[Magmarock]

call me a dumb dumb if you must but when I decide to get back into build engine games I always forget out the autoload folders works. Specifically that they need to be created and in the case of build GDX; placed in the directory of the game itself. Took me while to figure that out. All I ask is that a note of this is added in the readme so that others such as myself realize how to use the autoload folder rather than just thinking "autoload? what the hell is that? Where is it, I can't find it."

[MrFlibble]

I did not bother with autoload at all until I actually wanted to use mods that require it, like HQ sound effects and Roland SC-55 music; and these come with instructions about what you need to do to make them work properly.

Basically as far as I understand it, the autoload folder exists so that you can have permanent mods/enhancements (like the stuff I listed above -- e.g. I always want HQ sounds and music with any mods that I play) that will be active regardless of other mods that you might be running, which are loaded on top of the autoload content, without interfering with each other.

[Edit] Oh, and that was about EDuke32 autoload, but I guess GDX works in a similar way?

[LeoD]

Magmarock, on 17 February 2021 - 02:03 PM, said:

"autoload? what the hell is that?"

I've been away for a while, but if you still care (mostly copied from an earlier post):

Put only the currently required ZIPs into autoload.
Packs which build upon other packs only need to have a file name with a higher alphanumerical sort value to override other ZIP contents if necessary.
A common misconception is that the packages are actually loaded by EDuke32. Better consider their contents a bunch of sheets laid over each other with, say, ZZZ-mypack.zip on top. EDuke32 will only 'see' the lower priority files where (all) the layers above have a hole ( = file not present in their ZIP/GRP/folder). Priority from bottom to top AFAIK:

default GRP (usually DUKE3D.GRP)
-gamegrp GRP/ZIP
autoload GRPs
autoload ZIPs
-g GRPs/ZIPs in parameter order
-j [dir] files in parameter order
files in the current working directory


Do not use autoload as "Custom game content directory", that's very bad practice.
Do not name a folder with game files "DUKE3D.GRP". That's even worse IMO.

The behaviour of BuildGDX, Raze, etc. may be different.

[Phredreeke]

For GDX, zip files in autoload folder are actually loaded separate and isolated from each other (a def file in a zip file can not define an image found in another zip file)