Vortex Organization QOL

[cevune]

Hello. I've been modding for awhile but never delved here into the forums, so I apologize if this is the wrong section / something that comes up a lot.

 

In using Vortex, the core features are very helpful. However, in some games (In my case, Skyrim SE specifically), the amount of mods can make managing profiles and troubleshooting problematic. I guess this will land somewhere between a feature request and a request for information if there are Vortex mods which will achieve this functionality.

 

Overall the idea goes something like this:

When I begin a new mod payload on Skyrim (or any other game) I like to work in a somewhat modular fashion. So for example, I'll create a profile that modifies say, the environment/lighting/weather, basically the Aesthetics of the game world. I'll create another profile to get things such as body modifications etc working. Another profile would be dedicated to Gameplay overhauls/tweaks. And yet another would be dedicated to... I suppose you could call it cDLC or additional assets, basically anything that adds non-vanilla content/items.

Once I have each modular component working by itself, I'll start to copy these configurations to a "Master" profile, essentially the representation of a fully modded game and enact final tweaks to get every part working together nicely.

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This brings me to my first point on the organization of the mods list. The idea is to allow "blacklisting" or hiding certain mods within a given profile. For example, if I'm working on a gameplay tweaks profile, I don't necessarily need to see CBBE or Skyhair etc in the list of mods, since they're irrelevant to that profile's purpose. So I'd like to be able to "blacklist" those mods such that they do not populate in the mods list while I'm working in that profile. Basically so I can keep the list trimmed down to what is actually necessary/being used for a given profile.

 

And for what it's worth, this is largely for the purposes of trouble shooting and preference testing alternative mods. For this reason I anticipate I would be toggling relevant mods between enabled/disabled a lot. I know in theory, you could sort by mod status and minimize the Disabled header to hide unused mods in a general use context, but specifically when selecting between multiple incompatible mods and switching back and forth between enabled and disabled, this won't work as a suitable/convenient solution. Hence wanting to explicitly declare a mod as hidden from a profile's mod list.

 

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The next organizational function I'd like to have is the ability to define a sort of quasi file-structure within the mod list. Essentially the ability to organize within folders (purely on an aesthetic/organizational level, with no impact on the actual load order/precedence of the mods themselves). The reason for this change is even on profiles as described above that have relatively simple concepts (IE player model modification), the list of mods can get massive. I'd like to be able to create my own nested folders for organization within the mods list, for example creating a folder to contain "core requisites" such as CBBE, maybe a subfolder therein named "skin overwrites" for say 'Diamond textures CBBE' or 'Aesthetic Skin CBBE'. Another top-level folder would perhaps be "Char Presets" as a central hosting location for RaceMenu presets, so it's easy to find/remove those that end up performing strangely in game or being undesired later.

 

This is just a single example, but essentially it would be extremely helpful to those who heavily mod their games to be able to organize and sort through their mods in such a manner.

 

Is this achievable through an existing Vortex mod? Alternatively is there a method to forward this post to Vortex contributors such that these kinds of features may be considered for future updates?

[vortexposer]

I use custom (collapsible) categories and creative use of filters to achieve exactly that. I can't tell you how to set them up for yourself but if you play around with what they can do and ask a few more questions about their basic function, I'm sure you can figure out a way to make them serve your purpose.

[cevune]

I use custom (collapsible) categories and creative use of filters to achieve exactly that. I can't tell you how to set them up for yourself but if you play around with what they can do and ask a few more questions about their basic function, I'm sure you can figure out a way to make them serve your purpose.

And here I was thinking the categories were managed by the mod author and enforced. This is a huge help thank you. If the category drop downs in the mod list followed the same structure as the Categories pane (that is, that you can form a parent/child relationship between categories), then this would function perfectly IMO. While having each lowest level category be separate in the mods list isn't ideal, it's a LOT better than it was by default.

 

And as far as I know, maybe there is a way to parent the expandable categories to each other. I only just learned that you can customize categories to begin with, so maybe you can.

[vortexposer]

I tend to use a prefixed index system to keep them "grouped", forcing it to display alphanumerically.

Edited April 2, 2023 by vortexposed