RenEvo

Perhaps it is just this humble person’s opinion, but it seems safe to say these days that 9/10ths of Crysis modding is based at least in part on flowgraphs. It’s amazing to see the creative works the modding community has managed to do successfully with this system. Everything from new weapons and AI logic, to entire new gameplay formats (such as RTS mode) have been crafted using the available tools provided by the flowgraph system in its present state. Now imagine what the community could do if they were given even more tools to work with in their flowgraphs.

The Problem
The modding community has already taken on the initiative to provide more tools for everyone to use. This is evident in the Big Flowgraph Node Request Topic. The problem is, getting these newer tools to the community has proven to be quite a pain. With forum members such as Jameszhao00 and ins taking on roles to help aid the community in utilizing these new tools, progress has been made. But still the pain relies on getting everyone all of the custom flowgraph nodes (said tools) so they can use them in their own custom maps and mods. Currently, a custom Mod Dll must be built that contains all these new nodes, and this mod must be distributed to each community member who wishes to use the new nodes. Adding on new nodes or making changes to existing nodes would mean everyone would have to get the new custom Mod Dll again. What a pain!

The Solution
The Flowgraph Plugin System aims to relieve this pain by separating the new custom flowgraph nodes being developed by the community into separate, individual files. Effectively, instead of trying to merge all these different flowgraph nodes into one single Mod Dll, they have now been separated into their own, lightweight Dll file, known as a plugin. These plugins are then detected and loaded by the system automatically, merging its contents of flowgraph nodes into the main system.

From an end user's point-of-view, you only have to copy and paste the Dlls containing the flowgraph nodes you want into a special folder, and launch the game or Sandbox editor. Like magic, all of the flowgraph nodes appear in the Flowgraph editor. You can mix and match as many plugins as you want to control the amount of modding power you wish to have at your disposal.

Installation and How to Redistribute with your Mod
The Flowgraph Plugin System lies inside of a special Mod Dll. To gain advantage of this system, all you have to do is set up a mod and use this Mod Dll with it.Then, you can copy and paste all of the plugins you want to work with in a specialfolder included in your Mod directory. To redistribute, you just have to packageup the mod like normal and give it away. Everyone who then loads up the mod andplays your level will have the custom flowgraph nodes contained in the pluginsas well.

Other Features
To aid you in polishing up your custom mod and levels, the Settings.xml file allows you to force all intro and splash videos on/off. You can also define the starting Singleplayer level that should be loaded when the player goes to start a new Singleplayer campaign in the game.

Where to find Flowgraph Plugins

• RenEvo Software & Designs Downloads
  
• CryMod Download Database