mTES4 Manager

[Psymon]

Hi all

You may know me more from the Bethesda mods forum. I'm no official playtester here, but have worked with many modders in the last few years helping to refine mods.

Anyway I've not come to join the guild as an official tester but instead to inform you a powerful new tool that will no doubt help in testing mods.

So if this breaks rules please forgive me - I really can't think of a more appropriate place to post about this on the site.

The tool is called mTES4 Manager and is being developed by Gaticus and I'm, so far, the only tester and giver of feedback for it. link is to the Bethesda forum WIPz mTES4 Manager

The thread I link above has a lot of information and the basics kinks have been worked out. Basically the idea is that it will allow you to have more than one install on your hard drive and be able to swap between two or more installs of the same game. It does this by also swapping out the app data folder and the game profile folder (where the save games are). So that by activating a version of the game (called clones) it then also swaps out these ancillary folders.

This means that each game will exist separate from the others. It also means that each set of tools that you install (OBMM, OBSE, TES4edit, and Wrye Bash with consideration that one reassigns the BAIN folder for each version - or it gets shared) in each game version will also not interfere with each other.

What this means:

Within a minute be able swap between a completely vanilla game to a heavily modded game with just a few clicks. So if one wanted to test a mod with not other mods then test with many mods this can be done with minimal hassle (I guess as long as you don't count the first time you set this up). As a playtester I know this is needed as it is important to get how a mod is behaving in a vanilla game and then how it will behave in a modded game.

I also know that keeping a mod testing set up is not always congruent with keeping a mod playing set up. So with this one can have an uber modded game then switch to vanilla in no time.

Play two different mod set ups without uninstalling and reinstalling or even using profiles in Wrye Bash!

Currently Gaticus is working with me on how to best handle Nehrim.

Also it works with Fallout 3 too!

Anyway - sorry if I broke a rule, but if any people could benefit I'd imagine it would be you.

[InsanitySorrow]

Sounds like a useful tool, thanks for posting

[Psymon]

No problem but really just letting you guys know - Gaticus is the developer.

[Psymon]

Here is the current readme cut from Bethforums:

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Title: mTES4 Manager

Author: Gaticus Archimedes Windrider

Download: mTES4 v0.5.1b rev76

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Oblivion has multiplied!

mTES4 Manager lets you create complete copies of your Oblivion game and helps you to manage them.

Fallout3 is also supported. Support for Morrowind and FalloutNV coming soon.

If you are a modder, this means you can have a completely separate copy of the game just for development and easily switch between your play and mod copies.

If you are not a modder, you can have a separate copy of the game just for trying new mods and tools!

Never again do you need to reinstall your whole game because you tried to add something that just didn't work out as you planned.

For help getting started, read A Guide to Setting Up Multiple Copies of Oblivion using mTES4.

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Overview:

mTES4 Manager is a tool that helps you to create and manage multiple copies of Oblivion.

Essentially, it takes care of swapping the game, profile and appdata folders for you so that every

instance of Oblivion you have installed will have it's own unique working environment.

You can import existing game folders as new clones, copy clones, rename or delete and of course switch between them.

mTES4 now supports Fallout3 in addition to Oblivion!

It will automatically detect if you have either or both installed and provide you the option to switch between managing

each of them from the GUI.

Nehrim should also work, but it is not considered a supported game, it is considered a copy of oblivion.

So you can just import your Nehrim copy to your Oblivion clones in mTES4 and it will be treated the same as any other.

I do not currently have Nehrim, so if you encounter any problems, be sure to let me know.

mTES4 also supports Wrye Bash.

If you have Bash installed in your master copy. Each time you create a clone, mTES4 will ask you to select the BAIN mods folder

that will be used for the new clone. You can choose to use the same BAIN Mods folder for every clone, or you can have a

separate folder for each. It's up to you.

Most all other 3rd party tools should work without issues.

If you find a tool that you do have problems using in conjuction with installation swapping, please report it and I'll do

my best to ensure that it is addressed.

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Installing:

There is no formal installation required. Just unzip and run mTES4.exe

When you first run mTES4, it will automatically detect your installed game and tag it with an unique name (that you provide).

Once your game has been tagged, mTES4 will recognize it as a valid copy of oblivion (what mTES4 refers to as a 'clone').

If you have multiple copies of oblivion already, you can import them so that mTES4 will detect them.

You can also create new clones by copying an existing clone.

Once you have setup your clones, you can use mTES4 to switch between them at the click of a button.

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Uninstalling:

Just delete the mTES4 folder.

mTES4 also creates two special folders, which contain the savegames and game settings for all the clones.

You can delete them as well if you don't want to save them.

(The following path locations are defaults for Windows XP)

mTES4's clone profile folder is at C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion-mTES4

mTES4's clone appdata folder is at C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion-mTES4

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Usage:

Importing a New Clone:

If you have an existing copy of oblivion installed that has not been configured for mTES4 already, you can import it so that it will be detected.

When you import a new clone, mTES4 will automatically create a separate profile and appdata folder for it (see the sections below about Oblivion and mTES4 Folders).

The profile and appdata folders will be empty so if you have existing savegames, an oblivion.ini, bash settings, etc

and/or plugins lists for your existing copy, you will want to manually copy or move those files into the appropriate folders.

Otherwise, Oblivion will automatically create what it needs.

Copying Clones:

If you have already setup a clone for mTES4, you can copy it to create a new clone.

The profile and appdata folders will be copied for you as well so both clones will be identical copies.

Renaming a Clone:

Because the oblivion game is spread over multiple places, mTES4 provides a way for you to rename a clone if you wish.

All relevant file and folder names will be updated for you.

Deleting a Clone:

Like renaming, if you wish to delete a clone, mTES4 provides a way for you to do so.

All relevant files and folders will be deleted if you choose.

Switching Between Clones:

When you wish to change to a different copy of Oblivion, you can simply select it from the Detected Clones List then click the Switch button.

mTES4 takes care of the rest.

Minimize To System Tray:

Enabling this option will hide the mTES4 so you will not see it on your taskbar.

Instead the mTES4 icon will appear in your system tray.

When mTES4 is minimized to the tray, you can point your mouse at the icon for a description of the active game and clone.

You can also right-click the icon for a menu that will allow you to switch games and clones even more conveniently!

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mTES4 AutoLaunch:

When you switch to a new clone, if an autolaunch setting is defined, mTES4 will ask you if you want to launch the configured tool.

You can define autolaunch settings for each clone.

To configure the autolaunch settings, select the clone you want and click the Settings button.

You can specify the Title that will be displayed, the path to execute and any arguments that might be needed.

If you enable Always Launch, the AutoLaunch tool will be executed immediately after switching without asking you.

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Launch Tools:

When you click the launch button, you will be presented with a list of tools to execute that you can choose from.

Double-click any tool, mTES4 will be minimized and the selected tool will be launched.

By default, mTES4 will try to detect some of the most common tools and offer them to you.

You can however customize the launch tools to your preference, either adding, removing, or reordering them.

OBSE and FOSE are special cases and cannot be customized.

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Customizing the Launch Tools:

There are a few slightly different ways you can add new tools so they will be presented to you in the Launch dialog.

1. Common tools can be defined that will be available with any game and with any clone selected.

2. Game tools can be defined that will be available with only a specific game, but with any clone selected

3. Clone tools can be defined that will only be available for a specific clone.

Each tool has it's own section in the ini file.

The name of the section depends on how you want the tool to be available.

In the clone tag file, you can only define one type of tool.

The tools defined in a clone's tag file will only be available when that clone is active.

Every custom tool in the tag file will have the section name of [Custom Tool].

You can define multiple custom tools by having multiple [Custom Tool] sections with different settings.

In the mTES4.ini file, you can define two other types of tools.

The tools defined in the mTES4.ini file will either be available to all clones for a specific game, or all clones for all games.

To define a tool for a specific game, the tools section name will be [%GAME NAME% Tool].

EG. A tool that is only available when Oblivion is active will be in a section named [Oblivion Tool].

In mTES4.ini, the [Custom Tool] section is used to define a tool that is always available,

regardless of what game or clone is active.

The settings for any custom tool are:

sFilePath ; Required, The path to the executable. This can be relative to the game folder or it can be a full path.

sArguments ; Optional, If any extra arguments are needed, you can define them here.

sIconPath ; Optional, The path to the icon that should be displayed in the launch dialog for this tool.

sTitle ; Optional, The name of the tool displayed in the launch dialog.

If sFilePath or sIconPath is relative, it should not begin with a \

If no icon is configured, mTES4 will try to extract the icon from sFilePath.

If no title is defined, mTES4 will use the file name.

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mTES4 Folders:

(NOTE: the paths used for Oblivion and Fallout3 are nearly identical. Just replace all references to Oblivion with Fallout3)

As you may or may not already know, Oblivion has files in 3 different places that mTES4 keeps track of for you.

1. The game folder

This is the folder where your game is installed (contains Oblivion.exe)

By default, on winXP this folder is "C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion"

2. The profile folder

This is the folder where your savegames and oblivion.ini are.

By default, on winXP this folder is "C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion"

3. The appdata folder

This is the folder where oblivion keeps the list of plugins that are installed.

By default, on winXP this is "C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion"

mTES4 creates two additional folders to store the profiles and appdata for your clones.

4. The clone profile folder

This is the folder where mTES4 will store the profile folders for your inactive clones.

When you switch clones, mTES4 will swap your active profile folder with the appropriate folder stored in the clone profile folder

By default, on winXP this folder is "C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion-mTES4"

Eg. Assuming your active copy is named Oblivion1 and you have a 2nd clone named Oblivion2

The profile folder for Oblivion1 will be "...\My Games\Oblivion" (it uses the real oblivion folder)

Because Oblivion2 is an inactive clone, the profile folder will be "...\My Games\Oblivion-mTES4\Oblivion2" (it is stored in the mTES4 folder using its actual clone name)

5. The clone appdata folder

This is the folder where mTES4 will store the appdata folders for your inactive clones.

When you switch clones, mTES4 will swap your active appdata folder with the appropriate folder stored in the clone appdata folder.

By default, on winXP this is "C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion-mTES4"

See the example for The clone profile folder. The clone appdata folder works similarly.

For instance, if your windows XP login name is Joe and you have both Oblivion and Fallout3 installed in their default locations, you will have ALL of these folders:

C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout3

C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\My Documents\My Games\Fallout3

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Local Settings\Application Data\Fallout3

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion

mTES4 adds the following folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\My Documents\My Games\Fallout3-mTES4

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion-mTES4

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Local Settings\Application Data\Fallout3-mTES4

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion-mTES4

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Appendix:

Clones:

A clone is what mTES4 calls any copy of your game that has been tagged as a valid copy of oblivion.

Tags:

A tag is a specially name ini file that is placed inside the game folder of each clone.

A tag file looks like this: "_mTES4 (NAME OF CLONE).ini"

Part of the purpose of these tags is simply so that you can easily see which copy you have currently active from windows explorer without having to run mTES4.

The tags are also used to determine which folders to display in the mTES4 Detected Clones List.

You can also define custom tools for mTES4 launch dialog which will only be displayed for this clone.

mTES4.ini:

This file is used to keep track of which game and clone you have selected.

You can find the mTES4.ini file in the same folder as mTES4.exe.

You can also define custom tools for mTES4 launch dialog that will be displayed for all games and clones or just for the clones of a specific game.

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Planned Features:

- [v0.1] Clone new copies of Oblivion

- [v0.1] Switch between clone copies of Oblivion

- [v0.2] Import existing game copies

- [v0.2] Rename clones

- [v0.2] Delete clones

- [v0.2] Nehrim Support

- [v0.3] Fallout3 Support

- [v0.4] Remove requirement for mTES4.exe to be in any particular folder

- [v0.4] Improve Delete functionality to provide checkbox options for game, profile/appdata and/or just tag

- [v0.4] Support for Wrye Flash

- [v0.5] 3rd party app launch buttons

- [v0.5] per-clone auto launch options

- [v0.5] option to minimize to system tray

- [v0.5] system tray r-click menu

- [v0.X] Support for Morrowind

- [v0.X] Support for Fallout New Vegas

Considerations:

- Optimize storage of inactive clones

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Known Issues/Workarounds:

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Credits:

Psymon: For feedback and assistance, bug reports and specifics for nehrim and fallout3 support

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Change Log:

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Version 0.5.1b

- bug fix for renaming clones fails in v0.5b

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Version 0.5.0b

- New minimize to tray option. Hovering over the tray icon will show the currently active game and clone.

- New r-click menu for the tray icon allows you to conveniently switch games or clones.

- New custom autolaunch tools settings for each clone.

- New Launch Tools dialog. Allows you to choose what tool you want to launch.

- New Custom Tool settings can be configured in mTES4.ini and the _mTES4 (*).ini tag files.

- bug fix for possible duplicate named clones if you have more than one supported game installed.

Affected Import, Copy and Rename features

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Version 0.4.0a

- Support for Wrye Flash

- Added ability to use existing profile and appdata folders when importing.

- New Delete Clone dialog, provides options to keep or delete various clone files and folders.

- Removed requirement for mTES4.exe to be in any particular folder

- 'New Clone' button renamed to 'Copy Clone' to better reflect it's functionality.

- bug fix for attempting to rename the active clone crashes mTES4.

- bug fix for incorrectly assuming that if Bash is installed then bash.ini must exist.

Will now create a new bash.ini from the bash_default.ini if it needs to.

- bug fix for incorrectly parsing bash.ini

- bug fix for no warning when importing or copying a clone, bash is detected but you cancel the BAIN folder selection.

- bug fix for falsely detecting supported games when only placeholder registry keys exist

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Version 0.3.3a

- reverted fix for querying fallout reg key.

- bug fix for potentially creating two clones with identical names.

- improved the behaviour of popup msgboxes.

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Version 0.3.2a

- bug fix for mTES4 querying the wrong registry key path on x64 systems.

- bug fix for querying fallout reg key using "Fallout3" instead of "Fallout 3".

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Version 0.3.1a

- bug fix for mTES4 not running on Vista and Windows 7.

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Version 0.3.0a

Should be backward compatible with v0.2

- Integrated support for Fallout3.

- New ini and tag settings to track supported Bethesda games.

- Various minor cosmetic and non-critical bug fixes.

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Version 0.2.0a

NOTE: v0.2 is NOT backward compatible with v0.1!

- Eliminated the use of the MasterCopy clone. mTES4 is much simpler to use now.

- Added ability to copy from any existing clone.

- Added Import Clone feature.

- Added Rename Clone feature.

- Added Delete Clone feature.

- Moved inactive clone profiles and appdata into mTES4 folders so they don't clutter My Games\ and Application Data\

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Version 0.1.0a

- Initial alpha release.

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Terms of Use:

mTES4 is Public Domain. Feel free to do whatever you like with it. All I ask for is credit for my work.

VB Source code is also available to any who asks.

Edited October 21, 2010 by Psymon

[Hanaisse]

Hopefully Gaticus (if he's a member) or Psymon still come here, will see this and can answer these questions for me (sorry guys, I don't post at BGS).

First of all, I have read the entire mTES4 thread at BGS, and re-read, and re-read. I think I'm ready to give this a try. However a couple of things still confuse me.

1. I know you strongly recommend a "clean" install, but I've decided I don't want to do that and will be quite happy making clones of my existing modded install. Is this still safe or maybe I missed something in the thread?

2. Folder structure and naming: At what level is the clone 're-named'?

Currently my install is;

C:\Elder Scrolls\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion

so if I were to rename the first clone to say, Main Game would it end up as;

C:\Elder Scrolls\Bethesda Softworks\Main Game

effectively renaming "Oblivion" folder level? or would it turn into;

C:\Elder Scrolls\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Main Game ?

3. Installing the misc. tools of the trade. This is where I'm really confused. To quote the install instructions;

"You may like to install everything separately for each clone, but I suggest pre-installing the various Oblivion tools you use: Tools such as Wrye Bash, OBMM, OBSE, TESCS, TES4Edit, TESGecko, etc, etc"

Ok, if all those things are currently installed on my original, and I clone it, does that create a working Wrye BASH (for example) on clone #3, that is only applicable to clone #3, and so on for each clone? The same with BOSS? Can I leave BOSS as it is and be able to launch it per clone? I assume, since OBSE is dropped into the Oblivion folder, that it is also cloned? On the other hand, how would one even install these separately for each clone? Can they be multiply-installed? Would I have to install as many instances of python too?

I'll probably have more questions later but these are my main questions that have me hesitating at the moment. Sorry if the questions sound silly, but hey, some of us are just users, not programmers. This does sound like an awesome tool and I'd really like to get it right.

Thanks.