- 
+ 
+ Clicking the Sort Plugins
button in the main window will begin the sorting process.
Provided that masterlist updating is enabled and that a masterlist repository URL is set, BOSS checks for updates to its masterlist and downloads any that are available. If there are any syntax errors in the latest masterlist (due to human error by its maintainers), the updater rolls back one version at a time until it finds a version that works. If any other errors are encountered, updating is cancelled.
During the sorting process, BOSS extracts information from each of the plugins installed in the game's Data folder and combines this information with any relevant metadata provided by the masterlist and userlist. It then uses the combined data to build a directed graph of all the interactions between all the installed plugins. A topological sort is then carried out on the graph to produce a list of plugins in their optimal load order, according to BOSS's criteria. If a cycle is detected (eg. A depends on B depends on A), then sorting is cancelled as it becomes impossible to generate a load order that satisfies all conditions. -
If successful, the calculated load order is then displayed in the dialog shown above, which allows the user to edit the load order before it is applied. Multiple plugins may be selected and moved at once. Plugins which are empty (ie. only contain a header record) are displayed in grey text, and plugins that are not empty and load BSAs are displayed in blue text. If OK
button is clicked, it is then applied, and any edits made are recorded in the userlist for re-application when BOSS next sorts the game's plugins. If the Cancel
button is clicked, then the load order and any edits made are discarded.
+
If successful, the calculated load order is then displayed in the dialog shown above. Plugins which are empty (ie. only contain a header record) are displayed in grey text, and plugins that are not empty and load BSAs are displayed in blue text.
+Clicking on a plugin in the list will display the editing panel, where its load order related metadata can be edited. The Show only conflicting plugins
checkbox filters the plugin list so that only plugins which can be validly added to the Load After
list and either contain conflicting records or (if the selected plugin loads a BSA) load BSAs that may contain conflicting resources. The checkbox must be ticked before plugins can be added to the Load After
list, which is done by drag 'n' dropping them from the plugin list, and it must be unticked to select another plugin for editing. The priority value is explained below.
+
If the Apply
button is clicked, BOSS does one of two things: if no edits were made, then it immediately applies the load order, but if edits were made, then it repeats the sorting process with the new edits applied. If the Cancel
button is clicked, then the load order and any edits made are discarded.
BOSS then generates a report and displays it either in a new window or in your default browser, according to the value of the relevant setting. Any errors encountered during the sorting process will be displayed in this report, including those due to graph cycles, missing dependencies or installed incompatible plugins. See the next section for more information on the report.
BOSS is able to sort plugins ghosted by Wrye *ash, and can extract Bash Tags and version numbers from plugin descriptions. Provided that they have the Filter Bash Tag present in their description, BOSS can recognise filter patches and so avoid displaying unnecessary error messages for any of their masters that may be missing.
While reading very large plugins, such as the game's main master file, BOSS may appear to stop responding: this is not an issue. The time it takes for BOSS to sort your load order depends primarily on the size of the masterlist being used, the total size of the files in your load order, and the number of plugins in your load order. The first run is likely to be longer than subsequent runs as BOSS needs to download the full masterlist, rather than just the changes made by updates. In testing, it was found that sorting ~90 plugins with a total size of ~350 MB and a 5 MB masterlist takes around 15 seconds, though performance will vary with computer hardware. @@ -176,7 +179,7 @@ Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2013 (x86). BOSS can be install