Mod Stacking and the Entity Manifest

from Sins Forums

Hello all,

Just had a quick question about mod stacking.  My intent is to have races in separate mods with a core mod that will always be active.  My idea was to have the entity (and other manifest files, string files) all in the core mod, that way each mod has all its files referenced automatically.  This method works great when all the mods are loaded, but if one of the race mods is NOT loaded, it gives a bunch of "failed to find data file" errors (for the referenced files that are no longer present) and then a subsequent minidump.

Has anyone else encountered something like this?

modding
20,638 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

you need to use blank reference files in the core mod.

A race that is not loaded needs the player entity but blank out as much as possible and make not select-able.

UI_FED-Units.brushes Core Mod

TXT
onlyLoadOnDemand FALSE
brushCount 0

 

UI_FED-Units.brushes in the Add-on

TXT
onlyLoadOnDemand FALSE
brushCount 267
brush
    name "PICTURE_FED_METALEXTRACTOR"
    content "Simple"
    fileName "UI_FED-Window"
    pixelBox [ 2 , 333 , 167 , 75 ]
brush
etc... etc... 

 

Keep all their buttons and textures on separate sheets, and call a blank brush file for the core mod. PlayerPics and Themes the same, files in the add-ons call the proper textures, but the core mod with no race loaded calls empty themes and pics and brush files.

 

The files all need to be in the manifests of the core mod but can be counts 0 and not call models and textures, let the add-ons handle that.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the reply!

 

So the entity manifest in the core mod can half all the races' files referenced, but with a count of 0?   For the entity files, should they all be set to "onlyLoadOnDemand TRUE"?

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

To have a mod with races in their own stackable mod, you can quite easily put all their entity (player file included), mesh, texture, and particle files in their own mod. While this will yield plenty of "failed to find data file" errors, it will not result in a minidump and the game will load just fine; this is how SoGE is set up for reference. I have not tried including Window/UI elements in the stackable mods, I've left them all in the core module, so I cannot speak for those; odds are they are what is causing you issues.

A core module must include the manifests which reference everything, even entity files that are not included in the core.

Quoting myfist0, reply 1
A race that is not loaded needs the player entity but blank out as much as possible and make not select-able.

But that's wrong, you do not need the player entity in a core module, even if the race in question has entries in the GSD. I know this for a fact from my own experience.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

So the entity manifest in the core mod can half all the races' files referenced, but with a count of 0?  

No idea what that means..  o_O

 

For the entity files, should they all be set to ""onlyLoadOnDemand TRUE"?

Huh, that is an example brush file, only 1 brush sheet uses onlyLoadOnDemand and that is the one with the loading screen images. All other brushes must be in the RAM. Textures take the biggest part of the RAM, if you can get these loaded only using the add-ons, it goes a long way.

My method shows 0 errors in DEV mode, if you actually want to use the DEV to find errors that matter.

 

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

PlayerKlingon.entity

TXT
entityType "Player"
raceNameStringID "IDS_PLAYERRACENAME_KLI"
canColonize TRUE
isPsi FALSE
isSelectable FALSE
selectablePriorty 3
randomCapitalShipNamePrefix "IDS_CAPITALSHIPNAME_KLI"
randomStarBaseNamePrefix "IDS_STARBASENAME_KLI"
entities
planetModuleInfo
Page:0
count 0
Page:1
count 0
titanInfo
Page:0
count 0
capitalShipInfo
Page:0
count 0
frigateInfo
Page:0
count 0
Page:1
count 0
NotOnPage
count 0
researchInfo
count 0

etc...

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 3

To have a mod with races in their own stackable mod, you can quite easily put all their entity (player file included), mesh, texture, and particle files in their own mod. While this will yield plenty of "failed to find data file" errors, it will not result in a minidump and the game will load just fine; this is how SoGE is set up for reference. I have not tried including Window/UI elements in the stackable mods, I've left them all in the core module, so I cannot speak for those; odds are they are what is causing you issues.

A core module must include the manifests which reference everything, even entity files that are not included in the core.

Quoting myfist0, reply 1A race that is not loaded needs the player entity but blank out as much as possible and make not select-able.

But that's wrong, you do not need the player entity in a core module, even if the race in question has entries in the GSD. I know this for a fact from my own experience.

 

So the minidump is likely being caused by something unrelated to the "failed to find data file" errors?  I have my race "sub-mods" pretty much set up like you describe... I gotta see if there is a more critical error buried within all the "failed to find data file" errors....

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Makon86, reply 6
So the minidump is likely being caused by something unrelated to the "failed to find data file" errors?  I have my race "sub-mods" pretty much set up like you describe... I gotta see if there is a more critical error buried within all the "failed to find data file" errors....

Load up Sins with all the stackable mods. Every. Single. One. If Sins doesn't dump, then it means you included something in one of your stackable mods that the core module needs. If it still dumps, something else is wrong. Have had this happen to me personally.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 7

Quoting Makon86, reply 6So the minidump is likely being caused by something unrelated to the "failed to find data file" errors?  I have my race "sub-mods" pretty much set up like you describe... I gotta see if there is a more critical error buried within all the "failed to find data file" errors....

Load up Sins with all the stackable mods. Every. Single. One. If Sins doesn't dump, then it means you included something in one of your stackable mods that the core module needs. If it still dumps, something else is wrong. Have had this happen to me personally.

 

Gotcha, Thanks for the advice man!  Ill go through the stackable mods and figure out what is missing.  Because I know if all are enabled the game doesn't dump at all.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Makon86, reply 8
Gotcha, Thanks for the advice man! Ill go through the stackable mods and figure out what is missing. Because I know if all are enabled the game doesn't dump at all.

Awesome, glad to see you're on the right track now! While this is likely what you're doing, I'd keep loading the game with one less stackable mod each time, to see when Sins crashes. When Sins does crash, you've found one of the mods which has a file the core module wants.

+1 Loading…
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 9

Quoting Makon86, reply 8Gotcha, Thanks for the advice man! Ill go through the stackable mods and figure out what is missing. Because I know if all are enabled the game doesn't dump at all.

Awesome, glad to see you're on the right track now! While this is likely what you're doing, I'd keep loading the game with one less stackable mod each time, to see when Sins crashes. When Sins does crash, you've found one of the mods which has a file the core module wants.

Yeah that makes sense.  Thanks again, i'll report back once I get it worked out (assuming this is what is causing it).

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

So I was able to get the mods loading back up again (and updating to 1.51 in the process!).  I decided to try and use the dummy entity file thing to get rid of the dev.exe errors when I don't have all the race mods loaded but they are still popping up!

 

I have the entity player files in the core mod, with 0 ships and 0 reearches and are NOT selectable....However, the abilities/buff files, structures and techs still attempt to load and throw the "failed to find data file" errors.


Would someone be able to give me a little more detail on how to set up these dummy files?  Perhaps give me an example or something (a little more detailed the one already posted here)

 

Thanks!

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

As I've said before, I personally don't even use the dummy files and I have no issues. The dev exe will always throw file not found errors if you are loading the mod without a given race, it's just an inevitability you have to accept imo; test with all races enabled, simply put.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 12
As I've said before, I personally don't even use the dummy files and I have no issues

^

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 12
The dev exe will always throw file not found errors if you are loading the mod without a given race, it's just an inevitability you have to accept imo; test with all races enabled, simply put.

I find the popups annoying regardless. Turn them off and turn logging on. It's the same net effect and scanning a log is more intuitive IMO.