OvGME Mods : what is the recommended location for DCS mods?

Hello All,

I have a question/comment regarding the recommended location of where the DCS mods should be installed.

A bit of background :
I have been using OVGME to place all my Mods in the Saved Games folder. There are several advantages to locating your Mods here. This relatively new methodology is addressed in this discussion thread about deploying mods to Saved Games directory (instead of the old .../Program Files/DCS World Openbeta/“ dir - https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=190778

Yesterday, prior to my orientation flight, LP Frodo was verifying that I had all the correct mods, etc. It came up that had all my mods installed into the “Saved Games”... folder, and Frodo wanted me to move the mod-source-files as well as the mods to the “...Program Files/DCS World Openbeta/_mods”, so I did as he directed me rather than defocus. Frodo is a good man ... and thorough (so please don’t take this question as bashing, Frodo), I’m genuinely interested in understanding what the right thing to do is, and if my method of placing mods in Saved Games is off base.

I have been using Saved Games location for mods for several months without issue, and feel this is the best practice.
I believe that placing mods in Saved Games is advantageous/superior because it fixes the issue of having to reapply all your mods after a update or a repair of DCS, plus other advantages such as not breaking your world ID, etc, etc, see the link above for details. I believe that DCS recommends this method now as well.

I was chatting with Blythee about this topic, and he had a good point that if your Saved Games was not on a SSD (my Saved Games folder is on a rotating media drive) that some large mods might load a bit slower as compared to being on an SSD, which is true, but there are several workarounds for this... such as relocating your Saved Games location to a folder(s) on to an SSD drive and continue. I haven’t noticed any problems with my setup.

Can the command staff and official gurus shed some light on what the best practice is for where mods should be stored and deployed? Rationale?

Please advise.

Thanks,
Stryker

You are right: every mod that can be installed in saved games, should be installed there. (Everything that goes in the mods\tech folder, liveries,...)
Some of the mods even don’t work if installed in the DCS folder.
Also, you don’t really need to use ovgme to install mods there; it’s pretty much fire and forget when installed there.
Only use it for the mods that go in the DCS world root folders.
As for the root folders for the mods of ovgme: that can be everywhere. I suggest not putting it in the DCS world install folder, as the same root folder of ovgme can be used for multiple DCS installations. Putting it in the DCS world is only confusing things.

Reading your post again, I’ve got the feeling that some things might have been mixed up (mods root <> mods installation location)

As for saved games: just relocate it to an SSD Drive for faster loading.

Hi Stuka,

To be clear I will explicitly list where I had my files located to eliminate any questions:

My preferred directory locations:
OvGME Configuration mods folder:
C:\Users\David\Saved Games\DCS My Mods
OvGME Configuration root folder:
C:\Users\David\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta

Frodo's requested locations were:
OvGME Configuration mods folder:
C:\storage\Programs\DCS World OpenBeta\_mods
OvGME Configuration root folder:
C:\storage\Programs\DCS World OpenBeta

The issue was not that any mod was missing or broken (we actually didn't verify that each mod was correct, so breakage is still a possibility I suppose), but the location of the root + and mods-install were in question and requested to be relocated and reinstalled. For the flight, in order to keep things moving along, I just moved everything as Frodo requested since was fairly easy to do so. As far as I know mods fully working in both scenarios.

I agree that OvGME mods to Saved Games is not absolutely necessary, but can be very advantageous when you need to remove say mod-v1, and apply mod-v2, for example, which might be a chore if there are lots of files dispersed across many directory locations. OvGME makes removal of mod-v1 simple and application of mod-v2 simple as well, and in the case that mod-v3 is released, just rinse and repeat, remove mod-v2 and install mod-v3. My interpretation of your remarks is that this usage of OvGME optional at the discretion of each pilot.

Of course, where two or more mods make changes to the same file is a special case where even OvGME may not be able to handle to do the right thing, and will require some manual intervention.

Additionally I am not aware of any mod required or optional mod that needs to be installed to the "program install dir" which in my case is "C:\storage\Programs\DCS World OpenBeta".
To my knowledge all of the below mods may be installed in the "Saved Games/DCS.openbeta" folder. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

I will list explicitly what I have installed into "Saved Games/DCS.openbeta" for clarity:
476 Range Targets 22Oct17
476 vFG - GAU-8A Accuracy Mod - 14MAR18.zip
476th - AN-ALE-40V Countermeasures Programs - 13NOV14.zip
476th - IFFCC AAS Combat - 03OCT15.zip <disabled>
476th - IFFCC AAS Training - 03OCT15.zip
476th TAD Mod - 04OCT16.zip
476th vFG A-10C Payload Presets - 21AUG16
Ga_Bika's A-10 Realistic GAU-8 Sound - 31MAR15.zip
Kuky's Better Vehicle Dust v2 - 09SEP2017.zip
Kuky's Fire & Smoke - 11JUN2016.zip
Kuky's Longer Burning Aircraft 10min.zip
Lilkikis Light AAA Pack v5.8.zip
Pretty Bombs 22DEC15.zip
RICARDO_DCS_A-10C_HorseOfWar.zip
Tetra RWR Audio Expansion Mod - 21APR16.zip
Tetra's G-Breath Improvement - 06SEP13.zip

I manually install the following files in to "Saved Games/DCS.openbeta" following the readme instructions in each zip file:
132d_Wing_Skin_Pack_13NOV17.zip
476vFG_422vTES_Skin_Pack_16APR18.zip
476vFG_65vAGRS Skin Pack_16APR18.zip
476vFG_A10C_Skin_Pack_01MAY18.zip
476vFG_Support_Asset_Skin_Pack_11DEC17.zip
476th - Tacview NTTR Grid - 25FEB17.zip

At the present time, all of the above are required mods, as specified by this forum entry:
https://www.476vfightergroup.com/con...-software-list

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stryker

Hi Stuka,

... My interpretation of your remarks is that this usage of OvGME optional at the discretion of each pilot.

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How you install and manage mods is completely up to you. All that is required is that the mandatory ones be installed and working. OVGME doesn't care where you save your mods, only matters where it installs them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stryker

Additionally I am not aware of any mod required or optional mod that needs to be installed to the "program install dir" which in my case is "C:\storage\Programs\DCS World OpenBeta".

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For me, the following mods are in the ..\Programs\DCS World OpenBeta location.

• GAU-8 Accuracy Mod
• AN/ALE-40 Countermeasures
• IFFCC AAS Training (or combat...only 1 installed a time)
• 476th Payload presets
• TAD Mod
• Kuky's Contrails
• Kuky's Better Dust
• Kuky's Fire & Smoke
• Kuky's Longer plane wrecks
• TETRA RWR
• TGP Snoopy Repaint