Difference between revisions of "De-Isolation Tutorial"
→ESP Mastering: added details on Bait-and-Switch Method
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For example, if you wanted to add new enemies and dungeon levels to the Knights of the Nine DLC mod, then ESP Mastering is the way to go because you're adding a bunch of new content. If you just want to alter the existing enemies and dungeon levels in KotN, then ESP Patching is probably a better solution. | For example, if you wanted to add new enemies and dungeon levels to the Knights of the Nine DLC mod, then ESP Mastering is the way to go because you're adding a bunch of new content. If you just want to alter the existing enemies and dungeon levels in KotN, then ESP Patching is probably a better solution. | ||
See [[ESP_Mastering|ESP Mastering]] for more | '''Esmify (bit-flip) Method''' | ||
See [[ESP_Mastering|ESP Mastering]] for a full description. | |||
'''Bait-and-Switch Method''' | |||
This solution uses SomePlugin.esm (note the ESM extension) while you're making changes (the "bait" for TESCS to consider it a master) and then swaps it with SomePlugin.esp when you're done (the "switch"). | |||
* Convert SomePlugin.esp to SomePlugin.esm with TES4Gecko or Wrye Bash (see ESM Mastering, above, for details). | |||
* Load SomePlugin.esm in TESCS. | |||
* Make your changes in TESCS and save as MyTweaks.esp | |||
* Now you'll need to use Wrye Bash to change the masters list for MyTweaks.esp so it looks for SomePlugin.esp instead of SomePlugin.esm. | |||
* To do this, select MyTweaks.esp in the Mods tab of Wrye Bash. | |||
* Look in the lower-right corner for the list of masters. | |||
* Click on the entry for SomePlugin.esm twice so it gives you an edit box. | |||
* Change the "m" to "p", so it now says ".esp" instead of ".esm". | |||
The advantage to this method over the bit-flip method is that you have some way to deal with assertion errors if you get any. If you're trying to modify Knights of the Nine, DLCHorseArmor and other mods that alter vanilla cells, and if your MyTweaks.esp also contains any cells in it, they will likely get corrupted with assertion errors in TESCS when you save changes. All the other data will be good, though. | |||
If you get stuck with this problem, the workaround is a bit involved. You have to first make a split master in TES4Gecko so you now have a clean master that doesn't alter any vanilla cells. The Split Plugin feature in TES4Gecko separates the original plugin into new records, which get saved in the ESM, and change records, which get saved in the ESP. This means you'll have a SomePlugin.esm/SomePlugin.esp pair that work together, each containing different things. Now you can build any cell changes/additions based on the split master (SomePlugin.esm) and keep your changes safe with the good cell data in it. You may want to save your work in an easily identifiable file, such as MyTweakedCells.esp. | |||
Now you can go back and use the bait-and-switch method or the bitflip method to make all your other changes, knowing that the result will end up with corrupted cells in it. Once you've got this version done, you can chop out the bad cells with TESsnip or a hex editor, change the file extension to .esu, and apply it as a patch to the version with good cell data. | |||
In the next update of the tutorial, I'll try to lay out the steps in a bit more detail there. | |||
== ESP Patching == | == ESP Patching == | ||