[PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.54)

[sithlord48]

i would think injection would work fine . do you have some kind of folder w/ a mod i can test so i don't have to dl one avatars would be good since its quite easy to spot. if you can provide me one i will test launching.

two quesions.
1. is it normal for the DL box to not close after downloading.
2. any chance of maybe opening up develpment? An open codebase  is a happy codebase.

[Iros]

I really want to get a handle on packing the .iro files themselves. If I understood it and felt confident that was going to be the standard in the future, I would be busy packing mods into iros. I was almost anticipating a wizard of some sort for that, because everything about this is so slick and easy for the user, but a little more difficult for adapting new mods to .iro form as Kaldarasha did... Let's face it... we're not all on you guys' level.

If you have a mod that runs fine out of a folder, then all you need to do is select that folder as the source in the pack window    That's all that you need to pack a mod. Although it doesn't make any difference other than maybe speeding things up slightly (and I suppose a bit easier to distribute?).

Although I should put that window back into 7thHeaven... 

i would think injection would work fine . do you have some kind of folder w/ a mod i can test so i don't have to dl one avatars would be good since its quite easy to spot. if you can provide me one i will test launching.

You can just download one manually, name the folder correctly and import it ... all the mods I put in the test catalog, I just picked some downloads from the big list of mods in the FAQ that were hosted on Google Drive, none of them were specially set up...

two quesions.
1. is it normal for the DL box to not close after downloading.
2. any chance of maybe opening up develpment? An open codebase  is a happy codebase.

1. Yes
2. Every time you anthropomorphize source code, a puppy dies

[KnifeTheSky77]

From my experience, Sith lords tend not to care much for puppies.

Flipping through the lengthy list of mods in my library, its probably around 25 now, will make the 7thHeaven UI slow down to the point where it becomes unresponsive and crash If I ignore that and just start the game however, then I have no issues

[Template]

Sorry, completely missed the post where you explain the generator in further detail. Everything definitely coming together for this, thanks for explaining how to do the /launch /exit thing, too, that really makes it sesmless to play from the desktop. I'm kicking myself for deleting all the versions of 7thWrapper I had because I can't test .iro packing at the moment.

I'm just announcing my plans to run a subscription service (qhimm.com approved mods only) off google drive if I can work it all out. I am planning to host mods in .iro format only, though. Anyone have any thoughts about packing mods into .iro files without permission? I know I brought this up before but no one really said much about it and it's a little sticky maybe because any readmes and things will pretty much get left behind. 

[PitBrat]

Repackaging mods is a great idea.
Asking permission is usually best. Check with Team Avalanche and the individual mod authors. Stay within the copyright boundaries.

[Iros]

From my experience, Sith lords tend not to care much for puppies.

Flipping through the lengthy list of mods in my library, its probably around 25 now, will make the 7thHeaven UI slow down to the point where it becomes unresponsive and crash If I ignore that and just start the game however, then I have no issues

Hmm, OK, I'll take a look at this. Probably something silly.

Sorry, completely missed the post where you explain the generator in further detail. Everything definitely coming together for this, thanks for explaining how to do the /launch /exit thing, too, that really makes it sesmless to play from the desktop. I'm kicking myself for deleting all the versions of 7thWrapper I had because I can't test .iro packing at the moment.

It'll be in the next version. Hopefully in the next day or so.

EDIT: v1.03 - https://mega.co.nz/#!XQ4GyQqD!A4nQFD90Y6eNtEX9tkudfzYMpuxKYIMSiBWjUaJE4DM

Adds pack/unpack iro functions back.

From my experience, Sith lords tend not to care much for puppies.

Flipping through the lengthy list of mods in my library, its probably around 25 now, will make the 7thHeaven UI slow down to the point where it becomes unresponsive and crash If I ignore that and just start the game however, then I have no issues

Tried with 25 mods in my library and it seems OK - exactly what is slow? Activating/deactivating mods? Scrolling the list? Can you take a screenshot? Thank you.

[Template]

K, now I know I wasn't imagining things. I made an .iro file out of Motorball Revamp and with it activated new version won't load.
Edit: Nope, can't figure out how to make a working iro file out of that mod. It contains a folder specifically labeled wrapped, and a packed iro file out of it makes a file 23.5Kb but it won't load when trying to use it. It actually hangs on black screen with mouse cursor sitting on top, no debug.

I'm guessing it's because the MR(Motorball Revamp) wrapped folders do not include xml files? Every time an artist has to learn xml a baby koala dies. 


Tested EQ2Alyza's LGP Battle Scenes as .iro added to Kaldarasha's and load time on game open is nil.
Now I will write an xml for Bloodshot's mod and test to see if it'l load as an iro.
The one for the battle scene mod is super simple so you really couldn't say you learned xml for having filled that out.

Also: Can't figure out how to remove installed mods from my library. Can deactivate them, but even deleting the imported mod from the FF7folder/7thHeaven/ directory won't get rid of them. All I can do is delete library.xml from users area.

Edit: This mod.xml in the Motorball Revamp folder for packing to iro did not help, still hangs on blackscreen trying to launch with the MR iro activated.

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ModInfo>
  <Author>Bloodshot</Author>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <Description>High-Polycount Motorball Boss Model and Battle Scene Revamp</Description>
  <Link>http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14510.msg203819</Link>
</ModInfo>I can see how there maybe needs to be an argument in the xml file for each folder, too? Take a look at the xml files included in Kaldarasha's mod... This really is just a teensy complex for a hippie/tracer/artsy (stereotype joke) person. But I will persevere!

[cmh175]

I do know they need the xml files that are filled in with what you want to do. I understand how it works, just having trouble utilizing it. The only time I get any lag time is if I have anything that's not in an iro being loaded, granted I"m still using the last version of 7thwrapper before 7thheaven was released. I haven't gotten a chance to try the latest version yet. A google search for XML Editors has tons of results, I'm just not positive what I'm looking at. Is there any chance someone can make an editor specifically for xml's for .iro files? So things like the variable model swapping and option menus with previews would be easier to configure. I'll keep looking around and see if I can find a freeware option otherwise that may do the job.

     ~ Hey Template I tried my hand at an xml for the Bloodshot model. This is my first attempt at this but I think I followed the guild lines Iros made out on his example post. It maybe pretty close if it still doesn't work. I cant test this till later so if you have the time let me know how it goes.

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ModInfo>
  <Author>Bloodshot</Author>
  <Version>1.00</Version>
  <Description>High-Polycount Motorball Boss Model and Battle Scene Revamp</Description>
  <Link>http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14510.msg203819</Link>
  <PreviewFile>http://i3.minus.com/ibtOygBD22iydJ.jpg</PreviewFile>
 
  <Conditional Folder="Motorball Revamp" ActiveWhen="battlem = 1">
    <RuntimeVar Var="CounterAdv:Motorball Revamp" Values="1" ApplyTo="battle.lgp\ctaa" />
    <RuntimeVar Var="Counter:Motorball Revamp" Values="1" /> ApplyTo="battle.lgp\paaa" />
    <RuntimeVar Var="Counter:Motorball Revamp" Values="1" /> ApplyTo="highway-us.lgp\zcaa.hrc" />
  </Conditional>

    <ConfigOption>
    <Type>Bool</Type>
    <Default>0</Default>
    <ID>battlem</ID>
    <Name> Motorball Boss Model and Battle Scene Revamp</Name>

[Template]

You can edit xml with wordpad. That's not the issue, either, I don't think you're really meant to need an xml file for a simple iro mod. Something is going wrong with Motorball Revamp tho. I'll do some more testing.

[cmh175]

You were missing the parts that actually tell it what to do when you activate the mod. Otherwise 7thheaven wont know what to do with the .iro you added.

[Template]

Cool! That looks more like it. Why does EQ2Alyza's mod packed as iro work without all that other stuff in her mod.xml?

[Iros]

You can edit xml with wordpad. That's not the issue, either, I don't think you're really meant to need an xml file for a simple iro mod. Something is going wrong with Motorball Revamp tho. I'll do some more testing.

Correct, you don't need an XML file for an iro file to load.

Whether or not you have a mod.xml file is separate from whether it is packed into a .iro. You can have a mod.xml file when the mod is just set up in folders on disk, or you can have a .iro file that doesn't contain a mod.xml.

You need mod.xml to:

-Provide author/description/picture details to show in the program
-Activate certain folders in the mod on a condition (e.g. when user selects an option, or based on a game variable like PPV, FieldID, weapon equipped, etc.)

So the Motorball mod shouldn't need a mod.xml at all. You could put one in just to provide more details, but it isn't required.

Edit: Nope, can't figure out how to make a working iro file out of that mod. It contains a folder specifically labeled wrapped, and a packed iro file out of it makes a file 23.5Kb but it won't load when trying to use it. It actually hangs on black screen with mouse cursor sitting on top, no debug.

If it's only 23.5KB something has gone wrong    The .iro file isn't compressed at all, so it will be roughly the same size as the folder you pack. (Maybe a few KB bigger).

[cmh175]

Because I clearly have no idea what I'm doing lol. That's good news at least because the code I did would be a pain for multiple models.

[Template]

No, you were clearly on your way to learning how to do complex variables in this, and I was impressed.
Anyway. I think I nailed the issue and it's something stupid and easy to do. The "battle.lgp" folder in his wrapped version was named "Battle.lgp"
I'm getting deja vu.

[Iros]

Did that really make a difference?   It's obviously not meant to...

[Template]

Yeah, that fixed it. We do make a good team though, eh? You build it I mess it up. 
I have to go through all these steps to make everything look clean in the GUI again:
Delete all the 3485-1348751random.iro files and folders I've created somehow that end up in my game directory's 7thHeaven folder.
Delete everything from Users\*.*\7thWorkshop\
Reenter new info.
Oh and the issue about just being able to remove mods you've deleted from your library. That would pretty much stabilize everything I have messed with so far.
The next frontier is the subscription I want to host... Should be fun!

[cmh175]

Thanks. It was mostly a guess though. I can see how it works, it's just figuring out how to get it to do exactly what I want. I haven't written a single script since high school, and I wasn't horribly good at it then either.

I hope that's all it was though. Simply renaming it to match the file name so everything is lower case is pretty simple.

      ~ Ok cool, that simplifies things, and just have to remember not to capitalize.

[Iros]

Oh and the issue about just being able to remove mods you've deleted from your library. That would pretty much stabilize everything I have messed with so far.
The next frontier is the subscription I want to host... Should be fun!

If you right click on a mod in the Library screen, there is an 'uninstall' option that removes it (and deletes the files - if you haven't already)

[Template]

To be clear about the MR mod: I thought it was bigger than it was and it was slow to initialize even in folder format because I put in the WHOLE folder Bloodshot packed. It includes folders that have duplicate files in them, one is set up for 7thHeaven just fine (but with an uppercase B on the battle.lgp folder) and the other is set up for just basic lgp file insertion. This was really what we needed to debug this so I am grateful he did it that way. He knew he didn't need a mod.xml file for his mod.

Now that we know this modmanager is not going away (and I think Iros is probably making it so it isn't case sensitive, though he doesn't need to) we won't need to pack mods that way anymore, and the uploads will be half the size. You can pack the mod just like you normally would for lgp insertion, add the .lgp on the end of the folder names, and people still doing lgp insert can bloody well figure it out--that way it will automatically work for 7thHeaven. Alternately it would be best to just include the iro files pre compiled with mod.xmls already imbedded in them for complex mods that do model swaps and variant based changes.

Honestly I've been packing my HQmods for STEAM folders with .lgp on the end of their names even before Iros hopped along and decided to build this amazing thing.

If you right click on a mod in the Library screen, there is an 'uninstall' option that removes it (and deletes the files - if you haven't already)

That is very sexy. Didn't see that... right clicks... just awesome. It has settings for automatic updates, even. Can you add support for mouse wheels? j/k

Edit: OK So I decided next to test Iros's pastepin download/install mod feature. It ran without a hitch on my very own (fixed by cmh175) alternate unshaded Cloud battle stance animation. The download speed was 15kbps (not a surprise) and didn't take long because it's a very small mod. The install portion took quite a while. Surprisingly long. Around 1-2minutes. Of course since that mod is in simple folder format (Iros fixed it, set up the folder name correctly), it installs as a folder mod in your library. No surprise there. Still, I'm going with my gut and exclusively hosting .iro mods on subscription because they load so much faster. Just adding that simple battle animation mod of mine in folder form increased the initial game load considerably. Like, you start wondering if it crashed. So far, no matter how many iros I add, there is no increased load time. If I add more folder mods will the load time of ... 5 seconds or whatever just stay the same? Or will it get worse? If it stays the same, then it's not an issue.

Also: I have begun to see some scroll slowdown and jitter as I add more mods. It appears to be straining visually somehow. Closing the 15 other windows I had open seemed to help without closing 7thHeaven itself. Then I decided to restart my computer for August. The scroll bar is a little funny about moving your mouse off of it quickly. Otherwise if you stay steady with the scroll bar it works fine.

And then: I decided to throw the kitchen sink at 7thHeaven. I fed it Omzy's field pack as an .iro. It made the iro fairly quickly. I am realizing now I did it wrong or it would have worked. You need to specify mods that are meant for aali's modpath with folder names like "battle" or "field" not "battle.lgp" or "flevel.lgp" (I tried doing the Omzy's field pack iro with flevel.lgp folder). So then I did an iro of EQ2Alyza's PNG battle scenes mod and it works fine. She was crafty and did the "battle" folder for the PNG version, and a "battle.lgp" folder for the lgp version.

And after a retest with facepalmer.iro it works without a hitch. I removed my field folder from my aali modpath to be sure the backgrounds were coming from the loaded .iro file.

[ajthedj747]

Thank you everyone for your hard work. I can not wait to try this for myself.

[Iros]

(and I think Iros is probably making it so it isn't case sensitive, though he doesn't need to)

Yes, will be fixed in next version.

Edit: OK So I decided next to test Iros's pastepin download/install mod feature. It ran without a hitch on my very own (fixed by cmh175) alternate unshaded Cloud battle stance animation. The download speed was 15kbps (not a surprise) and didn't take long because it's a very small mod. The install portion took quite a while. Surprisingly long. Around 1-2minutes.

Extracting compressed downloads is definitely slower than it should be. Not sure why; I hope I can fix it somehow.

Also: I have begun to see some scroll slowdown and jitter as I add more mods. It appears to be straining visually somehow. Closing the 15 other windows I had open seemed to help without closing 7thHeaven itself. Then I decided to restart my computer for August. The scroll bar is a little funny about moving your mouse off of it quickly. Otherwise if you stay steady with the scroll bar it works fine.

Hm, I will continue to look at it. Do your mods have preview images? I wonder if it is to do with the images ... some of them in my sample catalog are (much!) larger than they need to be, because I didn't resize/upload new preview images, I linked to whatever images were already posted on the forum. So the image files are sometimes very big. If you make your own catalog file, it would be good to make the preview images thumbnails.

And then: I decided to throw the kitchen sink at 7thHeaven. I fed it Omzy's field pack as an .iro. It made the iro fairly quickly. I am realizing now I did it wrong or it would have worked. You need to specify mods that are meant for aali's modpath with folder names like "battle" or "field" not "battle.lgp" or "flevel.lgp" (I tried doing the Omzy's field pack iro with flevel.lgp folder).

Yes, that is right. If you are replacing a file in an LGP (TEX, RSD, HRC, ...) then the folder should be called <whatever>.lgp -  but if you are trying to set up PNG files for Aali's driver, then the folder name needs to be whatever Aali's driver wants. Same with other non-LGP files: if you want to use new kernel bin files, put them in a folder called "kernel", because that's the name the folder has in a normal game install.

[Template]

The only other thing I can think of to add at the moment is that when I did the import of the corrected 3.2GB Facepalmer.iro file into my library it appeared to hang (briefly, about 5-10 seconds) after windows flagged it as "Not responding". This was of course not the case, and it imported just fine. I am happy to report that after adding all of these large iro files the initial startup on the launch is still nil.

My next test is to switch to a whole bunch of foldered mods instead of the .iro files I made and see how bad the launch delay is. I am even gonna do facepalmer no mercy

1st step... attempt to crash 7thHeaven's batch import to Library feature. Setup:

After that, as anticipated, Windows told me 7thHeaven was "not responding". I waited, and waited, and went to the bathroom. When I came back my mods were ready to go. (Suggest that after successful import, Library be auto refreshed {search button}.) So, First attempt at crashing 7thHeaven failed.
Here I used this magical button to move over all these foldered mods from my library to my Active Mods tab, pre-activated.

I then hit Launch.
It literally took 1 minute before the game opened. But it still works So, second attempt to crash 7thHeaven total failure also, but it does show the superiority of iro files. Next I have to load up as many iro files as I can possibly gather and see how that goes. I expect it will be fine and the subscription service will be up and running in as little as a few days.

Q: Can I separate mods in a subscription by type? Have bunches of avatars, bunches of models, etc. For now, if I can get up and running, I'll use simple tags.
Q: Can 7thHeaven do movie mod installs? That seems like it would be weird in an iro file. Can't think of any other weird mod types like that I want to include. Let's get really crazy and allow
       users to stream-preview music mods! ...That's really not necessary.

.iro package conversion requests are going out to everyone and anyone with a working mod link I could possibly include. If people don't get back to me pretty quick I'll have their mods up unless they are requested to be removed. I admit this is pretty presumptive... but I'm not planning on including anything old that isn't already on bootleg, and nothing new that isn't already expressly designed with 7thHeaven in mind, so I really don't feel like I'm being pushy.

Sorry if I double PMd you... sending out carbon copy PMs on here is a pain. Somehow one of them went through twice. I'm also sorry the letters ask permission but don't include reference to the specific mod or mods I plan on using for the 7thHeaven subscription. This was really only done because I was sending carbon copy PMs out 10 at a time (which is the limit...) and I was too lazy to write personalized requests. Well, I'm learning a little about communication here, too, so that's good. If you sent me a response that wasn't a question or a concern I probably didn't respond, but really my only excuse is that I don't actually have enough time to do everything I need to do right now.

[Iros]

The only other thing I can think of to add at the moment is that when I did the import of the corrected 3.2GB Facepalmer.iro file into my library it appeared to hang (briefly, about 5-10 seconds) after windows flagged it as "Not responding". This was of course not the case, and it imported just fine. I am happy to report that after adding all of these large iro files the initial startup on the launch is still nil.

To be honest - I am surprised a 3.2GB archive worked (!). I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did have some problems, so testing would definitely be required.

Q: Can I separate mods in a subscription by type? Have bunches of avatars, bunches of models, etc. For now, if I can get up and running, I'll use simple tags.

That's what I thought tags would be useful for. Not sure how else you could usefully do it.

Q: Can 7thHeaven do movie mod installs? That seems like it would be weird in an iro file. Can't think of any other weird mod types like that I want to include. Let's get really crazy and allow
       users to stream-preview music mods! ...That's really not necessary.

Technically, movie mod installs could work. Although since this isn't tested, it might need some tweaking. However there would probably be no advantage to packing them into a iro file - because the movies are a few very large files, and not inside a LGP file anyway. Packing into a iro file works well if there are a lot of files, especially when replacing files inside a LGP.

Stream preview music ... possible, I suppose but music mods would probably be hard to do with the mod manage anyway. Often you would need FF7Music installed? and you don't always know what filenames / folders FF7Music is looking in, because it depends how you have set it up...

I have found the problem with the speed extracting compressed archives, so I hope to have a new version today or tomorrow.

[cmh175]

Technically, movie mod installs could work. Although since this isn't tested, it might need some tweaking. However there would probably be no advantage to packing them into a iro file - because the movies are a few very large files, and not inside a LGP file anyway. Packing into a iro file works well if there are a lot of files, especially when replacing files inside a LGP.

I actually wanted to ask about this. I'm going to put together an .iro for all of my fmvs. It'll have all of the 2012 remastered videos, and give you the option of choosing either full screen or original for the ending videos. I also want to add a third option that has priority over the others if selected, so you can also select the HD ending3 video I did with either of the other two options selected too. So it'll use either version, and over write the ending3 video either way if you've selected the HD one. I think I know how to do most of this and I'm about to put together the script. I'm not sure how to set up the HD ending3 video though. I'll post what I come up with in a bit so you guys can take a look and let me know what you think.

I figured this option would simplify changing your fmvs and would put them all in one mod package.


     ~Ok so actually could already use some help lol. So I use the bool setting for the regular videos and the list for the configurable ones. How do I set up the directories for this? Do I have a wrapped\movies folder with folders for movies, full screen, original, and hd? Or do I have the movie folder and have a single folder inside it with the configurable videos? The problem with a single folder is that'll change the names of the videos.

[Iros]

First: I've looked at the code, and replacing movies on the 1998 version may not work in the current version, because the wrapper only intercepts reads to files in the ff7\data\ folder. Since the movies are not usually in here the wrapper won't affect them. I'll fix this for the next version.

(The 2012 version DOES put the movies inside the data\ folder so it probably will work better for that.)

Basically, if you can't get your movie mod to work, it might not be a mistake by you

I suggest for your folder layout, you would have:

YourModFolder\mod.xml
YourModFolder\fullscreen\movies\  <-- containing all full screen movies
YourModFolder\original\movies\ <-- containing all original movies
YourModFolder\hd\movies\  <-- containing hd movie(s)

Then in the mod.xml file you would have ModFolder entries for 'fullscreen', 'original' and 'hd' saying when each of those folders got enabled. Each of those has to have a 'movies' folder inside it, because that's what the folder the game is looking inside would normally be called.

(Since you can't test this properly until I make the next version, don't worry too much about trying to get it working...!)