good news for OSX/Linux modding

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RootlessAgrarian
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10 Dec 2017 22:43

In case anyone didn't already know (I am just figuring this stuff out for the first time, myself), it is possible to do ETS2 modding with Linux and OSX. You do need a Windoze emulator (like Wine) for a couple of critical steps, but only for CLI tools. I've posted a bit about this over at SCS Forum, and am planning to do a real write-up for beginners when I've got it figured out. (because frankly I don't think that any of the doco I've found so far is for real beginners!)

What I've achieved so far is to get a base.scs file unpacked then converted to portable file formats; I imported a .pim (model) file into Blender, edited it, saved the result and converted it back to SCS game format. I have not yet actually loaded it as a mod (that last step is still a bit murky) but the proof of concept is complete: the whole workflow can be completed while sitting at an OSX or Linux host. Yippee!

Possibly, everyone else in the whole world already knew this. I'm often the last to catch on :-) But just in case there are other OSX or Linux ETS2/PM fans who long to contribute to the mod collection, thought I'd share the good news. I think it's pretty exciting actually. I may finally be on the way (at the bottom of a steep learning curve, but on the way) to creating the "bike shaped truck" for my USBcycle project.
British living in Canada, over 60, Hackintosh AMD RX580/8GB, OSX Mojave
USBcycle
The Beginner's Guide to SCS Mapping (WIP)
All DLCs + ProMods (sometimes: + RusMap + SR + GreatSteppe) Level 43

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yaumeister
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10 Jan 2018 15:00

Being a Linux gamer I'm interested to see what you have discovered so far, as I'm also interested in getting into modding. Are you planning to put this into a guide?
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yaumeister
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24 Jan 2018 01:55

For reference to those interested from the SCS forum.
RootlessAgrarian wrote:
10 Jan 2018 22:15
Hi Yaumeister

Unf the end result of my researches was that OSX/Linux users cannot use the map editor, period. It's just not written for those OS and will not work. So there are (as far as I have found out) two paths you can follow if you want to customise your game or contrib to the community.

1) if you only want to extract and modify models from the game, or create new models for the game, you can probably do this in a Linux/OSX environment (though I admit I have not quite succeeded yet). Using portable tools (Blender plugins in Python) plus wine to run standalone CLI windows exes, plus some scripting of your own, you may be able to extract and alter models, or create new models, without a full blown windows host. I started down this road and was "almost there", but then realised that the map editor would never be available in OSX-land, so...

2) ...if you want to edit maps, you have no other option than a real Windows environment with full 3d graphics support. This means that Wine is out, VirtualBox is out (I tried it), and you either need to dual-boot or run Parallels. I decided that the cost of Parallels was worth it to avoid the constant hassle of dual-booting or the expense of building yet another desktop host just for map editing. I installed Parallels with Windows 10 and have had no difficulties other than the inevitable learning curve of a lightly-documented, highly-specialised 3d editor. Performance is acceptable for editing/testing a map mod, despite the use of a virtual graphics engine. Integration with the host platform is very tight (cut/paste between OS, disk sharing, USB device mounting etc). It's actually pretty impressive. Also, I can muck around with the Windows copy of ETS2 without damaging my playable game, which is nice to know.

Now that I have the Parallels/Windows setup of course I am not strongly motivated to return to item (1) and try to get model editing to work in the OSX environment :-) having spent the bux on Parallels, I'm inclined to do all SCS-related editing in that environment because, well, that's SCS's native environment so it works more reliably there. So why bash my head any further on the OSX compatibility issue? So I've installed Blender in the Windows VM. Right now I'm obsessed with learning the basic map editor skills (which is a time consuming hobby in its own right!) so have not even got back to the model-altering project. My list of ETS2-related projects is getting long and messy... seems like it's all I ever do with my computer these days.

The Parallels solution does get a bit stickier for the Linux user... Parallels is released for windows and osx, not linux. You can run linux on a vm though :-) so if you were really determined to maintain a Linux environment for the day2day, and yet be able to edit ets2 or ats maps, you could install Windows or OSX on your hardware, install Parallels, and run a Linux VM. If you have a Steam copy of the game, you can DL as many architectures of the game as you want (so long as you only play one of them at a time) so you could do your ETS2 playing and editing in Windows-land and all the rest of your computing life in the Linux VM...

Should say "sorry" at this point I think, 'cos I suspect this is not the answer you were hoping for.
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RootlessAgrarian
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29 Jan 2018 07:30

Hi Yaumeister... I feel like I really should put as much as I have discovered about osx/linux model editing into a guide, for all those out there who don't feel like paying for Parallels and a WinDoze license. I'll put it on my project list... but as I said in recent post, my project list is getting very long. Besides, I have to spend some time actually *playing* the game! Anyway, I'm aware that this should be done, and probably I should be doing it, but I'd be relieved if someone else got to it first...
British living in Canada, over 60, Hackintosh AMD RX580/8GB, OSX Mojave
USBcycle
The Beginner's Guide to SCS Mapping (WIP)
All DLCs + ProMods (sometimes: + RusMap + SR + GreatSteppe) Level 43

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yaumeister
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17 Jul 2019 01:02

In case if anyone is interested, I've managed to get the map editor working in Linux (Ubuntu), here's a few key points on how I did it.

- I have Steam (native install) and ETS2 installed, no need to mess with this and reserve it for playing.
- Install Steam Flatpak, so you basically have another instance of Steam on your machine. Good thing is as it's in its own container, doesn't impact your native version.
- Once that's done, launch it and select ETS2 in your library and open Properties.
- Tick "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool", and choose the latest (tried on 4.2.9).
- Install ETS2, this forces Steam to download the Windows version and use Steam Play / Proton to run the game.
- Once installed, go do the usual things to enable the map editor.
- Edit the config file for g_developer and g_console, it's at /home/<USERNAME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/227300/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Euro Truck Simulator 2.
- Create base/map folders for saving, it's at /home/<USERNAME>/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Euro Truck Simulator 2.
- Launch game, make sure you are in windowed mode (not fullscreen), open console and "edit". Works well in DX9 mode, tried DX11 but the menu UI randomly disappears.
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