Hello fellow modders,



As of now if you want to create a mod that incorporates changes to asset files you have to include those edited files into the mod download. This can not only cause your downloads to become big but also creates some problematics related to the copyright. A solution I found working very well and easy is to use the freeware PatchMaker. This tool creates an executable patch that incorporates only the changes you made. Therefore it not only creates very small files but also an executable installer that is easy to use by anyone.



Download: http://www.clickteam.com/website/world/patch-maker





Before I start with the tutorial, it would be good if you had a look at what an installer created with PatchMaker will look like. For that you can use the mod PimpMyGalaxy I recently released and which installer I created with PatchMaker. To install my mod you have to make sure that you do not have installed any mods that changed the same files as my mod does. Otherwise the installer will not let you install my mod. Check out the mods ReadMe or the mod thread. Mod-Thread: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/16273-released-pimpmygalaxy





Following a tutorial on how to use PatchMaker:



1. Setting up the development directories

First you have to setup your mod development directories for easy use with the PatchMaker.



Example:

Lets say with your mod you want to make changes to the two files "Endless Space\Assets\Xml\GalaxyGenerator\GalaxySettings.xml" and "Endless Space\EndlessSpace_Data\sharedassets17.assets". So what you do is you create a Mod folder wherever you want. For this tutorial I named that folder "Endless Space Mod Tutorial". Under this directory I created another folder named "v1.09 Mod". And in there you now mirror the game directory structure of the files you will make changes to and copy the original game files to you will later mod. In this case the resulting directory structure would look like this:









Now you implement your modding into these files.





2. Setup PatchMaker Files screen



> Start PatchMaker.

> Cancel the Wizard window that pops up.

> Click on the Browse button on the upper right and point it to the "v1.09 Mod" folder we created in the last step of this tutorial.



Now it should look like this:







> Now click on the "Add"-Button and point it to your game directory. After that it should look like this:







> In the left pane list of files select all files except the two you want to mod. In the box on the lower right set "If installed" to "Ignore". Now select the two files we modded "GalaxySettings.xml" and "sharedassets17.assets" and in the boxes on the lower right set "If not installed" and "If unknown version" to "Fatal Error". After that it should look like this:



It is very important not to make any mistaked at this step because otherwise this could lead to utter mayhem! So better check triple.









3. Setup the rest of the PatchMaker screens



> Switch to the "Wizards Texts" tab.

> Change the text in "Replace #title macro by:" with your mod name. In this case I would write "Tutorial Mod v1.0", without the quotation marks.



> Switch to the "Wizard Options" tab.

> Under Window check "Small (wizard dialog)".

> Under Installation Directory setup the following exactly like I say:

>> Under "Root key" select: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

>> In the "Key" field enter: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Steam App 208140

>> In the "Subkey" field enter: InstallLocation



This will allow the installer to automatically find the right directory where Endless Space is installed to. If not the user will still be able to choose the installation directory manually.



After that it should look like this:







4. Save your PatchMaker settings



> Just click on the Save button in the top button row.

> Give it a name. For this tutorial I named it "Tutorial Mod v1.0".

> This will save your settings to a PatchMaker file (*.uts).





5. Building the Installer/Patcher



> Switch to the build tab.

> Click on the "Build" button.

> You will be asked for a file name for your installer. For this tutorial I named it "Tutorial Mod v1.0".

> Click on Save and the build process will start.



After that it should look like this:





> Important is that you do not get any error messages and that only the two files you modded have under the Action column the mark "Update"

> If all went without errors this will create in this case the installer "Tutorial Mod v1.0.exe" in the folder we have chosen.





And this is it.

We created an installer for our mod that not only is very small because it is in fact a difference patcher that only consists of the changes we made to the files but also is very easy to use by our customers.



If I find the time and if you are interested in this I will expand this tutorial on how to create an uninstaller.



If you have any questions please ask away.



Have Fun

Reserved for future expansion of this tutorial.

Very useful tutorial and reference: thank you!

Well, the drawback to this approach is, if the original developer disappears and the game directory structure changes, we can no longer access the mod files. Zip files are more reversible. I tried opening "pimp my galaxy" with 7zip and winzip, neither one can figure out the files. So we are stuck.

I agree with davea. Since the new patch we had the XML files arent that big. So what is the patcher for? Nobody accesses the asstes files no more. Well written tutorial, but i dont see it beeing used

Funny that, I actually started to wonder whether I should start to use this method