Error in songbook installation guide (Windows 10)
Yesterday I purchased a Lute of Ages from the bard at the Prancing Pony, and started messing with the game's Music Mode. Unsurprisingly I soon decided I needed the songbook plugin, found links to it in this forum, and went off to install it. And this is when I discovered that there is a minor issue with the installation instructions for the plugin, at least if you're like me and installing on Windows 10.
The instructions on Playing and making music in LOTRO: A short guide are to:
Go to the “Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online” folder
Make a folder called “Plugins”
Unzip the contents of the SongbookBB file there.
Following these directions leaves you with the following file path for the plugin: C:\Users\\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Plugins\songbookbb-v094\ChiranBB\SongbookBB
This does not work - the game can't see the plugin in this location.
What did work was to extract the contents of songbookbb-v094.zip to any location where it's easy to find.
Then locate the folder songbookbb-v094 and open it, and highlight the single folder you find there, ChiranBB.
Copy the folder ChiranBB into the folder Plugins in the game folder, and you'll end up with this path to the plugin: C:\Users\\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Plugins\ChiranBB\SongbookBB
...and this works, because this is a path the game can use, which means now the plugin can be loaded.
I spent far too much time pulling my hair out yesterday trying to figure out why the game kept telling me there were no plugins to load, when I knew for a fact I had followed the instructions as they were written. Since there's a good chance this might happen to others as well, I thought I'd try to save these others some time and stress by sharing what eventually made it work for me.
*jumps up and down, waves wildly*
I had this exact same problem, years ago!
We're (mostly others) slowly putting together a more definitive guide to how to go about playing music, well, more than that, but all a work in progress. This was one of the things I mentioned that needed to be addressed. When you look back at it, it seems like a super easy fix and no big deal, but the first time you encounter it, it's a pain in the butt because there's nothing that tells you exactly what to do, step by step.
Brandy Badgers version gives you the v094 zip with both the ChiranBB and Simbo folders in it, but the unzipping process creates the v094 folder instead of just the Chiran and Simbo ones, and you have to move the Chiran and Simbo folders out of the v094 folder, because Songbook doesn't recognize the v094 folder as a pathway. Seems simple, but like you, I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out.
This is very helpful, Khaz! I've copied the content of your post over to the "Tip of the Week" thread and given you the Tipster award here on the website.
Yeah cause LOTRO reads the folder the plugin is made in, not the zip folder, ChiranBB is the creator while songbookBB-v094 is zip folder, all plugins are downloaded this way and sometimes can be confusing.
Brandy Badgers version gives you the v094 zip with both the ChiranBB and Simbo folders in it, but the unzipping process creates the v094 folder instead of just the Chiran and Simbo ones, and you have to move the Chiran and Simbo folders out of the v094 folder, because Songbook doesn't recognize the v094 folder as a pathway. Seems simple, but like you, I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out.
I only saw the ChiranBB folder, not the Simbo folder. Should I be worried?
I only saw the ChiranBB folder, not the Simbo folder. Should I be worried?
Not at all cause Simbo folder is for the Poetical plugin, no need to worry, while ChiranBB folder is for songbookBB
Aha, that makes sense. Thanks!
Now I just need to figure out how to organize my .abc files in a way that works, while appeasing my inner geek's obsession with clean file names.
Good luck with that! I've re-arranged my songbook half a dozen times now, in different ways. I just reached over 1k songs, and it's gonna need an entire overhaul again. I started with separate folders for decades, then split into genres, then both, then into separate band folders, then you realize that a band has songs in 4 different decades, or two different genres...
I have no idea how someone like Kenghis organizes his 30k songs.