New JSGME v1.6.1 RELEASED

[JScones]

I've finally gotten around to updating JSGME. I started a while ago, but then got sidetracked with GWX and RL. But I've re-focussed now.

So far I've added the ability to remove files from the game.

This means that instead of fudging file removal with zero-byte text files (eg to replace the intro movies), modders can add "placeholder" files with the suffix "-remove" and the game files will be backed up (as usual) and then removed from the game altogether.

Apart from the intro movies (where text files called "Intro.wmv-remove" and "Logo.wmv-remove" would work), other examples of usage include the removal of tex\tga files when a mod is released that has the files repacked into the dats; the removal of the non-swastika tex\tga files when released as part of a larger "Swastika" mod; the removal of skins where they are no longer needed; the removal of superfluous or erroneous Roster entries (eg when releasing replacement units); the removal of files that may conflict with your mod, and so on.

Disabling the mod returns the original files.

I've also toyed with extending this feature to include removing whole folders, but at this point the recursiveness aspect may make it a tad bit too complicated for users - I'd like to keep JSGME as easy to use as possible. Determining whether to remove whole folders and all, some, or no sub-folders I think adds too much complexity (despite being relatively easy to code) and may even undermine the "Generic" part of the name.

I have a few people playing with a beta now, but before I release it I thought I'd ask again if anyone had any other ideas that may improve JSGME. If so, pls post here.

If you're a member of other forums that use JSGME, pls extend this offer to them too.

[Alex]

Thanks for working on improving this tool, Jaesen. :up:
You rule ! :rock:

[dcb]

Thank you, JScones, for your efforts. Without JSGME modding the game would be much, much more difficult. It is a great tool, indeed.

[Meridian]

Do you think you could put back the function of being able to right click on a mod in the right side pane to open a file in the documents folder?

Also, is it possible to go back to the old way of being able to open the Doc files directly from JSGME rather than having it open another explorer window.

I'm still using 1.4.1.50 BTW.

Thanks.

[DivingDuck]

Moin,

this is pretty good news. I especially like the "-remove" feature. And I´d like to encourage you to implement this feature for folders too. But I´d limit it to folders that have been created by the respective mods and only if there haven´t been any changes made after enableing, such as updating. Just to prevent from deleting folders that might be still needed. How about a checker box to choose whether to delete the empty folder(s) or not? Since new units leave empty folders after beeing disabled this would make sense to me.

Regards,
DD

[JScones]

Moin,

this is pretty good news. I especially like the "-remove" feature. And I´d like to encourage you to implement this feature for folders too. But I´d limit it to folders that have been created by the respective mods and only if there haven´t been any changes made after enableing, such as updating. Just to prevent from deleting folders that might be still needed. How about a checker box to choose whether to delete the empty folder(s) or not? Since new units leave empty folders after beeing disabled this would make sense to me.

Regards,
DD
Thanks for reminding me - this is something that I was thinking about a few months ago, but forgot. This can be done without any user intervention. All JSGME needs to do is track the new folders that it adds in much the same way that it tracks the new files.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Thanks for your work on this.

RDP

[KrvKpt. Falke]

I think it is good idea if users of JSGME could select "MODS" folder location as it sometimes uses a lot of space (my own SH3 GWX installation can use up to 7GB of disc space: you put a lot of mods there and additionaly JSGME is creating a backup of original files so it doubles the disc space occupied by SH3). For example i would like to move this folder to partition D (SH3 is on "C:/") cause i have a lot of free space there. Also by moving it to other partition i could put there all mods i own - that way they would be easier to manage and so on...

JScones - if im asking too much just tell me and i will shut up ;)

[JScones]

I think it is good idea if users of JSGME could select "MODS" folder location as it sometimes uses a lot of space (my own SH3 GWX installation can use up to 7GB of disc space: you put a lot of mods there and additionaly JSGME is creating a backup of original files so it doubles the disc space occupied by SH3). For example i would like to move this folder to partition D (SH3 is on "C:/") cause i have a lot of free space there. Also by moving it to other partition i could put there all mods i own - that way they would be easier to manage and so on...

JScones - if im asking too much just tell me and i will shut up ;)
You're not asking too much. I've actually had a "v2.0" prototype for over a year which does just this. You install it once, wherever you like, and plug in the locations of all your moddable games. When you run JSGME, you simply select the game that you want to tinker with and go from there. So in your instance you'd install JSGME to your D drive and all your backups would be created on the same drive.

No more need to have multiple copies of JSGME in every game's root folder.

I guess once I've fully polished the current JSGME, I'll continue working on v2.0.

[Freakwave]

Your mod tool is truelly exellent :up: . I use it for for other games than SH3 aswell such as Hearts of Iron 2 et al. Dont know if that rings a bell. This tool saves up alot of disk space i can tell you that :) Good to hear it is still being worked on.

[JScones]

Oh, btw, I welcome more translations if anyone is interested. So far I have Spanish, French, German, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Greek, Catalan and Galician.

[JScones]

OK, by popular demand, the right click context menu has been reinstated. You'll be able to (again) view documentation by right clicking a mod.

Other new features coming...
- Added ability to remove game files via new "-remove" switch
- Now deletes new folders added by mods, if empty, when disabling
- Returned ability to read mod documention by selecting a mod and right clicking
- Right clicking an available mod nows provides option to explore in Windows Explorer
- Removed ability to open available mod folder(s) in Windows Explorer by double clicking or selecting and pressing "Enter" (replaced by above new feature)
- Pressing F1 on main screen now brings up help screen
- Minor code enhancements

That'll be pretty much it I think. I'll release it sometime during the next week or so (when I get the translations back).

[Reece]

Hi Jaesen, sounds great (as usual), just wondered if it were possable to replace a "whole folder" rather than just files within a folder?:D
Cheers.

[nikbear]

Brilliant JScones,JSGME is a lifesaver for people like me:up:

[Paajtor]

Great improvements...very much appreaciated! :()1:

[CapZap1970]

Great!!!! Let's hope to have it available soon.
CapZap

[azn_132]

Oh, btw, I welcome more translations if anyone is interested. So far I have Spanish, French, German, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Greek, Catalan and Galician.

Will Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai translations can be on for the mod enabler?

[JScones]

Oh, btw, I welcome more translations if anyone is interested. So far I have Spanish, French, German, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Greek, Catalan and Galician.

Will Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai translations can be on for the mod enabler?
If someone translates, then yes.

JSGME supports multibyte character sets. :yep:

[Webster]

Hi Jaesen, sounds great (as usual), just wondered if it were possable to replace a "whole folder" rather than just files within a folder?:D
Cheers.


yes. i second this request.

please can this be done?


i noticed some mods when pasted over will blend the text together causing the values to change but not be the values as the mod intended to be.

[Tikigod]

#1 There is a cool feature I have seen with the Oblivion Mod Manager Tool (its alot like yours but, more complicated and custom made only for Oblivion)

The color coding feature for mods that illustrates ahead of time what mods are compatible and which ones may conflict before you even try to install a mod. This allows me to quickly glance over what all is installed and what I just added to mod folder to see what I can use and not use. The program scans each time you start or close the program so I think it is then when it updates the color scheme.

The program is located here http://timeslip.chorrol.com/obmm_download.html (if you would like to check out the features) But, like I said it only works with Elder Scroll's IV Oblivion

A screenshot of the right panel showing all Mods in Mod directory:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Tikigod78/OblivionMods1.jpg (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Tikigod78/OblivionMods1.jpg)

Green is what is in my mod folder (that isn't active and can be enabled without conflicts with what is installed)
Blue is what mod is enabled or installed (that I am currently using in game)
Red is mods that may have major conflicts with what is blue (this lets me know what mods in folder may conflict with what is installed)
Yellow/Orange is mods in folder that arent enabled that may have minor conflicts with what is installed.


#2 I would also like to see the ability to rename mod folders that are disabled in JSGME rather than exiting out of the application and having to come back in. Alot of times I am renaming folders when arranging my mod collections and I have to keep exitting just to rename a bunch of directories. It isn't a big deal...but, its just more ideas of improvements since you are demanding we give you more ideas. I think we are running out.

[JScones]

#1 There is a cool feature I have seen with the Oblivion Mod Manager Tool (its alot like yours but, more complicated and custom made only for Oblivion)

The color coding feature for mods that illustrates ahead of time what mods are compatible and which ones may conflict before you even try to install a mod. This allows me to quickly glance over what all is installed and what I just added to mod folder to see what I can use and not use. The program scans each time you start or close the program so I think it is then when it updates the color scheme.
From the obmm FAQ:
Why is obmm so slow?
As you add more and more omods to your collection, obmm can become unbearable slow. On an average machine and with all of obmm's optional bits turned on, performance is generally acceptable up to around 100 omods, but after that you might want to tweak obmm's settings to speed it back up a bit. Turning off automatic conflict updating will speed up omod activation/deactivation. Turning off automatic archiveinvalidation will massively decrease obmm's shutdown time, but remember to update it manually when activating/deactivating texture replacing mods. Turning off 'update unparented esp headers' will speed up the startup time a little. For a much bigger decrease in startup time, you can put obmm into its unsafe mode. (When in this mode, never alter anything in the obmm or data directories by hand.) Finally, to speed up startup time and general responsivness, you can 'hide' omods which you don't intend to access in the near future to stop obmm from processing them. In its fully stripped mode, obmm can happily cope with many hundreds of omods.
This is why this isn't an option for me. The performance hit involved in checking every uninstalled mod file against every installed mod file to provide, ironically, a "quick" indication of conflict, would IMHO make this a somewhat meaningless exercise.

TBH I like the simplicity of JSGME.

#2 I would also like to see the ability to rename mod folders that are disabled in JSGME rather than exiting out of the application and having to come back in. Alot of times I am renaming folders when arranging my mod collections and I have to keep exitting just to rename a bunch of directories. It isn't a big deal...but, its just more ideas of improvements since you are demanding we give you more ideas. I think we are running out.
You don't need to exit JSGME. You can make your changes in Windows Explorer and then press F5 in JSGME (v1.5+) to refresh the list.

I may look this weekend into whether it's easy to build renaming mods into JSGME. To do so will require a re-write using different controls.

[Bane]

I use a program similar to JSGME for another game I play, X3: Reunion. The program is called the Plugin Manager and can be found here (http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=121351).

People that make mods for X3 pack their work into *.spk files which I believe are just zip files renamed to have the .spk extension. This allows the end user to just download the *.spk file into a folder and activate it with the Plugin Manager, that's it. No need for the end user to save to a temp location, unzip, check for unnecessary folders created by unzipping, move the unzipped contents to the MODS folder and then finally activate.

Granted, either method is very easy in my opinion. Some people don't use JSGME though because they believe it to be too confusing. Using this custom zip file, if indeed that's what *.spk files are, would eliminate some of the steps that keep some people from using mods and have the bonus of making it easier on everyone in general (except you as the programmer I assume).

Another feature I like is the ability to select a default mod location. This wouldn't do much good if you don't implement the custom zip files above, but if you do please consider this default mod location ability as well.

Thanks for taking suggestions.

Edit: there is a companion packager program as well, which I just noticed, so maybe the *.spk files aren't just renamed zips. It's worth a look either way though I imagine!

[danurve]

This is probably a long shot but;
I made the Additional time-line Radio Messages as a text mod, to amend the messages(_en) file. Instructions are to copy the lines into the file thus adding aboout 475 lines not replacing others. I would like to re-do it to be JSGME compatable. But if I did that the install would overwrite the players existing text lines. Is there any switch or a way to tell JSGME to amend a text file instead of overiding it?

I thought about doing this with a batch file but - ehh.

[Onkel Neal]

Great work :up:

[JScones]

Released...

D/l via my website or via JSGME's "Updates" feature.

Pls disable ALL mods before installing this update. Also bear in mind that new game folders created through previous versions of JSGME will NOT be removed by the new version of JSGME.

[poor sailor]

Thanks, downloading now!:up:

[nikbear]

Thanks for that JS,downloaded and installed:up:

[CapZap1970]

Thanks a lot JS.
Downloaded and installed.
CapZap

[Wilko]

Thank you for a wonderful tool, your efforts a greatly appreciated :yep:

[SquareSteelBar]

Released...

D/l via my website or via JSGME's "Updates" feature.
Many THX for this new release. :up:
I nearly failed to notice it because I haven't been online since some days. What a catastrophe that would have been... http://img116.exs.cx/img116/6469/g5cgrin.gif

SSB

[JScones]

Released...

D/l via my website or via JSGME's "Updates" feature.
Many THX for this new release. :up:
I nearly failed to notice it because I haven't been online since some days. What a catastrophe that would have been... http://img116.exs.cx/img116/6469/g5cgrin.gif

SSB
Yes, perhaps the mods can rename both threads (ie this one and the one in SH4 Workshop) to "New JSGME v1.6 released" or similar. Either that or I can start a new thread, which now seems the norm. ;)

[Ping Jockey]

Thanks for your work on this as always:up: :up:

[Reece]

Thanks Jaesen!:up:

[SquareSteelBar]

Hi Jaesen,

I'm missing this little feature of former versions which shows the icons of the associated progs:

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/848/image1ti1.jpg

I know - it's not that important but I liked it.;)


SSB

[JScones]

Hi Jaesen,

I'm missing this little feature of former versions which shows the icons of the associated progs:

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/848/image1ti1.jpg

I know - it's not that important but I liked it.;)


SSB
Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

Actually I lost the code and was too lazy to re-write it. But it will only be noticed if someone points it out. ;)

[JScones]

Guys, I've uploaded v1.6.1. This minor update now correctly returns removed files where the game has recreated them after removal. More an issue for CFS3 or other games that recreate removed files.

SH3/SH4 users won't notice a difference between 1.6.0 and 1.6.1, but if you use JSGME with other games, I'd recommend getting it.

Simply install over your current 1.6.0. No need to disable any mods UNLESS you are running a version prior to 1.6.0.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

[JScones]

Thanks to FritzHeinz, a Netherlands JSGME language pack is now available via my website (Products page).

[MarkShot]

I have 5 installs of SH3.

Each install has its own JSGME ranging from version 1.4.1.50 to version 1.5.0.60. Can I upgrade to version 1.6.1 by simply installing to my existing MOD directories or will I need to rollback my SH3 Commander changes, backout my mods, create a clean MOD directory, repopulated the MOD directory with my mods, and then finally reapply my desired mods?

Thanks.

[JScones]

I have 5 installs of SH3.

Each install has its own JSGME ranging from version 1.4.1.50 to version 1.5.0.60. Can I upgrade to version 1.6.1 by simply installing to my existing MOD directories or will I need to rollback my SH3 Commander changes, backout my mods, create a clean MOD directory, repopulated the MOD directory with my mods, and then finally reapply my desired mods?

Thanks.
For each installation:

1. rollback SH3Cmdr
2. disable all mods
3. install latest JSGME
4. enable mods again

[Dutchtub]

Thanks to FritzHeinz, a Netherlands JSGME language pack is now available via my website (Products page).

Mijn hartelijke dank (dutch) :rock: :rock: :rock:

[JScones]

I have to ask - I've had a prototype v2 under development for about 18 months now (maybe longer). It works exactly the same, with the exception that you install it into *one* central location and enter the paths to your games via the JSGME interface.

So all your mods for all your games are stored centrally under one copy of JSGME. All you do is select the game you want to mod and JSGME will take care of the rest.

Is anyone interested in this approach, or is everyone happy with the current approach of one copy of JSGME per game?

[MarkShot]

Although as a systems person I can appreciate the logic and elegance of a single consolidated mod manager, from a file management perspective for my games, I prefer everything essential for game play to the greatest extent possible simply to reside under a single game directory tree.

[melnibonian]

I have to ask - I've had a prototype v2 under development for about 18 months now (maybe longer). It works exactly the same, with the exception that you install it into *one* central location and enter the paths to your games via the JSGME interface.

So all your mods for all your games are stored centrally under one copy of JSGME. All you do is select the game you want to mod and JSGME will take care of the rest.

Is anyone interested in this approach, or is everyone happy with the current approach of one copy of JSGME per game?
As I said in the SH4 forum I'm happy to try the "Centralised" JSGME approach. I think it's a very clever idea :yep: :up:

[Von Manteuffel]

I have to ask - I've had a prototype v2 under development for about 18 months now (maybe longer). It works exactly the same, with the exception that you install it into *one* central location and enter the paths to your games via the JSGME interface.

So all your mods for all your games are stored centrally under one copy of JSGME. All you do is select the game you want to mod and JSGME will take care of the rest.

Is anyone interested in this approach, or is everyone happy with the current approach of one copy of JSGME per game?
Hi, Jaesen. Brilliant and elegant as ever, but how would such a central "store" of mods differentiate between those which were compatible, or non-compatible for different super-mods ( e.g. GWX, GWX1.04, WAC, NYGM etc.)? :hmm:

I have 5 separate versions of SH3 installed - one standard/vanilla and the other 4 each with a different "super-mod" - plus SH4. Each has it's own separate installation of JSGME. There is some duplication of mods among the versions of SH3 which would make a central reservoir of mods the more efficient and smallest option ( in terms of disk space ) but there are also mods within each JSGME specific to that particular "super-mod" I have to say that I find JSGME so good and simple to use that this arrangement offers no inconvenience whatsoever; and mod files ( apart from super-mods and, perhaps, large sound/music files ) tend to be of a size which doesn't make a dent in the HD capacity of many modern systems.
That said, a hugely interesting concept, if it can be constructed to prevent players from installing non-compatible mods. But, of course, knowing the quality of your work you've probably included that already and selecting a game to be modded automatically brings up only a list of mods from the central "store" which are compatible with that particular game.

I'd be really interested to see this new version in action.

[CapZap1970]

It would be very nice to be able to manage all the mods from a central JSGME.
would make it much easier for people with more than 1 moddable game or multiple SH3 installations. :up:
CapZap

[bruschi sauro]

another well done job mate, tks :up:

[JScones]

For those interested there is a new release of JSGME - v1.6.2. This release:

- correctly disables/removes read-only files
- displays associated file icon in documentation context menu

I RECOMMEND getting this release as the first item is a FIX to a minor issue that has existed since the first JSGME release.

Just install over your current release. Disabling mods first is only required if you intend installing over JSGME v1.5.x or earlier.

[SquareSteelBar]

- displays associated file icon in documentation context menu Wow :up: