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| Viewing Single Post From: 3 The Oblivion Files | |
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| Bben46 | Jun 12 2008, 03:14 PM |
Master Librarian
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Oblivion Files – what they are and where to find them Like many programs, Oblivion has its own set of files with obscure endings like .esp .esm and BSA. These are to allow Oblivion to identify a file as part of its data set and let it know what to do with and how to work with that file. .esp these are the mod files. They are needed to let Oblivion know that this is a mod so it will know what to do with it, how and where to load it and when to run it. .esm, These are mod master files. Normal .esp files can only use stuff in the vanilla game and stuff defined inside the .esp itself. They Cannot use stuff from another esp. so if one mod cals for something that is in another esp, the game will either crash or not run properly. An esm allows other stuff, contained inside the .esm to be treated just like it was from the vanilla game by any esp. So the stuff inside an esm can be used by many mods. .BSA these are compressed files (like zip files) that can be unzipped and used on the fly by the game. They are in a special Bethesda format and usually include things like textures, meshes and sounds. Meshes can be thought of as shapes. Every 3d object in the game from a spoon to a game character to a building has one or more mesh files they are stored in .nif files. Textures, as the mesh is the shape, the texture is the 'skin' on an object. Think of textures as coatings that include color. There are 2 .dds files for every separate texture. .kif these are the animation files that make things (and people) move it takes several just to make a character move their arm. These are rarely included in mods as only the most experienced modders can work with .kif files. .ess these are the saved games. Every time you save, a new .ess is created with all of the information on Which mods are active, character location, equipment, what is active, what you have stored in a chest, what houses you own, what quest and quest stage you are on, what quests you have finished, which named NPCs are dead or alive and many many more pieces that define your game. Right down to which direction you are looking. The autosave is only one file though, it overwrites itself every time it autosaves. So save in a new slot from time to time and you will have more saves to go back to if something happens. .wav These are the sounds in the game. .wav is a fairly common audir format and you could play them on your computer audio outside the game if you wish. Oblivion.ini This is the game configuration file. It has information on almost everything in the game. When you change grass height or sound volume in your options it ts stored here. Along with a lot more parameters. It can be directly edited using notepad or a word processor. This is where you will do things like turning off the border to allow you to get to certain places in mods. Where are they? Most are located in the C:\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data folder, all esm, esp, bsa are here. The kip, dds, nif are located either inside a bsa or in special sub folders labeled Textures, Meshes and sound. Often a modder will set up his mod to include a sub sub folder in each of these if he has a lot of files in his mod. Any mod that had Textures, the .dds files need to go into the Textures folder, the .nif into the Meshes, the ,wav into the sounds. Usually if there is a sub folder in the mod labeled Textures you can copy it directly into the Data\Textures folder and it will put the files in the proper place – same with sounds and Meshes. .bsa files go into the data folder with the .esp and .esm files For some reason, Bethesda put the saved games in an entirely different place than the rest of their files. You find them in C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion where 'your user name' is the name assigned by you when you set up your account on the computer. The Oblivion.ini file is located here also Now that we know what these files are and where to find them, we can put your mods into the game. Go to Installing your first mod To comment or post on this topic, go here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/TheStormRavenLibrary/topic/331890/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an example of the kind of support, you can find inside The Storm Raven Library. Registration is free. To sign up click on the link below and Register http://s1.zetaboards.com/TheStormRavenLibrary/index/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by Bben46, Jun 12 2008, 04:27 PM.
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| 3 The Oblivion Files · TSRL - Ben's Oblivion Support - Guest View | |
9:30 AM Dec 3
