openmw.org

I keep seeing references to "Cleaning" a mod. What is meant by this and does it need to be done. If so, does OpenMW provide any tools for this function?

Thanks!

Cleaning a mod simply means you remove any "dirty" edits (where a mod defines the same record(s) with the same values as its masters/dependencies). You need to be careful though, because while dirty edits are often a mistake, sometimes they're done on purpose; for instance, if a mod relies on certain records having specific values, which also happen to be the default, it may define the record with the same values to ensure it didn't get changed by another mod earlier in the load order. A mod later in the load order may still change it though, like for example a compatibility patch.

AFAIK, OpenMW doesn't provide any tools to automate this. Though perhaps OpenMW-CS can check if a mod you're working on defines a record without changing any values.

Thank you for the explanation, and the caveats.