Glossary

A

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

A term used to describe the computer-controlled NPC's ability to "think", by evaluating its current situation and choosing an appropriate response.

Active Effect

A Magic Effect currently running on a reference. The active effects on the player are listed in the active effects tab of the Spell menu.

Alpha Channel

A component of a 2d image, similar to the Red, Green and Blue components, and is used to carry extra data in an image. Alpha Channels are grayscale images ranging from Black (0) to White (255), or can be 1-bit; which is either Black (0) or White (1). This functionality is dictated by the program exporting the image, and what is supported by a given file format. It is common to simply refer to this as 'Alpha', as in: "Tone down your alpha's brighter areas"

• In Oblivion, the Alpha Channel is used to control special effects in the shaders:
• In the base image, it can control the level of transparency if the .nif has enabled this. Or, if the .nif has instead enabled Parallax Shading, the levels of black/white control the strength of the effect.
• For Normal Maps, the alpha channel acts as the Specular Map, which governs how reflective the image is.

B

Base Object

The common or shared definition for objects placed into the game world (references). Changes to a base object will affect all instances of that object in the game world.

BSA (Bethesda Softworks Archive)

BSA files are archives that contain resource files (meshes, textures, sounds, etc.). TESCS does not allow creation or editing of BSA files, but other tools do.

See also: BSA Unpackers.

C

CTD (Crash To Desktop)

Game failure that results in game executable dying and dumping user back to desktop. In contrast to failures in which game is still running, but is frozen or otherwise unplayable.

Console

The programmers console that can accessed during gameplay by pressing the ~ button. Console commands are available to view debugging information, toggle game engine features, manipulate game settings and objects, etc.

D

DDS Files (DirectDraw Surface)

Image files used for textures, icons, maps,etc.

E

ESM and ESP files (Elder Scrolls Master/Plugin Files)

The core data files of the gameworld. These are the files created/edited by the the construction set.

See also: TES Files, Esp vs. Esm.

F

Formid

The eight digit hexadecimal number that identifies each unique record within a esm/esp file. (In lists of records (objects, cells, references, etc.), the formid is always shown in the second column -- widen the column to see the formid.)

Formids have two parts: the first two digits are the modIndex and the next six digits are the objectIndex. While the last six digits are fixed, the first two digits depend on the context. E.g. a record defined in a mod may have a modindex of "02", but in a mod that same record may have a modindex of "A1". The conversion is simple though -- the modindex is simply the order of the source mod in the current context. E.g. Oblivion always loads first, and so has modindex of "00". A mod that is the tenth mod to load after Oblivion.esm is "0A" (A == 10 in hexadecimal).

G

Global

Global variables are variables defined outside of scripts (through the Gameplay: Globals) menu. In earlier elder scrolls games, globals were the primary means of communication between different scripts/objects. In Oblivion, it's generally preferable to use object and quest variables rather than globals.

I

Item

A carriable object, such as weapons, miscellaneous items, etc.

See also: Modding Terminology.

K

KF Files

KF files contain an animation that can be used to animate a NIF file. In Oblivion all biped animations (characters and creatures) are stored in KF files in the same directory as the skeleton.nif file that describes the actor's skeleton. All object animation are stored in the NIF file together with the object itself. This can be done with NifSkope by using Attach .KF from the Spells menu.

KF files contain a NiControllerSequence block as root, a NiStringPalette, a NiTextKeyExtraData and an Interpolator of some kind for each bone. Each Interpolator block can contain a Data block with the actual animation data for that block. The NiTextKeyExtraData contains bits of text data at specific times that can be used by the engine to do perform actions associated with the animation. For example; playing a sound or starting a facial (morph) animation.

L

LOD (Level of Detail)

Describes technology that is used to save memory and processing power by using lower detail models or textures for objects in the distance. The Oblivion game engine makes extensive use of LOD, and the CS has some functions to create and manipulate LOD objects.

M

Message Spam

Tes4 displays messages to the player whenever: 1) spells are added to, 2) items are added to or removed from the player. For some scripts such messages are very undesirable (e.g. for an alchemical sorters which adds/removes many items). Hence, message "spam".

See also: Avoiding Message Spam.

Mod

Several definiitons:

• A module file, i.e. an esm or esp file.
• More generally a set of files which modifies/expands game play in some way. E.g. a texture pack, though not including an esm/esp file is a mod.

N

NPC (Non Player Character)

Describes in game characters that are not controlled by the player but can be interacted with. In Oblivion they are defined as a class of actor that can engage in dialogue, commit crimes, wear armor or clothing, or be pickpocketed - in contrast to creatures.

NIF Files (NetImmerse File Format)

File format for three dimensional objects. Also known as the "model" or "mesh". These are found in the Oblivion\Data\Mesh directory and/or in BSA archives. TESCS cannot create or edit these, but third party tools (e.g. Blender) can.

See also: NifTools Wiki.

Normal Maps

Normal maps are textures that are used by Oblivion's render engine to give a model surface an appearance of additional surface detail. In its effect it is very similar to bump-mapping. The normal map is used in shading the model and provides a convincing relief effect to surfaces, making the model look like it has a much higher polygon-count than it actually does.

O

Object

A word with too many meanings. May mean (depending on context):

• An "object" as perceived by the player. E.g. a thing that can be picked up or an activator (but not a wall or spawn point).
• An "object" placed into cell. E.g. walls, items, spawn points, etc.
• An "object" defined in the TESCS object window. E.g. statics, water, etc.
• A "base object" as opposed to a reference (placed object).

Because of the multitude of conflicting meanings, you'll need to pay attention to the context to understand what is meant by "object".

See also: Modding Terminology

R

Reference

A object that has been placed in the Render Window.

See also: Modding Terminology

Retexturing

Objects as seen in the game are essentially combinations of shape (the mesh file) and textures (dds files). Retexturing an object involves changing the textures of an object but not the shape.

S

Specular Map

A texture effect that controls the specularity, or shininess of the model/texture. It can be found in the Alpha Channel of the Normal Maps. This image has 256 levels of gray when used in a DXT5 DDS, or 2 (Black/White) When used in a DXT3. In Oblivion's shaders, black areas are dule (not shiny), while white is shiny (fully reflective). Oblivion also features a few shaders for models that use Environment Maps for a glassy effect; Specular Maps will also control the visual strength of these effects.

SubSpace

Subspaces are used to create pathing-separated areas in a cell. Normally, if an actor is trying to move from one part of a cell to another part, they will try to find an in-cell path. Subspaces are used to indicate to the actor that no direct path is possible (e.g. from a balcony to the street below), and hence the actor must instead find a path through load doors to reach the destination.

V

Vanilla

The word vanilla is used to describe Oblivion without any mods. It's the original game without any changes.

Vertices (plural form of vertex)

The points at which lines meet in a model, two points (vertices) connected makes a line, three lines forming a triangle is a face/polygon.

The "nodes" in the landscape mesh (heightfield). Can be manipulated with the Landscape editing tool.