Awsome Mod Updater Script

[darkorical]

My Wife Plays more than I and asked me about making this and I thought to share it. The Readme speaks for itself so here it is.

Awesome Mod Updater

Description:

It is simply a bat file that automatically downloads and installs the Awesome Mod each time you run the game (via the new shortcut)

INSTALL:

The Folder layout should be self explanatory but Ill elaborate

Copy the files in the Windows folder to your Windows directory (usually C:\Windows)
Copy the files in the Sims 3 Bin to C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (the directory where TS3.exe is)
then either copy the shortcut in the desktop folder to your desktop or where ever you keep your shortcuts or create your own shortcut to awsomeupdater.bat


FAQ: (I know none of these have technically been asked at all let alone Frequently but you get answers early with me)


Q. What does it do?
A. It downloads and installs the Awesome Mod each time you run the game (via the new shortcut)

Q. Should I use this EVERY time I run Sims 3?
A. Probably not, Id suggest maybe once a day (or as often as its updated on average)

Q. Why not?
A. 1 its a 3 meg download and takes a bit of time.
   2 I set it to download from 1 location and it will eat their bandwidth if you use it every time and they wont be happy.

Q. Oh, well can I change it to one of the other mirrors.
A. Absolutely open the awesomeupdater.bat and find this line
---> wget http://beta.moreawesomethanyou.com:8080/ts3/base/awesome.zip <----
and change it to "wget (your mirror here)"

Q.How Does it do what it does?
A. Open Awesomeupdater.bat in a text file its all there in ... mostly plain English.

Q. Why do I have to copy anything to the windows folder? Isn't that usually bad?
A. Basically Windows lacks command line commands that other OS's Cough**Linux**Cough have had for a long time. Such as the ability to download files and unzip them so I just gave them to it.

Q. Wait Windows has Extract.
A. Thats for .Cab files.

Q. Oh yea, but wait it has Expand.
A. This is true but its busted (just copies instead of extracts) and has been since Windows 95 and MS never bothered to fix it so I had to give it a new one.

Q. Why did you Create this?
A. Ease of making sure Awesome Mod is always updated. (and my wife bugged me)

[JBoat]

Installed and tested - seems to work great (even using Vista 64).  Thanks for a handy utility.

[vikitty]

Very cool.

Is it safe to close down the script window once the game has booted?

[Pixixtix]

How does having used the online AwesomeMod Configuration Tool affect this?

[J. M. Pescado]

It doesn't.

[Pixixtix]

So I assume any new features will just take the default setting until I place a aweconfig in my folder?

[vikitty]

Yup. All this does is just add the updated awesome.package. It does not touch the aweconf.package.

[wendylady]

Very cool.

Is it safe to close down the script window once the game has booted?

Yes it's safe. Ill ask if there away to have him make it so it close that window on it own.

How does having used the online AwesomeMod Configuration Tool affect this?

So I assume any new features will just take the default setting until I place a aweconfig in my folder?

You still need to add the aweconf.PACKAGE your self as that is custom made for each person when they use the  Configuration Tool.
This updater does nothing to or for the Configuration, and you will only get the Default settings.

[Frick]

Isn't it recommended to delete scriptCache.package from the "My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3" folder whenever AwesomeMod is updated? You should probably add a command to the batch file to do that, too.

[darkorical]

The easiest way to find the actual path you need to add in is to navigate to the file and make sure the address bar is showing and then copy it exactly.

I still stand by that since it cannot be universal across all platforms its probably easiest to simply do it individually.

[Frick]

I don't know about Vista, but in XP, %userprofile% links to the current user's profile directory, so adding these lines to your batch file will usually work:

Code:

CD "%userprofile%\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3"
del "scriptCache.package"

Some users will have to edit the batch file manually (my own documents folder is somewhere else entirely, for instance), but having the wrong file path is no worse in this case than not having it at all.

[Leticron]

If you are not sure as to where the "CD command" takes you, simply make a dry run like this:
 

Code:

CD "%userprofile%\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3"
dir
Pause
REM del "scriptCache.package"

In case the the "dir" command shows the desired directory simply delete the 2 extra lines and the "REM"

And YES %userprofile% should work for all windows versions since Win 98

-le

[Fat D]

Except Vista

Also, foreign language systems.

[Leticron]

It seems as if %PERSONALDIR% isn't a native Windows variable. (at least not in Vista).
I've seen it as a placeholder with Installshield 2009 scripts but without that you probably have to set an Environment variable first.
You can use %homepath% though, but it takes you to the same spot like %userprofile% does.
So if you're on Vista or W7 just drop the infantile prefix. (I like that )
People on foreign language systems should be able to adapt the necessary path to their systems.
Mijn Documenten or  Documentos not really hard to figure out now, is it ?
In the worst case you'd have to pull the actual location from the Key "Personal" in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

-le

[darkorical]

I attempted to post this earlier unfortunately I ended up editing my old post so now I post again

The easiest way to find the actual path you need to add in is to navigate to the file and make sure the address bar is showing and then copy it exactly.

I still stand by that since it cannot be universal across all platforms its probably easiest to simply do it individually.

[Frick]

I still stand by that since it cannot be universal across all platforms its probably easiest to simply do it individually.

Except that most people won't do it or even realize that it ought to be done, and the sort of people who are likely to edit batch files are generally able to write their own damned batch files rather than download them from some forum.

I still stand by my assertion that it is better to have something that works for most people than something that doesn't work for any of them.

Also, is your user name supposed to be "dark oracle" but spelled really badly?

[darkorical]

As the script sits now it works 100% perfectly for anyone on any version of windows. Which is by far the best way to have it.
It is called Awesome Mod Updater and that's exactly what it does it updates your version of the Awesome Mod.

Sadly its not Awesome Mod Updater & other random file cleanup task script, and therefore it does not update your version of Awesome mod and delete other files that should periodically be deleted as well as empty your internet cache and your recycle bin which are also tasks that should occasionally be done, as well as archiving old emails in outlook or emptying windows temp files.

as for my screen name

No it is not a misspelled version of Dark Oracle as that implies a mistake was made. Rather it is as a visually pleasing graphical representation of a combination of the words, Dark, and Oracle. By intentionally using alternate yet recognizable spellings of the words, to achieve a visual balance between the length and height of the resulting single word.

[Frick]

Sadly its not Awesome Mod Updater & other random file cleanup task script

What on earth is random about deleting a cache file that the mod creator recommends be deleted whenever his mod is updated? As it stands, your script is flawed as it skips a recommended (and presumably important) step between updating the mod and starting the game. But whatever. If you're content to release garbage into the wild, that's your lookout. You ought to change your user name to "half-assicle".

[darkorical]

ok fine I'm in no mood to argue this.
Will someone please get me the actual path to the scriptCache.package  file on Vista and or Windows 7 and Ill see what I can do.

[cefwyn]

I never bother with deleting the scriptCache, and have never had an issue. The only one that really needs deleted is simCompositorCache when you use a new skin mod. Don't know if you still need the path to scriptcache.package, but on Windows 7 you should be able to get to it through %homepath%/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/. This of course depends on whether or not it's an English version of Win7, and I agree that there is no reason for you to bother adding scriptCache deletion to the script just because somebody is too computer illiterate to do it themselves(That's what google is for. There are plenty of batch script tutorials out there).

[CaptaiNemo]

First of all thanks to darkorical for the nifty script!

In case someone cares - here's the script tweaked to only download the file if it has actually changed. So you can safely always start your game with the updater without eating up someone's bandwidth.

Instructions are the same as before. I only tested this with WinXP, but not much changed so it should just be fine with any other windows.

[byronh]

Is there any chance this could be combined with the 3booter or the thing that limits your FPS at 30?

[CaptaiNemo]

The chance does indeed exist. I didn't include the fps limiter though, as that is just a matter of extracting the fps limiter files in the same directory as 3booter.


Awesome Mod Updater Script (3booter edition)

Features:
- downloads only when the mod has been updated
- runs 3booter