I recently found out I had 2 copies of all the content installed in rF2 since I like to keep a backup of everything. I failed to realize nothing needs to stay in the packages folder after the mods are installed, and nothing needs to be there in the first place if you have them stored somewhere else or on another drive. In the mod manager all I did was set the "packages" directory to my backup mods folder (1 is rF2 cars, and 1 is rF2 tracks). As long as all the files are unzipped, the mod manager will recognize them. Be sure the "working" directory is set to your rFactor2 install you will see there is no need to have the mod install files in the game directory itself. Maybe everyone knows this, but I sure didn't and I'm glad I found out as I just freed up around 10GB of space or more. Just a heads up.
Just store packages on another Hard Drive and change path in mod manager ie "D:\Rfactor2 Bits\Packages". Saves downloading all packages if you need to reinstall rf2.
Yep, that's pretty much exactly what the OP said. A while ago in the wish list section I suggested we could eventually do away with the actual 'installation', because especially with encrypted content all that's happening is existing bits of the .rfcmp files are being copied into other folders, and then read by the game. There's no real reason the game couldn't read that same data directly from the .rfcmp files in the Packages folder (ie no actual installation except the manifest files), saving the doubling-up of data completely. You are right that having the packages completely separate will greatly reduce the chance of someone deleting all their downloaded packages when they 'reinstall' rF2, but the uninstaller won't delete them so it would still be the user doing the deleting. Can't ever rule that sort of thing out really. (and since the easiest way to try and 'fix' errors is to start with a clean folder, you need people to remember they have Packages in there before hitting delete)
Glad a lot of you guys found some use out of this. I figured there's no way everyone knew this except me! Good point Lazza, that's one thing I wasn't 100% on is when removing rFactor2 completely, if the mods get deleted too. Just to be safe before removing I would change in the mod manager to the default paths just in case it deletes whatever folder you direct it to?? However, I'm fairly certain if everything is stored in another location and not in the default packages folder none of those files will be deleted.
I have always proceeded as written here since it is much more practical than using internal folder. It should be noted that "get mod" feature will still download vmods to original folder. Just in case someone gets confused about it. I don't know if this procedure also prevents from problems like the ones caused by long description field components that happened in build 298 since I didn't suffer any problems then. Maybe people who are having problems with third party mods should give a try and feedback. Finally, in case the OP or others didn't know... An analogue procedure can be done when installing new builds. It is not necessary to reuse and overwrite existing build folder. Actually I strongly recommend not to do so and install each build in a folder with the name of the buid. It has several advantages IMO: + You are sure you have a fresh install + You can go back to previous build if a major bug is found in a new one. + You can benchmark both builds in a more methodical way if you want. + You get a fresh plr file updated to new build which sometimes include new patameters. The drawbacks (if they can be called so compared to the time that can be wasted solving failures when using update feature or installing over previous build) - You have no components installed but reusing packages folder is easy. You install components as you require them to drive. - You need to reassign the controls. I have had problems trying to reuse older .ini. files so I wouldnt recommend but maybe more experiences should be required to make sure. - You need to reinstall plugins and configure graphical and other settings. Helps a lot to have plugins and their ini files in a folder with the required subfolders to easily paste in rfactor root and combine. - You need to copy setup, hdr and realroad files in the settings folder to reuse them in new build. Enviado desde mi GT-I9505 usando Tapatalk 2
Basically any uninstaller uses the original install log when deciding what to delete. So any user created files put in there after the initial install will be left. Sometimes a developer may make the effort to combine any official patches to the game itself in the logs so those new files also get deleted, and you've probably seen some uninstallers do ask if you want to remove the user data as well - that's something they need to explicity put in as an option, so if you don't get asked, it should (lol) be safe to assume any non-original files will still be there after the uninstall. The thing with rF2 especially is that we are still occasionally seeing lines being added to (and removed from) some of the config files (controller, PLR, etc), and on some occasions having the old file in there can either stop you benefiting from a new option or actually cause some strange behaviour. So with a new build it's probably best to start fresh. Obviously downloaded packages are separate to that, because unless an issue has been found or the one you have is out of date there's nothing that can become corrupted in them. So if putting them outside your rFactor folder gives you peace of mind that you won't accidentally delete them later, it's probably worth doing (plus if you have a SSD or similar, since the 'installation' process puts a copy in your Installed folder anyway, it makes sense to move the now unused package files somewhere else or not have them on that drive in the first place)
