Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

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Thunderforge
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Joined: 06 Jun 2017, 05:57

Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Thunderforge »

I loaded up the total conversion mod Arktwend in OpenMW a while back to test bug 3977. A few days later, I loaded up OpenMW and launched a new game, only to be surprised to find a bizarre mashup of core Morrowind and Arktwend. I double-checked that Morrowind.esm was enabled instead of Arktwend.esm, then ran it again to the same results.

It took me a bit to realize that the issue was with the fact that textures and such for Arktwend were still being loaded. I would never want to play with those on when I'm playing Morrowind. So the only way I can completely disable Arktwend is to remove it from my openmw.cfg file. But of course, I have to go back and add it when I want to turn it back on.

Since Example Suite is a total conversion, is this a problem for that too? Do we need to create a way to more easily enable/disable resources like this?
Naugrim
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Naugrim »

I don't think I understand the issue here because I assume you are familiar with the ability to install mods in totally separated `data` directories (https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title ... stallation).
It is true, that `data` dirs cannot be manages from launcher and need to be set manually in openmw.cfg. Adding options to add and/enable/disable `data` dirs would make life much easier, but it's not that hard either.
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Thunderforge
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Thunderforge »

I am indeed installing in separate data directories. I was noting that it was annoying to have to manually add and remove the data dirs from openmw.cfg, since it's not possible to do that from the launcher.

Should I file a feature request for enabling/disabling data dirs from the launcher? Or is there already one there that I'm not finding?
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AnyOldName3
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by AnyOldName3 »

I've asked Zini before about if I could do that, and would it be merged if I did, and the answer was basically that data directories may end up replaced by something else fairly quickly post-1.0, and weird things could happen with regards to user expectations if a whole launcher tab suddenly disappeared.

There's always a possibility that I don't recall the gist of the conversation correctly, or Zini and I misunderstood each other, so if he says something to the contrary, trust that instead. Also, the report for https://bugs.openmw.org/issues/3431 hasn't been rejected, and the proposed solution there would solve the issues mentioned here.
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Frik
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Frik »

I've been keeping multiple openmw_xxx folders under .config and .local/share, then renaming them when I want a different loadout, or want to use a different version of OpenMW.
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AnyOldName3
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Bear in mind that you can definitely set any setting you'd normally use the config files for as command line arguments and that you might also be able to specify which config file to read as aa command line argument. I'm not exactly sure how any of this is done, but it should be possible to make everything work with a bunch of scripts - one for each setup.
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Frik
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Frik »

Thanks for the tip.
It would be handy to be able to specify the "openmw" folder name under .config & .local/share, which would allow the creation of a simple launcher for each load-out you wanted.

Here are the command line options I get now. Not sure if there is any external documentation. Some of the options are clear and others are a bit more ambiguous. Guess I need to test.
Spoiler: Show
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Thunderforge
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Thunderforge »

Command line options are far less convenient for Mac users, since there isn't an easy way to add them to a shortcut like Windows. Still, good to know that they do exist. It would be good if the Launcher at some point did make it easier though.
Naugrim
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by Naugrim »

AnyOldName3 wrote: 09 Aug 2017, 10:12 I've asked Zini before about if I could do that, and would it be merged if I did, and the answer was basically that data directories may end up replaced by something else fairly quickly post-1.0, and weird things could happen with regards to user expectations if a whole launcher tab suddenly disappeared.
I am not worried since I image that long term scenario will be to manage data folders in the launcher. But the fact that the data mechanic seems odd. Honestly I think it's great and works perfectly. Any recent word on the topic from "the powers that be".


PS: only thing I don't like in current system is that the configuration is mixed in openmw.cfg and that OpenMW itself re-writes the file. When I have it opened with notepad++ I gent constant messaged that the file was changed and should be reloaded.
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AnyOldName3
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Re: Switching on/off a total conversion mod is annoying

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Because of the way things are set up now, you'll get that message whether or not the content was actually changed, so usually, it's actually not changing anything. I think it might do something weird like sort the settings alphabetically, though.
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