Plugins/esp's/esl's And Other Questions

[ACspiral]

So as I am currently rebuilding a load order for FO4, I've come to a mod that has it's normal version and a plugin-free version. I am aware that FO4 has a plugin limit of around 250, and while I'm not sure if I will hit or come close to that limit, this has led me to a few questions I haven't been able to find answers to on my own:

 

1.) What is the difference between having a plugin and not having one?

2.) What are the advantages/disadvantages to plugin vs plugin free?

3.) What is the difference between an esp and an esl?

[EgoBallistic]

2 hours ago, ACspiral said:

1.) What is the difference between having a plugin and not having one?

Plugins contain records that are loaded by the game.  NPCs, items, quests, etc, are all defined in a plugin.  The game will also load BA2 archives with the same name as a plugin.  BA2 files are archives that contain assets like meshes, textures, and scripts.

 

If a mod's plugin is optional, that means it contains no records, and the only purpose of the plugin is to load a BA2 file.  The plugin-free version of the mod doesn't use a BA2, and instead uses "loose files" that are individually installed in the Data folder.  Loose files are automatically loaded by the game and don't need a plugin.

 

2 hours ago, ACspiral said:

2.) What are the advantages/disadvantages to plugin vs plugin free?

The main advantage of using a plugin in this case is that textures stored in BA2s will load more efficiently than ones stored as loose files.  The disadvantage is that you use up a mod slot.  However:

 

2 hours ago, ACspiral said:

3.) What is the difference between an esp and an esl?

This is a little bit technical.  Every object in the game has a 32-bit Form ID, usually expressed as 8 hexadecimal digits (e.g. A0123456).

 

In conventional plugins, the first two digits (A0 in the above example) are the plugin ID, and the remaining six digits (123456) are the ID of the form within the plugin.  This means that you can only have 254 plugins (hex 00 through FE, plugin ID FF is reserved) and each plugin can hold 16 million forms.

 

ESLs are a recent addition to this scheme.  ESLs change the way the 8-digit form ID is used.  The first 2 digits are still the plugin ID, but all ESLs share the same plugin ID, FE.  The next 3 digits form the ESL slot ID (000-FFF) and the final 3 digits are used for form IDs within the plugin (also 000-FFF).  This allows for 4096 ESLs, but the number of records within each ESL is also limited to 4096.

 

Because of the 4096 form limit, ESL's can't be used for very large mods.  But for a plugin which only serves to make the game load an archive, it's perfect.

[ACspiral]

On 4/1/2020 at 3:30 AM, EgoBallistic said:

Plugins contain records that are loaded by the game.  NPCs, items, quests, etc, are all defined in a plugin.  The game will also load BA2 archives with the same name as a plugin.  BA2 files are archives that contain assets like meshes, textures, and scripts.

 

If a mod's plugin is optional, that means it contains no records, and the only purpose of the plugin is to load a BA2 file.  The plugin-free version of the mod doesn't use a BA2, and instead uses "loose files" that are individually installed in the Data folder.  Loose files are automatically loaded by the game and don't need a plugin.

 

The main advantage of using a plugin in this case is that textures stored in BA2s will load more efficiently than ones stored as loose files.  The disadvantage is that you use up a mod slot.  However:

 

This is a little bit technical.  Every object in the game has a 32-bit Form ID, usually expressed as 8 hexadecimal digits (e.g. A0123456).

 

In conventional plugins, the first two digits (A0 in the above example) are the plugin ID, and the remaining six digits (123456) are the ID of the form within the plugin.  This means that you can only have 254 plugins (hex 00 through FE, plugin ID FF is reserved) and each plugin can hold 16 million forms.

 

ESLs are a recent addition to this scheme.  ESLs change the way the 8-digit form ID is used.  The first 2 digits are still the plugin ID, but all ESLs share the same plugin ID, FE.  The next 3 digits form the ESL slot ID (000-FFF) and the final 3 digits are used for form IDs within the plugin (also 000-FFF).  This allows for 4096 ESLs, but the number of records within each ESL is also limited to 4096.

 

Because of the 4096 form limit, ESL's can't be used for very large mods.  But for a plugin which only serves to make the game load an archive, it's perfect.

Thank you for that. I'm sure it would depend on what the mod contains but does the efficiency of a plugin make a huge difference, particularly when it comes to game performance? The stuff about esp's and esl's was technical beyond my understanding, but I assume it shouldn't matter too much to me as solely a mod user?

[EgoBallistic]

10 hours ago, ACspiral said:

Thank you for that. I'm sure it would depend on what the mod contains but does the efficiency of a plugin make a huge difference, particularly when it comes to game performance? The stuff about esp's and esl's was technical beyond my understanding, but I assume it shouldn't matter too much to me as solely a mod user?

Sorry about the overly technical.  It boils down to: you can only have 254 esps.  You can have up to 4096 esl's, but esl's are only good for small mods.

 

As far as the efficiency of BA2's, the difference isn't that large, but it depends on the situation.  If you are talking about an outfit that only 1 or 2 characters are going to wear, or a gun that only you are going to use, etc, then you'll never notice.  But if you're talking about say a texture replacer for every NPC outfit in the game then it would potentially be noticeable especially on a slower PC.

[ACspiral]

17 hours ago, EgoBallistic said:

Sorry about the overly technical.  It boils down to: you can only have 254 esps.  You can have up to 4096 esl's, but esl's are only good for small mods.

 

As far as the efficiency of BA2's, the difference isn't that large, but it depends on the situation.  If you are talking about an outfit that only 1 or 2 characters are going to wear, or a gun that only you are going to use, etc, then you'll never notice.  But if you're talking about say a texture replacer for every NPC outfit in the game then it would potentially be noticeable especially on a slower PC.

Ok all this cleared it up for me. Thank you very much for this!