****************************** *****Installation Process***** ****************************** The first few steps are the same for everyone: download the .zip from FILES, and unzip it somewhere. You will now have access to four .pak files. Decide which version of the mod to try, and rename it BloomingBiomes.pak. The process for installing this .pak varies slightly, depending on whether you are using the Steam or Windows Store version of No Man's Sky. Follow the instructions below that are relevant to you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************************** *****Installation Process for Steam Users***** ********************************************** For Steam users, the process is simple: Navigate to Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\GAMEDATA\PCBANKS. I cannot tell you where you installed Steam, but mine is in C:\Program Files (x86). In PCBANKS, rename DISABLEMODS.TXT to .DISABLEMODS.TXT (notice the leading period), or just delete this file entirely. The game will not care at all if this file ceases to exist (it's callous like that). You can disable individual mods, such as the one you're about to install, by simply moving or hiding them. Move or copy your desired version of BloomingBiomes.pak into PCBANKS\MODS\. That's it! Installing mods is easy on Steam. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****************************************************** *****Installation Process for Windows Store Users***** ****************************************************** Ultimately, the idea is simple (and almost identical to the Steam method): Navigate to GAMEDATA\PCBANKS\ in your game installation directory. In PCBANKS, rename DISABLEMODS.TXT to .DISABLEMODS.TXT (notice the leading period), or just delete this file entirely. The game will not care at all if this file ceases to exist (it's callous like that). You can disable individual mods, such as the one you're about to install, by simply moving or hiding them. Navigate to GAMEDATA\PCBANKS\MODS\ in your game installation directory. Move or copy your desired version of BloomingBiomes.pak into this folder. Then you're golden! However, the location of your game installation directory is a bit odd and possibly unique when you use the Microsoft Store. The folder's naming conventions are unclear to me. I use Steam, so my knowledge of this process is entirely secondhand. I have been told that GAMEDATA\PCBANKS\MODS\ is located in the following convoluted location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\HelloGames.NoMansSky_ODD-SUFFIX\LocalCache\Local\Microsoft\WritablePackageRoot\ ODD-SUFFIX is a string of seemingly random numbers and letters, and may not be the same for all users. Therefore, you need to first explore %localappdata%\Packages\ in order to determine the precise name of your HelloGames.NoMansSky folder, and then add the rest of that folder address. Furthermore, in order to affect the game by accessing this folder in the first place, you may need this program: ANMSMEMSPC - Andy's NMS Mod Enabler for the Microsoft Store Edition (Xbox GamePass PC) https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/1751 The above program may deal with DISABLEMODS.TXT for you. Sorry, Microsoft Store people. I have heard that things are not so easy for you guys, but they are doable with persistence. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************************************** *****Installation Process for Vortex Users***** *********************************************** (Even though you probably already know.) Launch the app and log into Vortex. Add No Man's Sky to GAMES if you have not already done so. Navigate to MODS. Drag & Drop the Blooming Biomes .zip file into the dotted box where you see, "Drop File(s)" (bottom of the app). Click the button labeled Never Installed (not the arrow, the actual words). Choose which version of the mod you would prefer to try, and then Finish. Click the button labeled Disabled. It will become Enabled. That's it! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************ *****Frequently Asked Questions***** ************************************ Q. Will this affect my framerate? This is an extremely new mod, and I have obviously not had time to thoroughly test it on Frontiers. Please contact me if you have any major issues on modern graphics cards. If you're trying to run Ultra everything on a card older than a GTX 1080, good luck with that; obviously, generating more of everything is not computationally "free", and you should not expect an identical framerate to vanilla No Man's Sky. However, I have done my best to make sure that everywhere I visit is stable and smooth on my MSI 2080 Super Trio, so you will probably have great results on anything as good or better than that. I have also enlisted the help of testers who can confirm that this mod works on anything as good as a GTX 1080, but you may need to adjust settings. Q. Will this make me crash more? It should never make you crash. If you do crash anywhere unusual, please contact me! I will determine why so that I can patch the issue as soon as possible. Please note that some people have discovered unusual crashing in vanilla Frontiers, so it will be helpful if you can confirm with certainty that the mod is your reason for any crashes before you contact me. Q. Are these changes permanent? Yes and no. The changes to game files (the biome updates and animal group size increases) are not permanent. These will go away when you disable the mod. However, as mentioned above, updates to your Discoveries are permanent after you save your game. Q. Are there any known issues with the mod? Nothing game-breaking. However, collision detection on spawned objects can be inconsistent. Most objects will spawn with collision, but I have found patches of objects that seem to be missing collision detection. Also, some large objects have poor collision detection on their top surface (even in vanilla, for the record), so standing on them for screenshots is a bit of a fine art. Also, you will see some tree-type plants growing into or through each other. This is inevitable, and, for me, a small price to pay for what the mod brings. Q. I'm seeing rectangular patches of grassless terrain. Did you do that? No, Frontiers did that. They can also be found in vanilla. Q. A phantom tree is growing in my base and I can't hit it with the mining beam. Can I do anything about this? Use the terrain manipulator to destroy the phantom tree's foundation, then repair the ground. Not a perfect solution, but, again, that's a price that I am happily willing to pay in order to run this mod. Q. Are any updates planned? Updates are probable. MBIN Compiler has officially been repaired to the point that Blooming Biomes is in complete working order for Frontiers (thanks to the amazingly dedicated efforts of the MBC team for their incredible efficiency). However, I do want to continue exploring objects that will look good when I increase their coverage without doing too much harm to frame rates, especially on non-lush worlds. Q. Will the updates break my bases? Break, no. However, you may have some new trees or shrooms growing through your base. I will never do any terrain edits. Future updates will be aimed at balancing density to reduce the frequency of stuff growing through each other and increase proportion of objects that properly spawn with vanilla collision (meaning never expect perfection here), rebalancing plants a bit so that the rarer pretty stuff grows more frequently, and, of course, attempting to save as many frames per second as possible in order to enable as many people as possible to enjoy this mod together! I appreciate any suggestions regarding performance enhancements. Q. Is there anything I can do to improve performance? Maybe. You can try to follow these steps, and hope for the best. It will not work for everyone. For me, I gained about 10 FPS on average, give or take 5, depending on the scenario. This honestly blew my mind. This fix involves modifying a game settings file in a text editor in order to allow No Man's Sky to use more of your GPU threads (assuming I understand the field's name correctly). If you do not have more threads than No Man's Sky is already using, this might not help you. I am not completely sure, but I suspect No Man's Sky may use less than the actual maximum number of threads by default for some GPUs. This setting, apparently in beta judging by its name, seems to allow use of all or at least more of your threads. Navigate to your game installation directory, where you will find two folders: Binaries and GAMEDATA. Navigate to Binaries/SETTINGS. Open the file named TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.MXML in any text editor. I use Atom and Code. Find the following line in TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.MXML: Set the value of the above Property to the value of either the Property element named NumHighThreads or the one named NumLowThreads (these had the same values for me, but pick the higher value if there is one), and launch the game. As implied by its Beta status, I can tell you that this adjustment will not work for everyone. You may crash. However, when I set the value of this Property to 12, I saw a clear performance boost of about 10 fps on average. Note that Property elements NumHighThreads and NumLowThreads will revert to their default values upon launching the game, so they can't help you any further; NumGraphicsThreadsBeta is all we have. Spare yourself the trouble of trying them. Why 12? Why NumHighThreads? Well, I tested quite a bit and found similar performance improvements at both the 12 and 16 level. Since the number of threads intuitively appears to refer to a CPU variable, Chris Kushnir (author of NMS Mod Builder) hypothesized that it may be referring to the number of CPU threads that can push requests to the GPU (hence NumGraphicsThreads). Based on my own testing, I hypothesize that this value is capped by either NumHighThreads or NumLowThreads, and, unfortunately, as stated before, changes to those fields appear to revert. If this helps, let other people know! If it doesn't, sorry! I wish I could help, but I have no way of forcing it to work when it fails. Q. Which version of this mod do you use? My favorite is the one with larger stuff and randomized colors, but I don't really care about my Discoveries featuring nonexistent entities. (See warning above if you have no idea what I mean.) For me, it's super fun to see a bunch of new stuff on all of my old planets, so I don't care if a few species are missing while I run the recolored versions. THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE!