HoN Modification Manager 1.3.6

[Notausgang]

HoN Modification Manager 1.3.6

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Table Of Contents:

1. About
2. Download
3. Installation & Usage
4. Troubleshooting
5. The .honmod File Format
6. Mod Manager Source
7. Changelog
8. Special Thanks

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1. About

What is this?

This is a program designed to remove mod incompatibilities and the need to update mods every new patch. It is also capable of maintaining a list of installed mods which can be enabled/disabled individually and offers an automatic update feature for mods.

What is the downside?

Compatible mods need to come in a format different from the simple resources*.s2z scheme, which is usually a little more work for modders to create. (There are however facilities implemented allowing simple conversion from .honmod to .s2z)
Incompatibilities with ".s2z mods" will persist as well (unless they are converted to the new format).

What does it look like?

Like this: (shown are three example mods)

(click to view full size)

How does it work?

When choosing "Apply Mods" from the program menu the enabled mods are applied to the original files from resources0.s2z and compiled into a single s2z mod named "resources999.s2z".

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2. Download

Click Me! - [Mediafire mirror]

Linux users may be interested in this modman build using GTK# by theli.

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3. Installation & Usage

To install the program download the zip file linked above containing the program. You can place it anywhere you wish. Linux and MacOS users need Mono to run it.
The program will try to detect the location of your Heroes of Newerth install automatically; if it can't it'll ask you for the folder (usually something like "C:\Program Files\Heroes of Newerth").

To install mods (*.honmod files) put them into the mods directory (see below for locations) or drag them onto the program window (Windows only). Any mod files in that directory that are compatible will automatically show up in the program.
To use installed mods you need to enable them first (e.g. by double-clicking on them), then select "Apply Mods" from the "File" menu. You'll need "Apply Mods" each and every time the game was patched or you have installed/uninstalled/updated any mods. The program will remind you of this.

The default locations for the mods directory are:
Windows: C:\Program Files\Heroes of Newerth\game\mods
Linux: /home/<username>/.Heroes of Newerth/game/mods
MacOS: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Heroes of Newerth/game/mods
This directory will be automatically created when you launch the mod manager the first time and can be easily be accessed from the "Open Mod Folder" option in the "File" menu.


Where do I get mods in the correct format?
In the HoNMod Repository you will find a pretty complete list of all mods that are currently available in the mod manager's format.


Notes regarding running it under Linux

I'm running Modman fine with wine here on Ubuntu 9.04

had to install mono/.Net framework though, but there's a pretty straightforward script for that: winetricks

On Ubuntu you need to install these three packages:

libmono-winforms2.0-cil
libmono-microsoft-visualbasic8.0-cil
libmono-i18n2.0-cil

The last one is important because the program will appear but show you no mods even if they're installed properly if you don't have it.

Basically you Search for "Mono" in System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager , and search & Install Mono's core program. Then when you download HoN Mod Manager, You have to OPEN WITH HoN Manager with Mono, and it will work.

Hints for Mac OS users

Guide by ShredderIV.

(old / alternative guide below)

First download the original ModMan file and then the latest version of mono.

Now once that is done install Mono and then open up Terminal (it should be in the applications folder or the Utilities folder). Once that is done and you see the string that has your user name type "mono" and then drag and drop the ModMan.exe into the window and it should show the file path. Press enter and it should run, it might take a while to load at first but it will run.

It will ask you to make a path to Heroes of Newerth, at the moment the only way for that to work is to use the string "/Applications/Heroes of Newerth.app" and that has to be put in manually.

After this you should be able to use the screenshot guide from my earlier post to get this all to work. I hope this helped.

Get the whole story and maybe some more hints at this thread.

Small tip for OSX users running this app via mono, instead of having to open terminal every time, you can make a simple AppleScript application launcher:

1. Open AppleScript Editor (in /Applications/Utilities)
2. Input the following:
   
   

   do shell script "mono '/Applications/Utilities/HoN_ModMan.exe' &> /dev/null &"

   (NOTE: Modify path as required, do not remove single-quotes)
   
   
3. Save as file format Application

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4. Troubleshooting

The zip file I downloaded is corrupted / gives me CRC errors.

There was a problem with the download server until recently (did not affect the Mediafire mirror though). If you are still experiencing problems be sure to use up-to-date zip software.

When I run the program I get an error reading "Could not detect Heroes of Newerth version. Version checks have been disabled.".

This may have several causes:

• You set the HoN install path wrong, and it thus couldn't find the game files. This can be solved by setting the correct path: note that you should NOT point it to the \game or the \game\mods sub-folder, but the main folder!
  Examples: "C:\Program Files\Heroes Of Newerth" under Windows, "/home/<username>/HoN" under Linux and "/Applications/Heroes of Newerth.app" under Mac OS.
• The HoN install path is set correctly, but the program is missing read privileges on the files. This can be solved by either running the program as admin, or turning off User Access Control (UAC) or explicitly adding read privileges for the files in the HoN installation directory.
• You have HoN running, which locks access to its game files. Simply close HoN before running the mod manager.

When I run the program I get an error reading "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.".

This error usually means you haven't got the .NET Framework 2.0 installed. You can download it here.

.honmod files I download appear as folders or as zip files!

Use another browser to download the .honmod files. Or rename the zip file back to end on .honmod, if you got a zip file.

When I try to apply mods I get error messages reading "<mod name> caused a problem: Could not find string starting with [...]".

This indicates that at least two of the mods you have got enabled are not compatible with each other. You need to figure out which ones and disable either.
For example a mod that completely revamps (= replaces) the in-game interface like "Tiny UI" usually won't work with mods editing aspects of the default UI like "Auto Ability Learning", unless they take special measures.

It crashes with a dubious InvalidOperationException; oh, and I also have Left 4 Dead installed.

There have been reports that this weird crash could be solved by reinstalling your fonts:

ive also had left 4 dead that screwed up my fonts and this must be the problem. I dont know how u did to reinstall the fonts but i did this windows/font -> file -> install new font -> selected font folder -> selected all and clicked OK -> boxes appeared all the time that i already had this font installed but clicked ok all the way. I also tried deleting fonts and did alot of wierd things and now it worked for some reason, atleast it works!

I can't open it, it crashes. Please help me!

Without a proper descriptive error message (easy to recognize by the fact that it says something about an "Exception" at the top) you cannot be helped.
If you got one, great! Just post in this thread and it will be taken care of.
If not, you're probably on your own. Maybe you didn't see the full error message, try different buttons on the error window. I will try to provide some diagnostic programs soon, but don't rely on it. There's something wrong with your setup!

My mod won't show up in the mod manager!

Make sure that

• your mod.xml contains valid XML; a single wrong character can already break it. When asking for help be sure to always provide your mod.xml so a more trained eye can have a look. This is the #1 problem.
• the mod.xml is at the root of your .honmod ZIP file.
• it's not a WinRAR or 7-Zip archive, but actually a ZIP.

I'm using Mac and I get this error message in the terminal:

Unhandled Exception: System.NotImplementedException: The requested feature is not implemented.
at System.Windows.Forms.XplatUICarbon.AudibleAlert () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.XplatUI.AudibleAlert () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox+MessageBoxForm.Run Dialog () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

You need to update a component of your Mono install to the newest version:

1. Go to http://mono.ximian.com/daily/ and download monocharge-20100115.tar.gz
2. Go to where the download file was placed ( for me it was /Users/SeanEvans/Downloads) and double click on the .tar.gz file to unzip it.
3. Open the now folder named monocharge-20100115 and search for the file named "System.Windows.Forms.dll"
4. go to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528 to figure out how to enable root user for your account. (NOTE: If you do not enable root user, then you can't continue past this point)
5. Once you have enabled the root user, open Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type this exactly: sudo gacutil -i (at this point drag and drop the System.Windows.Forms.dll file into the Terminal window. This will insert the file path into terminal. Mine looked like this: sudo gacutil -i /Users/SeanEvans/Desktop/System.Windows.Forms.dll) and press RETURN.
6. If you typed it correctly, then you should be prompted for your password in Terminal, so insert the password that you chose for the ROOT USER when you were enabling it, and press RETURN.

If all went well, you should get a message similar to this:
Installed /Users/SeanEvans/Desktop/System.Windows.Forms.dll into the gac (/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/2.6.1/lib/mono/gac)

Once that is done, type: mono (file path for HoN_ModMan.exe here) and press return, enable the addons, and choose File -> Apply Mods, and you're finished!

IMPORTANT: Do NOT forget to disable root user once you are done.

I'm running ModMan using Mono and get an error message with this stacktrace:

at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Drawing.GDIPlus.GdipCreateFontFamilyFromNam e (string,intptr,intptr&) <0x00004>
at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Drawing.GDIPlus.GdipCreateFontFamilyFromNam e (string,intptr,intptr&) <0x00004>
at System.Drawing.FontFamily..ctor (string,System.Drawing.Text.FontCollection) <0x00044>

This basically means that you have font problems. I got my problem fixed by removing fontconfig and fontcache files. They are ~/.fontconfig and ~/.font-cache-1 though I'm not entirely sure about the last name (~/.font* should be safe-ish).
When you next run modman it will probably take a bit longer as some cache need to be re-generated; one-time only.

I'm running ModMan using Mono and get this error message:

** (HoN_ModMan.exe:3004): WARNING **: The following assembly referenced from <path>/HoN_ModMan.exe could not be loaded:
Assembly: Microsoft.VisualBasic (assemblyref_index=0)
Version: 8.0.0.0
Public Key: b03f5f7f11d50a3a
The assembly was not found in the Global Assembly Cache, a path listed in the MONO_PATH environment variable, or in the location of the executing assembly (<path>/).


** (HoN_ModMan.exe:3004): WARNING **: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualBasic, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies.

Unhandled Exception: System.TypeLoadException: A type load exception has occurred.

You need to install libmono-microsoft-visualbasic.

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5. The .honmod File Format

Just like an ".s2z" a ".honmod" is a renamed ZIP. It contains the following files:

• mod.xml: A valid XML file with describing "how the mod is applied", that is where to add/edit/delete code from the original files. There is a very detailed documentation given below, but you might as well just try looking at other mods to understand how this file works.
• icon.png: A 48x48 icon to be displayed next to the mod's name in the mod manager. Note that partial transparency may not work or look fugly. This file is optional.
• Any supportive files, e.g. new files your mod adds. You need to reference these in mod.xml or they will be ignored.

Elements and Attributes in mod.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modification
    application="Heroes of Newerth"        fixed
    appversion="0.3"                       game version requirement (shown is "anything starting with 0.3")
    mmversion="1.3"                        fixed, the version of the file format
    name="The Mod's Name"                  It is strongly recommended to keep this name consistent as it will identify the mod.
    version="1.0"                          The current version of the mod. Should grow with each new release.
    description="blahblahblah"             Explanatory text about the mod to be shown when selected in the Mod Manager (optional)
    author="Your Nickname"                 Will be shown below the mod's name. (optional)
    weblink="http://www.com/"              A clickable link to be shown below the description text. (optional)
    updatecheckurl="http://.../version.txt"A URL to a text file containing the newest version number. (optional)
    updatedownloadurl="http://.../m.honmod"A URL to a .honmod file that will be downloaded and replace this mod file when the text file specified above contains a higher version number than this mod currently has. (optional)
>
    <!-- Of the elements being described below each kind may appear any number of times and in any order -->

    <incompatibility name="Other mod" version="1.0-1.4" />
    <!-- States an incompatibility with certain versions of another mod to be abided by the Mod Manager; this mod cannot be enabled when the other mod is enabled. -->

    <requirement name="Other mod" version="2.5.1-*" />
    <!-- States a dependence on another mod to be abided by the Mod Manager; this mod cannot be enabled when the other mod is not present and enabled. -->

    <applyafter name="Other mod" version="2.5.1-*" />
    <applybefore name="Other mod" version="2.5.1-*" />
    <!-- If the specified other mod is enabled, this mod will be applied after/before it. -->

    <copyfile name="path1" source="path2" overwrite="newer" version="1.0" condition="..." />
    <!-- Copies a supportive file from the mod archive. If "path2" is not specified the file "path1" is copied, if it is "path2" is copied and renamed to "path1".
         overwrite specifies a controlled behaviour in case the target file already exists:
         "yes"   -> target file is overwritten
         "no"    -> target file is left as is
         "newer" -> target file is overwritten if its version is lower than the one specified by the version attribute
        
        If the condition attribute is specified the copying is only performed if the given condition is true. A condition can consist of another mod being enabled or disabled or a boolean expression combining multiple such conditions. Examples of valid condition strings:
        'Tiny UI'
        not 'Tiny UI'
        'Tiny UI[v3.0]' and 'Automatic Ability Learner[v1.1-1.5]'
        ('BardUI' or ('Improved UI by Barter[v1.08]' and 'Improved UI Addon - Juking Map')) and not 'Tiny UI' -->

    <editfile name="path" condition="...">
        <!-- Edits a file from resources0.s2z or one that has already been copied
            If condition is specified this editfile tag is only executed if the given condition is true; uses the same syntax as for copyfile. -->

        <!-- Files are edited by executing a sequence of steps, each being represented by one of the four elements below.
             All elements need a string as input, which can either be delivered as inner text node (between the <operation></operation> tags) or read from a file in the mod archive specified by a source attribute.
             Every operation interacts with a "cursor" variable which points to a area in the file and starts out at the beginning of the file. -->
        
        <find position="end" /> <!-- synonyms for "find" are "seek" and "search" -->
        <!-- Moves the "cursor" to the next occurrence of the source string
             OR as specified by the position attribute, possible values being:
             "start"     -> Beginning of the file (synonyms: "begin", "head", "before")
             "end"       -> End of the file (synonyms: "tail", "after", "eof")
             any integer -> Move forward the specified number of characters (negative values allowed) -->
        <findup /> <!-- synonyms for "findup" are "seekup" and "searchup" -->
        <!-- Moves the "cursor" to the next occurrence of the source string, but searching backwards. -->
        
        <insert position="after" /> <!-- synonym for "insert" is "add" -->
        <!-- Inserts the source string at the "cursor", either before or after as the position attribute specifies. -->
        
        <replace />
        <!-- Replaces the string pointed to by the "cursor" with the source string. -->

        <delete />
        <!-- Deletes the string pointed to by the "cursor". Does not require a source string. -->
    </editfile>
</modification>

Remarks:

• Version values may only contain digits and periods. Letters will be ignored!
• No two mods with the same name can be loaded at once.
• "Requirements" allow mods of mods; such mods will always be applied after the mods they marked as required so that they may edit their code; note that <requirement /> automatically implies <applyafter />.

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6. Mod Manager Source

Mod Manager was written in Visual Basic .NET for the .NET framework 2.0 (2005). The code only uses OOP features where it's of immediate use and generally does not provide a good interface to build on as UI code is intertwined with functional code.

Nevertheless, below a download of all source files and a Visual Studio 2005 solution & project is provided.
Download, read and use at your own risk.
Do whatever you want with it; it would however be nice if you gave credit when you reuse parts of the code. I was too lazy to include a proper license, but I'm not gonna sue anyone anyway. We're all doing modding just for fun, right?

Source Download


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7. Changelog

v1.3.6 [31.03.10]: Fixed detection of MacOS, Mono was lying and telling modman it was Unix / Linux. This should also fix the default HoN installation directory under MacOS not being auto-detected.
v1.3.5 [31.03.10]: Fixed version 1.3.4 which wouldn't work at all for Linux / Mac users because the ~ shortcut for the user directory could not be used.
v1.3.4 [30.03.10]: Adapted mod directories for Linux and Mac in accordance to patch 0.3.1. For Linux and Mac users .honmods now go into a different directory, see section 3.
v1.3.3 [25.03.10]: Fixed a cosmetic bug.
v1.3.2 [25.03.10]: Fixed a bug where version requirement strings were found not to be matching when they really were.


v1.3.1 [22.03.10]:

Fixes
=====
- Fixed a crash when a honmod file could not be copied into the mods folder, and replaced it with an error message.
- Fixed a minor internal bug.


v1.3.0 [21.03.10]:

File Format
===========
  <no changes>

User Interface
==============
- Added an option to display version numbers behind the mod names (as was default pre-1.1).
- Displayed mod names can now be edited, and mods are now always sorted by name.
- Fixed "missing required mod" error messages to properly display the mod name and suggest to visit the mod's website for a link to the required mod.
- Multiple mod selection is now possible.
- Cleaner, less cluttered update reports.

Features
========
- .honmod files can now be "opened with" the mod manager, installing them. Added a prompt on first run to register the file type and options to un/register the file type. [file type association is Windows only]
- Added a feature to export selected enabled mods as s2z file. This can be accessed from the context menu ("right-click menu").
- Hopefully added support for the upcoming FE2 user interface overhaul. This only concerns the automatic reminder to re-apply mods after patching.


v1.2.2 [08.02.10]:

Fixes
=====
- Fixed a bug with dependency cycle detection causing it to be over-cautious.


v1.2.1 [26.01.10]:

Fixes
=====
- Fixes two bugs and a spelling mistake introduced in 1.2. The bugs were concerning ignoring of modification compatibility/ordering instructions if they were placed after a non-empty editfile tag and skipping ahead too far when skipping editfile blocks with unfulfilled conditions.


v1.2.0 [18.01.10]:

File Format
===========
- Added <findup/> operation (synonyms seekup and searchup) which searches backwards.
- Added <applyafter name="modasdf" version="3.0"/> directive setting mod application order in case that other mod is enabled as well (and "applybefore", similary).
- Added an optional "condition" attribute to editfile and copyfile which allows the tags to only have effect if a given condition is true. A condition can consist of another mod being enabled or disabled or a boolean expression combining multiple such conditions. See documentation for examples.
- When the source for an operation is given in place (not via the source attribute) and all the content is in a CDATA node, then surrounding whitespace-only text nodes are ignored; this should allow for nicer mod formatting.

User Interface
==============
- When being automatically prompted to apply mods after a patch successful patching will prompt to start HoN.
- Pressing the Return key will toggle the selected mod's enabledness.
- When choosing "Update Mods" without any updatable mods present it'll say so and not just open a blank window; renamed "Update Mods" to "Download Mod Updates".
- All the letters of "Visit Website" should now be part of the link under Linux/MacOS
- Removed "Large Icons" view, renamed "List" to "Vertical List" and "Small Icons" to "Horizontal List"; added a checkmark next to the active view.

Features
========
- Added option to set command line arguments to use when launching HoN.
- When displaying the "String not found" error the first non-empty line of the string is now displayed in the message.
- Any error during mod application now comes with the number of the guilty line in mod.xml.

Fixes
=====
- Fixed a bug with the mod updater where the downloaded new version would become corrupted if its file was smaller than the original version's.
- Fixed several cases of hardcoded backslashes to use normal slashes on unix-based systems which should fix a lot of problems on Linux and Mac OS.
- If a mod's icon cannot be rendered due to missing implementation of that specific format in Mono, it'll no longer crash, but instead ignore the icon.
- "Unapply all mods" now also disables all mods.
- Improved path guessing a bit more.
- Other small fixes and changes.


v1.1.0 [27.11.09]:

File Format
===========
- Added the <findall/> operation tag: applies the following insert, add, replace or delete to all occurrences of the sought string in the file.
- Added attributes updatecheckurl and updatedownloadurl to the modification tag, which specify URLs returning the current mod version in plain text and the current mod file itself, respectively. (only supports HTTP and HTTPS)
- Note that it is strongly recommended to set the mmversion attribute to "1.1" when using either of the format additions above.

User Interface
==============
- Fell back to the default visual style for menus.
- Added the refresh (F5) option as menu entry.
- Added menu entries to change the view mode of the mod list (some may look the same or similar; possibly a few of the options will be removed later).
- Added menu option to open mods folder (also releases all file handles on the mod files).
- Added a context menu to the list view, containing "Enable/Disable", "Check for Updates" and "Delete" (all of which have keyboard shortcuts)
- Added a a command to delete mods directly from the mod manager window (shortcut key: Del)
- Added "unapply all mods" option for people trying to remove their only mod while considering "applying mods" an illogical option.
- Mod versions are no longer cluttering the main list view but are now displayed in the status bar when selecting a mod
- Made some error messages more explanatory; troubleshooting section will be shortened soon!
- Can no longer open multiple instances of the mod manager under Windows.

Features
========
- The long anticipated mod updating features are here! See file format changelog for specifics.
- When a new patch is released users will be reminded to re-apply their mods in HoN's main menu until they do so.
- When launching the mod manager after a new patch has been applied it will suggest to apply mods right away (in case you only started it to do this mandatory reapplying after patches).
- Mod enabled-ness is no longer independent from mod applied-ness! When you open the mod manager only applied mods will be enabled (this information is read from resources999.s2z) and if you don't apply mods after enabling/disabling mods it will prompt you to do so when closing the application.
- Now guesses most common HoN paths on Windows, Linux and Mac; also uses simple heuristics to strip "\game" and "\game\mods" from wrong user-specified paths.
- Now supports retrieving the game version and launching the game on Mac.
- Will now automatically request admin privileges when run on an UAC enabled system!

Fixes
=====
- Incorrect HoN paths are now always properly detected and will cause most functions to disable and the path prompt to appear every time you start the mod manager.
- If multiple mod files with the same mod name are found it will now load the one with the highest version number (previously it loaded the one with the lexicographically smaller file name).
- Incompatibilities are now properly enforced no matter in what order you enabled two incompatible mods when only one of them specifies the incompatibility (only affects visuals, processing was correct before as well).
- Other miscellaneous fixes I forgot about.
- Started commenting the code.

v1.0.3 [30.09.09]: Fixed "Visit Website" linking to wrong websites
                   Fixed some mods not working on Linux due to line break business
                   "game" folder is not created anymore, if it doesn't exist; "mods" folder creation still as before
v1.0.2 [28.09.09]: Fixed ampersands not showing up in the description.
                   Fixed "11/11 mods enabled" field width
                   Added possibility of dropping mod files onto the window to install them (copying them to the game/mods dir)
                   Added option to enter HoN path manually for hidden folder fans.
v1.0.1 [27.09.09]: Features under linux should now match those under Windows. (finding the game path automatically, the "apply mods & run hon" option)
                   Fixed "requirement" and "incompatibility" tags preventing compiling.
                   Window position is now remembered.
v1.0.0 [27.09.09]: Initial release.

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8. Special Thanks

To theli for miscellaneous .net and vital linux advice.
To MaxGhost for offering a lot of support to people and especially for having converted many many mods to the new format in the big rush in the first hours and days after initial release.
To ss4_link for taking the time to get it working under Mac OS and providing a simple first tutorial for mac users.
To metjm who helped a lot in testing the Mac version, thanks to whom it should not stand back from the Windows and Linux versions.
To Cbrad24 for cleaning up this post.

And to everyone else helping me making this a viable alternative to the s2z mod jungle!

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Any feedback is welcome!