Why hasn't there been a vehicle installer?
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@MobWulff The file is encrypted, use the mod LeeC recommended.
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@JZersche said in Why hasn't there been a vehicle installer?:
What we need is this. Something basic to start. I could probably do it myself in PHP, but I don't know C or anything else that would useful. So when you open the software it will ask for the location of the vehicles.meta and handling.meta files. It will then analyze the first 5 lines of the file and verify that there are a total of 7 white spaces in the first file. There should be no whitespace after any of the '>' tags. An extra bit of whitespace increases the size of the file so doing this check would be a good practice. If whitespaces are found after any '>', it removes them. Once file integrity is verified to be free of errors.
That feels like a crude, and wrong approach. Like Lee said, whitespace is not something you can count on, as the XML specification doesn't mandate whitespaces.
Besides, truly validating like a vehicles.meta file for proper functionality -- and not just for proper XML -- is actually extremely complex. Far easier (and better) is to just use a default XML template, and then extract relevant values, like
<dashboardType>VDT_ZTYPE</dashboardType>To fill in the blanks, as it were. 'Validation' is then established when all 'blanks' in your template are accounted for. (All searches to take place within an <Item></Item> pair inside <InitDatas>, of course) And data not found in the file that's being imported will be covered by your default template values. That's still not a 100% safe, but at least will yield a valid XML file.
For anything else (like sanity checks, and whether the designated <layout> actually exists (and is itself valid too), like I said, that sort of functional validation is much, much more complex than you may think.
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It's not that hard to do. I could do it.
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@JZersche said in Why hasn't there been a vehicle installer?:
It's not that hard to do. I could do it.
Why, more power to you then!
Seriously, I sounded maybe too harsh; but just wanted to make clear that the process of true functional validation is pretty hard, and why, consequently, there are no vehicle installers yet.
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@meimeiriver True functional validation, would require a large portion of code and thought, so you're not wrong, but for what I was talking about, all you would need is something to add some information stored in a variable in this case the block of text to be appended after every instance of "</Item> <!--END-->".
if ($item_end=="</Item> <!--END-->" { echo $clipboard_content} )
That's not exactly how it would be done, but it wouldn't be more than a couple lines of code. I could only write in in PHP Though. Actually it would take me more studying to know all the functions needed, but it wouldn't be too bad. Having a program like that would only make it easier, because instead of having to open the file up and paste the data in manually you just point a location to the file for the data to be pasted in and then set the location programmatically for where to insert that data and the voila, you can just keep pasting in data and it automatically goes in to the .meta file in the right location. You're entitled to your own opinion, if you think it's a terrible idea, then so be it.
I personally think it's a brilliant idea.
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I'll admit, I feel like a dumbass for not knowing anything about this conversation, It just looks so complicated. Lol.
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@MobWulff bwahaahahan ! That makes two of us
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@JZersche said in Why hasn't there been a vehicle installer?:
ou're entitled to your own opinion, if you think it's a terrible idea, then so be it.
I personally think it's a brilliant idea.As a now old-timer programmer, LOL, I kinda look at it from the perspective of the Hippocratic Oath: "Above all, do no harm!" Which is to say, you really can't afford to break someone's addon pack. For one, it's rude.
But, more seriously, it'a a helpdesk/blame nightmare waiting to happen, as you have to keep in mind, that ppl using this auto-installer should be expected to not have a clue as how to add the stuff manually. So, when things break (and they will), expect the masses to pile upon you the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by your whole race from Adam down. So, an auto-installer should try and validate XML data with extreme prejudice. Basically, because every bit of external data you import should be considered highly tainted, as we say.
Functional validation is very hard, even to the human eye (with all the intelligence behind it). I guess that's why no one has dared to burn their fingers on it, to date. Feel free to try, though. In fact, everything that makes our GTA V lives easier, I applaud. But, when things turn sour, consider this post, as Sheldon would say, a preemptive "I informed you thusly."
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@JZersche P.S. The reason I'm harping so much on being careful, is because it's not just 1 car you're dealing with. Or, rather, you'll be importing that 1 car into an existing addon pack, containing potentially a great many other cars (that would all break if your tool gets it wrong).
I've talked about this with Lee, at some point, saying I was surprised to see even the most respectible modders have so many (grievous) errors in their XML data, whereas making an actual car is 10x harder. We concluded that this is the case, precisely because dealing with XML data is so much easier! I.e., the high-level modders, just having created a wickedly complex car, simply can't be bothered with the mundane task as getting their meta files in order. At least, that's the only reason we could think of that made at least a modicum of sense.
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Thats the thing......I'm so particular about my GTAV build I wouldn't use a vehicle installer anyway.
GTAV just has so many things that need to be done in my taste before I import a car.
One of my biggest most annoying things with the installers for older GTA series were car authors throwing in thier handling lines with the car...and the installer being a complete RAR file reader adding the dat/meta file automatically. Then you had to deal with sometimes corrupt winzip or rar files
Those installers were great in GTASA and GTAIV but V is just a different animal and OpenIV is just more than enough in terms of flexibility when adding cars and the very exact particular files I want via either addon or replace.
