NPC_ Mod File Format

[Noggog]

I've been picking through the binary of .esp files and thought I had it figured out.

 

Most of my findings look like this

 

You can see the different sections described in the CREA page: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Mod_File_Format/CREA

It's like this for most records that I know of.

 

 

 

 

However, when I get to the NPC records, it's absolute gibberish

 

Even though the same UESP site doesn't mention any major difference at all: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Mod_File_Format/NPC

 

Anyone know if the NPC section is just in some other encoding scheme? Or is there something else I'm missing?

Edited September 7, 2011 by Leviathan1753

[Hickory]

Take a look at your TES4Edit entry again. The NPC record is compressed.

[Noggog]

Ah yes, compression hadn't crossed my mind. 8)

 

The problem that remains is that I'm trying to make a dynamic "processor" application that detects what people have in their mods, and acts accordingly.

I could uncompress it myself by hand, but that would only work for that single mod for me.. and not for the mass population. 8\

 

Is there somewhere I could find out the compression protocols? I'd like to "crack the code" so I can process the information as it naturally occurs in mods.

I know tes4edit can do it, as it displays the NPC_s as normal.

 

Do you know why it's only the NPC_ records that have compression?

[Arthmoor]

LAND and PGRD records also have compression. I can understand why, there's tons of data in these two record types. I never did come up with a logical explanation for why NPC_ records do.

 

Assuming they used the same compression scheme on NPC_ as they did with LAND and PGRD, it should be zlib.