How to Install Packages / Mods

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This page describes how to install Fractal Block World packages / mods.

Step 1: Download the Package You Want

Somehow find whatever package/mod you want to install and download it. A package is a folder containing a bunch of files and subfolders. You can tell which folder is the package itself because it must contain a file called "dependencies.txt".

Here is an example mod that you can download. It makes text boxes yellow until you have read them for the first time.

Step 2: Install the Package to the Correct Location

Now you want to put the folder of the package in the correct location.

Open the location of where Fractal Block World is on your computer. This is the folder that has the subfolders Bin, Data, Input, Misc, and Output. If you are not sure where this is, open up Steam, select the Fractal Block World game in your library, then click the gear and click "Properties...". Then go to "Install Files" and then "Browse...".

Install the package in either Data/Packages or Input/Packages. It can only be installed in one of the two (if you install it in the wrong one it will probably not work). Hopefully where you downloaded the package told you which folder to install it into. The folder Input/Packages is for mods (such as modes of the xar package). The folder Data/Packages is for standalone packages.

Luckily the package itself must declare where it must be installed. This is stored in the About/install_dir.txt file of the package. That is, this file will either say 
Data/Packages
or 
Input/Packages

Step 3: Enable the Mod In The Game

If you installed the package to Data/Packages, then skip this step.

Otherwise, you installed the package to Input/Packages. The package is a "mod" for some standalone package. In this step you will go to that standalone package and enable this mod.

Start Fractal Block World and go to

OPTIONS -> SELECT MOD -> SELECT PACKAGE

Then select a standalone package. Here is where you need to know what the package you downloaded is a mod for. Luckily this is declared in the file "About/mod_for.txt". Actually a mod can be a mod for multiple standalone packages, but this might not be that common. Probably most mods are for the "xar" standalone package.

You should see a screen with two lists. The list on the left is all available packages that are relevant for the standalone package you selected. The right list is all packages that will be enabled when you play the game with that standalone package. Press enter to move items from the left to the right and vice versa.

Then in the right list, you can hold the shift key and use the up/down keys to change the order in which mods will be loaded. If there is an error, a mod will appear in red.

It is actually possible to use a file to select mods instead of the GUI. If you wanted to play a game in the xar package, then you would put the mods to use as dependencies in the Input/Packages/xar/dependencies.txt file. However we do not recommend this method.

Step 4: Play It!

If you installed the mod to Data/Packages, then it is a standalone package. Now start a new game using that package. You are done!

Otherwise you installed the mod to Input/Packages. Let X be the name of the standalone package that you used in the previous step. Either start a new game using the package X or load a game that uses the package X. You are done!