Respect Master Sorting

[krypto5863]

I used mutagen to load an existing mod and do edits directly to it and then save it back as follows:

var mod = SkyrimMod.CreateFromBinary(PathtoMod, SkyrimRelease.SkyrimSE);
var linkCache = mod.ToMutableLinkCache();

//generates a bunch of dialog topics and makes minor changes to some of the fields within existing topics.
DoWork(linkCache, mod,CSVDirectory);

//Uncompress needed for Mutagen.
foreach (var rec in mod.EnumerateMajorRecords())
{
    if (rec.IsCompressed)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Uncompressing record {rec.EditorID} :: {rec.FormKey}");
    }

    rec.IsCompressed = false;
}

mod.WriteToBinary(PathtoMod);

Console.ReadKey();

However, upon trying to load the product into the CK, I found it would crash. It turned out to be I needed to sort the masters in xEdit, even though they were already sorted going into this process.

[Noggog]

There are a decent amount of options for WriteToBinary, which takes in a BinaryWriteParameters object with the special instructions.

One of the more semi-required ones is providing the load order to sort the masters against.
https://mutagen-modding.github.io/Mutagen/plugins/Binary-Exporting/ (docs somewhat unfinished, haha)

By default, it populates the master list by the contents of the records, but sorts them first come first serve, which causes the problems you're experiencing. I could potentially not populate the master list by content, but then you run the risk of the user missing masters that exist, causing similar issues.

I think the best alternative would've been to design the API to require the load order as input by default, with somehow optionality to override it for other behavior. Not sure how that call would look, though

Let me know if you have any ideas, though!

EDIT: To be clear if you dont have a load order to pass it, and just want the masters untouched, there's options in the BinaryWriteParameters to instruct the system to do no changes to the masters

[Noggog]

I just updated the docs in Binary Exporting to show how to instruct the system to do no changes to masters. Reopened to consider changing the default behaviors to match that behavior.

I think that would be a big backward compatibility issue, though, as users that added the load order specification would inherit the default value for the MastersListContent being set to NoCheck, which would change their expected results. This kind of backwards incompatibility is not ideal, as it's silent. It compiles, but changes behavior.

Another option might be:

• Keep default values of BinaryWriteParameters the same
• Make BinaryWriteParameters non optional parameter on WriteToBinary
• Define a WriteToBinary with no BinaryWriteParameters, this would internally make parameters with the no change instructions and do that
• Perhaps even make a WriteToBinary call /w a load order as a parameter instead of BinaryWriteParameters. Would be a lot less clunky call for what is the most typical one

Will give it a spin!

[krypto5863]

Yeah, I see your dilemma. Well, it's best to prevent compilation and make the error easily seen when devs open up their IDE. As such, I think doing non-optional parameters is the best way around it as it also forces devs to be aware of what is going on. However, I think an overload with no parameters would also be a very good solution but only in cases where there's an original master list to reference.

Hope my opinion helps. Thanks for looking into this! Appreciate it.

[Noggog]

This I believe is addressed in the new write builder concepts.

mod.BeginWrite
   .WithLoadOrder(...)
   ...OtherOptions
   .Write()

Better docs on the official wiki incoming