• Asset Release : Hotel Neptuno Triton

  • Release : Museum of the Revolution

  • Release : Union Terminal

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Mod Organizer 2 : Stalker Anomaly Addons Installation

artwork credit https://twitter.com/NDTwoFives/media?s=09  

Before we rush to install gazillion of addons, one thing we must understood is the folder structure of an addon. An addon must starts or consist of at least one of these folder : "gamedata", or "db".


Don't get Intimidated, MO2 is SIMPLE

Don't get intimidated by MO2's interface. It REALLY is just a LIST of folders, except with checkboxes and you can order them around to tell the game, which one to load first, and which one to load later. That's all that to it, you DON'T need to understand what magic MO2 is doing at the background linking your addons with the game.

What you need is just a bit of logical thinking - "hei I have two addons that conflicting, which one should I load first, which one should I load later?"


To prove that it is really THAT simple, let's try to install an addon with just plain old folder copy-pasta, like you probably did in JSGME...


Locate the "Base Directory" you added in MO2 setting in previous installation process. You will see something like above, the "mods" folder is where all your addons are stored.


Create a folder within this "mods" directory, name it whatever you want, this will be your addon name.

Within your new addon folder, is where the contents of your addon goes, typically there should be a "gamedata" folder to start with. You can put all sort of crap in here, but the only things that matter to the game are "gamedata", "db", "appdata" & "bin" folder.

Once you done creating you glorious new addon, go back to MO2, right click anywhere and select "refresh", or just hit the F5 key - now you will see your addon listed on MO2 interface ready to be enabled.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE.

This isn't really how you will normally install addon, but I want to walk through this example to show you that it is nothing more than just folders and files - which you CAN manipulate manually, whenever you need to, for example if I want to update an addon, I can simply come in here, copy paste replace the files with new ones.


Installing addon - the quick way

If the addon is packaged correctly with "gamedata" or "db" folder, MO2 will recognize it automatically. Simply hit the "Install a new mod from an archive" button (2nd from the left) and browse to your zip file. MO2 will suggest a name, correct it if needed to, and you're done installing an addon.





You will notice a checkbox beside the addon name, that's where you disable / enable an addon.

Double clicking on an addon will bring you to the information panel, you can access the info panel through right clicking as well. The right click context menu also consists of many useful functions, including assigning your addon with categories. The "Open in Explorer" option will open the addon folder in Windows Explorer, handy whenever you want to make changes to the addon files such as updating it.


Installing Addon - when MO2 didn't recognize the folder structure

Sometime when you installing addon through the zip file, MO2 will prompt to tell you that it is unable to recognize the folder structure. This may happens if the addon author placed the gamedata or db inside additional subfolders.

If this is your first time seeing the prompt, you will see a tutorial message explaining the situation. Click the little green arrow to proceed.


In this case, MO2 is unable to recognize the folder structure provided by Michiko's Sound Revamp 3.0. The first thing we want to do is uncheck all checkboxes, telling MO2 those aren't the stuff we wanted.

Next, locate where the actual "gamedata" or "db" we wanted and drag it to the top. Check it's checkbox to tell MO2 that is the folder we wanted to install. If you do it correctly, the red error text will gone. Simply click OK and now the addon is installed.




What is "Overwrite"?

After you launch your game once, you will start to notice there is a red "Overwrite" at the bottom of your mod/addon list. Don't freak out, there's nothing wrong with your game or addon setup.

"Overwrite" is simply another addon folder where MO2 stores anything that is created / generated while the game is running. This includes configuration files when you changes graphic setting, shader cache files created by the game, as well as screenshots you took. If you ever wonder where on earth are the screenshots you took in game, but found nothing in the original Anomaly game folder... well, here it is.

Do we need to do anything special with this "Overwrite" folder? Technically no. Just leave it be.


NEXT ▶ Jump to conflict solving article : https://lazystalker.blogspot.com/2021/06/mod-organizer-2-stalker-anomaly.html


Mod Organizer 2 : Stalker Anomaly Setup Guide

artwork credit https://twitter.com/NDTwoFives/media?s=09  

What is Mod Organizer 2 (MO2)? 

MO2 provide far better mod management systems than any other applications. The key importance of MO2 is to keep your original game clean, so you will never get into a situation of re-downloading your whole game due to irreversible damages caused by modifications.

MO2 was primarily developed to serve heavy modding games like Elder Scrolls & Fallout, where mod setup can amount into the thousands.

What are the advantages of MO2?

  • do not modify the original game files, instead it load mod files on top of the game upon launching the game, by utilizing something called "virtual file system".
  • no duplicate mod files in different directories. Unlike other applications like JSGME which have two copies of every mods (one under it's care, one copied into game folder), MO2 only stores one copy of installed mod - and 'magically' link it with the game upon launching the game, without physically moving anything.
  • speed. Because mods are linked with the game without any physical file movements, this means disabling & enabling mods, re-organizing mod order are INSTANT without any waiting or loading.
  • MO2 shows you exactly which mod conflict with which other mods, providing a detailed list of every single file which is affected. It also tag any mods which got overwritten completely as 'redundant' with a special icon.
  • you can store multiple profiles of different mod combination setup, switching profile is instant - because as mentioned above, managing the mod list do not causes any actual physical file movements
  • unlike JSGME, you can update or make changes to any addons at any time, without needing to disabling & enabling them...


Setting up software

7Zip can be found at https://www.7-zip.org, of course we want the 64-bit version. Why 7Zip instead of WinRar? Because you will find many things nowadays are packaged as "___.7z" format.


The lastest version of MO2 can be found in GitHub: https://github.com/Modorganizer2/modorganizer/releases. You can pick the installer or zip version, up to you. I will just use the zip version. Install or extract it wherever you want, I just place them at C:\MO2\




You also need the latest Visual C++ Redistribution installed to start MO2 correctly, head over to this Microsoft page to grab the 64-bit version: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

In case you haven't done so, you also need DirectX9c installed to play Anomaly, otherwise it just won't launch. Head to this Microsoft page to do so: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35



Pairing MO2 with Stalker Anomaly

Launch C:\MO2\ModOrganizer.exe, or wherever you installed it. You will be greeted with a dialogue to setup an 'instance', choose to create a new one and give it any name you like, I'd just call it "Anomaly".




You are told that a mod data directory has been created in user's AppData directory. This isn't exactly the best place to store our mods/addons, we will change it later.

Next you are asked to browse to the game's main folder. Pick wherever you stored Anomaly, for example mine is C:\Anomaly RC19\. Afterward it will ask if you want to go through the MO2's interface explanation tutorial, pick whichever you like.





Upon reaching the screen above, congratulation -- you have successfully paired MO2 with Anomaly. The game's launcher is successfully recognized as shown at top-right corner, and a list of files inside the game folder is displayed below it.

The empty space at the left is where your addon lists will be later. You can close the "log" windows if you don't need it.


MO2 interface & configuration

Quick interface walkthrough:


Before we start installing addons, first we need to configure where we want to store the addons, preferably somewhere with plenty of space. Hit the "setting" button and go to "path". Just change the "Base Directory" to your desired location.


We are done and ready to install addons.

NEXT ▶ Jump to addon installation article : https://lazystalker.blogspot.com/2020/11/mod-organizer-2-stalker-anomaly-addons.html



Launching game through MO2

Remember to always launch the game through MO2 by hitting the big RUN button. If you simply run Anomaly's exe without MO2, you will be playing a clean-game without any addons.


Sharing MO2 mod/addon setup

You can share your addon setup as a repack of sort (such as Muh Immersion or Provak packs) by simply sharing the addon files as well as the profile.

Navigate to where you set your "Base Directory" in previous step, you will find multiple folders. What you want to share to other people are just "mods" and "profiles". Easy. Users just need to drop these two folder on their own Base Directory and restart their MO2.

You can rename your profile to something unique first if you wanted to, by clicking the "manage" link on the profile list:





 
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