[LE] About backing up my work.

[SerchBoogie]

Hi.

 

I almost finish working on my mod, but I wonder how can I back it up. The only solution I have come up with is to back up the entire DATA FOLDER. Because I have no idea what files are necessary for my mod to work on my PC.

 

I was thinking about backing up all this (see photo):

 

http://i.imgur.com/CzDFk9i.png

 

And leave the rest, because for what I can see those are the Skyrim files themselves. they are huge.

 

I'm really guessing here, if for some reason my PC explodes, I guess I just have to reinstall Skyrim, and copy the selected files in the image.

 

My mod adds meshes, textures, scripts and sounds (silence audio files for dialogue) to the game, but it's really confusing to navigate those folders, because there are folders with things that appear to be vanilla assets, scripts which i don't know if my scripts depend on those things, or those asset are the ones I've used for my mod. I don't know.

 

Help =(

 

PS: By the way, is there a tutorial on how to prepare my mod for publishing on the Nexus or the workshop?

Edited December 20, 2016 by SerchBoogie

[IsharaMeradin]

Sadly if you do not know what files you modified or added, can't really help.

 

This is why a naming scheme is important. I use a four character prefix which is most times followed by an underscore and then a descriptive name for the file. Sometimes I even throw in an additional prefix after the first prefix in order to differentiate files between my own mods.

 

The Creation Kit's built in archive utility can pack up most of your files into a BSA, however, it is known to not include stock files even if you've made changes to them. That might be a place to at least start with getting a listing of files that your plugin uses.

 

Another thing that might help is paying attention to the time stamp of the files. If it is newer than the day that you installed Skyrim, it just might be a file that you modified for your mod.

 

XEdit has some scripts that you can apply to your plugin which may help you to locate some of the files that you've used. There is one that will list meshes used and another that will list scripts used. There could be others, but that is what I saw at a glance.

 

You definitely do not need to include the scripts.rar file or the "DialogueViews" folder. The first is the original archive of the source scripts and the second is merely instructions on how to display the individual dialog flow charts in the Creation Kit. Also the xEdit backup folder is not needed for your mod either. It already contains backups of plugins that you've modified in xEdit. In fact, you may wish to delete what is in there to save on space if you know you are happy with the status of the plugins they derived from.

[Di0nysys]

Xedit has an asset manager script you could use to copy over all referenced assets.

[NexusComa]

You can try under the file menu in the CK to Create Archive. That will make a .bsa file for you mod make sure to name it the same name as your mod.

Then copy a back-up of both the .bda and .eps file. The file that are not in the Archive you don't need to Archive. The only trick to this is the files you

add to you mod need a unique ID name on the base file and a custom mesh. If your files don't have this they will be saved in the .eps as normal.

 

exp: A new Static file ... Drop a Static file in your mod cell, edit base, Change the ID name (top line) _MyMod_CoolObject_01, Edit the .nif file and add

your new Object .nif, Select Ok, Yes - Create new form. Now you have a new Static Object that will Archive in the .bsa ...

[SerchBoogie]

Hi, thank you for you answers.

 

Yes I know exactly what I've added to the game, that's the key here, my mod doesn't modify Skyrim at all, I've tried not touching skyrim in any way or form except for the boat I put on Dawnstar so the player can travel to my new island. That's it.

I keep track of every script, texture and mesh I've added to the game. And that's the problem, Few months ago I tried backing my texture and mesh folders, I made a clean install, and when I opened my mod in the CK, my textures disappeared!!. So there is something else, having my textures and meshes on their correct paths is not enough.

 

I made a recolor of some armors in the game, adding texture sets (in the miscellaneous branch of the ck) , duplicating armors in the ck, applying the textures to those new duplicates and putting my own ID's to those new armors. was that the problem? Do I have to have a mesh for every armor I recolored?, According with the tutorial I followed I don't have to.

 

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Using_Texture_sets_for_Skyrim

 

What about the CLUTTER, landscape, dungeons and towns I created on my island, is that data stored in the .esp?

 

What about those weapons you create following tutorials, where you just duplicate a vanilla weapon and change stats, creating a separate version, not a replacement??

Sorry i'm really confused here :wallbash: :sad:

Edited December 21, 2016 by SerchBoogie

[NexusComa]

As far as I understand it ... as long as you are not adding a resource like a mesh or a script or

changing a mash to use an added .dss file, all that is stored in the .esp file. Other object that do,

do this can be stored in folders or a .bsa file.

[SerchBoogie]

I understand, thank you very much.

[NexBeth]

If everything is just in your esp., then that is all you need to back up. No need to for the other files you listed above.

 

If you also have meshes, textures, scripts, sounds, quest, then you will have to go through those folders and back up those files as well, but only YOUR files, not the whole folder. Retaining the file structure.