Written on a shoestring "budget" of three bananas and tested for whole 2 hours before proclaimed "fantastic" and sent to production.
It should work. On Windows. With some modifications, it should even compile on Linux and Mac but some functions won't be usable, namely anything dealing with windows registry and related file/folder paths.
Fronter expects to find fronter-configuration.txt and fronter-options.txt inside a folder named "Configuration/". These two files need to be provided with bundled converters as they define converter-specific required folders, files, and options.
Why two files instead of a single one? Completely irrelevant! Feel free to dump all options into either of the two files, but Fronter will whine if it can't find either. It's better to have them separate as options change often and the configuration changes basically never.
name = CK2ToEU4
converterFolder = CK2ToEU4
backendExePath = CK2ToEU4Converter # Relative to converterFolder. If file extension is "exe", skip it.
displayName = DISPLAYNAME
sourceGame = SOURCEGAME
targetGame = TARGETGAME
autoGenerateModsFrom = CK2ModsDirectory
overwritePlayset = true
requiredFile = {
name = SaveGame
displayName = FILE2
tooltip = FILE2TIP
mandatory = true
outputtable = true
searchPathType = windowsUsersFolder
searchPath = "Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\save games"
allowedExtension = "*.ck2"
}
requiredFolder = {
name = CK2directory
displayName = FOLDER1
tooltip = FOLDER1TIP
mandatory = true
searchPathType = steamFolder
searchPathID = 203770
}
requiredFolder = {
name = targetGameModPath
displayName = FOLDER4
tooltip = FOLDER4TIP
mandatory = true
searchPathType = windowsUsersFolder
searchPath = "Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mod"
}
autoGenerateModsFrom
- Looks in that directory for mods to show in Fronter Mod tab. If "/mod/" subdirectory exists, it swaps to that instead. (Ie. you can use documents directory if you want)
overwritePlayset (true or false)
- If true, and if Frontend encounters an existing playset in the launcher's database, it'll set it as active. It won't actually overwrite its contents.
- If false, it will inform the user the playset exists, and bail.
In both cases, if there's no matching playset present, it will create a playset with the mod inside.
searchPathType
- converterFolder - looks in the provided converterFolder in current directory
- steamFolder - uses searchPathID to look for an "installation path" from Windows/Steam registry. If there's a match it will also append searchPath at the end so you can use this for Vic2installdir/mods.
- windowsUsersFolder - looks in [$USERHOMEDIR$]\Documents folder
- direct - copies over an absolute path from searchPath
mandatory
- true - path will be checked and converter won't run without it.
outputtable (relevant for files only)
- true - will be sent to configuration.txt
Rest is self-explanatory! Shoestring Budget!
option = {
name = shatter_hre_level
displayName = OPTION2
tooltip = OPTION2TIP
radioSelector = {
radioOption = {
name = 1
displayName = OP2R1
tooltip = OP2R1TIP
default = true
}
radioOption = {
name = 2
displayName = OP2R2
tooltip = OP2R2TIP
default = false
}
}
}
option = {
name = output_name
displayName = OPTION8
tooltip = OPTION8TIP
textSelector = {
value = ""
editable = true
tooltip = OPTION8TEXTTIP
}
}
option = {
name = some_checkbox_control
displayName = THENAME
tooltip = THETOOLTIP
checkBoxSelector = {
checkBoxOption = {
name = yes
displayName = CBNAME
tooltip = CBTIP
default = true
}
checkBoxOption = {
name = 2
displayName = NAME2
tooltip = TIP2
default = false
}
checkBoxOption = {
name = sausage
displayName = SAUSAGE
tooltip = SAUSAGETIP
default = true
}
}
}
Entirely self-explanatory. Why waste words on such simplicity.
Multiple default values set to true on checkBoxOptions are perfectly fine.
Fronter expects to find appropriate yml files in Configuration/ directory. yml files look like this:
DISPLAYNAME: "Crusader Kings II à Europa Universalis IV"
SOURCEGAME: "Crusader Kings II"
TARGETGAME: "Europa Universalis IV"
FOLDER1: "Répertoire d'installation de Crusader Kings II"
FOLDER1TIP: "Un chemin sur votre ordinateur où Crusader Kings 2 est installé"
or
l_english:
OPTION1: "Which empire inherits EU4 HRE mechanics and shatters?"
OPTION1TIP: "Only one empire can use HRE mechanics."
OP1R1: "The HRE [obviously]"
OP1R1TIP: "e_hre"
OP1R2: "Byzantium! [Holy and Roman and Empire]"
Yml files need to be encoded in UTF-8, not UTF-8-BOM.
Fronter will load the files (regardless of their actual name) and use l_language: to file the key-value pairs under appropriate language.
Whenever configuration or options use these keys, it will attempt to load appropriate localization string to be displayed.
If it fails to find a key-pair under a specific language, it will default to english. If there's no english either, it will display a blank string. Look for these blank strings to see where you made a typo.
Fronter will export a single configuration.txt in [converterFolder]/ with paired values, for all outputtable files/folders and all options:
SaveGame = "somepath/autosave.ck2"
CK2directory = "c:\Path\To\Game Installation\"
targetGameModPath = "d:\somePath\to\mods"
shatter_hre_level = "1"
output_name = "some user input"
some_checkbox_control = { "yes", "1", "sausage" }
selectedMods = { "modfilename1.mod" "second mod filena.me.mod" "oddlynamed.mod.mod.mod" } # this one is done if autoGenerateModsFrom was used and valid
Slashes and backslashes depend on OS, so Converter is responsible for parsing them.
Fronter will attempt to move "[output_name].mod" and "[output_name]/" folder (or "[SaveGame].mod" and "[SaveGame]/" in case output_name was not set) from "[converterFolder]/output/" subdirectory to "[targetGameModPath]/".
In case of Vic3 and newer games that don't have a .mod file, Fronter detects the presence of [output_name]/.metadata/ folder and won't try to move any .mod files (even if they exist by accident).
Success will undoubtedly vary of the amount of effort invested in this program.