Trying to edit .CFG files

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Apollo
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Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by Apollo »

Recently I tried to edit the .cfg files in Kerbal Space Program, specifically I was changing the ISP values of the different rocket engines to make the "Real Solar System" mod more playable. I can edit the .cfg files of the default engines that come with the game just fine, but the engines added by mods like KW rocketry aren't changing. I open the .cfg file for a specific engine with notepad, change the values, save, and then restart Kerbal Space Program only to find that the changes didn't take. However, when I exit the game and reopen the .cfg file, the changes I made are still there!

Any Ideas?
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TheMix
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by TheMix »

At a guess, the data is being read and stored in a different file. Maybe when the mod is initially loaded the data is stored elsewhere. Sounds like you need to find out where else the data is stored and edit it there.

Not very helpful, I know. Sorry.

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TheMix
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by TheMix »

Does this help:
Step 1: Locating the CFG files
In general all configuration files required for this are in a subdirectory of GameData. Itself is a subdirectory of the root directory.

When you find the folder GameData, open it
From here you will find two other folders. The "NASAmission" folder, and the "Squad" folder. You may see more folders if you install mods for KSP. The "NASAmission" folder contains all the parts created with the help of NASA in the most recent update, like the four block engine, or the Launch Escape System. The "Squad" folder contains most of the stock parts, like the Command Pod Mk1, or the Mobile Processing Lab. We will open the "Squad" folder.
From here, you will find the folders containing just about every object in the game. Since we are editing parts, open the "Parts" folder (obviously). There is also a "SPP" directory which contain the parts from the Spaceplane+ mod integrated in 0.25.
From there, you will find more folders, each one representing a tab in the Vehicle Assembly Building (only true for Squad/NASA parts, and even then, not 100% accurate - see MK1, for example). For this tutorial, we are going to edit an engine! So, open the "Engine" folder.
Now you will see a folder for engine in the game. Lets edit the Rockomax "Skipper" Liquid Engine engine.
Open the "liquidEngineSkipper" folder. You will find all the files associated with that engine.
The only file we are interested in is the skipperLiquidEngine.cfg. All the other files are for the actual 3D model-what we see when we grab it in the VAB.
Now open the "skipperLiquidEngine.cfg" in a text editor of your choice. There are no special programs required.

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gameoverman
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by gameoverman »

A config file might be marked 'read only' which prevents any user changes from taking effect. Right click the file and select 'properties' to check this.
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TheMix
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by TheMix »

gameoverman wrote:A config file might be marked 'read only' which prevents any user changes from taking effect. Right click the file and select 'properties' to check this.
That was my first thought. But he said that he went back and checked, and the changes that he made were still there. So it does appear they are saving. They just aren't being recognized by the game. I ran into this recently with a game. I found that the information was in more than one place, and the game was only reading from one location (obviously not the location that I had edited).

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Kasey Chang
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by Kasey Chang »

Some games have more than one .CFG file. Recall that Fallout 3 / Fallout New Vegas have THREE .cfg files and they are virtually identical to each other. Editing the wrong one will have no effect.
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gameoverman
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by gameoverman »

TheMix wrote:
gameoverman wrote:A config file might be marked 'read only' which prevents any user changes from taking effect. Right click the file and select 'properties' to check this.
That was my first thought. But he said that he went back and checked, and the changes that he made were still there. So it does appear they are saving. They just aren't being recognized by the game. I ran into this recently with a game. I found that the information was in more than one place, and the game was only reading from one location (obviously not the location that I had edited).
Thanks for pointing that out, I somehow missed that part about the changes still being there.

Then the next thing is changing the wrong cfg file. i've done some modding and it can be tricky figuring out which cfg does what. One cfg file might be the ONE config to rule them all, you change something there then that change affects everything. One cfg file might be for multiplayer only, one cfg file might be single player only. Sometimes you need to change the one in User/documents or games. Sometimes you need to change the one in Programs/game folder.

One method I'd use is to do a system search for *.cfg. You can then look for any cfg files for your game and get some idea of how many there might be for what you're doing.
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Apollo
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by Apollo »

Thanks for the help, guys.

As stated before, I can mod the stock engines with no problem. And when I mod the "Mod" engines from KW rocketry I have found that about half of the edits work and show up in the game, while roughly half of the engines I modded did not show up in the game as modded, even though the .cfg file still shows the modded data. Really weird!

I'll keep looking to see if there are any other .cfg files I may have missed. Thanks for the help!
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

Post by Pytlos »

spam
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Re: Trying to edit .CFG files

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Mr. Bot has bad timing...
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