Conversion is fairly straightforward. You can install the Loader "on top" of an existing SDT folder.
Your saved characters and your preferred options are
not actually stored in the SDT file folder. They're kept in
SOL storage on a different part of your disk. So you can perform this action without losing any of your information.
It isn't actually necessary to do this, of course. If you'd prefer to keep the SDT Loader in a separate folder then you're free to do so. The trick is that your saved-character definitions include filepath information (or alternatively: your vanilla SDT instance knows about non-standard mod folders). So you'll need to match these filepaths by
copying all of your vanilla SWF mods into the folder where you installed the SDT Loader. You'll also need to
configure the new copy of SDT so that it recognizes the subfolders where it should look for mods.
Your characters are saved within the
ChoIrrumatio.sol file, in the form of long strings which we call "character codes" or "charcodes". These charcodes can include a
swfmods parameter. When the game encounters this parameter, it will check each of the known subfolders and attempt to find each file that was included in the
swfmods list. The
"known subfolders" detail is important, because Flash applications are
not allowed to scan your local disk. Unless a Flash game has been told
exactly where to look, it will be unable to find (or load) the desired file.
You can see this list of subfoldders when you click the "Save Character" button. Near the middle of the screen is a section marked "Default Folders". Try doing this in the SDT Loader, then launch your old copy of the vanilla game and repeat the action. If there are any folders registered in the vanilla game but not registered in the Loader, then that's a potential source of trouble. You can easily fix the problem by
adding those folders to the Loader's list of known folders. Just click the "+" button and begin copy-pasting.
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If you've already performed the recommended fixes but your old SWF mods still aren't loading correctly, then we can investigate the problem more deeply. Please try to provide screenshots and a detailed description of what's going wrong (including, if possible, some of the filenames of the missing/misbehaving files such as
ThinBra.swf or whatever). I would also encourage you to run the game via the
Adobe Flash Player Projector content debugger instead of the standard Flash Player.
It's possible for the SDT game to encounter software errors during normal gameplay. Such errors become more likely as you begin to apply more advanced or invasive mods. These errors are normally hidden from you by Flash. Hence, you might not understand that a specific error has occured; you might only notice that a hairstyle is displayed incorrectly or that a costume fails to animate.
If you're using the content debugger application, then all such errors will be shown to you. This will obviously be very distracting and annoying when an error actually occurs because you'll get bombarded with computer jargon - but it means that you can share (with us) a lot of specific technical information about the error. Hence, it's much easier for us to accurately diagnose the problem and then fix it permanently.
Once the problem has been identified, you can switch back to the normal Flash Player application and use it for all of your normal gameplay.
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Alternatively, you could take advantage of the new platform. The Loader allows you to run more advanced mods, one of which is
moreclothing. The
moreclothing mod allows you to register all of your custom SWF files; it then injects them directly into the SDT in-game menus. So if you want to see a custom shirt then instead of browsing for a specific SWF file, you would simply click the ◄ ► selector buttons until the desired shirt appears.
You could also reorganize your saved characters into
Character Folders instead of mere charcodes. Character folders are described in the
Newbie Guide. They're somewhat time-consuming to setup, but they give you more precise control over the way in which your character is handled by the game. These folders can also include Loader mods, whereas the vanilla character-saving system works only with vanilla mods. A Character Folder can include mods for
both the female character and her male partner (
example), as well as miscellaneous mods which alter the game's UI (
example) or change the game's physics rules (
example). All of those mods can be loaded in a single operation, by clicking the appropriate entry in the character roster.
So it's useful to learn how Character Folders and morelothing work even if you
don't intend to tinker with any of your saved characters. By doing a bit of backend work, you can assign your favorite SWF mods to clickable in-game buttons. You can cut down significantly on the amount of time which you'll spend browsing for specific SWF files.
