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Datpacking (NAM36) for Mac

Started by evarburg, February 11, 2018, 09:50:42 AM

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evarburg

Not for me -- I play on Windows now -- but for my companion who plays on a Mac. I installed NAM 36 on  his machine and we hit the plugins wall at once, as expected. I downloaded both JDatpacker and SC4 Datpacker, but (a) no readme with JDatpacker and the forums on the subject are kinda eye-glazingly technical ; (2) same (worse...) for SC4 Datpacker. Especially for one like me who's wary of new technical endeavours (it took me YEARS to dare learn & use the "elementary" sc4 tools like Reader, DataNode and the like.)

And so I need some enlightenment and support. Any more here ?

evarburg

Chapter II.

I DLed SC4DatPacker. I DLed the required three DLLs as per the readme ; I installed them in C>Windows>System32 (I am on Windows 8, that's where it is supposed to go). I start the program. It won't work because  "the MSCVP71.dll is missing".  ()what() ??? :o I JUST INSTALLED IT for God's sake !!!

Help ?

Andreas

You need to put the DLLs into the SC4DatPacker installation folder. This is often required, since there might be several versions of those DLLs that bear the same name, but they have different features. Also, simply copying them into the system folder doesn't work, they have to be "registered" in Windows. I guess SC4DatPacker looks for the files in the same folder, but can't detect them elsewhere, unless Windows knows those are installed, and supplies the proper path.
Andreas

evarburg

#3
O....K... I will try that, then !  %confuso

.............
aaaand... it works ! (Although I have 2 MSBVCP71.dll --different ones, same name ? land one GDIPlus.dll in c>Windows>System32).

But I still have burning questions :

If I datpack on my Windows partition (after putting a copy of my NAM folders in a safe place), will I be able to simply transfer the datpack straight into my Mac companion's plugins folder ? Will a Datpacker expressely made for Windows make a datpack that works on a MAc ? (whereas JDatpacker, as I understand it, is crossplatform ? Or is it the other way around ? My head, my poor addled head !!!)

Andreas

If the folder structure and the files are the same for the Windows or Mac NAM installation, it should be possible to transfer the datpacked file in order to get a working NAM. However, I do not know if the Mac reads the files in a different loading order than Windows, so it might be possible that some overrides that are spread across several files will not work as intended. Obviously, you should keep the original files and folder structure for future NAM updates intact as a backup, and move them back to exactly the same place in your plugins folder, deleting the datpacked version whenever you want to update to a new NAM version.
Andreas

evarburg

#5
When Denis began playing SC4 again, I tranferred my own plugins folder  to his MAc, i.e. he has the same loading order. We only want to datpack his NAM (because of the plugins number wall in MAC, once I installed the NAM 36, his game crashed !)  I guess we're gonna just try and see what happens. I assume that the NAM folder and the Z___NAM folder will load the same way once datpacked ?

And I also thought : if I put the NAM folders in en empty plugins folder and datpack them there, will it be OK ? (I'm just deadly afraid it will wrack my carefully organized work plugins if I do it there ... it should not, right ? Datpacker only datpacks what it is directed to datpack, right ? )

..............

EDIT : OMG, it...seems... to...work !!!

Andreas

The best "insurance" against any computer malfunctions is a proper backup of all your stuff, ideally on an external hard drive (or maybe even two different ones). If you have one that reflects all the latest changes (which reminds me, I should run one on my system again...), you don't have to worry about anything that might wreck your stuff. Glad that it seems to work fine. :)
Andreas

evarburg

Indeed. Sometimes I think I have too many back-ups. It can get away from you and become confusing  :-\  Thank you again

mgb204

Whilst I would never argue against the benefits of backing up your data, I think some clarity should be given as to what the DAT Packer does.

It will NOT alter any existing files in any way whatsoever. It doesn't move them, rename them or edit the contents. All it does is make a copy of the data inside them, merging all the files into a few as possible.

So if you DAT Pack the Network Addon Mod and z___NAM folders, a new folder is created (default: Plugins Compressed). In there when complete will be two or more files, named after the folders you packed. Those files now contain everything that is in the original folders.

Literally nothing could go wrong here that had any worse consequences than the process simply not working. There is nothing to fear or fret other, DAT Pack away, I promise you'll be fine.