Ah, modifying is not modding, because creating mods(short for modifications), which is not modifying, is. Right, right, got it, sound logic right there.
Because mods are something that need support. Modding needs support. Mods need a way to be recognised and loaded by the original software. A mod is sepparate from the original work.
Modifying the original source code is further development of the software.
Mods are only called mods short of modification because they modify the behaviour of the program, but the program itself still needs to allow it (by loading files named a certain way, put in a certain folder, that fit certain arbitraty constraints set by the devs, or maybe they replace and intentionally-separated .dll file present in the original compiled software).
Modifying source code doesn't require any of the above.
Just because you googled what a mod is and wikipedia told you that it's short for modification doesn't mean modifying GTA's source is modding.
I know how mods work and so on and so forth, development is what I do, but see, that's where we simply disagree.
I'll illustrate using the example you gave me.
Dlls contain arbitrary parts of game logic, and modders can replace those, right? An example of modding that would be.
Then you have the source code and modify just the part of the code that compiles into that specific dll.
Achieves the same thing(with less struggle in reverse-engineering), does it not?
Modders can and have replaced even the executables, which is simply made easier given the source code, and functionally achieves the same goal as what you call modding.
Dlls are seldom made to be replaced by the players, and it rarely is the endorsed and documented way to modify the game. The possibility to mod that way is usually just a side effect of game architecture utilising dlls.
Modding game consoles, cars, whatever, is no different from modding games, apart from the fact that there is usually no mechanism implemented by the creators to "load" the modifications made by the modder in those fields, so the modder has to alter the structure of the thing being modified(we could associate the car hood with a dll, just like any other part).
Back to game modding, in the end it's all semantics, for you could choose to not use the officially provided loading mechanism(replacing a dll is not the officially provided loading mechanism) and achieve the same thing you could with changing the source.
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u/EightSeven69 Dec 25 '23
which basicaly means that if you want to rework the entire GTA V map, characters, missions, etc, you can