Tools

This article is about modding and extraction tools for game engines such as Creation Engine and Unreal Engine.

• New! It's possible to use JavaScript for Creation Engine maps, using xelib, see export_markers.js (related issue #25). It takes about 40 seconds to scan all REFR records and save the markers. Building reference table takes longer (~2 minutes), and xelib can't yet save reference info and load it on the next start, as xEdit does.

• New! Stumbled upon an interesting tool. The author of Mutagen started Spriggit some time ago. Basically it exports EVERYTHING from esm into readable Yaml or Json files, and allows syncing to git. I got about 2 gigs of JSON from LondonWorldSpace.esm alone. Still crashes on large files, see #84.

Creation Engine

Tools for Creation Engine used in Bethesda games.

xEdit

• https://github.com/TES5Edit/TES5Edit
• https://tes5edit.github.io (Documentation)
• https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2737/ (xEdit on Nexus Mods, bundled with tools)

An advanced graphical module editor for Bethesda Games. Written in Delphi and uses Pascal scripting.

zEdit

• https://github.com/z-edit
• https://z-edit.github.io (Documentation)
• https://discord.gg/GUfRdpT (Discord)

An integrated development environment for Bethesda Plugin Files. Uses Xelib and JavaScript scripting.

Xelib

• https://github.com/z-edit/xelib

Used in zEdit. Native node addon which wraps around XEditLib.dll. Provides an API for interfacing with Bethesda Plugin files. Easy install (just npm i z-edit/xelib).

• Example script that exports markers: export_markers.js
• Script that exports everything (but it crashes with OOM): zEdit - Serialize AllRecords.js
• Script that export objects into CSV file: Export Names.js

Esper

• https://github.com/matortheeternal/esper/

Bethesda Plugin file parser written in C#.

Mutagen

• https://github.com/Mutagen-Modding
• https://mutagen-modding.github.io/Mutagen/ (Documentation)
• https://discord.gg/53KMEsW (Discord)

A .NET library for analyzing, creating, and manipulating Bethesda mods

Synthesis

• https://github.com/Mutagen-Modding/Synthesis

A patcher pipeline framework and GUI for Mutagen

Spriggit

• https://github.com/Mutagen-Modding/Spriggit

A tool to facilitate converting Bethesda plugin files to a text based format that can be stored in Git.

Unreal Engine

Tools for Unreal Engine.

FModel

• https://github.com/4sval/FModel

Allows exporting entire Unreal Engine maps in JSON (takes pretty long and needs a lot of RAM though). A 150Mb JSON packs into 6-8Mb and can be parsed on the client (e.g. using gzip or zip library for multi-file archives). Used in the unpublished version of the Supraland map. There was about 3-5 second delay to unpack the archive so it was not very snappy.

pyUE4Parse

• https://github.com/MinshuG/pyUE4Parse

Python library to parse UE files. Used in released Joric's Supraland maps. It's a little bit less complete than FModel, see #22.