Squeakies Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Hi... I've been looking around for a mod to help me collect all the books in skyrim (there might be a good one out there and I haven't come accross it... so if there is PLEASE let me know!)I'm not too sure how modding in this game works, but some kind of a check off list would be fantastic -- there are pdfs that catalog all the books in skyrim, but an in-game automatic list (updates when you pick up a book) would be awesome. Also, I would love to have a house with a ton of bookshelves to put all these damn books on -- I haven't found one yet and all my books are scattered across multiple houses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander9009 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 That sounds like an interesting idea. It would be limited to the vanilla books, but I might try something like this. There appears to be about 450 normal books, plus there are spell tomes and quest related books. That's also not including Dragonborn's additions. Think it would be fine to have the list in an MCM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsharaMeradin Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Why not tap into Unread Books Glow which can handle mod added books? When the book is read add it to an empty form list. Keep the form list growing throughout the life of the play through. Then pull the book entry out of the form list, get it's name and display that in a series of MCM pages. Do it in the order read so that the player can see how they came across them. Unless you really want to go through the hassle of trying to figure out how to display it alpha-numerically. I suppose you could do both routes. Have the stock/dlc books pre-set and able to be marked off in the MCM as read. Then have a separate page showing mod added books that are added dynamically as they are discovered and read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander9009 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Actually, as soon as you mentioned adding the read books to a list, I thought of the latter idea. Thank you. That's probably the best way simply because if we're only adding books, and there's no actual list, then there's no way to see what you have left to find, which is half the point of having a check list. Question, Ishara, do you happen to know if formlists have the same size limits as arrays? Either way, off to see if it's possible to make a dynamic MCM without simply making all 128 entries on the page call a function. Not that that would be difficult with N++. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsharaMeradin Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Form lists do not have the 128 limit. However, you could (depending on functions/event used) encounter stack dumps when processing large quantities at once. One of the reasons I was working on those satchels that you had tested for me. FYI - finally got internet back so you'll see more of me around. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squeakies Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Thanks for responding! If you end up working on this, I'll be the first to try it out :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander9009 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 (edited) I'm definitely planning to try. I won't be making the house with lots of shelves, though. Form lists do not have the 128 limit. However, you could (depending on functions/event used) encounter stack dumps when processing large quantities at once. One of the reasons I was working on those satchels that you had tested for me. FYI - finally got internet back so you'll see more of me around. :tongue:Shouldn't be an issue in this case since I'm not moving anything, just scanning it. But that's good to know, thanks. I was wondering what had happened to you. You just kind of vanished lol. I'd noticed the recent Road Signs and the Key Ring (both fantastic ideas by the way, especially the road signs since I don't like fast traveling), but not much recently before them. Thanks for responding! If you end up working on this, I'll be the first to try it out :tongue:I'll definitely be giving it a shot. I'm simply hoping that I can find a way to make the MCM work without manually coding too much of it. That's a lot of books, and each slot of an MCM requires multiple lines of code. It's all repetitive, so I can use N++ to lighten the load, but I'd rather make it work with less code. Keep in mind I have two mods I'm working on for myself, another that I'm assisting someone else with, a guy who has a never ending stream of questions and requests (not that I mind lol), plus real life to deal with... Okay, that's a lie, I don't have a life. But you get the point, it might not be an overnight thing. So, I finally managed to coerce the haphazardly sorted books and notes on the UESP to straighten themselves out into the proper categories. 1075 books exactly, it appears. Edited February 23, 2014 by Xander9009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander9009 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Just an update: I managed to get an MCM up and running which doesn't use any formlists or pre-filled arrays. It successfully lists every book in the game and denotes with a checkbox whether or not they've been read. And I managed it in a tiny 80 line script. Of course, that doesn't actually mean it's usable, yet. I was using the containers in the test chamber that have ever book. But they have many books they shouldn't. Plus, it still leaves everything out of order and practically impossible to sort through. Still, I'm happy with the basis. I'll have to make formlist so I can put them in order. So, at least there's progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squeakies Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Great! I'm a computer science student and I know C++ C and Java (and haven't tried Python but I'm aware that it doesn't require types and a bunch of other restrictions placed on more in depth languages), but I have never tried to mod a game before -- i might take a crack at it (not something like this, but something really simple and basic). Appreciate the effort you're putting in :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander9009 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 (edited) Last update before I go to sleep: I've got it at least mostly working. All the books are showing up, and they're all tracking properly whether or not the player has read them. So far, nothing regarding the DLC has been messed with at all. Also, nothing regarding mod added books has been added yet. I have to re-order the lists so they're in order, and then there will be some kind of organization. I have to redo how it initiates. Right now, when you try opening the MCM the first time, it triggers it, but that leaves the MCM unresponsive until it's done, you can only close it. I was doing that because I couldn't figure out why my game kept screwing up and the MCM wouldn't register. Turned out I had to purge my ini of all things and my setup has stopped registering new MCMs except on new games (well, they do register, but they take forever). Nothing to do with this mod, thankfully. Right now, they way it's working, when you open a page in the MCM, it takes a few seconds for it open. That's because I kept everything as dynamic as possible. It doesn't keep track of the books, it instead scans whichever books are relevant to the page when it's opened. It only takes 3-4 seconds, though, so I'm not worried about it. If it gets to be a hassle, I'll store the info locally and see if that makes it faster. Anyway, that's probably ten times as much information as you care about. TL;DR: All the basics are worked out for the majority of the books. Need to tweak the lists, redo the initialization (10 minute process to fix that; small task), and then implement a mod book compatible page. I might need a bit of help later. Tweaking the lists, specifically. Basically just looking at the lists in game and telling me if you see anything that needs changed: books in the wrong list, wrong order, shouldn't be there at all, books missing (although how I worked it, we're very unlikely to find books missing from the lists). Edited February 23, 2014 by Xander9009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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