Arma 1 Mods
Ophelia Gurin
Since we do have a lot new members in our ArmAverse, i think it isn't wrong to have a guide on how to install usermade mods and addons. For this guide i assume that you know how to use the Windows Explorer.
Well, at first you will have to download them, obviously. Mostly they come in compressed format like .zip, 7zip or .rar format. So the very first step is to unpack it. Personally i prefer the software 7zip for this but you might use other software that can handle the corresponding format. Please note that Windows by default can decompress the .zip format.
While technically it is possible to simply put the addons into the already existing addons folder, this should be prevented. If ever a usermade addons screw anything up, you might have a hard time to locate which addon it is. Using Modfolders will put you on the safe side.
Most Mods/Addons already come with the above structure preset. So after decompressing you might find a folder named @ModName with a addons folder in it and in there you will find at least one file named modName.pbo. Most likely there will be other files like modname.bisign2.pbo, they all belong together. Simply copy the @ModName folder into the Arma 3 directory, like in the example above.
If the Mod/Addon doesn't come with the required file/folder structure, you'll probably have one or more .pbo files. Simply create a folder inside the Arma 3 folder. Here you're basically free how you name it. Common practice is to start with a @ as the Windows Explorer always orders folders and files alphabetically and therefor modfolders will always be listed on top. For the rest of the name, you're free, just give it something that is meaningful. If it's a A-10 addon, something like @A10 would make sense. You get the idea.
Inside this folder now, you create another folder and this one has to be named addons and nothing else. Inside this folder you copy now all those .pbo file you've downloaded and decompressed. Don't move the .zip, 7zip or .rar files in there, this wont work. It has to be decompressed first.
Organizing Mods is mostly not necessary as they already come organized. For single addons you may organize them in a way you feel comfortable. Say a addonmaker released several single addons over time, it is up to you if you prefer to have them all in separated Modfolders or you create a single Modfolder for all addons of this addonmaker. You also might create Modfolders for specific servers if you wish. This is completely up to you.
This is done ingame. Go to Options -> Expansions. There you will find your Expansions. They are disabled by default unless you enable them in here. Enable those you need and disable those you don't need. Keep in mind that some addons do require other addons to work properly.
Also loading order does matter (which is from top to bottom). Say you have a units addon from addonmaker A which requires a weapon addon from addonmaker B. So the units rely on the weapons so these should be loaded before the units. Else you will get a error about missing addons. So make sure that such Modfolders are loaded in the correct order top down.
There are tools around, created by very talented community members which might help to get addons easier downloaded and installed. Search the Forums for them, most popular being SixUpdater and PlayWithSix by Sickboy.
I get the mods to show up in the menu and am able to select to enable or disable them, however when the game says it needs to restart after enabling a mod it doesn't remember the mod has been enabled ?
The only thing the command line does for me is add an entry like the default ARAMA3 in the expansions menu, ie the added folder has no enable / disable option, and no sub drop down comes up with individual mods in that folder in expansions ?
My problem with the mods/addons is I can get them to work in-game which is great. But They are constantly enabled in the expansions menu. I cant disable or change the load order as the options to do so are greyed out. Anybody else having this issue?
I put two arma 3 icons on my desktop, one to run vanilla arma for online MP servers and the other with all my mods. So the vanilla one just has the default target line and the other one has the default target line plus all the -@mod= blah blah stuff.
I recommend not to organize them this way, for one reason: Tools like PlayWithSix or Armarize (which I use, which is great, and which also uses the PlayWithSix network) may rely on having the mods in the well known directories.
By no mean im no noob, but I have my arma 3 installed on a SSD and running my mods via the my documents/Arma 3 Alpha folder. But they do not show up in the expansions menu at all. So Any ideas. I have just been using a launcher, playwithsix, and short cuts. But If i start Arma straight with steam. No mods show up in expansions.
when organizing like this, where do I put the keys? In the Arma3 directory, or can I have a Keys folder here as well? Haven't seen a mod with a userconfig folder yet, but if there is one, same question.
I have just recently figured out how to sign mods with the new tools.. and its TOO EASY.. If i ever hear anyone say they cant do it because of lack of time I am going to cry inside and blast the thread with the following post. its simply TOO FREAKING EASY TO SIGN A MOD TO EVER SAY I DON'T HAVE THE TIME......
All in all it takes about 10-15 minutes Less then that if you have already installed ARMA 3 tools. if you haven't competed any of the prerequisites, IE installing ARMA 3 tools, creating P:drive.. etc... After all that is done.. Signing mods is CAKE.... Mod makers have NO Excuses :p.... NON...
On that note if you DO NOT have any interest in signing your mods, Ill do it for you... It takes me Seconds to do, its not a problem... I sign and re sign GL5 for testing on my server all the time. The most time consuming part is actually uploading the new files to the server.
During OPs trial & error session to sign already released mods he might have run into the problem where already binarized files cannot be binarized again, hence binpbo throwing an error, and him thinking it had to be like this for everybody.
Not to mention if you don't binarize your addon then sometimes (depending on the complexity) then Arma will be throwing fits, nevermind binpbo. Imagine running an addon and then BAM, error boxes of strings constantly.
ALSO, when you sign your mods....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, change the filename of the BIKEY. If I put your BIKEY in my server key folder and I have to replace the old one because you used the same name, it locks out every player with the older version of your mod. Bad for buisiness from a server's perspective.
Hi! I got a Steam Deck for myself as a late Christmas present, but was disappointed to see that both DayZ & Arma 3 are hobbled because the launchers on Steam OS don't handle Mods correctly.
You can use the launch parameter -noLauncher to bypass and get straight to the game, but PC DayZ & Arma really are about the mods.
With the quality and price of the Steam Deck, this could become a significant community for BI if they can solve these issues.
With Arma 3, after installing to the Steam Deck, and starting the launcher, it downloads the mods I'm subscribed too, as you'd expect. When it's done, the mods are marked as corrupted. When I looked in the !Workshop Folder where I'd expect to see the shortcuts to where the mods actually stored, the !Workshop folder seemed to be empty, with no shortcuts, but the mods were in the content folder as you'd expect. It's like the problem is something to do with the shortcuts not be created in the !Workshop folder.
HOWEVER! Even if the launcher worked on the Steam Deck, because of the restricted storage on the Steam Deck and other hand-helds, I know the I, and most other users, don't really want all my subscribed mods downloading to my Steam Deck and filling up a big chunk of my storage. (I have 100gb of Arma 3 mods), so it would be nice to be able to select which mods I'd like on my Steam Deck instead of them all downloading automatically, but also so that those mods I have chosen are then automatically updated by the launcher.
But actually Valve is already solving that. The Steam Beta client lets you select which workshop items to actually download, inside the game properties.
It might not play well with the Launcher currently. We are already investigating that, we'll also have to make that work right on windows.
Figured something out.
The !Workshop folder is actually not needed. The Launcher has a fallback for when creating the links inside !Workshop folder would not work.
We know it has issues in Proton, but its actually not activating that fallback.
Next Arma update we will enable the fallback. !Workshop folder will never be created but the mods will be loaded directly from Steams content folder.
We would have some trouble testing this. Maybe you can help test it for us?
in Arma 3\Launcher there is a Utils.dll
Replace it with this one.
Utils.dll257 KBDownload
That will use the fallback instead of trying to create links inside !Workshop. That should fix the mod corrupted and mod loading issue
Don't have Arma3 so I tried this DLL on DayZ on Linux in the hopes it would be the same, but doesn't seem like it. Just get an empty error window for a second, logs complain about a missing method. If you upload another DLL for DayZ I can test that.
In order to launch Arma 3 with mods, they must be downloaded from the Steam Workshop or another source.The mod directory should be moved into the game directory, then loaded using the game's Steam launch options.There also exists a way to launch the game with mods via Terminal, or by making an Alias with the help of the Apple Script Editor.
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