Attachment removed - new version has been released on download page.

Full package with description of the features is on Nexus: Sniff download page.

I think that to really mod ORe, I'll need to install and learn Unreal Engine. We were looking at it anyway for our game development work.

Here's our first attempt at a readme/release thread. Looking for comments on this too.

TES4Gecko - Sharpened

This is a rewrite of TES4Gecko in C#. It is not a port, rather we have rewritten it from the ground up based on the documentation from the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) as well as the source code from TES4Gecko. The source code is for a newer version of Gecko than what was uploaded to Nexus and was provided by Steve Carrow. Explicit permission for the new release was granted by Aubrey K McAuley.

What's TES4Gecko?

TES4Gecko was one of the first modding tools that supplied extra functions not available in the Construction Set (CS). Its primary purpose is to merge plugins, whether merging a patch into a master or simply merging unrelated plugins. It's also used to move worldspaces, compare plugins, convert to a master or to a plugin along with a few other features that aren't used very often.

TES4Gecko - Sharpened

The new version will offer the following features:

• merge plugins
• advanced search with the ability to save results in a text file
• move worldspaces
• compare plugins
• convert to master and convert to plugin
• editing of plugins

 Unlike the old Gecko, this version will display and provide access to the entire record, rendered in a fashion similar to the CS.

Also, Gecko Sharp will use optimistic locking so you don't need to close Gecko when opening your plugin in another program. You can open the CS, change your plugin, save it and then go back to Gecko, right-click on your plugin and select Reload. It will reload the files with the changes you just made.

Download: Link in thread below

Installation
 
Run the TES4GeckoSharpened installer. It will create a start menu folder and a desktop shortcut.

REQUEST: Could you grab screenshots of the dialogue boxes that pop up during installation? We don't see the prompts since we have all the files already so it would be helpful if we could see what you are being prompted for during installation.

We have managed to build the project and debug it. 

The first problem we ran into was that the directories were not being created properly.  I tracked that problem down to an issue in llutils.cpp with it deleting variables while they were still in use. 

I also fixed an issue with the processing of the "-w" parameter in tes4ll.cpp where it was trying to process the subsequent worldspace name as a parameter.  I don't know if that actually caused any problems but it was confusing to trace.

Once past there we found that tes4qlod was failing.  We were able to build and debug tes4qlod by itself and found an issue with the processing of one of the cells in Argonia.  In Process4LANDData it tries to decode the VCLR, ATXT, BTXT, and VTXT fields after decompressing the LAND record.  It manages to find the VTXT field before processing the BTXT field so doesn't have any quad info to work with.  This causes a memory access error.  There isn't any error handing here so I assume it just dies quietly.  I am guessing that the ZLIB decompress is not working properly so we are looking at pulling in a more recent version of ZLIB. 

Basic Navigation

To view the plugin, launch the application and click on the View button on the splash screen.

TES4Gecko Sharpened will automatically locate your Oblivion installation if you have installed the game from CD or from Steam.  

If you have used another installation method such as GOG please let me know as I don't have an example of that type of installation to test.

After you click on View you should see a list of plugin files.

Click on Oblivion.esm.  You should see the plugin details from the file header at the bottom of the screen:

Click on the Open button to open the plugin.  This will take several seconds.  You can also double-click on the file in the list to open.

You should see Oblivion.esm listed in a tree on the left of the screen.

Expand Oblivion.esm by clicking on the triangular arrow to the left of the name.

Expand Landscape Textures (LTEX).

Click on CHTerrainGrass01.  You should see the details of the record in the right pane:

Contrast this with what the Construction Set shows:

You will note that the names of the Grasses in the Landscape Texture details show up looking like hyperlinks.  You can click on them to navigate to the related record:

Clicking the Backwards button at the top left will navigate back to the Landscape Texture.

One of the goals of TES4Gecko Sharpened is to provide a consistent presentation of the different record types.

At present there are eight record types that have been at least partially "decoded" to show the detail attributes contained:

• Enchantments (ENCH)
• Grass (GRAS)
• Landscape Textures (LTEX)
• Magic Effects (MGEF)
• Regions (REGN)
• Sound (SOUN)
• Weather (WTHR)
• Worldspaces (WLRD)

If you view other record types in TES4Gecko Sharpened you will see the field structures in a fashion similar to that shown by the old Gecko.

Advanced Search

TES4Gecko Sharpened includes a basic search mechanism that supports looking for records by Form ID or Editor ID. 

If you enter Form ID 00043de5 and click on the search button, you will be shown the DementiaDarkSand01Grass record:

The tool also supports a more sophisticated search that allows searching for records with certain attribute values.

Click on the Advanced Search button  to the right of the basic area.

This will open the Advanced Search window where you can specify your search criteria.

The Object type selection provides a list of record types that have been decoded so far (see above).  Select Grass from this list.

Select Bound Radius from the Property list.  The next drop-down shows a list of operators.  Since Bound Radius is a number, operators appropriate to numbers will appear.  Select Greater Than and put the value 80 in the last box:

Click on the Search button at the bottom of the window.  Note that the Search results at the bottom of the window shows 47/108.  This means that of the 108 Grass records in the plugin, only 47 of them have a Bound Radius greater than 80.  These Grass records will appear in the tree in the main window.

You may wish to know which Landscape Textures make reference to these Grass records.

Click the Clear button at the bottom of the Advanced Search window.  This clears the current search allowing all records to be viewed in the main window.

Select Landscape Texture from the Object type list.

Select Grasses from the Property list.  You may recall that the Grasses property of the Landscape Texture record has a list of Grass records that you can navigate to.

Select References from the operator list.  Since the Landscape Texture Grasses property can only reference Grass records this object type is selected automatically.  The next Property list is indented to show that it "belongs" to the Grass object type referenced above.

The new Property list shows properties for Grass records.  Select Bound Radius and specify that you want values greater than 80.

Click the Search button at the bottom of the window.  The Search results now show 58/229, which indicates that it found 58 Landscape Texture records of the possible 229 that have references to Grass records with Bound Radius greater than 80.

Note that the search results show Landscape Texture records that have at least one reference to a Grass record with a Bound Radius greater than 80.  They could also reference Grass records with a smaller Bound Radius.

Export Search Results

Now that you can see 58 Landscape Texture records that match your search, you can export the list to a file.

Click on the Export Results button  in the main window.

This will open another window that allows you to specify the report structure.

The top of the window shows the object properties to include in the report.  By default the Editor Id for the found Landscape Texture records is shown.

In the drop-down list below the Name (Editor Id) property select Material Type.  This adds the Material Type to the report.

Next, select Grasses.  Notice that since the Grasses property refers to a list of Grass records a new section is added to allow you to include Grass properties in the report.  Select Name (Editor Id) and Bound Radius in this section to add them to the report.

Upon close inspection you will see that the Name (Editor Id) for the Landscape Texture records now contains duplicate values.  This is because these records reference more than one Grass record.  To make this clearer, select the Suppress Repeats checkbox for those properties in the report control area.  You should now be able to see the breaks for Landscape Texture records.

The Export button at the bottom of the window will allow you to save the report to a file.  You have the option of using commas, tabs, or vertical bars to separate the columns, allowing for import into a spreadsheet.

This shows the basic capabilities so far.

As you explore you will no doubt discover bugs and important features missing.  We are hoping to get some feedback on the overall approach and an idea of what to do next.

I uploaded all the miscellaneous meshes (and textures) but I think you'll see the bad ones from just the file sizes! The main ones are the miniatures I created from existing architecture:

• Elven statue
• Garridan statue
• miniature lighthouse
• miniature ship
• priory chapel

I forgot how many I added. You'll notice that in some cases there's an "h" version and an "s" version of the same mesh. The "h" stands for Havok and the "s" for static. The Havoked version can be moved around and then it's converted to a static when the user finalizes the position. It's used for large items or items the player will interact with, like beds.

The items I listed above only have one version as they are small enough to just drop from your inventory and drag into position. I tell players that they'll want to use Decorator Assistant to get things placed nicely.

If you'd like to quickly check some of the other statues that would be awesome, but I don't think they are too bad. As far as I know AMajor7's models were pretty good. Those are prefixed with AM7.

This is a collection of the changes other players have made to the levelling parameters to suit their gaming experience. Basically as more quest mods support Oblivion XP, we are finding that the original equations developed by SirFrederik need a bit of tweaking to slow your rate of levelling. All of the players below are either running FCOM or have a large number of quest mods loaded. You can see what kind of effect these numbers will have on your game by using the levelling equation spreadsheet in the Docs folder in your Oblivion data directory. The spreadsheet has a graph of the existing formula, as well as an area for you to plug in new numbers and see the result.

If you are running FCOM, I recommend using settings labelled as much slower.

If you would like to submit your own customizations, just reply to this thread.

Levelling Parameter Customizations

Player: astr0wiz Levelling Effect:  Much slower

Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeeded to 3 ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase to 4500 ; 1500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededLinear to 150 ; 150
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticSlope to 0.4 ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticAmp to 30000 ; 20000

Player: omeletted Levelling Effect:  Much slower

multXPNeeded 3.00
multXPNeededBase 1500.00
multXPNeededLinear 200.00
multXPNeededQuadraticSlope 0.50
multXPNeededQuadraticAmp 40000.00

Player: Phitt Levelling Effect:  Slower

Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeeded to 1.5
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase to 1500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededLinear to 150
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticSlope to 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticAmp to 40000

Phitt also changed the sleeping bonus: Set ObXPSettings.multXPSleeping to 0.005 and removed or reduced many of the points from miscellaneous actions.

Player: Prugalo Levelling Effect:  About the same as default

Set ObXPSettings.attributePointsPerLevel to 3
Set ObXPSettings.skillPointsPerLevel to 12
Set ObXPSettings.trainingSessions to 0
Set ObXPSettings.skillPointPreset to 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillBase to 100
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillBonus to 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillLevel to 0
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillSneaking to 2
Set ObXPSettings.multXPLevel to 0
Set ObXPSettings.multXPQuestLevel to 0
Set ObXPSettings.multXPArtifacts to 10000
Set ObXPSettings.multXPBook to 100
Set ObXPSettings.multXPEating to 3
Set ObXPSettings.multXPExploration to 100
Set ObXPSettings.multXPFame to 300
Set ObXPSettings.multXPGates to 10000
Set ObXPSettings.multXPHorses to 500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPHouses to 1000
Set ObXPSettings.multXPInfamy to 300
Set ObXPSettings.multXPInvest to 500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPLockpick to 100
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNirnsFound to 500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNPCDisposition to 250
Set ObXPSettings.multXPPickpocket to 50
Set ObXPSettings.multXPPotion to 250
Set ObXPSettings.multXPSouls to 200
Set ObXPSettings.multXPVampireBite to 250
Set ObXPSettings.multXPSleeping to 0
Set ObXPSettings.globalQuestXPMult to 30
Set ObXPSettings.capLevel to 100

Prugalo didn't change the levelling parameters, but he reduced the number of skill and attribute points per level and changed many of the other factors so that levelling is much more static. You'll see that many of the levelling bonuses have been removed.

Player: Terra Nova Levelling Effect: Slightly slower

Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeeded                   to 0.8          ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase               to 10           ; 1500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededLinear             to 380          ; 150
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticSlope     to 0.5          ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticAmp       to 35000        ; 20000

Player: Rehwyn Levelling Effect: Slower

multXPNeeded: 2.00
multXPNeededBase: 4500.00
multXPNeededQuadraticSlope: 1.50
multXPNeededQuadraticAmp: 17500.00

Rehwyn reports that these numbers "greatly slow down the first 10 to 15 levels (450% increase XP at level 1 down to around 200% increase at 10), where the XP you get from killing stuff in FCOM seems to be most exaggerated, before eventually tapering off to around at 100% increase in the upper 20s (when you encounter fewer enemies above your level)."

My settings: Slower

Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeeded               to 2       ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase           to 1500    ; 1500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededLinear         to 150     ; 150
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticSlope to 2       ; 1
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticAmp   to 20000   ; 20000

I also reduce or remove several of the miscellaneous point awards, as follows:

Set ObXPSettings.multXPArtifacts         to 200        ; 300
Set ObXPSettings.multXPBook             to 0        ; 25
Set ObXPSettings.multXPGates             to 100        ; 200
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNirnsFound         to 0        ; 50
Set ObXPSettings.multXPVampireBite         to 0        ; 50

I don't play with FCOM or OOO, but I do have a number of quest mods loaded.

Player: emptythe Levelling Effect: Slower
Best way to handle unscaled overhauls, like TIE, WAC and OWC-ND with OBXP (WAC+OWCND is my current setup with OBXP), is to tweak the ini for a steeper ramp and less exp for kills. I generally leave all other exp settings to default and ends up like this:

Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeeded             to 2            ; 1 - changed this to be higher for more exp per level needed
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase         to 1500        ; 1500
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededLinear        to 150         ; 150
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticSlope    to 2     ; 1 - changed this higher for a steeper slope
Set ObXPSettings.multXPNeededQuadraticAmp    to 20000    ; 20000
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillBase     to 3                ; 5 - changed this lower for less exp per kill
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillBonus     to 0.5        ; 1 - changed this lower so that enemies need to be tougher to yield full exp
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillLevel     to 0.3        ; 0.3
Set ObXPSettings.multXPKillSneaking     to 2        ; 2
Set ObXPSettings.multXPLevel            to 0.2        ; 0.2
Set ObXPSettings.multXPQuestLevel       to 0.2    ; 0.1 - higher quest gain as you get higher level, I feel its better at higher levels like this

Installation
------------
Follow the installation instructions in the readme (PDF) EXACTLY. You may install this with BAIN, Vortex or manually. Instructions are included for all three methods.

If you get a big box on the screen with nothing happening, then you have installed it incorrectly or you forgot to enable the plugin.

If Oblivion hangs or crashes when you try to load a saved game, then double-check your installation. You must install Oblivion XP after any mod that modifies the user interface (UI), including the HUD. If you're not sure, install it last.

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Do NOT use weOCPS. It doesn't prevent crashes, it just hides the cause, which means that you'll eventually ruin your game. It's also incompatible with the newer versions of OBSE, so your game will crash anyway.
NOTE: If you are using the FCOM SuperPack, then you will need to remove weOCPS which is installed automatically as part of that package. It's a DLL in your OBSE Plugins folder - delete if present.
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Notice to users with High Resolution (4K) Monitors

Oblivion XP version 4.4 and onwards are now compatible with 4K monitors. The click zone issue has been fixed.

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The compatibility list is in the readme (PDF) file. Oblivion XP is compatible with the major overhauls like OOO and FCOM. It is not compatible with Mod Organizer. I have been told it is compatible with Mod Organizer 2, but I can't confirm this personally.
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Customizing Levelling Parameters

Do not customize the levelling parameters in the ini file if you have already gotten the level-up notice, but haven't distributed your points yet. In other words, if you have the level-up icon on your HUD or if the Level in the Character Stats screen (F1) says "Click to Level Up", do NOT change the levelling parameters. Level up first and then change the parameters.

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I have my Attributes and Skills capped at 100, but I can increase them more than that. What gives?

Your Attributes and Skills include constant fortify effects. If you open the Active Effects window (F3, last tab), you'll see that you have several Attributes and Skills with fortify effects. These effects are due to your Birthsign and various bonuses that you earn as you play. Due to these effects, your Attributes and Skills may be increased beyond the cap you have set in the ini file. Once your base Attributes and Skills hit 100, you won't be able to increase them any further.
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I'm getting "perfection can't be improved upon" message when I level-up.

Once your attributes are maxed out at 100, you can't level anymore even though you have skills that could still be increased. This is the way it works in Oblivion. Once you maximize your attributes, you can't level anymore. Oblivion XP can't change that. Leave one of your attributes one point below the maximum and don't increase it.