How does biffing affect modding?

[Jarno Mikkola]

So, I guess I didn't understand something and I would be very glad if someone would try to explain and answer my above question(s).

Erhm, you might wish to recompile your thoughs after this follow up info... as you asked not 2 questions, but about a 6 in total...

 

The Generalized Biffing is a mod that can be uninstalled like any other mod, now the old mods that Biffed could be uninstalled "without causing any terrible looses of data" by adding a .bat run file at the end of the mod, but the problem came up then when the weidu.exe wanted to remove more than a one mod(stack uninstall), as it need to do that to reinstall a mod version or removal of an unwanted component in the middle of a stack of mods which had then been biffed... as the weidu.exe couldn't know when the .bat had run it's course, and done it's duty, if there was a backup even made during the biffing at all. Now that's the answer to the unasked question: "-no quick re-install of updated mods to eliminate a bug".

 

The other point of yours: "-no re-use of game ressources, e.g. for areas: no use of game ambients: copying them into the override isn't enough any more" can be said to be a moot point as it's better to make sure that your mod works on a unmoded game platform, and then take it to a modified game platform. As in, you need to provide all the needed resourses, the ambients etc without a need of anything else in the game... yes, even if the mod can only be installed into a BGT game, you also need to name the every and each of the mod resourses you use in the map as your own(and thus use the "C#" prefix for the all the files, to make them yours), so the mod XY6%#& won't put angle pictures all over your neat dungeon area for the shear fun of it, and so the game won't crash because others fail at their job while you were the "unbeknowing participant"...

 

I assume you mean game .tis for my custom .are and .wed?

This is easy to fix, by using your own files while you make a new custom area... not an old one that could have been broken by dozen other mods.

 

Yes, you can use the IE tools to export files, you just need to then rename the files, and make sure that the files use each others. As when you export the area file, you need to open it and custom in put the new references for each file...

[Kulyok]

I assume you mean game .tis for my custom .are and .wed?

 

No, I'm not familiar with that combination. I meant if you wanted to use a game .wed for a custom .tis, you'd need to rename the .wed, like Jarno and I said.

[jastey]

Thank you, Jarno. If I understand correctly, the answer is to provide anything you want to use (and work as intended) with my own mod.

 

Kulyok: Ah. I am not sure how realistic it is to use a game wed with a custom tis, as the wed contains all the "here wall and there not"-info, but OK. The wed should have the same name as the are, but the tis can have a different one.

 

In case someone else is reading this for advice:

(and thus use the "C#" prefix for the all the files)

This was referring to me personally, as c# is my personal prefix. Jarno, comments like these are dangerous, as Ghreyfain can surely second. The Prefix Reservation List is here, for all who need one.

[Wisp]

AMBSOUND.BIF is not compressed. You can use files from it wherever and however you wish. AREAXYZ.BIF is compressed. The game will crash if you try to use files from it together with files located outside the biff. Decompress AREAXZY.BIF and this problem goes away. Biffs decompressed with DECOMPRESS_BIFF are not placed in the cache directory. Other than that uncompressed biffs occupy more disk space and this crashing thing with compressed biffs, they are functionally equivalent. Maybe there's some small speed-up in area loading when you use uncompressed biffs, but I doubt it's very noticeable.

[Lu_]

One more question, then. Does anybody know if there are some reasonable limits for .BIF files? For the size and for the number of biffed files in one .BIF?