Hey there,

Today seems like a good opportunity to talk about a particular feature that came with the new site that should be of interest to several people. That feature being the ability to switch between downloading VPK and non-VPK formats. By default if you download something from the site, it will be in the VPK format you’ve come to know since the SteamPipe update. It is a very convenient format for many reasons. However, there might be times in which you’d rather be downloading mods in the original format with the their files left outside of a container. Such benefits include being able to personally see what is being modified and ease of access to tweaking individual files of a mod. At this time though, the largest benefit to the original format is the ability to avoid a bug caused by having too many VPK files installed. At this time, if you install approximately 85 mods from the site in VPK format, the game’s user interface is breaks and stops using the correct strings for text. This does not occur for mods not in VPK format.

If you wish to start downloading mods in the original non-VPK format, listen up. The first thing you need to do is sign into the website using Steam. The button is in the top right corner of the browser. If you haven’t signed in before, all you need to provide is a username once Steam’s servers authenticate you. Once fully logged in, in the top right of the browser you will see the word “Options” which upon hovering over will display a drop down menu. From there, all you have to do is uncheck “VPK Preferred”. Now whenever you click a mod’s download link, it will be in non-VPK format.

Before you jump for the non-VPK format, there are heavy warnings that come with using them. We currently don’t provide tutorials on how to install and uninstall mods in non-VPK format. Installing mods is similar to VPKs in that you place the contained “mlptf2mods” folder into your “custom” folder. On Windows and Ubuntu, their file explorers easily allow for the merging of folders making for a relatively simple task. OS X’s Finder on the other hand is less forgiving when it comes to merging folders. And despite how easy it may be to install mods, it is a whole different task to uninstall them. In order to uninstall any mod, you need to locate and remove each individual file relating to the mod among all the other files you are wishing to keep.

If none of that deters you and the benefits are of your interest, it is definitely worth checking out. We believe in offering choice to our users and this is just one of the many ways we intend to do so.

The MLPTF2Mods.com Team