Skip .oni-patch files that would apply to non-existent files

[Iritscen]

Samer wants to write a patch mod which will replace custom characters' custom particles with vanilla particles, which an AE user can activate to prevent particle overload. The problem is that the masterpatch being passed to XmlTools will fail whenever some of the custom characters are not installed, since XmlTools expects all referenced files to be present. Can the AEI leave out of the masterpatch the contents of any .oni-patch files which don't have matching .oni files among the currently selected mods? Allowing patches that reference optional (potentially missing) files will have other uses as well.

[Christian]

Would at least need a proper example of the issue at hand. Like a minimal "working" example mod.

[Samer]

Hi Alloc. Attached the pack 23903

This pack will patch the ONCC and Trams of several custom characters. The intention of it is to patch and reduce the particle overload of the characters the player has installed, however if not all the ONCCs (Characters packs) it patches are found, the patches will not continue leading to xml tools aborting patching and meaning even patches from other mods like glass breaking moves will not be applied.

Example if you were to install this pack and install all the custom characters it patches:
22010, 22015, 22023, 22025, 22026, 23500, 23590, 23595, 23600, 23610, 23615, 25000

but NOT install Naomi which is also patched 21000.
the patch will fail and the AE installation log will give this line under applying patches:

{{{ User forced patch in the target file(s): C:\Users\samok\AppData\Local\Temp\oni_aei\installrun_temp-2020_06_10-21_13_23\level0_final\xml\ONCCnaomi*.xml
@COMMAND patch operation output:

########################################################################

Loading xml files operation failed!

No XML files were found for the wildcard: C:\Users\samok\AppData\Local\Temp\oni_aei\installrun_temp-2020_06_10-21_13_23\level0_final\xml\ONCCnaomi*.xml

Aborting...

}}}

it will not continue other patches from other mods like glass breaking moves after it aborts. what we want it to do is if it doesn't find the file it is supposed to patch, to just skip it not abort.

Since there are no plans to modify the engine to fix particles overload issue, I hope this is prioritized as it may provide the solution, especially since new particle mods will continue to come out.

Moreover, should clarify that this is not only for particles and characters this will have other uses, basically anything that would apply a patch over multiple files which include those from custom mods, some of which may or may not be installed

for example the hitfootouch animation which females don't have. If we make one for females with adjusted height.
if I want to make a patch that will add this to the TRAC of all female characters, this would include custom made female characters as well: motoko, hanako, naomi, sarai etc.. some of these have custom TRACs and won't take if you just apply it to konoko parent trac or red parent trac. and if you apply the patch to all Tracs it would add it to male TRACs which already have a correct one. so u want a patch that would apply it to TRACmotoko- TRAChanako- etc, but if they aren't all found the patch would fail and abort before applying the other pack patches.

another example: if there is patch pack let's say that will add voices to the oncc of motoko and casey and kojioro.
All of these 3 packs have to be installed because if it doesn't find ONCCmotoko-. for example it will abort.
whereas the point of that patch would be to give sounds to the characters that the user have installed, not force him to install all.

third example: one makes a patch that modifies custom weapons from various packs. all the weapon packs have to be installed or it fails.