With bigger mods at least I would imagine many mod teams are facing issues of how to know what still needs to be done and what is already done, post-it notes and memory gets you only so far, so I imagine many using some tools to help with their tasks. I did search program that would of been like a flow chart, but more dynamic like Free mind, that would run online and that would have bug tracker with it as well as todo lists and also svn/git repository for version control and easy sharing project files. Of course I found none. So I'm currently testing Freemind + Bitbucket for doing that, of course Bitbucket is for code and it is bit stretching to call .veh and .hdv etc. as code for car mods, but maybe it is enough close. (Currently we have well over 1500 files in mod, 12 vehicles with each tens of upgrades and each has completely individual parts and physics, it has become bit hard to handle all that work history in memory). So let's hear what others have attempted and what kind of success you have had?
Cool thread, although I won't be of much use because I "only" ever edited 5 .hdvs, 5x .tbc etc. for the 37 mod, that was really the most files I ever worked on simultaneously at once and that wasn't that hard to organize really. I never did the integration of all the graphic files, .gens etc. as that was all done by BigBen. Anyway for my editing I just used Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/), which works pretty good for editing hdv,tbc (keep in mind I still haven't touched modding for rf2 so I only talk about rf1, some things may be different), I think I used Haskell syntax highlighting or smt like that lol, it worked nicely for highlighting values, so this app I can recommend. Then an absolute necessity when changing the same lines in multiple files is a simple tool ReplaceText (http://www.ecobyte.com/replacetext/) and Compare It! (http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm) for quick view of differences between files.. I'm sure this is total basic, just for plain text files, no diagrams or actually pro approach like Niels etc., still may be useful for somebody, not just modders, I actually needed something like ReplaceText in ordinary Windows work before I started modding. As I said I never had to work with too many files at once, I don't want to imagine having to work with 1500 files uh (btw how many .veh files?).
That reminds me of another topic I have had in mind, about tools in car physics editing and how to get most out from them. For example Notepad++ can be very much more powerful than simple text editor. I just never had explored that too much, I still use it like simple notepad most of the time, but compare in Notepad++ is something I have used few times. Also Notepad++ should be able to replace same line in all tabs etc. But haven't tested that. I'm currently learning C# and doing all kind of programs there, but that is bit out of scope for this thread I believe as this is more about project management kind of stuff.
i started using this... http://evernote.com/ to write down a "things to do" and "done" list among other things and it works good for me
Notepad++ is a great tool, it can replace something in all open files (you can open all files at once and then do the replace). It also has compare functionality (not sure if it is built in or maybe you have to download a plugin). Anyway it has quite a few plugins too so you can check that out (you can download plugins from within N++ going to Plugins -> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin manager). Bugzilla for tracking of bugs/todo list. SVN for version control/reporsitory/sharing.
I use a notepad for the things i have left to do, the things already have are imply, with time you start to do the things automatically, but always do one by one, by one by one, always try to use a specific nomenclature to keep the names and files in order in your head, also i think is the best exercise for the brain.
Do you run SVN on your own server or do you have some hosting, is it free? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open_source_software_hosting_facilities I use Internote in firefox for notes, it is good in there as I can slap notes to web pages and later I can review notes from internote and get url from there too. Great for researching.
Been using github for some time - facilitates something similar to SVN for free hosting and has a nice UI for wiki pages and notes, bug tracking etc etc.
We run our own server but there are also some free hostings, see here for some opinions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/59791/free-online-private-svn-repositories
Thanks from link, that was where I actually spotted Bitbucket, but then I forgot link, I think link will be useful for many. With Bitbucket I did set it as GIT repo, works pretty much similar to SVN (well, TortoiseSVN is what I have used and for me that is SVN) when using TortoiseGIT. With Github one could get free account, but then it has to be public from my understanding. Some of projects I probably will put there though, Github is indeed very good place and it is possible I have misunderstanding about it's requirement to have only public repo hosted there for free.
"Good to know: If you are on the free plan, or have no private repos available, you will need to upgrade before you can switch the repo to private." If you have access to shell on a Linux server somewhere, you could create your own repo on that. Probably.
Im not a modder, but started to convert my favorite tracks (for personal use only atm, maybe i get permission ..) As a programmer i am used to version control, and after some confusion and not knowing what files are altered by tools i am using SVN too now for rf2 track conversion. now i dont have fear to try stuff because i am able to roll back my last step and know what files got altered and what did change in text files by the step. VisualSVN for server and TortoiseSVN for client are easy to install and use on windows. you dont have to pay for them.
Agreed! I use the same for version control. On the job and at home actually. A very nice and open source program to use for development project management is The Bug Genie. Straightforward install if you have a webserver. Easy to use but very powerful, especially since its free. You can use it just for simple issue tracking (reporting, assignment, status, prioritizing etc), or go all pro and also use the included project management tools with teams and roles support, charts, planning, svn integration, extensions etc. Check it out on the link, I can really recommend it.
