OBSE isn't working with steam

[shadowslasher410]

@ Striker- I start it with the obse_loader (the one I linked, not the newer one). And yeah, I have the obse_steam_loader.dll in there as well, but i'm not sure if it's actually being used since i'm using the loader to run the game. The OBSE installation instructions makes it seem as if the steam_loader.dll is what makes OBSE run with Steam (though I am not sure if that's actually the case) As far as I understand, the CD key that I got from the Anthology is basically the same as a digital download. The disc version is just the Oblivion GOTY edition with a second disc containing the Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine Expansions.

[Striker879]

Hmm .. when I checked out the Anthology version in a local EB Games store it appeared to have a single key for all of the included games but the included "manual" was typically very vague and totally lacking any specific run requirements (it of course had the generic now-a-days "requires Steam client" ... they totally own the PC gaming world today). I was mostly interested in it as a way to get Morrowind, but as you may have guessed I'm kinda' an anti-Steam type myself.

 

Thank you for the info. I'm sure it will help me down the road when helping troubleshoot Anthology version problems.

[shadowslasher410]

Oh, actually, it did- the Key was for all the included games (well, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim; Daggerfall and Arena are too old to be converted to steam). Guess I should've clarified that.

[GravityWave]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem (near as I can tell). I'm starting Oblivion (OB) and the Steam Overlay is enabled, OBSE (V.20) isn't starting. I only found this out when I installed RefScope to track down some missing meshes. RScope alerted me to the fact that OBSE isn't running. I re-mapped the Journal from Tab to 'J' to avoid any conflicts with enabling the Steam Overlay, but it isn't there. I also checked my Morrowind (MW) and Skyrim to be sure their Steam Overlay was also enabled after seeing reports of interactions. I'll try the old 'OBSE' mentioned above next. Perhaps Steams new 'updater' system has now broken OBSE for new installs of OB?

 

I had to reload almost all my Steam games after moving to a new PC with W8.1, and the 'Finding existing files' usually didn't work either. Naturally, I had to re-install the associated mods for Morrowind (MW) and OB from clean installs as well, which is how I stumbled into this swamp. I really liked the games and am ready to give them another go, if they can run. Steam support is now abysmal as well as Bethsada's.

 

And of course, modd'ed OB still always crashes on exit which is inexcusable, since it requires pulling up the Task Manager to end it. I'd really hoped that would be fixed by now, but not having OBSE running accounts for why I have Blockhead errors and FastExit2 doesn't seem to be working.

 

"What a world, what a world!" per the Wicked Witch of the West.

 

[GravityWave]

I just tried the 'old' download of the 'obse_loader'. It isn't clear what version it was. Anyway, it ran, and started OB, however RScope again reported the OBSE wasn't running. Now, I just checked and I DL'ed the current OBSE from the Silverlock folks which is V2.1. The odd thing is that the obse_loader generated a log file reporting that the steam dll was running.

 

clearing large-address-aware flag

recorrecting exe checksum (00793BFD -> 00793BDD)

crc = A2408F04

dll = F:\Steam\steamapps\common\Oblivion\obse_1_2_416.dll

Steam version being run

However, none of my OBSE plug's seem to know about it. I still can't get to a Steam Overlay screen in game either. I guess it's time to chat with Steam Support, as well.

[Striker879]

OBSE version 0021 and Steam plus Windows 8.1 seems to be a real headache, at least for some people. If you can get to the root cause I'd be interested.

 

From your log post it appears you have avoided the default Program Files install location trap. Did you try OBSE Tester (linked in my first post on the thread)? My OBSE log reports the version number in the first line ... it says "OBSE: initialize (version = 21.4 010201A0)". Did you copy/paste from the log or are you paraphrasing?

[GravityWave]

I'm not putting much on C: as it's a SSD now, but even before, I've kept Steam off C: (~500 GB's of stuff, with another 200 GB's of DLs). Steam gets its own partition, just to make BUs easier. The log post is the c/p of the text. I'm looking to see if I can find a obse v2 or v1.9 to try in the meantime. Actually, I just wanted to fix my missing meshes, so I'll probably go play something else for awhile. This may be why my first attempt at a FCOM install went badly as well. I'm beginning to think this may be more of a Silverlock problem than with Steam, but have no idea how to report it. I really hope it doesn't happen to any other game's SE's. I think that's just the TES stuff, but I'm not updating anything else until things make more sense. I got MW updated, but I don't recall it using a SE, just native patches without a BOSS or Wyre needed. Being a simple guy, I was just getting used to Nexus, but realized it was hopeless for OB.

[GravityWave]

Restored V21. Added 'OBSE Test Plugin-33574' which is just an .esp. it gives the msg that it started and then reports that OSBE isn't running so is either not installed properly or not started from the loader. All 3 dll's for Steam are present in the OB dir. The loader won't start OBSE and references that the Steam loader dll will start obse. So, no joy. Even worse, no version info or anything is reported or logged.

 

I then removed all the plugins from the obse dir in Data. No difference. I disabled Norton for the entire Steam dir. I did notice that W8.1 set limited 'security' access to the OB dir and after checking the entire F: drv. So, I restored full control for all users (meaning me). I also noticed that W8.1 set the drv (actually a partition on a bigger drv) to read-only, so I fixed that. Neither might have been obvious to me as an Admin, though I do get the odd UAC popup now and again. Curse M$oft.

 

Even so, with no plug's, no log file is generated, the error msg is the same. RScope which is also just an .esp also reports that no obse is running. I even tried enabling the crashdump flag in the obse.ini, but no log is generated that I can see. The 'old' manual loader did generate a log file. OB and all exe's are set to run as Admin, so permissions etc shouldn't be an issue for the dll's.

 

I'm starting to run out of idea's. Both RScope and FormID need obse to report on the missing mesh info. Like the tester, none can find an obse.

[GravityWave]

Did some more checking on Steam, and found a solution. Short story is that the Steam.exe, itself, needs to be set to 'Run as Admin' to get the steam overlay working and then obse shows up and then all the plugins see it and start automagically working.

 

I'd post the steam link, but the forum rules seemed to discourage such stuff. Just google it in the Steam Community discussions.

 

And, FastExit2 seems to be working as well, though OB is still crashing on exit, I'm not being forced to the task manager all the time. W8.1 UAC is a PITA and different than W8's as well.

[GravityWave]

One last fiddly bit. To make this work, OB has to get started by Steam, not for instance from the .exe or Wyre. So, no avoiding the launcher so far, but I seem to recall work arounds for that as well. Back to the WTF meshes.