Mod Staging Folder and Game Files Locations

[Redundandcy]

Hey folks,

Was wondering, is it possible to have the mod staging folder on a specific drive (for example E) and the actual game folder on a different one (for example D)? Or do both folders HAVE to be on the same drive for the game to be considered modded? If it's possible, I'd appreciate a short guideline on how to do it.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to help out!

[showler]

The only way to do that would be to use the experimental deployment methods, which have drawbacks.

Since the mods are installed with virtual file links rather than actually copying the files the deployment folder has to be on the same drive as the game.  The advantage to this is that the virtual file links take up almost no room at all so you don't end up having duplicate copies of the files taking up space for no reason.

[Redundandcy]

My mod folder is currently sitting at 190 GB which is absolutely insane! In addition, the game folder is at 111 GB. You can see how this is becoming a real issue Man no idea how to do this....

[showler]

The thing is, Windows mis-reports the size of the game folder.  It reports every virtual file, which are less than one mb as I recall, as being the size of the actual file which is in the staging folder.  So it tells you the game folder is taking up far more space than it actually is.

Because of this you should actually be able to put more files on the drive than Windows says there is room for.

[Redundandcy]

Tell that to Steam which is preventing me from pre-loading Black Myth: Wukong because of this

[showler]

You could purge the mods from the game folder while you download the game.  Re-deploy them afterwards.

[Redundandcy]

Ended up freeing about 50 GB by manually deleting mods I had downloaded before but were still in the folder. Those were mods that have been disabled for a while now such as 202x texture ones etc.. Thanks for the help bud.

Edited August 18, 2024 by Redundandcy

[ChemBoy1]

2 hours ago, Redundandcy said:

Hey folks,

Was wondering, is it possible to have the mod staging folder on a specific drive (for example E) and the actual game folder on a different one (for example D)? Or do both folders HAVE to be on the same drive for the game to be considered modded? If it's possible, I'd appreciate a short guideline on how to do it.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to help out!

Yes, it is possible with Symlinks deployment method. Not all games support it, though. Bethesda games do not support symlinks, for example.