Modding tools

[Codex]

Here you can download useful programs for modding


Construction Set:
Download


Oblivion Mod Manager:
Change the loading order for your mods, to make them work properly.
Clicky


Readme generator:
A very easy way to make a readme file
Clicky


Mod Makers Manual


GIMP - Free and quite powerful image editing software. Plugin that allows you to save in .dds format can be found here.


If you have other tools that you feel should be added here, feel free to add them. And please keep the discussion in this thread to a minimum, so that people don't have to (possibly) scroll through several pages to find the download links. If discussion about one of the programs is desirable, please make a new thread.

Thanks

Codex

[shadowchao]

If you include OBMM you should also include Wrye Bash and B.O.S.S.
One of the "automatic" pyffi-er thingies might be a good idea too, I've never toyed with them simply because I get a steady fps that I'm happy with

[Caz]

Modders may also find the CS Wiki helpful. Not only does it explain everything about the CS, beginners can also find tutorials there, such as this one.

[Siken]

Oblivion PyFFI Automator is good utility for moders and players.

[mptrj]

Blender, NifSkope, DDS Converter, and BSA Commander are helpful.

[Dusty77]

I know this is a late reply to the topic, but THANK YOU for the links OP The modders manual looks pretty useful.

[Spiney]

I reckon GIMP should be mentioned here. A free image editor. And a small This allows GIMP to save .dds images. Very useful for those that don't want to buy Photo Shop.

[Sanora]

Wow a great archive. Thanks a lot

[Turkman]

Building Hideouts-Houses Drop İtems Anywhere what can I do this with

[H8Ball]

Paint.NET (freeware) can open/save DDS files directly, and you have the option on Save of generating 1 mipmap only or as many as required automatically. Only snag is that it can't generate Normal Maps.

Tip: Icons and menu/inventory/dialog textures have 1 mipmap, so don't generate. Oblivion will use them, but it's a waste of RAM and performance because only the largest (first) mipmap is used. Also, when you use the Construction Set to apply an icon texture, it will allow you to do it but will complain about "more than 1 mipmap when only 1 is required".

I've also found Windows Texture Viewer (WTV) to be very useful. I think I got it as part of an nVidia tools download. It allows you to zoom in/out using the mouse wheel and pan by dragging with right mouse button.

Finally, it would be useful to have Windows Explorer thumbnail support for DDS files. I'll have to go Google for this (when I get some time away from my new moderator duties - still feeling my way here, so please be gentle, folks).

Hope this helps.

[KrisCrash]

A plugin exists to allow .tga thumbnails, so I took a little google trip
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_ ... iewer.html it's from the same developer as the .dds reader and normal map filter, so it's probably safe.

[H8Ball]

Yay! Great find there, krisCrash! Downloading now...

And it IS safe. I trust nVidia because I've been using their video cards and drivers for years.

[KrisCrash]

There's a Blender+Oblivion tutorial here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HlH5QXdGQI part 2 is in the related videos
it's a little fast paced but I think it's useful, also as it shows this isn't too darned hard to do

[Vendetta]

Thanks for the modding manual!

[giskard]

OBMM handles the extraction of BSA files, thats why its a good modders tool. Wryebash and so forth do nothing that the official CS does not do more safely, so I would recommend doing things the CS way since it leads to less mod corruption issues.

To remove unwanted edits the official way, you note down the FormID, go to Data from the CS file menu, select your mod and load it. This is very important because only when your mods loaded do all its formIDs appear listed.

Then go to Data, select your mod and click on Details, then find the formID you want, select it, press delete and then load your mod again. This time it will IGNORE the formID you deleted and not load it with the rest of the mod. You then save your mod to get rid of it.

You can find the FormIDs in the hidden column before Offset, it looks like > II < that. Just drag the 2 IIs apart to reveal the forum IDs and click on the tab title to organise them in to order.

Some tools mistakenly list these official fixes as bad edits, but that is their problem. The CS works, the game supports these things and no conflicts come of them. Also the ESPs usually remain corruption free but in low ram situations, Beth Construction Sets can corrupt mods too. Though Fallouts Geck is more prone to that than Oblivions CS. But I would expect the Skyrim editor which will be based on the Fallout 3 editor to be effected too.

So watch out for that.

[H8Ball]

Update: I found a handy free thumbnail viewer called SageThumbs v2.0.0.12, which adds thumbnail support for many image formats (including DDS) to Windows Vista/7. It comes in both 32 and 64-bit versions.

I'm using the 64-bit version under Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and it works flawlessly except for one slight omission. There's no way to configure the colour it converts the transparency (Alpha) channel to, which is White when most image viewers use Magenta.

Note: The link goes via Google Translate because the author's download site (Cherubic Software) is Russian-only. However, the software itself installs with the correct language for your locale, which in most cases will be US or UK, both English.

Enjoy the free software, folks.