Best Mod Cleaner?

Post » Tue May 08, 2012 1:26 am

Last time I had an install I belive I messed things up pretty bad by not cleaning/not cleaning with a proper program my mods.

So far from what I've gathered, Escog, Enchanted Editor and TESTool are the big three. It would be very helpful if some of the community here could weigh in on which is the most effecient if it's not too much of a bother.

I'm trying to do things right this time, so I'm going slow and steady, cleaning and checking everything I put in.
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Hope Greenhaw
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 10:58 pm

I've always used TESAME, but I have never really bothered to try anything else to be able to tell you if there is a better alternative.
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Nathan Barker
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 7:19 am

And you've never had any issues with it?
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Prohibited
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 9:32 am

Never.
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Ann Church
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 8:05 pm

Wait, do you mean you clean every mod you download? Or mods that you make? I was under the impression that mod makers themselves are supposed to do the cleaning, and too much cleaning can break features.. is that wrong?
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lauraa
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 11:09 pm

Wait, do you mean you clean every mod you download? Or mods that you make? I was under the impression that mod makers themselves are supposed to do the cleaning, and too much cleaning can break features.. is that wrong?

Not every modder does clean their mods.
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Shelby McDonald
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 10:12 pm

Goes without saying, but is the user supposed to take the initiative to clean EVERY mod despite possible consequences/breakage?
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tiffany Royal
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 6:55 pm

I've always heard it is a good practice to clean every ESP you get, unless the readme says explicitly to not do so.
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roxxii lenaghan
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 10:45 pm

I think both ends should clean the best they can. Not every modder knows how to clean, so does not every player, or end user. and I agree with what piinyouri said.
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April
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 11:54 pm

Oh, ok. Come to think of it, Oblivion is similar, with TES4edit. But with Oblivion you have BOSS to tell you exactly what needs cleaning, and there's links to a tutorial on how to clean special things like Battlehorn Castle Reborn. I need someone to hold my hand and Morrowind has no such thing and it's scary. :D Guess that's what this forum is for. muahaha
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Schel[Anne]FTL
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 5:18 am

Mlox here is also good, only its database isn't as big as BOSS' yet.

TES4Edit has some advantages that MW tools don't have. First, there are automated processes or removing entries identical to master and undelete'n'disable, second, it loads masters (and any other file) too so you can see how entry was changed in each file and what was changed exactly in its column.

So I wonder again, would it be possible to port it for Morrowind?

Other then that, I've used Enchanted Editor and TESAME. I prefer EE, TESAME shows me some gibberish instead of regular characters but works fine for cleaning.
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Charlie Ramsden
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 11:55 pm

Oh, ok. Come to think of it, Oblivion is similar, with TES4edit. But with Oblivion you have BOSS to tell you exactly what needs cleaning, and there's links to a tutorial on how to clean special things like Battlehorn Castle Reborn. I need someone to hold my hand and Morrowind has no such thing and it's scary. :biggrin: Guess that's what this forum is for. muahaha


It is quite simple;
remove GMSTs <- very important
remove all object entries, which are not custom (all vanilla data is in the .esms)
do NOT remove textures or added cells
keep any custom named entry (that is why it is helpful if a modder adds prefixes with his/her edits)
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Bek Rideout
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 11:19 am

It is quite simple;
remove GMSTs <- very important

"Bad" GMSTs. Not GMSTs. They're like cholesterol: there's good, and there's bad. ;)
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Ashley Campos
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 9:13 pm

If your cleaning your own mod before release, you will know what items you changed and what ones shouldn't be there. As for other people's mods, the duplicate/default entries are a little more difficult.

SmartMerger can be helpful in those cases. Using --reference it will remove all default entries (Including GMST's) that it finds. If you load all the masters it may take a little bit. I may end up with an option to help alleviate that problem.
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Soku Nyorah
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 12:38 am

"Bad" GMSTs. Not GMSTs. They're like cholesterol: there's good, and there's bad. :wink:
There are also good GMSTs that are only bad if they have a specific value :)
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Andrew
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 7:59 am

Last time I had an install I belive I messed things up pretty bad by not cleaning/not cleaning with a proper program my mods.

So far from what I've gathered, Escog, Enchanted Editor and TESTool are the big three. It would be very helpful if some of the community here could weigh in on which is the most effecient if it's not too much of a bother.

I'm trying to do things right this time, so I'm going slow and steady, cleaning and checking everything I put in.
http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd clean --replace --hide-backups "modname.esp"

After cleaning with tes3cmd.exe, better clean a few things tes3cmd may skip (usually starting/ending dialog entries in double-linked dialog lists which can be reconstructed on the fly by Morrowind engine, and some other junk cells created by TESCS) using TESTool.

Be sure to have testool.exe in your Morrowind directory, and confirm if it asks to use your Morrowind.ini settings instead of registry setting. Then go to the Options panel and set these options ON: "Don't change plugin filenames", "Retain file name when cleaning"
Keep everything else OFF.

Now choose the "Clean ESP/ESM (save results in Clean subfolder)" option. This way you will modify just a copy of the mod, but you will be able to open and study the generated all-important Morrowind\TESTool.log, and decide if you want these changes.

To be absolutely safe even with not perfectly clean dialog mods, keep also "Restricted dialog cleaning" ON. If you are sure your mod is not changing original topic infos, you can keep it OFF.

To be absolutely safe even with rare mods using empty interior cells as garbage storage, keep also "Restricted cell cleaning" ON (you will possibly miss some junk cell cleaning though).
Now choose the option "Clean ESP/ESM" to clean your mod for good.
What I usually do and suggest is just to add any static to the empty garbage storage cell, so TESTool will avoid cleaning it even with "Restricted cell cleaning" OFF.

Note: for all this to work as intended, you obviously have to use TESTool Execute button, NOT the JUST FIX IT! one, else all our carefully chosen TESTool settings will be bypassed using potentially dangerous default instead.
[EDIT]quoting
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Anna Kyselova
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 10:16 pm

I've always heard it is a good practice to clean every ESP you get, unless the readme says explicitly to not do so.

If ain't broken, don't try to fix it, is a well known saying and that goes up for this too.
If the mod is already cleaned it doesn't need to be cleaned again. Most of the time the readme and the information on the downloadpage (like PES) state if it is cleaned and in alot of cases it is cleaned.
Offcourse there can be some oversight sometimes, by leaving things behind which causes strange behaviour in the game (like getting 500 gold in every clamshell)
Too much cleaning could cause you're missing parts then and the mod doesn't work. So only clean when necessary, otherwise not.
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Far'ed K.G.h.m
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 11:56 pm

To be absolutely safe even with rare mods using empty interior cells as garbage storage, keep also "Restricted cell cleaning" ON (you will possibly miss some junk cell cleaning though).
Now choose the option "Clean ESP/ESM" to clean your mod for good.
What I usually do and suggest is just to add any static to the empty garbage storage cell, so TESTool will avoid cleaning it even with "Restricted cell cleaning" OFF.

Sorry if its an obvious answer, but what is the best way to tell if there are any empty garbage storage cells in the mod? I've always just had the "restricted cell cleaning" option on but would like to uncheck it following your advice here.
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Spencey!
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 12:33 am

Sorry if its an obvious answer, but what is the best way to tell if there are any empty garbage storage cells in the mod? I've always just had the "restricted cell cleaning" option on but would like to uncheck it following your advice here.
Disable the "restricted cell cleaning" option, and use "Clean ESP/ESM (save results in Clean subfolder)" option so original mods are untouched while you are testing/generating TESTool report.
Then study the generated Morrowind\TESTool.log for all your loaded mods. Look for deleted cell strings.

e.g. deleted interior cell, could be better verify
CELL Heleran Ancestral Tomb
deleted AMBI
deleted FRMR 484303, chest_tomb_large00
deleted CELL Heleran Ancestral Tomb ; empty cell

e.g. exterior cell, no problem
deleted CELL -19 15 ; empty cell

If no deleted empty interior cell is reported, it should be ok to clean with "restricted cell cleaning" OFF.
If some deleted empty interior cell is reported, take note of the mod name, then verify if that cell name is referenced by any mod scripts (you can use File\Edit\Find Text from the Construction set, or Edit\Find Text from MWEdit, or use Windows search or any other file search tool to look for cellname inside mod scripts source).
If you find no script references to that interior cell name, it should be safe to delete.
If you find that the empty cell is referenced from some script (should be very very rare, usually cells used as garbage rooms contain static already so are skipped by TESTool) you can set "restricted cell cleaning" ON for that mod or make the mod TESTool-proof adding any static to the cell.
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Fam Mughal
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 6:24 am

Many thanks abot! Excellent advice as always.

If ain't broken, don't try to fix it, is a well known saying and that goes up for this too.
If the mod is already cleaned it doesn't need to be cleaned again. Most of the time the readme and the information on the downloadpage (like PES) state if it is cleaned and in alot of cases it is cleaned.
Offcourse there can be some oversight sometimes, by leaving things behind which causes strange behaviour in the game (like getting 500 gold in every clamshell)
Too much cleaning could cause you're missing parts then and the mod doesn't work. So only clean when necessary, otherwise not.
Problem is just as you hinted at -- many mods labeled as clean by the modder aren't actually clean in the fullest sense and you won't really know until you go through proper cleaning yourself. This is probably due to the fact that "clean" can have different meaning for individual modders, as some aren't aware of all the ways it can get dirty in the first place. If you clean along the lines of abot's advice you are unlikely to break any mod in the process. Since the time I've started doing so, I'm convinced that checking each one is the way to go, with a huge difference in stability compared to previous builds; especially if you have a large mod build with 100-200+ mods, as it just compounds the possibility of a dirty mod causing problems.
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Sudah mati ini Keparat
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 1:13 am

Some advice BEFORE you start:
  • ALWAYS keep an original copy of the mod you are about to clean. Either keep the original archive or back up the .esp/.esm .
  • Clean mods BEFORE saving them in your game and test each one after cleaning.

Batch cleaning all your mods after you've started a game can cause many problems. It may be hours of gamplay before you realize you've changed something that shouldn't be changed and then you may not remember what was done or which mod is messed up.

If you *must* clean mods after you've been playing with them in your game, be sure to use the "Lock Times" feature in Wryemash to preserve your load order. Sometimes cleaners will alter the creation date of files and thus, load order.


Always remember that a modder is responsible for making their mod playable and documenting possible problems. Even good modders may release a dirty mod, or, occasionally, dirty references are intended and the player has to decide whether to keep the mod or not. If you've been playing and saving, be conservative when you clean. If you're starting a new game or putting in a new mod, as long as you back it up or keep the archive, you can't screw anything up.
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Nicole Elocin
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 9:53 am

http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd clean --replace --hide-backups "modname.esp"

[EDIT]quoting

Just to say I've always found it useful to run tes3cmd from a batch file with:

clean --replace --hide-backups "modname.esp"
Pause

With this you have an opportunity to see what tes3cmd has actually done.

jc
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Mike Plumley
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 9:31 pm

clean --replace --hide-backups "modname.esp"
Pause
Ah yes, I have a similar one as tes3cmd_clean.bat
tes3cmd.exe clean --replace --hide-backups %1 > out.txtout.txt
to clean passed file, log to out.txt and open it
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Micah Judaeah
 
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Post » Tue May 08, 2012 2:34 am

I would avoid Enchanted Editor, it corrupts my data a lot. I stick to TESAME and TESDTK, but I am fairly old-school in my approach to modding.
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April D. F
 
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Post » Mon May 07, 2012 8:13 pm

I am biased toward http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd. Its pretty thorough and safe cleaning wise. I use a bat file and can drag and drop my esp/esm right onto the bat file and it cleans and puts it right back where it came from (http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1184424-q-cleaning-mods-with-tespcd/page__hl__tes3cmd). An added bonus is that allows me to clean the file while it's still in my "archive" folder. It also creates a log file with the name of the plugin so I can see what the changes are (also put right back where ever the plugin was dragged from). BTW ...shout out to RMWCHAOS for taking a small idea and making it epic.

I don't do much else for cleaning. The problem is that the TESCK is buggy. It changes all kinds of things it shouldn't. Even if the mod maker didn't change something (but clicked on it accidentally) it might still put that in the plugin thus a dirty edit. This is really evident with dirty cells. My experience is that even mods that claim to be clean still miss things (AMBI, Dirty Cells etc) because of this problem (unless they used a tool to clean it). The only type I watch out for are the ones that purposely use "dirty edits". Those I either don't clean or do manually (with the help of http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3lint).

That's just how I do it. As you can see every one has their own "method to the madness". Just pick what works best for you and your level of skill.
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Nims
 
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