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Step 8: Testing and Publishing

Overview

Now, its time to test your mod in the game and publish it.

The process here will be the following:

  1. Prepare files.
  2. Load "Proving Ground".
  3. Convert your mod.
  4. Spawn your local mod.
  5. Pack your mod.
  6. Upload your mod to mod.io.
  7. Subscribe to your mod and enable it.
  8. Test your published mod.
  9. Congratulations!

In the list above, steps starting form Step 2 (Load the "Proving Ground" map) are performed the same way for all truck mods.

They are described in another tutorial, here we will only link to corresponding topics, see below.

Prepare Files

First of all, we need to ensure that all necessary files are in place.

Particularly, at this step of the tutorial, the folder of your mod within Documents\My Games\Expeditions\Media\Mods should contain:

  • In meshes\trucks:
    • The FBX file of the mod, see Step 2.
    • The XML file of the mesh of the mod, see Step 4.
  • In textures\trucks (or simply textures) – The textures of the mod, see Step 3.
  • In classes:
    • In classes\trucks – The XML file of the class of the mod, see Step 5 and Step 6.
    • In classes\engines – The XML file of engine classes, see Step 6.
    • In classes\gearboxes – The XML file of gear box classes, see Step 6.
    • In classes\suspensions – The XML file of suspension classes, see Step 6.
    • In classes\winches – The XML file of winch classes, see Step 6.
  • In ui\textures – The images of the mod for the UI, see Step 7.

TIP: If necessary, you can find the sample source files for this tutorial at its next step.

Load "Proving Ground"

After checking the files, you can load the special "Proving Ground" map and test your mod there.

Moreover, this map is necessary for performing mod operations that we will need: conversion of resources and packing.

For instructions on opening the "Proving Ground" map, see Opening the Proving Ground.

Convert Your Mod

First of all, you can check that the system has found your mod:

  1. In the TOOLS menu, select Mod manager.
  2. In the appearing dialog, in the Available trucks list, you will see the list of truck mods found by the system.
  3. If all is good with your files, your mod will be in this list with the Not converted status.

Now, you can convert it. For instructions, see Conversion of Resources.

Spawn Your Local Mod

Once you have converted your mod, you can spawn its instance on the "Proving Ground" map. For instructions, see Spawning Mod Vehicle.

Moreover, in Expeditions, you can test the mod in the main part of the game directly after conversion, without packing.

I.e., you will see your converted mod in the Truck Store and will be able to purchase it when preparing for an Expedition.

Pack Your Mod

Once you have converted and tested your mod on "Proving Grounds" or any other map, you can pack it.

Packing of the mod should be done on the "Proving Grounds" map.

This will generate the set of .zip files that you can upload to mod.io.

For instructions on packing and the location of these .zip files, see Packing Vehicle Mod.

If some errors occur during validation or packing, you can view log records of these errors. See Viewing Error Log.

WARNING: In the current version of Expeditions, there is an issue in packing. If your Media\Mods folder with local truck mods contains multiple truck mods of the same type (e.g SCOUT), the game will not be able to pack any of them – these mods will be trying to use addons of each other and will fail in that. This is a known issue that will be fixed. Currently, please pack mods one by one – with only one mod of the particular type existing in the mods folder during packing. And, in the current version of the game, the TruckType value in <TruckData> tag should be equal to SCOUT. If this type is HEAVY, HEAVY_DUTY, HIGHWAY, OFFROAD, or SPECIAL – packing will fail. So, currently, please use SCOUT for all types of vehicles.

Upload Your Mod to mod.io

After packing, you can upload your mod to mod.io.

For instructions on uploading, see Uploading Mod to mod.io.

Subscribe to Your Mod and Enable It

After uploading your mod to mod.io, you can Subscribe to it and Enable it to test the published version of the mod.

For instructions on this, see Enabling Mod in the Game.

Test Your Published Mod

After enabling your mod, you can test it again, to view it just as any other player who has subscribed to it.

This can be helpful to ensure that your mod works without errors in its published state.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on creating your first mod!

However, during testing, you will for sure find issues that need to be fixed, it is a normal process. All mods are borned dirty and are polished later, and our sample mod is not an exception.