PSA for Student Scripters: GrepWin

[Greslin]

After a bunch of years learning/tinkering/cursing at GECK and the scripting environment in FO3/FNV, I finally got around to learning Papyrus about a year ago. It has a lot of strong points, a few weak ones, and requires some very different ways of looking at things. But I like it.

 

I've noticed in posts here at Nexus, and in my own experiences, that one of the challenges that people have is that the Creation Kit wiki and Papyrus reference isn't exactly up to date for Fallout 4. There's still a lot of stuff out there written for Skyrim's version of Papyrus, and while FO4 is 95% the same, that last 5% can be a killer. It's infuriating to know that the script you're writing would work fine in Skyrim, but doesn't in Fallout 4 because Bethesda decided to deprecate a crucial function and no one got around to updating the documentation.

 

This is where a utility called GrepWin began saving my scripting life on a regular basis.

 

GrepWin (my fellow UNIX/Linux nerds will recognize the origin of its name immediately) is a very useful and feature-rich text search tool. Just point it to a directory of text files, tell it what to look for, and it'll come back with a full scan of every hit in the entire nested file tree. Then just click the result, look at it in your favorite text editor (my recommendation is always Notepad++), and start digging.

 

The entire Fallout 4 base script library can be found in Data/Scripts/Source. When the wiki docs say one thing, and your actual script results say something else, do a text scan of the base source tree for that function/command/whatever. Most of the time, you'll find how exactly it is being used properly by Bethesda in Fallout 4, and it's an easy step then to get the calling syntax right.

 

I know that this isn't news to the experienced folks here. But for the new and learning, GrepWin or something similar can save a mountain of frustration and rage-quitting.

 

Any other crucial tools of the trade that you can think of?

 

 

[TheMastersSon]

I'm trying to imagine how many hours of scripting time would have been saved if something like this had existed in Oblivion's and Skyrim's heyday. The same "95% the same but that last 5% is a killer" has plagued mod authors for a very long time. Nothing quite like spending six weeks trying to debug a problem that isn't really a problem, only a documentation error.

 

Great idea imo and thanks for the link.

Edited February 21, 2018 by TheMastersSon

[Greslin]

It seriously helps that scripts are text files and are now external to the ESP, and that Bethesda included all the source files. That would have SHREDDED my development time back with New Vegas.

[bbiller]

On the topic of tools, I posted that I was trying to hunt down the name of a mod that has "bettersettlements.esm" in it. So far using "better settlements" in a search has yielded me no results that even match my mod list that I've kept just in case I have to grab everything again. Is there a database of the files in these mods that might help me find which mod I had installed before? I have re-saved without it and fortunately my settlement seems unaffected, but don't get me started on keeping these mods up to date without starting all over (Videos of the Wasteland seems to want to head that way, so I'm leaving it alone and at the version I grabbed a while back). If anyone wants to see what I have up to this point, they can check this form: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6410741-help-seeking-the-mod-with-bettersettlementsesm/?hl=%2Bseeking+%2Bbettersettlements&do=findComment&comment=57755031 . Do note I've added a few more mods to the list, but those were just to add some labels to some containers to make my life easier.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Greslin]

On the topic of tools, I posted that I was trying to hunt down the name of a mod that has "bettersettlements.esm" in it. So far using "better settlements" in a search has yielded me no results that even match my mod list that I've kept just in case I have to grab everything again. Is there a database of the files in these mods that might help me find which mod I had installed before? I have re-saved without it and fortunately my settlement seems unaffected, but don't get me started on keeping these mods up to date without starting all over (Videos of the Wasteland seems to want to head that way, so I'm leaving it alone and at the version I grabbed a while back). If anyone wants to see what I have up to this point, they can check this form: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6410741-help-seeking-the-mod-with-bettersettlementsesm/?hl=%2Bseeking+%2Bbettersettlements&do=findComment&comment=57755031 . Do note I've added a few more mods to the list, but those were just to add some labels to some containers to make my life easier.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

You'd probably have more success without the thread hijacking. Just saying.

[isathar]

I hadn't heard of GrepWin before and will have to check it out now. Someone recommended AgentRansack for text searches on the Bethesda forums a while back, and I've been using it for Papyrus and Unreal Engine source code since.

 

Notepad++ is great since you can define custom language highlighting and color schemes. I started out with Papyrus definitions for Skyrim and added the Fallout 4-specific classes and functions to it one by one as I ran across them. It definitely helped me figure out some of the differences between the two.

 

There are pages on the Creation Kit wiki about the differences between Skyrim and Fallout 4 in terms of scripting (link) and general Fallout 4 scripting (link) that also helped a lot.

Edited February 22, 2018 by isathar

[SKKmods]

My steep papyrus learning curve has been brought to you by the google site: keyword

 

initial_keyword(s) site:creationkit.com = read the full narrative that is generally attached to skyrim pages

refine_keyword(s) site:creationit.com/fallout4 = find any changes

 

& related you can use the Windows File Explorer search if you add ...Fallout4\Data\Scripts to the Index path and .PSC "Index properties and file contents" to advanced file types in indexing options.

[bbiller]

I was not trying to hijack a thread. If that's how it's coming across, you have my apologies. I did ask a valid question though.

 

Right now for Fallout 4 mods you have bethesda.net and nexusmods.com as the big 2 from which to get the mods. I see mods that say on the Nexus here that certain other mods require that mod to be in first. Playtesting found this out and leads to some patching, but others are frameworks intended by the authors to build onto. Either way the nexus added fields in the database to account for all of that.

 

If someone makes a mod, sure the mod manager they're using may point out that file x from whatever mod will be overwritten, but does anyone have the ability to test all the mods that exist themselves . . . No, that's where the testers come in. Now suppose someone made the database I'm suggesting. This would take time, work, and a fair bit of help; but once done a new author or even a pro would have a way to see if anyone else used the same filename in their mod. This would lead to some investigation and code examination by that author to address that file so that it either was renamed, or functionallity added to deal with the calls from the other authors mod. Some colaboration might also come about as well. In the case I posted, looking for that one file, a database like that would help me hunt down the mod that had gotten lost. Keep in mind transfer settlements does give you a list of the mods used for a settlement and those who have posted their blueprints have been able to give the rest of us that same list so that the settlement we wanted to bring in would appear as intended.

[pra]

Notepad++ can search in files on it's own. Inhowfar is grepwin better?

[Greslin]

Notepad++ can search in files on it's own. Inhowfar is grepwin better?

 

In my experience, GrepWin is a lot faster, has a much more useful interface, has better regex support, and has easy right-click context menu integration. In general, I also find GW a lot more useful in that it's a separate utility that doesn't require me to break my current N++ workflow.

 

Not knocking Notepad++, I'm a major fan and it's my dedicated dev editor. Use it every day. And its file search works, but it doesn't really hold a candle IMHO.