Reinstall RW3 Mods with 2-Clickz (Basic)

[Marleyman]

Added to my list of things to test when I get a minute.

Thank you for the script>

[Machinist]

You are wellcome. BTW one mandatory mod I included into my \REINSTALL\railworks folder is the awesome F4 HUD mod by Marleyman.

[Marleyman]

You are wellcome. BTW one mandatory mod I included into my \REINSTALL\railworks folder is the awesome F4 HUD mod by Marleyman.

never heard of him ;)

[mojo12012]

You are wellcome. BTW one mandatory mod I included into my \REINSTALL\railworks folder is the awesome F4 HUD mod by Marleyman.

I second that fully. No more delving into textures and front end folders but I still get to reinstall the brilliant HUD whenever I want ! 2-Clickz is worth it just for that

[DanteInvidia]

Really glad you're keen on a bit of collaboration, Machinist - between us we'll hopefully make the community's life a whole lot easier.

Been working on the tool a bit tonight, so thought it might be nice to give folks a brief overview of what I've got planned for version 1 of the tool.

• Auto-detect Rail Works installation path where possible.
• If the installation path can't be detected in any of the likely places, provide the user with a nice folder browser to make locating the directory a little easier (and also negates the need for them to manually type the path in - something that is bound to cause a headache at some point with typos).
• Folder browser for back up path. Again, just to make life easier and remove some typing.
• Support back up of existing installed mods. Basically, this will offer a one click back up of the common folders where modded data lives. I like this approach as it makes life easy for people with existing installations, and it also means you don't need to change your "work flow" when it comes to installing new mods. Rather than have to change where you install them to, you can simply re-run the backup process to snag the newly installed files in the standard Steam installation folder.
• Time stamp showing when your mods where last backed up - nothing worse than restoring only to find out you've not been diligent in backing up. I work in IT, we're obsessed with backing data up :p

That's about it for version 1. I've got a lot of other really cool ideas, but I'm painfully aware of the dangers of Feature Creep, so I just want to get an initial version ready that at least replicates the functionality of the 2-Clickz Batch file (ah, batch files - one of my first forays into programming was writing an interactive back up tool using a batch file. Now I use Linux rather than Windows, and Shell scripts rule there. Nothing at all wrong with a robust script file to take the edge off repetitive chores).

[Machinist]

Dante,

I'm speechless! Go ahead... A interface audetecting Railworks folder, even user having multiple fake (backup or alternative) installations on his pc, would be nice. The farther I (at least) can go with batches is the %ProgramFiles(x86)% entry using the pattern Windows' ambient variable, but it doesn't solve the problem of those like me that have Railworks installed on say D:\Steam\...

Easy and fair goes far... a feature to manage the installed mods would be very nice, indeed. I'm sure something really great is coming out from your bit&bytes oven... Dishes and silverware are already on the table, I'm ready to taste your delicacy.

Thank you & Cheers,
Doc.

[CSX2057]

Got a question on this one. Can I make a copy of my rwp from all assets and if I place it on the reinstall file. Will it reinstall all that mod files I have now onto the railworks folder using the updater?

[Machinist]

Got a question on this one. Can I make a copy of my rwp from all assets and if I place it on the reinstall file. Will it reinstall all that mod files I have now onto the railworks folder using the updater?

Hi there Daniel, my collegue engineer on VORA.

That's why I created the feature: 2-Clikz and yep done! I currently have over than 250 mods (5GB) re-installed in 3 minutes (my rig is average and slower, have to be faster in good rigs).

Just a note. To place the mods packed with rwp into the #\REINSTALL folder you need to:
1) rename the (copy of) rwp to zip; then
2) extract the \railworks folder (of rwp file); and finally
3) merge this \railworks folder into the \#REINSTALL\railworks folder, as per Manual (with more details).

Cheers,
Doc.

Ps.: using WinRar or 7-Zip you can save a step and extract the \railowroks folder into \#REINSTALL without previously rename the rwp to zip. Well... that's a tip for medium level, we are on basic level yet... but you can try this one

[CSX2057]

Haha nice. I'm rebooting my pc this week. Gonna give it a go. I'll let you know how things go.

[mojo12012]

Hi Machinist, any ideas on whether the next great RW update is likely to change the way things work with 2-Clickz, as it appears they are changing the structure around? Perhaps it's too early to hazard a guess, but having got to grips with your programme it would be a shame to be left to do all the reinstalls manually again.
Cheers

[Machinist]

Ideas? No... just one single idea: RSC announced they will change only the \Content folder (where routes and scenarios are placed in). So... and it's just a thought, all your mods into the \Assets folder (for example, or any other than \Content folder) will remain functional.

So, again, it means that we'll have to wait how they will re-structure the \Content folder. But I have a feeling that an eventual fix will be easy to do, just renaming the subfolders of \#REINSTALL\railworks to match the new structure & names. Hopefully, of course...

As soon as I have the new RW3 structure I'll post the "how to fix" on here. Fingers crossed...

Cheers,
Doc.

[mojo12012]

Thanks Doc.

[Machinist]

Awesome news for users of this clever (Papa said that! thank you) batch.

I just reinstalled with 2-Clikz (3 minutes to go) about 250 mods (including some routes) almost 5GB size and all running fine, no adjustment nor tweaking needed! Countless hours saved, and (is even better) with no headache!

2-Clikz and yer done! Ditto!!!

I hope you enjoyed as well...

Cya around,
Doc.

[up_8677]

I still don't understand from reading your documentation...how exactly is this supposed to work? I throw everything into a reinstall folder and it magically puts everything in the right place? I must be missing something.

[PapaXpress]

What the batch file is doing is copying over a mirrored file structure to your railworks folder. For example lets say you have the SD70ACe horn from b737lvr. You would first unzip his files to a folder and read the readme...

Done reading? It will say:
Visit viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5710&p=57813#p57813 for Install Instructions and Updates.

... ok

*BACKUP ANYTHING THAT CAN BE OVERWRITTEN*

Vol. 1)
Install: Replace all the files into Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Assets\RSC\SD70Pack01\Audio\RailVehicles\Diesel\SD70ACe\Cab

Vol. 2)
Install: Replace all the files into Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Assets\RSC\SD70Pack02\Audio\RailVehicles\Diesel\SD70ACe\Cab


*BACKUP ANYTHING THAT CAN BE OVERWRITTEN*

This means that I would create the same folder structure where my batch file resides. It looks like this:

Folder Structure.jpg (81.82 KiB) Viewed 456 times

I then place the files in each of those folders, just like I would to the real RW assets folder:

File Structure.jpg (94.16 KiB) Viewed 456 times

So how does the batch file work with these folders? I need to tell it about where to copy the files from. The first set of lines in my batch look like this:

Code: Select all

ECHO OFF
CLS

REM This batch file will reinstall and update all your personal mods, and much more

REM Change the following line to the correct path to your "Railworks" folder
SET RW="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam\steamapps\common\railworks"

REM Change the following line to the current path to your "REINSTALL" folder
SET REI="C:\Users\dan\Desktop\Customizations"

Note the values of RW and REI. Its like saying TO and FROM

The heavy lifting is done further down:

Code: Select all

ECHO .
ECHO ##########################################
ECHO Performing SECOND STAGE: Reinstalling mods
ECHO .
ECHO .

XCOPY /S /Y /Q %REI%\railworks\*.* %RW%

so to say this another way: COPY (files and folders silently) FROM (get everything) TO (this folder).

Now my batch file is slightly different than what Doc posted since its was a version he sent me to test with. It also helps that I know a lot about the batch language, and I edited the parts that I did not need (like removing the radio sounds). The good part is that once you have the batch file set the way you want it you don't need to edit it again. All you need to do is add new folders and files when you get them and run the batch file (as Admin).

I hope that helps.