Category:Modding

This category aims to become a comprehensive repository of modding guides for Tamriel Rebuilt, Project Tamriel, and TES: III modding in general.

The pages are broken up into general topics and the four main branches of TES III (province) modding: assets, exteriors, interiors, and questing.

For Prospective Developers

If you wish to contribute to Project Tamriel or Tamriel Rebuilt – awesome, we would be very glad to have you on board! Below you will find all the information and tutorials that you need to get started.

The first thing is to read the Copyright and You page to understand what you are agreeing to in terms of the work you produce for the projects.

If you wish to contribute to level or quest design, you will need to work with the venerable TES Construction Set. These types of roles first require you to make a developer showcase in your respective field – exteriors, interiors, or quests. The showcase is not a test, but a learning process wherein you work with an experienced mod developer to develop the skills and learn the standards needed to effectively contribute. See the tutorials in the sections below on how to get started.

If you, instead, wish to work on assets – i.e. concept/2D art, 3D models, or audio – you do not need to pass a showcase, but can start contributing to the project immediately. However, you will still need to understand some technical details about Morrowind assets. For that see the respective category below.

General

• Copyright and You – copyright terms that you are agreeing to by contributing to Tamriel Rebuilt or Project Tamriel.
• Glossary – terms and abbreviations commonly used in TES III modding and the Tamriel Rebuilt – Project Tamriel collaboration.
• Construction Set Tips – a collection of tips on using the Construction Set, useful for all developers.
  • Construction Set Error Check Results – a useful tool in the original Construction Set for fixing up release files, which comes with a few gotchas.
• Content File Guidelines – guide on how to work with .esm and .esp files.
• Releases Checklist – guide on how to prepare for a major release of the mods.
• Developing on Linux or MacOS – guide on how to use the Construction Set without Windows.
  • A more up-to-date guide from Magamo

Construction Set ID Guidelines

These guidelines are used to standardize the Construction Set IDs for the items, scripts, NPCs, etc, that all types of developers will need to create at some point.

• Tamriel_Data ID Guidelines
• Tamriel Rebuilt ID Guidelines
• Project Tamriel ID Guidelines
  • Skyrim: Home of the Nords ID & Naming Guidelines (to be checked and included on the wiki)

Assets

• Concept Art Guidelines – basic guide to producing concept art.
• Asset Guidelines – a landing page for all things asset-development-related. New 3D modellers and other asset artists: start here!
  • Audio Asset Guidelines – guide to producing audio assets.
  • Animations Guidelines – guide to creating new animations for objects and creatures.
  • Particle Effect Guidelines – guide to adding particle effects to models.
  • Specific software guides:
    • Nifskope – guide to a nifty, if clunky tool that is useful for working with TES III assets.
    • 3ds Max – some, mostly outdated notes on the professional, proprietary 3D modeling program.
• Tamriel Data Deprecation Guidelines – guide to properly deprecating old assets from Tamriel_Data without causing compatibility issues.
• Resources:
  • Catalogue of Vanilla Textures [PDF] – contains a listing of the textures from Vanilla TES III, sorted by the type of material. Each texture has its filename printed on it so you can find the file if needed. Contains most of the textures from Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon.
  • Catalogue of Vanilla Models – PDF files listing most of the models in Vanilla TES III.
  • Mesh helpful for helmet-making asset devs – Detailed use is mentioned in respective guideline subsection.

Exteriors

• Exterior Guidelines – main guide on how to build exterior world spaces.
  • Exterior Modding Tutorial – a tutorial on how to start making exteriors for beginners. New exterior level designers: start here!
• Heightmaps – how to generate height map images from TES III terrain and vice versa.

Interiors

• Interior Guidelines – main guide on how to build interior locations.
  • The Quickest CS Interior Tutorial – a quick tutorial to help beginners on interior-making. New interior level designers: start here or below!
  • Interior Modding Tutorial – a slightly more in-depth tutorial on building interiors.
  • Item Placement Tutorial – a tutorial specifically on how to manually place items on uneven surfaces.
  • Tileset-specific guidelines:
    • Chimer Stronghold Guidelines
    • Hlaalu Interior Guidelines
    • Daedric Ruin Guidelines
    • Velothi Tower Guidelines

Writing, NPCs, and Quests

• Writing and Dialogue Guidelines – an overall guide to the writing, dialogue, and book standards in TES III.
• NPC and Creature Guidelines – main guide on how to add NPCs and Creatures to the game world.
  • Dictionary of Names – a list of names by race for inspiration.
  • Heads and Hairs Catalogue - (in progress)
  • NPC Classes
• Quest Guidelines – main guide on how to make quests.
  • Simple Quest Tutorial – a tutorial on quest making for beginners. New quest developers: start here!
  • Advanced Quest Tutorial – follow on to the prior one, detailing a few more advanced techniques.
• Scripting – an in-depth guide on MWScript, the scripting system of TES III.
  • Morrowind Scripting for Dummies – download links and errata for the most comprehensive TES III scripting guide.
  • Banking Framework – a guide to Tamriel Data's inbuilt banking script system.
  • Morag Tong Guide – a technical guide on how the Morag Tong faction is implemented in Tamriel Rebuilt.
  • Vampirism – a technical guide on how to make new vampires and vampire clans in Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel.
• Playtesting Guidelines – guide on how to help playtest quests.

External Tools

• 3ds Max – some, mostly outdated notes on the professional, proprietary 3D modeling program.
• Blender - a free 3D modeling program.
• Esp-QuickEditor – a tool for batch modifying TES III content files with an SQL-like language.
• DeltaPlugin - a command-line tool for working with TES III content files and converting them to YAML.
• Tes3cmd – a command-line tool for (batch) modifying TES III content files with common shell idioms.
• tes3conv - a command-line tool for converting TES III content files to JSON.
• TESAME – a graphical tool used mostly for cleaning TES III content files.
• Nifskope – a nifty, if clunky tool that is useful for working with TES III assets.
• Standards Validator - a command-line tool for detecting bugs and guideline violations.