Vortex And Oblivion Issues

[Kifyi]

Okay, well, I made a copy just in case and changed those lines to those things but still nothing is changing. :(

[Kifyi]

I actually have another question. I installed Qarl's Texture Pack III Redimized, and it seems to be working fine. Does that not indicate that AI is working?

[AugustaCalidia]

I'm going to add that I can't launch Oblivion from Vortex. I don't really think it matters, but I thought I would note it in here. I think it's because my steam client is on a separate drive from all of my games, but don't really want to deal with the hassle of reinstalling Steam unless it would actually solve an issue. I have been launching Oblivion directly from steam instead, and also checking the data files to make sure anything I've installed with an ESP is active.

 

You don't need Vortex to launch your game. It's primarily a tool to install your mods, sort out file conflicts, and establish the load order. However, you can launch Oblivion from the Vortex tools menu on the dashboard if you choose to. Do you or are going to use OBSE?

[AugustaCalidia]

I actually have another question. I installed Qarl's Texture Pack III Redimized, and it seems to be working fine. Does that not indicate that AI is working?

 

Yes. But it's puzzling why the other mods aren't working. If you haven't already done so, then load Vortex and run purge and then re-deploy.

 

By the way, after you manually installed HGEC and/or Robert's, did you leave those files in the game data folder? If so, you may get a message from Vortex about external changes. That would happen because you have manually overwritten files originally installed by Vortex.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Well, I'm definitely going to look up about this 2nd line thing mentioned here, as I never before heard of it. "sArchiveList" is the only entry I know, and the only one I learned to add the dummy BSA into. Could just as well be the other line is from/for newer games and won't even be used inside Oblivion at all. But that's just guessing now, and I'm going to read up about it some more.

 

What I meant with "at around the first or second place" was the place of the dummy BSA "inside" the list. In your posted list for example the dummy BSA from ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated! is at the 2nd place, just like I recalled, but I wasn't absolute sure about neither the necessity of it being at this place nor it always being the 2nd, thus I mentioned both.

 

The line "sArchiveList=" only has to be inside the "[Archive]" section in the INI file, its exact place, or the order of lines, inside there "shouldn't" actually make a change. That's not exactly how INI files work usually. But yes, I most definitely didn't mean the top of the file. The line "must" be present already from the start, so I didn't find it necessary to mention where it has to go.

 

Oh, but, one more thing just came to mind, when you said you're using the game from Steam. With Steam Oblivion there's an additional obstruction to Archive Invalidation actually, that is the "last modified" date of the BSA files. Steam has a habit to date them with the time of their download/install, and as in Oblivion file dates usually trump everything else, a too-recent date on the BSA makes it always win even over AI! I don't know if Vortex already has a fix function for that, but OBMM for instance has. There it's located inside the Archive Invalidation dialog from the Utilities pull-down on the right and is labeled "Reset BSA timestamps". With Oblivion from Steam it is crucial to have those BSA timestamps always fixed first of all else, or nothing to do with replacements will ever work.

 

But yes, if like you said a huge texture replacer like Quarl's is already working inside your game, it's quite surprising simple model replacers for some reason wouldn't.

 

 

edit: Yeah, no "SResourceArchiveList" line in -my- INI file. Could it be a Vortex thing and not even used by the game?

 

But I also found out the place inside the list isn't really that crucial either, as my list currently says:

 

SArchiveList=ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated!.bsa, BSARedirection.bsa, Oblivion - Meshes.bsa, Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa, Oblivion - Sounds.bsa, Oblivion - Voices1.bsa, Oblivion - Voices2.bsa, Oblivion - Misc.bsa

Which isn't exactly a good or clean state, 2 different AI's BSAs used at the same time. But it works regardless, so it can't be of any real consequence.

[HadToRegister]

Ugh Oblivion + Steam + OBSE_Launcher.exe = Pain.
I gave up and bought it on GOG.
$19.99 now, but will probably go on sale for Xmas, I got it for $9.99 when they first released it on Gog

 

 

You probably want to check the file structure of those mods, I ran into the same problem with older mods for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas.

I'd pick the options in each mod I wanted, then zip them up into a file that I know Vortex will install properly.

Most old school mods have DATA as their root.

[AugustaCalidia]

 

edit: Yeah, no "SResourceArchiveList" line in -my- INI file. Could it be a Vortex thing and not even used by the game?

 

 

It appears to be a Vortex thing. See this thread in this forum: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7165296-qarls-texture-pack-not-working-in-vortex/?hl=%2Barchive+%2Binvalidation&do=findComment&comment=65376846.

 

I'm currently managing Oblivion with OBMM and so cannot test Vortex AI with it. However, from the discussion in the referenced thread, it would appear that Vortex inserts "BSA Redirection.bsa" in the first line and then adds the second line.

 

I agree that it doesn't matter where the two lines are in [Archive]. I just thought it would make things less confusing to keep them at the bottom of [Archive].

[AugustaCalidia]

Ugh Oblivion + Steam + OBSE_Launcher.exe = Pain.

I gave up and bought it on GOG.

$19.99 now, but will probably go on sale for Xmas, I got it for $9.99 when they first released it on Gog

 

 

You probably want to check the file structure of those mods, I ran into the same problem with older mods for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas.

 

I'd pick the options in each mod I wanted, then zip them up into a file that I know Vortex will install properly.

 

Most old school mods have DATA as their root.

 

Are you suggesting that OP eliminate "Data" as the root? That's a good suggestion, I think, since Vortex automatically knows that meshes and textures go in the game data folder.

 

As for Oblivion + Steam + OBSE_Launcher.exe, I've never had any problem with this. In fact, I currently have a Steam Oblivion game running that I installed three or four years ago (I'm running a Gen 3 computer that refuses to die). I've just never gotten tired of Oblivion and its DLC's. My mod manager is OBMM (absolutely love it), and I sort with BOSS. How's that for a blast from the past!

[Kifyi]

So I couldn't find the purge mods option and searched it up, found a video and saw where it's supposed to be, but that doesn't exist in my version of Vortex. I removed any files I manually installed as well, and reinstalled the mods with Vortex. Still no luck. At this point I just want to understand what's happening.

 

I did see talk of the timestamp issue for BSAs and AI, this is part of why I decided to try and install just a texture mod, to see if AI was working at all, which, it seems to.

 

Something strange that happened is, I deleted everything that I knew was attached to any mods from the folders manually as Vortex seemed to leave some things behind, and decided to validate with steam. The validation window just seems to get stuck and never actually progress, or validate anything. I may need to reinstall Oblivion before I ever even really modded or played it.

[Kifyi]

I'm also starting to wonder if I should just use OBMM or even NMM over Vortex for Oblivion.

Edit: Alright, I'll confess, I thought the Qarl texture pack was working but I guess I was wrong. Oblivion just looked better than I remember. I removed everything and just reinstalled the body mod to see if it was working and the game looked too samey. Took a screenshot for comparison, loaded qarl's, it's the same. So I guess AI isn't working. Back to square 1.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Kifyi