Hello. New to The forums and Modding in general.

[CapNKirkland]

well, honestly i want to keep the gameplay as vanilla as possible. i just want it to look better than i remember it before playing (i haven't even attempted to get out of the starting dungeon until i feel like i have all the mods i want.

 

so far i think i have managed to get the official and unnoficial patches (except the "unofficial official mods patch" the game wouldn't start at all with it on so i got rid of it)

the rest i believe by name are something like:

a Cave Textures pack.

Improved Trees and Flora

Mesh Improvement Project

Oblivion Character Overhaul

Weapon Improvement Project.

 

none of which show up in the data files part of the startup screen. but its ok, i manually put them in the right places.. i think

 

 

i want to try the Grass Overhaul http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42400/?

but the description is scary!

i have no idea what "archive invalidation" is supposed to mean.

Edited December 6, 2013 by CapNKirkland

[Striker879]

When you first install Oblivion you won't find most of the folders referred to by mod descriptions. There will be Bethesda Sofworks\Oblivion\Data and that's about it. If you look in the unmodded game Oblivion\Data folder you will see a bunch of files with BSA as a file extension (e.g Oblivion - meshes.bsa and Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa). Most all of the assets the game needs are stored in compressed files (archives) similar to ZIP or 7z archives. When the game needs to display a steel cuirass for example it gets the mesh from inside Oblivion - meshes.bsa and wraps it with textures from Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa and you see the vanilla game steel cuirass on screen. Inside those BSA files the game assets are structured in folders using a particular structure set by the game engine. It will only load meshes from a path that's Oblivion\Data\meshes\... and only load textures from Oblivion\Data\Textures\... for example.

 

You can create a mod that will display a cuirass that has assets stored in non-standard folder structure (though for simplicity that's generally not recommended) but that mod will need an ESP file to instruct the game of what assets to use to display the cuirass, and even if you call it a steel cuirass it won't replace the vanilla steel cuirass. To do that you need to place your replacement meshes and textures in exactly the same folder structure as the vanilla game assets within the BSA files. The mesh for the vanilla game steel cuirass will be in meshes\armor\steel\m\cuirass.nif and the texture in Textures\armor\steel\m\cuirass.dds. The problem with getting the game to display your new cuirass lies with the fact that the game will load the ones from the BSA and ignore your new ones even if they are in the correct folder structure.

 

There have been various ways over the years to get around this situation (collectively called archive invalidation as you're trying to get the game to selectively ignore it's assets in the compressed archive BSA files and load ones that are newer from folders inside the game's Oblivion\Data folder). Confusing as heck ... took me a while and a lot of reading to get my head around it. In a nutshell all you need to know is that BSA Redirection is the method of choice today, and it became the method of choice by virtue of working without any of the downside side-effects of the older methods.

 

With that out of the way I'm going to suggest to you that you play through the tutorial dungeon with a vanilla unmodded game that's patched to version 1.2.0416 and that's all. The reason is that while you're in the dungeon the game engine isn't really being stressed the same as once you exit the sewer and enter Tamriel. If you get a bunch of mods installed and think everything is working fine while you're in the sewers you may be in for a surprise at what happens when you exit the sewers and the game needs to start displaying trees, grass, distant landscapes, NPCs etc.

 

Make a save just before you exit the sewer (when you can see it in the distance but before you get the character finalization menus). Then exit the sewers and make another save, not overwriting the first (never use quicksave, it's a known corrupter of save files). Now start adding mods one at a time, or in the case of mods that have requirements only those required for the next mod. After installing make sure to run around a bit. Pop over to Vilverin and bash some bandits and go to the Imperial City Market District and see what your performance is like with lots of NPCs around. If it's still good load the next mod and go back to the outside the sewers save and repeat the process. When you find a mod that brings your machine to it's knees or has you crashing constantly it will be easy to figure out which is the culprit. You add 50 mods and then exit the sewer and you'll be like the legion of users here, posting "I added a bunch of mods and now my game don't work", and then only advice you'll generally get is uninstall them and start again one at a time or spend the next few days trying to figure which is/are the culprit/s.

[Nimboss]

Archive Invalidation is a MUST have. If you use a mod manager they usually have a click option in menu to turn on/off Archive Invalidation there also are manual tools to create one.

 

If you don't have Archive Invalidation enabled you will not see downloaded meshes and textures correctly in game.

In general Archive Invalidation makes the game aware that you added new meshes and textures and that it should prefer these.

 

Edit

I realise now Striker879 in the wall of text actually mention the different paths to get a "Archive Invalidation" done correctly and why. :smile:

[Striker879]

Ya ... wall of text is a long time specialty of mine. Guilty as charged.

[CapNKirkland]

k so i got out of the sewers.. and i dont think any of the mods worked except the character face overhaul thing...

 

what do?

 

i also didn't make a backup of anything..

Edited December 6, 2013 by CapNKirkland

[Striker879]

We're back to the last couple of sentences from a couple of posts back ... there's no substitute for careful methodical modding. Deactivate or uninstall one or more at a time, check you have installed properly, read through mod comments looking for tips ... all of the above. There are no magic wands.

[CapNKirkland]

will modding skyrim in the steam workshop be easier to learn than this? im incredibly overwhelmed here

[Striker879]

It takes time. I was just as overwhelmed as you when I first started, same as most people. There's a lot of information to take in and then try to make sense of how it all fits together. That's why the best advice is play the tutorial dungeon, make a save before exit so you can create different characters in the future without redoing the tutorial, make a save outside the sewers for mod testing and then start adding mods, one at a time preferable starting with simple to install ones.

 

First you learn to roll over, then sit up. Soon you're standing and then next thing you know you're walking. You don't see many newborns running a marathon.

 

I've no idea what Skyrim modding is like ... I'm an anti-Steam type myself (saves me a ton of money on games and new hardware to run them).

[CapNKirkland]

so i've gotten a tiny bit familliar with mods.. so i want to start modding character models..

 

how do i start with realistic female models?

 

 

EDIT: i managed to get a few 18+ mods to work properly. but the problem is i cant get their vanilla clothes off lol

Edited December 10, 2013 by CapNKirkland

[Striker879]

Without help from a mod the vanilla NPCs will wear what's assigned them in Oblivion.esm (which is one of the advantages of using a body replacer that includes replacements for the vanilla clothing such as EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion and MaleBodyReplacerV52). Even mod added NPCs will have the clothes/armor assigned to them by the mod author. Companion mods will usually have a menu that allows you to equip the companions with clothing/armor of your choice.

 

There are mods that allow you to access NPCs inventory and change their clothing, but unfortunately I don't use them and don't have a link at the moment. I mostly use vanilla clothing/armor replacers to give the vanilla women different versions of their vanilla stuff (some sexy, some just different). I'll also use the console to change what a particular NPC has in their inventory (if for example I used a replacer for burgundy linen shirt but didn't want some particular NPCs to wear that I'd removeitem b86 1 and then add say a brown shirt with additem 229ad 1). I tend to lean towards complicated ... must be genetic.