I was mulling ideas through my head a couple of days ago, and an idea. What about a load order program for Texture Mods. Rather than just basic "load order", you would have a load order for each architecture type.

For example, imperial architecture could have the load order
Mod1
Mod2
Mod3

Which would mean that Mod3 would overwrite mod2 and mod1 if they had conflicting files.

But Telvanni architecture could have this load order:
Mod2
Mod3
Mod1

Which would mean that Mod1 would overwrite mod2 and mod3 if they had conflicting files.

This would mean that it would be easier to customise you game by having many large texture packs installed, and using bits of one and bits of the other.


The annoying bit comes that all the architecture types would have to be defined in a file. Means a lot of work. Most of the work could be avoided by using Regular Expressions.


Any thoughts before I do anything more about this?

Example UI
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/Yaco...Morro/txmng.jpg
That'd make Tele's job a lot easier. laugh.gif

Sounds like a good idea, too. Perhaps there can be one of those for head replacers too?
sounds good smile.gif and useful.
What a splended idea. It would be marvelous if someone could make this a reality.
I think it sound like a great idea, but it hat to be very noob friendly, or I won't be able to use it smile.gif
QUOTE(Nayleya @ Apr 19 2007, 02:13 PM) [snapback]9808555[/snapback]
I think it sound like a great idea, but it hat to be very noob friendly, or I won't be able to use it smile.gif


I will second that. biggrin.gif
QUOTE(midgetalien @ Apr 19 2007, 02:48 PM) [snapback]9808363[/snapback]
sounds good smile.gif and useful.
QUOTE(Carbohydrated @ Apr 19 2007, 02:53 PM) [snapback]9808407[/snapback]
What a splended idea. It would be marvelous if someone could make this a reality.

As there seems to be some interest, I will see if I can do this.

QUOTE(Nayleya @ Apr 19 2007, 03:13 PM) [snapback]9808555[/snapback]
I think it sound like a great idea, but it hat to be very noob friendly, or I won't be able to use it smile.gif
QUOTE(Illius @ Apr 19 2007, 03:18 PM) [snapback]9808585[/snapback]
I will second that. biggrin.gif

I will try and make it as easy to use as possible

QUOTE(Ironed Maidens @ Apr 19 2007, 02:44 PM) [snapback]9808335[/snapback]
Sounds like a good idea, too. Perhaps there can be one of those for head replacers too?

It if requires manipulating binary data, it is beyond my abilities. shrug.gif (and I don't have the time to do it)
I have sort of got it working:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/Yaco...6/Morro/ui2.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/Yaco...6/Morro/ui3.jpg

The way it works is instead of installing to the data files dir, you install into a dir called "Install". You then open the program, type in the mod name, and press "Install New Mod"

You can then manage the different textures by moving the different texture packs up and down for different architecture types. You can also disable part of a mod. (As you can see in the screen).

When you are finished, you just press apply.


Some problems so far is that the "Uninstall" button doesn't do anything, and if it doesn't know what a file is, it won't do anything with it.
Sounds great. Wrye Mash already has a good feature to organize texture packs, but this would be a fantastic addition.
I think it's a great idea. Hope you'll finish it soon!
Ditto!
QUOTE(DeusXMachina @ Apr 20 2007, 01:09 PM) [snapback]9818760[/snapback]
Sounds great. Wrye Mash already has a good feature to organize texture packs, but this would be a fantastic addition.

Thanks. Wrye Mash has a much more simplistic way of organising texture packs than this program has.

QUOTE(Shadoweave @ Apr 20 2007, 01:38 PM) [snapback]9818964[/snapback]
I think it's a great idea. Hope you'll finish it soon!
QUOTE(Ironed Maidens @ Apr 20 2007, 02:25 PM) [snapback]9819207[/snapback]
Ditto!


Thanks. Hopefully should have a Beta done by Sunday.


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/Yaco...6/Morro/ui4.jpg
happy.gif And to think I was looking right past this topic. Excellent idea. smile.gif
This sounds and looks fantastic so far! fing34.gif

Some of the replacer packs have meshes, too. Would this work for them, too? Or maybe in a future update?
QUOTE(Kieve @ Apr 20 2007, 05:43 PM) [snapback]9820865[/snapback]
happy.gif And to think I was looking right past this topic. Excellent idea. smile.gif

Thanks

QUOTE(ElricWulf @ Apr 20 2007, 06:19 PM) [snapback]9821175[/snapback]
This sounds and looks fantastic so far! fing34.gif

smile.gif

QUOTE(ElricWulf @ Apr 20 2007, 06:19 PM) [snapback]9821175[/snapback]
Some of the replacer packs have meshes, too. Would this work for them, too? Or maybe in a future update?

It is very easy to add support for meshes. You/I would just need to list them under the appropriate architecture in the definition file.
To some degree Mash already does this, to some degree it doesn't. I also suspect that this is a bit more complicated then it seems at first. So to give you an example, suppose that I have three Telvanni texture replacers intalled: A, B and C. Usually you get these with wildly different names, but what I then do (in order to make them group together) is to rename them (i.e., rename their folders in the replacerd directory):
* Telvanni, A
* Telvanni, B
* Telvanni, C
Now, usually what I end up doing is checking just one of these at a time, but it's also perfectly fine to check more than one, in which case, their order that I check them determines their dominance: So If I check: B, then C, then A. Then that's the mod equivalent of B loading first, then C, then A loading last. So A is most dominant, B is least dominant.

Note that this works best when packs are split up. When packs aren't split up, then you can't make one dominant for Telvanni, but sub-dominant for say Imperial style towns. OTOH, it's always possible to mix and match your own packs. Go to replacers folder, copy an existing replacer to your new version, then mix in stuff from other versions as you like. That becomes a new replacer and you use that one instead of the others (maybe with some texture renaming). (E.g., I use this to mix a Hlaalu floor pattern into the outdoor plaza of Vivec cantons.)

Now, the problems with automated regex is that some replacer makers are pretty creative -- their new meshes do not necessarily use the standard textures that go with those elements. E.g., the Vivec city texture replacers have problems with some of the sewer elements -- if they try to make them less boring they find that the textures were place upside down into some of the lower level coordior meshes -- so one of the replacers actually has to fix those. Worse is mesh makeer might take a vivec element and use a non-vivec texture with it. This becomes more of a problem with wood and metal strip textures which tend to show up in quite different places (ship panelling, back side of shields, door hardware, armor siding, etc. This makes it hard (possibly impossible) to come up with an automatic way to separate out meshes into distinct architectures.

So, in short, I'm saying that this may not be as easy as it first looks, and that Mash (and a little hand tweaking) does more than you might expect. But... I've been wrong before! (I just had a PM exchange with ParasiteX who essentially stumbled on mod de-isolation for Oblivion a year ago -- a possibility that took me until last November to re-discover.) I would however, suggest that you look at several real world texture replacers and see how well your approach works with then before you spend lots of time coding your approach. Otherwise, good luck! An intelligent, automatic replacer mixer would be pretty cool.
QUOTE(Wrye @ Apr 20 2007, 11:01 PM) [snapback]9823696[/snapback]
To some degree Mash already does this, to some degree it doesn't. I also suspect that this is a bit more complicated then it seems at first. So to give you an example, suppose that I have three Telvanni texture replacers intalled: A, B and C. Usually you get these with wildly different names, but what I then do (in order to make them group together) is to rename them (i.e., rename their folders in the replacerd directory):
* Telvanni, A
* Telvanni, B
* Telvanni, C
Now, usually what I end up doing is checking just one of these at a time, but it's also perfectly fine to check more than one, in which case, their order that I check them determines their dominance: So If I check: B, then C, then A. Then that's the mod equivalent of B loading first, then C, then A loading last. So A is most dominant, B is least dominant.

Note that this works best when packs are split up. When packs aren't split up, then you can't make one dominant for Telvanni, but sub-dominant for say Imperial style towns. OTOH, it's always possible to mix and match your own packs. Go to replacers folder, copy an existing replacer to your new version, then mix in stuff from other versions as you like. That becomes a new replacer and you use that one instead of the others (maybe with some texture renaming). (E.g., I use this to mix a Hlaalu floor pattern into the outdoor plaza of Vivec cantons.)

I wasn't sure how much Mash did. Although I new it did less then I planned to do.

QUOTE
Now, the problems with automated regex is that some replacer makers are pretty creative -- their new meshes do not necessarily use the standard textures that go with those elements. E.g., the Vivec city texture replacers have problems with some of the sewer elements -- if they try to make them less boring they find that the textures were place upside down into some of the lower level coordior meshes -- so one of the replacers actually has to fix those. Worse is mesh makeer might take a vivec element and use a non-vivec texture with it. This becomes more of a problem with wood and metal strip textures which tend to show up in quite different places (ship panelling, back side of shields, door hardware, armor siding, etc. This makes it hard (possibly impossible) to come up with an automatic way to separate out meshes into distinct architectures.

This is where I swear about the fact the meshes can point to different textures than the originals swear.gif , and am embarrassed I had forgotten. blush.gif

Anyway. How about this sort of thing for meshes:
CODE
for every mesh included in the mod{

    Get all the textures the mod uses.
    for every texture{
        if the texture is included with the mod, make sure it is unique name,
                so won't be overwritten by anything else when it is installed.

        If the texture isn't included check if the texture exists in the BSA
        If the texture exists in the BSA{
            extract the texture from the BSA and give it a unique name.
                }
        }
    Reflect changes to the texture names in the mesh.
}


I get the feeling I am missing something. Anyway. I will give it some thought.

Do people think the above would work? I really could do with feedback.

QUOTE
So, in short, I'm saying that this may not be as easy as it first looks, and that Mash (and a little hand tweaking) does more than you might expect. But... I've been wrong before! (I just had a PM exchange with ParasiteX who essentially stumbled on mod de-isolation for Oblivion a year ago -- a possibility that took me until last November to re-discover.) I would however, suggest that you look at several real world texture replacers and see how well your approach works with then before you spend lots of time coding your approach. Otherwise, good luck! An intelligent, automatic replacer mixer would be pretty cool.
Well, keep in mind that some textures/meshes were intentionally provided as a resource pack, or if not created that way were/are used that way. OR it may be the case that the user has multiple versions of the same mod for some reason or another. E.g.,
* There are several mods that I've downloaded and then tweaked slightly. If both this and the original are available, then they'll overlap.
* There are several architecture mods which have recolored variants of standard hlaalu houses, etc. (These uses resource mesh/textures.)
* As an example fo that, Princess Stomper's and my "LCV Wolverine Hall" uses meshes/textures from her paintings resource

So, for multiple reasons, it's not really desirable to require that new textures be unique to a single mod. Perhaps there are ways around that (you're heading in that direction), but the work involved may not be worth the result. And while your programming work can eventually be washed out (in terms of "expense"), there's still the end interface cost to the user. How much inherent complexity does the end user have to deal with? E.g., suppose that I duplicate a mod of mine (so that I can work on an updated version, while leaving the original version intact). Will anything break because I'm also using your tool?

A secondary consideration here is download size and space on disk. Reusing the same resources cuts down on download size and amount of spaces used on disk. This isn't as much of a problem these days, but are still worth considering. A smaller size is an advantage that shouldnt' be given up too quickly.

Other quick comments. 1) I'm not sure if this is a diversion. I mean that for replacer textures, you don't care about new textures -- only about standard meshes and textures. 2) If still going to look at new textures, it is possible to open nif files to see what meshes they're using. It's a pain, but doable. (I know that one or more of the mod remover tools did this sort of thing.)

(Forgive any rustiness on my part -- I'm pretty much focussed on Oblivion these days.)
QUOTE(Wrye @ Apr 24 2007, 12:10 AM) [snapback]9854233[/snapback]
Well, keep in mind that some textures/meshes were intentionally provided as a resource pack, or if not created that way were/are used that way. OR it may be the case that the user has multiple versions of the same mod for some reason or another. E.g.,
* There are several mods that I've downloaded and then tweaked slightly. If both this and the original are available, then they'll overlap.
* There are several architecture mods which have recolored variants of standard hlaalu houses, etc. (These uses resource mesh/textures.)
* As an example fo that, Princess Stomper's and my "LCV Wolverine Hall" uses meshes/textures from her paintings resource


QUOTE(Wrye @ Apr 24 2007, 12:10 AM) [snapback]9854233[/snapback]
So, for multiple reasons, it's not really desirable to require that new textures be unique to a single mod. Perhaps there are ways around that (you're heading in that direction), but the work involved may not be worth the result. And while your programming work can eventually be washed out (in terms of "expense"), there's still the end interface cost to the user. How much inherent complexity does the end user have to deal with? E.g., suppose that I duplicate a mod of mine (so that I can work on an updated version, while leaving the original version intact). Will anything break because I'm also using your tool?

Food for thought.
I will have to think about how it works, and how to get arround the above issues without a complex UI. Download another load of mods and take a look at how the meshes work, which I haven't done so far.


QUOTE
A secondary consideration here is download size and space on disk. Reusing the same resources cuts down on download size and amount of spaces used on disk. This isn't as much of a problem these days, but are still worth considering. A smaller size is an advantage that shouldnt' be given up too quickly.

932.gif

QUOTE(Wrye @ Apr 24 2007, 12:10 AM) [snapback]9854233[/snapback]
Other quick comments. 1) I'm not sure if this is a diversion. I mean that for replacer textures, you don't care about new textures -- only about standard meshes and textures.

My origanal idea was to leave meshes alone, and just deal with textures, but I will see if I can get something that deals with meshes working.

This isn't going to get done soon though, as I don't want to start any large or complex prodjects for a month or so. Other things I need to do.

QUOTE(Wrye @ Apr 24 2007, 12:10 AM) [snapback]9854233[/snapback]
2) If still going to look at new textures, it is possible to open nif files to see what meshes they're using. It's a pain, but doable. (I know that one or more of the mod remover tools did this sort of thing.)

Opening up Nifs and playing arround with them is very easy using NifLib. There is even a python wrapper wink.gif

Anyway, thanks for the detailed points Wrye smile.gif
Not sure if this is entirely relevant but has anyone used the Generic Mod Enabler by JoneSoft? (found here)

This program keeps track of whatever mod you're adding by creating backups so that it can be disabled very easily if required. It also informs you if a mod is going to replace any files added by another mod. I've been using this with Silent Hunter 3 but not actually tried it with Morrowind yet.
No problem. Good luck!
many of dongles mods use standard textures on his unique meshes, would your prog spit out false alarms or something because it doesn't have unique textures?
Did this ever get completed?
QUOTE(ajeffreys @ Oct 7 2007, 10:42 AM) [snapback]11060148[/snapback]
Did this ever get completed?

No. I will see what I can shove together smile.gif

I will skip dealing with meshes though.
Great Idea!

Off Topic: Company of Heroes, Great Game. Play it at lan parties with friends.
The problem was I lost the source, so I am having to start again from scratch, which is a bit of a pain shrug.gif
That sucks. Hopefully it's not too hard to rewrite.
QUOTE(Pjstaab @ Oct 12 2007, 11:19 PM) [snapback]11090049[/snapback]
That sucks. Hopefully it's not too hard to rewrite.

It is taking slightly longer than it would, as I decided to write it in Python (and wxPython for the UI), which I have never written anything in before. Maybe I should have started Python by writing something simpler, as I am developing a (irrational) hatred for the language. Proberbly just a problem with not understanding the language properly.


Anyway. I have nearly got a basic application going (just the reording code and the installing code). I will see how life goes.


Oh. I also have a load of regex stuff to write to define the arcitecture types banghead.gif
QUOTE(Nayleya @ Apr 19 2007, 10:13 AM) [snapback]9808555[/snapback]
I think it sound like a great idea, but it hat to be very noob friendly, or I won't be able to use it smile.gif


Basically, we have to be able to operate it by whacking it with a large stick.
Great idea. It would be good if it had an option back to make backup files of textures folder every time you are adding new ones. Kinda like what wyre mash does for saves files.


QUOTE
When in fear, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!


Love the sig. smile.gif
Any other arcitecture types that people can think of? Anything you want really.

CODE
[Imperial]

[Telvanni]

[Shrooms]

[Crystals]

[Hlaalu]

[Banners]

[Solstheim]

[Ground (Bloodmoon)]

[Ground (Normal)]

[Mournhold]

[Redoran]

[Vivec]

[Beds]

[Misc Items]

[Weapons]
I can't think of any.
Swamps and trees
Daedric is one.
Here's some various things I know have been retextured, not sure if they all fit but here you go:
  • Gold
  • GUI
  • Armour
  • Shacks
  • Rugs and tapestries
  • Shop and guild signs (although this could be wrapped up into Banners)
  • Clothing
  • Creatures
QUOTE(Yacoby @ Oct 14 2007, 12:18 PM) [snapback]11100098[/snapback]
Any other arcitecture types that people can think of? Anything you want really.

CODE
[Imperial]

[Telvanni]

[Shrooms]

[Crystals]

[Hlaalu]

[Banners]

[Solstheim]

[Ground (Bloodmoon)]

[Ground (Normal)]

[Mournhold]

[Redoran]

[Vivec]

[Beds]

[Misc Items]

[Weapons]

Tapestries They only use a few and they are repeated everywhere. This when we can have different choices. Rocks may be to hard to do. As they don't all texture to mesh right. Some you just can't find.
Arrg. Total forgot about this. Anyway. The list of arcitectures insn't complete, but you can find the program here:
http://www.yacoby.net/es/upload/?action=download&id=98

Requires Python and wxPython. Using it with any version ohter than 2.5 is unsupported


Feel free to mess arround with it.
Gnawesome.
I can't really play with this until later, but for now I can at least bring your post up the threads.
The link isn't working Yacoby.
Works for me. unsure.gif
Should take you to a page like this, then you just hit the button.
QUOTE(Earth_Wyrm @ Dec 16 2007, 04:57 PM) [snapback]11426816[/snapback]
Gnawesome.
I can't really play with this until later, but for now I can at least bring your post up the threads.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear them smile.gif and thanks

QUOTE(MormegilGR @ Dec 16 2007, 06:55 PM) [snapback]11427485[/snapback]
The link isn't working Yacoby.

My site sucks. I can't be bothered paying for a better one. Try it again in a few minutes

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