#3431 VFS resource name clashes

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Hallfaer
Posts: 10
Joined: 15 May 2014, 17:10

#3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by Hallfaer »

Concerning: https://bugs.openmw.org/issues/3431

I made a bug report/feature request (it's causing me bugs, but still it's a new feature) for on the tracker, but it was rejected rather harshly: "Not even considering that this is really a feature request, this should be discussed on the forums"

So I'm going to put this out here.

Situation 1:
I'm loading two different games in the OpenMW engine:
- Data Files from both A and B will be considered.
- If a resource name clash happens, which file is loaded is determined by the internal logic of the OpenMW VFS, even though one of the files is guaranteed to be wrong.

Situation 2:
- I'm loading different datasets of Morrowind (mods with conflicting files / evaluating texture replacements)
- Same problem

Solution:
- Allow the user to specify which data folders should be loaded into the VFS for which game configuration.
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akortunov
Posts: 899
Joined: 13 Mar 2017, 13:49
Location: Samara, Russian Federation

Re: #3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by akortunov »

Situation 1 is really a feature request about per-game configs for OpenMW engine, what makes sense.
Hallfaer wrote: 21 Apr 2018, 18:44 - If a resource name clash happens, which file is loaded is determined by the internal logic of the OpenMW VFS, even though one of the files is guaranteed to be wrong.
IIRC, VFS will just load folders listed in openmw.cfg according to order of "data=" entries in the config and take the file from later data folder if there is a conflict.
Situation 2 is not really a bug since an engine does not know which file "is guaranteed to be wrong".
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2666
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: #3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by AnyOldName3 »

There's no easy way to enable and disable data directories temporarily, and there's disagreement on whether or not there even should be. One solution is to manually comment out the data directories which are inappropriate for the thing you're doing, but this isn't ideal. There are other less official solutions, though.

If you look around these forums, lots of people have started writing rudimentary mod managers for OpenMW. I don't actually know if any of them are any good, but managing data directories for multiple profiles seems like the kind of thing that many of them would support.

Personally, the solution I use is to manage my stuff in Mod Organizer (as I'm a Windows user, so I can do that) and then use this plugin that I wrote to transfer my data directory selection and plugin selection to OpenMW. This also has the advantage that tools like MLOX can be started via Mod Organizer and see all your plugins even though they're in different directories.
Hallfaer
Posts: 10
Joined: 15 May 2014, 17:10

Re: #3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by Hallfaer »

akortunov wrote: 21 Apr 2018, 19:20 Situation 1 is really a feature request about per-game configs for OpenMW engine, what makes sense.
Hallfaer wrote: 21 Apr 2018, 18:44 - If a resource name clash happens, which file is loaded is determined by the internal logic of the OpenMW VFS, even though one of the files is guaranteed to be wrong.
IIRC, VFS will just load folders listed in openmw.cfg according to order of "data=" entries in the config and take the file from later data folder if there is a conflict.
Situation 2 is not really a bug since an engine does not know which file "is guaranteed to be wrong".
My point is not that the engine could know which is wrong, but that we should have some way to let the user specify which is the one that is correct.
As you say your best guess is that it is determined by the "data=" entry order. That this has an effect is logical, however, it is unclear which effect it has, and it makes it annoying to switch mod configurations.

To switch mod configurations, I can select the configuration in the openmw GUI, but then I still need to manually edit the openmw.cfg to ensure that the data files for the disabled mods do not override those of the enabled mods.

I concur that a mod manager could provide a workaround, but I think it should at least be seriously be considered for inclusion in the OpenMW GUI instead of being labeled as "Not even considering that this is really a feature request". In my opinion, the GUI for mod selection provides only half the expected functionality right now. Mods cannot really be disabed/enabled entirely.

EDIT:

My feature request has not been copied to GitLab, but while reading the Stage 1 document https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/blob/m ... -stage1.md I came across the section "Resources" whose "Problem" statement is exactly this issue. So rather than "not seriously considered a feature request" it is actually already high on the Stage 1 priority list. I'm quite happy with that, and I think further discussion on the matter should happen not here, but in the context of Stage 1.
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psi29a
Posts: 5355
Joined: 29 Sep 2011, 10:13
Location: Belgium
Gitlab profile: https://gitlab.com/psi29a/
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Re: #3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by psi29a »

Hallfaer wrote: 19 Aug 2018, 14:27 My feature request has not been copied to GitLab, but while reading the Stage 1 document
Could you indicate which issue wasn't migrated? Redmine is still up so we can validate. It is quite possible that you managed to slip a feature request (issue) into redmine while it should have been in a read-only state while in migration about a month ago. My excuses if this happened, yet another reason to migrate to GitLab...
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Zini
Posts: 5538
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 15:16

Re: #3431 VFS resource name clashes

Post by Zini »

Someone actually has read my design document! Yay!
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