Triforce1 Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 I have another pressing question. I have been working on a city mod for quite some time now, and recently I sent a copy of the mod to another team member for him to work on. Well, you can't just expect me to sit there for a week while someone else works. My creation at the time of sharing was about 50% of the exterior city. Then, I sent it to him, and coming up soon he will send the mod back with about 70% of the interiors completed. During the time he has been workng I have also, bumping my version's exterior completion level to about 80%. Now, since both of us have updated versions of the same mod, I want a way to merge the two; WITHOUT having to deal with two of everything in the same spot. The "Merge Loaded Plugin" options in the CS don't sound like the right kind of thing. Can someone please suggest a solution? EDIT: It might be useful for you to know that we have been changing totally different aspects of the city (him interiors, me exterior) only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 When working with large mods, atleast those that make use of seperate worldspaces, that if you setup a single .esm to be used by the team, and then over time just merge .esps into the .esm, you can reduce the chances of this sort of thing causing an issue. Essentially, this method can allow for several different parts, or even similar, semi-related parts, to be worked on at the same time by multiple people. The only issue I've come across with this method is that occasionally you run into form issues when you merge mods that define, or redefine things in the CS. The other advantage to this is that you can setup incremental backups along the way so that should you need to rebuild a large portion of the mod, you can do so, excluding those parts which are causing the problem, or integrating them after things have been removed. Using zip archives can make this process much easier to keep track of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triforce1 Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Okay. So, say I set up this .esm from my version of the file. Then, I merge his version of the file into the .esm . It should take only the differences between mine and his and add them? If so, that would be great, except I have no idea how to go about any of that. Is there a CS function, or do I have to use something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Okay. So, say I set up this .esm from my version of the file. Then, I merge his version of the file into the .esm . It should take only the differences between mine and his and add them? If so, that would be great, except I have no idea how to go about any of that. Is there a CS function, or do I have to use something else?Well at this point it's likely too late since he has already been working on a .esp which contained all the data. Merging them with all the duplisated forms would be a bad thing. I think there is an option for a difference plugin somewhere, but can't tell you how reliable it is. The best option at the moment would probably be to collect what you have now, and try to make it happen before any more work is done. Then do all future work with a .esm as the base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triforce1 Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 Great. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosisab Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Great. Thanks.All Vagrant said is valid but you can try anyway.For first approach Wryes Batch may be enough, and search for descriptions in the "Utilities" sections for specialized ones to this kind of job. Care nothing beyond your mods are being merged.Once (and if) the merge is successful use the own Wryes Bash option to "esmify" the ESP.Keep in mind having ESMs in the mod isn't good idea and so revert the ESM you work into ESP for testing purposes (use the Espify option).Aways keep backup of the several stages, avoid placing alterations directly in the WIP, so you can return the most recent working stage if something goes wrong. Do this for each ESP, ESM, Folders with the mesh, textures... files. Is advised you having your own folders inside the /data ... example /data/meshes/yourmod/yourfiles and the same in the .../textures etc, instead placing files directly in the original folders. Above all this you shall have and keep a well organized naming convention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triforce1 Posted June 23, 2008 Author Share Posted June 23, 2008 I am/will be using exactly those ideas. Everything goes under the creator's (at present only mine) name. The only difference is that I am using Gecko instead of Wyre Bash. but they have the same functions. Thanks everyone; crisis averted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.