Why I am not a fan of OIV installations
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Best example to use here, is the countless, many, roadside billboard mods. In this case, there will be some billboards I prefer over others, coming between multiple mod authors. I like to compare individual textures between all mods, so I can choose which texture I prefer over another. OIV installers works well when you have absolute confidence in the materials that will be installed. If there is a unique one-of-a-kind mod, then an OIV installation is simply a matter of trusting that what you are installing will meet your satisfaction.
Many have asked me to make an OIV installer for the bulk of all my texture mods, which is understandable, given the fact that there are not many who do my type of texture work, and the few that do, do something really small.
I have told some that I plan to do this, but it is a LOT of work when dealing with so many different directories in which you need the installer to tell it where everything needs to go.
When I am finally done doing all the re-textures I have planned ahead, I will then begin work on an OIV installer for the total, combined, mods created.
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As someone who downloads mods and has used OIV installations, I can say that I've had problems in the past, and my biggest issue with it, is not knowing everything it changes. I guess I have trust issues, but knowing exactly everything that's changed is my choice.
Personally, I would do OIV installation if it's released after the latest update, and I would extract and see everything that's there before installing. Like curiosity overload.
Have you done OIV Installations the same way?
My only suggestion is tell people everything that will be replaced. So they know exactly what files have changed.
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@Namie243 ZippoRaids Violence and Bloodshed mod is a perfect example to use here. I did his OIV install, because I just knew if would be that effing good. However, even though confident that most of it would be to my liking, I still went back and overwrote some of his files with another from another mod - from some Swedish dude who did a better job with the Euphoria motion - https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/naturalmotion-euphoria-oiv-kaai210-bravercoolio-jedijosh920
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The only time I have ever used OIV is on a completely clean install... I wouldn't let them within 10 feet of an already modded GTAV.
Unzip, inspect, install manually.
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@LeeC2202 Exactly Lee. Once I have everything set up, and working the way I want, I absolutely do not want to risk ruining what I have going for myself. Sometimes the littlest of things can cause havoc, and can then be a nightmare to track down what the culprit is, LOL.
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Biggest advice right there. unzip, inspect. Ohh nooo, doing an OIV install on a modded GTA. That'd be......interesting.
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@Namie243 What I do with OIV-only installs, is I look at the content to see what is being installed, and where it is being installed, so I can make up my own mind what happens in the process.
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Manual is the way to go for pros
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I made similar topic some time ago, and general consensus was pretty similar as what it is now. OIV is good if you have a clean game and 100% sure what you're installing, but I don't really see an arguing point here, as it does give you a choice to easily look up contents and install manually, unlike ASI or DLL mods which only way to know what it does is if author supplies source code.
Though, my general complaint was about users who actively using OIV on modded game, break it, and then going on mod authors page, downvote it and complaining how it destroyed their game and how bad mod author sucks.
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Word. Meanwhile I'm extracting every single texture inside wdr and wtd of my IV installation to find my old texturing work. Exxon Mobil found
Let's see what else did I do back then...
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@ReNNie I think you missed something off that comment... like OT perhaps?
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I always check which files the OIV replaces before I press the install button, and I did 5 OIV installations on my "heavy" modded game lel, all is working perfect
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@Namie243 said in Why I am not a fan of OIV installations:
As someone who downloads mods and has used OIV installations, I can say that I've had problems in the past, and my biggest issue with it, is not knowing everything it changes.
Why that; and the usual 'Automatic deinstall will not be possible.' So, essentially, "We're installing something, but won't tell you what. And, oh yeah, we can't undo it for you." Riiiight.
Having said that, the idea of automated OIV packes is, in principle, very good. But you need to be able to trust modders to do the right thing (like not overwriting your dlclist.xml and such); and you can't. As long as there are no very strict rules to which package installers must adhere (the kind of rules a company like MS can actually enforce), anything goes, and can lead to seriously fubarred results.
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@meimeiriver said in Why I am not a fan of OIV installations:
the kind of rules a company like MS can actually enforce
Microsoft added a Saved Games folder to your Documents folder and told everyone to put their save game data in there. Have a look how many games save their data in there, next time you're in your Documents folder.
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OIVs are great for us who always make backup copies of our heavily modded GTAV folder.
I usually do an OIV install dry run with new mods to see what its changing and if it breaks anything. Then Ill dissect the files I want and the files I dont want out of my RPFs and files.
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I have yet to do OIV just because i have several different texture options per model, and several different model options per folder in my mods.
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@eshenk and how about instead of OIV replacing stuff inside rpf's making it necessary to copy an entire ~ 1GB rpf for just a couple of measly textures authors could be putting retexturing work inside one single Add-On so users won't even have to replace all those loose files inside different rpf's? 'Just add water' so to speak. That would've saved you an hour of two at least in your re-modding-activities
Combining different retexturing packs would also be a lot easier that way: copy over the lines in content.xml and use the folder structure + rpf which holds the ydr/yft/ytd itself. Or if you already had that rpf in the add-on dlc, simply only transfer the ydr/yft/ytd inside the rpf.
I took this methodology from AlexVonShep's SAHP Office: Paleto Bay Mod 1.0a to my shipping containers for starters (plan on doing the same for replacement textures on //edit some // gasstations and most billboards) > I now have one small dlc of 11,46 MB that holds the retexturing on the dock containers while x64f isn't even in my mod folder
@_Vlad_ could be doing the same for the Real Hollywood 3D models. No need to replace all that stuff inside the archives!
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I don't like OIV'S too
I only used L.A Roads as .OIV and World of variety
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@LeeC2202 said in Why I am not a fan of OIV installations:
@meimeiriver said in Why I am not a fan of OIV installations:
the kind of rules a company like MS can actually enforce
Microsoft added a Saved Games folder to your Documents folder and told everyone to put their save game data in there. Have a look how many games save their data in there, next time you're in your Documents folder.
True. But Microsoft generally uses UAC to make you do it right. Even when programs think they are writing in Program Files and such, in reality they are writing inside a sophisticated, virtualized (and localized) directory environment. For instance, I recently removed Dropbox, and it has much hidden content undearneath (like Gigabytes worth if it), like in:
C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Virtualized\C\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\
OpenIV is just working with an archive, really, so can't enforce these kind of complex redirections for when modders do it wrong.
