Just getting into VCV and found a couple of great patches I d like to see/play with. However I do not see an easy way to get the modules in other peoples patches. There is no “auto download” modules? nor can you copy from the error screen to search for the modules that are missing. Seems like this portion of the app needs some TLC unless you all know something i do not? please help.
If you’re on Linux or Mac (or have access to a decent Linux shell) you can use the following one-liner to get an alphabetized list of all the modules and plugins used by the patch:
tar -O -I zstd -xf xyz.vcv './patch.json' | jq '.modules[] | "\(.plugin): \(.model)"' | sort -u
(replace “xyz.vcv” with the patch file name)
You’ll need to install zstd and jq for this to work. Both utilities are readily available on Linux and can be installed via Homebrew on a Mac.
And if you’re on Windows, then I guess you should move to Linux 
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Lol. Sure, but that should work fine in a windows bash env, yes?
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They should if you’ve got tar, zstd jq and sort in your emulated environment (those are not internal bash commands).
Well, sure, but that pretty easy.
The dumb but works solution now is to just download all available modules in the library.
Some modules are paid and some are not in the library, so auto-downloading still can’t solve this 100%. However, being able to copy the error messages is indeed a real UX improvement.
I use Window subsystem for Linux for shell script, though msys64 that rack uses for builds has everything you need too
WSL is pretty nice. The networking is a little funky, doesn’t work very well on the VPN to work.
There’s always chowdsp’s Credit module, that “Creates a text file that credits all the modules used in your patch”.
It’s meant to be used by the creator of the patch who, presumably, has all the modules, and may post the text file in the forum, or as part a youtube description, or whatever.
What I’m not sure of is whether or not it will still list a module if it’s not in your library,
[a few minutes later…] Nope. I just tried to open a patch that I knew was missing a Vult Compacts’ (a premium plugin) “Freak” filter module. I opened it without Freaks anyway, added Credit, and the text file it generated has no mention of the missing Freak module.
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For Windows users I’d recommend using MSYS2 and use the included pacman package manager to install missing packages like zstd and jq. But yeah, if you then get your teeth wet and want to seriously play with *NIX utilities (and why wouldn’t you) then definately WSL is the way to go.
I think the problem is that we have not a “library view” in the rack ,so , auto download is not possible
would be nice have utility capable to make the process described by @netboy3 , …someone?
It simply should be an option on the library-website. Upload a patch, get a list of all modules and plugins in the patch and the option to subscribe to all. Even better: Integrate a Patch-/Selection-Library into the website, with automatic subscription to modules in the patch/selection, compatibility-check with VCV-Version, a filter for paid plugins (“show only patches with modules I own”) and upload/download from within VCV.
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So I through together this little website that shows you all the modules you are missing for a particular patch: https://vcvtools.glitch.me/
If anyone is interested in the code for the website you can see it here Glitch :･ﾟ✧ and it is free to use or remix.
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Awesome! Double-Awesome!
Edit: @LarsBjerregaard - I think Andrews Tool is a good candidate for your Sticky-Thread?
Edit2: Nvm, I just saw that Andrew made a separate thread for it. We should sticky that.
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The WSL instance has it’s own IP address distinct from the IP of the Windows host. That can confuse VPNs. Also means that you can get hosed up with trying to run XWindows program where you’re running a Windows X server on the same machine. But there’s a way to make that work (google WSL2 XWindows).
Other than that it seems to do all the regular networking stuff OK in my experience.
that sounds like it. I was trying to use it for work, it was ultimately too much trouble, since all the work dev servers are on the corporate network.
I’ve had good luck doing VCV stuff in msys2, and I like the pacman package manager better than brew. But at work I need to do a lot node.js stuff, and node.js on windows just doesn’t cut it. Almost everyone (including me) uses macs for work.
Very nice, well done!
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Can you do this with one-click, or do you have to go through each of the 2,000+ modules and do it manually?
Downloading with one click, but you have to select the ones you want one by one.
You can subscribe to every plugin (see VCV Library - Plugins) and update/download all of them in Rack. Not totally one-click but you don’t need to select 2000+ modules one by one.
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