Where are my plugins going and how to fix my race

[tiffawolf]

this is probably my 4rth time posting in the forums but i need some help, i have vista and this may be the problem but when im in CS and i make a new plugin, i cant seem to find it located in my oblivion data folder yet it shows up in the data options of the launcher, where on earth is my plugin being saved and how can i get it to show up in data folder?

 

and to make things worse, ive followed all the rules to a T and still cant make a race fully functional, such as eye and hair problems, i made sure to closely choose all the eyes and hair in cs for my race but when i save it and play it in OB, i cant seem to change the hair or the eyes and though people keep telling me the same thing ive already done, i still cant make it work.

 

i think it may have something to do with changing the races ears and adding a tail because i remember creating a race once b4 that could easily be customized but they didnt have changes to the ears and tail. so how can i go about adding different ears and attaching a tail without *ban* up the race? i dont want wearable ears and tails, it doesnt exactly make the race unless it has the real deal. please, if any one can help me, then please reply back and try to be nice about it. also try to keep words simple, im not much of a pc nerd that understands everything about modding :confused:

[TehBuddha]

Have you tried searching the name of your mod in the search bar?

Thats all I could think of... :rolleyes:

[tiffawolf]

yeah, i tried that, it always comes up with "no results found" i cant think of where it would be stashing them, gah! i hate vista.

thanks for the reply

[bben46]

If the mod is not in the Oblivion\data folder it will not show in the mod list. Is it possible you have a second data folder somewhere else?

 

Oblivion was designed to work with WinXP and if installed in the default location works fine with all mods and everything else. When Vista came out, Microsoft added UAC to protect the files in the program files folders from unauthorized changes. As UAC does not cause any problems with the vanilla (unmodded) game, Bethesda did not make any changes. However as soon as you start trying to use mods you are going to run into UAC problems. The best way to deal with them is to uninstall your game and reinstall it outside of the protected program files folder. Most people have been using C:\Games\Oblivion as the new location.

 

UAC will cause the same problems in Win7

 

If you are not sure how, Here is a link to my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure located in the articles section of the Nexus

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=240

 

This procedure allows you to preserve all saves and any mods you already have.

[tiffawolf]

ok thank u, ill try this, ive already read through it and i must say that this would have came in hand a year back when i had horrible issues with TES. ur walkthrough had the answer to it. but now b4 i go to uninstall it, what about the mods i already made, i cant explain it but i dont have but one data folder in my oblivion directory but the mods i made are not there yet they work in the data option of the mod selection. so my question is, if i uninstall oblivion and then reinstall it to a different area other then program files, will i be able to keep my mods that have been created recently that i cant seem to find?

[bben46]

Could you have accidentally set them as hidden? The Game data only looks in the Oblivion\data folder for mods - nowhere else. To change this you would have to be able to edit the Windows registry - not easy even if you know what you are doing. And definitely not recommended if you don't.

 

Here is a site that tells how to unhide files in all versions of Windows.

Win7 is the same as Vista for this.

http://www.bleepingc...tutorial62.html

No need to register or log in to see it, just scroll down

 

I'm not sure about Vista, but the Win7 search doesn't like to tell you WHERE it found a file, just that it did find it. clicking on it runs it. - I just ran a Win7 search for data and \data - win7 did NOT find the Oblivion\data folder. It dosn't seem to be able to find folders by name at all. I also ran a search on 'Oblivion' and it did not find Oblivion.exe (The main Oblivion program) So it looks like the search is useless

 

Edit: it looks like the search in Vista was far better than the one in Win7. It could even find words inside of a file, a file by name or with wild cards, a folder by name or wildcards and even only search certain places or exclude certain places. Looks like the Win7 search is a big step backwards. I'm looking for a decent 3rd party search to replace the Win7 fiasco now.

[tiffawolf]

is that safe? to make hidden files viewable i mean?

im also wondering if it could also be my CS, because las time my pc crashed, i had CS and i was able to see all the mods that i had created in my data folder but this time when i reinstalled my CS, i wasnt able to see any mods i made. i just figured it had to be my construction set, but then again, my pc was also reset back to factory setting aswell when it crashed. i just dont want to screw anything up by making hidden files viewable. thanks again for the help and im so sorry for asking so many questions :sweat:

[bben46]

Making hidden files viewable does not mess anything up. After checking you can reverse the procedure and make system files (and any other you want) hidden again. Being hidden does not prevent a file from running. It just prevents you from seeing them when you look in a folder.

 

What is not safe is turning UAC off. That's why I recommend installing the game in a different location that UAC does not protect.

 

After reinstalling Oblivion in a new location, you will need to reinstall the CS also. I'm not sure if resetting back to factory setting will mess up your Windows registry (the file that tells Windows where to find programs and their data among other things) I suspect it completely wipes it and tries to rebuild it. It's possible it got the location of the CS data in the wrong place.

[tiffawolf]

ok i tried the hidden files thing and now i can see my mods in the search bar when i type it in BUT when i click on "open file location" i get errors such as "file cannot be found" but the hidden file option did give me some help with other things unrelated to oblivion that needed to be fixed so thanks for that.

 

but now may i ask u this, i want to go ahead and uninstall my oblivion but i DO NOT want lose my mods that i have made recently, the ones i cant seem to find, so if i uninstall OB and then reinstall it to a seperate folder, will that make me lose my recent made mods since i cant locate them in data folder :blink: ? if so, i dont want to risk it

 

ps im so sorry for bugging u like this :sweat:

[Shadowfen]

ok i tried the hidden files thing and now i can see my mods in the search bar when i type it in BUT when i click on "open file location" i get errors such as "file cannot be found" but the hidden file option did give me some help with other things unrelated to oblivion that needed to be fixed so thanks for that.

 

but now may i ask u this, i want to go ahead and uninstall my oblivion but i DO NOT want lose my mods that i have made recently, the ones i cant seem to find, so if i uninstall OB and then reinstall it to a seperate folder, will that make me lose my recent made mods since i cant locate them in data folder :blink: ? if so, i dont want to risk it

 

ps im so sorry for bugging u like this :sweat:

 

 

You can try looking for your mod files in c:\ProgramData or in C:\Users\<your login>\AppData\<folders here>. That's where I dimly remember finding my mods when I went through this.

 

One of the "features" of the Vista/Win 7 operating system is called "UAC Redirection" (you can Google it)- and the short description of what it does is: for data/files that a program used to write to its directory in c:\Program Files (x86), the UAC actually redirects the program's file write to this alternate location so that the special C:\Program Files directory tree remains "unpolluted" as it were.

 

The Construction Set wants to write to c:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda\Oblivion where you installed it. The UAC redirects the writing of that mod file elsewhere.