Editing Category:Tooling

A reference to all the various tooling that may be involved with developing Fallout 4.
This page will include official, community made, and third party software projects.

== Armor and Clothing Design ==
* '''Marvelous Designer''': A 3D digital painting and sculpting software for [[Model File]]s, specifically for clothing and armor.
** [https://marvelousdesigner.com/product/pricing Marvelous Designer]
** As of this writing, offers perpetual licensing as well as monthly subscriptions.
* '''Outfit Studio''': A 3D digital sculpting tool for [[Model File]]s, specifically clothing, armor, and body creation/conversion.
** [https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25 BodySlide and Outfit Studio]
** Used for bodies, outfits, armors, and static [[Model File]]s.

== Audio and Dialogue ==
* '''Audacity''': Open source, multi-track audio editor and recorder for [[Sound File]]s.
** [https://audacityteam.org Audacity]
** Exports into XWM format.
* '''Creation Kit ESM Version Check Patch''': A patch to remove the ESM version check from 32-bit Creation Kit so that lip files can be generated after patch 1.10.162.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/42397 Creation Kit ESM Version Check Patch]

== Character Design and Animation ==
* '''F4Biped Animation Rig''': An animation kit for first person, third person, and vanilla animation import for [[Actor]] [[Model File]]s.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16691 F4Bipid Animation Rig]
* '''Face Ripper''': A tool to transfer the player character face from one plugin to another.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3878 Face Ripper]
** Used for the creation of companion mods or unique NPC mods.
* '''Fallout 4 Animation Kit''': A detailed guide with tools and plugins for importing and exporting animations for [[Actor]] [[Model File]]s.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16694 Fallout 4 Animation Kit]

== Documentation, Planning, and Promotion ==
* '''Canva''': A web-based multimedia design tool with which one can generate visual content for websites and social media.
** [https://canva.com Canva]
* '''Google docs''': A web-based word processor.
** [https://docs.google.com Google docs]
* '''LibreOffice''': An open-source office productivity software suite.
** [https://libreoffice.org LibreOffice]
* '''OBS - Open Broadcaster Software''': Open source software for video recording and live streaming.
** [https://obsproject.com OBS]
* '''Pastebin''': A web-based text editor.
** [https://pastebin.com Pastebin]
* '''Scrivener''': A word processing, metadata, note-taking, and outlining management software suite.
** [https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview Scrivener]
* '''Trello''': A web-based list-making application for projects.
** [https://trello.com Trello]
** Project boards are set up similarly to [https://github.com GitHub] projects.
* '''WordPress.org''': Free, open-source website management software.
** [https://www.wordpress.org WordPress.org]
* '''WordPress.com''': Free and paid website hosting service using WordPress.org open-source code.
** [https://www.wordpress.com WordPress.com]

== Plugin Management ==
* '''Stupid Simple Plugin Manager''': A plugin management software.
**[https://github.com/tim-timman/fo4-plugin-manager Stupid Simple Plugin Manager]
** Used for quickly enabling/disabling plugins during testing and debugging.
* '''Wrye Bash''': A plugin management software.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20032 Wrye Bash]

== Textures and Models ==
* '''GIMP''': An open source image manipulation software for [[Texture File]]s.
**[https://gimp.org GIMP]
* '''Inkscape''': A free vector graphics program for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
** [https://inkscape.org Inkscape]
** Used for complex paintings, illustrations, logos, poster art, HUD elements, etc. Adobe Illustrator's free competition. 
* '''Material Editor''': An editor for [[Material File]]s, both .bgsm and .bgem extensions.
** [http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3635/? Material Editor]
** There is also a Material Editor that came with the Creation Kit in the tools folder.
* '''Materialize''': An open source PBR texture generation tool for creating custom [[Texture File]]s for Windows 64.
** [http://boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/ Materialize]
* '''Mudbox''': A 3D digital painting & sculpting software for [[Model File]]s and [[Texture File]]s.
**[http://www.autodesk.com/store/products/mudbox?src=OMSE&mktvar002=655627&gclid=CNS6yeaGr88CFYqPfgodFTEL_w&term=1month&support=basic Mudbox Subscription]
** [http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/mudbox Mudbox Student]
** Used for texturing, re-texturing, creating or editing diffuse(.d), normals(.n) and spectacular(.s) textures.
* '''Quixel Mixer''': A PBR texture generation tool for creating custom [[Texture File]]s.
** [https://quixel.com/mixer Quixel Mixer]
** Integrated into [https://quixel.com/megascans MegaScans], but you can import your own for generating new ones.
* '''Substance Painter''': A 3D digital painting software for [[Texture File]]s.
** [https://www.substance3d.com/subscribe/ Substance Painter Subscription]
** [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1194110/Substance_Painter_2020/ Substance Painter Perpetual]
* '''Texconv.exe''': A command-line texture compression and mip-map generation utility.
** Texconv.exe is found in the [[Elric]] folder under Tools in the Fallout 4 folder after installing the Creation Kit.
** Microsoft Texconv [https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTex/wiki/Texconv documentation]
* '''TexconvGUI''': A simple GUI for Microsoft's Texconv and can be used for grayscale heightmaps among other things if one does not have access to Adobe Photoshop.
** [https://vvvv.org/contribution/texconvgui TexConvGUI]
* '''XboxDDSTextureLoader''': For use by qualified [https://www.xbox.com/en-US/Developers/id Xbox One XDK developers], allows you to see Xbox textures ("XBOX" FourCC pixel format) on your PC.
** [https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXTK/wiki/XboxDDSTextureLoader XboxDDSTextureLoader]

== User Interface ==
* '''SoThink SWF Decompiler''': A Flash decompiler to convert SWF to FLA and extract SWF resources. Windows and Mac versions.
**[https://sothink.com/product.htm Sothink SWF Decompiler]
** There's a 30-day free trial.

== Utilities ==
* '''7zip''': A free data compression tool for Windows and Linux. It supports RAR 2, 3, 4, and 5 formats as well as ZIP format.
**[https://7-zip.org 7-Zip]
* '''Champollion Pex to Papyrus Decompiler''': A command line tool to decompile PEX binary files into human-readable PSC files.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3742 Champollion]
* '''HxD''': A binary file editing software for raw data manipulation.
** [https://mh-nexus.de/hxd HxD]
** Notepad++ and Visual Studio Code have plugins for viewing raw data.
* '''Inspiration Pad Pro''': A random data generation program.
**[https://www.nbos.com/products/inspiration-pad-pro Inspiration Pad Pro]
* '''StringBuilder''': A utility for building incremental strings upon copy and pasting.
**[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27962 StringBuilder]
* '''WinRAR''': A Windows data compression tool that focuses on the RAR and ZIP data compression formats for all Windows users.
**[http://www.win-rar.com/start.html?&L=0 WinRAR]

== Version Control and Bug Tracking ==
* '''AFKTrack''': A bug tracking application designed for mod authors.
** [https://github.com/Arthmoor/AFKTrack AFKTrack]
* '''GitHub''': A web-based GUI for Git that provides hosting for software development version control.
** [https://github.com GitHub]
** You can also make static websites and have a wiki for your mod project.
* '''Perforce''': Free version control for up to 5 users and 20 workspaces.
** [https://www.perforce.com/products/helix-core/free-version-control Perforce Helix Core]

== Worldspaces ==
* '''terrain.party''': A web-based tool for real-world height map data.
**[https://terrain.party terrain.party]
* '''Wilbur''': A fractal map generator for terrain data height maps.
** [https://fracterra.com/software.html Wilbur]
* '''WorldMachine''': A procedural painting and sculpting tool for generating terrain height maps for import into the Creation Kit.
**[https://world-machine.com WorldMachine]
** Free version produces height maps that are 512 x 512.

== Notes ==
*There are plenty of other tools that can be used and listed.
*If a tool would be linked to directly, multiple times, then consider creating a standalone tool page and adding it to the '''Tooling''' category.

== See Also ==
*[[Game File Reference]]
*[[Creation Kit Toolset]]


[[Category:Editor Reference]]
[[Category:Getting Started]]
[[Category:Tutorials]]