Marked0n3 Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 so i decided to install oblivion today after uninstalling it ages ago, and iv added a few mods but NONE of them seem to change chests, wardrobes, barrels or anything you can open and store stuff in. but in game all these items have been replaced by giant yellow triangles with exclamation marks in them, meaning either missing texture or mesh, right??? the only thing i can think of that maybe caused this is when i was installing an update (1.2.046) it said something about cannot find file but a file of the same name has been found so it wont replace it. so i clicked ok thinking it would stop but it didnt and continued to install the rest of the patch, so i thought nothing of it. could it be this?? and any suggestions to why i cant install an update without it being a retard?? many thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dezdimona Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 This is from bben a moderator here! When you uninstall Oblivion it doesn't really uninstall everything. Then when you start adding mods before you have started the game, some things may not get initialized properly. Here is my recommended procedure for uninstalling and reinstalling. It does not remove your mods, save games or Oblivion.ini or the entries that the original installation of Oblivion placed in your Windows registry. It also does not remove helper programs such as OBSE, OBMM, Wrye Bash, The construction set or any other programs you have installed in the \Oblivion folder or the save game folder. I recommend that you go ahead and delete them, then re download and install the latest version of them again later. After you have verified that the game works. I would appreciate any feedback on this as it is something I expect to post often and I hate to give bogus or useless information.................................................................................................Uninstalling Oblivion My instructions assume you are using Windows XP and have installed Oblivion into the default location. If you are using Vista or Linux, the file locations may be different, however, the procedure will be thae same. For a full reinstall, first you can try to preserve your mods and save games. I recommend that you save them in a new folder with a new name. Create the new folder in C:\Program files\Bethesda Softeworks. Name it Old Files. So it will be C:\Program Files\Bethesda softworks\Old files. Then copy the data folder where your mods are to the new folder - do not erase them, copy them. And in the new folder, rename the \data folder to \olddata. Then copy and rename the folder that has your saved games and Oblivion.ini, C:\documents and settings\your user name\my documents\My Games\oblivion to something like \My games\Old Oblivion - this saves your saved games and the oblivion.ini file. Then, using the original CD, NOT the Launcher on your Hard drive. Select uninstall. After it completes the uninstall, reboot your computer - this is important as it allows Windows to remove some references to the original Oblivion. This would be the time to erase all of the helper programs you have in the \Oblivion folder. Such as OBMM, OBSE and some others. The simplest way is to delete the folder completely. The new install will re create the folder for you along with a fresh oblivion.ini and when you start the game and make a save, a new save folder and new \data folder. This would also be a good time to do a file clean up. To remove the registry entries that were left behind. There are several good programs for removing left behind entries. The one I use is ccleaner. Be sure to reboot before using it, and again after. It is free and available here: http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html Now that everything is cleaned up, do a full defrag on your hard drive to leave a large uncluttered area to reinstall to. This prevents your game from installing in a fragmented way, with parts scattered all over the drive. It also will speed up the install a little. Now to Reinstall. Again using the original CD, install Oblivion. NOTE: If you are using Vista, DO NOT install to the default directory. Instead make a new directory I recommend C:\Games. Install Oblivion there to avoid the hassle with Vista UAC blocking mods. Before adding any mods, patches, helper programs, Shivering Isles or anything else, start the game and make a save. This initializes some stuff that needs to be initialized. If you are using the Game of the Year version of Oblivion you should not need any patches, skip the patching part. Now, If you DO NOT use Shivering Isles, patch the game using ONLY the latest Oblivion patch. All of the stuff from the earlier patches is included. Be sure you use the proper language patch. If you use the wrong one it may work, but with a strange mixture of languages. (Germanglish?) Or it may crash. NOTE: there are two English Patches UK & US and they are different. (Some people actually think we speak the same language) Use the one that matches your original disk. If you use Shivering Isles, Install it now. DO NOT install the Oblivion patch. Install Shivering Isles, then ONLY the latest Shivering Isles patch. All of the updates for Oblivion are included. There is only one Shivering Isles patch for both US & UK English (Maybe sometimes we do speak the same language.) Now, again start the game, make sure it looks right, move around a little to test it, and make a save. Test to be sure everything is working right (No purple objects or yellow blocks) Before adding any mods, back up both your \data folder and the save game folder. Copy them, don't move or rename them, to a different folder - such as \Bethesda\Clean Oblivion\data and \Bethesda\clean Oblivion\saves. Note that this is a different folder than the one used for your old data and saves. Note, Your Oblivion.ini file is in the same folder, but separate from, the save game folder. Now, if you want to try to run with your old mods, first rename the original folders. The \data folder to \newdata and the \oldata back to \data. this restores all of your mods. You should now have 2 data folders \data, and \newdata in your \oblivion folder To restore your original saves and ini file, rename the new My Games\Oblivion to something like \New Oblivion. and the \Old oblivion to \oblivion - this restores all of your saved games and your original Oblivion.ini file. DO NOT erase the files you renamed. These are your backup files in case the original mods do not work or give you the same problem. If you have the same problem, it is most likely caused by a mod. However, you now have a clean install to fall back on. You can rename the files back to what they were and be back to your clean install without having to reinstall again. Sounds like lots of work, but you will have a clean install and a back up clean install when you are finished.................................................................................................This is probably the most common problem in mods. It is caused when the game cannot find the mesh called for by a mod. It uses the yellow block as a placeholder to keep from crashing. All except the simplest mods have new textures and usually Meshes. If you look at the zipped files (expand them to see what is there before installing) you will usually see several types of files. The filename.esp is the actual mod, it goes into the Oblivion\Data folder. A filname.txt or Readme.txt file - this is the read me file that you should read to see if there are any special instructions for this file, such as it may need another mod to work or need OBSE, or need the Shivering Isles expansion, or Need the latest patch. Textures folder. this contains the texture files (.dds) for the mod. this should be copied to the Oblivion\data\textures folderMeshes folder. This contains the meshes for the mod, it should be copied to the Oblivion\data\meshes folderSounds folder. This contains any new sounds needed by the mod. it should be copied into the Oblivion\data\sounds folder .bsa files these are compressed files that may contain all of the different files. Any .bsa file should be copied without change into the Oblivion\data folder There may be other files or folders included, but those are the most common. If you look in the Oblivion/data folder and see a bunch of .dds files, .nif files, .mp3 files they are in the wrong place. You need to MOVE them to the proper folders..dds to the textures folder.nif to the meshes folder.mp3 to the sounds folder.wav to the sounds folder In a mod with meshes and textures, they are usually in their own folder - look in the zipped file, extract the meshes folder to the Oblivion\data\meshes folder and the textures folder to the Oblivion\data\textures folder. Do the same with any other folder in the zipped file. Usually only the esp file and if present .bsa files go into the \Data folder One of the most common things I have seen is a folder inside of the data folder with the name of the mod. It may have the texture and mesh files you need. Example Oblivion\Data\mod_xyz. Then inside the \mod_xyz You may find \Mod_xyz\textures and mod_xyz\meshes folder These folders Meshes and textures inside of the \data\mod_xyz folder need to be moved into the \data\textures and \data\meshes folders.The easiest way to do this is to right click and hold the folder you want to move, then drag it into the \data folder.You will probably get a message that you will overwrite files. Actually it will not overwrite, but append to the original folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 If things from the vanilla game( no mods installed) are showing up you are likely missing a .bsa file. These are automatically installed by the game installer in the data folder This is a list of what I found in my \data folder after a clean install. If any of these are missing, you likely have a corrupted install. The only solution for this is to Uninstall, then reinstall. If you have MORE than this, you have mods installed and one of them is likely overwriting some of the vanilla textures. Note that a normal reinstall does not remove mods from the \data folder. However, my suggested complete uninstall/reinstall does. - see dezi's post above for the procedure. Contents of a clean install \data folder Music (folder)Shaders (folder)Video (folder)Credits (text) Oblivion- Meshes.bsaOblivion - Misc.bsaOblivion - Sounds.bsaOblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsaOblivion - Voices1.bsaOblivion - voices2.bsaOblivion.esm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marked0n3 Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 wow! dezdimona thanx for the instructions ill give them a try now (been at work all day). bben46 i just checked my folder now (not a clean install) and it had all those plus the shivering isles and better cities .bsa's, which i have tried deinstalling and installing a few times so i dont think its those messing things up, but we will see after i try a new install thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 A simple way of removing files like the .bsa is to rename them. I just change the .bsa to a .ben - my name so I can always find files I have renamed. You don't even have to move them out of the data folder because Oblivion will no longer recognize them and will just ignore them. Then after testing, change the name back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethre Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 To add to bben's comment - just make sure you don't change the extension to one that's already in use. It wouldn't hurt the file, but you might loose track of it (visual association can be strong with regard to the icon). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marked0n3 Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 wow thanks for all your help everyone, iv got it working now but it took a while! all your suggestions helped, i think i tracked it down to some stupidity on my part (quite embarrassed really lol). i have the GOTY version and didnt actually realise it had all the patches on it, and last time i tried to put an older patch on and then the newest, so i think it screwed it up. dezdimona your instructions are great you should see about getting them on a sticky post, they helped alot and so did everyone elses suggestions. again many thanks!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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