ModVerify: A Mod Verification Tool

ModVerify is a command-line tool designed to analyze mods for the game Star Wars: Empire at War and its expansion Forces of Corruption for common errors in XML and other game files.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Options
• Available Checks
• Creating a new Baseline

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Installation

Download the latest release from the releases page. There are two versions of the application available.

1. ModVerify.exe is the default version. Use this if you simply want to verify your mods. This version only works on Windows.
2. ModVerify-NetX.zip is the cross-platform app. It works on Windows and Linux and is most likely the version you want to use to include it in some CI/CD scenarios.

You can place the files anywhere on your system, eg. your Desktop. There is no need to place it inside a mod's directory.

Note: Both versions have the exact same feature set. They just target a different .NET runtime. Linux and CI/CD support is not fully tested yet. Current priority is on the Windows-only version.

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Usage

Simply run the executable file ModVerify.exe.

When given no specific argument through the command line, ModVerify will ask you which game or mod you want to verify. When ModVerify is done analyzing, it will write the verification results into new files next to the executable.

A .JSON file contains all identified issues. The additional .txt files contain the same errors but are grouped by the verifier that reported the issue. The text files may be easier to read, while the JSON file is more useful for 3rd party tool processing.

Options

You can also run the tool with command line arguments to adjust the tool to your needs.

To see all available options, especially if you have custom folder setups, open the command line and type:

ModVerify.exe --help

Here is a list of the most relevant options:

--path

Specifies a path that shall be analyzed. There will be no user input required when using this option

--output

Specified the output path where analysis result shall be written to.

--baseline

Specifies a baseline file that shall be used to filter out known errors. You can download the FoC baseline which includes all errors produced by the vanilla game.

Example

This is an example run configuration that analyzes a specific mod, uses a the FoC basline and writes the output into a dedicated directory:

ModVerify.exe --path "C:\My Games\FoC\Mods\MyMod" --output "C:\My Games\FoC\Mods\MyMod\verifyResults" --baseline focBaseline.json

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Available Checks

The following verifiers are currently implemented:

SFX Events:

• Checks whether coded presets exist
• Checks the referenced samples for validity (bit rate, sample size, channels, etc.)
• Duplicates

GUIDialogs

• Checks the referenced textures exist

GameObjects

• Checks the referenced models for validity (textures, particles and shaders)
• Duplicates

Engine

• Performs assertion checks the Debug builds of the game are also doing (not complete)
• Sports XML errors and unexpected values

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Creating a new Baseline

If you want to create your own baseline use the createBaseline option.

Example

ModVerify.exe createBaseline -o myBaseline.json --path "C:\My Games\FoC\Mods\MyMod"