Hey guys,

I wonder if it's possible to open the Skyrim.esm with the New Vegas G.E.C.K. We already know how to open it with TesSnip and that basically means, that Skyrim.esm uses the almost same file structure. I would have tested this myself, but I didn't have New Vegas installed on my system. If you can't get it working maybe try to modifie the .ini for the G.E.C.K so it maybe lets you try this?

It wont. Obsidian made changes to the engine for New Vegas that Bethesda did not do for Skyrim. And vice vera. Their engines are very different. Not to mention the NV GECK wouldnt have functions and features that Skyrim has/needs so it would be pointless even if it could load the skyrim esm.

Well, you can't tell for sure if you didn't tested. If the NV G.E.C.K doesn't work, try the Fallout G.E.C.K, this one is made by Bethesda. Even if you get a bunch of error messages, if it's capable of loading the Skyrim.esm there's a slight chance we're able to modifie some of the things and export them to a plugin file. I think someone who has Skyrim and NV G.E.C.K installed should answert this question, I'm not satisfied with assumptions.

So please can someone confirm this is working or not.

It won't work, it's a complete waste of time trying. The CK will be out soon, just wait until then.

Why haven't you downloaded the GECK and tried it yourself? It's only useful if you can get it to work using only Skyrim files, anyway, so not having NV installed isn't a good reason.

I just confirmed, no. It does not work. When it reaches the point of loading EnchElvenMaceParalyze04, it crashes. Debugging shows an access violation, which means that it tried to access memory it doesn't have. This happens because an object in New G.E.C.K. handled memory differently than the way it is required in order to load that enchantment. Results may vary; it could crash for others while loading different elements. But the important point here is that there's a fundamental difference between the two engines in how dynamic memory is managed, which means that without low level hex editing of the New G.E.C.K., it won't work.

That hex editing would be rather labor intensive for those of us who haven't mucked around with Bethesda's file formats at that level, and still would involve some shots in the dark for those who have. Since it's a memory management issue, that kind of editing could lead to leaks, which could in turn threaten the health of a machine (garbage gets written to memory, which goes to page file, which overwrites something that is not garbage, which then gets moved back to a source file to corrupt it). Also, even if that technical issue were overcome, this isn't the only place this would happen. A difference in object architecture means that this same problem will be encountered over and over.

Going deeper, in assembly the access violation happens with a mov command of a dword pointer. So, it literally attempted to access memory that has not been allocated.

Finally, what all of this put together means is that more than likely the time it would take to find every difference between the platforms and address them all, Bethesda would have a working Creation Kit released. So it's pointless (and possibly in violation of license agreements where reverse engineering is concerned).

So there you have it. No New G.E.C.K. for Skyrim.

Edit: Though I'll add that those rebuking the OP for asking should be ashamed. There's nothing wrong with asking someone who owns both games to check, rather than blow some cash just to try something that probably won't work anyway. It took me more time to write this post than to download the New G.E.C.K., copy over Skyrim.esm, try it, and check the debugger. On the other hand, OP, good things come to those who wait. Modding with rigged tools will mean buggy, unstable mods. Bethesda has always been great about releasing amazing tools for their games, so just wait for it.

Yeah...probably true that. It was worth a try...thank you for having a look at it.

And just to add, it has been tried by many people before, and for nobody it worked. You're not thte only one with this briljant idea . Too bad that it doesn't work though, but it was to be expected. They are two entirely different games.

Honestly, the only tools I would expect to work are third party .esp manipulators created for Oblivion. Even in those cases, what can be done should be drastically restricted and tiresome as compared to using the Creation Kit when it comes out. For example, suppose you want to change an enchantment. Then you'd have to figure out its base ID, find a way to reference it, find a way to get the results you want while blindly editing data, and then after countless crashes and unpredictable results IF you got what you set out to make, it could lead to instability anyway.

Note that those getting a jump on modding are largely focusing on textures, Windows registry tweaks, postprocessor and other library-based (DLL) tricks, and the executable itself. They're doing excellent work, but are not doing the same things we'll be doing with the Creation Kit.

I agree. Although I actually tried to see if GECK would work after Skyrim came out, so I knew the answer already. At least Fallout Manager will upack the files needed for making custom skins and what not.

Throwing around the assumptions are we?

FYI, I do own Fallout NV, and have the editor installed. I knew it wouldn't work because attempting to load the Fallout3.esm in the NV editor produces massive amounts of errors, and those games are far similar then Skyrim is to any past game.

It won't it'll sooner open with the oblivion than new Vegas.