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This video was originally streamed as part of C3: Community Creation Con on 2 Feb 2024, but in case you missed it (or simply weren't interested in a conference around Bethesda games) we've put it up on our YouTube channel too.
During the 45-minute talk, our very own Tim "Halgari" Baldridge walks through the following topics:
- Introduction to the Nexus Mods App: Why we build mod managers, software and hardware considerations and our open source philosophy.
- Design decisions: File deployment and archive formats.
- New features: Change tracking, "Global Undo" and the NX Archive Format.
- Community Involvement: Contributing and the frameworks we're providing to help.
We originally announced our plans to build a new app back in August, you can find that post here. We're also thrilled to say that Nagev has rejoined our team and will be working with Insomnious on our continued maintenance of Vortex.
The source code of the Nexus Mods App is available on GitHub and you can check out the milestones section to see how the project is progressing and what features we're added next.
If you like this kind of technical update or the video format and would like to see more content like it, please let us know in the comments!
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingThis type of thinking will doom NMA.
For those interested in the drawbacks of this (still-in-devemopment)new mod manager, it can be summarized to 2 points:
1. Disk usage. The upcoming Nexus Mod App is using the "Immutable Modlists", that means the app will make a backup of your original game files at start(for a "factory reset/return to vanilla" kind of backup, without having to reinstall the game all over again).
This means an extra 60-100% disk size depend on the game size. So a 100GB game will need an extra 60GB-100GB for you to use Nexus Mod App. I don't think this feature can be turned off no, as this is the base for the manager to work.
2. This also means that computer/devices using this app need to be relatively fast if we want to use it comfortably. For the first time operation of a newly installed game, the speed of backup will take signficant more time than using regular mod manager(due to the 1st time backup process). Subsequest restore of files to the vanilla will also take more time(depends on the size of the files needed to be restored).
So for most of us with modern fast cpu and an ssd drive, this is not a big problem. But for older device users(older intel cpu, hdd drive, etc), this will take longer to perform.
I might be missing a few things(as I am in no way expert in modding or programming), but you can read more here.
Failure in this endeavor is imminent.
Not necessarily, as you don't have to back up any files that are not going to be modded. We plan on making this configurable, and also look into being able to source the files from the game stores themselves (redownloading steam files, etc.). There is a tradeoff here though if you want to make your loadout resiliant against the game auto updating you may want the files backed up, if you don't you can turn the feature off.
Again this is a bit inflated. The data is compressed, and as mentioned above if you don't want the files backed up you can turn off that feature. We're talking about a 1 minute process on a HDD to perform the initial backup for Skyrim SE. For a SATA SSD this drops to 27 seconds, and with a NVME drive 3.6seconds. Larger games take more time, but we're still talking about single digit minutes here, and it's a one-and-done thing not something you have to deal with on a daily basis.
Speaking of our apps, for all of you have an Android tablet, there's another way to play your games remotely. I did that with Empire, and it worked like a charm. With Skyrim, not so much. I couldn't even move the horse!
Again, I think your app is a great idea. I hope we see it soon!
Thank you for your time. I remain,
Sincerely yours always,
Shezza.
The other question I had was whether the new mod deployment model will allow us to close out the Mods App after making changes to the load order & before playing the game. That's the part I liked about Vortex - MO2 requires being kept on because of the virtual filesystem. There's nothing wrong with that - I just prefer closing other applications when I play games.
Happy to see C#/.NET will be used here - that should result in better performance on Windows (even on slightly older machines). Thanks in advance & good luck on the project!
I only ask that the transition to the new Nexus Mod's Ass have a simple automated way to transfer big collections installed in Vortex to the new Nexus Mod's App.
Thank you!