PyFFI

[l0new0lf331]

Hello yet again.Hopefully I can state the questions I have in understandable terms.I have to do a re install of Oblivion,it's just not stable enough,and wish to do the full on PyFFIing of meshes,both Oblivions and mods as well,am also going to clean the plugins.I looked at some sites with instructions,tomlongs site,the TES4Edit Wiki,getting the gist of it well enough and see why doing this is the best possible way to get the game stable.I am a noob at all of this in case my prior posts did not give the hint of that.Doing well at installation of mods and all,learning these tools has been a bit difficult as the time I should spend learning them just isnt there right now.Some things stated on these sites are probably second nature to most,but i dont understand some things.

PyFFIing

1.This is the default .ini in the toaster folder

[main]

; default folder to toast

; should *not* end with a trailing slash

folder = ./in <-----------------------------------------------Do I set this to C:\Apps\PyFFI\utilities\toaster\in?

[options]

; set this to the number of cores you have

jobs = 4 <-----------------------------------------------Is this the CPU cores?I have a dual core so obviously set to 2 right?

; default source directory (for determining paths to write in destdir,

; usually identical to folder)

; should *not* end with a trailing slash

source-dir = ./in <-----------------------------------------------I set this to C:\Apps\PyFFI\utilities\toaster\in right?

; default destination directory

; should *not* end with a trailing slash

dest-dir = ./out <-----------------------------------------------And this to C:\Apps\PyFFI\utilities\toaster\out?

; resume support (if True, nifs that already exist in destination

; folder will be skipped)

resume = True

; if True, pause when done

pause = True

2.tomlongs site says to set the paths to the in folder in toaster.how do I do that exactly?Like above?

I read that you just drop the folder to be PyFFI'd to the in folder and it will automatically go to the out folder.When i did this on a small mod as a test it didn't go to the out folder and am still unsure where those meshes ended up as I set no paths at the time.

Or should I just do the right click method?

3.When PyFFIing the Oblivion meshes what exactly are the leading spaces that I have to watch out for,or is that automatically taken care of now?

I ask because one of you told me that PyFFIing is "awfully automated as of late"How automated?

4.A couple of clothing mods I put in caused massive slowdown.Captain Molly's for HGEC is one of them.Studying Blender taught me the importance of AS FEW vertices as possible.Beautiful work on the mod yet I know the slowdown came from the vertices there.As soon as i put the clothes on in menu immediate FPS loss.When I PyFFI these meshes will the textures be affected?Since they may be dependant on the level of detail.

The other one was Natures Bounty btw.

TES4Edit

Really just one question here.Because of how delicate installing mods can be and the fact that TSE4Edit only cleans the plugins in the Data folder should I clean them now or uninstall and clean them as I install them?I already know the mods I am going to use this time so was wondering.And the Wiki is educational on the subject as to how,and what to clean and what not to.I like the mod lists it has on there.Very helpful.I may come back later with questions on explicit,implicit mod dependencies.But most of the mods I use I understand what patches,etc are with them.

What I'm planning to do is PyFFI the meshes for Oblivion and mods,and clean plugins before I uninstall the game and set it all in a back up folder since TES4Edit only cleans the plugins that are in the Data folder.Figure I'd just replace the plugins on the reinstall from the cleaned plugin folder,same with the meshes.I already know the mods I'm going to use as I've tested quite a few and have been thinking that all that in and out may have made some things unstable.Also might break down and do a BAIN install seeings how the bain setup lets overwritten files be returned to where they belong.

I am sorry for the dumb questions I just wish to learn how to do this right so I can have a stable game and as I move slowly forward with modding myself I can set the mods i make proper with regards to the user.I ammore of a user learning the ropes of computers and modding.I was going to get the Vanilla meshes PyFFI'd from the nexus but it said it may not work with the GoTY Edition.So I gotta do this myself.

And once again Thank You Guys for your patience and assistance.

Edit:Also,should I use the PyFFI Automation Utility or is it already in v2.1.5?

I already know not to clean them so should I avoid PyFFIing the major overhauls(the FCOM setup OOO,MMM,etc.)as well?

Edited January 4, 2011 by l0new0lf331

[Sealwarrior]

Hello there L0new0lf,

I also had to reinstall my copy of Oblivion recently, and also a few months ago. I decided to install FCOM on the latter reinstallation, and I had to pore over many threads and articles about things I did not fully understand at the time, like mod cleaning, BAIN, and PYFFI, in order to get the best possible experience. Sites like Tomlong's TESIV: POSItive were truly excellent resources in this undertaking. While I am no longer as green as I was, I am by no means an expert, but I hope I can provide some clarification.

Part of 1., and 2. About this, I think what the user is supposed to do is drop the meshes to be PYFFied in the "In" folder, right click on the "oblivion_optimize" INI (not the "default" one) and select the "Run PyFFI" option. After the process completes itself, the meshes that were PyFFIed from the "In" folder go to the "Out" folder. If the process runs and nothing comes out of it, check the "default" INI. I think it should look something like this...:

[main]

; default folder to toast

; should *not* end with a trailing slash

folder = ./in

; default destination directory

; should *not* end with a trailing slash

dest-dir = ./out

... In order for it to work as I just described. I guess that means not to change them then... I know the instructions say the destination folders listed should not end in a trailing slash, and this may be because if there is one present, the program would think there is another folder after the one listed. I can only guess that if someone were to do that, the PyFFIed meshes would just vanish as the program cannot find the specified location.

3. Er... My greeness is about to be exposed .... What I want to say is that if you follow the instructions for "Optimize and Repack a Meshes BSA steps" on Tomlong's site (http://tesivpositive.animolious.com/?page=pyffi) to the letter, everything will be fine. To be honest, I have no idea what a leading space is... Hopefully someone else can help you there.

4. From the official PyFFI thread on the BethSoft forums:

Q - Is there a visual quality loss?

A - No, PyFFI removes duplicate and empty data from the nif file.

Here is the link for the thread, in case you don't have it: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1123756-inforelz-pyffi-python-file-format-interface. A lot of questions and concerns can be assuaged here, believe me.

I think backing everything up is a sound plan, and will save you countless hours of waiting/clicking/pulling your hair out PyFFiing and cleaning. Keep in mind also that when TES4Edit cleans a plugin, it makes a backup of the original in a pre-cleaned state. It would be wise to save those as well, if you find the results of the cleaning undesirable. Another thing would be to consult this page: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/TES4Edit_Cleaning_Guide. It has explanations on a whole bunch of terms, and even a list of what not to clean (but be sure to clean everything else in you LO.) For PyFFiing mod meshes, try to keep an eye out for some that have already been done for you. A whole slew of mod updates have been released when the latest version of PyFFI came out for a further boost in performance ("Better Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary", "A Brotherhood Renewed", and the unofficial patch supplementals [not sure of this one, arg], to name but a few.\.) For instance, FCOM has optimized meshes for Warcry, Francescos, Bob's Armoury, etc, kindly provided by Team FCOM located here: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1152645-relz-fcom-convergence-and-ufcom/. Hopefully that will save you some time. As for BAIN.... Please learn it. I cannot even begin to tell you how much it has made things easier for me, and how much stress it has taken away from installing and modding Oblivion. It is worth its weight in gold.... Or cookies. Whichever you prefer. I wish you luck doing this, and I hope you learn something in the process. I know I did, and I am thankful for it.

Sealwarrior

[l0new0lf331]

Well I put the 8 recomended folders from the Oblivion BSA in the "in" folder.Went to the Oblivion_optimization.ini,right click,selected run PyFFI,and got nothing.A quick window that closed almost immediatly.My question about setting paths refers to this I got from tomlongs TESIVPositive site."Remember to set the path to your Python folder (usually first level on your local disk) in the default INI."

What is he talking about?

Edit:Now even the right click method is giving up no results.Samen thing a quick flash and then nothing.

Edited January 4, 2011 by l0new0lf331

[HeyYou]

Fire up an explorer window, and look for your python install. It should be something like PythonXX where xx is the version number. For the install path in the ini... Use C:\pythonxx

Should be golden, I think.....

[l0new0lf331]

Yeah it was my dumbness.I cut the default ini to paste it here thats why it didnt work.eeerp!!PyFFIing the 8 recomended now.

[l0new0lf331]

So i found the files with the leading spaces.Being on TES4Positive taught me much but I need clarification on somthing.This is what was taken from that site.

The Vanilla meshes with leading spaces (to watch out for when you repack your BSA)

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancechighlandsm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancegoldcoastsm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancegreatforestsm02.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowlg01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowlg02.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowlg03.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowsm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowsm02.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancemtnsnowsm03.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancerockmosssm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancerockybeachsm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancewestwsm01.nif

meshes\dungeons\caves\exterior\ centrancewestwsm02.nif

The first key step is to repack the BSA without moving or copying the optimized files; otherwise, the leading spaces would be truncated.

So according to this I wanna leave those spaces with those particular files right?

Edited January 6, 2011 by l0new0lf331