How to make OMODS from Archive Files

[jimuno]

I posted this in a forum as advice to help someone in a topic, but decided it may be something to share with all in it's own topic

 

If you Have Oblivion Mod Manager OBMM installed, you can install a mod from an archive, even without the 7zip or other un-archive tool. Please note that you must get by the security features in Vista and have OBMM working under Vista. This should also work if you are running OBMM on Wine/Linux.

 

Using this method without an Un-Archive tool does not allow you to read the readme file before installing.

 

1. Download the mod .rar, 7z, or other archived file

 

2. Of course you saved it, so remember where

 

3. Open OBMM

 

4. Select the Create Tab

 

5. Once the create box opens, Select the Add Archive.

 

6. A file selection box will open, Navigate it to the folder you saved the file into, then select the archived file

 

7. The Create Box will read the Archive and then display the .esp if any in the window (this is default), if you want to view data files, there is a click circle for this.

 

8. Once the box has loaded the archive, you can now fill in the fields. Give it a name, (I use the one from the esp file or the name of the mod), fill in the version, Author etc, if you wish. Also you can add notes if you desire.

 

IMPORTANT: Some Mods include copies of other mods esp or esm files, DELETE THEM BEFORE CREATING THE NEW OMOD. If you do not, when you activate the new mod, it will overwrite the existing .esp or .esm file. This is generally a very bad thing as the version included with the mod you are adding may not be the same version as the original mod. If you install an older version esp over an newer version when the original mod has been updated, Oblivion usually go BOOM.

 

9. Select the Create OMOD button, It will now create the OMOD. You do not need to create a script, If the mod was archived in standard formats, it will read them. If you did not Give an Author, it will give a message telling you that you did not, just click the yes to continue creating, It will also do this for the description if you did not fill it in. Again, just click Yes.

 

10. A processing Box will display showing progress, when it closes, you will get a message box OMOD Created Succesfully (or something similar) with an OK button, click the OK

 

11. Your Box showing OMODs will now show the OMOD you just created, Activate it and it will place the .esp and/or .esm file in the Data folder, update meshes, textures, sounds folders, it will add any BSA or other files to the Data folder.

 

12. Close OBMM, If you launched it from the OBSE Launcher, activate your new .esp or .esm files, Start Oblivion by preferred method, Mod should be installed and working.

 

Notes:

The Mod does not have to be "OMOD Ready" to do this.

 

This does not work if the data in the archive was packaged in non standard format. Standard format places the .esp, .esm, and readme files in the base or DATA directories of the archive. If they are in another folder, You will need the 7zip or similar un-archive tool to open, but you can still make it an OMOD by using the Add Files and Add Folders buttons in the Create OMOD box.

 

You can change the Default save path for where the OMODs are saved. Default is somewhere in MyDocuments, I created a folder in the OBMM folder in oblivion and store them there, It is up to you, but changing the save directory like I have and moving all OMOD files to it makes the available to all users on multi user systems.

 

Once the OMOD is created, You do not need to keep the original archived file that you downloaded, the data is now in the OMOD file.

 

I do not recommend putting more than one archive per created OMOD, I have tried combining Patches with the original archive and gotten very weird and conflicting results, My experience shows it is better to create an OMOD for each, then apply them in the proper order.

 

I use this method exclusively to install mods (unless they come as OMODS). It keeps them very well organized and makes un-install easier. While I have found a few mod archives that were packaged in non standard formats, I have, to my knowledge, never had it misplace a file.

 

Hope this Helps

[dezdimona]

stream lined version!

 

ok,click create omod,add the mod name and author where indicated.

then click add archive,the mod will then be broken down automatically.When its ready you'll see some writing in the big box under file path

Then click create omod,answer yes and omod will be created.

you'll get a green square in your mod list,click on it and then click activate!

all done! mod is now active

[LHammonds]

More OBMM tutorials can be found here: http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/

 

...and in the Nexus Article Database.