TESRESPEC V2.05 10/06/2005
A Morrowind "Modder" Utility

by MentalElf (Barney Blankenship)
Email: blankensb001@hawaii.rr.com
Web: http://mentalelfz.com
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Use someone else's stuff in your mod? Want to make it unique
to your mod? You should if you include it in your install!
Got a bunch of textures in the "Textures" directory swamp?
Want them in a subdirectory with the corresponding NIFs
updated to use them?

This rename enmasse tool also updates NIF texture
references and ESM/ESP files with the name changes.

As a primary feature, all files renamed / modified are
copied into a save area "Restore Data Files" PRIOR to any
renaming or modification, so that if you are unhappy with
the results of the rename, you can simply copy the save area
to your Morrowind "Data Files" area and *poof* the files are
back the way they were (note: extra files will exist
however, the output of the rename operation).

STRONG WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
THIS TOOL IS FOR ADVANCED MODDERS.
RENAME ONE FILE FIRST, CHECK OUT WHAT HAPPENS,
THEN TRY RENAMING MORE...

WHAT ON EARTH INSPIRED ME TO DO THIS? Well... namely,
"KingOfGaeadra" did. It was his idea, blame him!
Heh. Actually what he suggested made a lot of sense, as my
testing with TESFILES revealed major problems with mod
"sharing" between Silgrad Tower and The Undergound, both of
which share better heads, cait's farm, blademaster's
weapons, among other stuff. TESRESPEC can help fix those
problems!

Say you have a bunch of NIFs in a subdirectory
"Meshes/Ronin", and you want all their textures to go into
"Textures/Ronin", without having to hex edit all the NIF
files. Or really do anything resembling work. Click "GET
FILES", the file selection dialog will start in "Data
Files", so click "Meshes", and select all the NIFs you wish
to fix (in "Ronin"). Now click OK, all the NIFs you
selected come up in the file list window with all associated
textures they reference. Now type in "Ronin" into the
"PREFIX DIR". Click "RENAME ALL", verify the settings, and
click YES. *POOF* all those NIFs are in "Meshes/Ronin"
and their referenced textures are in "Textures/Ronin", and
the NIFs are all updated to reference textures in
Textures/Ronin. In just a few minutes you can do all
this.

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User Interface
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The "GET FILES" button. Use this to select one or more
files to add to the displayed "rename file list" window.
While the file open dialog is up, use shift to select a
continuous range of files, and control to select or deselect
a single file (adding or deselecting a single file from
those selected). Note that you can only select files from a
single directory at a time using this interface, so if you
wish to bulk rename a number of different areas such as
NIFs, Icons, and Sounds, you will need to click the "GET
FILES" and select files for each directory area. Note that
when a NIF is selected with "GET FILES" it's corresponding
texture references are brought up as well, indicated by
"^^^TextureName.dds" following the owning NIF, for example.
Note that NIF texture references are automatically pulled
in, BUT... you must remember on some (animated) NIF models
there exists a "xModelName.kf" and "xModelName.nif" that you
must select using "GET FILES", if you wish the model rename
to be complete.

The "RENAME FILE LIST" window. During file selection this
is a list of all files to operate on. If you accidently
select a file more than once it will still be listed only
once in the list. Note that the full pathname of files is
not shown, the pathname that is shown is relative to your
Morrowind "Data Files" area, indicated with a "~" (tilde).
So...

"C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Morrowind/Data Files/Meshes/SomeModel.NIF"

Would be shown as...

"~/Meshes/SomeModel.NIF"

During "RENAME ALL" this window shows rename operations,
again, using the "~" (tilde) to represent the Morrowind
"Data Files" area.

The "SELECT MORROWIND MODS TO UPDATE" window. This window
shows the ESM/ESP in your current Morrowind area with
a "[ ]" box for selecting (left click to select, a "[X]"
indicates the ESM/ESP is selected for update). If you
select one or more mods here, they will be scanned to
see if any of the files in the "RENAME FILE LIST" window
need to have their reference changed. If so, all
references to that file will be updated to point to the
newly renamed file, writing the ESM/ESP.

The "PREFIX DIR" entry box. This is an optional folder name
you can specify if you wish the renamed files to go "deeper
down" into another folder(s). Note that you don't have to
put in the slashes... "Subfolder" works as well as
"Subfolder/" or even "/Subfolder/". If you want to go
really deep (more than one folder deeper) then separate the
folders with a slash... "Subfolder/DeeperSubfolder". Spaces
before or after the text are discarded. Spaces between the
text is retained, however. For example " Timmys Folder "
will produce a folder with the name "Timmys Folder".

The "PREFIX TEXT" entry box. This text is for changing the
name of files with a new prefix. The text you enter here is
added to the beginning of each file name renamed. For
example specifying "Goober" would result in all files
renamed starting with "Goober", in other words,
"MyModel.nif" would become "GooberMyModel.nif". Again,
spaces before or after the text are discarded, but spaces
between text are retained.

The "TRIM LEFT" number. This value is a number of
characters cut off the file name left before the prefix is
added. To be used for example in the case of deciding to
change a series of files that all start with "Je_" like
"Je_SomeModel.nif" to another prefix, without the "Je_". In
this case, "TRIM LEFT" would be set to 3 characters, to cut
off the starting "Je_" of all the files.

The NIF "Prefix Dir", "Prefix" and "Trim Left" are separate
controls to be used to control NIF output separate from
all other file types. Other than that they work as above.

The "NO NIF EDIT" checkbox. If this checkbox is checked,
then NIF contents texture references will NOT be renamed,
NOR will the NIF be "edited" to update it's texture
references.

The "CLEAR ALL" button. This resets the "rename file list"
to nothing, along with clearing settings to default (empty,
zero, unchecked). In way you can remove all selections...
resetting the entire list to empty. If you wish to only
remove a single entry or series of entries beginning with
a NIF, use "LEFT MOUSE BUTTON" on the desired entry.

The "RENAME ALL" button. This brings up a yes/no dialog
asking you to verify your settings for the rename. If "no"
is selected indicating the settings are not right, the
dialog disappears and nothing happens. If "yes" is selected
then the rename operation commences, processing all files in
the "rename file list" with the current settings. Note that
while this operation is ongoing you will not be able to
change settings. The output of this operation goes to the
"rename file list" window as well as to a file in the
TESRESPEC directory "date+time.Data Files Restore/TESRESPEC_log.txt".
In addition, TESRESPEC makes a "save image" of all files renamed
in the subdirectory "date+time.Restore Data Files". The contents
of this folder is relative to your Morrowind "Data Files" area,
for example it may have a "Meshes" folder in it, as well as
"Textures" folder, etc.

The "EXPLORER" button. This brings up Window's explorer
with either the directory TESRESPEC was installed in,
or the last subdirectory it wrote output to.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:
1) Left click on the list to remove a single item from it. This
is a good idea when you want to exclude any NIF textures for example
that are system textures or otherwise 'not yours' textures.
2) "Prefix Dir" can be multiple directories, like "MElf/Tolarn".
3) When "Prefix Dir" is applied, it replaces all subdirectories
for the object... "Textures/Who/Dat/Texture.dds" With "prefix dir"
"me" specified will become "Textures/me/Texture.dds".
4) An error indicating a name is too long for morrowind MUST
be fixed before you can expect the mod to work in morrowind.
5) A warning indicating the ESM/ESP must have "recompile all"
performed on it will also be a problem till the required
"recompile all" is performed. Open the ESM/ESP in the construction
set, select menu "Gameplay" "Edit Scripts..." and then click
the red floppy disk icon "Recompile All".

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LASTLY... recovering from a botched rename operation:
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1) Copy the contents of the "Restore Data Files" folder to
your "Data Files" folder.

2) Locate the renamed files (you may need to look at the log
to determine their location and names) and delete them.

3) Run Morrowind and check that things are OK.

4) Delete the "Restore Data Files" folder if you wish.

5) Repeat the attempted rename operation with correct
settings, etc.