SS2 Blue Mod Manager

[6743425a453fcbluemess]

You're welcome Out of curiosity because you mentioned FMs, are you launching them via FM Selector or BMM?

[6743425a4555ekrist2]

I'm launching them via BMM, working great.
I have played all of the well known FMs before, but I made a nice package for a friend of mine with some mods and FMs. He can now easily activate and deactivate FMs and play them without problems (he isn't the computer nerd that I am. )

Just hoping that with the NewDark someone will make some new FMs. The FMs from Christine and the RttUNN are just great. I'm a bit jealous at my friend that haven't played them yet.

[6743425a45730voodoo47]

that should be safe enough if you install only one FM, but if you want to have more at the same time, you should probably use the built in FM selector, just to be on the safe side of things.

[6743425a45852krist2]

@voodoo47
I have played quite a bit with christines first FM now. I have that as highest priority on the list. The other mods are just graphics and sounds. Seems to be working good so far.

The other FM's aren't activated, just in folder in the /DMM folder. so shouldn't affect anything I think?

[6743425a45943voodoo47]

should work ok then, probably. but still, you are using bmm in a way that was not intended, so just making sure that you know.

[6743425a45a25krist2]

Ok, thanks for the heads up 

[6743425a45ba2bluemess]

Good thing you set FMs to highest priority. Using BMM to manage mods and FMs might be more convenient, but I see two drawbacks:
- cutscenes will not work. Game engine treats cutscenes differently from the other data files. There is a separate path specific to cutscenes and they can't be replaced as easy as the rest of the files. I don't know why it is this way, maybe for some legacy reasons. You might have missed some FM specific cutscenes without even knowing.
- game saves from the regular game and FMs will get mixed up. When using FM Selector, every FM has its own saves folder. If you play only one game at a time it shouldn't be an issue though.

If those doesn't bother you it should be fine otherwise, especially if you tested it already and it worked for you

BMM and FM Selector have different purpose, and their functionality doesn't overlap. To avoid issues, it's best if they're used alongside for their respective tasks.

[6743425a45c9fkrist2]

Thanks for the detailed explanation bluemess. Didn't know about the problems with cutscenes.
I have played them a couple of times before, so I have seen them

[6743425a45d79motoko]

This is a fantastic tool. Thanks!

[6743425a45ea3bluemess]

Release 1.035 Dev

- Added support for cutscenes mods, thereby support for FMs. When mods containing cutscenes are active, adequate paths are added to movie_path parameter of install.cfg file.
- Activating a mod sets it to the highest, instead of the lowest priority.
- For consistency, added current directory prefix (".\") to all load paths.

[SS2BlueModManager_1.035_Dev.7z expired]

[6743425a45fb1bluemess]

Urgh, nobody told me that issues detection is not working on Windows XP, and application has to be restarted after changes in DMM folder content for proper warnings to show up. It will be fixed in next release. Also, improvements in working on Wine are in place.

[6743425a460a4voodoo47]

I have to say I didn't test the dev release, wanted to, but kind of forgot. if you'll make some release available, I'll give it a spin (xp here, mostly).

[6743425a461a0bluemess]

It's a problem with all releases. That dev build didn't change anything in this regard.

Here's the current WIP build.

[SS2BlueModManager_1.036_Dev.7z expired]

[6743425a462f0Kolya]

I'm inclined to say that no one noticed because no one uses XP anymore. Hopefully.

[6743425a463d2krist2]

Nice that you integrated support for FM's

[6743425a466f6bluemess]

I'm inclined to say that no one noticed because no one uses XP anymore. Hopefully.

Anyway, I think it would be hard to notice that something is off without previously seeing how it should work. The bug is kind of "silent".

I finally tried to run BMM on Wine, to find out that it works, but with some issues (most of them fixed by now). Also, Wine is similar to WinXP in working/not working features set, so if something doesn't work on WinXP it most likely doesn't work on Wine. Since the game works on WinXP and Wine, it would be nice if mod manager for it would work too. So far, all it took to make it happen were few rather minor adjustments.

[6743425a46822OneofTheMany]

Hello! I'm new here and I hope I'll have a good time on these forums.
Anyhow, when loading the Rebirth cutscene I get an "unrecognized" error from this Mod Mananger.
The cutscene's path is C:\System Shock 2\DMM\cutscene_rebirth\cutscenes, as Voodoo instructed me on the GOG forums.

[6743425a46937bluemess]

Version 1.03 doesn't support cutscenes, and cutscenes only mods are detected as unrecognized.

Use version 1.036 dev, where cutscenes are supported.

[6743425a46a20OneofTheMany]

Thanks Blue. I love your manager btw, it makes it SO easy to amp up one of my favorite games.

[6743425a46afdbluemess]

Glad to hear it. You're welcome

[6743425a46df4motoko]

Version 1.03 doesn't support cutscenes, and cutscenes only mods are detected as unrecognized.

Use version 1.036 dev, where cutscenes are supported.

On the Italian Translation page we are developing a cutscenes only mod.
With v1.036, it works great! Thanks.

[6743425a46f0fbluemess]

False alarm. Realtime issues detection is working on WinXP. I was testing it on WinXP machine with FAT32 file system, which was the culprit. Works OK on NTFS. Basically the issue occurs only on Wine.

[6743425a47014Kolya]

From what I read Wine has no problem with NTFS partitions as long as the Linux kernel supports NTFS. And I know my Ubuntu installation on my netbook can deal with NTFS. Where does the FAT32 come into this?

[6743425a4717bbluemess]

GetVolumeInformation function returns FileSystemFlags, which correspond to features supported by file system. This is what I got:

Code: [Select]

XP FAT32:    0000000000000110
XP NTFS:     0000011111111111
Vista NTFS:  0000111111111111
Win7 NTFS:   1111111111111111
Wine NTFS:   0000000000001010
Aside from which flag corresponds to what, it clearly shows that even if Wine supports NTFS, it doesn't implement anything beyond basic functionality. It's more like NTFS stripped to FAT32 capabilities.