Difference between revisions of "Mod Cleaning Tutorial"

Luckily, the solution to all these problems (and more!) is the Details button. The Details button can be found on the open screen, where you load your mod, right beside the "Set Active File" button.

Luckily, the solution to all these problems (and more!) is the Details button. The Details button can be found on the open screen, where you load your mod, right beside the "Set Active File" button.

Clicking the details button reveals the guts of your mod. It shows a list of your mod's records, which are the instructions that tell Oblivion how to change the master Oblivion.esm file. Anything you do in your mod, every change you make, adds new records to this list. Even ''deleting'' a stock Oblivion object ''adds'' a new record to your mod that instructs Oblivion to remove that item from the player's world. Basically your mod is just one huge changeset being applied to Oblivion.esm, and the Details tab lets you see every one of these changes up close and personal.

Clicking the details button reveals the guts of your mod. It shows a list of your mod's records, which are the instructions that tell Oblivion how to change the master Oblivion.esm file. Anything you do in your mod, every change you make, adds new records to this list. Even ''deleting'' a stock Oblivion object ''adds'' a new record to your mod that instructs Oblivion to remove that item from the player's world. Basically your mod is just one huge changeset being applied to Oblivion.esm, and the Details tab lets you see every one of these changes up close and personal.

There's a reason we don't do our everyday modding through the details editor, because it's not exactly the easiest thing to understand.

There's a reason we don't do our everyday modding through the details editor, because it's not exactly the easiest thing to understand.

However, the basic concept is quite simple. The record type lists what kind of thing is being changed. This could be a reference (REFR), a dialogue entry (DIAL), something about a worldspace (WRLD) or a cell (CELL), or any number of other things. Often, these records are nested. So changing an external cell also "touches" the worldspace containing that cell, and you will see both records in the details list. You know when something is nested because it will be preceded by a GRUP record that cannot be modified. The thing before the GRUP record is what this record is nested under. So, for instance, modifying a cell would cause you to have a WRLD record, followed by a GRUP record, followed by a CELL record.

However, the basic concept is quite simple. The record type lists what kind of thing is being changed. This could be a reference (REFR), a dialogue entry (DIAL), something about a worldspace (WRLD) or a cell (CELL), or any number of other things. Often, these records are nested. So changing an external cell also "touches" the worldspace containing that cell, and you will see both records in the details list. You know when something is nested because it will be preceded by a GRUP record that cannot be modified. The thing before the GRUP record is what this record is nested under. So, for instance, modifying a cell would cause you to have a WRLD record, followed by a GRUP record, followed by a CELL record.

The other bits of information are quite straight forward. The 'D' column is a flag that indicates that the record is ''deleting'' the referenced item, rather than changing it. The 'I' column is a flag you can set to ignore that record. The final column is the identifier for the record, which can be all sorts of different things, depending on the record type. Usually you can figure out what's what based on the record type and identifier.

The other bits of information are quite straight forward. The 'D' column is a flag that indicates that the record is ''deleting'' the referenced item, rather than changing it. The 'I' column is a flag you can set to ignore that record. The final column is the identifier for the record, which can be all sorts of different things, depending on the record type. Usually you can figure out what's what based on the record type and identifier.