[Rseding91]False-positive detection of state-altering mods

[Dev-iL]

As per the request of Rseding91 on IRC I'm posting the issue here.

I am running WaiTex, which is a graphics-only mod, and it is being detected as state-altering, which pretty much prevents it from being used in MP. The issue is discussed here:

Any idea why the game says that this mod requires sync? Doesn't it only changes some visuals sans any game-state effects?

Yes basicly if a mod contains a control.lua or any of the three data.lua variations then the game think the mods changes the game state. I need a data.lua to change textures so the game thinks my mod changes the game state even though it doesn't.

The cause of this was further explained as follows:

<Rseding91|W> An outright swap of images wouldn't change the game state but some graphics stuff can - animation frame count and such.

[kovarex]

We have a bool for this called changesGameState, it is used only internally, and any mod that doesn't do any changes (and our testing high resolution mod) has this property hardcoded.

It would be pretty easy to allow this bool to be used by modders, but I'm afraid of people making mods that actually desync without being aware of that and forcing us to solve the problems.

[DaveMcW]

Could you solve it by overwriting the base graphics folder with everything in the mod graphics folder?

That way both the game and the artists would not have to worry about data.lua!

[kovarex]

Could you solve it by overwriting the base graphics folder with everything in the mod graphics folder?

That way both the game and the artists would not have to worry about data.lua!

What? Never change the original base folder.

[DaveMcW]

I mean, in game memory while loading mods.

[kovarex]

I mean, in game memory while loading mods.

Well, the proper solution is just let people change the graphics in the mod, and give them the flag that it is not changing the game state, but we need to make set of rules for it.

Currently, changing sizes of pictures and content is ok, changing animation length (frame count) will often lead to determinism issue, so it would be not allowed in these kind of mods.

[Klonan]

So until we make some official support, I would say that this isn't a bug,
Changing GFX does require changing prototype data, and can affect some things that are state changing,
So having half support for just PNG swaps but not animation swaps is just a messy idea