Compare clients puts the open client beside another client folder of the same game, such as another version, a fresh install or a modded copy, and lists every file that differs between them.
Open it with the swap icon on the rail, or View > Compare clients, then choose Pick… and the other client's folder. Studio checks which game it holds: a client of another game is refused, since its files have nothing to compare against.
The comparison
Studio reads both clients in the background: every loose file and every file inside the clients' archives, by its path in the client. The line under the buttons says how far it has got, and Stop ends it. Paths are matched without regard to capitals, so Readme.txt meets readme.txt.
Each file is one of:
| mark | means |
|---|---|
| + | only the other client has it |
| − | only the open client has it |
| ≠ | both have it and the bytes differ |
| = | both hold the same bytes |
A whole client is several gigabytes, so a full comparison takes a few minutes. To look at one part, type a folder such as DataTable in Only under a folder and choose Compare; choose it again after changing files outside Studio.
The two lists above the files pick which files show (the differences by default, or one mark, or everything) and which kind (textures, models, clips, maps, tables, sounds, scripts, programs or other). The search box narrows them by path.
Looking at one file
Click a file to see how it differs:
- Text files show the lines removed and added, with a few lines around each change.
- Textures show the open client's picture, the other client's, or Difference, where unchanged pixels are dimmed and changed ones are red; Flicker swaps between the two. The line above says how many pixels differ. In an RF Online texture set, Prev and Next step through its textures.
- Tables of RF Online show each block of rows: how many rows changed, were added or removed, and which bytes of a row change most. When the two versions lay a table out with rows of different sizes, it says so. The monster table also lists the monsters added, removed and changed, by code.
- Models list their meshes on each side. Show beside theirs opens the model the file belongs to and shows the other client's version of it side by side, as the model viewer's comparison does.
- Anything else shows which bytes differ.
Taking files across
Take theirs copies the other client's file into the project, at the same path, so Install puts it into the client. Nothing in the client changes before Install, and the project's copy can be reverted like any other edit.
Two warnings can follow:
- A table, map, model, clip, script or program from another version of the game may not be read the same way by this one. Studio copies the bytes as they are, so try it in game before you rely on it.
- When the open client reads the file from inside an archive, use Repack in Packs so the game picks up the project's copy.
Saving a report
The save button beside the search box writes the comparison into the project's reports folder as a Markdown summary, with the counts of each kind, and a CSV of every file with its sizes.
With an AI assistant
Everything the panel does, an assistant can do too: open a comparison, filter it, read a file's differences, show a model beside the other client's, take files across and save the report. See AI assistants.