Answered Doubt about the contents and references inside a scene (Add-On Package Manager)

[danilo233352]

I was wondering, when you download a scene, on the package manager, selecting the current scene you can see a bunch of contents and references for the scene.
The contents looks like: Saves/scene/samplescene.json or Custom/Assets/Enviroments/Rooms/sample_room.assetbundle, etc...
And the references are .vam files likeMacGruber.Life.version

So lets say i want to export a scene with all the dependencies so if i go to the mountains without any wifi connection i can just drag and drop my vam files to the AddonPackages folder in a clean VaM installation and start the scene without any problems, i just need the main vam file for the scene and all the vam files on the references tab? What are the contents? Just files inside the main scene vam file?

 

[atani]

VAM does not need web access to be used. If you disconnect your PC from the web, VAM will work just the same, with the exception of the Hub Browser of course. If you copy your VAM folder to somewhere else in the same PC or another PC, it will also work the same way. If you want to backup VAM and the content in it, just copying that VAM folder will be enough, there's no configuration files somewhere else outside of the VAM folder. In the same way you can have multiple VAMs on the same PC, that can be useful for several reasons.

A scene file (json) is usually the contents of that file plus references to some other files. Those files may be files in Custom/... or part of a VAR file (you can open these with your compressed file viewer).

 

[danilo233352]

VAM does not need web access to be used. If you disconnect your PC from the web, VAM will work just the same, with the exception of the Hub Browser of course. If you copy your VAM folder to somewhere else in the same PC or another PC, it will also work the same way. If you want to backup VAM and the content in it, just copying that VAM folder will be enough, there's no configuration files somewhere else outside of the VAM folder. In the same way you can have multiple VAMs on the same PC, that can be useful for several reasons.

A scene file (json) is usually the contents of that file plus references to some other files. Those files may be files in Custom/... or part of a VAR file (you can open these with your compressed file viewer).

So if i want to have a backup of a scene i just need the main vam file for the scene and all the vams on the reference tab? the content tab is nothing i need to worry?

 

[danilo233352]

Let me explain better what im trying to do, i have some scenes and want do make a rar with the scene and all the assets i need to run the scene without any problems, so for now what i experienced is the files i need are the main scene vam, the vam files listen in references and of course the default vam files inside a new vam installation, so my question is, what are the contents tab? files inside the main vam scene file?

 

[atani]

By Content tab are you refering to the Content list in the Package Builder?
If so, then that list is the files that will be part of the VAR file you are about to create. I assume your "rar" is a typo, because the Package Builder makes a var, not a rar.
Continuing on, when you add the scene's json, VAM reads it and checks for references to local files (Custom/...) and VAR files (creator.name.version.var:/...). The contents list is for the local files that will be copied to the VAR, while the References list is for the VARs mentioned in the scene. This last one will be added to the meta.json file inside the VAR, the dependencies that VAM calls for in the Hub tool and Error log when missing.

If you haven't yet, see these 2 guides on VAR making:

Guides - How to create a Var File

This is a quick and dirty guide on how to create a .var file in Virt-A-Mate. I created this information for a friend, decided to post it on the hub. Thought It could be helpful for others. Use the red numbers below for locational reference. When...

hub.virtamate.com

Guides - How to package like a pro: a guide on proper VAR building

Intro There is a recurring issue with VAR packaging. No one's to blame, really, as there is no guide on how to make a "good" VAR package. I'll try to remedy to that. In short, this guide is for you: If you’re about to post a resource starting...

hub.virtamate.com

If you make a VAR with your scene, copy that VAR and its dependencies to another VAM folder, then you can go to the mountain and it will work. Of course, there may be issues with your dependencies' dependencies, or you could have other issues, not all VARs are good VARs (see guide 2).
If you want to test it, use or make a clean VAM in a different folder, copy over your new VAR to it, download your Hub hosted dependencies or copy them over, update packages if needed and test it.

P.S. Package Manager and Package Builder are different things, hence my confusion. The above is for Package Builder, making the VAR in the first place, but it's just another way of telling the same as the Package Manager Contents and References are the lists you get in Package Builder.

 

[danilo233352]

By Content tab are you refering to the Content list in the Package Builder?
If so, then that list is the files that will be part of the VAR file you are about to create. I assume your "rar" is a typo, because the Package Builder makes a var, not a rar.
Continuing on, when you add the scene's json, VAM reads it and checks for references to local files (Custom/...) and VAR files (creator.name.version.var:/...). The contents list is for the local files that will be copied to the VAR, while the References list is for the VARs mentioned in the scene. This last one will be added to the meta.json file inside the VAR, the dependencies that VAM calls for in the Hub tool and Error log when missing.

If you haven't yet, see these 2 guides on VAR making:

Guides - How to create a Var File

This is a quick and dirty guide on how to create a .var file in Virt-A-Mate. I created this information for a friend, decided to post it on the hub. Thought It could be helpful for others. Use the red numbers below for locational reference. When...

hub.virtamate.com

Guides - How to package like a pro: a guide on proper VAR building

Intro There is a recurring issue with VAR packaging. No one's to blame, really, as there is no guide on how to make a "good" VAR package. I'll try to remedy to that. In short, this guide is for you: If you’re about to post a resource starting...

hub.virtamate.com

If you make a VAR with your scene, copy that VAR and its dependencies to another VAM folder, then you can go to the mountain and it will work. Of course, there may be issues with your dependencies' dependencies, or you could have other issues, not all VARs are good VARs (see guide 2).
If you want to test it, use or make a clean VAM in a different folder, copy over your new VAR to it, download your Hub hosted dependencies or copy them over, update packages if needed and test it.

P.S. Package Manager and Package Builder are different things, hence my confusion. The above is for Package Builder, making the VAR in the first place, but it's just another way of telling the same as the Package Manager Contents and References are the lists you get in Package Builder.

WOW Thanks for the info! yeah my bad this confusion, right now im not creating any new scenes (maybe next week i try to make something cool ^^) all this questions are just to make a var o just a .rar compressed file with all the vars i need to run a scene without the need of cheking any missing var, so now i understand that i only need the scene var, the dependencies var and im good to go (i guess) the content tab with all these json and assetsbundle and more i multiple folders are just build in the vars i guess. Correct me if im wrong. Im saying this because i downloaded a couple of times some scenes with all the dependencies on a clean VaM installation and the scene dont throw any error and everything loads fine, i was just trying to figure out what the hell are all the files on the content tab on the package manager.

 

[atani]

If you open the meta.json file in the scene's VAR file you'll see the same information, contents (files in the VAR) and references (VAR dependencies), as it shows on the Package Manager.