Redundant questions about Updates while game loading

[New Horizons]

Sometimes when I start KSP I get messages about mods ready for a new update multiple times each. Is this a hint for something wrong in my install?

[BadModder54]

You might have multiple copies of a file called MiniAVC.dll, which is the update checker. Try going into your Gamedata, and searching for that file and then take out any copies, if there are actually more than 1. Otherwise, nothing could be really that wrong if the mods are not actually outdated.

[4x4cheesecake]

On 6/27/2019 at 11:32 PM, New Horizons said:

Sometimes when I start KSP I get messages about mods ready for a new update multiple times each. Is this a hint for something wrong in my install?

Probably just some kind of a technical hiccup but nothing to worry about.

MiniAVC is bundled in a lot of mods to do the version check but it is supposed to run a just once and every other copy of MiniAVC will disable itself (it will also not run if you install KSP-AVC).

If you are interested in the technical details:

Spoiler

MiniAVC will start immediately after game launch and the very first thing it does, is checking for other running instances:

if (alreadyRunning)
{
	Destroy(this);
	return;
}
alreadyRunning = true;

It's pretty straight forward and probably even readable if you don't know anything about coding

The next important step is a bit more complicated but don't worry, I'll tell you what happens there:

foreach (var rootPath in AssemblyLoader.loadedAssemblies.Where(a => a.name == "MiniAVC").Select(a => Path.GetDirectoryName(a.path)))
                {
                    var settings = AddonSettings.Load(rootPath);
                    threadSettings.Add(settings);
                    foreach (string versionFile in Directory.GetFiles(rootPath, "*.version", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
                    {
                        // Check whether we've already seen this file
                        AddonSettings prevSettings;
                        if (versionFileSettings.TryGetValue(versionFile, out prevSettings))
                        {
                            // Use the settings closest to the DLL (== longest path)
                            if (prevSettings.FileName.Length < settings.FileName.Length)
                            {
                                versionFileSettings[versionFile] = settings;
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            versionFileSettings.Add(versionFile, settings);
                        }
                    }
                }

Just concentrate on the code in the parenthesis of the "foreach" statements. In the first foreach loop, it will lookup the directory of every "MiniAVC.dll" and the second loop, it searches for a .version file in these folders and subfolders.

So basically: one MiniAVC will do the job for every other MiniAVC.

 

1 hour ago, BadModder54 said:

You might have multiple copies of a file called MiniAVC.dll, which is the update checker. Try going into your Gamedata, and searching for that file and then take out any copies, if there are actually more than 1. Otherwise, nothing could be really that wrong if the mods are not actually outdated.

Well, if you don't move the last remaining MiniAVC.dll to the GameData folder, this will remove the version check from every mod except the one which kept the last MiniAVC.

It's also possible to run just ZeroMiniAVC instead:

Anyway...if you are annoyed by the multiple popups, you have a few options:

1) Install full KSP-AVC (if you want to keep the version checker, slightly different but IMO better)

2) Do the thing suggested by @BadModder54 but move the last remaining MiniAVC.dll to your GameData folder (you have to take care of new MiniAVC copy everytime you install a mod though. This will keep the version check as well but you should get just a single popup)

3) Run ZeroMiniAVC or delete every MiniAVC.dll from your install to remove the version completely.

[New Horizons]

Thank you all for your help and explanation. Actually I found 16 files - deleted 15 of them.

It appears,  in my case execution of the first MiniAVC.dll does not stop the other ones. Maybe not that surprising in a GameData with 72 mod folders. I suspect, I might not get any warnings about new mod versions, but this is ok for a while, hence every mod is documented in Excel anyway.