I'm glad someone brought this up as the lack of a general format has been annoying me for a while. Especially how every single mod only calls their readme files as "Readme.txt" or "readme.txt". WIth most people running 100's of mods it gets really annoying when you have to manually rename a single text file. Here are my preferences:

1) Flat. So if its in a zip I can see the folder structure and what the mod has be it textures, meshes etc. As a modder I like to know these things. Sometimes I've downloaded a mod that sounded like it had some nice models in it but up inspection of the folder structure I have seen no meshes folder and thus anything in the mod would have been made from either vanilla meshes or another mods meshes.

2) In the Data FIles folder. This is becasue if you're in there you're generally looking for resources and you'll have to jump an extra level if their in the exe folder. Plus people should generally be kept out of the folder that the exe is in.

3) readme_modname.txt. Only because when you're browsing through a folder with a lot of files its good to group files as well as possible and if you're looking for a readme its easy just to hit the "r" key and get straight there. Plus sometimes modders don't call their call their mods by the same name through the mod. This has made it hard to find readmes sometimes.

4) "Readme etc". Only because I like how it flows. Just seems right.

Depends what you're using to do it with. Whatever you use, the first step is to put the textures in a subfolder.

If you're applying a texture with nifskope, either navigate to it as normal using the button in nifskope, or type it out as "Textures\MyDir\MyFile.dds" (ie you need the "Textures\" part as well).

If you're doing it with Blender/3ds max/probably other 3d apps, you just set the texture exactly as you normally would.

Other tools should have docs telling you how to use them. Usually it's very simple.

You can also mass-move textures and update nifs using TESRESPEC, but your original file path *and type* should be exactly right or it won't work for multiple files that use the same texture (if that happens though, you can copy the texture back and it will work the second time round - it will complain that the texture already exists but the nifs still get updated and you can delete the extra copy afterwards).

That's really news... you mean all you have to do is define it in nifskope?!? I have to wonder why people were going on about hex editing the path.... Sorry, if there are more questions, I guess we should start another thread, eh?

I hope to remember this thing right...
As the Textures folder is the standard initial path from which texture file are searched, you can use just the texture filename inside the .nif.
E. G. mytexture.tga

If you want to use a subfolder, you have to use the entire path, including the Textures part, E.G.
Textures\MyFolder\mytexture.tga
(don't ask me why).

As we modderes are lazy/want to squeeeze the last bit from .nifs ,this is probably the reason why not long ago I had a Texture folder so full to be able to hit the Windows 98 filesystem limit...

So speaking from a mod user point of view: to be able to move the textures in a subfolder, you have to change the relative .nif.
You can do it by hand with Nifskope for example, ore try some other tool, IIRC Mental Elf's http://www.mentalelfz.com/tesrespec.html is a promising one.

[Edit]too slow

That would be a very outdated tutorial... Way back in the dim dark ages we didn't have nifskope, or TESRESPEC, or even niftexture. So we had to hex-edit nifs. It was not fun, it sometimes just didn't work and the new filename (incl. path) had to be exactly the same character length as the original. Then some wonderful people like Dave Humphrey and MentalElf wrote some nifty new tools... and the rest, as they say, is history
/hijack (sorry!)

On topic (well, mostly): I didn't know Wrye Mash expected the readme to be in a docs folder (I always install by hand). I'll think about doing that next time. B)

Mash's Installer feature will actually put obvious readme docs into the Docs directory automatically.

I usually move my readme file into a special readme folder within my Datafiles folder - but I like for it to unpack to datafiles first so I can rename it if necessary (Way Too Many people still name readme files "readme" so I've lost a few that accidentally were overwritten.)

I completely agree with this. The textures directory for my heavily modded game is insanely huge. Of course, if you're simply releasing new textures only, you have to put them where the game expects to find the original textures. Otherwise, new stuff should definitely go in a unique subdirectory. That's what I've been doing.

Regarding readme files, I like to put them in Data Files / Docs. If I want to look at a readme for some reason later on after a mod has been installed, it's easy to find because all readme files are in one directory with no other files and if they're named "modname_readme.txt" then I can search quickly by modname. Of course, this requires that the modname be something obvious and rational (unfortunately, not always true!).

Regarding textures, I installed NifSkope for the single purpose of assigning my textures to a copied .nif file. I agree with melian and abot's descriptions of the path naming. I'm putting all of my new content in Debi subfolders in whichever folder they belong. This means almost no chance of conflict with other mods and it makes the folders less cluttered.

Style A is okay too, but the data files folder format allows me to merge my files as I unpack, and then check that it did so much easier. I could of course have a temp folder to unpack to like most, but there are some days where I just want to get it in the line up quickly so I can get to playing sooner. I rarely experice missing files when style B is used anyway, so I feel this is a friendly way of packing. If stlye C is used, I have no choice but to use the temp folder and if I am redoing my mods, that can really slow things down.



Overall, I like 3. It just makes more sense. And not just because of wyre mash. Style 1 and 2 add to clutter. Your so busy wading through docs that makes it more difficult to make sure you don't have a double ESP or ESM in your list. (say 2 different versions) However some people are too green to know better and name their readme as "readme" without a mod name. If they do that, then I prefer it in same area as the mod files so I can modify it easier before I move it to the proper folder.




As long as the readme is listed as such, is well written and lists the name of the mod in the file name I don't care.

Many thanks to the people who have so far taken the time to express which formats they like and why, especially with the detailed explanations.

It looks like Flat is pulling ahead of one- and two-level and modname_readme.txt and Readme are in the lead, but the three specified locations for the readme file are pretty much running neck-and-neck. I'm hoping more people will vote to see if we can get a clear winner. (Although, if Flat wins, then "At the same level as the Data Files folder" will have to be reinterpreted as "Inside the Data Files folder". So perhaps "At the top level" is the winner, and people can move the readme into a Docs directory manually, if desired.)

If you haven't voted yet, please do! Even four 'I do not care' votes is useful information.

Thanks all!

I prefer flat. No real preference on the others. I do hate it when the readme isn't a .txt file, though.

I voted for:
Flat
Data/docs
modname_Readme.txt

Which I find the most BAIN friendly version as http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1084204-bain-mod-installation-projects/ if I can. Any other variation of the first question would mean repackaging the mod in order to install it.

BAIN works just as well with Wrye Mash as Wry Bash.

Amen on that. What if I don't have the right program? And the biggest culprit is the web readme's. What if my net is down or their site went out? Also it's impossible to review your mods you archived when you keep having to wait for a tab to open. It's messy and prone to errors. Not to mention, I save my last session so I remember what I was doing last time I was online.. when the readme is a html, it means I have to wait for several tabs to finish, read the doc online (which usually is lacking for some reason) close my internet and clear my ram.. (low end system) All just because they didn't want to use a txt file.

Flat, Data Files/Docs; ModName_ReadMe; I don't understand last question so I voted for last option I don't care.

The fourth question is just about capitalization. I realize it doesn't mean much on a Windows machine as far as file naming goes, except for readability. Apparently most people don't care, so don't worry about it. I tend to capitalize words, as in "MyOwnMod_Readme.txt". (In this context, I think of 'readme" as one word. Well, there's nothing like consistent inconsistency (or possibly vice versa). )

Good discussion topic! For the record I voted for flat format. Does not make sense for me to have Data Files dir in the archive, all the files needed go into that dir anyway. Any extras can go into a special Extras dir.

I repackage all the mods I download to a Wrye Mash friendly format (if necessary). I see no reason to use the word Readme in a doc file, just the mod name will do. Plain text is fine for small mods. Larger mods can benefit from a HTML file - easier to read and navigate and Mash can display it as well.

Any graphics and sound files should go into a unique dir. (apart from replacers of course) - much neater that way and easier to do a manual uninstall, for those who don't like Mash.

I have to add, if the modder is kind enough to include screenshots, I'd prefer they be in a folder called 'Screenshots'.

I will also change my vote to the flat format. Those who have said it all goes into the Data Files folder anyway are right.

Personally, no matter how complicated the mod is, I think the readme with the *installation instructions* should *always* be in .txt format. When I first get a mod, it's so irritating when the readme opens my web browser, or worse, my completely oversized ram-hogging word processing program.

I prefer whatever BAIN is happy with - it appears that I prefer Flat, readmes inside Docs, modname.txt, lowercase. As for the readme format, I prefer to use Wyre's markdown format (and renders nicely as HTML in the Mash doc browser) and pasting the plain-text version into the download page.

Archive formats: 7zip, except for music - foobar2000 works better with Zip