config.xml file... look at the <XCOM> tag... change what's in the tag to point towards your xcom game folder.

 

The default should be mostly correct... you may have to change only the drive letter from C to something else.

 

 

For example, I need to have the following:

 

<XCOM>E:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown</XCOM>

Ordinarily, the GUI would make this more intuitive. Hope that helps. ;)

 

My unpacked folder is similar:

 

<Unpacked>E:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\unpacked</Unpacked>

 

I like to keep my unpacked folder within CookedPCConsole, but it could be anywhere... and you can change it at any time. Unpacking a UPK is different from just uncompressing it.

 

You only need one XComGame.upk -- the one in your CookedPCConsole. If a mod you're installing wants to modify any upk, then it will have to be uncompressed first. I have a sanity check in place to catch this error if you forget. Also, before running XSHAPE, you'll need to rename/delete the accompanying .uncompressed_size file. XSHAPE will catch this error if you forget.

 

As far as errorcode 5 goes, once you set the main game's folder within the <XCOM> tag, it will be able to find your CookedPCConsole folder, and all should be well.

 

Let me know if this is confusing. :D

 

NOTE: For installing mods, you don't have to worry about setting your <Unpacked> folder... not needed. For making mods, yes, you have to... it was the only sane way to do this. You may not need to set your <XCOM> folder when just making mods... I forget. Just make sure both are correct to be on the safe side. The GUI would make this process more streamlined.

 

I realize that without a GUI doing this requires a certain level of understanding which may be beyond what the casual user is willing to acquire.

 

While I essentially eliminated one hoop for mod users (hex-editing), there's still plenty others you're going to have to jump through at this time. When the GUI is working, it'll be all rainbows and unicorns.

 

UPDATE1: I made a modification to ModInstaller.bat which adds automatic parsing of the .install.log file, which you can download from the first page via dropbox link. I recommend downloading it and overwriting the existing ModInstaller.bat file with it.

 

UPDATE2: Fixed the updated ModInstaller.bat ;)

Edited November 1, 2012 by Daemonjax

[twinj]

Is there room for another programmer on the team? Can do web apps using SOAP/ XML using Java/GWT. Also know a little C, C#, Java for software and console programming. Used eclipse, netbeans, VS. Tortoise SVN?

[Daemonjax]

Always room for more... send me your gmail id, and I'll set you up as a contributor at first...

 

Contribute with feedback on whatever you want, and creating/verifying issues on the project page, and we'll move you up to committer in no time. :D Plenty of stuff left to do.

 

Right now I'm working on getting a lot of features working through batch files, since I haven't used batch files in forever... I'm rusty. ;)

 

I'd actually REALLY like for someone else to try and see if the existing GUI (by dose206) works for them (download via svn checkout). Maybe I was doing it wrong. I know he put a decent amount of work into it, and it's a shame to have it sit there unused.

 

UPDATE1: New version of the modinstaller batch file up. This one should make life easier for you guys since it includes support for automatic decompressing with backups, renaming of .compressed_size files, and automatically runs XSHAPE.bat when needed. Almost as good as a real gui now. I need to do stuff for the ModMaker batch file now (configuration file creation and unpacking).

 

UPDATE2: Updated links. ModInstaller.bat is done until I implement mod uninstalls (or until I notice a problem).

Edited November 2, 2012 by Daemonjax

[Daemonjax]

So, is anyone using this thing or what?

[BlackAlpha]

So, is anyone using this thing or what?

 

I'm busy finalizing my new mod version. I'm just using XSHAPE + Modpatcher for now. But I'm planning to use this for my next version.

 

I quickly looked over the files but I couldn't find a step by step tutorial on how to create (not including the HEX editing, other topics can cover that) and install "your first mod", so to speak. I think adding that would make it easier for many people to figure out how to use this new mod manager.

Edited November 2, 2012 by BlackAlpha

[FMod]

Trying to use it now. I've been working on exe tweaks only until now, so a complete rookie at upk edits (for XCOM at least).

Maybe my steps can help idiot-proof this:

 

4) Download and extract XSHAPE v0.14+ into your xcom folder.

Extracted, ran, error 5. Figured it out.

How about adding uncompressedsize file removal straight into the .bat file?

 

Also, do users need to decompress the upk files themselves first?

[bokauk]

Excellent work Daemonjax, I'm sure this'll be very useful, even more so when there's a GUI :) . What's wrong with the GUI you've got so far anyway?

 

A couple of very minor suggestions.

 

Maybe have a sanity check for attempting to create an unmodified mod... if that even makes sense! ;) i.e. When the function file is mistakenly the same as the original and so the comparison fails to find any differences:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1

(I think that's what the problem was, haha).

 

Also, might be a bit more user friendly if the config file had a .txt extension to make it easier to edit. Perhaps also put an underscore in the filename too, just to make it a bit clearer: MYMOD_Config.txt.

 

Even with a GUI, it'd still be good to be able to quickly, manually edit the description etc.

 

Good job :)

 

EDIT: Just saw you mention in another thread that the GUI doesn't work for you. I tried it the other day and got an error when trying to create a mod, but I thought that was just because it wasn't finished yet :)

Edited November 2, 2012 by bokauk