Mods don't show up in-game

[hurdel]

It's gotten to the point where I give up with all this modding. When I look in my data files, all the mods are listed there but they don't show up when I get in the game. For example I downloaded this

 

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/40433 - The race is not there when i create a character for some strange reason and it has no requirement either. I have downloaded other races as well and they dont show up either.

 

I downloaded the console ring(A ring that open console command when you wear it) and it's in my inventory but it does not seem to work when i equip it......

 

 

I honestly have no idea what I am doing wrong - everything should work since no errors or anything has popped up.

 

EDIT: I downloaded my Oblivion in 'Program Files 86' / Bethesda Softworks if that makes a difference...

 

Help is really appreciated.

Edited December 2, 2012 by hurdel

[Striker879]

Have a look at Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. It will help you get your game out of C:\Program Files (x86) and away from UAC's interference. If you are using the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location.

 

- Edit - Just saw your other thread ... NMM is unreliable for installing Oblivion mods. Many have folder structure for options and scripts meant for Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM). You'll have far more luck either using OBMM or installing manually. Read the mod install instructions and only install one mod at a time, testing in between (makes troubleshooting trivial).

Edited December 2, 2012 by Striker879

[mhahn123]

Your problem is without a doubt having Oblivion installed in program files 86. I just got through sorting out the same mess myself. Even if you set everything to "run as administrator" you will still have problems. And disabling the UAC is just plain a bad idea. Uninstall Oblivion completely from that directory. Once you have uninstalled and made sure everything is cleaned out, reinstall in C/games.

 

Take a look at your C drive first, if there is no folder titled "games", create one. Then reinstall Oblivion. When the installer gets to the point where it asks what directory you want to use, point it to your newly created games folder. Oblivion will work perfectly after that. Most game utilities will install by default to wherever Oblivion is so not much hassle with that.

[hhhr2r2]

My oblivion is installed in the x86 and everything works fine. My testing buddy couldn't run any of my mods, just like you, and then we figured out he'd never installed the official patch. Once he patched it everything worked perfectly. He also has his in the x86.

[Nephenee13]

My oblivion is installed in the x86 and everything works fine. My testing buddy couldn't run any of my mods, just like you, and then we figured out he'd never installed the official patch. Once he patched it everything worked perfectly. He also has his in the x86.

 

You should not have Oblivion installed in Program files. Period.

[hurdel]

Ah, okay.

 

 

Thanks for the response. I'll make sure to uninstall and this time move Oblivion to 'Games' folder.

[DrakeTheDragon]

And never forget about the Official Patches. A game version other than 1.2.0416 shouldn't be used anymore at all.

 

Most ESPs/ESMs nowadays were created with a recent v1.2 Construction Set. Any game version lower than 1.2 will just "silently ignore" these plugins/master files! There will be no errors or warnings, it'll just be as if there were no such files.

 

Game version is the very first thing I'm asking for when reading of "mods contents don't show up" these days. File and folder trouble only comes into mind when it's resource files missing. If it's actual plugin-added content not showing up, while the respective plugin was very well activated and all, the files can impossibly be missing/misplaced or the launcher won't have found them to begin with.

[hurdel]

All right, I uninstalled everything and downloaded it in C:/Games. I then deactivated all my mods and then activated them again so that they'd show up in the data files which they also did.

 

This time I didn't have to run Nexus Mod Manager as administrator so everything was going well until I got inside the game and realized that nothing had changed.

 

The mods didnt show up. The elf race had no head but only ears and a mouth. The skin was pink and not working either.

 

All the other races didn't show up at all as if I didnt have them. The hairstyles were there but they were not visible on the character.

 

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

My game is patched(GOTY edition so the 2nd disk installed the dlc's/patches etc..)

 

It's in the correct folder and not in Program files.

 

The mods show up in the Data files and according to the mod manager they were installed successfully so they should be working.

 

Some of the mods require other mods but I have those installed as well. Those won't dont need anything dont show up either though.

 

 

Eh?

Edited December 3, 2012 by hurdel

[Striker879]

You are still trying to use NMM, which as I said earlier is somewhat unreliable for installing Oblivion mods. Some newer mods or simple older mods will install fine, but plenty of the more popular mods for Oblivion will not install using NMM because of the folder structure they use for all the optional stuff they offer.

 

You are also committing the mistake of installing a bunch of mods and then trying to figure out why things don't work. Could be installation problems, could be mod conflicts due to load order, could be archive invalidation issues ... could be a number of things.

 

What you need to do is uninstall all mods, check in your C:\Games\Oblivion\Data folder and confirm no esp files remain and then play through the tutorial dungeon. Just before you exit the sewer (in the part where you can see the exit in the distance, before the character finalization) make a save using either the save from the Esc menu or a console named save (open the console using the tilde (~) key and at the console prompt 'save <MyNamedSave>' (without the quote marks or brackets) and hit Enter). This save will come in handy when you want to create a new character but don't want to go through the whole tutorial again. Exit the sewer and then make another save. Go to the Imperial City Market District and see how the game runs with a lot of NPCs around ... make another save (this will be a handy 'testing save').

 

Now install one mod. Pick a fairly simple one, how about a new house close to the IC with a short quest. I suggest Emma's Maple Cottage. It comes in two flavours, one for the 'purist' (i.e. no cheats for new players) and one comfortable version. It is also packaged in a manner that I don't think NMM will be able to handle (you could try and see if NMM makes you choose between a 'Purist' version and 'Comfortable' version). To manually install the mod is as simple as copying two files and activating one in NMM or the vanilla game launcher.

 

Download the mod by clicking on the words 'Maple Cottage ver 1 04' or 'download manually' on the mod Files tab. Save the download to a folder (I save my downloads to H:\OblivionDownloads so this mod is saved in H:\Obliviondownloads\Maple_Cottage). Extract the download using 7-Zip. Using Windows Explorer you will see two folders inside your folder you downloaded to, 'Comfortable version esp' and 'Purist version esp' and three files ('MapleCottage_location.jpg', 'MapleCottage_readme.txt' and 'TinyHouse.bsa'). Right mouse click on the file 'TinyHouse.bsa' and select 'Copy' from the right click menu. Now navigate to your game's install folders and open them so you can see the game's 'Data' folder (should be C:\Games\Oblivion\Data if I've understood correctly where you re-installed the game). Right mouse click on the 'Data' folder and select 'Paste' from the right click menu. Next go back to the folder you downloaded and extracted the mod to and decide if you want the Purist version or the Comfortable version. Open that folder and right click/copy the file 'TinyHouse.esp'. Go back to your game's Data folder and paste in C:\Games\Oblivion\Data (same as you did for the bsa file).

 

Activate the TinyHouse.esp in either NMM or using the vanilla game launcher 'Data Files'. Start the game and load your save from the IC Market District. Exit the city via the Talos District gate and go down the hill towards the bridge. About two thirds way down the hill (before you get to the bridge) take a left turn onto the pathway that crosses. About halfway to the Waterfront District (where you can see the Waterfront District in the distance), before you get to a pathway that branches off to the left you'll see a small house to the right of the path. I'll leave you to figure out the rest ... read the mod description and the mod readme. If you don't see the house report back.

 

If you successfully install this mod then (and only then) move on to whichever mod you want to try next. Always do one mod at a time ... it makes troubleshooting a trivial matter.

[PerpetualHappiness]

Are you using Oblivion Script Extender(OBSE) and have Archive Invalidation Invalidated activated?

 

Get the latest version of OBSE here:

http://obse.silverlock.org/

(don't install in your data folder), install it in the oblivion folder where oblivion.exe is, and run obse_loader.exe instead of oblivon.exe

Here's a tutorial if you need more help with this:

The readme also explains how to install weather you have the steam version or not.

 

 

Oblivion mod manager here:

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/2097

 

Under utilities in Oblivion mod manager click archive invalidation and under mode switch to BSA Redirection and check auto-update on exit.

 

If you click create down at the bottom you can add new archives to Oblivion mod manager and then double click them in the right side panel to activate, if your problems still persist your files could be installing in the wrong places, textures/meshes folders and many others need to go into oblivions data folder, if they end up in data/(Named mod)/textures/ it won't work properly, the esp's or esm's won't be able to reach their textures/meshes files. I hope this helps, modding can be a headache, but it is soo worth it, I hope you don't give up :)

Edited December 6, 2012 by PerpetualHappiness