[WIPz] TESVGecko

[AndalayBay]

 

 

TESVGecko

 

 

Project on hold

 

The original plugin utility for Oblivion is making a return! We will be porting TES4Gecko to Skyrim, giving it a new modern design that will make it easier to use. It will be available in 32 and 64 bit versions.

 

Planned Features

• Mod Merging - Merge multiple plugins into a new plugin and merge to master.
• Mod Cleaning - Automatic and manual mod cleaning (removal of undesired edits).
• Copy Records - Copy records from one plugin to another or to a new plugin.
• Compare Plugins - Compare the contents of two or more plugins, displayed side-by-side in a tree view.
• Create difference plugin - Basically a variation on the cleaning process with multiple plugins acting like pseudo masters.
• Generate Comparison Report - Report that will highlight the matches and differences between two or more plugins. Results shown on-screen with option to display results in a report. May copy results to a forum post or save report to a file.
• Display Contents of a Single Plugin - Display the contents of a plugin in a tree view.
• Edit Author and Description - set or change the author and description of a plugin
• Convert to Master - Convert a plugin to a master file
• Convert to Plugin - Convert a master to a regular plugin
• Edit Master List - Edit the master list of a plugin.
• Search - Search records on Form ID, Editor ID and various names and descriptions.
• Full Record Editing - Add new records, fields or edit existing records and fields.

 

Requirements

 

Requires Microsoft .NET 4. The setup program will install it if you don't have it already.

 

Progress

 

Beta Version 0.2.0

Change Log 0.2.0

 

• Made string searches case insensitive. This is the bug that prevented Dawnguard from loading.
• Changed mode for opening string files so that mods can be opened even if the CK is running.
• Unhandled exception capture. Use CaptureErrorLog.cmd in the TESVGecko folder to create an error log on your desktop.
• Edit/cleaning of masters.
• Dramatically improved cleaning times.

 

Beta Version 0.1.0

Change Log 0.1.0

 

• Added record highlighting. Dirty edits are red. Modified records (not dirty) are purple. If there is a dirty record somewhere in the node, the upper branches of that node will be orange. If there is a modified record somewhere in the node, the upper branches will be blue. Once you edit a record in Gecko, the text will be in italics. In other words: orange = dirty edit somewhere in the child records, blue = clean all the way, with real changes in the child records. These might be unintentional edits, but Gecko isn't psychic.
• Plugin cleaning. Dirty edits are cleaned automatically.
• Added editing functions: add record, add field, remove record, remove field. Add record and add field are pretty rough and not really usable at this point (you need to know the record types to use them), but remove record and remove field can be used. These would be suitable for manual mod cleaning for example.
• The background of the tab or title bar in the tree view is white for the currently selected plugin. This is the plugin that any action will apply to.
• Convert to master. Convert a plugin to a master file. ONAM records will be created if necessary.
• Convert to plugin. Convert a master to a regular plugin. ONAM records will be removed if necessary.
• Make a fake master. This will only flip the master bit on a plugin. No ONAM records will be created. Useful for creating patches.
• Top level groups have been given proper names. Groups are sorted in alphabetical order by default. Option exists to change sort order to match position in plugin file.
• Edit author and description. It is possible to add a description if one doesn't exist, although the interface is a little rough.
• Formatted Most Recently Used Documents List so that the mod names are readable.
• Added search by Form ID.
• Added progress bar. Mod name in tab is greyed out while it's loading.
• Squashed a memory leak.
• Streamlined synchronization logic into a single function. Various fixes to asynchronous code.
• Added prompt to save changes.
• Changed file open to read mode to allow sharing with other editing tools.

 

Preview Version 0.0.4

Change Log 0.0.4

 

• re-sort tabs by dragging
• resize treeviews horizontally and vertically
• added scroll bars to individual treeviews and window
• automatically loads all masters
• improved memory management
• auto-scrolling on match in side-by-side view
• new presentation strategy to replace name strategy
• hid vestigial ribbon buttons
• recently used documents list

 

Preview Version 0.0.2

This is still a preview - no editing functions yet. It still requires a decoder ring to read, to quote Arthmoor. But it is getting better.

 

Change Log for 0.0.2

 

• on expansion and on selection fixed in side-by-side view
• scroll bars added to individual trees in side-by-side view
• more names given to groups and records
• installation of update will replace old version
• version number displayed in title bar so you know you're on the new version

 

Preview Version 0.0.1

Early preview version to showcase new interface.

 

Main Discussion Thread and Progress Updates

Project on hold. If we resurrect the project, we'll post new links on The Assimilation Lab.

 

Application Architecture

TESVGecko is written in C# using WPF with MVVM.

 

Team

 

AndalayBay

Jimi diGriz

 

Credits

 

Credit goes to the original Gecko team of dev_akm (Aubrey K McAuley), ScripterRon (Ron Hoffman), KomodoDave (N David Brown) and Steve Carrow. Without the original Gecko to work from, I wouldn't know where to begin!

Thanks Amadaun for Kinky-Tail the Winged Gecko!

Thanks to sandor for getting in touch with Steve Carrow and getting the source code for the most recent version for me.

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay

[AndalayBay]

Here's a screenshot to give you an idea of what the new interface looks like:

[DarkRider]

Cool, hope it's as simple as TESIV Gecko

[AndalayBay]

We're hoping to make it simpler - or at least more transparent. TES4Gecko would do a lot of stuff behind the scenes and just give you a message saying it was done. We plan to display the results of a merge process, for example, before you save the plugin.

That reminds me - here's a screenshot of the tabbed interface. You will be able to switch from tabbed view to a side-by-side comparison view.

Edited May 20, 2012 by AndalayBay

[AndalayBay]

--Links removed-- Requires Microsoft .NET 4. The setup program will install it if you don't have it already.

 

This version is an early preview, which means that it has no editing capabilities yet. You can open multiple plugins and view their contents. You can switch from a tabbed view to a side-by-side tree view. The side-by-side view allows you to compare plugins, but the side-by-side view isn't working very well yet. The synchronization isn't working as well as we'd like and the scroll bars aren't cooperating. But you can scroll through the whole tree view and when you expand a record, the corresponding record will expand in the other plugins.

 

Basic Usage

 

Open one or more plugins. Hold down the CTRL key to select multiple plugins at once. They will be loaded in the tabbed view. Click on the Side-by-side view icon to switch to the Side-by-Side view. Now you can select On Expansion or On Selection. On Expansion will expand the corresponding record in the other plugins. It might take a click or two to get the expansion working. We would like to have the scroll bars on each individual tree - that's something we're working on.

 

On Selection will expand the corresponding record and select it. The difference is that On Expansion will expand the top level records, whereas On Selection will match on sub-records.

 

Why are we Releasing this now?

 

Just to give you an idea of what it's going to look like. The ribbon bar will be expanded with the various functions you can perform. You will be able to save a plugin with the current name or use save as to save it under a new name. We're just looking for feedback on the feel at this point. I've also heard from a lot of people that would simply like to view the contents of a plugin and to compare plugins, so hopefully you'll find this useful. Unfortunately we need to fix up the record display so that it's easier to read. I'll be working on that over the next few days, but we've broken the side-by-side view again so we won't be able to provide an update until we get that fixed.

 

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay

[Prometheus_ts]

Great Job .... I tried the first version uploaded , It remembers much the interface of TESSnip but , To me the interface look is not that important as are the functionalities ...

the only thing I woudl say , is possible to introduce more descriptive branch topics? like instead of COBJ perhaps recepies or the like?

Edited June 4, 2012 by Prometheus_ts

[AndalayBay]

Yeah that's what I meant by fixing up the record display. There are quite a few things that need fixing in that regard.

[syscrusher]

You've made my day! I love TES4Gecko and look forward to beta testing this when the time comes.

I didn't see any mention of a feature to split objects from an ESP out into a new ESM...do you plan to offer that?

Thanks for continuing to work on an extremely useful utility!

[AndalayBay]

Possibly. The whole master plugin thing in Skyrim is something I haven't gotten my head around yet! People have been using master plugins to get around various bugs and we need to make sure we don't propagate that. Hopefully they won't need to anymore now that the navmesh bug has been fixed.

[syscrusher]

Possibly. The whole master plugin thing in Skyrim is something I haven't gotten my head around yet! People have been using master plugins to get around various bugs and we need to make sure we don't propagate that. Hopefully they won't need to anymore now that the navmesh bug has been fixed.

I was actually intending to make an ESM for the "normal" reason rather than bug workaround. Specifically, I have some reusable objects and scripts in my current mod that I'd like to put into a library for use in my next mod.

[AndalayBay]

Yes, this should be doable once I understand esm files better. Skyrim has a new record type called ONAMs. They normally list the records that have been overridden in the master plugin, but I've heard of cases where they are created even when the master doesn't touch anything in Skyrim.esm.

I'll add this to the list.

[DarkRider]

TES4Gecko would do a lot of stuff behind the scenes and just give you a message saying it was done.

Gotta mention this was one of the big appeals of Gecko. Folks who wanted more in depth function used Edit while folks who don't understand enough to benefit from that extra data found Gecko more approachable. That ease of use made it the best tool for absolute beginners who are overwhelmed easily by panes of raw data.

With all the changes and the direction this seems to be moving, doesn't feel like Gecko. Not a bad app, but maybe an option to keep it behind the scenes would be useful. Or maybe a new moniker

[AndalayBay]

We were thinking of that, but it's not going to be like Edit either. Even though all the information will be presented, you won't have to go through it if you don't want to. It's just showing you that it did something. You can give it a quick scan to see if everything is ok before saving. Or not. Whichever you prefer.

So still behind the scenes, but presents the results when done. With the current Gecko, I have to open the plugin in Edit afterwards to check the results. We're just trying to avoid that step.

And saving will be a separate action, so if it does screw up, you can just close the application. If you try to close without saving, it will ask if you want to save.

[syscrusher]

And saving will be a separate action, so if it does screw up, you can just close the application. If you try to close without saving, it will ask if you want to save.

+1 for this behavior!

[AndalayBay]

--Link removed-- This is still a preview - no editing functions yet. It still requires a decoder ring to read, to quote Arthmoor. But it is getting better.

 

Change Log for 0.0.2

• on expansion and on selection fixed in side-by-side view
• scroll bars added to individual trees in side-by-side view
• more names given to groups and records
• installation of update will replace old version
• version number displayed in title bar so you know you're on the new version

 

You might want to manually uninstall the old version if you didn't install it so that everyone has access. The default has been changed so that everyone has access, so you may wind up with two versions.

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay

[Vouivre]

Looks good I'm definitely going to be making a lot of use for this in the future. It'll make group projects much easier to work with. It does have the merge esp function already right?

[AndalayBay]

No, unfortunately not. It has no editing capabilities at all yet. That's why I'm calling it a preview version. We'll start calling it a beta when we get some real functionality in there like merging.

[Vouivre]

Okay gotcha, I've been looking for a tool and was hoping a gecko version would be coming out. So happy to see you're working on it. It'll make life so much easier. Thanks

[King_Lim]

Thanks! TESVGecko very good program. I am the head of the project a cult of fire and it is the program to me is very necessary.

[AndalayBay]

--Link removed-- This is still a preview version, meaning that no editing functions are available yet. However, as with previous versions, all records are displayed. We have added more record descriptions. We've also made a lot of changes to the interface which should make navigation easier, but we are still having issues with the performance of the side-by-side tree view. It can be rather slow on large records if the expansion and selection options are enabled at the same time.

 

TESVGecko Change Log 0.0.4

• re-sort tabs by dragging
• resize treeviews horizontally and vertically
• added scroll bars to individual treeviews and window
• automatically loads all masters
• improved memory management
• auto-scrolling on match in side-by-side view
• new presentation strategy to replace name strategy
• hid vestigial ribbon buttons
• recently used documents list

 

I've also updated the OP with the planned features and change log.

 

NOTE: Please uninstall the previous version manually before installing the update. We are having issues getting the installer to replace the previous version.

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay

[AndalayBay]

Cleaning dirty edits has been added!

 

TESVGecko is now in beta! We've been very quiet lately, making lots of changes and squashing bugs. We now have mod cleaning and some editing features. Our mod cleaning is conservative at this time. We have found that the Creation Kit will make changes in fields that are labelled as unknown on the UESP wiki, so we do not remove those records. It appears that those fields are no longer used and the changes can be ignored, but we need to confirm this before removing those edits. If you are sure they are dirty edits, then you can use the Remove Record or Remove Field functions to remove them manually.

 

Gecko is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. --Currently not available--

 

Beta Version 0.1.0

Change Log 0.1.0

• Added record highlighting. Dirty edits are red. Modified records (not dirty) are purple. If there is a dirty record somewhere in the node, the upper branches of that node will be orange. If there is a modified record somewhere in the node, the upper branches will be blue. Once you edit a record in Gecko, the text will be in italics. In other words: orange = dirty edit somewhere in the child records, blue = clean all the way, with real changes in the child records. These might be unintentional edits, but Gecko isn't psychic.
• Plugin cleaning. Dirty edits are cleaned automatically.
• Added editing functions: add record, add field, remove record, remove field. Add record and add field are pretty rough and not really usable at this point (you need to know the record types to use them), but remove record and remove field can be used. These would be suitable for manual mod cleaning for example.
• The background of the tab or title bar in the tree view is white for the currently selected plugin. This is the plugin that any action will apply to.
• Convert to master. Convert a plugin to a master file. ONAM records will be created if necessary.
• Convert to plugin. Convert a master to a regular plugin. ONAM records will be removed if necessary.
• Make a fake master. This will only flip the master bit on a plugin. No ONAM records will be created. Useful for creating patches.
• Top level groups have been given proper names. Groups are sorted in alphabetical order by default. Option exists to change sort order to match position in plugin file.
• Edit author and description. It is possible to add a description if one doesn't exist, although the interface is a little rough.
• Formatted Most Recently Used Documents List so that the mod names are readable.
• Added search by Form ID.
• Added progress bar. Mod name in tab is greyed out while it's loading.
• Squashed a memory leak.
• Streamlined synchronization logic into a single function. Various fixes to asynchronous code.
• Added prompt to save changes.
• Changed file open to read mode to allow sharing with other editing tools.

 

Future Plans

We have already begun work on mod merging.

• Add remaining Gecko functionality, with plugin merging coming next.
• Add colour customization for highlighting.
• Expand search function to Editor ID and various names and descriptions.
• Streamline record addition and editing features.
• Continue to format records with proper names and number formats.
• Add sorting options for records (Form ID, Editor ID and Name).
• Add wizards to aid with record editing and additions.

 

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay

[AndalayBay]

Beta 2 has been released. Cleaning and editing of masters has been added.

Beta Version 0.2.0

Change Log 0.2.0

• Made string searches case insensitive. This is the bug that prevented Dawnguard from loading.
  
• Changed mode for opening string files so that mods can be opened even if the CK is running.
  
• Unhandled exception capture. Use CaptureErrorLog.cmd in the TESVGecko folder to create an error log on your desktop.
  
• Edit/cleaning of masters.
  
• Dramatically improved cleaning times.
  

Edited October 2, 2012 by AndalayBay