An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X4: Foundations.

Moderators: Moderators for English X Forum, Scripting / Modding Moderators

Post Reply
tigar
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon, 9. Jan 12, 11:43
x4

An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by tigar » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 13:24

So as we have seen a bunch of people have to put their mods into their documents/egosoft so on folder for it to show up in the game list

But what i noticed after making a mod to replace main menu music(hell march 2) it was not working so i put it in the folder that it was suggested originally to put it in (steamapps/common/x4 so on) and it works
I grabbed the CAS - Community Alternate Start put it in documents and it worked but text was not showing(it was showing pure code) i put it in steamapps and text shows properly
I did it with the rest of my mods and things that kinda seemed to work started to work as intented

So mods that add content(music textures text) have to be in the game folder but code for them has to be in the documents folder

Which is a really weird way and screams of a major bug but i wanted to put this here for anyone who like me have to put mods in the documents folder for them to work

I hope that this will be fixed in a new version as i rather not syslink those 2 folders/have to have duplicates of files when mods grow bigger in size

gmargaro
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue, 3. Jun 08, 19:34
xr

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by gmargaro » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 14:06

mklink is your friend :

cd C:\Jeux\Steam\steamapps\common\X4 Foundations
mklink /d .\extensions d:\Documents\Egosoft\X4\6918096\extensions

(adapt the paths to your install, of course)

tigar
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon, 9. Jan 12, 11:43
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by tigar » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 14:17

Thats the one ya i wasnt sure which one it was anymore

JESS 246
Posts: 573
Joined: Mon, 3. Jul 06, 03:24
x3

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by JESS 246 » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 16:20

HI All.

It seems that the extensions folder works in both doc's/game and chose the one that works for you.

It may get sticky when steam fires up with mods.

liam92
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu, 13. Oct 11, 01:28
x3tc

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by liam92 » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 17:25

I've been having trouble with music mods so I tried putting one in both folders to see what would happen, but just like before, the game refuses to start with anything in the root extensions folder

liam92
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu, 13. Oct 11, 01:28
x3tc

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by liam92 » Sat, 8. Dec 18, 01:14

Has anyone come any closer to figuring this out? How many people have to do this? Is it because of your version of windows? (I'm on W7)

EDIT

For me at least, mods placed in the steam folder no longer prevent the game from loading, and all the content is there. I assume it's the 1.3 update

Misunderstood Wookie
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon, 15. Mar 04, 08:07
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie » Sat, 8. Dec 18, 02:27

Did not even know there was an extension in the docs folder I have not bothered to look and simply put the extension folder in the steamapps. I honestly don't know why anyone would put it in the docs folder given the fact that the modding documentation explicitly says to create the extension folder inside the ROOT of X4 Foundations "X4 Foundations/extentsions/your_new_mod" It stands to reason that this method should work for anyone and any location of the game be DRM free GOG or Steam, or anywhere else.

Only time this might change is when Workshop fires up and depending on IF it chooses to use the workshop/content folders with Steams well known by now content ID system, then this may change just for steam users but as I wrote in another thread it does not change the contents so should be transferable between the ROOT and or the Content ID system no problem and manually re-located if you want to keep it but unsub from the mod on workshop.

Also like others are saying Mlink the shit out things if they are not, there is a Unix way to do similar, If that is a problem for you I can probably re-write a part of my (Starbound Workshop Easy Linker) which does exactly this since the Dedicated Server for that game does not detect Workshop Subs from the Clients or anything like that I made a batch script to go and link everything into the servers mods dir, but really it works with anything just have to change what file types it looks for and the dir's it looks at to make this work here, but I don't see a need right now to do so, I guess if this gets requested enough I might.
*modified*
*X3 LiteCube User*
MOD GemFX Real Space Shaders
MOD Variety and Rebalance Overhaul Icon Pack
I lost my Hans and should not be flying Solo.
Image

liam92
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu, 13. Oct 11, 01:28
x3tc

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by liam92 » Sun, 9. Dec 18, 21:01

actually this isn't fixed at all. Like you say, mods that add content like music have to be split between the root/extensions and the my documents/egosoft/x4/[000etc]/extensions. But if you put the whole mod in the game won't load. It shows up in processes in the task manager. If this is caused by windows 7, glad I'm upgrading to 10 in a week or two

Misunderstood Wookie
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon, 15. Mar 04, 08:07
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie » Mon, 10. Dec 18, 08:59

liam92 wrote:
Sun, 9. Dec 18, 21:01
actually this isn't fixed at all. Like you say, mods that add content like music have to be split between the root/extensions and the my documents/egosoft/x4/[000etc]/extensions. But if you put the whole mod in the game won't load. It shows up in processes in the task manager. If this is caused by windows 7, glad I'm upgrading to 10 in a week or two
We already figured out how to get these to work, it appears some file types do not like being "loose files" If your mod is using music and or .md files to re-pack them into a cat package then this appears to fix the issue, at least in the test cases I have read.
*modified*
*X3 LiteCube User*
MOD GemFX Real Space Shaders
MOD Variety and Rebalance Overhaul Icon Pack
I lost my Hans and should not be flying Solo.
Image

User avatar
MarvC
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun, 9. Dec 18, 16:02

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by MarvC » Tue, 11. Dec 18, 00:12

win7 user. I use both :cry:

mods in my documents folder (v1.30 :!: ) :(
Spoiler
Show
Image
mods in game X4 folder extensions (v1.30 :!: ) :(
Spoiler
Show
Image
it works. :gruebel:
if 90-95% is good. that is the world of mods.
Spoiler
Show
Image
Spoiler
Show
Image
time-consuming method of trial and error. :|
of course, if I put mods from the X4 *my documents* folder to X4 *game* folder, hangs at 50,420 K. :evil:
if I put mods from the X4 *game* folder to X4 *my documents* folder, then the music stops playing. there are also other errors. :evil:
temporarily a complete mods mess, but the first cats ...
Last edited by MarvC on Tue, 11. Dec 18, 03:02, edited 2 times in total.
none

xtra
Posts: 618
Joined: Fri, 16. Dec 05, 22:35
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by xtra » Tue, 11. Dec 18, 00:45

I have all mods in Documents, except the sectorsatellites. Sectorsatellites does not work in Documents.
Working with Win10. But i have steam in C:\Games so the x4 path is C:\Games\Steam_common\X4 Foundations
ALLE X Spiele und alle Bücher!

tigar
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon, 9. Jan 12, 11:43
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by tigar » Tue, 11. Dec 18, 12:15

ledhead900 wrote:
Sat, 8. Dec 18, 02:27
Did not even know there was an extension in the docs folder I have not bothered to look and simply put the extension folder in the steamapps. I honestly don't know why anyone would put it in the docs folder given the fact that the modding documentation explicitly says to create the extension folder inside the ROOT of X4 Foundations "X4 Foundations/extentsions/your_new_mod" It stands to reason that this method should work for anyone and any location of the game be DRM free GOG or Steam, or anywhere else.

Only time this might change is when Workshop fires up and depending on IF it chooses to use the workshop/content folders with Steams well known by now content ID system, then this may change just for steam users but as I wrote in another thread it does not change the contents so should be transferable between the ROOT and or the Content ID system no problem and manually re-located if you want to keep it but unsub from the mod on workshop.

Also like others are saying Mlink the shit out things if they are not, there is a Unix way to do similar, If that is a problem for you I can probably re-write a part of my (Starbound Workshop Easy Linker) which does exactly this since the Dedicated Server for that game does not detect Workshop Subs from the Clients or anything like that I made a batch script to go and link everything into the servers mods dir, but really it works with anything just have to change what file types it looks for and the dir's it looks at to make this work here, but I don't see a need right now to do so, I guess if this gets requested enough I might.
See that was my thought as well that the documentation calls for the root folder but for me(windows 10) i have to have them in both basically documents to get them to show up root folder for some of them to work(extra content mods basically) it just seems weird but hey 1 link later and it works fine for now but i do hope they fix it so that we can use the root folder for everything

Misunderstood Wookie
Posts: 377
Joined: Mon, 15. Mar 04, 08:07
x4

Re: An observation with extensions(for those who have to put mods in documents)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie » Tue, 11. Dec 18, 12:51

tigar wrote:
Tue, 11. Dec 18, 12:15
ledhead900 wrote:
Sat, 8. Dec 18, 02:27
Did not even know there was an extension in the docs folder I have not bothered to look and simply put the extension folder in the steamapps. I honestly don't know why anyone would put it in the docs folder given the fact that the modding documentation explicitly says to create the extension folder inside the ROOT of X4 Foundations "X4 Foundations/extentsions/your_new_mod" It stands to reason that this method should work for anyone and any location of the game be DRM free GOG or Steam, or anywhere else.

Only time this might change is when Workshop fires up and depending on IF it chooses to use the workshop/content folders with Steams well known by now content ID system, then this may change just for steam users but as I wrote in another thread it does not change the contents so should be transferable between the ROOT and or the Content ID system no problem and manually re-located if you want to keep it but unsub from the mod on workshop.

Also like others are saying Mlink the shit out things if they are not, there is a Unix way to do similar, If that is a problem for you I can probably re-write a part of my (Starbound Workshop Easy Linker) which does exactly this since the Dedicated Server for that game does not detect Workshop Subs from the Clients or anything like that I made a batch script to go and link everything into the servers mods dir, but really it works with anything just have to change what file types it looks for and the dir's it looks at to make this work here, but I don't see a need right now to do so, I guess if this gets requested enough I might.
See that was my thought as well that the documentation calls for the root folder but for me(windows 10) i have to have them in both basically documents to get them to show up root folder for some of them to work(extra content mods basically) it just seems weird but hey 1 link later and it works fine for now but i do hope they fix it so that we can use the root folder for everything

Steam users appear to have found the solution for this whole issue you face, where some mods work in root others in docs. It appears for some systems there is a problem reading loose files for non script file assets depending on the location they are put into.

The fix is to use the X:Rebirth CAT extractor tool (same tool all is modders are using atm to dump the X4 cat files into loose files and instead take said mod which isn't working in root dir extension folder and pack that back into a package (.cat) as that is a native format for rebirth and its the same format in X4 then mods which use music etc work outside the docs folder.

To be clear you only need to pack the actual content of the mod not the mods description file. For an example of this one need only peruse the X4 legacy music mod on nexus this is packed into the same data format the game uses and the process is simple enough you just select the folders you want to be in the data pack and then hit the okay button basically create it in the chosen dir.

It appears so far this fixed the issue for those effected by the mods not showing up in the game if they are placed outside the docs folder. Hope that helps.
*modified*
*X3 LiteCube User*
MOD GemFX Real Space Shaders
MOD Variety and Rebalance Overhaul Icon Pack
I lost my Hans and should not be flying Solo.
Image

Post Reply

Return to “X4: Foundations - Scripts and Modding”