DivineHeresy Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 i wanted to ask before i venture into modding shivering isles is it legal to export the models from the bsa and re texture & repack them into another bsa for a mod in shivering isles requiring it to run or is it best to avoid that for legal reasons and just make a custom mesh, i do not want to get slammed with a lawsuit for modding my Favorite games or for its company lol hens asking here first before starting anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthmoor Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 Bethesda's DLC policy makes it best to just avoid going down that road. You're better off with a custom mesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DivineHeresy Posted November 2, 2011 Author Share Posted November 2, 2011 thanks for the info, yeah i agree custom is always safe way to travel :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceor Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 I'm sorry to contradict Arthmoor, but basically, if your mod requires Shivering Isles to run, and you've taken steps to ensure that, then you should be okay. After all, if you're making a Shivering Isles mod, there's no way of not using ANY Shivering Isles assets, is there? Things that can be done to ensure dependency might be to place the key to unlock the item inside the Shivering Isles. Or make your meshes dependant on a texture only available in Shivering Isle's BSA so that a player without the expansion would have borked purple armour. Or at its simplest, make DLCShiveringIsles.esp the master for your mod. Clever pirates will surely find some way to circumvent any protection you place in a mod, but that's no different from them seeking out illegal copies of the DLC's in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldwolf58 Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 From all I've seen and heard both on the nexus and on bethsoft forums use of meshes and textures is fine as long as there is a dependancy on the original mod. For example you can modify armor meshes and textures for shivering isles or Knights of the nine but you cannot make it so they are playable WITHOUT the knights of the nine or shivering isle expansion. If you take a ring mesh and texture from shivering isles, change the shape a bit a spruce up the texture then add some effects or enchantments and release it so that people can load it into oblivion without having shivering isles then you've violated the eula, but if you make your mod dependant on shivering isles, by say adding shivering isles as a master or making it so you have to travel to the shivering isles during the quest to get the ring then you're ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DivineHeresy Posted November 3, 2011 Author Share Posted November 3, 2011 oh wow cool deal then i was planing to make a housing mod inside the shivering isles which would not be accessible without entering the isles so it will be mastered, yeah this is great news :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDFan Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Well in these cases there are a couple of opinions as already mentioned and "Legally" is a bit fuzzy as well -- for the most part when it comes to DLCs and expansion assets it is not really black and white. While Bethesda has said that is was not allowed to include meshes from the DLCs in mods they have not really seemed to enforce that but most modders try to avoid including them - for example the Horse armor retexes that have been released are pretty much all replacement textures that use the existing meshes and require the end user to overwrite the original textures or include information on how to change the pathing in the NIF to create the copies of them that use the new textures instead of including them in the upload because including the armor mesh in a mod would give others access to them without the need to buy the DLC which Beth would frown upon. That said the game is now 6+ years old and it is doubtful that Beth really cares anymore or would have taken action to prevent them being used. But to be safe most modders just avoid using them where possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pronam Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 (edited) The fuzzy part is that things are vague as long as people don't ask too much at bethesda about it. Their words were similar to "Don't ask too often or you force us into give you an answer none likes." That narrows down to the fact they don't have to carry out the statement until it's obviously can't be ignored as else it'd be a precedent or own ignorance of their license (and anyone that made the DLC asset for Bethesda can sue Bethesda). Back to mods.. if someone reports your file as it includes a modified texture/nif file that wasn't from scratch but from a DLC... it's most likely the moderators from here or elsewhere will remove it to prevent trouble. Personally I don't want trouble for this site either, so whenever I spot one I'll try to talk the user out of it. The worst and unneeded case I've seen is someone simply including unmodified KOTN nifs and persistently saying they were already there with the game and weren't extracted from the .bsa. :rolleyes: (Took 9 PMs to fix that) Edited November 7, 2011 by Pronam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DivineHeresy Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 nah i am not going to run the risk but its nice to know the options before i take it, i always like to be clear of legal and moral options before pushing into situations. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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