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[WIP] Mator Smash


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Mator Smash

VIDEO TUTORIAL - For v0.0.7

GamerPoets Video - For v0.4.1

 

 

Mator Smash is now available on Nexus Mods. 

Nexus Mods Mod Page

 

 

As of v1.0.0, Mator Smash has a "Quick Patch" button

As of v0.5.1, Mator Smash will copy records with "errors" in them (such as unresolved/unexpected references)

As of v0.5.0, Mator Smash has new algorithm features and is more stable.

As of v0.4.1, Mator Smash merges redundant plugins properly.

As of v0.4, Mator Smash now produces complete record prototypes

As of v0.3, Mator Smash supports Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE

As of v0.2.2, Mator Smash allows you to modify tags on plugins from within the program.

As of v0.2.1, Mator Smash has Smash Settings for Skyrim for every Bash Tag Wrye Bash offered for Oblivion.

 

Changelog:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Purpose
Mator Smash is an application built on the xEdit framework developed to replace the primary functionality of Wyre Bash - the creation of patch files to combine (or merge) conflicting overrides to overcome Bethesda's "Rule of One". Wyre Bash used to provide this functionality in the days of Oblivion through the usage of bash tags, keywords that would be put in the description of the mod that would then tell Wyre Bash what types of records it should try patching. However, the current status is that Wyre Bash only provides this for a handful of record types for Skyrim, and this has been the case for quite a while now. There are several users (most notably Sharlikran) who have been working to update Wyre Bash's codebase to work with Skyrim, but it's been an uphill battle. As of now, it's not certain whether Wyre Bash will ever offer the same functionality it did in the days of Oblivion for Skyrim mods. That's where Mator Smash comes in.

 

Why is this necessary?
As per Skyrim's "Rule of One", any two mods that modify the same record but in different ways will conflict with each other in a way that can't be resolved asides from the creation of a compatibility patch. Because the number of Skyrim mods exceeds 40,000, there is no conceivable way to manually build enough compatibility patches to make every possible load order (or even a small fraction of them) work with each mod operating as intended. Mator Smash automates the most important part of the task of compatibility patch creation - the combining of conflicting edits. This is something that we've been needing for a very, very long time.

 

How does it work?
Warning: technical jargon ahead. Where Wyre Bash has separate procedures for the patching of individual record types, Mator Smash has a few generic procedures for the patching of ALL record types. This means that Mator Smash has, with very little development effort, achieved the capacity to patch more records than Wyre Bash has ever been capable of patching. This is achieved through a recursive traversal method which traverses override record structure, comparing subrecords between a master record, a source override record, and a destination override record. Upon the basis of this comparison, certain subrecords are written to the destination record while others are skipped and others are deleted from it.

 

Development Status
I began development of Mator Smash as a standalone application built on top of the xEdit API 10/18/2015. Here's the GitHub repository. Check out the design folder in the repository for various files relating to my design process. I'll be live streaming most of my development on livecoding.tv. I'll be streaming mainly on weekends 9:00AM-9:00PM PST. Because of major code reuse from merge plugins standalone, smash will be entering public beta very soon.

Mator Smash is currently available as a proof of concept script (which is slow and lacking in features/a clean user experience). You can download v0.9.4 of that script here. This script can currently correctly patch a massive number of different types of records. FAR MORE than Wyre Bash or any other currently available solution, and more than any solution that has ever existed for Skyrim or any other game.

 

Implemented Features

  • Dynamic, flexible settings: Smash settings are comprised of a tree which has information on how records/subrecords should be handled. This will allow users to control how a patch is created on a per-subrecord basis. This will make smash relevant regardless of the nature of the mods being patched, or the game the mods come from. Each node (record/subrecord) will have the following data associated with it-
    • Process: Whether or not smash should process this node and perform conflict resolution for it if a conflict is found.
    • Preserve Deletions: If a mod deletes an element inside of this node, that deletion will be preserved in the generated patch.
    • Treat as single entity: If a mod overrides any subrecord in this node, the entire node will be replaced with that mod's version of it.
    • Chaining: Linking allows you to copy multiple side-by-side elements when any one of those elements changes.
    • Override Deletions: Allows a plugin to restore deleted elements.
    • Force Value: Forces values from a particular plugin to be used, and only allows plugins which require this plugin to perform further conflict resolution on affected records.
  • Tags: As of v0.2.1, all Bash tags that were offered with Wrye Bash for Oblivion are now available for Skyrim.  Smash will automatically detect tags and apply smash settings to the plugins that have them, assuming you have smash settings that correspond to the tags.
  • Managed smashed patches: Patches you build will be tracked in the program, so you can quickly and easily rebuild them when your load order changes. You can also have multiple patches for your load order, if you feel that is desirable.
  • Multi-language support: I built a really clean, extensible, and easy to use language system when I developed Merge Plugins Standalone. Smash will use the same language system to support multiple languages out-of-the-box. As a translator, all you have to do is make a text file to create a translation and have users install it in their lang folder. The rest is handled by the program.
  • Fast and easy setting creation: Select some plugins to build a setting to specifically handle the conflicts they are capable of creating in a load order.  Toggle or set flags for multiple nodes at once.  Select similar nodes in a setting tree.  Conflict resolution has never been quite so powerful, flexible, and easy.

 

Planned Features

Smash is now pretty much feature complete.  Further development energy will be spent on porting it to a zEdit application mode, zSmash, which will include a new, streamlined workflow.

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Posted

It looks like the problem is not affecting Skyrim. I made some test plugins that worked fine. 

 

What exactly is the cause of the "Floating point division by zero" failure? I can't seem to figure out the conditions that throw that error. I can't even get my FNV test plugins to do any kind of patching and they only include three NPC records.

 

Here's a log from doing some test plugins that threw the error: https://mega.nz/#!wRRjiBIL!_6i6VSa2h4XhtJdIS2eFR9fxmyQJGQ0gQUpL3AP18Xs

 

I had the same problem when trying to do only Factions and Items on USLP and WAF for Skyrim.

 

Settings for FNVhttps://mega.nz/#!UIBWSLyC!Eko4XIQn4bltQ6x8QXL-8gmgp6v92ujJuPXhiKyW6tw

 

I deleted my setting for YUP on accident, but the FCO one is still there and it's basically the same with RACE, Hair, Eyes, and Head Parts added for NPCs.

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Posted (edited)

Floating point division by zero there is a new bug.  I'll look into it.

 

EDIT: It appears to happen when there are 0 records to smash.

Edited by Mator
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Posted

So with Mod Picker being worked on now (and apparently having been for months), what's the status of Smash? I kind of hoped it would get finished before other major projects started taking all of your time.

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Posted
  On 3/22/2016 at 10:11 AM, Octopuss said:

So with Mod Picker being worked on now (and apparently having been for months), what's the status of Smash? I kind of hoped it would get finished before other major projects started taking all of your time.

On the whole I think the rotation is probably what's keeps him active. Without flexibility it might be more like a job than a hobby. Though this just speculation on my end.

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Posted (edited)
  On 3/22/2016 at 10:11 AM, Octopuss said:

So with Mod Picker being worked on now (and apparently having been for months), what's the status of Smash? I kind of hoped it would get finished before other major projects started taking all of your time.

Right now development on Smash and Merge Plugins is on hold until the Mod Picker Beta 40 days from now.  I didn't really want this to be the case, but right now Mod Picker needs my help more than those projects do (with the big team of devs it's important that I set a good example and keep people focused and on track).

 

Although, I actually have still been working on Smash and Merge Plugins indirectly.  Both Mator Smash and Merge Plugins need a backend that will hold reports/statistics, and smash needs a backend to serve up Smash Settings.  The Merge Plugins backend was built with Delphi and has been extremely unstable, and a general pain in the ass.  I'm building a new backend to be used by Merge Plugins, Mator Smash, and possibly future projects as well.  I'm building this backend as a RESTful API with Ruby on Rails, which means it'll also offer a web application for people to use.  It's called MADI - Mator's Application Data Interface.  GitHub Repositorty.

 

I've also been working on a personal website so you guys can track my progress closer and keep up to date with what I'm working on.

 

  On 3/22/2016 at 8:37 PM, Van555 said:

On the whole I think the rotation is probably what's keeps him active. Without flexibility it might be more like a job than a hobby. Though this just speculation on my end.

Rotation is very important.  There's no way I can work on the same thing for too long without getting bored.  By mixing things up I keep myself interested and avoid the risk of burning out.  There's a delicate balance though between freedom and getting things done, so I have to be careful to not be too flexible with myself.  :}

 

 

-Mator

Edited by Mator
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Posted (edited)

Hi there, after reading the whole thread. What I've got is when I want to use Mator Smash and used the automatic smash settings then I need to check the results in xEdit is it right?

 

Unless if I want to set specific settings for each plugin then I need to manually configured the Smash Setting?

 

And I kinda of wondering if on the bashed patch itself I have tweaked the settings for instance timescale and the crime alarm radius, I'm guessing Mator Smash doesn't have that kinda of feature yet perhaps? or maybe not at all

 

Sorry for asking, just found about Mator Smash and I'm planning to tried and using it replacing both xEdit Merged Patch and Bashed Patch.

Edited by reddvilzz
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Posted
  On 1/22/2016 at 7:42 PM, Mator said:

Yeah, that is not crowd sourced, lol.

 

That is "developer"-sourced.

Old thread I know but I have to be pedantic and say it is free and open sourced under a number different licenses including MIT, BSD and GPL, not sure why so many?

 

The process is a standard Git flow process. Fork the main repo, create a feature branch make  your changes commit to your own branch and fork and send in a pull request to upstream. Pretty simple especially if you have ever used SVN, Clearcase, Perforce or God have mercy on your soul CVS. Github makes the whole process point and click.

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Posted

Mator, Smash isn't properly preserving Name subrecords for almost any record.

I can find this in all sorts of records, where it will carry across many changes made by a mod, but not name changes, reverting the name to Vanilla or the name from another, otherwise non-winning mod.

 

However for some records it does work properly

 

Screenshots of names failing to carry:

https://i.imgur.com/WNxBuUO.png

https://i.imgur.com/WNJBUmW.png

https://i.imgur.com/W6AUz80.png

https://i.imgur.com/HqmdqXf.png

 

Screenshots of successful name carry over:

https://i.imgur.com/qKGO9Zg.png

 

I can't figure out what is causing this.

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Posted (edited)

That seems to have fixed it! Also I can now properly delete old Smashed Patches, so thats nice. That tab is weirdly laggy though still.

Edited by Nephenee13
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