Mod dir / beta dir, how the engine reads its files etc

[Snake Man]

Okay I really dont know how to put this topic so that: Mod dir / beta dir, how the engine reads its files etc have to do now

As many (if not all) of you know the public beta v1.05 was released and installed to <arma>\Beta\ directory, this is the contents of the directory in my installation:

Code: Select all

\beta\addons
\beta\arma.exe
\beta\arma_server.exe
\beta\campaigns
\beta\dta
\beta\addons\a10.pbo
\beta\addons\a10.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\air.pbo
\beta\addons\air.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\air3.pbo
\beta\addons\air3.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\animals.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\anims.pbo
\beta\addons\anims.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\buildings.pbo
\beta\addons\buildings.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\ca.pbo
\beta\addons\ca.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\characters.pbo
\beta\addons\characters.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\desert.pbo
\beta\addons\desert.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\introanims.pbo
\beta\addons\introanims.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\language.pbo
\beta\addons\language.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\misc.pbo
\beta\addons\misc.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\missions.pbo
\beta\addons\missions.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\plants.pbo
\beta\addons\plants.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\roads.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\rocks.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\sara.pbo
\beta\addons\sara.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\signs.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\sounds.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\tracked.pbo
\beta\addons\tracked.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\ui.pbo
\beta\addons\ui.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\uifonts.pbo
\beta\addons\uifonts.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\voice.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\water.pbo
\beta\addons\water.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\weapons.pbo
\beta\addons\weapons.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\weapons3.pbo
\beta\addons\weapons3.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\wheeled.pbo
\beta\addons\wheeled.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\addons\wheeled3.pbo
\beta\addons\wheeled3.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\campaigns\ca.pbo
\beta\dta\bin.pbo
\beta\dta\bin.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\dta\core.pbo
\beta\dta\core.pbo.bi.bisign
\beta\dta\product.bin

Now, as the arma.exe is located also in this directory and it reads the dta\bin and dta\core as well of course the addons\ directory under this directory... I was wondering was there some specific coding on this beta exe or can we launch normal present time v1.08 exe from this kind of directory also?

My ultimate point for this topic is that during OFP VTE editing we ran into the discussion that the mod gets so big that you have to launch OFP with all kinds of -nomap etc paramaters to get it even running... it was my thought that why dont we just nuke the CWC/Resistance backbone and use just our own stuff, therefore limiting the existing mosty unused addons in the engine to eat up all the memory/resources.

I know its not simple as that as every addon I know of so far uses references to the BIS original config and most of the time some textures too. It would be quite work to rebuild the existing config to work as backbone with only your mod.

So could we launch ArmA from such "root" mod dir as the v1.05 \beta\ and therefore just leave out the damned pbo's we dont want to use with our mod?

I hope someone understood what I'm after here