Help installing python, please

[Eigenvektor]

31 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

but of course it's quicker and easier to just say "install this unupdated version of python, and good luck lol" for him. 

Exactly. This is probably someone with enough Python knowledge to create the hack, wanted to share it with other people, but doesn't have the motivation to invest the additional work. And the term "author" is correct. If you write source code, you're the author of that code.

 

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I appreciate the explanation, but as I said above it's not necessarily how it's used, there are a tons of mods, for whatever reason

Doesn't change that GitHub is intended for developers using Git to manage their source code. People can abuse anything for any purpose, but I doubt they're a majority.

 

If you spend some time looking around GitHub you can see that they host source code from Google, Microsoft, Mozilla… like Chromium, Android libraries, Firefox, VS Code and a ton of other high profile open source products. Pretty much all of these products have websites where you can download binaries. They will never redirect you to GitHub unless you express an interest in contributing.

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Exactly. This is probably someone with enough Python knowledge to create the hack, wanted to share it with other people, but doesn't have the motivation to invest the additional work.

good point, that's probably often how it is and since it's "open source" sometimes someone else would actually make an installer.... the thing is it still feels all really unregulated, kinda like going into a bad neighborhood - you never know what you're getting, I much prefer getting stuff from modding sites where you can easily check comments and stuff, and "usually" get a better explanation how everything works too... 

 

I still haven't installed this python thing cause I don't know what it does and I really don't like installing 3rd party programs they often can slow down a pc for no apparent reason, or worse... 

 

I have much less issues to install a modded cheat engine from some Chinese site for example (like 3DM) because I know the guys aren't shady, and it won't harm my pc - you know, a 'reputation' thing basically.

 

3 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

And the term "author" is correct. If you write source code, you're the author of that code.

in this case it probably is... in the case of simple model ports from other games (of course without any permission whatsoever) I wouldn't call it that since the "source code" obviously was made by someone else, the original developer, the modder did just reverse engineer some stuff (with the help of 3DM usually). 

 

While I see they have put in some work, I cannot call them author because, yeah, it's just someone else's copyrighted material altered to work in a different engine etc. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Google, Microsoft, Mozilla… 

so the very definition of shady, I already knew.

 

Edit: to be fair I don't know about Mozilla, but Microsoft... 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

 

and Google is basically adapting this tactic 1:1, because it works so well... both of them cannot be trusted, and since Microsoft bought GitHub its just a huge red flag to me I rather avoid - before they sold out, I always had the feeling they're the 'good guys' but not anymore... 

 

[Eigenvektor]

33 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

good point, that's probably often how it is and since it's "open source" sometimes someone else would actually make an installer.... the thing is it still feels all really unregulated, kinda like going into a bad neighborhood - you NEC know what you're getting, I much prefer getting stuff from modding sites where you can easily check comments and stuff, and "usually" get a better explanation how every works too... 

I'd say a better comparison is to look at GitHub as a whole city. There are repsitories that are bad and you probably shouldn't use, just as there are bad neighborhoods. There are repositories that are chaotic and not well documented but otherwise harmless. Then there are repositories that are very well documented, and you can't contribute to them without it getting vetted by a dozen people. That's the corporate neighborhood of GitLab.

 

So it really depends on which repository you look at. Something that was hacked together by a lone developer in an afternoon isn't going to compare even remotely to the source code of a large open source project like Firefox.

 

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I still haven't installed this python thing cause I don't know what it does and I really don't like installing 3rd party programs they often can slow down a pc for no apparent reason, or worse... 

Python is the name of a programming language and the associated interpreter. On its own it doesn't do anything. It simply allows you to run scripts written in Python. Similar to the .NET Framework which allows you to run programs written a .NET language (like C#) or how the JRE allows you to run Java applications.

 

Pywin32 is a library for Python that allows scripts written in Python to interact with the Windows API. In this case the mod probably needs it in order to be able to access and modify the game's files.

 

I would say both of these are fine, since they are used by millions of people world wide (the "reputation" angle). The mod itself that is written in Python and modifies game files? Who knows. Comes down to whether you trust the author of that particular mod.

 

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I have much less issues to install a modded cheat engine from some Chinese site for example (like 3DM) because I know the guys aren't shady, and it won't harm my pc - you know, a 'reputation' thing basically.

The exact same is true for GitHub repositories. The site as a whole is fine. Individual repositories? Don't use them unless you trust the author of that particular repository or you've vetted the code and found nothing suspicious. The thing is: In the case of your Chinese modders you have to trust them. In the case of GitHub trust is fine, but since the stuff is open source you can actually verify, provided you have the required knowledge.

 

A good starting point: How many developers/contributors does the project have? How active is the development? How many downloads does it have? Take a look at the open issues being reported, anything stand out?

 

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in this case it probably is... in the case of simple model ports from other games (of course without any permission whatsoever) I wouldn't call it that since the "source code" obviously was made by someone else, the original developer, the modder did just reverse engineering some stuff (with the help of 3DM usually). 

It's simply a technical term. If you create a file, you are its creator or author. GitLab has no way of knowing that you appropriated the file's contents from somewhere else.

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

It's simply a technical term. If you create a file, you are its creator or author. GitLab has no way of knowing that you appropriated the file's contents from somewhere else.

oh yeah sure that makes sense, it's just in the context of modding the 'authors' often claim copyright on their 'creations' which they technically just stole from some game engine... they're are also often sold for monetary gains, just something that really pisses me off that they say they 'own' and 'created' this even though they didn't actually create it, they just modified it. (*without permission of the copyright holder) 

 

And thanks for the explanation again, I understand it a little better now - so python by all means shouldn't affect anything on my pc? 

 

I mean there could always be some incompatibilities or something, I have every visual c run time under the sun installed for example, which is needed, for, you guessed it, mods.

 

And yeah while I don't know the modder I trust him insofar that the mod apparently works as advertised - I suppose it's altering memory, similar to cheat engine - which is always a little bit risky in terms of crashing etc, I guess, but generally harmless as whatever it does should stop having an effect once you close the game or the application.  

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

And thanks for the explanation again, I understand it a little better now - so python by all means shouldn't affect anything on my pc? 

Correct, provided this particular version of Python has no critical bugs, of course Like I said it's a bit like installing Java. As long as you don't run any Java apps it doesn't do anything other than occupy a bit of your disk. It might come with a background service checking for updates, but you can always disable it.

 

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I mean there could always be some incompatibilities or something, I have every visual c run time under the sun installed for example, which is needed, for, you guessed it, mods.

Right. Especially since it's an older version of Python. Based on the description, the modder's code apparently isn't compatible with newer versions. I suspect the code is doing something that technically should be possible in Python (e.g. raw memory access) and was actually fixed in newer versions.

 

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

And yeah while I don't know the modder I trust him insofar that the mod apparently works as advertised - I suppose it's altering memory, similar to cheat engine - which is always a little bit risky in terms of crashing etc, I guess, but generally harmless as whatever it does should stop having an effect once you close the game or the application. 

That would explain why he needs the Pywin32 library installed. I'm not really firm in Python, but in general I don't think you should be able to access the memory of other apps.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

That would explain why he needs the Pywin32 library installed. I'm not really firm in Python, but in general I don't think you should be able to access the memory of other apps.

Wait a minute... while that's what I thought as well, I now think I read it all wrong... I just looked at it again, it says it's needed for "running the sources"...  

I now think this is indeed a stand alone installer... that's what I get for not speaking c0d3r lang...

 

 

all I need (and already got) is "TekkenMovesetExtractor. zip"  most likely...! 

 

the python thing is for 

 

 

I don't needs this... well, hopefully! 

 

it's also really confusing because the thing isn't called what I need it for - even though it is technically an 'extractor' I need it for 'swapping' movesets... so this really should be called "moveset swap trainer" or something (imho) lol. 

(and nope I definitely didn't see this "not necessary" glancing over everything...) 

 

Oh well good thing I asked, I'll report back when I tried it and by all means I think it should just work with the movesetextractor. zip thing! 

[Mark Kaine]

Ok, update, it works... but is buggy... or I'm just not using it right... he says "before loading screen" which I tried, but it just crashes regardless... so it does work, but not constantly... no idea, seems weird it wouldn't tho (he also changed the button names around, "monitor" is now "set online local player"... that's great because I certainly do not want to use this online... -.-

 

 

 

works in training basically, then never again because the game simply crashes