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How will PC mods be delivered to consoles


mwhenry16

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Firstly, I assume that mods for consoles will work identical to the Steam Workshops. Including file size limit. However, I also assume mods may be moderated a bit more aggressively. As far as 4K mods and monitors, 4K is not the games resolution, it's the textures pixel size. Increased texture resolution reduces pixelation of very large objects. So the resolution the object actually renders at varies depending on scale of object. Honestly 4K is completely useless on 99% of a game's assets. The only thing that can actually use textures that big would be large scenery pieces. For things like skin textures 2K is more than enough, and smaller objects like guns, need no more than 1080, but people be crazy.

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On a related note I'm very curious to know how permissioning will be handled. Some modders may want to keep their mods PC exclusive, not necessarily out of some kind of greedy platform bias, but it could be due to not owning a console and therefore being unable to provide any support for that platform, or they may not want to release their mods for a specific platform due to technical issues they might cause.

 

So I'm assuming that it will be the choice of the author, whether or not they want to make their mod(s) avaialble to consoles, but that doesn't necessarily prevent someone from stealing their work, repackaging it, and uploading it themselves. That's been a big no-no within the modding community since the beginning and we've been pretty good about policing ourselves, but I'm skeptical Bethesda will be willing to crack down on these cases. The right thing to do would be to remove the mod in question (if the author submits a valid complaint), and if it happens repeatedly, maybe ban the uploader from continuing to upload mods. But I doubt this will happen. Is Bethesda prepared to deal with the negative backlash if they remove a popular mod at the request of the original author?

 

Also, it's already been said but I'll go ahead and reiterate, there will need to be a massive content moderation team behind this. Not just to catch adult content that people may try to sneak in, but also to catch any mods that may cause technical issues. I wouldn't at all be surprised if at first console mods are limited to those that do not affect the graphics in any way, but just alter gameplay and rely entirely on existing assets.

 

In any case, there will be interesting times ahead.

Edited by Kerghan
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Consoles will probably be mostly limited to weapons and armor. I do not see how the more complex mods that require scriptextender for example could be implemented on a console, complex follower mods, wheater systems, new bodies, animations, skeleton, body slide, and console mods will probably be heavily moderated for explicit content.

 

And then there is the matter of the GECK itself, you will still need a decent PC to create a mod and properly test it, that means you will also need a pc copy if you are a console gamer that wants to start modding, why then bother to create on PC then install and play on console?

 

So support is going to be a big problem, if i was a modder i would not bother to test my mods for consoles too and keep them pc exclusive and not respond to any help request for console support. I do not play on consoles and do not have any because for me they cannot match PC power and posibillities. If i did want to have my mods available for consoles i would be forced to buy them + copies of the game for both consoles. Meaning a huge investment because you have to test your mods on all 3 platforms if you want to deliver quality to the users, and delivering quality is important if you make your mods public.

 

I'm a software tester and properly testing between different systems and programs can be a real nightmare because all of the little differences. What works between A & C does not work between A & B and B & C have other problems, there are countless combinations and the effort and time needed to properly test will not be feasible for 99% of the modders. It will take 3 days to build and 3 weeks to test.

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Firstly, I assume that mods for consoles will work identical to the Steam Workshops. Including file size limit. However, I also assume mods may be moderated a bit more aggressively. As far as 4K mods and monitors, 4K is not the games resolution, it's the textures pixel size. Increased texture resolution reduces pixelation of very large objects. So the resolution the object actually renders at varies depending on scale of object. Honestly 4K is completely useless on 99% of a game's assets. The only thing that can actually use textures that big would be large scenery pieces. For things like skin textures 2K is more than enough, and smaller objects like guns, need no more than 1080, but people be crazy.

Generally, texture resolutions are powers of 2 (256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, etc.). 1080 is not a texture resolution you will often encounter, however, modern graphics cards have no problem with non-power of 2 texture resolutions.

 

A texture is an image. A model has uv mapping, which defines what area of the texture is applied to each polygon. Whether a texture that is a resolution of 4096x4096 is overkill or not is based on the uv mapping of the model and how the model is viewed in-game (orientation, size, position in relation to camera).

Edited by ImsumDave
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On a related note I'm very curious to know how permissioning will be handled. Some modders may want to keep their mods PC exclusive, not necessarily out of some kind of greedy platform bias, but it could be due to not owning a console and therefore being unable to provide any support for that platform, or they may not want to release their mods for a specific platform due to technical issues they might cause.

 

So I'm assuming that it will be the choice of the author, whether or not they want to make their mod(s) avaialble to consoles, but that doesn't necessarily prevent someone from stealing their work, repackaging it, and uploading it themselves. That's been a big no-no within the modding community since the beginning and we've been pretty good about policing ourselves, but I'm skeptical Bethesda will be willing to crack down on these cases. The right thing to do would be to remove the mod in question (if the author submits a valid complaint), and if it happens repeatedly, maybe ban the uploader from continuing to upload mods. But I doubt this will happen. Is Bethesda prepared to deal with the negative backlash if they remove a popular mod at the request of the original author?

 

Also, it's already been said but I'll go ahead and reiterate, there will need to be a massive content moderation team behind this. Not just to catch adult content that people may try to sneak in, but also to catch any mods that may cause technical issues. I wouldn't at all be surprised if at first console mods are limited to those that do not affect the graphics in any way, but just alter gameplay and rely entirely on existing assets.

 

In any case, there will be interesting times ahead.

I think Bethesda would be more concerned about legal issues than backlash over removing a popular stolen mod. If someone uploads your mod to Bethesda's service and the T&A agreement gives them rights to that mod, if they don't remove it as soon as they are made aware of the issue they risk possible legal action. Although, I doubt any modder would take legal action against Bethesda over such a thing, they would probably have grounds for pursing legal action. Basically, Bethesda would be hosting and distributing content without permission from the actual content owner.

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How will they be delivered? I'm thinking by not delivering them at all.

 

I don't want to be an ass, but consoles get plenty of exclusives these days. Like how I wish I could have played The Last of Us on PC for instance. Just like our mods, not gonna happen.

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I have a few questions about this, and please forgive me if any of this is really dumb, I am a total noobie when it comes to consoles. I don't own a console and have never owned a console in this century, thinking about buying an XB1 but I am really clueless about how any of this will work.

 

1 - If I have a XB1 can I network it to my PC and see the files on the console's drive?

 

2 - If the answer to #1 is yes, then is it possible to transfer files back and forth between them for the purpose of modding?

 

3 - If the answer to #2 is yes, then do you think there is any chance Bethesda would allow console players (who bought the game only on console) to download the geck for PC and have the geck access to files on the console so console players could do true modding on their PC then upload to Beth.net to release console mods?

 

If #3 were possible it could be an ideal situation for modding. What do you think? Is any of this even remotely possible or is it just no way no how and not even worth thinking about?

 

 

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No no and no =( this is microsoft and sony we are talking about, no way will they give you that much control, and for good reason. Simpler to stay with a host system like steam workshop

OK, so really no good reason for me to buy an XBox at this time. Thank you.

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