What is the difference between a mod and a plugin?

[nexodexo]

subject

[Novem99]

Every plugin is a mod but not every mod is or has a plugin.

[HadToRegister]

  On 4/8/2021 at 4:52 PM, nexodexo said:

subject

 

 

Comparing Bethesda Plugins vs Mod

 

 

Mod = the Textures, Meshes, BSA, BA2, Sounds, DLL, Ini, Scripts etc

 

Plugin = ESP or ESM or ESPfe, or ESL that basically tells the game which Textures, Meshes, BSAs, BA2s, Sounds, DLLs, Ini, Scripts from that particular Mod to use in the game

[anjenthedog]

A mod may or not include a plugin in its resources. A plugin is, in common terms, a "driver" or "workhorse", a chuck of code whose purpose is the calculate responses, manage resources, etc, whereas the mod is a package of related resources, which may or not include textures, meshes, jslots, scripts, etc, and of course plugins.

[Tannin42]

A mod can contain 0, 1 or multiple plugins.

 

A mod can replace assets that the game would be using anyway (textures, meshes, sounds and so on) without a plugin.

As soon as a mod wants to edit the game world (e.g. change the terrain or buildings, add npcs&monsters, add new craftable items, change stats of monsters or items, ...) that is done through plugins.