Why are Skyrim VR and SE now sharing a download folder?

[Jedininjafuq]

As of a month ago I've noticed that everything I download (or manualy install by dragging a ZIP into Vortex) for either VR or SE is showing up in both mod menus. If I install a mod in one game, the mod moves from "Never Installed" to "Uninstalled" in the other game. Is this suppose to happen? I haven't played in a while, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case before. This is backed up by my actually having a seperate skyrimvr folder were mods used to go. Both games now seem to share the SE download folder, and Vortex actually gives me a notification that the file has been moved to the SE folder.

Has it changed and this how it is supposed to be, or is something wrong?

[Tannin42]

This is how it's supposed to and has to be.

 

Downloads are put into the directory for the game they were intended for, so since nexusmods doesn't have a Skyrim VR site and they're all on the sse section, Vortex assumes they're all intended for sse and puts them into that download directory.

 

But Skyrim VR is a separate game, it's a different version of the engine, has slightly different features and on your system it will be in its own directory. Vortex has to keep them separated and for all Vortex knows, mods might install different files (esps, dlls specifically) depending on which game you're installing it for. Vortex has to treat them as separate games with individual staging folders.

Vortex isn't designed to share some mods between two games but not others.

[Jedininjafuq]

Thanks for the response Tannin. I think I understand what you're saying. But why is VR Vortex only showing downloads for SE for the last month, and not before? I just like to keep things organised, so I think I'll just have to ignore the SE mods that appear in the VR mod list that I don't want in VR?

[Pickysaurus]

The 1.5 version of Vortex included a change where SSE mods are automatically marked as compatible with Skyrim VR. This is probably why you noticed a change.

[Jedininjafuq]

Ah, I see. That explains it. Thanks buddy. In that case, I wonder if there's a way to have vortex recognise all the other, previously downloaded mods in the folder too?

 

I'm also wondering if it might be an idea worth considering to have separate Nexus sites for SE and VR (and AE for that matter) to save future confusion. Perhaps with an option to download SE mods to the VR Vortex and separate VR download folder? I'm noticing a fair bit of "cross contamination". There is seperate Vortex management afterall.

[Zanderat]

SSE was updated to v1.6.xx. "AE" is a paid for DLC that happens to include the update. Unfortunately, some people call the updated SSE "AE", which is wrong and confusing. Thus v1.6.xx doesn't need its own section. It already has one, the SSE section.

[Jedininjafuq]

Good point, AE is essentially just a DLC for SE rather than a game. However, I will respectfully disagree. AE does require it's own version of SKSE, and will likely incur further Bethesda updates (and therefore may require further development of SKSE and mods). Whereas SE will likely not. Although, as you pointed out, AE is a DLC, I still think a dedicated Nexus site for AE would be a great idea that would help to avoid confusion for beginners and veterans alike (I also support referring to it as "AE", for the reasons already given, plus I think it's just easier).

Also a sperate Nexus site for VR would be great, as I already said.

Please don't think that I am trying to argue with you, I am merely expressing my opinion. In turn, your opinion is very welcome.

 

Does anyone know of an easy way to have Vortex recognise mods in the SE download folder that were downloaded previous to the 1.5 update?

[showler]

A separate listing for Skyrim VR was discussed. Like AE, the majority of SE mods work fine with either SE or VR and duplicating all those mods to another listing would be needlessly time consuming, would result in authors having to maintain two comments threads/mod pages and would result in the mods losing all their endorsements and download counts. Plus it would break any current links to the mods from things like Guides or Wabbajack.

 

Since SKSE mods are the only ones that have a problem (for the most part) it is much easier for people to pay special attention to them rather than redo everything.

 

In the future, if game version compatibility tracking is added, this will no longer be an issue.

[showler]

Also, you can't say that AE will get updates and SE won't. AE is an update to SE, any further updates are still updates to SE. Game updates have always required SKSE updates and always will. It doesn't make it a different game.

[Jedininjafuq]

I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your explanation Showler.

With the SE & AE updates, I simply meant that what is refered to as SE (ie. before the 1.6xx & AE update) won't be changing from this point, and those that choose no to update to AE are in a fixed position.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Jedininjafuq