Morrowind Mod Makers Bible - A new version. : III - Morrowind

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:22 pm

Actually, I personally prefer a manual. Printable, downloadable, and portable. Plus just being easy to update doesn't necessarily mean it WILL get updated. Way too many neglected wikis on the net.

ditto.... though a google document or something like it might be an idea....

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:26 am

Plus just being easy to update doesn't necessarily mean it WILL get updated.

So, whats the difference between the person in charge updating a wiki as opposed to a single document?

You can not base participation in this to make a decision on whether it will be a wiki or not. With a wiki, we can at least get an initial effort done and if people feel the need to update parts of it, they can. With a manual, you cant do that, you will have the initial effort, then have it sitting around until the people in charge decide to update it.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:59 pm

I'll throw my hat in with those who are opposed to wikis. There are many unfinished, unsupported, and non-maintained wikis around. The idea sounds fine, but the actual implementation is more difficult than it would seem. Wikis always fall victim to the attitude of "someone else will add that, so I won't."

Personally, I like the idea of making something that is downloadable. And organized and pieced out effort imo is best. I say we work up an entire chapter outline, and those who wish to contribute take one chapter or section and write it and submit it for addition to the entire thing.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:27 pm

well I've been working on the new guide and I've currently got this content list made up:

Contents:
? Introduction

? The Construction set
o What is the CS?
o Plugins
o CS layout
o CS Shortcuts
o Loading Morrowind
o Finding your way

? Creating your first mod
o Exterior and Interior
o Building your first room
o Adding detail
o Linking to the outside
o Saving your mod

? Polishing your mod
o Testing
o GMST’s and Dirty references
o Cleaning your mod
o Packaging your mod

? NPC’s
o What are NPC’s?
o How to add a new NPC to the game
o Adding new items to an NPC

? Dialogue

? Path Grids

? Creatures
o What are creatures?
o Adding a creature to the game world
o Creature Behaviour
o Level and Stats
o Levelled lists

Now the content list is by no way finished! Theres alot more that needs to go in. BUT the current content list that I have made I am using as a guide. I will not be expanding or adding etc... untill I have done everything on that list!

Theres so much more that needs to go in from race creation and birthsigns, to re-skinning armor and making icons!

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:52 pm

Looking great MA! If there's anything I can help with, just holler.

KF

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:19 pm

Morrowind Mod Makers Bible
Version 2

Contents:
? Introduction

? The Construction set
o What is the CS?
o Plugins
o Contents of a mod
o Installing a mod
o CS layout
o CS Shortcuts
o Loading Morrowind
o Finding your way

? Creating your first mod
o Exterior and Interior
o Building your first room
o Adding detail
o Linking to the outside
o Saving your mod

? Polishing your mod
o Testing
o GMST’s and Dirty references
o Cleaning your mod
o Packaging your mod

? NPC’s
o What are NPC’s?
o How to add a new NPC to the game
o Adding new items to an NPC

? Dialogue

? Path Grids

? Creatures
o What are creatures?
o Adding a creature to the game world
o Creature Behaviour
o Level and Stats
o Levelled lists

?

What Is the Construction Set?

The TES: Construction Set (CS) is the game editor that shipped with the game The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind. The editor is the same one as the developers at Bethesda used to produce almost all of the game's content. The CS can edit almost all aspects of the game excluding 3D object creation, allowing users to create “plug-ins” for the game which can essentially be used to add limitless possibilities to the game.

Simple plug-ins from new loot and dungeons to complex quests and news lands can all be created in the CS without the need for addition resources and third party programmes – though there is a wealth of those out there too!
Every copy of Morrowind comes with a copy of the CS (usually on the same disc!) and there is no download required – if you own a copy of Morrowind, chances are you own the CS files too.

The editor can be intimidating and complex to the first time user, even if they have some experience with modding other games. The aim of this document is to help new users understand and master the basics of the CS and what it means to mod Morrowind.
NOTE: If you downloaded the game from steam you will NOT have the CS or access to it. The steam version of Morrowind does not come with a copy of the CS.

Plug-in’s

Morrowind uses a plugin format which allows users to create and add new “mods” for Morrowind which essentially “plug-in”. Plug-in are more commonly known as mods (modifications) which alter/add to the world of Morrowind.
Plug-in will always be dependent upon Morrowind (and/or Tribunal and Bloodmoon if you have the expansions). The game and its expansions are considered the master files which contain all of the files and data needed to run the game – the same data that the plug-in’s use.

The only time that a plug-in won’t require the Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon master files is when the plug-in itself is not using any of this data – for example total conversions (TC’s) or if the actual mod uses no esp – like a texture replacer.
Dont worry, this may seem like a confusing mess but the more you use and familiarise yourself with mods and plug-ins the more you will come to understand them.

So whats the difference between a mod and a plug-in? The plug-in is the file itself (the esp –ElderScrolls Plug-in) that contains the actual game data that you’ve modified while a mod contains the plug-in and any additional content such as new meshes, textures, icons, sounds that are all packaged together.

However, a mod can also refer to a modification to the game and in this sense it refers to a plug-in. In this sense, over the years, the terms "mod" and "plug-in" have become interchangeable and its more common for the term mod to be used when referring to any new content for Morrowind – just in case you weren’t confused enough

The contents of a Mod

So now you know what a plug-in/mod is, it is important to understand what a “mod” as a whole cant contain. With the flexibility of the CS it is possible to add in new meshes (meshes are the statics – the items, creatures, buildings, weapons etc... in the game that you see when you play the game), new textures and icons.

As such you will find that many mods contain more than just the plugin itself. Here is a basic format of what you can expect from a typical mod:

? Meshes
? Textures
? Icons
? The Plug-in
? Readme

The meshes, textures and icons will all be contained within their own sub-folders named after their purpose respectively (Meshes folder ?meshes etc...). The plug-in isn’t normally in a separate folder and most mods come standard with a readme.

NOTE: A readme is the documentation that tells you what the mod is, what it modifies, any problems that might be known, permissions on the usage of the mod and its content as well as contact information for the author. We will go into more detail about readmes in a later chapter.

A final thing worth pointing out is that all the contents of a mod will be placed in a data files folder – again to make using and installing a little easier and straight forward. All of this is then compressed usually as a Zip, Rar, Ace or 7zip format to make the files smaller and easier to download.

So here is a breakdown of the folder directory of a mod:

? Datafiles
o Meshes
? Contains all the meshes for the plug-in
o Textures
? Contains all the textures for the plug-in

o Icons
? Contains all the Icons for the plug-in
o Plug-in
o Readme

NOTE: Some mod creators (let’s call them modders from now on) have sub-folders within their directory which separate the meshes and textures further – for example armour meshes could be found in the meshes folder in a sub-folder titled “A” and the textures for that armour could be found in a likewise folder in the textures directory.

I highly recommend that you download a mod or two, any mod and have a look at how they are packaged to get an idea what exactly a mod is made up off.

Installing a mod

Shamelessly taken from the official forums FAQ on what mods are and how to use them, I have included here a guide to installing mods. You may be asking why you are telling me how to install a mod when I just want to make one!

The answer is simple – to get the lay of the land, so to speak. You want to make a mod then you need to know where to install all the extra resources you may use or create. You’d also need to know how your mod is going to packaged (see above) and installed by other users – having a greater knowledge of what mods are and how they are used will help you to become a more confident modder (not only with your own mods but within using other mods and resources).

This will mean that you can find things on the fly without trolling through everything! For example let’s say you’ve recently downloaded a mod that had an awesome sword model that you want to use in your own mod but now you have no idea how to install that mod – which means that when you’ve finished your mod and uploaded it you are going to have one of two things happen:

1) You’ve not included the mesh
2) You’ve included the mesh but it’s in the wrong folder/location

These two things can seriously cause problems for those that use your mod and they most likely wont use it again and possibly avoid any future creations from you.

The installation part:

So you’ve downloaded your mod, which has been compressed into a zip file and you need access to it. The following guide (shamelessly stolen from the official forum FAQ) will talk you through how to unzip your mod and install it.

UNZIPPING TO A TEMPORARY DIRECTORY (FOLDER)

Double click on your downloaded mod file. The program should open it, displaying the files inside. Depending on which mod you are unzipping, it should have an .esp file (looks like a swiss army knife), a "Meshes" folder, an Icons folder (if the mod adds items that can be picked up), a "Textures" folder, and lastly a README file. Sometimes mods will have all their files placed into mock directory folders, like so:

Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind\Data Files

this is for automatically unzipping the files in to Data Files, which I NEVER do. You're bound to come across a mod that will not unzip correctly and you'll have loose files cluttering up your folders. This is a MANUAL installation guide after all, so back to it:

Select ALL the files by highlighting them. Then select the program's "extract" feature and a new window should come up asking WHERE to unzip it to. You will now need to pick a folder to be a temporary folder, I choose "My Documents"...

Unzip the files to the temporary folder. Then open that folder and open any folders the mod was inside. You should see these folders:

"mod file".esp
Meshes
Textures
"mod file README".txt (or any text filetype)

POSSIBLY you will have these folders:

Icons
Sounds
Music
Splash
Book Art

Icons being the most frequent addition.

All you do for the mod's .esp file is copy it to the "Data Files" folder in your game. Now the other stuff....

MESHES

Now, look inside the mod's Meshes folder...

Are there more folders inside? Alot of mods will have other "subfolders" that contain the mods meshes, and are for the purpose of being easy to locate for troubleshooting or for uninstalling with ease.

Most mods have something like a letter, "A" or "W"" or the modder's name...I use "LOCH" for my meshes. Some mods do not do this and place their meshes loose in the 'Meshes" folder, which is all you have to do in that case.

Now take these "subfolders" and move them to the meshes folder.

*DO NOT take the game files out of the "subfolders" as they are indexed by the game engine as being in THAT FOLDER*

So if you have an "A" folder, place THAT folder into your "Meshes" folder. If you already have an "A" folder, THEN you must open the mod's "A" Folder and copy the files into the existing "A" folder already in your game's files. In short:

Meshes/A ----> Meshes

UNLESS you already have an "A" folder, then:

files inside Meshes/A ----> Meshes/A

Repeat this for all mesh "subfolders" from the mod.

ICONS

Do EXACTLY the same procedure as in the previous step (meshes) for icons.

TEXTURES

There are two ways this could go:

1 - the textures are loose in the mod's texture folder...easy. All you do is copy them all to the Textures folder in your game. You're done.

2 - "Subfolder" textures is the other way some modders set up their mods. THIS way has a "subfolder" inside the textures folder. You should copy that "subfolder" and paste it into the textures folder, much like you did for meshes and icons.

OTHER TYPES OF FILES

Most sound and music files need to be placed into the same name folder in your game where they are in the downloaded mod files. All other files are basically the same as the meshes, except splash screens, which are placed loosely in the "Splash Screens" folder.

PLAYING IT

All you do now is open Morrowind and check the new mod so that it is "x'ed" and start the game. If you did everything correctly, you should have no problems with your newly-installed mod. You're done...

Now that you have a greater understanding of what the CS is, how it uses mods, what mods are , how they are packaged and how to install them you should be ready to take the leap into the CS itself. Go ahead -Open the CS.

argh, copy and pasting a word doc on the forums - messes everything up lol

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:51 am

The dialog section could be expanded on in the table of contents. I'll see if I can dig up my tutorial and give you some ideas for headings. But the basic ideas are How does Morrowind handle dialog; How is it entered, cleaned, etc. I'll get you a better list later.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:05 pm

The dialog section could be expanded on in the table of contents. I'll see if I can dig up my tutorial and give you some ideas for headings. But the basic ideas are How does Morrowind handle dialog; How is it entered, cleaned, etc. I'll get you a better list later.

ohh thanks Jac

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:26 am

Any updates on progress here?

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:36 pm

Makes me wonder if either of my programs will be mentioned. NIF Texture Stripper can be added with adding meshes to mods, since we all know what it's like using absolute paths...

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:27 am

ohh thanks Jac

Sorry, I had forgotten all about this. Are you still working on it?

Pinkertonius, did Cyrano ever get back to you?

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:41 am

I would love something like this. Lately I've been using the CS more and I've found that the help file that came with it isn't very good. As a result I've spent ridiculous amounts of time trying to figure out how to do something. Recently I had a project that required I make a copy of an existing cell. For those of you who have been modding for a while, I'm sure that is no big deal, but I didn't know how one went about it. I couldn't find the procedure in the help file and spent a great deal of time searching these forums for information on how to copy a cell. It was a rather long search to find a simple answer to an equally simple question.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:10 pm

Sorry, I had forgotten all about this. Are you still working on it?

Pinkertonius, did Cyrano ever get back to you?

Looks like you're not the only one to forget something...I forgot to contact him (got sidelined with the SOD thing and another mod).

I did post this for Era Scarecrow about the workings of dialogue. It doesn't cover how to make dialogue but more the technical aspects. If any of it's useful or can complement Jac's tutorial feel free to use it.

Spoiler

First, a comprehensive anolysis of how Dialogue works: (alot of this is going into my guide I started in my PMR-Sea of Destiny readme)
I hope this mostly makes sense. If anyone has contrary or supplemental information, please let me know.

Dialogue Structure

Dialogue is organized into "topics" and each topic has it's own unique dialogue chain of responses for that topic.
Dialogue within a given topic is linked with a Next ID and a Prev ID (these are what need changes to relink dialogue)
The first entry doesn't have a PrevID and the last entry doesn't have a Next ID (naturally).
Greetings, Persuasions, and Voices are really just fancy "topics" and work in the same way as if they were an ordinary topic (filtering etc).

Filtering

The game engines read from the top each dialogue entry in that topic until if finds one that meets the current conditions (i.e. filtered for X, possess X item, variable z=x etc)
Each dialogue entry can be filtered by many different options. This prevents the result from showing up unless certain condition are met
Improper order in filtering can "break" topics lower in the chain (e.g. dialogue filtered for everyone above all others will prevent any other dialogue entries from ever appearing)
The best filtering should be from the most restrictive to the least
- Filtered for one person with multiple conditional statements, or a very specific "unique" conditions should be near the top since they will only appear on rare occasions
- Filtered for factions, and other bigger groups should come after the more specific ones, that way they don't override a specific persions unique dialogue
- Filtered for everyone (or nearly everyone) should be at the bottom of the chain

Hyperlinking

For each NPC, any topics that are filtered for them will be highlight in blue and "hyperlinked" in any dialogue they say.
"Hyperlinking" will correctly find combinations of words. If there are two topics that overlap ( i.e. RAT and RAT BURGER), the engine will find the longer one first.
Topics won't show until the PC "knows" them, will is usually done by simply including the word in the greeting, rumors, or advice text.
While you can select to "hyperlink" dialogue in the Construction Set (CS), the game engine will do it automatically provided the dialogue is linked and filtered in a proper manner
It was once believed that if two mods alter the same (or similar topic), the second would break the first mods topic. Based on my research (multiple mods with criss crossing dialogue), this isn't true. All of the dialogue worked correctly and hyperlinked as expected. Each person had only his/her own dialogue. It is my belief that these "broken" topics are actually just a result of bad filtering or conflicting filtered dialogue entries between the two mods.

Pitfalls

To have clean dialogue (many of these won't apply to Smartmerger since you're looking to relink the entire topic)
- If using the "copy" command to make a new dialogue entry, a modder should make sure to only alter the new "copied" entry. So that the original keeps its original ID number. Prevents issues with new mods that affect the same topic.
- For the same reason, no mod should alter the first or last entry in an existing topic. Especially greeting 1 since it will break the associated quest.
- New entries should be place at a minimum second entry down (so as not to overide the first entry that has no Prev ID) and no farther than second to last entry (which has no Prev ID).
- The engine doesn't like multiple entries in a topic not having a Prev ID or Next ID and it can't properly link the dialogue chain (similar to the problems Smartmerger was having)
- a mod actually needs to have the previous (non-mod) entry and the next non-mod entry. This is to preserve the linking for that mod (otherwise you get those errors the the CS gives for Tribunal).
- all new entries should be place at minimum second entry down (so as not to overide the first entry that has no Prev ID) and no farther than second to last entry. This causes a problem when more mods edit the same topic's dialogue.
If the above conditions are met, the engine seems to be able to relink dialogue from multiple mods. As long as their are multiple missing Prev ID or Next IDs.
If the modder "preserved" the ID numbers of included original dialogue, this would reduce broken original dialogue.
Improperly filtered dialogue or dialogue placed too early in the chain could permantly override entries lower down the chain.
Same applies if a modder places its own dialogue (or moves original dialogue) too low in the chain. It may itself be overriden.
If two mods alter the same dialogue chain and filter with the same conditions (i.e. for the same NPC or faction), the newer will appear above the older and override it.

How to clean a single mod manually

Individual mod cleaning

A mod can be cleaned enough to minimize incapatability and mitigate some of the problems above.

When cleaning an individual mod, you can disregard all new "unique" topics that have their own dialogue train (since it can't break anything but itself ...if it's written poorly).
For each modified "original" topic:
- Check if the topic has altered the first or last entry (look for the "*" entry that indicates new, changed, or moved dialogue).
- If so, "move" the first "original" dialogue line back up to the top of the dialogue chain and/or "move" the last "original" dialogue entry back down to the bottom. To move a dialogue entry, highlight it and then press left arrow (for up) and the right arrow (for down).
- Now to get rid of the "original" dialogue that didn't get changed and fix the sequence numbers back to the original sequence. The only "original" dialogue entries that will be in the mod are any right before and right after so it'll link correctly.
- Hightlight and delete EVERY original dialogue entry (press delete). Once you have marked all original dialogue as "Deleted", save the mod.
- Click Data File, click on the mod (and set to "active") but don't load it. Click DETAILS. This will bring up a list of every record in the mod.
- Hightlight every dialogue entry marked as "D" and press DELETE. (You can Ctrl click for multiple selection). This will mark those entries as "I" for Ignore.
- Now Load the mod then immediately save it. All the dialogue is still there but now not modified and with it's original ID numbers.
Capping dialogue
- Reload the mod. CS will list a bunch of "Strings don't match" warnings because now the CS doesn't see a working dialogue chain for the new entries ( Prev ID and/or Next ID doesn't point to existing dialogue.
- To put them back in line, each new dialogue entry (or block of new dialogue entries) needs to be "capped" off with an "original" entry.
- This is done by moving the new dialogue up then right back down. Then move it down and right back up. Now the "original" dialogue entries before and after have been altered to list the new dialogue as part of the chain.
- (If it's a block of new dialogue, move the first one up and down. Then move the last one down and then back up.)
- Save...and done.
It was once believed that to clean dialogue, one must remove ALL original dialogue. But by "capping" the dialogue with original entries, the engine can intergrate the new dialogue more accurately. Some older "clean" mods stripped all original dialogue out.
- Fix by following the steps for "Capping dialogue"
Check to see that each entry is filtered properly. Most narrowly filtered entries near the top (i.e. a single person) and the most broadly filtered entries near the bottom. Move as necessary.

Much of it was gleaned from forums (thanks to Emma, Jog and others), personal experimentation, and anolysis. It isn't a cure-all. It can't tell when one mod "filters" a dialogue in a way that will override another. But I believe broken dialogue can be greatly reduce with this method. Unfortunately it's bulky and the CS is daunting enough without having to dive into "dialogue" editing. Nevermind that the average mod user probably has at least 20-30 mods and many have 100's (thanks to merging).

SUGGESTED METHODS FOR SMARTMERGER

Method 1: MOD by MOD
This would be an "automated" version of the manual cleaning method (which is why it's included) that Smartmerger (SM) could do on each mod before it merges them. That way there are less chance of conflict and less [-1] breaks in Smartmerger relinking.

This applies for every modified "original" topic. Basically making each mods dialogue as "safe" as possible before (or during) the merge process so that it will be less likely to break anything.
Smartmerger would have to make sure that "original" dialogue maintains it's original ID number and if a new entry "hijacked" a dialogues ID number (by using copy but then editing the original dialogue and leaving the "copy"), it would need to reassign that entry a new ID #.
If a mod, changes any "original" dialogue that is the First or Last link in the chain, SM would need to restore the orginal Prev ID or Next ID to it's original state.
Lastly, it would need to generate a new Prev ID and Next IDs for any modified dialogue.

Now I think this method would be tricky without referencing the originating ESMs (assuming those aren't being merged too). To get the proper links and ID numbers, the program would need to look back at the masters ESMs and possibly include entries from them too ( to "cap" the dialogue entries).

Method 2: WHOLE CHAIN (I believe this is the best method)
The main idea of this method would be to include the entire dialogue chain from any topic that is in the mods to be merged. This method presumes that the master files aren't being merged too. If so then, every topic would be included anyways.

This method would need to reference ESM files
If a mod has a dialogue that alters an "original" topics dialogue chain from an ESM, Smartmerger would need to "include" that entire dialogue chain in the new mod. That way it will completely override the topic.
It still would be ideal to make sure that all "original" ID numbers are retained and that the top and last link aren't changed. Just for those inevitable "do not merge" mods that will be out there.

Method 3: THE FULL MONTY
This is simply including all dialogue in the merge. All ESM dialogue and all mod dialogue whether a mod changes it or not. I don't see this as a valid method.

Optional functions (but very handy functions):

Check all IDs to make sure that none overwrite another. Although not likely due to the length of the numbers.
Check for empty dialogue entries, again not common but possible.
Check for dialogue (within the same chain) that has the same filter. The only way to "fix" this automatically would be to either "force" a filter on one or add "Rand" condition on both so that there's a percentage change it would be selected.
Enforce a priority sorting method. Automatically make narrowly filtered tops at the top and widely filtered topic near the bottom.
- Possible filter priotrity list could be:
  - a single person with additional conditions
  - a single person
  - a faction with conditions
  - a faction
  - a cell with conditions
  - a cell
  - a race
  - a race with condtions
  - a trade
  - trade with condtions
  - and so on...getting broader and broader

I'll try and remember to contact Cyrano and ask him about it when I get a chance (hopefully).

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:17 am

I'm in favour of setting up a Wiki somewhere or even on UESP if that's possible. I think Wikis are good as they don't especially rely on any one person to grow. I do admit that MWs playerbase might be too small for this to be a very effective method, but I think it's worth trying.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:46 pm

I'm in favour of setting up a Wiki somewhere or even on UESP if that's possible. I think Wikis are good as they don't especially rely on any one person to grow. I do admit that MWs playerbase might be too small for this to be a very effective method, but I think it's worth trying.

I would definitely go along with this, I think this would be the best way to go about it.

How could we go about setting up a Wiki?

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:14 am

Just a few things I noticed (not trying to be a jerk, just trying to be as correct as possible :grad: ):

Simple plug-ins from new loot and dungeons to complex quests and news lands can all be created in the CS without the need for additional (was "addition") resources and third party programmes – though there is a wealth of those out there too!
Every copy of Morrowind comes with a copy of the CS (usually on the same disc!) and there is no download required – if you own a copy of Morrowind, chances are you own the CS files too.

The editor can be intimidating and complex to the first time user, even if they have some experience with modding other games. The aim of this document is to help new users understand and master the basics of the CS and what it means to mod Morrowind.
NOTE: If you downloaded the game from Steam (capital 's') you will NOT have the CS or access to it. The steam version of Morrowind does not come with a copy of the CS.
(I would maybe put this just after "Every copy of Morrowind comes with a copy of the CS", i.e. "(except those bought digitally from Steam)")

Plug-ins (no apostrophe)

Morrowind uses a plug-in (hyphen added) format which allows users to create and add new “mods” for Morrowind which essentially “plug-in”. Plug-ins (was missing an 's') are more commonly known as mods (modifications) which alter/add to the world of Morrowind.
Plug-ins and again will always be dependent upon Morrowind (and/or Tribunal and Bloodmoon if you have the expansions). The game and its expansions are considered the master files which contain all of the files and data needed to run the game – the same data that the plug-ins (no apostrophe) use.

So whats the difference between a mod and a plug-in? The plug-in is the file itself (the esp – Elder Scrolls Plug-in (some spaces added)) that contains the actual game data that you’ve modified while a mod contains the plug-in and any additional content such as new meshes, textures, icons, sounds that are all packaged together.

That's all for now, it was taking too long to do all the formatting :lol:

(But if this was on a Wiki, I could just edit it myself

)

Anyway, I think a universal document or resource would be really valuable; a lot of exisiting tutorials and guides are rather out-of-date or scattered around. I was just thinking the other day how MWSFD is in dire need of an update, and how I've found lots of things to add to it...

Personally I'm a fan of wikis; no need to download and trawl through a whole file, well-organised information, editable by anyone and therefore (ideally) always up-to-date without needing to download new editions.

Either way, I'd love to get involved.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:44 am

well the thing is guys the document along with alot of other valuble work, resources and other items is all gone. I have neither the willpower nor the time to redo it all. YOu may have all noticed I have not been very active on the forums this last month or so simply because of the fact I lost all of my modding work apart from a handful of mods that I had on a USB pen. My laptop and my external drive were completly wiped (funny story - they got wiped when I was backing up the data on my laptop; moving it to my external hard drive. Whatever happened it caused hte information on the ex hard drive to be wiped and the stuff that was suposed to be copied over never made it and ended up being wipped on from my laptop.)

anyway - if anyone wants to pick this up feel free. The only documentation I have from this project is the little bit that I posted on the forum.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:02 pm

I think these would be worth pulling into any hypothetical update:
http://www.designamatic.com/MW-Home.html
http://mwmodders.com/scriptingnotes.html

[Edit: Oops, missed your post Midgetalien. Complete bummer

]

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:09 am

[Edit: Oops, missed your post Midgetalien. Complete bummer

]

I know!

The whole point of the ex hard drive was to prevent something like this happening. I lost everything - including all my music which I really miss

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:10 am

hmy: Sorry to hear that Midgetalien :sad:

that's a real bummer.

[edit] I think we really need to bring something together though. I don't know too much about modding Morrowind (I know my way around the CS, but not scripting or modelling and such), and I've been trying to learn but all of the resources are so scattered and a lot of them are out of date it's just difficult. I think if we tried to put a wiki together it could also prove to be very beneficial in the learning process so we can research tutorial sites and learn and then post what we learned on the wiki (citing the sources of course).

I found an open source wiki called http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki, but I think you need to have hosting space to use it. Now I do have hosting space, I would just need to register a new domain for it, which I would be fine with doing if there are enough people who actually want to do this. So if anybody is interested an knows more about this please let me know.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:29 pm

:ohmy: Sorry to hear that Midgetalien :sad:

that's a real bummer.

heh, its quite funny really - I was on skype at the time tlaking to some other modders when I noticed it happening lol.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:30 pm

Well, I've just started a http://morrowindmodding.wikia.com at wikia.com

Can't really edit anything yet because I have to go to work, but if anybody wants to start any pages or just mess around with it go ahead.

» Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:16 pm

Here's the simple (and naive) How To Guide I wrote for my second mod, in case anyone finds any of the info useful:

Spoiler

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. Tools and References
4. Detailed Instructions
4.1 Creating and Placing an Object
4.2 Formatting Book / Scroll Contents
4.3 Creating Graphics
4.4 Testing the Plugin
4.5 Cleaning the Plugin
4.6 Finalizing for Release

1. Introduction

The purpose of this How To Guide is to share what I've learned about making this plugin. It was rather an adventure figuring out how to make some things work. In fact, I was tempted to call this document "How I Did It" by Victor Frankenstein because that's kind of how I feel, having assembled this plugin from various parts without knowing if what I was doing was going to work. But it did, and now my creation lives!

Most of this guide is aimed at neophytes; however, someone with experience may find the Creating Graphics section interesting as it explains some details about how to get graphical objects to display properly on a scroll.

2. Overview

My goal in making this plugin was to create a graphically interesting menu for Arrille's Tradehouse that could be used by the player as a reference for things alchemical, while staying within the lore of The Elder Scrolls. In order to accomplish this I had to do such things as create a new object, create graphical images that I could apply to it, place the object in a useful location in the game world, create a new textured ground mesh, create a new inventory icon, test the plugin, write documentation, and set up a directory structure and installation process that's easy to use.

3. Tools and References

I used the following tools and references while working on this plugin:

* The Elder Scrolls Construction Set (TES CS) (included with the boxed game)
* http://www.gimp.org/
* http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope
* The Elder Scrolls Advanced Mod Editor (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=other.detail&id=53)
* http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27588
* http://www.mwmythicmods.com/
* http://www.uesp.net/

4. Detailed Instructions

4.1 Creating and Placing an Object

The first thing I did was use TES CS to create and place a scroll object. Here is a step-by-step guide you can follow to do something similar:

Run TES CS.
Either click on the Open Folder button or select File > Data Files. (Look in the upper left of the main window.)
Double-click on the box next to Morrowind.esm so that an X appears and press OK.
Click on the Book tab in the Object Window.
Find a book or scroll that has an icon that you like. Double-click it and the Book / Scroll window will open.
Change the ID field to a unique ID meaningful to you (e.g. dd_bk_todays_menu) and click the Save button. It is recommended that you use a unique prefix meaningful to you so that you can easily find the objects you've created and also so that your objects are less likely to conflict with objects from someone else's plugin.
When it asks if you want to create a new object, click Yes.
Find your new object in the Book list and double-click it to edit it.
Change the Name field to the name that you want the game to display when the player looks at the object. (e.g. Arrille's Tradehouse Menu)
Change the Weight and Value if you like. I made the weight 0.10 since it's a lightweight scroll and I'm expecting players to carry the menu around and I don't want it to weigh them down. I made the value 0 because it's intended for use, not for sale. (And why would anyone want to buy a menu?)
If the book or scroll is supposed to teach a skill, you can select one from the Teaches drop-down box. In the case of this plugin, I didn't think it was appropriate to have the menu teach Alchemy since you don't learn what any of the foods actually do. All you know is that they don't have any negative effects when you eat them.
The .NIF file is the ground mesh (what you see when you put the object down). After eventually creating a new ground mesh, I clicked on this button to provide the new path to it.
The .tga file is the icon (what you see when the object is in your inventory). The picture is showing the icon. After eventually creating a new icon, I clicked on this button to provide the new path to it.
Check Scroll for a scroll; uncheck it for a book. (I don't know what effect this has.)
Enter your new text in the Book Text box. If you have a lot of text to enter, you may want to type it all into a word processing program first and run a spelling checker on it before copying it into the Book Text box.
When you're finished making changes, click the Save button.
To place your new object in the game world, scroll through the Cell View window's Cell Name list until you find the cell where you want to put it. Double-click the name of the cell and wait until the 3D view is rendered in the Render Window.
In the Render Window, navigate to where you want to put the object then click and drag your new object from the Book tab in the Object Window and drop it somewhere near its destination in the Render Window. Fiddle around with it until it looks OK. (If you don't know how to manipulate the Render Window, this would be a good time to stop and go do a few tutorials before continuing here.)
Click the diskette button (main window upper left) or select File > Save to save the plugin. DO NOT FORGET to do this. Give your plugin a meaningful name. This will create an .esp file in your Morrowind\Data Files folder.
Exit TES CS.
If you need to work on your plugin again, run TES CS, click on the Open Folder button, scroll around until you find your plugin, double-click the box next to it so that an X appears, click on the Set as Active File button, and then click OK. Make changes and SAVE.

4.2 Formatting Book / Scroll Contents

The Morrowind engine understands a limited subset of HTML. The best way to get a feel for what's available is to look at the contents of various books and scrolls. Following are some examples that I found.

* You can cause a line break by using:

* You can set text formatting by using

and commands. Here are some examples:

The ALIGN value can be LEFT, CENTER, or RIGHT.
The COLOR value is a hex value representing RGB which allows you to change the color of the text.
The FACE value sets the FONT typeface.

Blah, blah, blah

I think the SIZE value adjusts the size of the font, though I didn't really see much, if any, difference among 2, 3, and 4.

* You can include a graphical image by using the command:

4.3 Creating Graphics

First of all, it is important to note that both the width and height pixel values of a graphical object to be loaded into Morrowind must be a power of 2. (i.e. 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.)

For scrolls, there's no need to make an image any wider than 512 pixels. Scrolls can display only around 377 pixels in width. I made an image 512 x 1024 with a graphics display area around 370 pixels wide centered in the 512 width.

I used Gimp to create two 512 x 1024 images with an alpha channel for transparency. (I think of them as the 'front' and 'back' of the menu even though they show up as one continuous page in the scroll.) The typeface I chose was Verona Script, which I found on www.dafont.com. I used letter sizes from 18 to 34 pixels. Most of the icons were grabbed from UESP Wiki, except for the Nord, Khajiit, and mudcrab images which I made from screenshots of objects in TES CS. When I finished creating the images, I saved them as .tga files exported to produce merged images. (I kept the original images in multiple layers in an .xcf file.) When prompted, I unchecked "RLE compression" and "Origin at bottom left". I then moved my two new images into the Morrowind\Data Files\BookArt folder under a subfolder called Debi.

Next, I made a menu texture for the ground mesh. I copied Tx_Parchment_02.tga from the TES CS CD, renamed it to dd_Menu_Arrille.tga, and loaded it into Gimp. I also loaded the first menu image (ArrillesTradehousemanu01.tga), resized it to 64 x 128, then copied it over to the new menu texture. I changed the background color to make it look like beige paper, gave it a border, and saved it as dd_Menu_Arrille.tga in Morrowind\Data Files\Textures\Debi.

NOTE: Some file names are not allowed to be longer than 32 characters.

In order to make the new menu texture appear on the ground mesh, I copied Text_Parchment_02.nif from the TES CS CD, renamed it to dd_Menu_Arrille.nif, and loaded it into NifSkope. Since this was the first time that I was running NifSkope, it was necessary to set up the Texture Search Path so that the paths to my new meshes and textures would be stored as relative to the Morrowind\Data Files folder no matter where it might be installed. There's a detailed description at:
http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Setting_the_Texture_Search_Path

I then followed the instructions at http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Change_texture to make my new ground mesh point to my new ground texture in Textures\Debi. I saved the file as dd_Menu_Arrille.nif and put it in Morrowind\Data Files\Meshes\Debi.

And finally, I created an inventory icon. First I ran TES CS, placed a copy of the menu in an empty space in a random interior, arranged a view I liked, and took a screen shot. Then I loaded the screenshot into Gimp (File > Acquire > Paste as New), cropped it, got rid of the background color so that the background would be transparent, and resized it so that its longest side was 32 pixels. I opened a new image file with an icon size of 32 x 32 with transparency and copied the resized image into it. I then saved the new icon image as dd_menu_arrille_icon.tga and put it in Icons\Debi.

As a final note, in general, it's a good idea to put your original meshes, textures, etc. for your original objects into a personally identifiable subfolder in the appropriate Morrowind folder to make it easier to find your stuff among other plugins' objects and also to generally avoid conflicts.

4.4 Testing the Plugin

I can't stress testing enough. It's no fun to be in the middle of playing someone's plugin and all of a sudden seeing missing meshes or textures or running into a game-stopping problem.

To test a new plugin, you need to enable it. This can be done using the Morrowind Launcher. Simply run it, select Data Files, then find the plugin and double-click it to make an X appear. Enabling a plugin can also be done with other third-party tools. I like and use Wrye Mash, as its basic functionality is simple to use and it's a lot easier to navigate in than the Morrowind Launcher.

I tested this plugin with a vanilla copy of Morrowind while I was iterating on the implementation. I then tested three scenarios that I expect users of the previous version of this plugin would run into with saved games. These scenarios are:

- Game saved without having entered Arrille's Tradehouse
- Game saved after entering Arrille's Tradehouse but without taking the menu
- Game saved with the menu in inventory

I also installed the final plugin into a directory where I have a heavily modded game in progress (over 250 plugins) to see if there were any obvious conflicts.

By the way, when I was testing the v1.3 changes, I noticed that the menu on the table was facing away from the player, so I had to edit the .esp file to rotate the menu to where I liked the way it looked. This is something important to pay attention to when placing objects in the game world.

4.5 Cleaning the Plugin

Once everything was working properly I checked the plugin to make sure that it was clean; i.e., did not contain any unwanted changes. If Tribunal or Bloodmoon is installed, a new plugin will probably be "dirty". Generally, this means the .esp file contains some number of unwanted GMST records which need to be deleted.

There are various tools that can be used to clean an .esp file. I used TESAME to manually delete the unwanted entries. TESAME can also be used to edit the header in the .esp file, where you can enter the author's name and a short description of the plugin. This is good to do because the Morrowind Launcher will display this info in the Data Files list. Also some tools, like Wrye Mash, will display some of this info about each plugin.

4.6 Finalizing for Release

To create the final product, it is essential to write at least a simple README file that explains something about what the plugin does and gives details on how to install and remove it. After writing the README and the How To Guide, I created a clean directory and copied all the plugin-related files into it.

There are a couple of standard ways to organize the files.

* In-the-Data-Files-Folder-based - This is where you set up the file structure as if the installer has the Morrowind\Data Files folder already open. This is the generally preferred method.

* In-the-Morrowind-Folder-based - This is where you set up the file structure as if the installer has the Morrowind folder already open. This means that the top-level folder in your plug-in is "Data Files" and all of your files are inside it.

Finally, I compressed the entire folder into an archive file using 7-Zip. One of the common formats -- .zip, .7z, or .rar -- should be used since pretty much anyone can unpack one of these formats.

Et voila! I uploaded the plugin and shared it with the world.

GPMG: Posts: 3507; Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:55 am