The Main Interface
The Header Bar
The header bar provides access to LOOT’s main features. Most of these features get disabled while the metadata editor is open, so if you’re trying to use an option that is faded out, first close the editor.
Masterlist Update & Sorting
The masterlist update process updates the active game’s masterlist to the latest revision at the location given by the game’s masterlist repository settings. If the latest revision contains errors, LOOT will roll back to the latest revision that works.
By default, sorting first updates the masterlist. LOOT then calculates a load order for your plugins, using their internal data and any metadata they may have. If a cyclic interaction is detected (eg. A depends on B depends on A), then sorting will fail.
Once LOOT has calculated a load order, it is compared with the current load order. If the current and calculated load orders are identical, LOOT will inform the user that no changes were made via a pop-up ‘toast’ notification. If the calculated load order contains changes, the plugin cards are sorted into that order and the masterlist update and sorting buttons are replaced with APPLY and CANCEL buttons, which apply and discard the calculated load order respectively. Changing games is disabled until the calculated load order is applied or discarded.
LOOT is able to sort plugins ghosted by Wrye Bash, and can extract Bash Tags and version numbers from plugin descriptions. Provided that they have the Filter
Bash Tag present in their description, LOOT can recognise filter patches and so avoid displaying unnecessary error messages for any of their masters that may be missing.
Any errors encountered during sorting or masterlist update will be displayed on the “General Information” card.
Load Order Backups
Before a sorted load order is applied, LOOT saves a backup of the current load order as a loadorder.bak.0
text file in LOOT’s data folder for the current game. Up to three load order backups are retained: loadorder.bak.0
is the backup from the most recent load order change, loadorder.bak.1
is the second-most recent backup, and loadorder.bak.2
is the third-most recent backup.
Search
The search toolbar is displayed by clicking the search icon in the header bar, or using the Ctrl-F keyboard shortcut. It may be closed using the close button at the right of the toolbar.
Searching is performed as-you-type, or when the Enter key is pressed. All content visible on the front of plugin cards is searched, so the results may be affected by any filters you have active.
The plugin card list will be scrolled to the first card that contains a match. Matches may be scrolled between using the up and down chevron buttons, and the current match and the number of matches are displayed between them and the search input.
Filters
Clicking the FILTERS tab in the sidebar will replace the sidebar’s plugin list with a list of filter toggles that can be applied to hide various combinations of plugins and other content. The available filter toggles are:
- Hide version numbers
Hides the version numbers displayed in blue next to those plugins that provide them.
- Hide CRCs
Hides the CRCs displayed in orange next to those plugins that provide them.
- Hide Bash Tags
Hides all Bash Tag suggestions.
- Hide notes
Hides all plugin messages that have the Note: prefix, or the equivalent text for the language selected in LOOT’s settings.
- Hide all plugin messages
Hides all plugin messages.
- Hide inactive plugins
Hides all plugins that are inactive.
- Hide messageless plugins
Hides all plugins that have no visible messages.
The filter toggles have their states saved on quitting LOOT, and they are restored when LOOT is next launched. There are also two other filters in the sidebar tab:
- Show only conflicting plugins for…
This hides any plugins that don’t have the filter input value present in any of the text on their cards.
- Show only plugins with cards that contain…
This filters the plugin cards displayed so that only plugins which conflict with this plugin will be visible. If this plugin loads an archive, other plugins that load archives which may contain conflicting resources are also displayed. Sorting with the conflict filter active will first deactivate it.