Mod Renaming Protocols

[Erwin]

My understanding is that many older mods will no longer show up in-game as the naming protocols have changed.

Am trying to find out if one can rename older mods and then they will be usable today.

For example:  is "german-wafenss-cammo-helmet" (from CMBN 2012) the old name that no longer works?  Will it work if renamed to "smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier"?

ie:  Is the smod prefix now required for all such mod files?

Also... when naming alternative GRAPHICS to appear in-game are the alternative names:  mod.bmp; mod 2.bmp, mod 3.bmp etc.  However, with alternative SOUNDS they have to be named sound 0.wav; sound 1.wav; sound 2.wav etc? 

ie:  with GRAPHICS options one does not use the suffix "1", but with SOUND options one must name the first option with a "0" suffix, and the 2nd option with the "1" suffix, the 3rd option with a "2" suffix etc.

[mjkerner]

Erwin, there’s not a simple answer, beyond stating AFAIK “smod” does precede all iterations after (I think) engine version 2 or 3 for uniforms.  Best thing to do is to RezExplode all the brz’s from each title and then find the latest uniform folder(s) that contain the uniforms you’re looking to change. Can’t speak for graphics or sounds.

[Lucky_Strike]

4 hours ago, Erwin said:

My understanding is that many older mods will no longer show up in-game as the naming protocols have changed.

Am trying to find out if one can rename older mods and then they will be usable today.

For example:  is "german-wafenss-cammo-helmet" (from CMBN 2012) the old name that no longer works?  Will it work if renamed to "smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier"?

ie:  Is the smod prefix now required for all such mod files?

As per Mr Kerner's comments, I'm pretty certain smod is used for all the uniform stuff, but YMMV, there may be some legacy bits and pieces, or errors, that contradict this.

Couple of years ago I started tinkering with various mods for Panzer troops and SS uniforms, couldn't for the life of me figure why they didn't always show, then twigged the name change! I also discovered that not only did the naming change but in some cases the base models changed such that parts of the uniform were in different places of the bmp file, so they no longer worked even with a name change to the new smod scheme. This all coincided with the release of one of the games, and consequent engine update, but can't remember which.

Lately, as an experiment, and partly inspired by what I'd noticed about legacy bmps and mdr files inside the base game brzs, I decided to see what would happen if I expanded ALL the brz files and removed ALL the legacy unused textures, models and sounds. I started with CMBN, as it's the oldest with the most crud inside the brzs. My thinking was that every time I boot the game it has to look through the compressed brzs until it finds the latest version of a texture to employ, surely this is adding work and if it only finds a single version maybe that'll speed up launching etc. Anyway turned into a marathon job - there's a a LOT of crud in the BN files. I organised the files using the BF folder hierarchy that's commonly used inside the brzs - terrain, uniforms, buildings, sounds etc plus subfolders as appropriate, along the way removing gigabytes of unused data from my boot drive. Keeping the pruned folders expanded, not making them into brzs again, AND  inside the game's Data folder allows then to act as a kind of massive mod folder, the game still ran quite happily, but did flash a warning about missing brzs. This was easily overcome by making empty brzs with the original file names as installed by the game.

Does the game run or launch any quicker? Maybe marginally, hard to say, I didn't do any scientific comparisons, it just felt a bit quicker at the get go. I have saved gigabytes on my boot drive after applying this to all the games. What about updates? I hear someone muttering in the back row. Should work just fine, the update just seems to install a new brz for each update, nothing getting written to the old already installed set. The fake brzs are there, and the game is happy with them, so I'm pretty confident the updates will be as well. And, in the meantime, I've archived the intact originals so I can quickly copy them back as necessary.

My plan eventually is to replace original textures in the base set of folders with mods I find that I will always use, so keeping my overall game data footprint much lower, that is to say one file for each texture rather that six unused and one that didn't even come with the game but is what I prefer to use. Basically, so long as the game finds at least one correctly named texture file for a particular model it really doesn't seem to care where that file is in the Data folder, so long as it's there (or in the mod/z folder).

Sorry, this is a distraction from your question ...

4 hours ago, Erwin said:

Also... when naming alternative GRAPHICS to appear in-game are the alternative names:  mod.bmp; mod 2.bmp, mod 3.bmp etc.  However, with alternative SOUNDS they have to be named sound 0.wav; sound 1.wav; sound 2.wav etc? 

ie:  with GRAPHICS options one does not use the suffix "1", but with SOUND options one must name the first option with a "0" suffix, and the 2nd option with the "1" suffix, the 3rd option with a "2" suffix etc.

Yes, don't know the why or wherefore of the naming of the textures, but there is no "1" suffix, perhaps it's reserved for something classified  and developerish. If you are naming the files mod.bmp, mod 2.bmp, mod 3.bmp etc be on the lookout for spelling mistakes in the file names, BFs originals not your own, and strange spacing in names; I've see names like mod 3 .bmp and mod2 .bmp etc. Finally, if you make a mistake naming the files, say you have a lot of variations and you miss a numbered file like mod 5.bmp, then all the files after mod 5.bmp eg mod 6.bmp, mod 7.bmp will not load. It's not common to have this many variations in the base game, if at all, but some mods can have a lot.

[Erwin]

What I seem to find is that mod names are different for bmp's vs wav's.    SOUND  mods start with 0, then 1, 2 3 etc.  BMP mods start with no number and then the next one jumps to number 2. I just wanted to get that confirmed by a modder.

Sounds like what you are trying to do is  a huge amount of work - and no clear improvement in performance??.  

 

[Lucky_Strike]

13 hours ago, Erwin said:

What I seem to find is that mod names are different for bmp's vs wav's.    SOUND  mods start with 0, then 1, 2 3 etc.  BMP mods start with no number and then the next one jumps to number 2. I just wanted to get that confirmed by a modder.

Yes, there's no bmp with a zero or "1" suffix, the first texture is always in the form mod.bmp* with any subsequent variations in the form mod 2.bmp, mod 3.bmp, etc - * but the caveat remains, there are a few exceptions that you need to watch for (odd spelling, odd spaces and, very rarely, apparent duplication of numbering), these are probably mistakes that BF deemed irrelevant for most people, so have not been corrected as they would doubtless require other code tinkering.

The best way is to expand the brz files and check the naming schemata of their texture or sound files then follow their lead, but with the warning that you should only use the very latest* version of a texture as the specific naming example since the installed brz files have plenty of redundant files and revised names. So work backwards through the brz to find your examples, use search carefully to find exact names.  * Another caveat being the odd occasion where new files are introduced in a patch, but they are not actually employed in the game - I saw this on a couple of occasions when I sifted through the installed brz files, particularly regarding uniforms; I suspect these cases are unintentional, often they are new files which obviously correct a game bug or somesuch, but for whatever reason they are not being used by the engine and the older version is still in use.

One further point that just popped into my cluttered mind - many of the older uniforms and textures DID NOT have normal map files, in itself this is not a problem. But what will happen is that the renamed mod texture WILL employ the new stock normal maps, this CAN be noticeable on your models. To avoid it you would have to make new normal maps or somehow disable to stock normal maps.

The good thing is that most of the files in the majority of the games have retained the same naming schemata since their release. CMBN is probably the game with the most changes to names. Since you're looking at renaming old mods to use the newer names it's quite trivial to rename a batch, bung them in your z folder, fire up the game and see what happens. Best case scenario is they work and you can take a pat on the back, worst is they don't work and you can pop them in the nearest trash can.

 

13 hours ago, Erwin said:

Sounds like what you are trying to do is  a huge amount of work - and no clear improvement in performance??. 

Mostly it's been a learning experience and a way to reclaim quite a few gigs to save me getting a new boot drive. My gaming rig is quite limited for drive space, and my backups were getting out of hand to the point where my cloud capacity was reaching the tier limit and I had to consider extra subscriptions just to back up RT. As you know we have gigabytes of mods whilst developing new mods takes quite a bit of extra space as well. As I said I don't know if there's any performance gain, but there is a certain sanity gain from my point of view along with nice lean installs. It's certainly not for everyone.

 

[Erwin]

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

it's quite trivial to rename a batch

Oh good as I have been doing em one at a time(!).  How to batch rename?

HD space is cheap these days.  Recommend 1-2 TB drives for BU and large 0.5-1TB SSD's for actual games.)

[Lucky_Strike]

3 hours ago, Erwin said:

Oh good as I have been doing em one at a time(!).  How to batch rename?

HD space is cheap these days.  Recommend 1-2 TB drives for BU and large 0.5-1TB SSD's for actual games.)

I do all my development on a Mac which has a facility in the Finder (Explorer) to batch rename files, so it's quite easy to select a bunch of files and add/replace prefixes etc. Still have to check the numbering by hand to a certain extent. I guess Windows has apps that can do the same type of thing.

Yeah, I have plenty of extra external storage, but my games rig uses NVMe M.2 drives which are ultra fast and compact but ain't cheap to replace sadly. Also I have to balance my online backups, my work and important personal stuff takes priority then what's left can be filled up with CM stuff, but it's not a big space and none of it's free ... if only!

[Erwin]

2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

online backups

evil...  I just don't get why people would want to store their important data on someone else's computer.  

Shame your ar e on a Mac.  I got excited thinking there was an easy and fast method of adding prefixes to a mass of files.

However, you'll note that the entire mod name seems to have been changed from "german-wafenss-cammo-helmet" to "smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier" - so more needs to be altered than the prefix.  (Note the spelling errors in the original as well!)

Surprised that no one commented that SOUNDS have a different number naming convention:  sound 0.wav, then sound 1.wav, then sound 2.wav...  never understood why wav's are numbered differently from mods.

[Centurian52]

There is a bulk renaming utility that can change pre and postfixes for multiple files at the same time. I have used it on a couple of occasions: https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

I am seriously considering installing Ubuntu on my next computer though, since Linux lets you do exactly this sort of thing natively through the console without having to install any additional utilities.

[Erwin]

Thanks for the link.  But, as noted it seems one has to change the entire name, not just the prefix. 

Eg: From "german-wafenss-cammo-helmet" to "smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier"

[JM Stuff]

I am happy to read the content of Lucky and Erwin, towards his tests and this works cos we wan the best for our little tin soldiers

so the brz that break your head, when they are, I will say unzipped

from CMBN in particular,

yes this module contains innumerable files, sometimes not essential, because obsolete or having changed suffix, and where an in-depth study of the files is necessary to dissect the content, for example :

by sacrificing some textures with a copy of his game is necessary to discover that all the files are not used in the game, I have experienced it, and I have voluntarily drawn a colored circle from different colors on my uniforms, doing the same with helmets and faces to find out that not everything is used in the game.

The face files are not all used to my astonishment, the 14 american skin files of my last mod, the famous

CMBN Mod: US Helmet Paras Normandy Filthy,... more, over the face files have two names, and some could be put in the trash, like for example the following skins
german-soldier-skin 1 2 3 .... bmp
us-soldier-skin
canadian-soldier-skin
polish-soldier-skin
locate in the folder at the beginning brz H: \ 2 Normandy V4 \ Mod Tools \ RezExplode \ exploded \ a ...

compare to the following ones in copy or with a changed name
german_skin 1 2 3.bmp
american_skin 1 2 3.bmp
canadian-soldier-skin
polish-soldier-skin
uk-soldier-skin
locate in the folder H: \ 2 Normandy V4 \ Mod Tools \ RezExplode \ exploded \ Normandy v200 \ skins

this is only an example, and I am sure other files are also irrelevant about, helmets, uniforms, and other files ... and can be erased without danger to launch the game, which may save us a few seconds at the launch of the game, it remains to be seen which ones ?

 

I had thought in the past, to choose the most suitable mods of CMMODs, and to replace the precious bmp wav files ... and thus form my own brz files, but this work is a titanic work, especially since taking only the last modifications are not enough, for example using only the last modification Normandy last patch is not enough, because one or two files will be necessary to launch the game, located in directories a, b, or normandy v100,101, .. or the slightest error is fatal for the launch of the game, and I therefore abandoned the creation of my own brz files.

But I think about it again and one day by making a copy of my original CMBN, I will manage to have my brz with the mods already included, and therefore save loading time by always having other novelties in my precious z folder.

 

for info another similar bulkrenameutility software is as follows

Advanced Renamer I think a bit easier to use.

 

just saying 

 

JM

[Erwin]

3 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

to choose the most suitable mods of CMMODs, and to replace the precious bmp wav files ... and thus form my own brz files, but this work is a titanic work

Yup... that is what I am finding... 

 

[Lucky_Strike]

21 hours ago, Erwin said:

evil...  I just don't get why people would want to store their important data on someone else's computer. 

Insurance, I can't afford to loose work in a house fire/flood/freak tornado for instance.

21 hours ago, Erwin said:

Shame your ar e on a Mac.  I got excited thinking there was an easy and fast method of adding prefixes to a mass of files.

However, you'll note that the entire mod name seems to have been changed from "german-wafenss-cammo-helmet" to "smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier" - so more needs to be altered than the prefix.  (Note the spelling errors in the original as well!)

Most of these renaming apps use search and replace as one method to rename ie search the selected files for this name pattern: german-wafenss-cammo-helmet; replace with this: smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier

They can do whole or part name changes on selected files, so if one has a series of names which are mostly the same: german-wafenss-cammo-helmet.bmp, german-wafenss-cammo-helmet 2.bmp, german-wafenss-cammo-helmet 3.bmp - it can search for the german-wafenss-cammo-helmet part of the file names and replace it with whatever one wants eg smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier to give one: smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier.bmp, smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier 2.bmp, smod_german_ss_helmet-soldier 3.bmp etc - capice?

21 hours ago, Erwin said:

Surprised that no one commented that SOUNDS have a different number naming convention:  sound 0.wav, then sound 1.wav, then sound 2.wav...  never understood why wav's are numbered differently from mods.

The sounds have a different numbering convention 

After seeing so much of the insides of the brzs nothing surprises me, there are definitely some nonsensical conventions in there, even found a few raw textures with no colours or even form just odd wire frames, more like templates.

8 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

by sacrificing some textures with a copy of his game is necessary to discover that all the files are not used in the game, I have experienced it, and I have voluntarily drawn a colored circle from different colors on my uniforms, doing the same with helmets and faces to find out that not everything is used in the game.

I use the exact same technique to figure out what is used, indeed sometimes I found textures that were never used, even in the latest games like F&R

8 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

The face files are not all used to my astonishment

Yes I also noticed that, the faces were made sometime ago but the old ones are still used ...

8 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

and I am sure other files are also irrelevant about, helmets, uniforms, and other files ... and can be erased without danger to launch the game, which may save us a few seconds at the launch of the game, it remains to be seen which ones ?

I have removed a lot of the old textures and the game runs just fine, still have to do some more scientific tests to see if it speeds up loading, but that wasn't my priority. I do know that there are some textures I will have to check more carefully, some that might not be used but not obvious.

8 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

I had thought in the past, to choose the most suitable mods of CMMODs, and to replace the precious bmp wav files ... and thus form my own brz files, but this work is a titanic work, especially since taking only the last modifications are not enough, for example using only the last modification Normandy last patch is not enough, because one or two files will be necessary to launch the game, located in directories a, b, or normandy v100,101, .. or the slightest error is fatal for the launch of the game, and I therefore abandoned the creation of my own brz files.

Once I have "cleaned" out all the redundant stuff and double checked everything is working I am more than happy to let you have a copy of the "lean" data folders. Interestingly they don't have to be put back into brz format (which barely compresses them or saves any space by the way), the game happily runs from any collection of folders in it's master Data folder. It complains if it can't find all the original installed brz's but it will still happily run. And if a texture is missing the pixeltruppen just appear as black figures, like ninjas

As I said previously, I have made an empty set of brzs with the names of the original installed ones to trick the game so it doesn't warn me they are missing. And of course I keep at least one virgin set of the original installed files just in case anything bad happens or in case updates don't like my data folders. Also always have the installers to hand if needs be.

4 hours ago, Erwin said:

Yup... that is what I am finding... 

For sure, it's taken me longer to mod my games than to go through ALL the brzs for ALL the games I have and strip out all the old crud ... hohum

 

[Erwin]

2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Once I have "cleaned" out all the redundant stuff and double checked everything is working I am more than happy to let you have a copy of the "lean" data folders.

That would be something very useful to post to CMMODS.  Getting rid of all the obsolete mods would help with loading speed.  Over the past decade, my CMBN Z folder has bloated to 20GB of mods, most of which probably no longer work.  

[JM Stuff]

15 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

 

Once I have "cleaned" out all the redundant stuff and double checked everything is working I am more than happy to let you have a copy of the "lean" data folders. Interestingly they don't have to be put back into brz format (which barely compresses them or saves any space by the way), the game happily runs from any collection of folders in it's master Data folder. It complains if it can't find all the original installed brz's but it will still happily run. And if a texture is missing the pixeltruppen just appear as black figures, like ninjas

As I said previously, I have made an empty set of brzs with the names of the original installed ones to trick the game so it doesn't warn me they are missing. And of course I keep at least one virgin set of the original installed files just in case anything bad happens or in case updates don't like my data folders. Also always have the installers to hand if needs be.

For sure, it's taken me longer to mod my games than to go through ALL the brzs for ALL the games I have and strip out all the old crud ... hohum

 

Hi Mark

you are telling very interesting things about brz files, if I understand correctly, you are running the game with the brz "open" or "unbrzipped" folders, and you have the ingenuity to reproduce an "empty" brz file, but keeping the original names, which makes the game play as if the brz files are in their original forms is that correct ?

Before knowing this procedure, I had done the same as you, by "opening or" unzipping "the brz and deleting the files which for me were without negative effect for the launch, ...but of course I reproduced again the new brz files that for me was a capital procedure to reading these at the launch phase, which for me were first ever having never tried your procedure, hoping not to be mistaken ... you know what I meant, and if it worked I would do the same again with other files, a long and perilous operation, because an oversight or a work on a "bad" brz, and it is the disaster.

 As the files are sometimes heavy to copy and recopy, and to put eventual in special directories, not to do blunders, it takes a long time then, you have to delete the entire brz which, "with  a problem" in short, an incredible puzzle, ... I'm sure you went through the same path ... now that I know your miracle formula and almost magical, I can do myself the same and  hunt intruders again!

I assume you took a while to recognize these obsolete files and identified them all.

Apart from the files that I named above, ...when you have time, could you tell me which files you think are obsolete and can be deleted from the list of folders. ?

Or eventual send me the famous cleaned brz,?

It is a really important help that you have just revealed  and I am going to get to work.

Other questions did you practice in the same way for the other modules because I also think that they could find intruders.
In any case, Mark Miles, thank you for this very pleasant information.

I hope you will understand my text if not let me know and I can google help !!

 

Also the recommadations from Erwin are interresting, about the CMMODs, and I would suggest to put your cleaned brz files on...have to see only who will be able to take this risk to replace it, and if everybodys would be awake to take his own decision but also the eventuals concequences? 

 

Amical  JM

Edited July 27, 2021 by JM Stuff

[Lucky_Strike]

13 hours ago, Erwin said:

That would be something very useful to post to CMMODS.  Getting rid of all the obsolete mods would help with loading speed.  Over the past decade, my CMBN Z folder has bloated to 20GB of mods, most of which probably no longer work.  

These wouldn't be mod folders as such, but rather they'd contain just the stock textures that the game actually uses rather than ALL the years-worth of built-up crud. I will personally use this as the base for my own super mod which would be a data folder where I actually REPLACE stock textures with my favourite mods rather than using the z folder to substitute them, effectively the mods would become the stock textures. The z folder would then only be used for testing new stuff, development etc.

Incidentally, I did a quasi-scientific experiment last night - as I was reinstalling a couple of the games (thanks Microsoft updates for somehow ruining the colour rendering of my system!), I ran a before and after loading times test using the virgin game installation as the before and my stripped out expanded data folders for the after. Loading the same game/scenario three times over produced no discernible difference in load times between the data sets. This tells me the brz files are just convenient delivery containers.

So as you note, this is more about a cleaner, leaner installation rather than any improvement in performance, though as a caveat, I have no idea how the game accesses the textures during gameplay or if there may be some impact on performance depending also on memory usage and GPU capabilities. It's all a black art to me.

[Lucky_Strike]

1 hour ago, JM Stuff said:

you are telling very interesting things about brz files, if I understand correctly, you are running the game with the brz "open" or "unbrzipped" folders, and you have the ingenuity to reproduce an "empty" brz file, but keeping the original names, which makes the game play as if the brz files are in their original forms is that correct ?

Yes, open. Yes, empty brz with original names just to stop the game from warning me I am missing some files, technically it'll run without these but will warn they are missing at every launch, nothing big.

1 hour ago, JM Stuff said:

Before knowing this procedure, I had done the same as you, by "opening or" unzipping "the brz and deleting the files which for me were without negative effect for the launch, ...but of course I reproduced again the new brz files that for me was a capital procedure to reading these at the launch phase, which for me were first ever having never tried your procedure, hoping not to be mistaken ... you know what I meant, and if it worked I would do the same again with other files, a long and perilous operation, because an oversight or a work on a "bad" brz, and it is the disaster.

Yes, that's what I did, but then it occurred to me that most mods now are supplied in open folders, not brz files, so why not the stock Data brzs. I tried one any left it open, and the game ran flawlessly. What I haven't tried is using folders with the stock brz names, my aim was to bring all the textures, sounds, etc into one big folder with subfolders for example uniforms, sound fx, vehicles etc reflecting the folder hierarchy that BF use inside the brzs (though I use my own folder naming when I prefer and the game doesn't care so long as it finds the file it needs). What I suggest is keeping a clean untouched, unedited set of the original installed brzs somewhere and then messing about with your own open folders, without the need to re-brz them ever. Brz is just a delivery system so far as I can tell. 

 

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

 As the files are sometimes heavy to copy and recopy, and to put eventual in special directories, not to do blunders, it takes a long time then, you have to delete the entire brz which, "with  a problem" in short, an incredible puzzle, ... I'm sure you went through the same path ... now that I know your miracle formula and almost magical, I can do myself the same and  hunt intruders again!

I assume you took a while to recognize these obsolete files and identified them all.

Yes, once the brz are open they can stay that way.

I sorted through the files by simply having two folders open next to each other on my screen, one the expanded original brz and the other my new data folder with subfolders in it for uniforms, vehicles etc. The subfolders can be whatever you want, with as many hierarchical levels as needed, whatever makes the most sense to you. I then started with the oldest brz, so for CMBN it's something like Combat Mission Normandy 1.00a , and just copied all the textures, sounds, 3D models over to their appropriate new subfolder. When that one is done I moved on to the next brz in chronological order, so for example Combat Mission Normandy 1.00b, and so on, copying the files over and, critically, allowing them to overwrite older versions that might exist in the new location. So if uniform-helmet.bmp already exists in the new subfolder and I find another, newer version in a later brz I allow that newer version to overwrite the older one. With files where the naming convention has changed, like the smod uniform naming which was introduced, one has to be more careful. I manually deleted to older uniforms and replaced them with the newer smod versions. If you're unsure it's easy enough to figure out which files are being used but applying the coloured circles on copies of the files. There are a few exceptions, as you have already seen, with things like the new versions of the US faces that don't get used, but if you miss something and it doesn't show in the game it's generally quite simple to get a copy from your original brzs. Be methodical and take your time, don't do it if you are falling asleep at your screen!

Or ...

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Apart from the files that I named above, ...when you have time, could you tell me which files you think are obsolete and can be deleted from the list of folders. ?

Or eventual send me the famous cleaned brz,?

Yes it's much easier if I just send you the folders, I only need to do a bit of tidying and they are ready. So long as you understand the process you can then go in and move stuff around to suit your needs.

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Other questions did you practice in the same way for the other modules because I also think that they could find intruders.
In any case, Mark Miles, thank you for this very pleasant information.

I hope you will understand my text if not let me know and I can google help !!

I've pretty much finished it for ALL the WW2 titles. I have no interest in modern games so that's as much as I'm doing.

I hope you can understand my instructions, your text is perfectly fine!

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Also the recommadations from Erwin are interresting, about the CMMODs, and I would suggest to put your cleaned brz files on...have to see only who will be able to take this risk to replace it, and if everybodys would be awake to take his own decision but also the eventuals concequences? 

I don't know if this is something that most people would want and if it's even acceptable to BF. I do it for my own purposes and am happy to share the knowledge with the community, and to send the files to those that might want them to save a lot of work, but I'm wary of posting them for public consumption. Maybe the super mod folders would be okay, but they would contain a lot of other peoples works so again there are perhaps issues.

It's all fascinating stuff, but ultimately useful only to a few of us. 

 

[JM Stuff]

1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said:

 

DON T READ ALL THIS PART, IS FOR ME ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR ANSWER !

 

 

most mods now are supplied in open folders, not brz files, so why not the stock Data brzs. I tried one any left it open, and the game ran flawlessly. What I haven't tried is using folders with the stock brz names, my aim was to bring all the textures, sounds, etc into one big folder with subfolders for example uniforms, sound fx, vehicles etc reflecting the folder hierarchy that BF use inside the brzs 

SORRY I DONT UNDERSTAND ALL ABOUT WHY NOT THE STOCK DATA BRZS !?

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 What I suggest is keeping a clean untouched, unedited set of the original installed brzs somewhere and then messing about with your own open folders, without the need to re-brz them ever.

I DID ALREADY NEVER, BE SURE TO DONT LOOSE YOUR ORIGINAL 

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 and so on, copying the files over and, critically, allowing them to overwrite older versions that might exist in the new location. So if uniform-helmet.bmp already exists in the new subfolder and I find another, newer version in a later brz I allow that newer version to overwrite the older one. With files where the naming convention has changed, like the smod uniform naming which was introduced, one has to be more careful. I manually deleted to older uniforms and replaced them with the newer smod versions. 

THIS IS THE PART THAT WE HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION ! ! !

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Yes it's much easier if I just send you the folders, I only need to do a bit of tidying and they are ready. So long as you understand the process you can then go in and move stuff around to suit your needs.

THIS WILL BE VERY KIND OF YOU BUT ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE YOURSELF TIME TO DO NOTHING URGENT !!!

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I've pretty much finished it for ALL the WW2 titles. I have no interest in modern games so that's as much as I'm doing.

I hope you can understand my instructions, your text is perfectly fine!

NICE TO KNOW I WILL DO THE SAME AS YOU

ABOUT" DONT HAVE INTERREST IN MODERN GAME" IT WAS FOR ME ALSO THE SAME UNTILL THEY MAKE CMCW !!!

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I don't know if this is something that most people would want and if it's even acceptable to BF. I do it for my own purposes and am happy to share the knowledge with the community, and to send the files to those that might want them to save a lot of work, but I'm wary of posting them for public consumption. Maybe the super mod folders would be okay, but they would contain a lot of other peoples works so again there are perhaps issues.

It's all fascinating stuff, but ultimately useful only to a few of us. 

YES YOU ARE RIGHT, WE HAVE TO KEEP ONLY FOR PEOPLES THAT WANT REALLY, THIS DONT HAVE TO MAKE AN OBJET OF MODS !!!

 

 

JM

[Lucky_Strike]

46 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

most mods now are supplied in open folders, not brz files, so why not the stock Data brzs. I tried one any left it open, and the game ran flawlessly. What I haven't tried is using folders with the stock brz names, my aim was to bring all the textures, sounds, etc into one big folder with subfolders for example uniforms, sound fx, vehicles etc reflecting the folder hierarchy that BF use inside the brzs 

SORRY I DONT UNDERSTAND ALL ABOUT WHY NOT THE STOCK DATA BRZS !?

Sorry, that's just me thinking aloud - what I mean is why are the original game data files delivered in brz containers that don't get expanded when they are installed? The brzs don't save space, they are not compressed files. We have the tools to open them, so it's not a case of BF not wanting us to see what's inside of the brzs, so I presume it's just a convenient delivery mechanism that is platform-agnostic. One other point is that one big file is quicker to copy than lots of small files, this is especially noticeable on spinning HDD, whereas with modern SSDs and M.2 drives the time it takes to copy so much data is now measured in minutes not hours - I can drag copy a fresh install of ALL the data into my game folder in something like ten minutes per game across my network, enough time to go and watch some kitten videos on YouTube!

1 hour ago, JM Stuff said:

Yes it's much easier if I just send you the folders, I only need to do a bit of tidying and they are ready. So long as you understand the process you can then go in and move stuff around to suit your needs.

THIS WILL BE VERY KIND OF YOU BUT ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE YOURSELF TIME TO DO NOTHING URGENT !!!

Not a problem my friend. As I say I've already done most of the work, just a case of tidying up some of the odd files I found, then they're ready.

1 hour ago, JM Stuff said:

ABOUT" DONT HAVE INTERREST IN MODERN GAME" IT WAS FOR ME ALSO THE SAME UNTILL THEY MAKE CMCW !!!

No, I will never be interested in modern games, it's just the way it is ...

Once I finish sorting the last bits and when I can find somewhere to store these online I'll let you know, might have to split them up, but will certainly only do one game at a time.

[JM Stuff]

2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Sorry, that's just me thinking aloud - what I mean is why are the original game data files delivered in brz containers that don't get expanded when they are installed? The brzs don't save space, they are not compressed files. We have the tools to open them, so it's not a case of BF not wanting us to see what's inside of the brzs, so I presume it's just a convenient delivery mechanism that is platform-agnostic. One other point is that one big file is quicker to copy than lots of small files, this is especially noticeable on spinning HDD, whereas with modern SSDs and M.2 drives the time it takes to copy so much data is now measured in minutes not hours - I can drag copy a fresh install of ALL the data into my game folder in something like ten minutes per game across my network, enough time to go and watch some kitten videos on YouTube!

Not a problem my friend. As I say I've already done most of the work, just a case of tidying up some of the odd files I found, then they're ready.

No, I will never be interested in modern games, it's just the way it is ...

Once I finish sorting the last bits and when I can find somewhere to store these online I'll let you know, might have to split them up, but will certainly only do one game at a time.

Dont worry Mark, I really appreciate your  way to explain it in details, like everytimes, blue thumb to yours explanations and yours brz folders offers, give me only a sign when you are ready ! 

 

Amical JM