Edit game files without reload game?

[skwasjer]

Uhm, has anybody noticed you can edit at least some of the .dat (etc) files without needing to reload the game? I just played around with the Porpoise and I was only required to exit mission and start new mission but I never exited the game... I thought this wasn't possible? :doh:

Now this may not work for all files, but I was a bit amazed nonetheless as I always thought the files were locked, and/or loaded once... WTF?

[edit] Come to think this may be a fundamental change since patch 1.4. The devs made the game load faster, so I guess they removed (pre)loading and locking of most files only until they are really needed. Good stuff, and can seriously speed up mod testing :)

[sergbuto]

No, it is not a fundamental change since patch 1.4. It was always the case even in SH3. It is relatively easy to investigate in detail what files are loaded upon starting the game (like library and roster files) or files loaded only upon starting a mission/campaign.

[skwasjer]

Ok cool, I really didn't know that, but hey, I haven't modded a single file or even started the game since game launch only until one and a half week ago :smug:

[Seeadler]

With ProcessMonitor one can see all accesses to disk files, registry and processes
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessMonitor.zip

- run ProcessMonitor
- execute SH4
- load a mission
- exit SH4
- and then set filter in ProcessMonitor to sh4.exe

[skwasjer]

Sure, I know how to do this. I ment I didn't know about the game not locking/preloading (I guess I've been giving this idea by reading many posts in the past where people complain about reloading the game each time to test a mod).