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hardrock

Addons at ease, self-executable or typical archive

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I really think self-extracting archives (regardless of whether they are zip, ace or rar) are the way to go (although i voted for plain archives cause i like them better). You can open plain and self-extracting archives like archives under windows and linux and people wanting to get everything done automatically can use the self-extracting part. I really dislike installers as you can't use them on linux servers in most cases, and this means downloading the addon to your box @home, installing it there and uploading it with a few kB/sec to the server instead of using the serves fat pipe.

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I go for the archives, and it doesn't depend on the archive type. I don't trust EXE.

It would be nice, if there was something like package management like Linux Distributions have (Deb, RPM). These resolve Dependencies and they alert you, if there are packages (addons) that need others to work.

It'd be even more comfortable with an automatic download of needed addons (though I wouldn't use it wink_o.gif

This would be even possible with the PBOs we have now, because the configs have dependencies in CfgPatches. Addon makers just had to make sure the cfgPatches is correct.

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But RAR is better than ZIP.  sad_o.gif

I really hate people who go bitching like this :

Quote[/b] ]WTH is this RAR thing, can't they zip it like normal people!? *censored*

Gah!

If you can download winzip, you can download winrar, RAR offers better compression and is thus the better choice for all of us.

Being an idiot is no excuse, if you can complain on a forum you can spend five seconds on google, find winrar and download it.

Sorry,I'm just tired of seeing this happen all over the place, I wonder where all the people who explain it time and time again get their patience. smile_o.gif

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But RAR is better than ZIP.  sad_o.gif

I really hate people who go bitching like this :

Quote[/b] ]WTH is this RAR thing, can't they zip it like normal people!? *censored*

Gah!

If you can download winzip, you can download winrar, RAR offers better compression and is thus the better choice for all of us.

Being an idiot is no excuse, if you can complain on a forum you can spend five seconds on google, find winrar and download it.

Sorry,I'm just tired of seeing this happen all over the place, I wonder where all the people who explain it time and time again get their patience. smile_o.gif

yeah I agree.

Winrar whips zip's ass real goood. Or sth.

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.rar is the daddy imo, the reasons have already been stated so no need to parrot them

I hate .exe's for the reason that, as has been stated by others again, it clutters up the registry/start menu/installs them somewhere other than where you want them

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When I get addons in self installers (that aren't extractable by Powerarchiver), I set the install path to desktop, copy the PBOs into my OFP folder, the uninstall/delete straight away...

Self-installers really piss me off, especially when they automatically assume OFP in intsalled in the defualt location, and don't allow you to change the path...

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I prefer archives.

Anyone have an opinion on WinAce Compression?

I use WinAce to unpack everything, .rar, .zip, pretty much anything I've ever needed to unpack.

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The main problem with rar is that there are (at least) two versions which are not compatible to each other, v2 and v3 iirc. How often do you read in this forum that people have problems unpacking rar archieves because they have an older rar version? And how should they know? Not everybody is a geek.

From the point of usability you have to keep those people in mind. I guess a self-extracting archieve will help them a lot.

With windows i use 7zip (someone mentioned that in the old thread) more and more, it unpacks everything (not sure about ace archieves right now) and is a free tool. In linux i can unpack next to anything, even old amiga and mac archieve formats. Everything except windows installers, that is, although i can open those using wine (windows "emulator" for linux) on the server now.

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I prefer Addons At Ease or custom installer exe, as installing many addons or mods is otherwise too complicated for me.

I do not like RAR, mostly because I am not aware of any free reliable decompressor, and the RAR decompression available in the free and old PowerArchiver I use is not compatible woth the RAR compression used by most archives today.

Moreover, for a very long time the only decompression I was using was built-in XP Zip handling, and I was not able to decompress RAR at all.

Not everyone likes playing installers and Windows.

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I prefer Addons At Ease ...

I consider you biased on this one  biggrin_o.gif

I prefer the opposite - archives, selfextracting or not (pref. not). I don't trust systems where I have to allow somebodys software to mess with my computer - somebody who probably does not write software on a professional level...

Selfextracting archives I just treat like normal archives, opening them in WinRAR.

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The ppl are getting different with time. The PC users are not as they were 10 years ago. Now PC is something like a toy. ppl choosing to buy PC by it's box look but not by what inside. They dont want to know anything and dont want to learn. I'm not talking that everyone do that, but in most cases it is like that. I even dont want to mension that for most of the users extensions (thing that comes after dot) are hidden and they are guided by icons. terrible crazy_o.gif

so i'm pretty impresed that ppl here chose plain archieve smile_o.gif

and i wont be impressed if after few years AAE would be extremely difficult to them

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Quote[/b] ]I consider you biased on this one

And rightly so. smile_o.gif Unfortunatelly for me, there are very few AAE addons available - and that is probably why I play mostly with the "official" content.

Quote[/b] ]I don't trust systems where I have to allow somebodys software to mess with my computer - somebody who probably does not write software on a professional level...

While I can see how this applies to 3rd party installers, I cannot see any relation to AAE - in this case the "exe" (actually msi package) is provided by us (and we certainly do write a software on a professional level wink_o.gif ) and the addon maker provides only a data content.

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While I can see how this applies to 3rd party installers, I cannot see any relation to AAE - in this case the "exe" (actually msi package) is provided by us (and we certainly do write a software on a professional level  wink_o.gif ) and the addon maker provides only a data content.

AAE's MSI still does not support mod folder installs, correct? rock.gif

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...as installing many addons or mods is otherwise too complicated for me.

oh, c´mon,

you guys made the game that many people consider the best one in the whole world and don´t know where to put .bin .pbo or .wrp files in your own game rock.gif

kinda hard to believe tounge_o.gif

imho AAE was a nice attemp at distributing addons to everyone, no matter how excuse the word, dumb they are. but for a concept like this there have to be people who actually need this feature and as long as only pro´s like us are downloading/using and making these addons there won´t be a big demand for AAE at all.

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Quote[/b] ]you guys made the game that many people consider the best one in the whole world and don´t know where to put .bin .pbo or .wrp files in your own game

kinda hard to believe

Some addons expect me do to something like:

- download another addon "ABC" and install it in the Addons folder (wirh no link provided)

- install THIS addon in the Res/Addons folder. You may install it to mod folder as well

- copy directory Anim ... to Addons folder (not to Res or Mod folder)

- copy mission pbo into mission folder ... if there is a mission at all

Often there is even no proper readme which would tell me what to put there.

Once I do this, I am almost done. All I need to do now is:

Open mission editor, search for an obscure named unit, make sure I write something magical into the unit init line ...

Well, this really is too complicated to me, and I often decide rather not to install such addon at all.

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Will AAE allow you to install example missions into the user folder, so they can be loaded up in the mission editor?

This is the worst part for me, trying to explain about the directories in users, that has the same name as the player.

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Really nice to hear that the devs are downloading the addons made by the community, I wish Marek would appear here more often, it's great fun to read what the people that made the game have to say about the community today smile_o.gif

But I prefer the standard archives, preferrably .RAR but I don't mind msi packages at all, but it is indeed nice to be able to choose exactly where to extract your downloaded addons to instead of it being semi-automated.

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omg... i cant believe that i hear that frm lead programmer  wow_o.gif
Quote[/b] ]Open mission editor, search for an obscure named unit, make sure I write something magical into the unit init line ...

Funny stuff man...something magical... biggrin_o.gif

Well if this is how BIS would like it done, I suppose all my future releases wont hurt if I make them both used AAE for AAE users and ZIP or RAR users. Never hurts to have both.

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