JSGME (Jonesoft Generic Mod Enabler)

[Rockin Robbins]

And in tribute to the quality of Mr Jones' work, I just used JSGME to load up Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate 0.40 Public Beta, a giant 3.6 gigabyte mod. It loaded and ran flawlessly. Mr Jones never dreamed that his handiwork would be used to load up a mod that large.

In part due to insecurity about how JSGME would work with such a huge mod, GWX used an installer to mount the mod, giving up some considerable advantages of using JSGME, like using or not using the mod at will. GWX gold is only 1.33 gigabytes, according to the Grey Wolves' website. JSGME could have handled it!

Not only that but the Silent Hunter series is far from the only use for JSGME. It can be used to patch just about any game out there! Many, many modding communities know nothing about JSGME and would be incredibly enhanced if they used it.

Salute, Mr Jones! I'm sorry we didn't value you until you were gone from the community that you made possible.

[Jimbuna]

Oh Jaesen is still about elsewhere....I'll send him this pearl of positivity

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

And in tribute to the quality of Mr Jones' work, I just used JSGME to load up Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate 0.40 Public Beta, a giant 3.6 gigabyte mod. It loaded and ran flawlessly. Mr Jones never dreamed that his handiwork would be used to load up a mod that large.

In part due to insecurity about how JSGME would work with such a huge mod, GWX used an installer to mount the mod, giving up some considerable advantages of using JSGME, like using or not using the mod at will. GWX gold is only 1.33 gigabytes, according to the Grey Wolves' website. JSGME could have handled it!

Not only that but the Silent Hunter series is far from the only use for JSGME. It can be used to patch just about any game out there! Many, many modding communities know nothing about JSGME and would be incredibly enhanced if they used it.

Salute, Mr Jones! I'm sorry we didn't value you until you were gone from the community that you made possible.

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Oh Jaesen is still about elsewhere....I'll send him this pearl of positivity

Jaesen has asked me to pass on the following reply.

"Please pass on my thanks and appreciation."

[Rockin Robbins]

Salute to him!

Now I've been playing with JSGME lately to figure out some inconsistencies. And I've entered....the twilight zone. Of course we expect weirdness in a mod as large as Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, and we get it. One of our team members innocently suggested I try it on GFO, a small supermod.

So here was the procedure:

• delete everything out of my SH4GFO directory
• copy everything from my SH4Pristeen directory to SH4GFO to ensure I have all stock files
• write enable everything. Run MultiSH4 and Large Address Aware, then JSGME
• do a snapshot of game files
• install GFO mod only
• uninstall GFO mod
• compare files

I came up with all files matching original files. Cool! Let's do it again.

• install GFO
• uninstall GFO
• comare files

Either 7 or 9 different files! I'll post the video and you can see for yourself. That will have to be tomorrow. I'm living in the Twilight Zone! A program should execute exactly the same twice in a row, isn't that a reasonable expectation?

Please wait until I post the video just in case there's a stupid human trick in there that explains it, but if we find no error in the test procedure I'd like others to test and see what they get.

[Rockin Robbins]

Just to get the first video up as quickly as possible. Disclaimers: this is the first test with something other than FOTRSU. I used GFO because I understand it and it is the smallest of SH4 supermods. I surely have not eliminated all possible variables here: it's a first test. More will follow.

But what happens here is quite extraordinary. It's not a Windows problem because I don't run Windows. It could be a memory availability problem and I'll be eliminating that variable next. I'd say the likelihood is very low that it's a memory problem but until I eliminate that as a factor we have to consider the possibility.

It's pretty scary. The music (?) is too loud. Yada yada. But the results of this straightforward test are extraordinary. Here's what happens:

• I enter my SH4GFO installation, delete all game files and transfer a new copy from SH4Pristeen. These are now certified original game files
• I write enable everything after stupidly stabbing the cancel button by mistake and being unable to execute MultiSH4.
• I run MultiSH4 to make SH4 save settings and saved games in the \documents\GFO folder
• I run Large Address Aware to make \ubisoft\SH4GFO\sh4.exe use more than 2 GB of memory
• I start up JSGME and save a snapshot. Then I quickly do a compare of the files against the snapshot to show that says no changes......because.......we know no changes were made. That validates JSGME's save snapshot and compare snapshot functions
• I install GFO, then immediately uninstall it without passing GO or collecting $200 (or playing the game).
• I do another file compare. Tada!!!!! They're identical and JSGME has restored the original game Yay!
• Let's go for seconds: I install and uninstall GFO again, just as I did the first time, without passing GO.
• File comare results: 7 files different from stock. Go figure.

Please see if you can spot any errors in the test procedure. And I welcome suggestions on how this test could be altered or other tests made to help understand what happens here.

[propbeanie]

I've been wondering about maybe copying the JSGME files after the snapshot is taken of Stock, and moving them "off-site" out of the directory, so that the JSGME executable can't see the original copies, then do a file compare utility on the copy and the actual JSGME files after the 2nd round?... Does JSGME need to be LAA'd?... You follow? Do a compare of the compare yourself, if it's even possible.

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Let's go for seconds: I install and uninstall GFO again, just as I did the first time, without passing GO.
File comare results: 7 files different from stock. Go figure.

What are the 7 files that are different?

If JSGME had been developed longer, a needed improvement would have been to allow you to go directly to the "changed" file (NEW; DIFFERENT; REMOVED) to see them in a list, without needing to scroll through the 20,000 plus files that Silent Hunter has.

Other than that tweak. JSGME is an excellent program that has improved our modding community as much as S3D has.

Thank you Jaesen!