Starbound Mod Manager [Deleted]

Help please, when I choose a folder with the game gives me this error. What's the problem?

 

Go inside the Starbound folder, then hit the select button.

 

I just spent a few minutes fixing up the main page for the mod manager. I've neglected it for too long. I posted the full re-design image gallery there, but you can also find it right here. All of that is only in Photoshop for now, but progress is being made almost every day towards getting version 2.0 to a stable beta stage.

I don't generally like giving out ETAs for things, but I will guarantee that version 2.0.0 will be complete and released by the end of February (hopefully sooner, but who knows with software development?). The reason for this is that Java 8 comes out in March. Java 8 has a whole lot of big changes that the mod manager will take advantage of, such as an updated version of JavaFX. I want to have a fully working version of the mod manager before then, so that I can port it over all at once.

The update to JavaFX in March is particularly important for several reasons, but the biggest change is the way errors are handled. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "Exception occurred while running the Application" errors that don't get logged (if you've browsed this discussion thread, at least). Unfortunately, the reason for these errors not getting caught and logged is a flaw in the current JavaFX design. JavaFX 8 fixes this, so I'll be able to catch more errors and provide actual solutions for those problems.

 

They look prety good! Nice job!

BTW, we all hate java, but we all need it X-D

 

I actually like Java. It's certainly not without its flaws, but recent updates (Java 7 and 8) have delivered some massive improvements to the platform. I expect future versions will do the same.
The problem is that while it runs on most operating systems, it comes in the ugly .jar format. I'd love a way to compile binaries for each platform (which is actually possible, but I'd have to own each platform to compile on them). If I could do that reasonably, then these Java applications would look and function no differently than, say, one written in C#. (Obviously they'd be massively different in code, but that'd be transparent to the user.)

 

I don't see how to fix this, I get the exception while running application error, then when I type "java -jar Mod Manager.jar" in the command prompt it says "Unable to access jar file Mod"
EDIT: Retard here, I needed the latest version of Java
EDIT: Also, still not working, apparently I had to do "java -jar..." and paste the whole thing "C:/Name/Etc" and it told me to install the latest Java and restart the program, after I restarted Java it still says Exception running program
EDIT: Can't use it at all, it doesn't seem to work with Java 7, even the command prompt won't recognize java as a command

 

Should I wait until the major update for this mod is released for convenience and efficiency, or just download it now? There are some mods that I'm eager to use.

 

not work

 

KrazyTheFox, I think I found a bug in v1.5.6:

(Note: Currently still using Angry Koala)
1) I uninstalled your mod manager v1.5.0 completely. This included uninstalling and deleting all my mods and manually deleting all files in my mod manager directory.
2) I did a fresh download of v1.5.6 and installed it.
3) I re-installed all the mods I was using with v1.5.0. So far so good. Everything seemed okay.

4) I manually updated the .modinfo file for Extra Zoom Levels (version 1.0, Angry edition) so it would have metadata for the manager.
5) I tried to "Add" Extra Zoom Levels v1.0 to the manager. As soon as I did it gave this error:

I double and triple-checked the .modinfo and then I examined the folders and content of "ExtraZoomLevels(Angry)v1.0_ALT1.zip". It's an extremely simple mod. Aside from the .modinfo, it has just one file, "optionsmenu.config", which is located inside a "optionsmenu" folder, which is inside an "interface" folder. So it looks like this:

.\ExtraZoomLevels\
.\ExtraZoomLevels\ExtraZoomLevels.modinfo
.\ExtraZoomLevels\interface\
.\ExtraZoomLevels\interface\optionsmenu
.\ExtraZoomLevels\interface\optionsmenu\optionsmenu.config

That's the entirety of the mod. And optionsmenu.config uses a simple __merge.

There's no reason that I can see why it would give that error. It must be confused, probably looking for content other than a simple .config located in the seldom-modded interface folder.

The .modinfo I used:

Code:

{
  "name" : "ExtraZoomLevels",
  "version" : "Beta v. Angry Koala",
  "path" : ".",
  "dependencies" : [],
  "metadata" : {
    "displayName" : "Extra Zoom Levels",
    "author" : "Patchumz",
    "description" : "Adds extra zoom levels to select from in the options menu.",
    "support_url" : "http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/extra-zoom-levels.982/",
    "version" : "1.0 ALT1"
  }
}

Seems I'll have to install this one manually, because the manager won't let me install it.

PS: I can not find a .log file in my "StarboundModManager" folder. Does this version not produce an error log? How can we help you with errors and bugs, then?

 

Err... I found another bug with version 1.5.6:

I attempted to use "hoverbikes-CHEAT2_0.1.zip", which is a slightly modified version of erlioniel's Hoverbikes tech vehicle mod. It worked just fine with your v1.5.0. (Which, as I said earlier, I believe is the most stable I've tried.)

But when I tried it with 1.5.6 and went to the character screen, as soon as I tried to scroll or select a character it crashed to desktop with errors like these:

Because it could not find those assets, it rendered nearly all my characters unplayable.

I found the cause. When v1.5.6 installed "hoverbikes-CHEAT2_0.1.zip" it left out an entire folder and placed content where it should not have been placed.

The content inside "hoverbikes-CHEAT2_0.1.zip":
.\hoverbikes\
.\hoverbikes\hoverbikes.modinfo
.\hoverbikes\player.config
.\hoverbikes\recipes\
.\hoverbikes\recipes\ {contains the recipies}
.\hoverbikes\tech\
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\hoverbike.lua
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\hoverbike_techitem.png
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\human\
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\human\human_hoverbike.tech
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\human\human_hoverbike.techitem
.\hoverbikes\tech\hoverbikes\human\ {...and a bunch more files}

The hoverbike content as the Mod Manager placed it inside my mods folder:
.\mods\Hoverbikes\hoverbikes.modinfo
.\mods\Hoverbikes\player.config
.\mods\Hoverbikes\recipes\
.\mods\Hoverbikes\recipes\ {contains the recipies}
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\hoverbike.lua
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\hoverbike_techitem.png <----NOT WHERE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\human\
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\human\human_hoverbike.tech <----NOT WHERE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\human\human_hoverbike.techitem
.\mods\Hoverbikes\tech\human\ {...and a bunch more files}

See there? For some reason, the mod manager left out the "hoverbikes" folder from inside the "tech" folder and, instead, placed the majority of the content directly inside the tech folder!

I think the Mod Manager got confused because there was a folder named "hoverbikes" inside the tech folder, which is inside the "hoverbikes" root folder. And it has "name" : "Hoverbikes" and the .modinfo is hoverbikes.modinfo. That's the only reason I can think of why it would leave out the "hoverbikes" folder from inside tech.

Considering that you incorporated code from your yet-to-be-released version 2.0 inside v1.5.6, you may want to look into this...

PS: On the plus side, I will rave on how fast the Mod Manager now loads. It starts almost instantly! Before, I could use the restroom or grab something to drink, come back, and it still would not have started.

 

In better news...

I decided to try a .modinfo with the "path" : "\assets\" line again (which some of your old versions would not recognize). And... it worked! ... I think?

When I examined the EnergyDevices folder in my mods folder, I saw the EnergyDevices.modinfo inside and... an "assets" folder (with the player.config and all the content inside)?

Maybe I don't know how it should work? I was expecting the Mod Manager to remove the assets folder from where it installs in the mods folder. Something like this:

.\mods\EnergyDevices\EnergyDevices.modinfo
.\mods\EnergyDevices\player.config
.\mods\EnergyDevices\interface\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\items\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\objects\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\recipes\ {some stuff}

Also, when a "path" is used to direct the system to look elsewhere for assets, I half-expected it to ignore all content - aside from the .modinfo itself - in the directory where the .modinfo is located. (allowing, say, a readme.txt to get ignored). Though, I do remember you said the "ignoredfiles" tag would be incorporated after your 2.0 release...

Finally - as an FYI to others - I just want to mention that I was not sure how the path was to be specified in the "path" line. From experimentation, it seems like "assets" and "./assets/" are both recognized. However, other variations - including "\" back-slashes or leaving off the "." in front - seem to generate "Cannot find assets folder" errors.

 

After some more testing with mod folders and paths, I learned a couple more things:

PRO:
I tried an experiment where the mod's folder structure was like so:

.\EnergyDevices\
.\EnergyDevices\assets\
.\EnergyDevices\assets\EnergyDevices.modinfo
.\EnergyDevices\assets\player.config
.\EnergyDevices\assets\interface\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\assets\items\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\assets\objects\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\assets\recipes\ {some stuff}

It deleted the assets folder in this case when it installed everything.
Another words, it looks like this:

.\mods\EnergyDevices\
.\mods\EnergyDevices\EnergyDevices.modinfo
.\mods\EnergyDevices\player.config
.\mods\EnergyDevices\interface\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\items\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\objects\ {some stuff}
.\mods\EnergyDevices\recipes\ {some stuff}

IMO, this is a good thing!

CON ?:
In my second experiment I merely tried to hide a readme.txt in the root folder of the .zip, like so:

.\readme.txt
.\EnergyDevices\
.\EnergyDevices\EnergyDevices.modinfo
.\EnergyDevices\player.config
.\EnergyDevices\interface\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\items\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\objects\ {some stuff}
.\EnergyDevices\recipes\ {some stuff}

The result? When it installed the mod it placed the readme.txt inside the EnergyDevices folder, right next to the .modinfo and player.config. Granted, there was no promise of ignored readme files (yet). But, I was... hopeful?

 

Where are you running the mod manager itself from?

The current version should work well enough for managing mods. Version 2 is going to be a little while still (probably 2+ weeks), so if you don't want to wait that long, go ahead and download the current version.

Wow, that's a lot of testing! Thanks! I've got to go drive my brother to school (then I have limited time before going to pick him up again), but I'll definitely go and test all of this out and fix it up tonight.

I've actually fixed a lot of this (it looks like) in version 2 already. The code I ported over to version 1.x.x was mostly to do with archive unpacking—all of the actual installation code is written just for v1.x.x, which probably does have these bugs in them. As with the above, I'll hunt them down when I have time today.

Edit: The errors.log file will only show up if there's an exception thrown. Bugs don't throw exceptions when it thinks everything is working fine.

 

This bug was sneaky, but I figured out what was wrong. The mod manager used to identify which mods had valid structures by counting all the files inside the assets folder. The problem here is that I remove any files with "__merge" in them from that list so that they're just copied over into a new folder without notifying of conflicts... so when a mod has only 1 file in it that contains "__merge", it removes that one file from the list, resulting in an empty set.... which validates as having 0 files, causing the add to fail. This is now fixed. I'll push an update in a few minutes.

I'm unable to replicate this one. Using a fresh download from the site (modified the version to work), it copied everything to the correct folders when I installed it. Did you have any other mods installed at the time? Could I get the exact archive you're using in a PM? It might be differences between the two that's not letting me replicate that bug.

I think you'll really like version 2 when it comes out, then. I've tested it with about 20 mods installed at once and the loading speed is near instant so far (database connection excluded, which can take a few seconds). I'm storing all the info about the mods in the database itself, then running checks on the archives to see if anything changed. If nothing has, it just uses the information right out of the database without parsing any extra data.

Right now, the mod manager copies over the files inside the archive, removing any subdirectories from the front of the .modinfo file path. It then takes that same tree and removes it from all other files that start with it. It's a little ugly, but gets the job done, but with the unfortunate side effect of the readme.txt getting placed next to the .modinfo file. The way I've rewritten version 2 has it completely repackage the mods, using only the contents of the .modinfo's folder. This lets me split up multiple mods in single archives into separate mods with ease. There's still a couple problems to work out with this (such as multiple .modinfos sharing a folder), but it works for 99% of mods out there. The only one I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't work is the Base in a Box mod, which has all the .modinfos in one directory.

 

KrazyTheFox updated Starbound Mod Manager with a new update entry:

Bug Fix

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

KrazyTheFox updated Starbound Mod Manager with a new update entry:

Major Bug Fix

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

One Question. Could you straight copy the files? I can't fix the java error.

 

Copy which files?

 

so how do I actually add mods to the manager?

 

Click "Add New Mod" on the left, then select the mod you want to add (it has to be in a .zip file).