Building and Sharing Map Mods

 

This will guide you through packaging your map mod and sharing it with the community.

 

Create the Package

Begin by opening up idStudio and looking at the World Edit tab. Select Build -> Build and Share Mod

 

This will open up a dialogue where you can give your mod a name, and select however many maps you'd like to build into the package. Once you're satisfied, select Build, and the game will restart and begin creating your package.

NOTE: The name you provide will be used as the output directory for this package, which will be located at your [steam install path]\rage tool kit\mods\[mod name]. It must not contain spaces or symbols.

NOTE: The more maps you build into the package, the longer the process will take and the larger your output files will be.

 
Special Note: This process will use a temporary main menu that has a 'Mods' button. For our power users, you can update '[RAGE Tool Kit install]/base/swf/shell_redo.swf.forbuild' to create stand alone packages. Otherwise, when users build mods the current main menu is replaced (backed up and renamed to 'shell_redo.swf.bak') with the 'shell_redo.swf.forbuild' version, and then the package is created. Therefore, when the mod is shared with other users and run against RAGE, a 'Mods' menu item is present that will allow users to load the mod directly from the menu. Once the process for building the package is complete, the original main menu is replaced.

Please note that if the build process crashes while creating a mod, the next time you load the Tool Kit the main menu will be incorrect. You can either verify the Tool Kit through Steam (lengthy), or simply delete '[RAGE Tool Kit install]/base/swf/shell_redo.swf' and 'shell_redo.swf.bak'. Then make a copy of 'shell_redo.swf.orig' and rename the copy to 'shell_redo.swf'.

 

Output Files

Once the game shuts itself down, the package is complete. If everything went well, your outputs should look similar to the images below. In short, the important pieces are the base directory and virtualtextures directory. The base directory should contain a large resource file, several language files (these are automatically generated), and the configuration files used when running your package. The virtualtextures directory should have a large vmtr file, and page files for each of the maps you built into the package.

 

 

Testing the Package

You can test the package the exact way you'll share it. Navigate to your [steam install path]\rage tool kit\mods\ directory, and locate the newly created folder.

 

Copy this folder into your [steam install path]\rage\mods\ directory.

 

The next time you run Rage with Mods, the new mod will show up in the development menu. Simply select the mod from the menu and the game will reboot with the correct package.