Striker879

Download version 0021 from here and save to a folder. Extract the downloaded ZIP file to that same folder. You will then see seven files and two folders (one of those files being the aforementioned obse_readme.txt). The folder named "src" can be ignored, it just contains the OBSE source code that is used for people creating OBSE plugins. What you'll need is the Data folder and obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll and obse_loader.exe if you use the disk version of the game or the Data folder and obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll and obse_steam_loader.dll if you use the Steam version of the game. Those will all be copied to the Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion folder in your game install. Simplest way is to use the right mouse click menu. Right click on the file or folder you wish to copy and select "Copy" from the right click menu. Navigate in Windows Explorer to your game's Oblivion folder, right click on Oblivion and select "Paste" from the right click menu. If you do this with the Data folder first you will get a prompt about there already is a folder named Data if you are pasting into the correct folder. If you don't get that prompt you are pasting into the wrong folder. It is safe to answer "Yes to All" when prompted as all you will be doing is merging the contents of the OBSE Data folder with your game's current Data folder (if you look inside the OBSE Data folder you will see it contains a subfolder named OBSE which contains a single file named obse.ini ... neither the OBSE subfolder nor obse.ini existed in the vanilla game). Then you just need to copy the files that are appropriate for your version of the game into that same Oblivion folder. Instructions on how to start the game with OBSE differ depending on whether you use the disk or Steam version, and I'm not sure how you would start the game with OBSE using NMM (though if you use the Steam version of the game it will probably just work right off the bat once the Steam version of OBSE is installed).

How did you install OBSE? It can't be installed with a mod manager ... the instructions on which files to copy are in obse_readme.txt along with details on how to start the game with OBSE (which differs depending on whether you are using the disk version of the game or the Steam version).

You'll need to find each vampire you want to change in their respective race. For example Vicente is a Breton vampire so he's listed along with all the other Bretons in the game. In the Object window expand the NPC item in the left pane and you'll see Breton listed along with all the other races. Expand Breton and you'll find Vicenete listed. Double click on him once you have all the Bretons listed in the right hand pane and you'll open the Edit window for him. On the first of the Face tabs at the top you'll find an Age slider. After your changes to the vanilla characters save to your own ESP. If the NPCs are added by a mod you'll either need to edit that ESP or use Construction Set Extender to get around the problem of ESPs not being able to be masters using the vanilla CS.

In my opinion (which I admit isn't a very well informed one as I've never laid eyes on NMM) the key to being able to make NMM work for any mod is having a good knowledge of how the game expects to find a mod's files and folders arranged. For simple mods that use a straight forward folder structure and don't have folders that contain optional/alternate files I'm sure that NMM can do fine. It will probably even do fine on mods that do have optional/alternate folders provided there is a standard format structure for the "normal" installation that conforms to the game's folder structure (for replacer mods) or for the mod's own default installation. There are mods however that use folder structure that can only be understood by either their own installation script (body replacers that use a Common folder containing subfolders for hands and feet for example, as seen in the pre-NMM version of HG EyeCandy Body) or using the BAIN style folder structure for optional/alternate features (mods that have multiple 01, 02, 03 etc. level folders ... DMRA BBB Complete Clothing and Armor Replacer is a good though rather extreme example of what I mean here). People who are experienced mod installers (and by that I mean those who could easily install either of those examples manually using simple copy/paste methods) would be able to restructure any mod that NMM couldn't understand and then use NMM to install their restructured and then re-archived installation folders (assuming that NMM doesn't deal well with just loose files and folders, which may or may not be the case). Unfortunately many of the people using NMM don't fit into that category (experienced at manually installing mods). Often if pushing the big green Download with Manager button doesn't work they either come looking for help or in the worst cases claim that the mod is defective. It's hard to point out to them in an acceptable way that only their modding skills are lacking. I remember what it was like getting started. Like most people I wanted it all, and I wanted it all on day one. Back in the days before NMM there were three ways to install mods ... OBMM, Wrye Bash's BAIN or manually. Manually and Wrye were far too complicated and jargon filled for me on day one, even OBMM wasn't a treat but at least it understood it's own OMOD format. That got version 1.11 of HGEC Body with BBB v1dot12 and then NoMaaM BBB Animation Replacer installed and working and gave me my start at learning to install mods. I don't normally respond to posts like this as they are only opinions, and you know what opinions are like (and everyone has one of those too). I do take umbrage to the "seeing many negative comments" part, but that is more rooted in why I try to help out on here and my own personal opinions than your choice of words. Spend a year or two trying to get those I've called the "Push the big green button" crowd up to speed and perhaps you won't be so quick to make leading claims about what could possibly work for others. I only know one thing for certain. What works for me isn't going to work for everybody ... every individual requires what works for them. The challenge when trying to help is to help them discover what that is so that they can help themselves.

Yup, simply change the file extension back to .omod and OBMM will find it when you double click it (alternately after you change the file extension you could copy the download to your Oblivion\obmm\mods folder and it will appear in the right hand pane of the OBMM window when you start OBMM ... click to highlight and then click Activate at the bottom). Renaming the extension can be done off the right click menu (right mouse click, select Rename from the menu and then change just the extension from .zip to .omod). Trust me we're not here to judge, and in my case that would be the pot calling the kettle black as version 1.11 of that same mod is how I got my start at adding mods to the game. I had tried the original non-OMOD version uploaded by }{ellknight and could not make heads nor tails of how to install it. Like most everyone here I wasn't born knowing how to do any of this.

Hadn't considered that Drake. A while back we had a rash of Windows renaming OMOD to ZIP (what I coined as "extension hijacking"). Simply changing the extension back to OMOD fixed that problem.

Without specifics such as which mod I'd say that the mod was released as an OMOD ready mod. All you need to do is add the archive (i.e. don't unpack the download). Instructions for using OBMM are found in it's Help menu. If I'm not mistaken that part is under the Create OMOD section.

What form of archive invalidation are you using (BSA Redirection is the recommended method)? It should be compatible with installing with NMM, but I've seen plenty of reports of troubles with the latest versions of NMM. I don't use NMM myself so I can't say for certain whether the latest version works for OCO v2 or not. To confirm that OBSE is installed and working correctly look in your saves folder and see if you have an OBSE co-save for each save you've made since installing it (i.e. for a save named MySave09.ess you will also have a save named MySave09.obse if OBSE is installed and working correctly). To confirm the Blockhead is working look in the Oblivion\Data\OBSE\Plugins folder and see if it has created the file Blockhead.ini (it creates it's INI file the first time it runs successfully). Note that Blockhead will not work without OBSE, so confirm OBSE first and then Blockhead.

Not sure where you live, but here in Canada I go to any one of a number of Canada Computers stores for much of my hardware. There are cheaper ones available from other manufacturers, but this PCI-E slot card from Creative would be an option: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1 - PCI-E Sound Card

There is Safe Traveling NPC, but it doesn't touch the NPCs in the towns and cities that don't travel.

I know nothing at all about animation in Blender, but have you seen Avoiding Blender animation pitfalls?

What is somewhat baffling is that it is only affecting the changes to and from the battle tracks. It is possible that you also have the pause on switching to the other folders (example switching from explore to town or dungeon) but you don't notice the pause as it's "hidden" in the loading screen. As a workaround if you don't have the pause with an empty battle folder it could be worse. When things get quiet you need to get your guard up sort of thing. I use the tweaks in Trifle to have the battle music not start to play until the enemy is close enough to touch. I don't get any warning when they come up behind me that way. - Edit - I use use all but the track found in the Special folder from Oblivion Music Overdose. Of course the three tracks in the Battle folder won't be of any use for you (unless you find them fitting to use as explore or something). They fit so well into the style of the vanilla tracks that I need to listen to them in Media Player outside the game to know which are original and which come from the mod.

To be honest I haven't tried launching the game without the bashed patch since I started using Wrye Bash myself. You should be using WB to activate and deactivate mods ... there are subtleties such as "merged and deactivated" and "merged" (those boxes with a plus sign or dot in them). For example you must undo the merge and deactivate before you can uninstall a mod that has been merged and deactivated (done by rebuilding your bashed patch and changing that mod as part of the rebuilding). The Oblivion Launcher Data Files would let you do things that WB won't because it's trying to stop you from shooting off your own foot.

The order that mods are listed in the Wrye Bash Installers tab is the order that WB will install them. Primarily that will only make a difference when/if mods are conflicting (i.e. mod B would overwrite some assets from mod A ... install order makes a difference then). The bashed patch is simply a mod that WB creates out of all the conflicts between mods (along with things specified by BOSS or mod authors using bashed tags). The load order of mods that have resources included in the bashed patch is important for it's proper functioning, and in the case of a mod that has resources included in the bashed patch moving that mod below the bashed patch will cause a missing master crash (all of those mods that contributed something into the bashed patch then become "masters" to the bashed patch). The method for using the bashed patch is always 1) Install or edit a mod 2) Sort the load order with BOSS 3) Rebuild the bashed patch.

No need to redownload ... just move the archives from the Oblivion Mods\Bash Installers folder to a backup location beforehand. Do take note of the order they appear in the Installers tab of Wrye Bash before nuking everything as that is the same order you'll want to put them in the re-install.

I'm by no means an expert on sound, only know that codecs have been reported as problem causers. That said I don't see anything in that list that raises a flag for me. The only non-MS codec listed is the Fraunhofer, but that doesn't lead me to think it could be a problem (I have heard of them in the past). Are there any further details available for the Decode AC3 and DTS audio entry on your list (on a right click Properties menu for example)? Again, I have little experience with Divix other than I've heard of it before. If it's something you've downloaded and installed, and can be easily re-installed after a test then by all means you could try uninstalling Divix and see. Do a complete reboot of your machine after uninstalling and before testing so any leftovers are cleared from memory. A Google search leads me to think the AC3Filter is a third party type download. If there is an uninstall or disable option there it'd be another thing to try. Looks to me from Google again that the MP3 Decoder DMO is Microsoft related ... Windows 7 possibly. That same search had a page listed for Codec Tweak Tool: Manage, detect, remove broken Codecs ... not sure if it would be of any help (again no personal experience). This part of the description caught my eye:

The default for iMaxImpactSoundCount is 32 ... was just curious if yours had been set to something else as I saw mention of setting too low causing problems (crashing type, not your type though). I'm about out of ideas. The only thing you haven't answered is whether or not you have any codec paks installed (KLite is one that comes to mind, but there are lots of others). Codecs are known to cause sound problems with the game. To see ways to find out what codecs you have installed do a Google search for "how to find codecs on my computer" (without the quote marks). Depending on your Windows version there are different ways to find them. I'm an old Win XP dinosaur but when I was looking for them just now myself I see that Windows Media Player was set to download codecs automatically. Microsoft knows no bounds on finding ways to screw up a machine.

My only experience is with Oblivion so I can't say how closely related they are to one another but it does lead me to think it's some common setup thing in both games. What happens if you toggle bDSoundHWAcceleration off (change bDSoundHWAcceleration=1 to bDSoundHWAcceleration=0)? Also though I'm not sure whether or not it has anything to do with the game music, what is your iMaxImpactSoundCount set at?

If it's a desktop machine then adding a discrete sound card isn't very difficult. Even an inexpensive sound card will provide far better sound and performance than any on-board solution like your VIA or Realtek. Here in Canada if you buy your card somewhere like Staples you can have them install it for you (at a small fee of course) but installing one truly is as simple as plugging the card into a slot on the motherboard and running an install disk. Before trying that you could try letting Oblivion rebuild Oblivion.ini. Just rename your current Oblivion.ini to something like OldOblivion.ini or OblivionINI.old (which will trigger a complaint from Windows about changing a file extension, which you can safely ignore). Start the game and it will rediscover your machines hardware and create a new Oblivion.ini. You will probably need to go through the video options menu and put the settings back to your preference. If the new Oblivion.ini stops the pauses then you can transfer any settings from the renamed old Oblivion.ini to your new one (if you are like me and have tweaked some settings). I'd suggest that you archive the old Oblivion.ini, but then again I'm a conservative type who has trouble throwing anything away. If creating a new Oblivion.ini doesn't solve the problem it's just a matter of deleting the failed new Oblivion.ini and changing the renamed original back to Oblivion.ini. When you say you started using the headset a year and a half ago is that when you started noticing the pauses or is that situation something that just started happening (which would then indicate that your sound system has nothing to do with the problem)?

Another thought pops to mind ... did you start using the G430 after you installed the game?

I use Trifle to control certain aspects of how the game music plays (I have it so that the combat music track plays to the end instead of just until the combat is over for instance). It is an OBSE plugin, so OBSE is required. That said it isn't designed to fix your problem. If you set it up like how I have it it would just move the pause to whenever the combat track ends instead of when combat ends and the game changes tracks back to explore etc. You could try it, but it doesn't address the root cause of your problem. Are you playing on a desktop machine or a laptop?

But does the game still have the pauses when plugged into the sound outputs rather than the USB adapter?

I suppose that may be possible. Does the G430 show up as a sound card in your system devices list? If you have a set of speakers you could test using those instead of the headset and see what happens. I had a look at a review of them done by Tom's Guide but didn't see any info about this "built in sound card" there or on the Logitech product page. The Tom's page does mention that they can be used either using the USB adapter or plugged into your sound card/on-board sound. Which way are you using them?

As I said in my second post, Windows isn't always the best bet for updating drivers for non-Microsoft hardware. Use the link I provided or go to your machine's manufacturer's site and download the latest driver from there.

I don't have any hands on experience with VIA but here is the link to their driver download portal: http://download.viatech.com/en/support/driversSelect.jsp A caveat they have after you've inputted your operating system etc mentions that motherboard makers will probably be the better source for drivers. Finding out who is the motherboard manufacturer for your machine will be a bit more problematic if you are on a desktop machine (for laptops just go to the laptop maker's website). Used to be that you got the motherboard manual when you bought a desktop, but it has been decades since I last bought a desktop machine (I build my own desktop machines, so I always get a manual with my motherboards). Before trying to find drivers you should check the VIA control panel applet for your current driver version. While in there make sure you have all effects (e.g. concert hall etc) turned off in their control panel applet. From what I can see on their driver download page the latest from them is version 5.60c.