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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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Recommended Posts

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Posted
  On 1/22/2015 at 5:09 AM, phazer11 said:

I contacted Tannin for you Mator. Hopefully he'll be able to help you setup a tracker (or at least point you in the right direction).

Thanks!

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Posted

Okay, v0.8.6 is out.

I didn't fix any of the issues asides from the Record Header traversal issue that was throwing that wbImplementation.pas Assertion Error.  I did, however, add lots of new GUI stuff.  Read the OP for more on that.  I'll be focusing on the other major issues in the next few betas.

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Posted

v0.8.7 released.  See the changes in the OP.

Overall: Massive reduction in execution time and (hopefully) no more dirty conflict resolution in VMAD/Conditions/Effects.

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Posted

v0.9.0 is released.  This is a major release.  I'll be doing numerous small iterations working towards a v1.0, but the core functionality of the script is complete.

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Posted
  On 3/20/2015 at 3:52 AM, EssArrBee said:

I need to start testing this thing. If it is getting nearer to release then dropping WB for the guide would be pretty awesome.

I'm going to second that, but I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about what this is doing. I really need to get into the patching realm.

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Posted
  On 3/20/2015 at 3:52 AM, EssArrBee said:

I need to start testing this thing. If it is getting nearer to release then dropping WB for the guide would be pretty awesome.

Yeah, this is going to be finished very soon.  There are things to be doing still, but things are moving fast so it's going to be getting completed here very soon.  Literally all records can be conflict resolved now.  From here on out my todos for this aren't going to affect functionality - everything from here on out will be geared towards usability.

 

gHGvY.png

 

  On 3/20/2015 at 3:53 AM, TechAngel85 said:

I'm going to second that, but I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about what this is doing. I really need to get into the patching realm.

It's pretty easy to see what it does just by poking around in xEdit.  If you've ever used Wyre Bash with Oblivion mods, then think that except better (tags not required, conflicts automatically detected).

 

How it does this, however, is much more complicated and isn't something I'd recommend someone to try to understand unless they're comfortable with certain programming concepts (mainly recursion).

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Posted
  On 3/20/2015 at 4:10 AM, Mator said:

It's pretty easy to see what it does just by poking around in xEdit.  If you've ever used Wyre Bash with Oblivion mods, then think that except better (tags not required, conflicts automatically detected).

 

How it does this, however, is much more complicated and isn't something I'd recommend someone to try to understand unless they're comfortable with certain programming concepts (mainly recursion).

That's the bit I need to really learn. I can poke around in xEdit and make simple patches, but I'm no where near the level that EssArrBee is on with xEdit. He's our resident patcher, but a few other members of the staff should get closer to his level since we can't be expected to lean on him any time a patch issue arises.

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Posted

I have messed with it here and there and generally understand how it's done, but I have not worked it enough to do it fast. I did dive into localization stuff for SGD though, which is a bit of a PITA.

 

I recently did some Git training as well, but I am not yet committed to contributing to the patches at this point. I go all or nothing pretty much, so one of these days I may take it up and train with SRB's processes.

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Posted (edited)
  On 3/20/2015 at 4:20 AM, TechAngel85 said:

That's the bit I need to really learn. I can poke around in xEdit and make simple patches, but I'm no where near the level that EssArrBee is on with xEdit. He's our resident patcher, but a few other members of the staff should get closer to his level since we can't be expected to lean on him any time a patch issue arises.

Well with Smash it'll hopefully move from the area of "hard to do and need other people to work on it" to the realm of "anyone can do it for their load order with a few clicks".

 

 

  On 3/20/2015 at 4:22 AM, z929669 said:

I have messed with it here and there and generally understand how it's done, but I have not worked it enough to do it fast. I did dive into localization stuff for SGD though, which is a bit of a PITA.

 

I recently did some Git training as well, but I am not yet committed to contributing to the patches at this point. I go all or nothing pretty much, so one of these days I may take it up and train with SRB's processes.

Smash isn't quite as fast as I want it to be yet, but it's pretty fast.  Certainly faster than manually patching... haha.

 

 

  On 3/20/2015 at 4:32 AM, EssArrBee said:

If someone finally makes a viable patcher, my process will be about 20 minutes of work for all the STEP plugins.

 

I look forward to our oncoming dynamic patching overlords.

^_^

 

You should definitely check smash out.  Like now.  I'm constantly fixing things, but it's getting pretty good.  Also check out the github issue tracker to see what I'm aware of and what I'm working on-

https://github.com/matortheeternal/TES5EditScripts/issues

 

There's a thread on AFKMods which has been contributed to a lot as well, so you can check that out too-

https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/4113-wip-mator-smash/

Edited by Mator
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