Data Files Overwriting Problem

[FrozenStyles]

Well, i have this where i download a mod and the files it comes with are the usual, .esp, sounds, meshes, and textures. And i put them all in my data file and it works fine. Then i download another mod with its own sounds, meshes, and textures and i try to place the three folders into the data file. And it says, "This folder already contains a folder names 'sound'.

If the files in the existing folder have the same name as files in the folder you are moving or copying, they will be replaced. Do you still want to move or copy the folder?

Yes Yes to all No Cancel

 

And if i do press Yes to all, it obviously replaces the current folders with the new ones and then i start my game up with fomm and play. When i try the mod, it simply wont work. And i also renamed the new folders to something else so it wouldnt replace the old ones but if i do rename it, the mod will not work.

 

Could really use some help here, thank you!

[mechine]

Ha Ha Ha awe man...

 

 

You're headed in the right direction.

 

 

So it's good you ran into this problem.

 

If you just rename something like a file or folder (then it's not going to work, ever)

 

to rename you would have to edit an remake the mod (not too hard to do)

 

 

 

 

Okay so I don't remember where I learned it.

 

 

It was probably from Ultimate Load Order at the first of the year

 

an then problems with auto installers not working.

 

 

 

 

So I kind of call it clean install, or making a clean install of mods.

 

 

It's clean for one because you never use the auto-install, in other words windows installer to install mods

 

(you know windows installer, the install wizard, you get when you install drivers, games, ect)

(well some mods use tools like that to install, or FOMOD which I think is part of FOMM)

 

FOMOD is probably good, I never tried it after I ran into the problem with auto installers.

 

 

I mean I would totally use it if I knew that the mod I was installing via FOMOD was 100% compatible with

 

the other poop I had already installed, but the trick is, how do you know it is, For one when you auto install

 

even with FOMOD it's not going to stop the process an say "Warning FOOK 1.6 is replacing files for UFP 1.2"

 

LOLZ if it did that one day, who's got time to sift thru all the data in order to do that though, much less test

 

the 2 million different load orders the players have.

 

 

 

Anyway back to the question.

 

 

 

So now we have taken the life of the monk, vowing to never auto install an do things the hard an awful way.

 

 

 

This is refered to as manual installing mods.

 

 

What ya do is open the WinRar or 7zip file you downloaded,

 

 

then you open your data file in another window

 

 

Each file entry in the Rar/7zip you open then follow it down in the data file window

 

so you look at one, then look at the other, an go down the folder list one folder at a time

 

top to bottom, until you get to the base content inside the Rar/7zip, then you either have this in your

 

data folder or you don't, if you dont' drag an drop it in, if you do, make sure the names are the same

 

Then you want to pick the best one, let's say it's a sound file, maybe it's 10mmPistol_2D, For one you can compare the file size

 

you have the vanilla sound that's like idk say 20kb then the one you were thinking of installing is 40kb then that one is probably better

 

depends on how it was recorded as far as the sample rate, which you can find in the properties, Sound though just use WMP to open it

 

an pick the sound that is the better sounding one to you. Let's say it's a texture...

 

 

There's 10mmpistol.dds in the Rar/7zip then one also in your Data/textures/weapons/1handpistol/10mmpistol.dds or something like that

 

What you can do is drag and drop it, then when it warns that it's going to replace something yes or no, you look at the part that

 

shows how big the files are, Why replace a 500kb 10mmpistol with a 100kb 10mmpistol for one thw 500Kb one is probalby high res.

 

 

The same applies to meshes, if there were updates then a meshes file size is going to get bigger, 90% of the time

 

if it was messy an update might have cleaned that up, an made it smaller, which is where nifscope would come in

 

I use nifscope for a lot of things, but 3D preview is one of them.

 

 

 

 

Until you get to where you know what you are doing for sure I would never pick "yes to all" go thru the list

 

if there is a yes no yes to all. Following down the folder paths from the RAR/7zip an then also in the data file in another window

 

you are going to see what is going to replace or not replace, an avoid most of these yes or no warnings anyway.

 

 

 

 

Okay you install unofficial fallout patch (tons of textures) then install fook 1.6 (tons of textures) then MMM (also tons of textures)

 

 

There is a sort of date on when a mod was made, so somewhat the newer version is going to be best, so it would stand to reason to

 

install old mods first then install newer ones, maybe you like Unofficial fallout patches version though, so say you install that one last

 

however to know which is best you would have to have a lot of knowlege about them. Tons of room for error if you ask me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimate Load Order's guide was kind of cool because the way that they installed mods was to make a false data folder on the desktop

 

or even 3 different ones, or geez 6 differerent ones, each time you try installing an it has stuff that's going to replace stuff

 

the right way to do it would to follow that rule about false data folders. You put stuff into a false data file when it comes up that it might replace

 

get to the point where you have nothing else to install an use programs like nifscope, paintnet, to get fast previews of the content that

 

has matching names, then pick the best looking one. Some of this stuff you are going to overwrite later on anyway.

 

 

 

 

After you know which ones are better you know the order to install them so that the best one overwrites the others an can pretty much

 

just drag an drop the false data folders to the fallout 3 folder, which it will prompt that it's going to replace, you hit yes to all at that point

 

because it won't replace all the files in there, just the ones with matching names, the non matching names will stay in the same place.

 

Actually the lazy way to install is to just do that drag an drop the whole data file for the mod into your fallout 3 folder, but you won't know

 

what it's going to do, maybe you just overwrote one of MMM's killer high res textures with some idiot noob's textures.

 

 

 

You are going to notice that the ball gets dropped a lot with mods an when they get made, there are tons of messy stuff out there

 

childish stuff, idiotic stuff, retarded stuff, and the fact of the matter is that you have to sift thru all that to find what you want.

 

That is just how it is, even I have tried to make a clean mod, an it's rather hard, just getting it 90% clean makes it twice the amount of work.

 

That's why you manually install like a monk of the wastes, tons of work, but it's really the only way to have a keen eye on what it is that you

 

are actually doing.

 

 

 

 

You know if all else fails you can go download "the ultimate load order" this will teach you how to install mods, an a few other things

 

after you get tired of the load out of mods it requires, then you can just delete it all an start over with a re-install

 

then apply what you learned to make a killer load order, eyah ultimate load order is kind of outdated, but it has great stuff in it

 

none the less (it's also stuff that's tested to all work together) I think it was made about 6 months ago though.

 

It's the process you want to pay attention to, an it's actually kind of fun.