Project M Addon System: What it is and why you should use it

[ShortFuse]

Many of you probably recognize the new PM Launcher gets rid of the About menu item and now says Addons. (You can still access the about popup by pressing Y or +). It'll take you to a screen where you will see a list of available addons.

Well, the launcher will search for any 7z file that sits in sd:/projectm/launcher/addons. Preincluded with 3.5 is WiFi.7z which is the WiFi add-on for PM. Basically, the launcher will open the 7z file and read info.xml that sits inside. It'll backup and replace any files needed when installing. Uninstalling will return the files to their original order.

There are many benefits to this. One is that you can now simply disable all your addons before apply any PM upgrade patches. Returning to a clean build is extremely simple now. Also, it makes swapping custom to original much easier if you use your Wii at tournaments.

Another is that you can easily share your custom addons with other people. They simply drop the file in the addons folder and use the launcher to install it. They don't have to hunt around looking for how to install each file and make backups, etc.

Finally, the PM team may officially (or even its members unofficially) release addon packs that would strictly be optional. This might be stages, costumes, sound effects, music packs, etc.

As for the technical breakdown:

* Prepare an addon folder with all the files you want. The folder structure and file names don't matter, so you can name them whatever you want. For example, if you are making a music pack, you can put the song name in the filename.
* Copy WiFi.7z's info.xml to your addon folder.
* Change the title (256 character maximum).
* Change the code to something unique that won't conflict with other people's addons (8 character max).
* Set a version number (useful for upgrading in the future).
* Change the <file> source attribute to match your folder structure and file name as needed.
* Calculate the MD5 on your file and change the MD5 attribute.
* Change the destination attribute to where you want it to copy.
* Create/Remove as many <file> nodes as needed.
* Save the XML file.
* Create a **non-solid** 7z archive of your files. You may use Ultra compression.

If you need a good MD5 app, I suggest WinMD5Free. It supports drag and drop. I also suggest Notepad++ for XML editing. This is the exact same way I build all the addons, updates, and patches for the launcher. If you have any questions, let me know here. I'll even convert somebody's custom content into an addon file for you, if you're having trouble.

 

[andzrej]

Seems like this will be extremely useful for custom content.

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

very interesting.. I'm not fully understanding everything though..

If i wana add new costumes and also change the character portraits, or if i wana add stages using the ASL tool, or change stage rel's and also stage names and portraits, will this addon tool do all this for me by me just placing the files in the addons folder?

I also dont really know what the MD5 thing is or what the XML files are. i got confused about half way through the list lol.

 

[_Ganondorf_]

very interesting.. I'm not fully understanding everything though..

If i wana add new costumes and also change the character portraits, or if i wana add stages using the ASL tool, or change stage rel's and also stage names and portraits, will this addon tool do all this for me by me just placing the files in the addons folder?

I also dont really know what the MD5 thing is or what the XML files are. i got confused about half way through the list lol.

Yeah I'm also a little confused... It's a bit too technical for me lol.

Could we have a custom moveset or even a new character (made outside of PMDT) in the add-on thingy?

If so any plans from the PMDT to "endorse" custom movesets and/or new character PSAs? (Actually if there are plans for that I doubt it would be announced now and would be saved to be revealed later to generate hype)

 

[Espi]

Someone needs to do a PM 3.5 Addon for dummies guide. A lot of people aren't fully understanding it. Including me

 

[QQQQQQQ7777777]

I fiddled with it a little and I think I've figured it out.

Basically have all the files in your pack in one zip folder with the info file it told you to copy to it in the instructions.

In the info file things are pretty much set up for you, put the name and version where it says, and between <files> and </files> follow this formula:

<file
source="(file you want to put into the game)"
destination="sd:/(directory to the file you want to replace it with/folder you want to put it in)"
md5="(the MD5 given to you when opening the file you want to put into the game in WinMD5Free)" />

The quotation marks are necessary btw.

 

[JANKX]

With regards to music addons, does the PM launcher magically recompile info.pac and mu_menumain.pac for song titles, or would those files need to be manually added to for each song-pack addon? It seems unlikely that this is the currently the case, and I hope that there are considerations to enable such a thing so that addons are less restrictive.

Also, it appears that each addon is self-contained to access files only within their own archive. I was wondering if it would be possible to allow addons to reference files from external archives. This would help save a lot of space between addons that share a lot of similar files. For instance, one could have a single archive dedicated to all the possible music to select from, and create multiple music addons that reference different selections from the master archive, instead of having to deal with redundant data.

 

[GFooChombey]

When activating the wi-fi addon, does that basically install the wifi safe version? Just wondering if I should turn it off when playing locals.

 

[BronzeGreekGod]

so can i use this addons tool to add/change portraits and stuff?

 

[Louis Tursi]

If we could get a video tutorial on more about how this works, that'd be great. Also, can this be used to install entirely new builds through the add-on feature (i.e. Theytah's Build)?

 

[Amazerommu]

When activating the wi-fi addon, does that basically install the wifi safe version? Just wondering if I should turn it off when playing locals.

Yes

so can i use this addons tool to add/change portraits and stuff?

Yes you would have to use a completely different common5.pac file in the add-on folder, however. If you have multiple mods that edit common5.pac that could cause conflict... OR... With a little helpful trickery (courtesy of @Ondo ) you can have the game load certain elements of the common5.pac separately and thus only include those in your add-on (also loading these things out of common5 slightly decreases load times when first launching PM. It'll give you a bit more versatility as far as that goes... But that's... something I need to refresh myself on... Hmmm...

If we could get a video tutorial on more about how this works, that'd be great. Also, can this be used to install entirely new builds through the add-on feature (i.e. Theytah's Build)?

I *would* make a tutorial since I believe I at least have them working with my Melee SFX... But time suggests that ummm... "consuela_no.wav"

With regards to music addons, does the PM launcher magically recompile info.pac and mu_menumain.pac for song titles, or would those files need to be manually added to for each song-pack addon? It seems unlikely that this is the currently the case, and I hope that there are considerations to enable such a thing so that addons are less restrictive.

Also, it appears that each addon is self-contained to access files only within their own archive. I was wondering if it would be possible to allow addons to reference files from external archives. This would help save a lot of space between addons that share a lot of similar files. For instance, one could have a single archive dedicated to all the possible music to select from, and create multiple music addons that reference different selections from the master archive, instead of having to deal with redundant data.

That is definitely not possible currently. But something like that would be nice. Would prooooooobably take all the work to incorporate though. The Add-On feature is quite simple as it is.

And to everyone... If you've used Riivolution to load custom versions of Brawl... the Add-On system is basically exactly that but... somewhat more convenient/versatile.

 

[HypnotizeOverdrive]

"consuela_no.wav"

Good lord.

 

[ライオン]

I would like to see more people using this. This will make modding PM much more organized, and having the SD card fragmenting would be less of a problem.

 

[Louis Tursi]

I still would like to know... Can this feature be used to apply completely other builds? I have a lot of other content for my Wii on my SD Card, PM being one of them. There are many interesting other builds I'd like to have, but to be able to play them all, I'd need multiple SD Cards for each. My question is, with this add-on feature, will it allow me to apply the build to Project M on my SD card?

 

[Jglauby]

So I think I activated the online addon, but how do I take remove it? I have a customized project m and it is no longer working and I think it is because of the online addon

 

[NFreak]

I still would like to know... Can this feature be used to apply completely other builds? I have a lot of other content for my Wii on my SD Card, PM being one of them. There are many interesting other builds I'd like to have, but to be able to play them all, I'd need multiple SD Cards for each. My question is, with this add-on feature, will it allow me to apply the build to Project M on my SD card?

Technically it can, but I just tried it out last night and it's painfully slow if you're not working with just a few files, and you need the space on your SD card to back up your old build too, since that's how the addon thing works (backs up your files, replaces them with the addon files, then launches the game).

I had a 135 MB test build last night with fast compression, and it included about 600 files, maybe more (pf/fighter and pf/info/portrite took up a ton. I skipped on music with this test build). I let it sit there installing for about 10 minutes and it still didn't finish, whereas just popping it into my computer and doing it manually would've taken 5.

 

[gamegod7]

what about custom characters? can PSAs be installed with this or not?

 

[gamegod7]

Technically it can, but I just tried it out last night and it's painfully slow if you're not working with just a few files, and you need the space on your SD card to back up your old build too, since that's how the addon thing works (backs up your files, replaces them with the addon files, then launches the game).

I had a 135 MB test build last night with fast compression, and it included about 600 files, maybe more (pf/fighter and pf/info/portrite took up a ton. I skipped on music with this test build). I let it sit there installing for about 10 minutes and it still didn't finish, whereas just popping it into my computer and doing it manually would've taken 5.

When i tried to download an add on build I made, It crashed in the middle of downloading. Any reason why that would happen?