New GME software

At first I was sceptic to replace JSGME with OvGME Now I would never go back to JSGME. Thank you very much! :)

There is just one feature I'd like to report as RfC:

Detection of newer ZIP-Mods

Small example: I manage the Mods for my best friends. So from time to time I give them all Mods as ZIP archives. It would be great if OvGME can detect and mark newer ZIP files then the already enabled Mods. So my friends can just toggle those changed Mods instead of disable/enable all Mods. :smartass:

Detection of newer ZIP-Mods

Great idea, +1!

@sedenion

Hi, I did not try it yet but as far as I understand you are replacing mod files "physically" which means backup the old file and replace (copy) it with the modded file?

How about just moving the old file into a backup folder (which takes nearly 0 time) and then replacing it with a symbolic link to the modded file (which takes again about 0 time)?

I tried it some time ago and it worked fine. Should give the same results but there is no need to copy files which can take some time... hope you can understand my idea? :)

Best regards

Detection of newer ZIP-Mods

Small example: I manage the Mods for my best friends. So from time to time I give them all Mods as ZIP archives. It would be great if OvGME can detect and mark newer ZIP files then the already enabled Mods. So my friends can just toggle those changed Mods instead of disable/enable all Mods. :smartass:

I don't very well understand what you want here. You want mods who just being moved into the mods-stock folder to be tagged as "recently added" ? If yes, this is not a small feature, this requier a kind of database, and some rules to tell when a mod is no longger "recently added"... fuzzy concept in context.

@sedenion

Hi, I did not try it yet but as far as I understand you are replacing mod files "physically" which means backup the old file and replace (copy) it with the modded file?

How about just moving the old file into a backup folder (which takes nearly 0 time) and then replacing it with a symbolic link to the modded file (which takes again about 0 time)?

I tried it some time ago and it worked fine. Should give the same results but there is no need to copy files which can take some time... hope you can understand my idea? :)

Best regards

Yes, files are copied/replaced "physiqually". What you suggest is not a bad idea, however, you miss some details:

1) OvGME is now optimized for zipped mods, and zipped mods must be extracted (in memory), then files writen in the desired location: this mean "physical I/O write", impossible to "move" or "link" here.

2) You take benefits of "moving" only if source and destination folders are on the same hard drive/partition, if this is not the case, the system performs a physical copy/write even if you ask for a "move" (the system delete from one partition, and write to the other): most people enjoy OvGME because they can splits backups, mods and installations between several partitions...

maybe i can replace the "copy" command by a "move" command for backup, but in this case, i have to cleary studdy if there is no risk of "losing" data (i am not sure this is secure, i have to think about it)

I upgraded from 1.6.x to the latest 1.7.x. And I cant find the Mods->Profile->Apply, did you remove it?

I upgraded from 1.6 something to the latest 1.7 something. And I cant find the Mods->Profile->Apply, did you remove it?

Yes, profile feature was reworked, you now can create several profiles, you apply profile by selecting it in the list (menu)

Yes, files are copied/replaced "physiqually". What you suggest is not a bad idea, however, you miss some details:

1) OvGME is now optimized for zipped mods, and zipped mods must be extracted (in memory), then files writen in the desired location: this mean "physical I/O write", impossible to "move" or "link" here.

2) You take benefits of "moving" only if source and destination folders are on the same hard drive/partition, if this is not the case, the system performs a physical copy/write even if you ask for a "move" (the system delete from one partition, and write to the other): most people enjoy OvGME because they can splits backups, mods and installations between several partitions...

 

maybe i can replace the "copy" command by a "move" command for backup, but in this case, i have to cleary studdy if there is no risk of "losing" data (i am not sure this is secure, i have to think about it)

Hi, yes I am aware of the "zip optimization". However you could create a small cache for that so the "no time"-replacement kicks in when you just enable/disable the mod but not when "installing" it.

There should be no risk of losing data when moving files on the same partition because the actual data is not moved at all only the references in the filesystem are updated :)

Hi, yes I am aware of the "zip optimization". However you could create a small cache for that so the "no time"-replacement kicks in when you just enable/disable the mod but not when "installing" it.

There should be no risk of losing data when moving files on the same partition because the actual data is not moved at all only the references in the filesystem are updated :)

What do you mean by "cache", what kind of cache, how and where ?

The process is the folowing...

Enabling mod:

1 - analysing Zip-mod content & compare to game tree (almost no time)

2 - copy original game files to backup folder (take some time depending file size)

3 - extract zip data (in memory) and overwrite original game files (take some time depending file size)

disabling mod:

1 - analysing backup-data (almost no time)

2 - copy from backup to overwrite modded file (take some time depending file size)

3 - cleaning backup folder (almost no time)

I can only modify the backup process, by replacing a "copy" command by a "move" command, but i have to take care that this will not create some border effects. And in any manner, if the backup folder is in another partition than the game folder, the "move" command will copy (hard I/O transfer).

I don't very well understand what you want here. You want mods who just being moved into the mods-stock folder to be tagged as "recently added" ? If yes, this is not a small feature, this requier a kind of database, and some rules to tell when a mod is no longger "recently added"... fuzzy concept in context.

Well you somehow store which mods are enabled and which are not enabled. So I though you could also save there the LastWriteTime (aka Date Last Modified) of the ZIP file and when you are loading or reloading your mod list you can compare the Date Last Modified and show for example a yellow triangle instead of a green check mark...

What do you mean by "cache", what kind of cache, how and where ?

 

The process is the folowing...

Enabling mod:

1 - analysing Zip-mod content & compare to game tree (almost no time)

2 - copy original game files to backup folder (take some time depending file size)

3 - extract zip data (in memory) and overwrite original game files (take some time depending file size)

 

disabling mod:

1 - analysing backup-data (almost no time)

2 - copy from backup to overwrite modded file (take some time depending file size)

3 - cleaning backup folder (almost no time)

 

I can only modify the backup process, by replacing a "copy" command by a "move" command, but i have to take care that this will not create some border effects. And in any manner, if the backup folder is in another partition than the game folder, the "move" command will copy (hard I/O transfer).

I mean something like:

Step 1 and 2 like you said above (backup is of course slow when its on a second partition but no change to improve this I guess)

3 - Extract zip data to a folder which is not the game directory and keep it there. This is the "cache" which I mean.

Enable mod:

Create symlinks to modded data

Disable mod:

Create symlinks to original backup data

Not sure if this breaks the multiplayer integrity check but technically this should work fine.

Maybe you can "opt-in" this method so that you have a method (yours) which is slow but works 10/10 and the method I mention which is fast (instant) but might not work in MP (not tested)

I mean something like:

Step 1 and 2 like you said above (backup is of course slow when its on a second partition but no change to improve this I guess)

3 - Extract zip data to a folder which is not the game directory and keep it there. This is the "cache" which I mean.

 

Enable mod:

Create symlinks to modded data

There is no benefit to create symlinks in this case, since the uncompressed zip data is writen on the disk in all case.

Currently, this work this way:

1 - extract zip data in memory

2 - write data in the game folder

What you propose is this:

1 - extract zip data in memory

2 - write data in a X location

3 - create symlink of data into the game folder

In term of I/O operation, this is exactly the same, except you create symlink in addition, and you horribly complicate the process.

Disable mod:

Create symlinks to original backup data

Are you a banker or do you work in the international financial mafia ? :D If i do what you suggest, you never empty the OvGME backup folder, then, all the game data is "stolen" from its original folder to be kept in the OvGME backup folder... it is like sucking all game data to transfering them into the OvGME bakcup folder... Sorry, OvGME is not a Rothshild or Rockefeller software :D

Not sure if this breaks the multiplayer integrity check but technically this should work fine.

Maybe you can "opt-in" this method so that you have a method (yours) which is slow but works 10/10 and the method I mention which is fast (instant) but might not work in MP (not tested)

As i said, the only thing i can reasonably did, is to replace a "copy" command by a "move" command for bakcup data... so people who have backup folder and game folder in the same partition will see a performance gain in I/O process.

There is no benefit to create symlinks in this case, since the uncompressed zip data is writen on the disk in all case.

 

Currently, this work this way:

1 - extract zip data in memory

2 - write data in the game folder

 

What you propose is this:

1 - extract zip data in memory

2 - write data in a X location

3 - create symlink of data into the game folder

 

In term of I/O operation, this is exactly the same, except you create symlink in addition, and you horribly complicate the process.

To this point this is true. When you install a mod it will take the same time but when you enable/disable it you have no performance impact.

Are you a banker or do you work in the international financial mafia ? :D If i do what you suggest, you never empty the OvGME backup folder, then, all the game data is "stolen" from its original folder to be kept in the OvGME backup folder... it is like sucking all game data to transfering them into the OvGME bakcup folder... Sorry, OvGME is not a Rothshild or Rockefeller software :D

Hey why are you insulting me that hard? :lol:

But yes, the procedure you describe is exactly what I am saying.

To this point this is true. When you install a mod it will take the same time but when you enable/disable it you have no performance impact.

I think i understand what you mean by "cache", You suggest to pre-extract all Zip in some location even if they are not enabled (installed in the game)... But in this case, you lose the benefit of the zip archive, and you use a lot of disk space. This also requier a totaly new process architecture, where you have to "install" mods in OvGME in order to enable it, then "Uninstall" it if you don't want to keep it in the list.

Currently OvGME is pretty flexible and reliable, it is easy to add or remove mods from list, restore backup etc... and yes you are right, the bottleneck is the copy/write I/O transfer, however, after studying the problem, it appear this is the price for optimizing disk space, flexibility, and reliability.

Hey why are you insulting me that hard? :lol:

Because what you suggested perfectly remind me what currently happen in the banking system, do you know how that ends ?

But yes, the procedure you describe is exactly what I am saying.

Ok, so no, i don't want to "deport" all game data in the OvGME bakcup folder, this is not a good practice.

I think i understand what you mean by "cache", You suggest to pre-extract all Zip in some location even if they are not enabled (installed in the game)

Nearly :)

Only keep extracted data of "important" mods, not for all mods. Thats the cache.

Because what you suggested perfectly remind me what currently happen in the banking system, do you know how that ends ?

:D

I guess I know what you mean but I am not sure... lets keep it this way before we get kicked for being too "political" :music_whistling:

Ok, so no, i don't want to "deport" all game data in the OvGME bakcup folder, this is not a good practice.

Would have benefits but your argument is valid of course :)

So maybe you might want to keep it at the back of your mind for the future, did not test it but it seems to be a good mod anyway.

What malware ? Name, signature, version ? ... try with another antivirus, Avast is the champion of false positives...

AVAST - this is one big, powerful VIRUS!:RE

AVAST - this is one big, powerful VIRUS!:RE

:thumbup: I suggest using Pandafree (if you don't want to pay) in combo with Addblock or uBlock in browsers... less intrusive, more lightweight, less paranoid... for the rest, just be carefull about what you download and execute.

What do you think at my changed zip request?

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3114111&postcount=409

What do you think at my changed zip request?

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3114111&postcount=409

Excuse me i forgot your request.

If i well understand, what your are talking about, is like what we have with new incoming emails in a mailbox, who are in bold to signify they are "unread".

Your request appear simple, but in fact, this is horribly complex due to 1) how OvGME currently build the mods/backup list and 2) how Microsoft API implemented its (in)famous "listview" GUI element

To do what you suggest, i need to introduce a kind of database of the mods list content and change all the process of mod list building, this mean a lot of work, And this is a lot of work for a very little feature, so the Work/Benefit ratio is very bad for me.

If one day, i decide to enterly rework how OvGME manage the mod list, i will think about your idea, but for now, i can't say "ho yeah, easy, just some code to add", because i need to rethink all the process.

If one day, i decide to enterly rework how OvGME manage the mod list, i will think about your idea, but for now, i can't say "ho yeah, easy, just some code to add", because i need to rethink all the process.

Is it not always this way? :D I'm a Software Engineer as well (C#, VB.NET, WinForms, WPF, you name it) so I know (of course) the ListView control... How do you decide if a Mod is enabled or not (visible by the grey/gray or green icon on each line)?

Is it not always this way?

No, some features are easy to add or modify.

:D I'm a Software Engineer as well (C#, VB.NET, WinForms, WPF, you name it) so I know (of course) the ListView control... How do you decide if a Mod is enabled or not (visible by the grey/gray or green icon on each line)?

The function checks if a backup data file exists in the OvGME internal folder. First, backup data files are added to list as "enabled mods", then the mod list folder is analyzed, and if any zip or folder did'nt have its "backup data file", it is added as "disabled mod". In fact, technically the list don't show "Enabled Mod", but "Backup Available". This is pretty rustic, but that work fine.

Yes, profile feature was reworked, you now can create several profiles, you apply profile by selecting it in the list (menu)

How can I apply a profile after I select it?

How can I apply a profile after I select it?

The saved profiles show up on the menu itself

Just want to say thanks for this software Sedenion, i have used the other mod manager for quite a few years (who will remain nameless), but switched to yours a few months back. Its a great app to use.:thumbup:

Just want to say thanks for this software Sedenion, i have used the other mod manager for quite a few years (who will remain nameless), but switched to yours a few months back. Its a great app to use.:thumbup:

+1

Very great software , i would never go back to JSGME. Thank you very much!

:pilotfly:

OvGME version 1.7.2 is out. This is a minor update, only some debug and a small new feature:

OvGME 1.7.2, 2017-01-06

- Fix mod description display when using arrow keys.

- Add "Sort by enabled" option for mods list view.

- Add reposition of mods list scroll for long list.

Download links on the first page, or here : http://www.ovoid.org/ovgme/downl.htm