Update packages are a cool things if you want temporary changes, without "hurting" the orginal content. ==> NEW thing!!! And i've noticed that all update packages and the orgininal car work side by side. So every league that uses the URD mod can make update packages without disturbing or having mismatches with the original content. It's still available. You can make an update package that only contains your league Team skins (ex: Teams_league.mas) based on the original Car. Same thing if your league wants to use custom track bilboards: Make a .mas with only the changed files. With our league we embedded the update packages in the Vmod. ==> reason: uninstall the Vmod and everything was back to the original. So no more repacking of the complete car. But 1 downfall: Your update package will download with "get missing components". But the original content doesn't. ==> For the URD cars: that doesn't matter anyway. Because the original content needs to be paid, downloaded manually If you make a complete repack: If you make a new repack of the cars but only change the version number. ==> keep the original name ! You simply install the new version and the old version will unistall itself. The old version is still there!! and will install itself if you join a server that needs it. And vica versa again. You also can do it manually in the mod manager. If you change the package name ==> repacks will be side by side but can have mismatches if you don't rename everything.
There are lots of problems with updates though. 1. As you said, only the update will be included in the vmod so the dependent content will not auto download. 2. Modmgr has a bunch of bugs related to updates. 3. The updates aren't completely incremental. For example, you can't simply create a new MAS file that includes a single GMT file to patch a bug. The new MAS actually has to include the new GMT along with all the old unchanged files. So the update isn't as small as it really could be. 4. I've heard their are plans to scrap updates completely. It would be an amazing feature if all these issues could be fixed. But all of these issues have been around for years. It's a real shame if you ask me. So what we do with URD cars is make our own packages with our own changes and teams and GetMod enable our own components and then when creating the vmod we include all the original URD components (but without GetMod links) and our own. So to join people have to manually install URD and then our changes download automatically. It's a little redundant though. It sucks for people with monthly bandwidth caps. In addition to not supporting GetMod properly. The modmgr has all sorts of bugs related to updates. But it doesn't really matter because I've heard they are going away completely.
Update packages are working again with Build 930. Update packages with a single use for our leagues worked like charm. Some had a balance of performance purpose. So we made a .mas with only the adjusted .hdv. Or league window banners, some track billboards, or add some garage spots. The new .mas for the update package only contained the adjusted/modded files. I've never had an issue with it, or had to add other files to make it work. The only issue was that the original component wasn't downloadable with "get missing components". And clients forgot to uninstall a previous round Vmod before installing the new one. A new thing with build 930 is that the updated package and original version are both available. So you don't have to uninstall the update package to join a server that uses the original. It is a nice thing to temporarily "patch" a car or track, without releasing a new version. Releasing a new version requires permission of the creator. The biggest Vmod we made was +/-180Mb. This contained all teams + track modifications (bilboards, curb stones, pitboxes fix...) If we had to release new versions of everything it would be 1Gb of components. URD cars + Rebelion LMP + Sebring. Content that most people already have. and Vmod download didn't work for us with a passworded server at that time. (Problem solved now) If you do want to release a league repacked version of a car or track. I would keep the component name the same as the original and only change the version number. (Component name doesn't have to be the same as the file name of the package). But you know that. If you keep the component name the same: previous version will automatically uninstall and the new version will install. This works backwards too. If you install an old version, the new version will uninstall. (The version number is nothing more then a folder name) so you can go from version 1.0 to 1.5VEC to 0.09RD etc. This is IMO a proper way for a modder to release an updated version. Some modders change the component name and manually add the version number in the name so it matches with the package file name. I needed to uninstall previous versions and related Vmods, before installing the new version. It's not needed if you simply keep the component name the same. all Vmods with the old version will be in red and can be easily identified and removed/deleted.
Looks like I need to play with updates again as it looks like they've finally addressed most of the problems I've been complaining about. Interesting how mas2 and modmgr get changes and none of these changes ever make it into the build notes.
Noel, do you know if issues with ...icon.dds (same applies to ...SMicon.dds files, but I guess these are redundant with the new UI) for a preview of the cars is one of those Modmgr bugs you mentioned? I did an updated package to ISI's Mégane with our drivers' skins. Everything is working like a charm there. Then, I tried to do the same including those ...ICON.dds and ...SMICON.dds (new update to the base Mégane car, not as an update to our first updated package). The skins are all there, but no matter what format I tried saving those ...ICON.dds files as, they don't show up ingame, neither in b910 nor b930 (and trying both b910 and b930 MAS utility for packaging .mas and .rfcmp). To make sure it isn't related to the way I save those ...ICON.dds files, I tried with those from the original Mégane car aswell as ISI's current Camaro package. They don't work either when creating an update to the standart Mégane package. I am positive it's also not a filename error on my side: I save example.dds as the skin, exampleWINDSHIELDOUT.dds as updated windscreen file and exampleICON.dds as the ingame preview picture. I tried exampleicon.dds aswell, just to make sure it's not case sensitive, but as both version can be found in ISI's files and neither of the two versions work ingame with my updates I guess that's not the reason.
I'm testing some stuff for our next league with the FR3.5 car. The xxxxx_ICON.DDS from the new teams are showing up for me. But if there is no driver-swap involved! An alt.dds skin or virtual ride (click here) So we probably are going to use the vitual ride.
Gijs!!!! Great find! I sort of gave up on updates and stopped testing them years ago. I just built a 12kb update rfcmp for the URD C6R that only included one HDV file with a 200L tank so it was easy to verify the change and it worked. We don't need to include all the original files in the mas anymore. Now if we can get it to pull the base cmp with GetMod. I noticed that when you create a vmod with an update that it is including the sig of the base component. So I don't see why GetMod couldn't take the GetMod URL from the update and use it to pull the base sig too.
So how do you proceed when you don't want to embed your updated in the vMod? We in our league just don't get it to work. We do an updated for an existing mod, build a vMod but when we go ingame or try to host a server the are no cars to select from?
To make a Vmod with an update package: Install the update package. - Check if everything is working in single player mode. - If OK, then it should work on the server. Open Mas2.exe, and make a Vmod. - Select only your update packages as car. (You'll get a .mas double name error if you select base component + update package) - Tik the tik-boxes of the update packages (so they will be embedded in the Vmod) - Click on package. (Do not install the Vmod !!!) - uninstall the update package first !!! - Install the Vmod (with the update packages included) - Test the Vmod in single player mod. If still everything is OK. Install the original content + the Vmod (not the update package) on the server machine. The update package will install and unstall with the Vmod. Noel, That's great news... I always thought it was depending on the component name + version number. To be honest, It's not my find. Marco Bijl taught us how to do it.
Same procedure, But don't tik the tick-boxes. ==> In that case: update packages have to be installed and unistalled seperately from the Vmod.
What build are you using? Update packages were broken since build 880 until this build 930. Click here In previous builds: The update package replaced the original content when installing it with the mod manager. So no cars to choose from/empty list.
I have found the error I made. Nothing wrong with using icon.dds files and updates, but .veh files have to be named like the base skin file (except filename extension of cours). I had previously used a different name for my .veh files as I was lazy and thought it was ok since the DefaultLivery= entry in the .veh file tells rF2 what files to load. Well that only works for skin and windows files apperently, not for icon files though. Now that I changed the name of all my .veh files to match those of the base skin.dds I have my icons ingame.
