7dtd Launcher

[Neomi Bensch]

7D2DMod Launcher Guide: Overhaul Instructions & UBBI 1.2.7 Install

Launcher Designed By Sphereii, Tutorial Created By Ztensity

After discovering 7 Days to Die last November, I quickly began diving into playing the game with mods. I first began discovering mods on Nexus, but over time I eventually learned about Guppy's Discord channel for 7 Days to Die here and Sphereii's 7D2D mod launcher here. After learning how to play with mods for 7 Days to Die through Nexus, the launcher and the 7 Days to Die forums here, I surprisingly began to create my own mods like the Creature Renaming series, my first major modlet Unnecessarily Beautiful But Immersive (UBBI) and just released modlets on the launcher titled Custom Perks UI Renaming and a standalone, alternate and compatibility version of UBBI designed for an overhaul, exclusively found on the launcher, titled "Gnamod."

While Nexus and Vortex are a powerful tool for the modding community for a multitude of video games like Skyrim, Subnautica, The Wither, Monster Hunter: World, Dark Souls and Stardew Valley amongst so many hundreds of others, mod author, coder and program designer Sphereii created the 7D2D mod launcher because Vortex was not properly optimized to work with 7 Days to Die mods. To this end, he created a website to go alongside the launcher along with a few frequently asked questions.

Now, I've created a guide which provides steps on how to install the 7D2D mod launcher, how to manage/install modlets through the launcher, how to install overhauls like Gnamod, Ravenhearst and War3zuk, and how to install a modlet into an overhaul's "mods" folder post install (like my modlet - UBBI v1.2.7). This is exceptionally helpful even for players who primarily use Nexus Mods and Vortex!

Download my guide here: 7 Days to Die Mod Launcher Tutorial

-Notes-

Shout Outs: I want to say thank you to Sphereii for his hard work in creating the mod launcher, the backbone for the how to's etc. Without him, none of this would be a reality!

Ztensity

- Modified the core download functionality for TempMods to be sub-folders. This allows us to use git for more than one download (ie Winter Project and DUST2DEATH's resources will be faster after the initial install)

It's been a rough few weeks on changing and upgrading the installer. The OneClick installer that we've been using is showing its inflexibility as I've been trying to make it as smooth as possible. It has not been very smooth, admittedly.

Very simply, the Launcher reads a remote configuration file that contains different download links to the various mods. When you want to play a mod, you select it from the list, and it will automatically download and install the mod for you, then launch the game. You can also make your own configuration, called My Mods, mixing and matching mods at your leisure.

If you are playing on a server, your server administrator can create a config for the Launcher to use, that contains all their download links that are required. Need the back pack mod? The Server Administrator can add it to their zip file, and everyone will get it.

For Log Files, you can go to the View menu, and select Log Files. This will allow you to view the launcher's log files, as well as your 7 Days to Die game log. An Upload Log File will upload the log file to pastebin, allowing you to share.

You may notice that that the 7D2D Mod Launcher is also referenced as "7D2D Launcher". Development work pre-dates the Fun Pimp's own 7DLauncher name, and I wanted to remain distinct, thus the move to the more recent, 7D2D Mod Launcher.

If you do not play on EAC-protected servers, and just want to have a more enjoyable single-player experience, the 7D2D Mod Launcher includes a 7D2D Patcher utility built-in, which allows you to create, or apply, DLL patches.

For instance, using herrophl's excellent work with the UABE tool, we were able to remove the second bloom, remove the sky fog, and add back in the 1-block crouch features. However, that only allowed us to have a 400M file, which was too big to download for some people.

The 7D2D Patcher creates a delta based on the original vanilla file, and the modded file, producing a patch file that is only 128 kilobytes in size. This file ends with the prefix 7D2DPatch, and is paired with an XML file.

The 7D2D Mod Launcher will look at the XML file, check the original file, and confirm that the patch was created for that DLL version. Then, it'll apply the patch, and verify that it meets the expected hash.

I will absolutely vouch and back sphereii hard work and expertise. He has put his all into this wonderful tool, and it is just absolutely wonderful. It has made my life, and the life of everyone on my servers so much easier. Have icons and progression files that dont push? Have them use this. You can make direct changes to your files server admins and you never have to ask everyone to update again, as long as they launch with this the new files will auto download to their pcs. It has saved me and others hours of frustration,'

Months in development and fine tuned, i stand behind this 100 percent and am proud to have even been able to call this man both a friend and a fellow server community member. You absolutely can not go wrong with this life saving tool.

However, the launcher will install and patch anything you provide. So if you provide it with a modified DLL, it will find the original, and replace it. If you have a new directory structure, then the launcher will install the new structure. If you provide a 7D2DPatch file, it will patch large files while keeping the patch file small.

I followed the instructions and installed SDX, and tested the Double Barrel shotgun mod, as well as Hal's Turrent, Lawn Mower, and Michonne's Katana mod. I then created diff between the SDX installed folder, and my baseline, and generated a zip file ( using Beyond Compare 4).

By providing pre-made zip files, and configs, we can create mods that contains groupings of SDX mods, without the user needing to use the FrontEnd or installing SDX itself. It does not appear as if you need to update Settings.ini either.

End users may not be able to make their own combinations without using SDX and FrontEnd, but we could provide some pre-made SDX mod combinations to get a good feel for them, and give it some more exposure.

Added a new config to the SDX link from the posting above. It's called SphereII SDX Bigger, which is a larger download, at about 200M. But it includes more SDX mods, including CCTV, DoubleBarrel, HalArrow, HalChicken and Turret, Lawn Mower, Lucille, Medieval, Katana, Morte's Farming, Fishing, and Husbandry mods. I also included RangedWeapons and My Dogs, in addition to the Stone Oven, TargetDummer, and WhyAmINaked.

These mods combinations are more of a proof of concept project, rather than any kind of official mod. However, modders can create their own combination to create a solid game play experience based on themes.

With that said, I was hesitant at first to use this tool as I hate change. I preferred the old way of copying the 7d2d folder and pasting, downloading from the net the mods I needed, unzipping and dragging in the files, etc.

But after much hesitation because I am a stubborn b*stard, I tried it out, and have never regretted it since. This tool is an absolute must have if you play on modded servers, want a modded single player, or are a server admin and want a fast and easy way to distribute your mods. You will not dissapointed if you try this out. So if you are like me and hesitant to change, try this out anyway, and then you will REALLY be hesitant to change back to the old method.

I added a new config, available if you click on File -> Load Defaults again. This will load up a listing of previous alphas for you to play with, if you wanted to revisit some older versions of the game.

To be clear, these are not modded, but rather just the base game. You'll want to use Advanced more, and use the Download From Steam functionality for these to work properly. It won't affect your current games.

I've tinkered with LathMod Revised to come up with a ModLauncher-compatible zip file, but I'm not sure I understand the process properly. I use Envul.com to host my mod, and the download mod button changes the link location each time I make an update. For example, LathMod 3.51 used , but 3.52 uses I guess what I'm asking is, does the mod launcher compensates for the difference in download link locations?

If you want your mod in the 7days2mod org then I can either fork it from your account (but that currently requires an update merge from my side when you make changes) or I can add you as a member to the org and you can create mods in the org yourself.

I'd glanced over it a while back, but it sounds like I'd be better served by taking a closer look, and possibly switching to that. I'm all for cutting down on the amount of work needed to keep my mod up to date.

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