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Originally Posted by Tikigod
BUILT-IN TEXT COMPARE TOOL
1) Maybe a built in text file compare tool? for comparing differences in two cfg files etc. I use your mod manager for many games and a text compare tool could be used alot in modding other games as well.
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Actually I noticed I hadn't responded to your comments and was going to do so yesterday, but I saw jimimadrid's new text editor thread, and thought that I'd wait and let that get exposure first.
Anyway, as you may know, SH3Cmdr has been doing file mergings for quite a while, so my revelation a few weeks ago (from when it was last mentioned) was to lift and shift the function across to JSGME (it's a self contained function, no changes necessary) after I rewrote JSGME's engine (which I've now done and testing has been nothing but positive). That means that nearly every SH3 and SH4 file would be "merge capable" (binary and text), I'd just then need to expand it to include XML files and the like (to keep the "Generic" in the name
).
Basically, if you're familiar with SH3Cmdr's Static/Randomised Settings feature, you've got a good idea about how it would work.
The big challenge is making it user friendly and presenting it in a way that doesn't turn off players that just want to "install and run". And in doing so balancing it with accuracy. I mean, changing the deck gun rate would be sweet, but if mod A changes six elements of stock SH4's menu.ini file and mod B changes two elements of the same file, is there a guarantee that all will be sweet? Ultimately, there would still need to be some manual intervention if things go wrong and I don't want to give users heart attacks by showing them menu.ini file contents!
At least there's no immediate hurry now - while I work it out, give jimimadrid's tool a spin.
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Originally Posted by Tikigod
BUILT-IN NEW MOD EMPTY FOLDER/DIRECTORY TREE CREATOR
2) Also, I like to make my own custom mods on the fly. I would like some sort of tool to duplicate an entire directory stucture. Basically I select the last child folder that contains my files I want to change then your program will duplicate the child and all its parent folders and place copies of the structure into the MODs folder. This will allow me to just throw in the modded files into the empty folders your program created.
Example: I have 3 texture files that are for a new mod. I want them to go into d:\program files\ubijunk\sh12\Data\Textures (jsgme.exe is located in sh12)....Instead of creating all my own folders to make up the mod....I'd would press a button called "Create Mod" ...it would open a window that allows me to make a name for my initial mod folder. I then press "Add Folder" and select the bottom most folder of the game and then it would copy and create all the parent folders plus the folder I selected into the MODS folder where the jsgme.exe resides. If I want to add more folders to the mod I just press "Add folder" again if not I press "Finalize Mod Tree" to create all the empty folder structures. Then I just have to drop the files into that last folder to make my mod. (Rather than making folder after folder manually.)
In some games the directory trees get pretty long and extensive with the more changes you make for a mod. Having a built-in tool in JSGME to copy and create empty directory trees in MODS folder would save alot of time in making new experimental mods or tweaks. Especially when testing 3-4 versions.
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Good idea - maybe not v2.0, but certainly a consideration for v2.1.
As an aside, in addition to other new features I've posted, v2.0 players will be able to rename mod folders from within JSGME. I didn't think it would be that big an enhancement, but I find it most helpful.