Getting Vortex to Manage Fallout 4

[Majornightmare]

Hi All,

 

I put Fallout 4 and NMM down last May, after 700 hours of FO4 modding with NMM. Just starting back to find out F4SE and the Game were updated killing my mods, been there, done that. I tried fixing with NMM. Went too far and made a bigger mess. Decided to start from scratch with Vortex. Here's what I learned during the time of making the switch to Vortex.

 

My first plan while I was still on NMM and F4SE, was to update the mods, thinking they were out of date. Of course it was F4SE that really needed updating. I was left with a choice, upgrade/downgrade F4SE and hope the mods I just updated still worked along with the ones that I left alone. At one point NMM stopped logging into the server and got me looking into why. Vortex... even though Alpha, it was really the only way forward. Since I could try getting all to work again with F4SE and NMM (manually downloading and installing) or try MO2, but both would be replaced shorty so putting Vortex through it's paces was my choice looking forward. Loved NMM, just need some patients being an early Vortex adopter. They did say it was Alpha, so stop whining and try harder.

 

So I load up Vortex, updated F4SE and import NMM to Vortex. Didn't really work any better than before. First mistake not adding these lines in \My Games\Fallout4\Fallout4Custom.ini Fresh install gotcha...

[Archive]

bInvalidateOlderFiles=1

sResourceDataDirsFinal=

 

This enables modding the game. Without it no matter what you do you get vanilla.

 

Second mistake was setting up the folders for Vortex incorrectly. Both Data folder and Vortex mods need to be on the same drive, think most know that by now.

Originally I set the "Base Path" (Settings - Mods - Paths)to the Data folder(ewww! what was I thinking...), then "Download Path" ...\common\Fallout 4\Vortex\downloads and "Install path" ...\common\Fallout 4\Vortex\mods. All wrong...

 

A big part of Vortex versus other mod managers is VFS(Virtual file service). If you want to keep the data folder truly clean/vanilla, VFS is a the way to do it. After youtubing proper folder choices, most where doing this, just keep vortex by itself somewhere on the same drive as the game. Like Most these days I have mine on the big SATA drive, not my SSD OS drive, in my case d:\. All that to make the point to keep the Data folder clean, proper Vortex Path choices will help that.

 

What's nice is even though I screwed up the paths, and made a mess of the data folder, as soon as I disabled or uninstalled the mod, the Data folder was cleaned of the mod, sweet. I'm still vanilla...

 

TIP: Start Fallout 4 after every change! Did it really install? I play with somewhat difficult mods, like F4SE stuff, CBBE, Bodyslide, Sim Settlements, Looks, Thematic and Practical etc... They didn't install or had issues, like losing "Structures" in the build menu. As builder in FO4 kind of important. Or Bodyslide menus empty I.e. no model info. By not going too deep install wise I was able to back out and get rid of issues.

 

TIP: Get your character to Sanctuary to the point you have access to the workbench, but don't build or craft anything, do a Save and this becomes your vanilla Save. If the s*** hits the fan, sometimes going back to a save with no modifications will solve the problem. Again don't get too deep into game play until all the mods you expect to use are working. I was pretty cavalier with NMM, installing as I went and crossed my fingers. When you are playing with Sim Settlements or general base creation mods and investing tons of time into city building, last thing you want is to have to start over because a mod corrupted a saved game. been there done that...

 

So moved Vortex to paths to this... This way if you happen to mod another game they're contained in vortex, not fallout 4 or steam folders.

D:\Vortex\Fallout 4\

D:\Vortex\Fallout 4\mods

D:\Vortex\Fallout 4\downloads

 

Next thing... use Profiles! Make the first profile vanilla. All this assumes you went into fallout 4 once already and quit. Make a second profile, this will have all the mods. If Vortex is working properly, you can switch between clean and dirty with the flick of the enable button. Switching may fail, if so you have bigger issues... the modded version does at least. You can deactivate each plugin, then add them back 1 by 1.

 

To the Developers. Awesome, thanks, Vortex rocks.

I noticed a pattern after a couple of hours of install/uninstall mods where I would install a mod, enable the mod, it would not show up in the plugin. It would hang deploying or unpacking. Waited a couple hours on once, it was hung. So I started Exiting Vortex and make sure there were no leftover Vortex.exe's hung still running in task manager, usually 3 or 4 running normally, sometimes they don't all end when you quit the app. If there was an old hung vortex.exe running, when you restart Vortex, it hangs right away. Hanging being the deploying or unpacking "progress bars" stops at one point and never moves further. Start Vortex clean(no old Vortex.exe's leftover from last session), install or re-install. The first couple would show up in the plugins unpacking and deploying in a couple of seconds. It would hang again, quit, kill exe's and reload Vortex, redo the last that failed.

 

What I think is happening in the pattern is Vortex hangs before the plugin is available/activated, now Vortex doesn't know if the plugin is or isn't available or enabled, and life gets funky, the pointer to that value missing, hangs all subsequent requests. The interface is still alive, you can install another mod but it will never get passed the hung progress bar, and the new install never makes it in the plugins. Quit, reload Vortex, seems to find the reference or no longer cares and lets you re-install the mod not showing up in the plugins.

 

Cheers dev peeps!

 

Once you see the mod is available as a plugin it works. Getting it there can be a challenge. Hope my notes help someone over the hurdle.

 

I have 22 mods working now, today I will add the complete Sim Settlements bundle. 48 hours ago I thought Fallout 4 was dead... So be patient, it's Alpha, it's free and it works with some really cool features like VFS. Cheers mod-on

Edited September 16, 2018 by Majornightmare

[sopmac45]

No problems here also. Been using it since it came out and now I am very happy with it. Easy to use and you do not have to have it opened to play your games. For my surprise I started to play Fallout 4 today and it was not activated in Vortex and still I was able to play it.

 

No problem as well with the last version update at all. So far so good. I updated it yesterday and it is working like a charm. :cool:

[Jornalist]

same

[RickLaviolette]

I created a path for Vortex on my F: drive
Fallout 4 and New Vegas play but I haven't a clue how to get the script editor to work. I try to edit FO4Edit The edit feature brings me to Name, Start in , Command line and target. I haven't a clue what to type there and they are still incomplete.. My mods did work with NMM. Some mods load and run on their own. Bodyslide won't run.

[NeuroToxins]

I can't even activate the game... It just says "Failed to set game mode" and then says "missing D:\Games\Fallout 4\data" but I can run the game just fine and the data file is there...

[BigBizkit]

I can't even activate the game... It just says "Failed to set game mode" and then says "missing D:\Games\Fallout 4\data" but I can run the game just fine and the data file is there...

Are you sure the path set for FO4 in Vortex is the correct path that actually corresponds to where FO4 is installed?

[HadToRegister]

I created a path for Vortex on my F: drive

Fallout 4 and New Vegas play but I haven't a clue how to get the script editor to work. I try to edit FO4Edit The edit feature brings me to Name, Start in , Command line and target. I haven't a clue what to type there and they are still incomplete.. My mods did work with NMM. Some mods load and run on their own. Bodyslide won't run.

 

FO4Edit isn't a script editor...

 

You don't Type anything in there, you click on the little folder icon and BROWSE to FO4Edit, the Target and Start In will fill in themselves once you select the FO4Edit.exe

 

Here's mine

 

Target - D:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\Game Tools\Fallout 4\FO4Edit\FO4Edit.exe

 

Start In - D:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\Game Tools\Fallout 4\FO4Edit