Book Placement 2.0 (English Version)

Originally by jepeter. Modified for compatibility with official mods by Oblivionmasta. Extended and refined by McLoud. Tinkered with and converted to master by phoenixamon. Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third.

Description

Book Placement is a utility mod to take the work out of placing books on shelves in your own home. Cast spells to stand books upright or stack them any way you like, lock them in place, and restore them to the places you had them if they get knocked around later.

What's new in Version 2.0

This mod has passed through too many hands for me to even attempt a full history. Version 2 makes use of the mod more natural and less clicky.

Descriptive names are used for the rotation options rather than numbers. Options to place the books for stacking now exist. There is an option to allow you to place books at more natural angles (for instance preserve the way a books has tipped over, but put it on another shelf). While placing books, they will keep their orientation relative to the player similar to the way Book Rotate for Morrowind worked. This feature can be toggled off. You can Lock all books in place or Release all books with a single click rather than setting the options for each book individually.

No vendors or containers are modified in this version. Instead, the Treatise (spellbook) is added to the vendors through a script. This should reduce the chance of conflicts with other mods. It's a slim trim esm file so your game isn't loading a bunch of rubbish that another mod would just overwrite anyway.

Installation

Extract the archive in your Data folder. It contains 3 files: bookplacing.esm, Book Placement v2.esp and this readme.

bookplacing.esm is the base file. All users need to activate this file. Do not rename it. Since it is an ESM, other files rely on it and will call it by name. If you want to add placement abilities to books in other mods, use this esm as a hook. It contains all the variables and scripts, but they aren't assigned to anything.

If you are upgrading, overwrite any earlier version of bookplacing.esm and disable any earlier version of bookplacing.esp. If you were using the esm version, your spells will be automatically upgraded. If you were using the esp, you will probably need to buy the Treatise to relearn the spells.

Book Placement v2.esp is an add-on for Vanilla Oblivion. It assigns the scripts to all the vanilla books. If you are not using Book Jackets or another mod that adds the placement abilities to all books, you should activate this mod.

If you are using Book Jackets Oblivion - BP.esp, you don't need to activate Book Placement v2.esp, only bookplacing.esm. Your spells will be automatically upgraded. There is no need to update Book Jackets. The bookplacing.esm file should be loaded before Book Jackets Oblivion - BP.esp. I don't honestly know if that matters in the case of esm files, but just in case.

How to use the mod

When you first install Book Placement you should make your way to one of Oblivion's bookstores. There's the First Edition in the Market District, Renoit's Books in Chorrol, Mach-Na's Books in Cheydinhal, and Southern Books in Leyawiin. Any of these stores can sell you the book "A Treatise on Bookkeeping" which you'll need to learn the learn the spells.

When you open the book you'll learn 3 new spells (lesser powers): Librarian's Helper, Librarian's Lock and Librarian's Restoration. The book also serves as a short in-game readme. If you are upgrading from an earlier bookplacing.esm version and have already got the Librarian's Helper spell, you don't need to buy the book again. Your spells will be updated automatically. If you are upgrading from an earlier bookplacing.esp version, you will probably need to buy the Treatise again.

Librarian's Helper is the first spell you'll need. When you cast this spell, activating books will give you placement options instead of opening the books to read.

• Upright (Cover) will stand the book up with the cover facing you as if for display.
• Upright (Spine) will stand the book up with the spine facing you as it would on a shelf.
• Reading Position will lay the book flat in front of you as if you were about to read it.
• Stacking Position will lay the book flat with the spine facing you as if stacked on a shelf.

Other menu options:

• Keep Orientation - if you don't want the book to rotate to maintain its orientation to the player, choose this option. You can also use it to move books you've placed in more natural positions like leaning to one side.
• Keep Height - normally after setting a book's orientation the book will slowly drift down until it finds a surface to rest on. If you want to stop the falling, choose this option.
• Lock in Place - When you choose this option, the book will be unmovable until you release it.
• Release - Turns off the lock for a single book.

When you choose one of the standard orientation options, the book will automatically rotate into the correct position. You can then move the book by holding down the "Grab" key or button and moving around as usual. The book will stay in position you chose no matter how you turn. For instance if you select "Upright (Spine)" and then grab the book to place it on a shelf behind you, the spine will rotate to face you as you turn around. To prevent this behavior, activate the book again and choose "Keep Orientation" on the menu.

If you want to place more books or other objects, you can either activate the book again and choose "Lock in Place" to prevent it from getting knocked around by your additions or just wait for it to be automatically locked (about 10 seconds). Or if you are done, you can activate the book again and choose "Release" to move it again as normal. The book's position will be memorized when you release it.

If you've placed many books, you may want to Lock or Release them all at once. To release all books at once, just cast the Librarian's Helper spell a second time. This turns off Book Placement mode and allows you to read and move the books again as normal. The positions of all your books will be memorized when you release them. You should always cast Librarian's Helper again when you are done adding books to your collection so that you'll be able to read and take books again.

To lock all nearby books in place at once, cast the Librarian's Lock spell. Be careful... all books will be locked in place, even once that you've left scattered about on the floor. Casting Librarian's Helper again will release them all.

If your book arrangement gets knocked about by a stray fireball or an unruly atronach, cast the Librarian's Restoration spell. All books that you've previously placed and released will instantly be restored to the last place you released them. If you never released them, they will be ignored.

Permissions

Book Placement is a utility... use it. :) Void where prohibited by law. Batteries not included. Don't forget to call your mother.

Adding placement abilities to books in other mods

If you've added a book to your mod or want the ability to place books added by mods you've downloaded, here's all you need to do step by step:

• Open the CS. Click the Open button or pick "Data" from the File menu.
• You'll get a list of all your mods, and they aren't in alphabetical order, just to piss me off.
• Find "bookplacing.esm" in the list and double-click it. You should see an X in the box next to it.
• Find the mod you want to add the book placement scripting to. Click it and then click "Active File".
• Click OK and twiddle your thumbs while the mods are loaded in the CS.
• The list of objects is normally on the left. Navigate the tree list to "Items" -> "Book".
• The book you want to change is somewhere in that list. Look for the * character... all books added by your mod will be marked with it.
• When you find the book you want to add the scripting to, double click that entry in the list. (Or right click and pick "Select" from the pop-up.)
• Now you have a new window. Find the "Script" dropdown box.
• Does it say NONE? If it says anything other than NONE stop here unless you know how to script*... in which case you're probably not reading this.
• If it does say NONE, then use the dropdown box to choose "aaabookplacer".
• Click OK to close that window.
• Save your mod, either by the icon or from the file menu.

Now you'll be able to place the new book just like all the others. Your mod will be dependent on bookplacing.esm, which is to say the game will crash without helpful hints if you try to load your mod and don't have bookplacing.esm enabled as well.

You can add book placing abilities to books that already have scripts. You'll need to integrate the aaabookplacer script in with the existing script. It will still call the global variables and function with the spells in the bookplacing.esm file so that you don't have to create a separate set of spells. If you know how to script, it should be quite easy. If you don't know how to script, please do not ask this author for help as she can't script worth beans and will probably mess you up. :)