Slipstream Mod Manager v1.9.1 (2018-01-07)

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
Vhati
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby Vhati » Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:34 am

ApexMods wrote:SMM won't show the embedded description once it has resorted to the generic MD5 hashing thing.

Both the hashes and metadata are determined in the background in advance. From the GUI thread's perspective, they either exist or they don't. There is no 'resorting' to hashing.

When you click on a mod in the list, one of the following will happen:
  • You see the description associated with the pre-calculated hash from central catalog, or you see the pre-cached description (originally in the mod file itself). This is instantaneous.
    .
  • If the hash has not yet been determined, or if metadata is absent from both the catalog and the cache at that moment, an error is shown, mentioning the pre-calculated hash (or null?).
    .
    That error also includes a date, which is determined on-demand in the GUI thread: by iterating over every file in the zip to find the most recent modified date. For large mods (40MB+), this can cause a brief noticable lag, but even then it should not be 10 seconds.


ApexMods wrote:The only way out is to do the re-scan all over again.
The delay occurs every time, even when the .zip has not been altered at all (and nothing needs to be re-cached).

That is strange.

Re-Scan should finish comparatively quickly, and do nothing the startup scan didn't already do (it'll hash a second time, but it won't bother recollecting metadata).

The Re-Scan menu item will be disabled until the startup scan has completed. At that point, all the hashes and metadata should already exist.


ApexMods wrote:Wait, so the fetching of metadata.xml contents [...]? I don't understand; that's just a couple of bytes of data, how can that take so long?

I imagine it has to do with interpreting the zip and searching for the metadata.

Not having done benchmarks, I could be mistaken, but as far as I remember, getting metadata's speed was comparable to blind hashing at best (both ~15 seconds for 1 gig of mods).

Part of my impression came from how long it takes to get that date for the error message, which is a similar search-but-don't-read-much operation. But for me, that was on the order of 2 seconds tops, not what you're experiencing.


ApexMods wrote:this concerns a rather large new mod under active development

ApexMods wrote:there actually is valid metadata present within the .zip file in question

ApexMods wrote:Yes, the UI remains fully responsive up until I try to select the large mod in question "too early".

Which mod are you referring to?


ApexMods wrote:Hope I'm explaining this correctly?

You're explaining your circumstance pretty well.
What you're explaining is puzzling. :P

When I come up with something, I'll PM you a test build.

Anything interesting in the modman-log.txt?
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CrashSanders
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby CrashSanders » Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:30 am

Encountered a problem with SMM and installing two different mods (Captain's Edition, Infinite Space and Better Planets and Backgrounds + Better Asteroids).
The main issue is that due to circumstances I am forced to run Steam as admin. So when I was using CE and updating it frequently, I had no problems, but when I tried to play Infinite space, which means that I needed to clear FTL with SMM - voila! Instead of vanilla FTL I had FTL with better Backgrounds AND Captain's Edition's weapons (and I stepped no further from hangar knowing that Captain's Edition didn't uninstall).

Firstly then, I've deleted Resource folder from SteamApps/common/FTL Faster Than Light, verified came cache and run the game. It was vanilla.

My second step was simply unchecking Captain's Edition and related mods in SMM and then patching the vanilla FTL. I've got the same result - installed CE.

Then I repeat the step one but removed all CE-related files from Slipstream's /mods folder. The same result.

Validation of mods brought me this btw:

Code: Select all

@ Infinite Space_0.5.3.ftl:
  -------------------------
  No Problems

@ Better Planets and Backgrounds_v1.3.1.ftl:
  ------------------------------------------

~ This mod doesn't append. It clobbers.

@ better_asteroids.ftl:
  ---------------------

~ This mod doesn't append. It clobbers.


I also use SMM in Admin mode so it could access Program Files folder in which Steam is installed.

Right now I've got a vanilla FTL in Steam and here's a strange thing: when SMM asks me to run the game and I do so, it seems like I am running another copy of the game i.e. CE and Better Planets and Backgrounds are all here like I've never deleted the /Resource folder.

So why am I posting all this stuff in SMM's topic rather than CE and TIS? Because I believe that there's nothing wrong with mods and I am messing with mod manager itself, and maybe with Admin mode.

Sorry for tl:dr and probably crappy English. Help?
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kartoFlane
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby kartoFlane » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:01 am

@CrashSanders
Running as admin is not the root cause here, if anything, it can only help.

Either way, your problem is pretty simple -- you've started SMM for the first time without uninstalling mods from FTL, and so, when SMM created it's backups, it copied them over with the mods installed. So now every time you use SMM, you'll revert to those mods you had installed when you ran it for the first time.

Solution: verify Steam cache again, delete data.dat.bak and resource.dat.bak in SMM's /backup/ directory, and start it again. Everything should be fine then.
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CrashSanders
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby CrashSanders » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:17 am

kartoFlane wrote:Either way, your problem is pretty simple -- you've started SMM for the first time without uninstalling mods from FTL, and so, when SMM created it's backups, it copied them over with the mods installed. So now every time you use SMM, you'll revert to those mods you had installed when you ran it for the first time.

I suspected that something like that happened, thank you for clarifying. =)

Damn. That did nothing. My FTL hangar still features starting loadouts from CE.
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kartoFlane
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby kartoFlane » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:39 am

Huh.
When you run SMM, it opens up a console/terminal to output some info/debug messages. One of the first messages should be along the lines of:

Code: Select all

INFO  FTLModManager - Using FTL dats path from config: C:\Program Files (x86)\St
eam\steamapps\common\FTL Faster Than Light\resources

This is the installation SMM patches to. If it's not the same as the one you use to play, try going to File > Preferences > ftl_dats_path, and change the path accordingly.

(if no console appears, you can find the path info in modman-log.txt)
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CrashSanders
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby CrashSanders » Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:02 pm

kartoFlane wrote:If it's not the same as the one you use to play, try going to File > Preferences > ftl_dats_path, and change the path accordingly.

It's the same actually. So I guess everything is ok, but something is still missing.
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Vhati
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby Vhati » Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:26 pm

CrashSanders wrote:Firstly then, I've deleted Resource folder from SteamApps/common/FTL Faster Than Light, verified came cache and run the game. It was vanilla.

So far so good. But as kartoFlane said...

CrashSanders wrote:
kartoFlane wrote:you've started SMM for the first time without uninstalling mods from FTL, and so, when SMM created it's backups, it copied them over with the mods installed.

Solution: verify Steam cache again, delete data.dat.bak and resource.dat.bak in SMM's /backup/ directory, and start it again.

Damn. That did nothing.


After you delete the backups, SMM will create new ones by copying from the game's resources/ dir the next time you click patch (with 0 or more mods selected). From then on whenever you patch, the backups will be copied to the game's resources/ dir, as a baseline for adding any selected mods.

If you 'verify' to get the game back to vanilla, AND delete the backups - do both, without running SMM in between - then no mods will have survived to contaminate the new backups.
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CrashSanders
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby CrashSanders » Sun Oct 27, 2013 4:06 pm

Vhati wrote:If you 'verify' to get the game back to vanilla, AND delete the backups - do both, without running SMM in between - then no mods will have survived to contaminate the new backups.

Dude, that's the catch: I am deleting /resource folder and verifying and only after that I delete the .bak files.
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NewAgeOfPower
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Re: Slipstream Mod Manager v1.4 (2013-09-20)

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:06 am

CrashSanders wrote:
Vhati wrote:If you 'verify' to get the game back to vanilla, AND delete the backups - do both, without running SMM in between - then no mods will have survived to contaminate the new backups.

Dude, that's the catch: I am deleting /resource folder and verifying and only after that I delete the .bak files.


Uninstall FTL & SMM

Reinstall both.

Done.
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lhatchy1
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Re: Won't patch anything

Postby lhatchy1 » Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:05 pm

I really need help, I have modded my own ship I tried to patch it with both SMM and GMM. Both failed. I've also tried with the mods that come with the manager and still no luck.
I always get;
Patching failed: java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files (x86)\FTL\resources\data.dat (Access is denied)

To add to this, when I click validate it says fine, so I'm really not sure...

I'd love some help.

All files are not read only, and the .txt in mods has been deleted. I tried reinstalling both SMM and FTL in combination.

Thanks!