[Tutorial] How to make a 10 KB vMod

Discussion in 'Component and Mod Packaging' started by DJCruicky, Nov 24, 2012.

  1. DJCruicky

    DJCruicky Registered

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    I’ve been doing a bit of poking around.
    Did you know when you download a 1.2 meg vMod that 99% of the file size is infact just the Series Spinner icons? I was surprised by this myself.
    The default icons that Mas2 program attaches to your vMod are huge. Un-compressed they are 5meg in total. Why are they that big, I don’t know.

    My advice is to make your own smaller ones. I’ve just recently made a vmod that is only 40 KB’s in size just by using my own custom made spinner icons. That is 25 times smaller than standard one and still looks good. I saved them as (DDS DXT1 RGB 4 bpp) no alpha, no mipmap. I cut back on the Res too, 700x700 instead of 1024x1024.
    View attachment 4810

    What if you don’t have the skill or time to make your own? Well here is the good thing, there is a way to make vMods without the Spinner icons included in the mod. I found RFactor2 will just load up A default icon from the game itself, not from your vMod file which is cool.
    View attachment 4811

    How big are these? Very small, they can be any where from 7 to 20 KB’s in size. That is well over 100 times smaller than default vMods. And think, it will take 100 times quicker to download and install from a server. This is really good for those that host from their home PC’s where upload speed is limited.

    OK, how to make them?
    I’m assuming you already know how to make a vMod? The only thing you do different is just blank out two boxes…(see pic)
    View attachment 4812
    Easy, that's it, you too should now have 10 KB vMod.

    An example 10KB mod: View attachment 4813

    @ ISI, if you could get these 10 KB mods to automatically uninstall after online race would be good as they are so small they take no time to re-download again if you rejoin server later (plus saves on cluttering up your vmod list).

    I like to call them Bubblegum mods. You chew them once then spit them out.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2013
  2. DurgeDriven

    DurgeDriven Banned

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    Sweet :)

    I think you have hit on a good idea.

    I don't want to go on again about how I think we could handle mods to make them more uniform.

    This would probably be the best I heard yet, uploaded to server.

    1000 of them would smaller then most car mods and who is ever going to run them all.

    Good thing is it is entirely up to you what you host and join either way.


    Any other sim you have old versions of tracks you can't do diddly squat.

    P.S. If you could GET MOD for your mod idea from server at anytime not just when a room is up and at the same time the torrent for any tracks not present how sweet would that be.

    Now come and crack 55 at Indy with me.
     
  3. Mauro

    Mauro Registered

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    i think it will be a perfect solution!
     
  4. Kknorpp001

    Kknorpp001 Banned

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    Awesome, DJC! I'm starting to wonder if it's not a good thing that updates are coming slow because all th
    Is ingenuity taking place :)

    So, assuming ISI does not cHange anything then one thing I can do to make it easier for people to join my server (and also easier on the server too) is blank out the icon fields when I create a vmod. Cool that is easy. And DD's idea of torrent is awesome too but want to make sure I understand, should I create my own torrent with all the files needed for the vmod and then people could download the torrent file (just like Abriels for all tracks but this would be just files needed for my server session? That would be awesome!

    Incidentally, do we have the ability now to include a URL for the source of the files so people see it or is that later?
     

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