GameBanshee Forums

What exactly *are* GMST files? I've seen modders refer to them as "evil." They apparently lead to mod incompatibilities, and there are useful tools to remove 'em. But what does the acronym stand for; why are these things used in files; and what exact benefit do you get from tossing 'em away?

quoted from Circethesiren:

Plugins/mods (ESPs) in general are meant to run on top of the Master file (ESM) which is the base information of the game and is never altered itself.
When using plugins for Morrowind ANY marked (*) reference in a plugin will take precedence over an older (dated) plugin's reference with the same Id. If the marked reference is purposely altered, it will be different than the master reference in the Master file (Esm). If the reference is changed by accident or on purpose but reverted back to its original state it will still remain marked (*). This is what is usually called a "dirty mod". Those references are not different to the Master file but ,since they are marked (*), they will override any other mod that is older that has a change that is intentional. Thus, the newer "dirty mod" with accidental changes will interfere with the intentional changes of an older mod. Using this program on plugins will clean them so only INTENTIONAL changes will remain.


http://www.elderscrolls.com/ubbthreads/ ... 14&fpart=1

here is the original post...

http://members.optusnet.com.au/argent2/ ... iption.htm

and here is the infamous gmst (gamesettings) cleaner...

have you played a bit with tes yet??? really, it makes more sense when you've twiddled a bit with tes...

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly
have you played a bit with tes yet??? really, it makes more sense when you've twiddled a bit with tes...

Thanks for the info, @UU. I've no time, really, to make Morrowind mods. When I was holding down a job in DragonRealms, the text-based MMORPG, then I was a pretty decent builder, constructing literally close to a seven hundred rooms that are in the game now; at least eight merchants; more than two hundred items, and a half dozen responsive NPCs. It was fun, but it was hard work, especially since I don't think easily in a fashion that makes use of code. I'm a writer, not a programmer.

But I have been using TESTool, yes. It's done a fine job at removing GMSTs (which would have crashed DragonRealms in a second, running in realtime), creating merged lists and objects, etc. Now, if I could just find a way to decrease the data load that's come from all the mods I've added to the game.