(Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

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Naugrim
Posts: 172
Joined: 08 Jan 2016, 01:32
Location: Spain

(Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by Naugrim »

Hi,

Seeing the reception of "Natural Character Growth and Decay Mod" (viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4339) a thing that always puzzled me came stronger than ever. How to do manage mods sources?

As far as I know, some assets are packaged in a file and others (meshes, textures) are left outside. I am aware this is not final and the final aim is to have everything in a single file, which is great for deploying but does no fix the issue.
If you want to share a mod in Git (specially those based solely on scripts), you'd need to push the final package which is binary and you can only work with it in Open-CS. No file comparison, no easy manipulation, etc...

So, is there a way to create a project based on plain text files that can be packaged with some build tools? I guess not, but, is there a description of the omwaddon format so some could be done?
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Jyby
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Joined: 10 Dec 2013, 04:16

Re: Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by Jyby »

No, not that I'm aware of, but thats a good idea. Generally with binary files, as you already know, only one person can work on them at a time.

You could bring this up in Feature Requests and Suggestions forum.

It's possible your vision would be a better experience than managing multiple mods in the editor. Others should provide more input though... Post 1.0 feature.
Naugrim
Posts: 172
Joined: 08 Jan 2016, 01:32
Location: Spain

Re: (Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by Naugrim »

Thanks, it totaly makes sense and I'd file a feature request in the issue tracker.
Anyway, I'd try to unroll the code of opencs and see if I can find where the files are created.
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Jyby
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Re: (Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by Jyby »

I'd try to discuss the feature with the rest of the team, it certainly needs their input before this kind of change would be adopted into the editor code base.

Perhaps writing your own command line tool to unpack the add on files would be a good solution. You could also reuse code from the editor, I.e point to it, not copy paste. But keep in mind the editor needs a lot of work and could go through some unexpected changes.

Cheers
Naugrim
Posts: 172
Joined: 08 Jan 2016, 01:32
Location: Spain

Re: (Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by Naugrim »

Jyby wrote: 01 Jun 2017, 15:31 I'd try to discuss the feature with the rest of the team, it certainly needs their input before this kind of change would be adopted into the editor code base.
You say that because I wen ahead with the request? Is just to register it, I fear that forum posts may be forgotten and the Issue tracker is as good as this for discussion right?
Also, the team is totally free to reject it and I totally understand this is far from priority.
If you think that the forum offers a better space to discuss this I have no problem creating the post.
Jyby wrote: 01 Jun 2017, 15:31 Perhaps writing your own command line tool to unpack the add on files would be a good solution. You could also reuse code from the editor, I.e point to it, not copy paste. But keep in mind the editor needs a lot of work and could go through some unexpected changes.
That's was I was thinking. With some (subject-to-change) formal spec, even when not a ideal solution from a code base point of view, anyone could write (or re-write) a packaging tool in any other language. The reference would always be OpenCS, so if at some point the format changes, it's up to the mantainer of the tool to adapt or discontinue support...that's how I see OS, no restrictions or attachments but to respect the owner decisions

Honestly I hoped that omwaddon were some XML/JSON format in a zip or tar, but I could not reverse engineer it so far, seems binary.
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AnyOldName3
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Re: (Solved) Managing sources for omwaddon format

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Currently, the omwaddon files are actually just regular esp files with a different extension. After the de-hardcoding, it's possible that the format might be completely overhauled instead of just extended, so a zipped XML or similarly standard format isn't impossible in the future.
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