Skyrim on Both STEAM And GOG At The Same TIme, Can Vortex Handle it?

[Zanderat]

I am on GOG.  But I am thinking of downloading the STEAM version to see what all the update fuss is about.  Seems to be mostly user error at this point.  I suppose profiles is the best way.   But if I have two installations of the same game, can I use the same load order on both (via profiles)?  Or will Vortex lose its mind? 

[showler]

No.

Not without making different versions of Vortex using different Windows accounts or a trick that was posted here about using a command line argument to start Vortex with different settings.

There is a suggestion on the feedback portal to make sure that the Nexus Mods App can do this.

[Zanderat]

I thought of the command line option.  But I think you need separate staging folders.  Trying to keep it simple.  Can I copy the staging folder over if I go that route?

[Pickysaurus]

You can copy the staging folder but it won't have any associated metadata. 

[showler]

Probably be easier to make a personal Collection.  You wouldn't have to download anything.

[Zanderat]

Actually, what I think I am going to do is download the STEAM version, backup my ini's and exe flies, and the copy the exe and _ResourcePack.esl from STEAM version over to my current installation.  I think that should work, as long as Vortex doesn't recognize the STEAM installation (unless I tell it to).

[elpuertorro]

Honestly is better if you make your set up into a collection, and then you use that for the steam one, as you are going to have to replace some specific mods to work with the New steam version.
I am currently managing both with vortex, same download folder but each with it's own staging folder, you can try your route but I'm sure it's going to mess up your whole thing.
Btw, you can use Pickysaurus method to create 2 instances of Vortex and then use the shortcut for the steam version of the game.
It's pretty easy and will save you a lot of headaches. good luck!

[Zanderat]

Thanks, that's pretty much where I landed.  My original intent was to try to understand why some people can't seem to get the new update working.  I feel like I should be able to get my own set up working.  LOL! 

[Tannin42]

Vortex probably detects both installations and gives one priority but you can manually change the game directory from the games screen. If you manually set the game directory that always has precedence over what Vortex auto-detected.

Technically I don't think there's anything stopping you from

1. "purge" the existing (gog) mod install
2. change the game directory to the steam instance
3. deploy again

In regards to the mod deploy at least it shouldn't matter to Vortex that it's now deploying to a different target directory than before or that that directory contains a different game version/store variant.

The only thing I could see as potentially problematic would be

a) fomods that installed different things based on which CC content was available at the time the mod was originally installed
b) savegames, ini files and profiles in general since the gog instance has its own copy of all that so it might be a good idea to clone the profile you're going to be using first, enable the clone and then not touch the original profile while Vortex is "targeting" the other game install.

I don't think savegames should be a big deal as Vortex doesn't "remember" save games, it doesn't care about saves appearing or disappearing but it does maintain copies of the ini files with each profile so it might end up mixing settings from the two instances, not entirely sure how robust that is.

[Zanderat]

Thanks, Tannin42!  That seems the easiest and best way to do it.  Right now I am getting an error with going the collections route.  So this seems better.  Thanks again. 

 

Happy Holidays!