[PROGRAM] X Plugin Manager : V1.87 : 2024-01-06

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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giva007
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Post by giva007 » Thu, 12. Oct 17, 15:51

Hello cycrow, is there any other way to load .spk files without using this plugin manager? because your plugin requires Net framework 3.5 to work and unfortunately, my PC couldnt install NET framework 3.5 for some reason.

Thanks
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Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Thu, 12. Oct 17, 17:15

You can extract and install them manually as long as they don't use any of the plugin manner features, like custom wares

Without .Net the spkexplorer won't work either. But you could use the command line tools, spktool and spkinstall

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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Sun, 5. Nov 17, 16:23

tools\spkconvert.exe doesn't work for me, I get some side by side conflict, tried on different machines with different OS.
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Fri, 10. Nov 17, 10:41

is it just spkconvert, or is it also the others that dont work ?

spkconvert isn't really needed anymore, its used to convert from the original spk format, which was in use for X3Reunion.

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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Fri, 10. Nov 17, 20:00

which is exactly what I want to do, extracting an old x3R mod.
But the X3R-version of PM seams to be down.
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Sat, 11. Nov 17, 20:29

is it a really old X3R mod ?

i take it the other tools cant open the file ?
you could try opening it in the creator, that can read and convert the old format as well.

most X3R files are in the newer format, its only the really early ones that arn't

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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Sat, 11. Nov 17, 22:59

yes it is, here the link
http://www.grax.org/X3/ExtendedComplexH ... 6.2006.spk

yes they can't, but the creator works, sadly the stupid author forgot to pack the .dat file so the mod is still useless, but thanks for the help.
At least I learned something really usefull about the PM and its tools so it wastn't a waste of time.
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Mon, 20. Nov 17, 16:19

The file sizes of the spk and the exported archive don't fit, I fear the Creator is withholding the dat file instead of it being missing.
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Thu, 23. Nov 17, 12:05

do you mean you think the dat file is in there, just not being extracted ?

how different are the file sizes, spk files do add additional information that can increase the file size abit, although no more than a few k.

Its possible that the conversion process simply lost the files.

if i get chance to, ill check out the file

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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Thu, 21. Dec 17, 11:45

sorry for answering that late, I was busy.
Yes that I mean.
I already linked the file above.
The mod contains a 3dmodelfile so the shrinking of the file size was quite big.
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

Xcentric
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Plugin Manager Problem

Post by Xcentric » Fri, 19. Jan 18, 15:30

Hi;
I returned to Albion Prelude via Steam.
After changing my name in "Thereshallbewings" I correctly got access to the script editor.
My game is modified, but Plugin Manager refuses to install Cycrow's Package, telling me my game is "vanilla", which isn't true. Can anybody help, please?
Thanks in advance.
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X2-Illuminatus
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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Fri, 19. Jan 18, 15:50

You have to set the Plugin Manager itself to Modified mode. You can do that from the Settings -> Mode menu. See the opening post for reference.


**merged with PM topic**
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who_needs_saves
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Post by who_needs_saves » Sun, 4. Mar 18, 21:13

Add me to the apparently-long list of people this shoddy software has ruined the game for. Yes, it just deleted my save games after saying it had "backed them up". On my first use of it no less.

Cycrow - Allow me to introduce you to the single most basic tenet of software development - NEVER DELETE THE USER'S DATA unless they EXPLICITLY ask you to. It's that simple.

There are none of the professed backups anywhere on my PC unless the PM has renamed them too rather than just "moved" them. Unfortunately I'm on an SSD so standard file-recovery software won't work either.

Given how often this happens I must ask that the first post which has the download links also has a VERY LARGE message warning the user to backup their saves before installating this thing. That or fix the software, but that seems unlikely.

Seeing the sheer number of people who have complained about this in this thread, at this point frankly EgoSoft are practically culpable in the deletions for not warning the users first to make a backup.[/b]

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Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 4. Mar 18, 22:08

Sorry but Egosoft cannot be responsible for the robustness of 3rd party mods and tools, even those where they once acknowledged their history of prior quality by including them in a clearly-labelled bonus disk folder marked 3rd party tools, mods and scripts.

This is even assuming that the mod/tool is in fact responsible for irrecoverable loss of saves and it is not just a misunderstanding of the instructions, compatibilities, lack of folder write permissions, or is a direct result of unanticipated evolution of Operating System responses to commands that used to work before.

Generally speaking, backing up saves, profiles and screenshots, etc is always sensible before applying any 3rd party game modifications or tools.

EDIT: More on this topic here.
Last edited by Alan Phipps on Sun, 4. Mar 18, 22:30, edited 1 time in total.
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ubuntufreakdragon
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Post by ubuntufreakdragon » Sun, 4. Mar 18, 22:27

If you are lucky they are just moved to a folder X can't find.
@Cycrow any success with my problem?
My X3 Mods

XRebirth, things left to patch:
In General; On Firing NPC's; In De Vries; Out Of Zone; And the Antiwishlist

who_needs_saves
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Post by who_needs_saves » Mon, 5. Mar 18, 13:09

Alan Phipps wrote:Sorry but Egosoft cannot be responsible for the robustness of 3rd party mods and tools, even those where they once acknowledged their history of prior quality by including them in a clearly-labelled bonus disk folder marked 3rd party tools, mods and scripts.

This is even assuming that the mod/tool is in fact responsible for irrecoverable loss of saves and it is not just a misunderstanding of the instructions, compatibilities, lack of folder write permissions, or is a direct result of unanticipated evolution of Operating System responses to commands that used to work before.

Generally speaking, backing up saves, profiles and screenshots, etc is always sensible before applying any 3rd party game modifications or tools.

EDIT: More on this topic here.
Yes yes, there's a EULA somewhere that says EGOSoft aren't legally responsible for anything whatsoever, standard CYA legalise.

But morally they are responsible because this is known, long-term thing that has affected countless people yet is still the top Sticky on their modding forums. This is a mod that EXPLICITLY goes out of its way to DELETE save games, and that's AFTER claiming to back them up.
It has a KNOWN BUG in it that causes it. There are countless posts in this thread and on Steam/Reddit to this effect.
At this point the fact that there's no big warning on the first post saying this means that EgoSoft or at the very least the forum moderators are complicit in this.

As a software developer myself I have long ago learnt the lesson that if you have to rely on your users to make the right decision, you have failed as a software developer.

Thanks for the link but it doesn't help - the files have simply been deleted - I have searched my entire drive for *.sav files and there are none that aren't for other games. PM simply deleted them. This is a bug, and one that has hit many people, not just me. The correct action is to either fix the bug (not going to happen, I know), or WARN USERS EXPLICITLY on the forum post.

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Mon, 5. Mar 18, 13:38

who_needs_saves wrote:Add me to the apparently-long list of people this shoddy software has ruined the game for. Yes, it just deleted my save games after saying it had "backed them up". On my first use of it no less.

Cycrow - Allow me to introduce you to the single most basic tenet of software development - NEVER DELETE THE USER'S DATA unless they EXPLICITLY ask you to. It's that simple.

There are none of the professed backups anywhere on my PC unless the PM has renamed them too rather than just "moved" them. Unfortunately I'm on an SSD so standard file-recovery software won't work either.

Given how often this happens I must ask that the first post which has the download links also has a VERY LARGE message warning the user to backup their saves before installating this thing. That or fix the software, but that seems unlikely.

Seeing the sheer number of people who have complained about this in this thread, at this point frankly EgoSoft are practically culpable in the deletions for not warning the users first to make a backup.[/b]
You could of cause, not enable the save game manager, which is disabled by default.
Then it wouldn't even do anything with save games.

the main issue is that windows often diverts the files into its virtual store, which the software doesn't know about. and they end up getting lost

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Whismerhill
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Post by Whismerhill » Wed, 21. Mar 18, 00:45

so I thought it was a shame that all mods out there advise to handle your mods without the X-universe plugin manager with fake patches

when you can do the same in it :

PREPARATION :
-1 after downloading your target mods
-2 inspect the content of archives
-3 OPTIONAL, if they contain no .cat & .dat file put them in a separate folder (for organization purposes)
-4 if they contain .cat & .dat file, rename the files INSIDE the archive to for example 05.cat & 05.dat. the number doesn't actually matter
-5 now start X-Universe Plugin Manager ADVANCED (at this point I'd just delete the Lite shortcut)
-6 now install archive & select each of them http://prntscr.com/iu1rm7

-7 and finally control their order in http://prntscr.com/iu1sic

and it'll look something like this : (depending on mods)

http://prntscr.com/iu1nfe

sidenote:
if an archive is in "7z" / 7zip format, you will need to repackage it in .zip format, the X-Universe Plugin manager doesn't handle 7z AFAIK

Ethanatorza7
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Post by Ethanatorza7 » Tue, 27. Mar 18, 03:23

Does this not work with the steam version i have tried everything but when i try to launch it it says "ERROR! cannot write to Info.plist, there are permission problems, or you are on a read-only volume.

This cannot run from within a read-only dmg file." and then it closes the program. if nyone can help with this please do so as i really want to use advanced jumpdrive
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Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Tue, 27. Mar 18, 10:47

i assume you are running on a Mac?
it does work on the steam version, but its a windows application, so its more difficult to get working on a Mac.

Try here, https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=308395

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