Yesterday I found myself grumbling about how difficult it was to find existing modding utilities and code libraries, so that I could see what was already out there and avoid reinventing the wheel, so today I decided to do something about that and write a list of everything I could find.

My https://github.com/WrinklyNinja/es-modding-tools repository on GitHub is the result: it's very much a WIP, and will only succeed if it becomes widely known/updated/referenced, so I'm creating this thread to get the word out and to explain its purpose.

The list is intended to list anything that we as a community create that involves code outside of the Creation Kit. It's organised into sections to make it easier for readers to find what they're looking for.

• It's not a list of mods or modder's resources


• It is a list of libraries, applications, scripts, script extender plugins, etc.


• Though I'm posting this in the Skyrim Mods forum, it's not a Skyrim-only list: anything for modding Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, NV or 4 can go into it.


• Things listed in it can be open or closed source, and at any stage of completion.

Besides fleshing out the list, I also plan to:

• Indicate which entries are open-source (because they can also be useful to developers trying to extend existing capabilities).


• Indicate which entries in each section are "best in class" at what they do, if applicable: for example, there are quite a lot of BSA utilities, but BSAOpt is the obvious choice. Where there isn't a clear choice, I'd like to provide a bit of info on each's strengths and weaknesses.


• Split the list sections up some more to separate different functionality out.

There are still many utilities not listed: I've searched for "bsa" and "ba2" on GitHub, and I had a look at what was listed on UESP, but the Nexus in particular hosts many utilities.

Help and contributions are very welcome!

If you've got a GitHub account, you can fork the repository and make pull requests with your changes. If you don't have a GitHub account, you can post suggestions in this thread. More importantly though, spread the word! GitHub users can star the repository, and everyone can share it with anyone they think might find it useful, or has a utility to go on the list.

neat list, might come in handy at times.

i just seem to miss pretty much everything i ever use in it (except for xedit)

...which would be:

fallout 3 archive utility (which i used for all bsa unpacking up to skyrim)

niftools (1000% essential in my book)

nif plugins for photoshop by nvidia (also available for a couple other programs iirc)

unfuzer (fuz file packer/unpacker)

and not sure if you do that list for public use or just yourself,

but if public: what would really be useful for me would be non-nexus links.

i (and plenty other folk i know) am banned there (for trying to have my user name changed for my part), and they kind of monopolize modding, some of the tools (i don't mean their own) are really hard to come by otherwise

If it was meant for my own personal use I wouldn't bother creating a forum thread to announce it.

You mentioned a few utilities that aren't on the list yet: what would be really useful for me would be links to them.