How to package your mods on Windows

[Stan`]

Due to the recent increase in interest for mods as well as the relative simplicity with which you can install them (either through .pyromod files or mod.io) I decided to make a little guide to explain how to package mods. It's a relative tedious process when you are not familiar to it, so don't worry if you do not get it right the first time.

Requirements: You need to have the package_mod installed

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• Go to https://github.com/StanleySweet/package_mod
• Clone the mod into the mod folder of 0 A.D. Usually something like:

binaries/data/mods

• First go to 0 .A.D.'s root folder (This the one that contains the binaries folder):

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•   In the adress bar type "powershell"

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• A wild window will appear. (Notice the path is correct one):

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• Type or copy paste the following command, but replace "{yourmod}" by the mod folder name, for instance, terra_magna, delenda_est, milleniumad

binaries/system/pyrogenesis -mod=package_mod -mod={yourmod} -archivebuild="binaries/data/mods/{yourmod}" -archivebuild-output="{yourmod}.pyromod" -archivebuild-compress

• You should have something like this after copy pasting/typing:

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• It will take some time to compile the modfile. For Ponies Ascendant which is like 300MB big,  it takes like 5 mins.

Optional: You can monitor the output of the packaging in Visual Studio or using a tool called DebugView by SysInternals (Recommended as fewer setup steps are required)

• Open the zip and double click on Dbgview.exe:

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• It will open a window like this, and the output will appear when you run the packaging steps above.

Hope it helps.

Edited April 18, 2021 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Debug View is good to run while compiling so that if there are any troubles with the archiving process they will show up there in Debug View. 

You can see pyrogenesis.exe show up in Windows Task Manager and it'll stay there as long as the archiver is working. When it disappears, you can be relatively sure the archiver has completed the job. 

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[Stan`]

@wowgetoffyourcellphone Thanks I'll update it

in the next release I'll make a patch to send a nice Packaging complete to the debug view

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

binaries/system/pyrogenesis -mod=mod -mod=public -mod=theban_greeks_working -archivebuild="binaries/data/mods/theban_greeks_working"  -archivebuild-output="theban_greeks_a24_4.pyromod" -archivebuild-compress

 

Apparently, -mod=mod and -mod=public are important.

Edited April 26, 2021 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

On 03/06/2018 at 3:38 PM, Stan` said:

in the next release I'll make a patch to send a nice Packaging complete to the debug view

[14476] Finished packaging "delenda_est_A25.pyromod".
 

Debug View was definitely essential for me to troubleshoot archival failures. Had about 8 or so issues which caused the archiver to fail and Debug View's interface allowed me to see what the problems were. 

[vpereira]

Regarding the path used in the examples, I'm using the directories as described here https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths to store my mods.

 

So would be a good practice to package my mod like:

 

 

binaries/system/pyrogenesis -mod=mod -mod=public -mod=my_custom_mod -archivebuild="~/.local/share/0ad/mods/my_custom_mod"  -archivebuild-output="my_custom_mod.pyromod" -archivebuild-compress

Or does the "-archivebuild" parameter expect a relative path? 

 

Thank you!

VP

[Stan`]

I'd avoid ~ in the path. You can use an absolute path iirc.

[vpereira]

 

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

I'd avoid ~ in the path. You can use an absolute path iirc.

ah great, thank you!

[vpereira]

I transformed this command in a github action that I'm using in a mod that I was trying to improve. I think people could use it while preparing their releases: https://github.com/vpereira/Macedonia_0ad/blob/master/.github/workflows/release.yml

[Stan`]

On 07/11/2023 at 4:23 PM, vpereira said:

I transformed this command in a github action that I'm using in a mod that I was trying to improve. I think people could use it while preparing their releases: https://github.com/vpereira/Macedonia_0ad/blob/master/.github/workflows/release.yml

@andy5995 already wrote something for it https://github.com/0ADMods/ponies-ascendant/blob/master/.github/workflows/ponies-ascendant.yml

The advantage is that it is lighter to load cause it's using a custom mod of mine with what you need from public

[vpereira]

2 hours ago, Stan` said:

@andy5995 already wrote something for it https://github.com/0ADMods/ponies-ascendant/blob/master/.github/workflows/ponies-ascendant.yml

The advantage is that it is lighter to load cause it's using a custom mod of mine with what you need from public

Thanks Stan, I found it today, under https://github.com/0ad-matters/gh-action-build-pyromod, and I will probably give it a shot! Looks like many devs come up with similar solutions to the same problems!