Starfield Plugin Bridge

Starfield Plugin Bridge

Force-converts Starfield full master .esm files to and from .esp plugin files that can be edited in Creation Kit.

Detects master references to BlueprintShips-Starfield.esm (which breaks Creation Kit) and provides a means to remove them.

The output from this tool must be loaded and saved in Creation Kit (.esp) or xEdit (.esm) before the plugin file is ready to use elsewhere.

Important note: Do not distribute .esp files for end users and DO NOT use them for anything but editing!

Starfield is different from past games with regards the purpose and functionality of .esp files. These are now intended to be "development-only", working files. It forcibly loads them last in their own little order bucket meant for development only. The load ordering is already basically broken... lets not make it worse.

Based on advice from the xEdit team - I suspect they understand things better than Bethesda so I recommend heeding the advice.

When converting to .esp or esm, the original file is replaced (and backed up). You can easily go back and forth between the two editors without renaming or hex editing! When converting to esm, it prompts you for the size Full, mid, small, or Blueprint since esp's don't have a size.

If BlueprintShips-Starfield.esm is detected in the plugin, it will offer to remove it.  If you choose to, you are prompted to try fixing the file. <filename>.stubbed.esm will be created instead. This file should be opened in xEdit and perform a "clean masters", save and close. This will remove the stub "safely" and the file can now be converted to .esp for use in Creation Kit.

Research Update:

The only "non-standard" thing about the .esp files is the presence of the unnecessary "Internal Cell Count" header field. CK removes it on save, so it is not an issue.

UPDATE: NOW WORKS WITH ALL MASTER TYPES!

You should use Creation Kit to convert your .esp to .esm for distribution.

This tool will do esp -> .esm, but ideally use CK.

- Starfield Plugin Bridge\StarfieldPluginBridge.exe                 Utility

- Starfield Plugin Bridge\Readme.txt                                       Instructions

- Starfield Plugin Bridge\source\sf_plugin_convert.cpp         C++ source

- Detects references to BlueprintShips-Starfield.esm (These are not supposed to be referenced in most cases) and provides a