ME3Tweaks/ME3TweaksModManager 6.2.0.114

ME3Tweaks Mod Manager 6.2 Build 114

on GitHub

This a significant feature update that adds multiple new developer and user features, as well as improves the quality of some existing features.

This release adds new moddesc.ini features. There is also a breaking change when upgrading to cmmver 6.2 related to DLCRequirements on Alternate DLC structs, see the bugfixes section below.

This release may have several bugfix re-releases as a large chunk of the backend code has changed, and the issues that may arise due to this will require patch updates.

New features

• Mods targeting cmmver 6.2 and higher now support images, for both banners and alternates. Developers need to update their mods to make use of this feature.
• Mods can now require a single DLC to be installed out of a group of DLC. For example, if a mod depends on Citadel Epilogue Mod, it can depend on the CEMF or CEML version
• Mod Manager now includes a full-featured moddes.ini editor
• The Installation Information panel now shows what texture mods were installed in the new Textures tab
• Diagnostics will now list what options are installed for mods. This only applies to mods that have been installed with 6.2 or later. A future update to Mod Manager will allow you to view these items in Installation Information.
• There are multiple additional checks when deploying mods that help ensure mods that are shipped to end users are of high quality. This includes references check, names check, references types check, 4K Norm mip checks, and more
• Developers can now deploy 'multipacks', which are multiple mods packaged into a single archive
• The mod installation dialog now supports compressing packages for ME2/ME3
• Steam versions of the games that have not yet been run can now be located by looking at Steam registry entries (ME1/ME2)
• For developers, there is now a 'NexusMods File Search' item under the tools menu. You can search for a filename and see what mods downloads contain that file. For example, you could use this to find all mods that have a file named 'BioD_CitHub.pcc' in them.

Changed features

• Launching the steam version of ME1/ME2 will now be more reliable by forcing Steam to be running, and by configuring the launched process to be detectable by Steam as a specific game. This allows you to have multiple copies of ME1/ME2 steam games and have them still work. Previously there was a significant chance it would throw an application error dialog instead
• A new setting allows you to perform the same with Origin versions of ME1 and ME2, which can be used to fix the license issues ME1/ME2 seem to have periodically
• The backend of Mod Manager has been refactored to be based onto ME3ExplorerCore. This means there is less chance for bugs as ALOT Installer, ME3Explorer and Mod Manager are all based on the exact same codebase
• Localizations have been improved and cover a few more areas of the application
• Package files uploaded to the ME3Tweaks Updater Service can no longer be package compressed. Mods being imported by users that use the ME3Tweaks Updater Service cannot be compressed either. This is because ME3Explorer saved package headers differently over the years and it can lead to endless updates to files being found
• All GUI compatibility related code has been removed from Mod Manager, as it is no longer used with the latest version of the mods
• The mod deployment interface has been overhauled and warnings/info/blocking errors are now clearly indicated
• Diagnostics will now highlight mods that are listed as incompatible with each other
• Diagnostics will now listen multiple duplicate ASIs installed
• When a mod is deployed and is not in TPMI, a dialog shows up asking the user to submit information about the mod
• Users can see a list of all files that a mod may install by right clicking and selecting the option. This can be used to help identify mods where the directions for one are 'This mod is not compatible with any mod that touches file XXX'
• You can now re-run checks on a mod in the deployment panel without having to exit and re-enter the deployment
• You can now choose the validation target for mods being deployed, in the event it's not the current active one
• Option groups are now shown to the user to help users determine what's part of the same group
• Mod Manager will now remember the last selected target. For example, if you select ME2, when you restart Mod Manager the ME2 target will be selected

Bugfixes

• There is a breaking change for mods upgrading to cmmver 6.2 related to the DLCRequirements option on altdlc structs. In Mod Manager 6.0/6.1, this option would lock out the option from being changed, under the assumption it would not be checked by default. A few mods shipped checking by default, which means the option could be locked on even if it was not applicable. Mods targeting cmmver 6.2 and higher will automatically uncheck the option if the required dlc is not installed, in addition to locking out the ability change them out. Mods that do not retarget to cmmver 6.2 will not have their behavior changed
• UI performance in a few areas was improved
• Updater service checks now index all local files to see if any can be renamed, saving bandwidth
• ModMaker compiler overall progress is more accurate now
• ModMaker mods that update will now override existing directories, if they were renamed or their mod folder is not the same as the mod name. Previously it would download only to the folder, as if it was downloading new
• Fix ME3 mod deployments if an ME2 deployment occurred before it, cause it assumed the ME3 DB was loaded already
• Fix settings.ini unable to make re-save fixed settings if the file became corrupted. This won't fix the corruption but it will allow Mod Manager to recover
• NexusMods update check will now show all mods that are updatable. Mods like project variety would only show one result even if mod manager had 3 mods from the same nexus page that were different files
• Prevent application crash if there's an error in the startup network thread
• The application logger will restart after the logs are pulled. It has to be stopped to fully pull the log. Some instances of stopping the logger resulted in the logger not being restarted until the app restarted

Bugfix Release January 1 2021

• Fix ME3 game crash when applying mixins that target TESTPATCH due to changeover to ME3ExplorerCore
• Fix building a mod from Mixins always acting like there was a mod folder with that name that already existed
• Localize a status string in log collector that was not localized
• Fix app crash when fetching testpatch files with Backup File Fetcher
• Fix crash if banner image is attempted to be loading but the backing file on disk has disappeared
• Fix potential race condition crash that can occur when restoring SFARs (hopefully)
• Fix issue in mod deployment where the UI would appear to hang if there are no available validation targets due to them all being texture modded. There is now text that describes this condition as well

Bugfix Release January 1 2021 (2)

• Fix deployments not working due to testing code left in release mode

Bugfix Release January 1 2021 (3)

• Fix DLC AutoTOC in ME3ExplorerCore

Bugfix Release January 1 2021 (4)

• Fix ModMaker mods breaking the game due to incorrect Mixin application (and a bunch of other)
• Fix the text that says 'Apply Mod' not updating when a mod is auto selected until the window is clicked
• Fix Welcome panel localizations being wrong sometimes due to threading problems
• Fix UI in a few areas to be better aligned

Bugfix Release January 3 2021

• Fix app crash when trying to open an archive containing an RCW .me2mod file

Bugfix Release January 27 2021

• Update localizations
• Fix issue where some mods would come up as incompatible with Mod Manager, even though they were. This was due to an underlying windows issue when inspecting the archive

Known issues

• There is a crash that appears to come up if you are booting M3 for the first time and then add a target in the same session. I'm looking to see if I can reproduce it
• The app can sometimes crash when an RCW mod is attempted to be installed, but it seems that it requires very specific conditions that I cannot reproduce. If the app crashes for you trying to install an RCW mod, please come to the ME3Tweaks Discord so we can fix this problem