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Multi Fan Missions Found!


Maethius

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So I just decided to sorta start clean (that is, download the latest edition of TDM which, since it really isn't a mod but a stand alone game could just be called, "The Dark Stand Alone" but that would be rather awkward... but I digress). After loading it up I went in and updated all of the available missions, and this is when I made an interesting discovery.

 

MFMF!

 

So I have two and sometimes three instances of the same mission in my directory. Some of them have a check for having been completed, others of the same name do not. A few are obviously updated versions, but several have identical file names with no indication of a version number. The real treat, however, is file size. I have three versions of "Somewhere Above the City"; one is an update, two are not, and all three have vastly different file sizes. When I run into these duplicates I have some that read 18MB right alongside a version reading 226MB!

 

While I'm guessing the easiest thing to do is wipe entirely and use the downloader to rebuild my list, I was wondering what could cause the huge discrepancy in file sizes (yes, each version seems to work, even if one is lacking 100MB in content) and is there a way to prevent TDM from downloading duplicates in the future?

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Could it be that the duplicates are language packages?

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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The 'notes' box / readme should have the FM version at the top for most FMs, if the authors were thinking about it, which they should have!

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Doesn't seem so. The file size discrepancy alone makes me wonder what is going on. How can one FM have 18MB of data and another 54MB, but both still run? It's very strange!

FM's are normally not very huge. Those sizes normally come from custom stuff like textures (lots of image files) or videos.

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Quite a bunch of missions initially came out with custom models, textures, etc.

And much of that stuff was considered to be worth integrating into the TDM stock resources.

As result, as soon as the next TDM version came out with that stuff integrated, missions became updated and the formerly 'custom' resources got removed.

So, large differences can be seen for various missions. Most of the time the leaner ones are the latest versions.

 

Technically you can not have the 'same' mission multiple times in your fms folder.

So, you must see some differences in the folder names already.

e.g. 'business' vs. 'business3'

 

Most likely you manually downloaded a bunch of missions, in which case the internal downloader will not even bother offering you to update them, once an update would come out.

Your best chance is to open the pk4 files and check which one has the latest content and drop the other ones.

Simply drop the outdated folders that you find within 'darkmod\fms'.

 

In case you are in doubt which version to keep, simply delete all folders referring to that fm and kick the internal dowloader to fetch the latest version.

Edited by gnartsch
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e.g. 'business' vs. 'business'

Sure that's your example?

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Thanks, gnartsch, that's kind of what I wondered, but I didn't want to start doing a lot of folder surgery if I didn't have to. Besides, some missions have sequels, and I didn't want to delete any potential "part two" missions. :)

 

*edit*

 

Cleaned up everything but I am left with one mystery... "Sneak & Destroy" still shows up twice, but has one folder. Both missions state 159MB. I noticed several other missions became duplicated because the new versions had entirely different folder names ("Rift" v. "The Rift", "Awaiting_the_Storm" v. "Storm"). That sort of thing.

Edited by Maethius
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'Sneak & Destroy' was formerly known as 'kneipe24'.

That is for sure the folder where you see the second entry coming from.

 

The official naming convention for the internal mission name and the folder to be created is pretty much as follows:

all lower case characters, no blanks ... and as short as possible.

So, at any rate 'The Rift' or 'Awaiting_the_Storm' were created by manual downloads.

That is the sort of duplication issue one has to expect if one downloads a misssion before it becomes available in the internal downloader,

because the TDM team makes sure that the mission provided by the author gets a proper naming in order to avoid confusion and other issues later on.

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'Sneak & Destroy' was formerly known as 'kneipe24'.

That is for sure the folder where you see the second entry coming from.

 

Yep, that's the one! I just did a search of all .PK4 files and found the only two that took identical memory. Thanks for the explanation... it really was very helpful.

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