What is safe to delete in FO4Edit?

[genolune]

I pushed out my first .esp mod today and having cleaned mods before for the STEP methodology for FO3, FNV, TTW, Oblivion, and Skyrim, I wanted to ask, what is safe to delete in FO4Edit?

 

I noticed there were the usual which is the identical to masters and the undelete references things, but what about actual records and fields? I knew enough about what I did that I deleted records to a camera and a cloud (which I probably clicked on and moved only a barely noticable fraction and the record saved).

 

How about fields like signature, data size, record flags, etc.? As a general rule, I won't delete it if I don't know, but I want my .esp files to modify only that which it needs to keep it as compatible as possible. So the real question is, what of the Creation Kit data saved in an .esp is actually necessary?

[steve40]

How many trees in a forest?

[VIitS]

The only reason to keep identical to master records in your mod is if you are using a Placed Object record (a so-called ITM record, although I think they are called REFR records in FO4) to "unlock" a cell (i.e. trigger Bethesda's built-in workaround that disable previs and precombined meshes).

 

Whatever you do, don't delete fields unless you specifically want to change that field. Deleting a field (such as keywords on an armor) will result in that info being removed from the thing in question (meaning that armor would no longer have those keywords associated with it). The only thing you can mess with in the record heade is the record flags (FO4Edit won't let you change things like data size and signature, and for good reason), although you should only do so if you know what the flag does and want to make that change.

 

One thing you can definitely remove: Placed Object records whose only change is something in the XLYR - Layer field (from what I can tell, it is only used in the CK).

[genolune]

As it stands right now, I clean my .esp after every time in the Creation Kit and remove ITM and do the undelete/disable, followed up by removing the full record of anything that gets recorded that I don't want such as information about clouds or mist that I double clicked on or accidentally moved.

 

Can you elaborate more on what would you mean about disabling previs and precombined meshes?

[VIitS]

It's mainly relevant for scrap mods and mesh/texture replacers. If a mod is one of those, leave at least one ITM record that says something about "in Precombined\xxxx" in the FormID field. Otherwise, feel free to delete any identical to master records from mods.