Minimaul's Saints Row 2, Saints Row: The Third, Saints Row IV and Gat Out Of Hell tools

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For each of the command line tools, if you run them in a command prompt without giving any parameters, they will give you a help message that explains what the tool does and what options you can give it.
So everytime I want to use the command tools, I have to find it in cmd and run it? :/ I guess that means I need to make batch files or something to make sure I don't have to do that constantly
 
Hello all. I have a question concerning the use of the tools with batch files, specifically for the rebuilding of the patch file and also for updating the asm files for Saints Row 4. I had success in the past with batch files and my mod for SR3, but this was only because I had a reference material in the ones created by IdolNinja.

Previously the lines in the batch file looked something like this.

tools\Gibbed.SaintsRow3.PackVPP.exe -c VPP_Build\patch_compressed.vpp_pc Files\patch_compressed\

and this one for the asm files.

tools\Gibbed.SaintsRow3.UpdateASM.exe files\workspace\customize_player.asm_pc files\workspace\

I'm trying to do these as two different commands and any advice you could give me would be a great help. Also if you are able to help, could you possibly explain the structure of the line so I might be able understand it rather than guessing and hoping for the best which I usually do.
 
This isn't something you can do as two separate commands really with the SRIV tools. The SRIV tools use the ASM file as a reference when building str2_pc files to know what order to pack files in.

If you run one of the command line tools without any parameters, you'll get a help screen like this:

Code:
Saints Row Packfile Builder
Builds Saints Row PC packfiles (vpp_pc and str2_pc files). Supports Saints Row IV.

ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.BuildPackfile game  source  output  [/condensed:true|false|auto]  [/compressed:true|false|auto]  [/asm:<asm_pc file>]

game                           The game you wish to build a packfile for. Valid options are "sr2", "srtt", "sriv" and "srgooh".
source                         A folder containing files to pack.
output                         The file to create.
[/asm:<asm_pc file>]           The asm_pc file to update with new data from this packfile. This should only be used in Saints Row: Gat out of Hell,
                               Saints Row IV or Saints Row: The Third mode, and will automatically update the specified ASM file. If you are building a
                               str2_pc file, this should be specified. It has no effect for vpp_pc files.
[/compressed:true|false|auto]  Should the output data be compressed? This is usually enabled for str2_pc files and for vpp_pc files that contain highly
                               compressible data such as XTBL files. If not specified, "auto" is the default.
[/condensed:true|false|auto]   Should the output data be condensed? This is mostly used for str2_pc files. Saints Row 2 files cannot be condensed. If
                               not specified, "auto" is the default.
On this help screen parameters shown inside the square brackets ( [ and ] ) are optional - you don't always have to provide those.

I'm not sure why you'd be rebuilding patch_compressed though - there's not a good reason to do so that I can think of, and it certainly shouldn't make you need to update an ASM!

Could you give an example package that you're actually building?
 
Thanks for the quick reply. As with my Saints Row the Third mod I am again playing around with the customize_player.vpp_pc. In that mod I gathered all I wanted to change into one file I then updated the asm. These were then placed into the patch (come to think of it I think it was patch_uncompressed.vpp_pc) with some of the xtbl files needed to make the changed ones work. Much like the Gentlemen of Steelport I find it much neater to put it all in one file rather than have loose files because in the end I have hundreds of them. Also I had far fewer bugs doing it his way.
 
Well, to build a str2 you'd do something like this:
Code:
tools\ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.BuildPackfile.exe sriv "source files\custmesh_-403246" "output\patch_uncompressed\custmesh_-403246.str2_pc" /asm:"output\patch_uncompressed\customize_item.asm_pc"
This assumes your source files are in "source files\custmesh_-403246" and the "output" folder already contains the ASM you want to update.

To then build that into a vpp, you'd do something like:
Code:
tools\ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.BuildPackfile.exe sriv "output\patch_uncompressed" "output\patch_uncompressed.vpp_pc"

I still really recommend against rebuilding and replacing game packfiles where it's not necessary to do so though.

edit: if you want to neaten up your root dir, str2_pc, cmorph_pc and asm_pc files will load just fine from a "mods" folder under the Saints Row IV directory. I packaged my clothing mod for Gat out of Hell like this because otherwise it would put 1700 odd items in the root dir.
 
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Thank you for the help. I'll have a play around with it and see if I can get it to work, I have a bit more of an idea now.
 
But i'm noob about this, and you still didn't explain how to use str2 + asm files. I need to download those files somewhere? Or it is files that is inside other game files?
If there is some area on this forum that explains it, please send me a link.

SAME not everyone is a modding whizz, this needs a howto or read me or SOMETHING
 
FYI, I'm aware of a bug in CustomizationItemClone with a few items - it causes missing textures/materials.

It's a complicated bug to fix, but I'm working on it.
 
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