Order of Priority of BAR files?

Age of Empires III: DE III - Modding
1

What is the order in which BAR file contents override each other?

2

I think each bar archive on DE just has different file contents, they shouldn’t be overriding anything. The point of overriding on legacy was so that expansions & updates can partially reuse existing content, but DE basically always has a single dataset.

3

So what will happen if I put the same file in more than one BAR files of DE intentionally? One has to override the other, right? And there has to be some specific order in how the game prioritizes them now on DE.

It will be helpful to know this order because lets suppose I am creating a mod that modifies different folders for example Data Art(texture and model) UI then I can put them all into one BAR that has the highest priority instead of putting them in separate BARs and thus increasing the modified file size.

1 Like
4

The thing is you’re not supposed to create bar files at all.
If you want to create a local mod, put its files under %USERPROFILE%\Games\Age of Empires 3 DE\<id number thing>\mods\local\<your mod name>\

5

I obviously know that fact already.

6

the game wont read any other bar file than the orginal.
Even if ya call it Art2.bar.

7

yes but we can modify the existing bar files. so how do they rank among themselves?

8

they dont have a rank? Each bar file contains different stuff ?

9
10

You simply CANT put them all into ONE bar file. That doesnt work.

11

who said one bar file?

i said same file put in different bar files, which one is prioritized over which one?

like earlier in legacy version DataP used to override the Art and Data bars. DataPY used to override DataPX and DataP

So I could always put all my files into DataPY without worrying since it had the highest priority and over-rided everyone else.

12

It didnt overwrite, the age3Y.exe just had the setting to load the DatapY.bar …
If you would ahve wanted it to read any other bar file -> New exe.

13

yes and the file content of DataPY had the highest priority. Age3y did read the other BAR files but put their content below the content of DataPY.

My question is how is it in DE? Which is the BAR file that comes above others?

14

I´m sorry but i still dont understand what you actually wanna do.

  1. Age3 DE wont read other bar files, only the one that are currently there.
  2. Age3 CC runs well without DatapX.bar
  3. Priority was set inside the exe file. ( IF there ever was a priority. )
  4. Every mod that uses a new .bar file, also has a different EXE to start the game

Also:

You did.

15

ok lemme explain this like this, lets say i created some Art stuff, modifying DDTs and XMLs for units and buildings and then i put them all into any one of the BAR files in the Art folder(lets say ArtPfx because that one is the smallest), wouldn’t it conflict with the contents of ArtBuildings, ArtBuildingsTextures, ArtUnits, ArtUnitsTextures ?

So what is the universal BAR file that has the highest priority and can override all other BAR files?

16

I obviously know that fact already.

Then I don’t understand why are you creating any bar files anywhere. Simply putting your altered files into that folder does exactly what you want; it overrides all of the game’s data in any of the bars.

17

not true, at least localized dialogues can not be overrided, I tried it