Updating an XPack

If you've made a XPack, used it in one of your tracks, and you've since updated the XPack (e.g. by adding objects and/or materials), it can be quite a chore to give your track access to the new content. It involves copying the zip file to the appropriate project folder, but you may need to manage multiple XPacks and projects, which can lead to mistakes.

In XPacker, when you select zip to BTB, the zip file is created in BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks. When you load the XPack into your project, the zip file is copied to your project folder, and it is the copied version that your track has access to. Updating the XPack only replaces the original zip file.

A while ago I wrote a batch file that makes the updating process much easier to manage:
updateXPack.7z

Instructions

  • Extract the above file to any folder. It's a good idea to mark the file as Read Only to make it hard to accidentally delete it.
  • Make a shortcut to that file.
  • Right click and select Properties and then the Shortcut tab.
  • The Target field will have the location of the batch file. To the end of the line, add your project name (the name of the relevant folder in BobsTrackBuilder\My Projects) followed by your Xpack name (the name of the zip file, without the extension).
    • Example of the target field: "C:\programs\BobsTrackBuilder\My Projects\updateXPack.bat" Pinevale PlainTrucks
    • This sends PlainTrucks.zip to the Pinevale project folder.
    • If either the project name or XPack name has any spaces, surround the name with double quotes.
  • Set the name of the shortcut so that you know which Xpack is being sent to which folder.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Be careful if you've removed things from the XPack. Before copying the zip file, make sure your track does not use any of those things.

The easy way

  • Open two windows explorer windows, one for BTB\XPacks and the other for project\XPack folder
  • Update you XPack
  • Right-click&drag the updated XPack from BTB\XPacks to project\XPacks folder, confirm overwrite
  • Open the project to see the changes

Make a backup of your project and/or XPack before introducing untested objects or use short test track to validate and test them ingame . Faulty XPacks may cause irreversible damage to project!.

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