TES4FILES.... open beta!

[mentalelf]

TES4FILES is a tool that packages a mod for you, all
you do is tell it what ESM/ESP file to package and
*poof* all the files are copied into a subdirectory
suitable for zipping or raring up and sending off... !

I've got a working version that should grab
everything, but it's early beta, and I *need*
testers.

When you select a mod and "export", TES4FILES
creates a subdirectory where it is located on disk
by the name of the module (without the esm/esp
suffix) and puts all the files needed for the mod
in their respective places. Upon completion
of the export, if you look in the subdirectory,
you will find the _log.txt file _error.txt file and
the subdirectory Data. All messages are in
the _log.txt file, only error messages are in the
_error.txt file, and all exported files are in
the Data subdirectory.

My MSN is [e-mail]
You can also message me, or post here,
if you wish to beta test.

OPEN beta, anyone can test!
TES4FILES.rar (1.46MB)
V1.03 Use At Your Own Risk!

[Wildman]

It worked great for meshes and textures, i got the following error, but everything that was supposed to export did.
=================================================================
  TES4FILES V1.00 ERROR FILE

  helmtest

Tue Oct 03 10:24:52 AM Central Standard Time 2006
=================================================================
================> CANNOT READ FILE "C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion/Data/meshes/Characters/_Male/skeleton.nif"

[mentalelf]

Hmmm. Be sure to get 1.02 which is out.
It optionally creates BSA archive of your stuff,
using bundled BSACommander by Visiliy. In
case you wish to distribute a "esp/txt/bsa"
trio type installation.

That's the standard NPC skeleton. I don't know
why it thought it was supposed to try to read that.
Do you have all the oblivion BSA files unarchived to disk
on your Oblivion setup? I do. Perhaps this is the problem,
the file should be recognized as a Oblivion file, therefore
not bother to attempt to read it, but it is.

<edit>
Now version 1.03, does not scan a NIF it has seen already,
such as a system file. Don't know why I didn't think of
this before! Your error is solved!

[VagabondAngel]

I'm kinda out of the circle a bit at the mo. Good to see you making your tools for the Oblivion crowd though M Elf. Nice to see you at my quiet little corner of the internet too, matey. Good call.

If and when I get myself together I'll definitely try it out. Although my releases tend to be pretty small with only a few files in them.

[mentalelf]

TES4FILES is released at version 2.00...

Web Site

[VagabondAngel]

Good call mate. If you could, would you mind outlining the major difference in functionality between this and Timeslip's Mod Manager (OMOD) - I don't use OMOD at all so this may be much more use to me in the long run.

[mentalelf]

Check it out, it's at 2.03, last addition was something
called ADD-ON option, where it can include any content
into the archive/BSA that you create in a model "my_mod.addon"
area, in the TES4FILES directory. Also, I believe it
was 2.02, that added the FixNIF option, this takes
care of those pesky texture references in NIF files
that are unreadable to oblivion in BSA form. What
the hell does that mean, you say? Well, before
FixNIF... you could plan on seeing some textures
go missing in-game, due to NIF texture references
using forward slashes instead of backslashes.
Oblivion chokes on forward slash texture paths inside
NIFs when they are in BSA form.

OMOD difference? OMOD is script driven I *think*.
I've never used it. But from what I can tell, before
my eyes started to cross, is that you have to learn
a bit before you can use it. TES4FILES is really straight
forward, requiring just a few clicks of the mouse to
package a typical mod. User interface and approach
are totally different concept wise. I made TES4FILES
for the average user, and most importantly, myself.
It's pretty much a simpler road, IMHO.