Advanced Modder's Advice Needed.

[jonnyb8519]

I have been modding for awhile now, but not on an advanced level. started with manual installs with third party software, and worked my way to working with batch flies, as well some character mods - using body slides, nifscope, blender etc. I have just started learning porting for vr on a basic level.

I dont want to just use third party software and would like to learn the coding side. Be able to build my own mods from scratch as well as get a better understanding of how it all work from the ground up. If there are any mod builders on here or coders. Just wondering where the best place to start is?

what should I be looking at for my basic tool belt I guess to start. The file types I have seen a lot of are .jason - .unity as well as i see people post about altering hex files? if some one could point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated!

[YeiZoneX]

Hey.

 

So by "coding" what do you exactly mean? You mean you wish to learn skills specific to a game scripting files? Or do you mean coding as in develop your own tools for modding? Those are two different things.

JSON files, for example, are not scripts or programs themselves. They are just config files that translate directly to objects when parsed by a programming language (typically javascript, since JSON is an actual JS object, but it can be any language really).

 

yeizonex

[euph]

That depends entirely on which engine you're modding. I started with C languages and LUA back in the Neverwinter Nights times (well, if I'm completely honest, I started with Sinclair Basic, for the ZX Spectrum). I learned some Papyrus for Gamebryo (Creation Engine nowadays), but didn't go far because it's horrid.

 

I'm a Game/World Designer (actual dev irl) so, I don't really work directly with coding (not my thing to be honest, I hate coding. However, I still need to have some understanding of it, or talking to the engineers is impossible) but I'd say, start with C languages, java, XML and so on. A lot of unity mods are a mix of json and XML, for example. Others are in C++, or all of those 3 combined.

 

This is just a couple of examples of what's out there. Start with the basics and work your way into more complex languages. There are plenty of free courses around on the internet for you to check out.

 

If you can, get the free version of Unity and go through their tutorials and mini courses. They're pretty good to start out as well, and Unity is by now, one of the main engines out there. Also, you'll have the advantage of faffing around with an actual engine, and building things from scratch (to a certain degree. However, if you want to focus on coding, just grab some of the free assets and code away).