Question What's the proper location to install stuff?

[Sizzle]

By default everything is installed inside the "AddonPackages" folder, which I think is a mess because when you accumulate a lot of plugins, skins, scenes etc. the folder ends up saturated and if you want to look for something in particular it takes you a lifetime to find it. I have seen that there is a folder called "Custom" where inside there are several types of folders related to each type of these resources (Clothing, Hairs, Scripts...), and they're always empty, as if they weren't being used. Why not install everything in its respective folder automatically and not everything in AddonPackages? Should I leave the installation as it is by default or should I organise everything myself by hand?

 

[RandomVAMUser]

Why not install everything in its respective folder automatically and not everything in AddonPackages? Should I leave the installation as it is by default or should I organise everything myself by hand?

I strongly advise against unpacking vars.
Doing so defeats the purpose of "all in one" .var package, basically it's like going back to old .vac system with leftovers everywhere.
You gonna have hard time maintaining your install and knowing what is safe to remove.

Local custom folders are empty because they corespond to var package for local saves (outside package). When you create "preset/look" for say .var hairstyle, it's saved inside inside coresponding folder hair/creator/...etc

VaM can load package from subfolder, so you can kinda organize packages inside AddonsPackages, by placing them inside subfolders.
for example: plugins, looks, scenes, assets,... or by creator names.

 

[Sizzle]

VaM can load package from subfolder, so you can kinda organize packages inside AddonsPackages, by placing them inside subfolders.
for example: plugins, looks, scenes, assets,... or by creator names.

But in the scene selection menu they are all still there together, there is no way to make folders there? The only way I have to filter the scenes by author is by typing their name in the search bar, but I would like to have everything organised by folders in that menu.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

The All Scenes browser in game allows you to search for the creator's name. That's the prefix in the author.title.version naming scheme. You could organize what's in AddonPackages into folders by creator name, but the program would still look at all of them on startup, so you would not save any time there. You can also move packages you don't use much, but want to keep into a folder Vam does not look in. I use one called 000Holding.

 

[Origin69]

The custom folders are there to create your own stuff. Creators use them to get uniform file structure for making looks etc. like custom>atom>person>textures>creator name. Once they save a Var, that file structure gets saved in there, so other people using it don't get lots of loose files to deal with. The Var has a meta.json that lists everything in it, so if you use part of it (like someone else's skin textures) to create your own scene, the var is listed as a separate dependency, so you don't need to pack their stuff, leading to duplication. If everything were unpacked in custom, all scenes shared would pack everything used to make it, including other peoples work too. That would not only needlessly bloat the file, it would also be a headache keeping track of everything and giving credit to the original creators for their efforts.