8 replies to this topic

[Narice Dei]

Okay, i was trying to download the Fade NPC and then i found out it was a rar file. I absolutely DESPISE rar files because they're a complete pain to add into your game correctly. I much prefer self extracting archives, call me lazy, i just really prefer them. With a self extracting file, you can pick and choose which bits of the mod you want in your game. I don't even bother with rar files. So i was just puttin it out there as a request... I know it would be a lot of work for everyone who creates them, but it would help out more than just me if you would put both a rar file and an SEA for download options. Thanks so much for reading =] i'm not trying to be rude, i'm just stating my preference  

Edited by Narice Dei, 26 December 2008 - 12:33 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Okay, i was trying to download the Fade NPC and then i found out it was a rar file. I absolutely DESPISE rar files because they're a complete pain to add into your game correctly. I much prefer self extracting archives, call me lazy, i just really prefer them. With a self extracting file, you can pick and choose which bits of the mod you want in your game. I don't even bother with rar files.

Well, most mods are made with .rar because it's easier(attach files to forums), and because the auto extractors use almost the same logic, but the .rar files don't run the WeiDU.exe inside them after they have extracted themselves, nor do the have the program files directory as their preset directory, but that actually makes the process of mega moding a hell of a lot easier. That's the reason why I hate auto.exe's.

So i was just puttin it out there as a request... I know it would be a lot of work for everyone who creates them, but it would help out more than just me if you would put both a rar file and an SEA for download options. Thanks so much for reading =] i'm not trying to be rude, i'm just stating my preference.

And I am going to make sure this will never happen to most of the files.
So get yourself a Winrar, and you copy the game directory in windows to the extraction folder slot. And then just run the setup-modname.exe, that's actually the WeiDU.exe .

The C:/Pelit/BGII being the game folder and the extracted mod is a modified addition for the bg2fixpack(6.1 hotfix) found here.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 26 December 2008 - 05:28 AM.

[Narice Dei]

Doesn't winrar cost money though?

[berelinde]

Yes, it does cost money, but the player does not have to bear the expense. WinRAR comes with the option to create a self-extracting archive by selecting the "SFX archive" option on compression. It doesn't take that much work, and if you look at the templates available on the G3 wiki, you can even get it to start running weidu.exe automatically. In other words, the modder has to have WinRAR or something like it to package the mod. It's only another step to make it a self-extracting archive.

Yet that does not explain why I have not done that with two of my mods.

Edit: if you, like me, prefer to extract mods prior to running the installer, you can still right-click and extract SFX archives, something you can't do with NSIS installers, which I really do not care for at all.

Edited by berelinde, 26 December 2008 - 03:19 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Yes, it does cost money, but the player does not have to bear the expense.

No, it's actually free, but you'll get a note every time you open the thing, but you can dismiss it if you are only using it to open the files.

[Bearwere]

While I was using Windows, I always hated mods, packaged into .exe. Upon installation every damn little mod unpacked itself, launched weidu, "conveniently" updated all weidus in the game folder, then launched self-installation. All this took soooooo long. And all I wanted is to unpack all the mods I need, update all weidu exes at once and then start installing. But I have come to know the true pain when I tried to install Baldur's Gate with mods under Linux. Damn, damn exe's. Rar is no so bad, but still it requires winrar or unrar to unpack it. And, why people even use rar, I wonder? Zip can be unpacked by every single archivator out there. If download size bothers you, there is 7z, with better compression ratio and absolutely free and crossplatfom.

Edited by Bearwere, 26 December 2008 - 08:53 PM.

[Azazello]

Okay, i was trying to download the Fade NPC and then i found out it was a rar file. I absolutely DESPISE rar files because they're a complete pain to add into your game correctly. I much prefer self extracting archives, call me lazy...

Hey you--Lazy...

Doesn't winrar cost money though?

Yes, it does cost money, but the player does not have to bear the expense.

No, it's actually free, but you'll get a note every time you open the thing, but you can dismiss it if you are only using it to open the files.

You can use other free apps to create/extract RARs; I used ZipGenius. No nag screens, and I think it supports 7z although you might need to install a separate module for that. Still, ZG is free.

Edited by Azazello, 28 December 2008 - 03:40 PM.

[Silmarien]

I know this thread is a kinda old, but since I haven't responded to it, here goes.

I don't like self-extracting files. I tend to read mods rather than play them these days, and most of the time I just want to extract the mod dialogue and what-have-you files into a folder for easy reading. I don't like it when the self-extracting file asks me to specify where my BG2 installation is, tries to install it, then announces with alarm that it cannot find 'dialog.tlk'.

Besides, there's another reason, which is rather better than the first reason, and that's that I don't know how to make self-extracting files. Well, not until I saw what berelinde posted earlier anyway.

[Kaeloree]

I prefer .rar format, since it means that Mac users as well as Linux users are easily able to access files, even if they can't install them without some changes.