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[WIP] Mator Smash


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kWdBG.jpg

 

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

I've been out of the picture for a while, but one of my less fond recollections of my days as an active Skyrim modder was trying to figure how to use MS, and being utterly defeated. (That is, I did get it to generate a patch file that I could view and study in TES5Edit, but I didn't really understand what it was doing and why it was solving conflicts the way it was.) Has anyone done an introduction in the meantime, or is MS really meant to be an ancillary tool within the broader framework of Mod Picker?

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Posted
  On 12/31/2016 at 9:34 AM, mikegray said:

I've been out of the picture for a while, but one of my less fond recollections of my days as an active Skyrim modder was trying to figure how to use MS, and being utterly defeated. (That is, I did get it to generate a patch file that I could view and study in TES5Edit, but I didn't really understand what it was doing and why it was solving conflicts the way it was.) Has anyone done an introduction in the meantime, or is MS really meant to be an ancillary tool within the broader framework of Mod Picker?

Mator Smash resolves conflicts based on smash settings.  Unlike Bash it actually detects conflicts on a per-subrecord basis, and then handles those conflicts based on user-defined settings.  The settings themselves are basically just descriptions of what to do when a conflict is detected in a subrecord.  You define the settings using the setting manager.  Everything is clearly explained in the video linked in the OP.

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Posted
  On 1/1/2017 at 12:11 PM, GSDFan said:

Just wanted to say that the link to 0.3.1 in the OP is broken. It comes up with page not found.

Fixed!  Thanks for letting me know.

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Posted

I've been trying to get my head around this, following your tutorial for Alpha 0.0.7 as well as Velgus short guide here: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/4e7ejv/guide_mator_smash_basics/

 

I think I understand most of it, but the biggest problem I'm having is what Bash tags to put where, if at all. So for instance Falskaar.esm - should that have any Bash tags? If yes, which? Bash.Stats? Bash.Factions? Bash.Regions?

 

Or is it simply a case of opening TES5Edit and seeing what each does for my load order?

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Posted
  On 1/17/2017 at 2:50 PM, MissShaoHuan said:

I've been trying to get my head around this, following your tutorial for Alpha 0.0.7 as well as Velgus short guide here: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/4e7ejv/guide_mator_smash_basics/

 

I think I understand most of it, but the biggest problem I'm having is what Bash tags to put where, if at all. So for instance Falskaar.esm - should that have any Bash tags? If yes, which? Bash.Stats? Bash.Factions? Bash.Regions?

 

Or is it simply a case of opening TES5Edit and seeing what each does for my load order?

I'd recommend just applying the Bash.All tag.

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Posted
  On 1/17/2017 at 6:27 PM, Mator said:

I'd recommend just applying the Bash.All tag.

Ohhh, ok. I did that and I am looking at it in TES5Edit. Some things didn't carry over, I think but most of it did :D Thank you I think I understand this much better now. Goodbye Bashed Patch~

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Posted
  On 1/21/2017 at 1:29 AM, MissShaoHuan said:

Ohhh, ok. I did that and I am looking at it in TES5Edit. Some things didn't carry over, I think but most of it did :D Thank you I think I understand this much better now. Goodbye Bashed Patch~

Awesome!  :)

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Posted (edited)

Is it just me or is the load order "fetching" for Skyrim Special Edition broken?

 

It doesn't fetch the appropriate load order, and uses, I think, a time of install instead of assigned mod locations through the use of LOOT.

 

EDIT;

Just checked the log and it fetches the original Skyrim load order instead of the Skyrim SE load order list.

 

But it uses GameIni files of Skyrim SE.

Edited by JawZ
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Posted (edited)

Just wanted to let you guys know that I've been making major progress on fixing the record prototyping issues.  I just need to figure out how to handle unions and we'll have perfect record prototypes!

Here's a little preview of the ARMO record properly prototyped:

tZ6H4.png  tZ6L9.png  tZ6NO.png

 

Note in the second image how we have both BODT and BOD2 for Biped Body Template!  :)

Edited by Mator
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