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| Proper application of mods; or, "How to mod painlessly" | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 22 2015, 01:41 AM (5,625 Views) | |
| ElectricBee | Jan 22 2015, 01:41 AM Post #1 |
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Does he ever sleep?
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Rev. 1.1 There are a lot of things one can do to their game. These basic steps will ensure that you always have a safe means of reverting changes should you either grow tired of modifications you had applied, or should something go entirely wrong with the game, and that you have more fun than frustration in using any sort of modification. These are not hard-and-fast rules, but things I had learned over the course of playing with this game that I've learned. Before you even do anything A lot of modding woes happen because people don't back up their stock files. Whenever you can, copy everything in models and gfx. Why not cars and levels? Well, you can, but be selective about it; You have so much hard disk space, don't waste it all on making duplicate data when you don't need to. When installing new levels and cars, most times you will not need to back up content. But if you re asked to overwrite anything the first time you copy content into a game, don't allow it at first; 1.2 allows for a custom folder for levels you can use, and car parameters files can be modified to request content for cars from a different file location in the game directory, so you can reuse stock car content if you wish, whenever applicable. Keep stock of stock content Make your own "Stock content" folder where stuff that originally was from the game is kept in a safe place you'll never monkey around in too much. This is especially handy when using things that append onto and supersede stock content, like my aerials pack. While some people may provide a means to revert changes, not everybody does, so when the opportunity to revert does not present itself, make your own backup copies of stock content. Only when you feel absolutely confident in your decisions with replacement content, should you then delete the stock content you previously saved. Never trust batch files Seriously, don't. While the good guys pour hours of effort into making their batch files generally botch-proof for the average layperson, that doesn't mean you should confide in them until you know exactly what they are doing. Good authors make it plain in their batch file what operations will be performed, but if an author has malicious intent, those echo lines can lie to you, so make absolutely certain the operations the batch does are the operations you expect. Generally, any approved content or content from a person who had not yet been banned, or even persons in a higher position of privilege are more trustworthy than others, but even then, confirm what scripts do in a text editor first before you execute and let them do whatever to your local filesystem. Link, not copy This is how most of your woes can be averted. If you link content, then you can handle it much more easily than making copies. Link Shell Extension is awesome at handling this for you, but for those who would rather do it the olde-fashioned way; Windows files (NTFS5 and up): mklink /H [destination] [source] Windows directories (NTFS5 and up): mklink /J [destination] [source] GNU / Linux (for Wine lovers): ln -s [source] [destination] Note, symbolic links to files are recognized in Windows, so if having to use a cross-platform, dual-boot setup, you can switch between systems with relatively little pain. This also means instead of keeping mod files in archives, you have to keep mod files directly accessible in your local filesystem, but it also means in doing so, you can easily switch between different mods, and nothing but links get overwritten. If you use this method, you should also move (not copy, unless you're paranoid about things being lost in transit) the stock content elsewhere, then link that later on should you choose to not want to keep a specific modification. Have basic photo editing knowledge A lot of mods available through here may include bitmap mods that add in or modify pre-existing stock content in some way. Knowing how to edit these files are crucial for all of your mods to work seamlessly. In these cases, save copies of your work. If you take to the linking method, you can link differently-named files as the filename the game expects. Most mods that require additional or modified textures use content from the FxPage files; FxPage1.bmp, FxPage2.bmp, FxPage3.bmp, also Font.bmp (or the 1.2-supplied font.bmo), occasionally as well clouds.bmp, EnvFRONT.bmp, EnvStill.bmp and EnvRoll.bmp, but any of those files can also be in a level's custom folder, and you can use that to your advantage to trial mods on specific tracks before you commit to using them across the entire game. For people creating such mods, get into the habit of supplying PNG files that contain only the mod texture a user should include in their game textures, and make those files be the same image dimensions as the required image they should be layered onto. This will make it easier for the average user with such knowledge to drop in your modded textures, erase whatever underlying content as necessary and save your changes into their game. |
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Seeker and hoarder of many informations. Plant the seeds of sin into the world and they will grow to consume you. I make usable stuff and break things for fun. Check out what I've made. | |
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| ElectricBee | Apr 20 2015, 05:30 PM Post #2 |
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Does he ever sleep?
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Updated with typo fixes. Rest in peace Milkfix, we barely appreciated thee. |
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Seeker and hoarder of many informations. Plant the seeds of sin into the world and they will grow to consume you. I make usable stuff and break things for fun. Check out what I've made. | |
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Apr 20 2015, 06:45 PM Post #3 |
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Unproud Ex-Hacker
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Useless guides! KMA! <_< You never learn. Enjoy your three months of suspension. - Skarma |
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12:14 AM Jul 11