Linux/Wine Skyrim Mod Troubleshooting (loose files)

[jal4568]

 

TL;DR – I just realized something stupidly obvious about modding Skyrim via Linux/Wine & solved several mod loading issues. If you’ve had trouble loading loose files in Linux/Wine installs, this post may help you. Otherwise, please ignore this post. Seriously, it's very long...with examples.

 

 

 

Last weekend, I stumbled onto a solution to most of my long-standing mod loading issues. The issue is painfully obvious in retrospect. This post is so that other Wine/Linux Skyrim modders could more quickly solve similar problems in the future.

 

The main thing to remember is that in Windows, folder or directory names are NOT case-sensitive. However, on a Linux system, folder or directory names ARE case-sensitive even inside Wine directories.

 

Textures, textures, Meshes, meshes – Double directories have big consequences for getting mods to work. The first instinct when seeing this is to manually merge the directories, to make things tidy. But this is a bad idea because, it is a total crapshoot which textures/meshes work where.

 

Examples:

ApachiiSkyHair – Works with loose files in /Data/Meshes & /Data/textures

 

HQ Winterhold College – Works with loose files in /Data/textures (which is interesting because most of my other major city re-textures work with files in /Data/Textures)

 

I believe that this “randomness” is due to the game itself or the mod esm/esp files searching for & accessing the files in a case-variable manner.

 

Sometimes, the mod does not load the loose files but otherwise appears to function. Examples include

(1) Extra hairstyles show up in racemenu slider but the player-character is bald

(2) Craftable armor is craftable at tanning-rack/forge but invisible or purple when equipped.

(3) Retextures do not load or load in an inconsistent manner (some do / some do not).

 

Basically, Skyrim can load the mod but not (all of) the loose files. If we change the location of the loose files, then Skyrim can “see” them.

 

Example:

Cloaks of Skyrim always loaded with purple cloaks. Cloaks were still craftable but everything was purple. I moved the Clothes/cloaksofskyrim sub-folder from Data/Textures to Data/textures. I left the Cloaks sub-folder in Data/Meshes untouched. Cloaks of Skyrim now works perfectly.

 

For the above mod, I had extracted the files directly from the downloaded archive so the directory structure matched the provided file exactly. Usually, you want to keep the structure in the downloaded archive. For Linux/Wine users, because of case-sensitivity, changing directories can help Skyrim find loose files.

 

If you have similar issues, you can apply the following general guidelines:

 

New Items (hairstyles, clothes, armor, etc) – If it shows up as invisible, change files between M/meshes directories. If it then shows up purple, change files between T/textures directories also. Confirm meshes first before moving textures! Some mods only require moving one group (ex – Triss Armor Retextured, I moved meshes to Data/Meshes but left textures in /Data/textures).

 

New Items are purple – Change files between T/textures directories. Leave M/meshes directories untouched.

 

Retextured Items don’t show retexture – Change files between T/textures directories.

 

Retextured items are purple. Changing T/texture folder location disables the purple without applying your new texture – You have a texture conflict somewhere. This is a different problem. You should check both Data/Textures & Data/textures for files with the same name.

 

If the mod works, stop reading this post & go play Skyrim.

 

Notes:

1) Most mods can be fixed with just moving the “top” level sub-directory (within T/textures, M/meshes). All files from that mod move together. If you have many mods with loose files, you should only move the files for the mods that have aren't working (exception - see note 2).

 

2) Some retextures sets will load partially (only one of several in a sub-directory or only one sub-directory among many transferred). Some textures will correct by moving only the non-loading files. Some were fixed only by moving the entire sub-folder resulting in the previously working texture still working in the new folder location. Clutter & furniture textures appear to have this issue most often. Building, environment, clothing, armor textures tend to work or not as a whole set.

 

 

Changing the directory locations, per the above guidelines, got the following mods to work when previously they did not:

ApachiiSkyHair

Cloaks of Skyrim

aMidianBorn Fur Armor *

Triss Armor Retextured **

Marbled Dwemer Ruins (only tested Green version)

Tobes Highres Textures (only some items needed to be moved)

Skyrim Redesigned (only Alchemy bench retexture needed moving)

 

*I have installed all but one of CaBal120’s series of “aMidian...” armor re-textures. Only the Fur Armor required moving directories. All the others worked straight “out of the box”.

 

**Triss Armor Retextured is a special case. In the instructions, the mod author does state directory switching is required to accommodate different body meshes. However, to get the mod working in Wine, I had to shift another directory besides the one pointed out in the instructions.

 

 

When I looked, only one post in the Nexus forums previously discussed this issue. Apparently, most other Nexus Linux/Wine users either find this obvious to start, figure it out on their own or don't and get very, very frustrated. I'm just sharing this in case anyone else is in the 3rd category…To be honest, I missed this because I was googling “Skyrim modding issues” or “(Insert-mod-name) won’t work”. Once I searched for the correct thing ("wine case-sensitive mod loose files"), I got tons of information & references of use.

 

[gsmanners]

You could save yourself a lot of time and effort by simply packing loose files into bsa files.

[jal4568]

Packing bsa files requires Creation Kit. I can open Creation Kit but it is very unstable. I've tried using it in the past & it usually crashes if I do anything besides browse the menus.

[gsmanners]

You don't need the CK at all. Just the "Archive.exe" tool that comes with it.