Seperate versions of X Rebirth running on the same computer.

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:07

My grandson (10 yrs) wants to learn to play and I was wondering if it possible to have 2 versions running,, one unmodded while he learns along side my modded version..... I thought if I bought from GOG I could then install on 2nd hard drive....is this feasible or would save locations etc cause problems...?

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:21

I think non-Steam saves should be in a seperate place to your Steam saves because only the Steam a save location will include your SteamId in the address string.

That said, unfortunately I don't know if two installs will work OK together or not.

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:27

Thanks Sparky, all my Egosoft games save into "documents" so that is what my main concern is...

Post by **UniTrader** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:34

ubuntufreakdragon made some scripts which make it possible to have serveral diffrent states of XR and keep them all seperate.. not sure where the Topic is though..

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:40

UniTrader wrote:ubuntufreakdragon made some scripts which make it possible to have serveral diffrent states of XR and keep them all seperate.. not sure where the Topic is though..

Ah, good thinking. This is the guide, I think:

https://www.egosoft.com:8444/confluence ... ups+for+XR

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 21:49

The heading in red .... caused some consternation ...

Copy and paste the save folder appears to be favourite at the moment, he will have to learn a modded version..

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 22:01

Since version 4.0 there's a NoSteam.exe available from the X Rebirth Downloads page. Creating a second installation should be as easy as copying the whole X Rebirth installation folder to a different place and extracting the X Rebirth NoSteam.exe to that new directory. This is then totally independet from the X Rebirth Steam installation, even the saves are by default stored in a different directory, as Sparky already mentioned. See also this FAQ article for reference.

With a game version from GOG creating a second installation by copying the whole installation folder should work the same. Whereby you then most-likely run into the described problem of the saves being stored in the same location.

ubuntufreakdragon · Post by **ubuntufreakdragon** » Sun, 27. Mar 16, 22:13

My Guide does exactly what you need as long as you understand it, the is no need for multiple installations like in the previous games, we no longer need fake-patches, as XR now allows en/disabling multiple mod directories, though the content.xml, so all you need to do is having multiple installations of the content.xml, btw. this file is in your user folder so you wont get any advantage though multiple installations anyway.

strude · Post by **strude** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 03:22

I would have thought the CPU load would be the bigger issue here. Even top rated PCs struggle at times. Having two X Universe simulations would be massive.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 03:33

the point here is to have two diffrent mod configurations not messing with each other, not running 2 instances at the same time...

strude · Post by **strude** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 03:40

UniTrader wrote:the point here is to have two diffrent mod configurations not messing with each other, not running 2 instances at the same time...

Ah yes. I re-read the OP and that makes more sense. I took the (para)phrase "running along side" to be running simultaneously.

Lander1979 · Post by **Lander1979** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 05:06

If you don't want to use scripts, The manual process would be this;

To go from "Modded" to "Vanilla";
1. Back up your Modded "\Extensions" folder somewhere safe.
2. Back up your Modded "\Saves" folder somewhere safe.
3. In Game disable all extensions and steam updates (Except for DLC if you want to use it).
4. Delete the contents of the \Extensions Folder (Except for DLC if you want to use it).
5. Delete the contents of the "\Saves" Folder.
6. If you have Vanilla Saves backed up somewhere safe, copy them back to the empty "\Saves" folder.
Game should now be in "Vanilla" Mode.

To Go from "Vanilla" to "Modded";
1. Back up your vanilla "\Saves" Folder to a safe location.
2. Delete the contents of the "\Saves" Folder.
3. Copy the back up Modded Saves to the "\Saves" Folder.
4. Copy the back up of Extensions to "\Extensions" folder.
5. Launch game and enable extensions and steam updates.
6. Re-Launch Game to enable changes and update Mods.
Game should now be in "Modded" Mode.

This is the method I use, although I rarely swap it around. If you are swapping on a regular basis it would probably be a lot easier to use ubuntufreakdragon's Script method.

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 11:30

@ ubuntufreakdragon ... Thanks but the "as long as you understand it" concluded that advice ....

@ Lander1979 ... Thanks but too many steps where errors could be introduced .....

@ X2-Illuminatus .... Perfect solution,, working .....

Now has a clean vanilla game to learn on....

Next question ... How do I reset controls to the original default mouse / keyboard commands.......?
I had better add that the folder that stores the key bindings does not exist/or I cannot find in the 2nd game.

w.evans · Post by **w.evans** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 13:40

birdtable wrote:How do I reset controls to the original default mouse / keyboard commands.......?

On your new non-steam install? Think it should already be reset since it wouldn't be able to find your steam-install settings, although am not sure. Did it keep your old settings?

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 14:16

Hi w.e They appear to be reset with just one or two still showing joystick bindings, I have no joystick control. If I change those few back to default where would they be stored or would this not be a problem...

w.evans · Post by **w.evans** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 15:05

Hey bt, That's odd. Would've expected all of the bindings to be in one file.

Best I could tell, default location of settings for your steam install would be in C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Egosoft\[somenumber]\

While that of your non-Steam install should be in C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Egosoft\

[username] might be different for the two installs if you set up a separate account for your grandson. Key bindings appear to be in inputmap.xml, config settings in config.xml, and mod list (and load order?) in content.xml.

I did notice that my C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Egosoft\ is also populated although I had never run the non-steam exe. You could try moving all of the xml files in that location and run the non-steam exe to see if new files with defaults are generated. Don't forget where you put the files in case they are not generated.

This is all best guess though since I haven't tried the non-steam exe so don't have first-hand experience to draw upon.

Come to think of it, copying the entire XR directory might not be necessary. You might get away with just renaming the non-steam exe, copying it into your XR directory, and running that.

Best of luck to you, and hope your grandson has a good time!

ps. come to think of it, you might be able to skip the non-steam exe altogether if you set up a separate windows account for your grandson, and run steam on that. Don't know if that'll make sense though. If he's visiting for a couple of weeks, might not be worth the trouble.

pps. no, that would install all of the mods you subscribed on the workshop.

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 16:17

Thanks w.e ... everything works fine except for my concern about where key bindings are stored, as x2-Illuminatus stated saves are stored in a totally separate folder which is in Documents and within the Rebirth Folder... What happens if my grandson wants to alter some bindings can they be stored and where or is it as simple as creating a new profile.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 19:28

key bindings are in inputmap.xml also in the documents folder (there is also a template for it with the same name in the game files which is loaded when you restore the default settings)
this file may not exist if you didnt chage the defaults

birdtable · Post by **birdtable** » Mon, 28. Mar 16, 20:45

Sorted ,,, Changed the bindings, saved profile and voila works perfectly .. Completely separate from my main game .... To much caution on my part.. My thanks to all assistance offered ..