[PROGRAM] X Plugin Manager : V1.87 : 2024-01-06

[DrBullwinkle]

I think that I have figured out why the PM has trouble installing Lucike's scripts.

Lucike's zip files contain scripts.uninstall and scripts.delete folders. The PM correctly puts the contents of the scripts.delete folder in scripts.delete.

However, the contents of scripts.uninstall are copied into the scripts folder. The result is that the uninstall script is run instead of the setup script (because they both have the same name).

[eben]

Hey Crycrow,

Magnificent work with the manager. It is not without problems though and some are very serious.

Main problem is about ship installer. As some other users have pointed before some of the xsp files that can be downloaded does not install correctly sometimes. I'm saying sometimes because it doesn't always happen even with the same xsp file. One thing is sure though, in my experience none of the imported xsps from other mods work (eg apricot's merge mod).
Also another point is this; any working xsp (used as downloaded) does not work (do not appear in the tships or in game) after opened in your package explorer and/or ship creator/editor before installation.

I always doublecheck after installing xsps using xeditor2 and sometimes the cat file manager generates is corrupted. This corruption prevents the game from running at all. Also sometimes even if the cat is not corrupted the ship installed does not appear at all in the tships file. In the latter case usually all the resources (models, textures etc.) seems to be installed correctly but still no entry for the installed ship in the tships.

The most serious problem though is, rarely the manager screws up the installation so bad that x3ap does not even start even after reverting to vaniila or uninstallin all spks, xsps and archives. In the latest occurence of this error I still could not save my x3ap installation even after having an integrity check with steam and reinstalling some files. The problem again seems to be caused by the cat/dat files the manager generates though this time x3editor2 did not flag them as corrupted.
Strangely enough this time it happened after installing your advanced jumprive script not even a mod or xsp.

Version list:

OS: Windows 7
Game: X3AP latest (Steam)
Manager: Mod Manager v1.41[/u]

After these reports I'd like to ask some questions to help you debug:

1) In the ship editor/creator what does game compatibilty tab do?

2) In the files section of the same, again what does different compatibility options do?

3) Does the creator check for uncompatible ship stats? I'm asking this because i've manged to fix some xsps by correcting some stats (mainly notoriety lvl and cargo space). If not do you have a list of acceptable stat ranges.

4) How does the creator handles new cockpit (turret) entries? In my experience most of the ships involving custom cockpit (turret) entries never work. And most corruption events occur after installing a ship, again, with custom turrets.

5)While running on win7 do you need administration privilages for the manager? I'm asking because the behaviour of the manager significantly differs with and without admin rights (does not create cat/dat but puts the files directly under relevant folders when running w/o admin rights).

6)Which tfile does it use to add new ship's name, description etc.?

Sorry for the wall of text but the problems are so irregular that I tried to give as much detail as possible. And also for me your manager is as important as the game itself, so I have avested interest in fixing this :wink:

[alkeiser]

I run the plugin manager without admin rights on Win7.
You just need full write access to the game folder.
I have the game through Steam and just gave the Users group write access to the entire common folder in Steam\steamapps.

[doctor_roxo]

really awesome work here cycrow. it's so easy to use which, for me, is a blessing. not so much time for gaming these days and this is such a time saver.

one question. i'm wondering if i can add any other mods to this. i just want to add a cockpit mod basically, so is this possible? and if so, how do i do it?

[Cycrow]

Hey Crycrow,
...

the is currently a problem with how the plugin manager creates the mod files, it seems to happen when adding additional files to the mod causing it to become curropt and prevents the game from being loaded.

i've not had alot of time recently as i've just relocated and started a new job, but its something i will look into.

1) In the ship editor/creator what does game compatibilty tab do?

It sets what games and versions your plugin will be compatable with, so if you set it to TC and you then try to install it into AP, it will show up a warning.

Its to allow you to give warnings to the users so they know if it should work or not

2) In the files section of the same, again what does different compatibility options do?

This allows you to create packages that work for multiple games versions but uses seperate files. so you can add different versions of the same file name, if the game is AP, it'll install the AP version of the file, if its TC it'll install the TC version of the file, etc
So you dont have to make seperate packages for each game version if they have different files.

3) Does the creator check for uncompatible ship stats? I'm asking this because i've manged to fix some xsps by correcting some stats (mainly notoriety lvl and cargo space). If not do you have a list of acceptable stat ranges.

it does some checks, but mainly it tries to convert stats between each game version where it can. It doesn't check or convert everything however. Not aware of any incompatabilities with notorirty or cargo space thou.

4) How does the creator handles new cockpit (turret) entries? In my experience most of the ships involving custom cockpit (turret) entries never work. And most corruption events occur after installing a ship, again, with custom turrets.

the cockpit entries are added into the ship package, then when installed it adds these entries into the existing TCockpits and converts the TShips entry to use the new ids of the cockpits. How well this works depends on how it was set up originally or how the ship was created.

Basically the plugin manager basically replaces the cockpit ids to the text ids of the cockpits. But it can only do this if it knows what cockpits match what id. If it doesn't know, it leaves them as the numbered ids and then when installed these ids are not updated as it doesn't know what its supposed to match with

5)While running on win7 do you need administration privilages for the manager? I'm asking because the behaviour of the manager significantly differs with and without admin rights (does not create cat/dat but puts the files directly under relevant folders when running w/o admin rights).

you shouldn't need to. However, the problems is the way windows tries to protect certain directories. The best thing to do to avoid any potential problems is to not install the game into a protected directory, ie Program Files.
UAC will sometimes protect these directories from being written/modified from outside. But instead of simply blocking the file writes, it diverts them into a temporay stoage. Making the program unaware that it cant write to the directory. So the plugin manager thinks its written the files correctly but windows has diverted all file access elsewhere so the actual game directory doesn't get effected

6)Which tfile does it use to add new ship's name, description etc.?

the plugin manager only uses 1 text file for all its text, and the ship names and descriptions get added into that one. Which should be 0901 depending on the version

[eben]

Hey Crycrow,
...

the is currently a problem with how the plugin manager creates the mod files, it seems to happen when adding additional files to the mod causing it to become curropt and prevents the game from being loaded.

i've not had alot of time recently as i've just relocated and started a new job, but its something i will look into.

So you were already aware of it sorry for the repost then :). But from what you say it souds pretty consistent which it isn't. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes installing the spk again works. Good luck with that.

1) In the ship editor/creator what does game compatibilty tab do?

It sets what games and versions your plugin will be compatable with, so if you set it to TC and you then try to install it into AP, it will show up a warning.

Its to allow you to give warnings to the users so they know if it should work or not

So from what i understand this acts just as a warning and a guidance but not actually changes anything in the installation.

3) Does the creator check for uncompatible ship stats? I'm asking this because i've manged to fix some xsps by correcting some stats (mainly notoriety lvl and cargo space). If not do you have a list of acceptable stat ranges.

it does some checks, but mainly it tries to convert stats between each game version where it can. It doesn't check or convert everything however. Not aware of any incompatabilities with notorirty or cargo space thou.[/quote]

Hmm so maybe what i thought i fixed was merely a corerct install next time i tried. Damn these irregularities...

4) How does the creator handles new cockpit (turret) entries? In my experience most of the ships involving custom cockpit (turret) entries never work. And most corruption events occur after installing a ship, again, with custom turrets.

the cockpit entries are added into the ship package, then when installed it adds these entries into the existing TCockpits and converts the TShips entry to use the new ids of the cockpits. How well this works depends on how it was set up originally or how the ship was created.

Basically the plugin manager basically replaces the cockpit ids to the text ids of the cockpits. But it can only do this if it knows what cockpits match what id. If it doesn't know, it leaves them as the numbered ids and then when installed these ids are not updated as it doesn't know what its supposed to match with

Hmm this needs attention. So if i got it right the installer adds the new cocpit entries to the end of the file and tries to match the new ids to the existing ones in the tships. Smells fishy and could be the likely culprit imho. Most ships with custom turrets i tried to install didn't work until i changed them to default cockpits in the creator and repack them. Then I used the xeditor2 to add new cocpits and edit the tships accordingly. Which is while works a pain in the ass cause i have to back up the edited tcocpits and tships and re install them each time after i run the manager. I know i can make them into a mod but that is not so safe as the manager can corrupt the cat\dat files anytime.

So to understand further i need to ask a few more questions:

1) Does it cause the game engine to ignore tships entries with wrong turret ids hence causing them not to appear in game or in the xeditor2?

2) Can the above cause an otherwise correctly installed xsp to appear in game sans the graphics?

3) Can it cause both or either of the above depending on the customization level of the custom turrets? (such as custom attachment points and custom scenes etc.)

Sorry for these noob questions but while i'm an inherently good debugger and a somewhat experienced albeit outdated programmer i have zero experience about xsps and how the game handles them.

6)Which tfile does it use to add new ship's name, description etc.?

the plugin manager only uses 1 text file for all its text, and the ship names and descriptions get added into that one. Which should be 0901 depending on the version

:lol: that must be the only tfile i did not check then. Thanks for the heads up.

[0o0o0]

Quick question on Cycrows plugin manager. Heres the scenario -

I make an SPK from someones scripts. I install that SPK with the PM and it overwrites some scripts or t files that were either from vanilla or other scripts.
At a later time I uninstall that same SPK that I made using the PM.

Does the PM make backups of the files that were overwritten and restore those backups? What happens in this situation?

Thanks for the help!

[Adarksoul]

I'm running windows xp with tc with the newest patch. i installed plugin manager 1.41 with vc++ i have never added scripts before. every time i try to run the plugin manager i get "The application failed to initialize properly (0x0000135). click ok to terminate the application. i reinstalled many times now... please help.

[Adarksoul]

Alright i figured it out! turns out i need dotnet framework works like a charm.

[doctor_roxo]

really awesome work here cycrow. it's so easy to use which, for me, is a blessing. not so much time for gaming these days and this is such a time saver.

one question. i'm wondering if i can add any other mods to this. i just want to add a cockpit mod basically, so is this possible? and if so, how do i do it?

[Prophet1]

I have had the PM 1.3 installed for a while now and haven't been able to get it uninstalled as I'm told by my computer I don't have sufficient access. The shortcut is gone. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of it? Thanks

[zombie-uk]

I have a question - I have the X3R Xplugin manager, will the TC-AB xplugin manager conflict/overrite that?

I prefer to keep my X3R intact as I still play it from time to time due to XTM still entertaining me much.

[Col. J. Ewen III]

This is the stupidest set of instructions I have ever seen. Needless to say because it does not give concise directions in proper 1, 2, 3 format in some form of English, &$%$ this and I am deleting all these damned downloads that are "SUPPOSE' to work but don't

[ThommoHawk]

I have a question - I have the X3R Xplugin manager, will the TC-AB xplugin manager conflict/overrite that?

I prefer to keep my X3R intact as I still play it from time to time due to XTM still entertaining me much.

x1

I have also got my X3R "gameplay-ready", and so I want to know that if I uninsall the old version of plugin manager (as instructed) it will not deactivate/uninstall the SEWN system I have running on my game there... it is unplayable without that script/mod whatever..

I only want the Xplugin manager to work for one thing: on my newly set up directory made especially for a backup mod AP.. and not to automatically attach itself to any other XGames i have, which are mostly all vanilla.

is there clear instruction info on this anywhere... clear accurate 1.2.3. type steps would be good i must admit.

[Cycrow]

This is the stupidest set of instructions I have ever seen. Needless to say because it does not give concise directions in proper 1, 2, 3 format in some form of English, &$%$ this and I am deleting all these damned downloads that are "SUPPOSE' to work but don't

i dont know how the instructions can be any more clear
You download the program from the link in the first post and install it like any other program

in most cases the rest will be setup automatically and ready to use

[Cycrow]

This is the stupidest set of instructions I have ever seen. Needless to say because it does not give concise directions in proper 1, 2, 3 format in some form of English, &$%$ this and I am deleting all these damned downloads that are "SUPPOSE' to work but don't

i dont know how the instructions can be any more clear
You download the program from the link in the first post and install it like any other program

in most cases the rest will be setup automatically and ready to use

[Cycrow]

I have a question - I have the X3R Xplugin manager, will the TC-AB xplugin manager conflict/overrite that?

I prefer to keep my X3R intact as I still play it from time to time due to XTM still entertaining me much.

x1

I have also got my X3R "gameplay-ready", and so I want to know that if I uninsall the old version of plugin manager (as instructed) it will not deactivate/uninstall the SEWN system I have running on my game there... it is unplayable without that script/mod whatever..

I only want the Xplugin manager to work for one thing: on my newly set up directory made especially for a backup mod AP.. and not to automatically attach itself to any other XGames i have, which are mostly all vanilla.

is there clear instruction info on this anywhere... clear accurate 1.2.3. type steps would be good i must admit.

uninstalling the old plugin manager wont remove or effect the scripts that are already installed.

installing the new version can then be used for X3 as well if you add the directory to the game. It'll pick up any scripts previously installed

[Calgor Grim]

If this has been answered elsewhere I apologise.

However Im curious why, when I start the plugin manager it loads up, goes into the system tray but doesnt actually open up for me to tinker with until I close it from the system tray. At which point it opens up as normal. It's not a problem, just an annoyance.

[Cycrow]

If this has been answered elsewhere I apologise.

However Im curious why, when I start the plugin manager it loads up, goes into the system tray but doesnt actually open up for me to tinker with until I close it from the system tray. At which point it opens up as normal. It's not a problem, just an annoyance.

what program are you running to load the plugin manager ?

it sounds like ur loading the game launcher, rather than the plugin manager

[Calgor Grim]

If this has been answered elsewhere I apologise.

However Im curious why, when I start the plugin manager it loads up, goes into the system tray but doesnt actually open up for me to tinker with until I close it from the system tray. At which point it opens up as normal. It's not a problem, just an annoyance.

what program are you running to load the plugin manager ?

it sounds like ur loading the game launcher, rather than the plugin manager

That may be why, forgot there was a difference. Was used to what Windows 7 is dumping on my Start Menu as a somewhat applicable program.