Where do the m&b games using the old engine read module names from?

[RecursiveHarmony]

I was using module folder names as mod names. After i downloaded some mods from steam, i've seen that steam stores mods in folders names with some sort of unique mod ids (like "299974223" for TLD mod). I tried reading "module_name" properties in module ini files, but some of these are just "Calradia" and games seem to properly name mods even if those folder names and module name properties are not correct. Where do these games read module names from exactly?

 

[SupaNinjaMan]

So inside the Warband/Modules/ folder, you are correct, it does read folder name to determine the module name.

However, inside the /workshop/content/48700/ folder it seems to be stored by Steam via their workshop ids,
Inside /workshop/ you can find a file named appworkshop_48700.acf where Steam keeps track of what you are subscribed to, and it's data like last updated, last time played and it's manifest name. Inside the folder Steam/depotcache/ you can find items with filenames starting with 48700_***.manifest which is where the earlier manifest number inside appworkshop_48700 points to and tracks what files are inside their depots, with a sort of compression applied. Based on this article here https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/builds I suspect the name of the mod is stored here inside the manifest files and steamworks integration in the engine handles reading it to determine the name. Unfortunately, the manifest doesn't seem to store the mod name in plain text, if it does indeed store the module name.

I'm not a developer who has worked with Steamworks, so this is only speculation, but I suspect this is how the workshop does it. To test it I made a duplicate of Gekokujo and named it with Light and Darkness - Specials Steam workshop id. Light and Darkness now shows Gekokujo's preview image. Interestingly, even though there is no longer a folder with the Gekokujo workshop id, it still appears on my list, just without a preview image. Trying to boot it causes a crash. So clearly the depot knows it should be there, but it cannot find it.

Adding a non workshop mod to that folder will not allow it to show up in the modules list, and workshop mods not already listed inside the appworkshop_48700.acf also fail to show.

 

[RecursiveHarmony]

So inside the Warband/Modules/ folder, you are correct, it does read folder name to determine the module name.

Changed the native module's name to be sure and it changed the name in the launcher.
Rest of your post also seems true. I guess i'm gonna keep the records manually or try to read those files.
Thanks for the help.