Missing Alien Epoxy mesh.

[someone344]

For some reason or another, I can't get the mesh for the Alien Epoxy in Mothership Zeta.

The rest of the DLC installed fine, it's just that mesh. I've checked the Data files, and I have the Epoxy textures, just no mesh.

I have tried reinstalling it about three times now, and still haven't had any luck.

 

It wouldn't really bother me, but a mod is using the Alien Epoxy model as a quest item, and I can't forward the quest due to red triangles.

 

Is there any possible fix for this?

I'd ask someone to put up the mesh in a file, but I'm not sure if that's allowed.

[fap6000]

I reckon what has happened here, is that one of your mods changed the item, this could be just using the unpacked version of the mesh, not really changing anything, but depending on the install/build of fallout 3 which the person did that you can end up with a edit to an item that uses Meshes/DLC05/Clutter/AlienApoxie.nif (just a guess) But in their data folder it's path is spelled different meshes/dlc05/clutter/alienapoxie.nif Very simple mistake, you see the mesh has lower case in the name, an this might also happen from the folders themselfs, maybe, idk. The other cause would be a semi-glitch of the archive invalidation invalidated set up we use, for one reason or another from time to time certian items get bugged or glitched, thus missing, when in fact they are there inside either the .BSA or loose folders.

 

The fix for both or any other reason for a missing mesh big red blucko ! triangle error, are the same. First you need to find out the name of the missing mesh. If it's something in a NPC inventory then use a mod like groovatron which has many tool like uses besides being able to allow you to view inside a NPC's inventory. Once you have the name, then just open the load order with FO3edit. We know you are looking for the Epoxy, so the fastest way for you to find that an also find any other mod using that refrence would be to look inside the Zeta.esm for it. The reason you load up the whole load order is because even though you know it's a Zeta item, it could be the case that one other mod or many mods are making small edits to this refrence or entry whatever you like to call it.

 

Once the whole thing loads up, yah wait for it to say finished before you start any work. Open the + next to the Zeta.esm, then open the + next to ingestable (what what what, who's going to eat Epoxy it's ridiculouz) yah they just mean consumeable as in the item gets used up when activated. Now often when you get to this point you are looking at 654 different things, so in practice it's a good idea to orgainize those items A-Z or Z-A by either the editor ID or Name, this is done by clicking those tabs at the top that say Form ID, Editor ID, Name, it gives a arrow depending on which direction. Form ID is the Hex number for the item, Editor ID is the name fallout uses for the refrence, then the name is the In-game name, note that by default FO3edit uses whatever order things are loader or were created in for the Form ID, so to switch back after your A-Z just click on the Form ID, then the load order goes back to the default view.

 

Okay so you found Epoxy which was easy, there's only 4-5 items in ingestables in that .esm. Click on the Epoxy, this puts it in the view tab, meaning you can now view the data, It should just be a single entry, by that I mean it's in white, all white, an the only mod listed in the view window is Zeta.esm, FO3edit will display other mods if they are making changes to the same refrences in different colors depending on the situation which it creates. What you are looking for here is just the path to the model, and also you are looking to see if any of your other mods have made changes to this item. You now at least know the name for the mesh it's using, so write that down or copy it an paste it into a temp notepad file.

 

First go to the data folder then follow the path down an see if you have a file there, which you shouldn't, there's no reason for you to have the Epoxy mesh unpacked, no reason for anyone else either, but we are all idiots modding things. If you don't find a mesh there by that name then you should probably use FOMM (the tools tab) an BSA unpacker to unpack a version of the mesh from the Zeta.BSA For safety reasons I usually just unpack things straght to the desktop, you can type in the name which will filter out entrys in the FOMM .BSA unpacker, you can also open the + sign an look at the folder paths to narrow things down, it will arange files by folder or other options too.

 

If you pick two files at one time to be unpacked to your desktop at the same time, then FOMM will also create the folders following the folder path for the item based off what it was in the .BSA, this helps because you don't have to think once you move it to the actual data folder. Just delete the file you unpacked just to get the folders unpacked too, then only that file you needed is in there, so drag an drop that to your data folder. Which if you have spent any amount of time modding fallout 3 then you probably already have a shortcut to the data folder you created from right clicking on the actual data folder, then moving that shortcut to the desktop, this way when you want to install things there, you just drag the files or folders to that shortcut you placed on the desktop. Quick easy, an without the need for a brainpower.

 

Since we are on the subject of the desktop, there's no need to keep any actual data there. Main reason why is because too much data on the desktop will crash your applications when they exit, thus having to reload into the windows shell, with the desktop being a part of that data, so if there's too much data there, you end up with a crash an crash report dialog anytime you exit a application, but certianly each time you exit fallout 3. That being said, keep your desktop as small as possible, this is done by only placing shortcuts to data on the desktop rather than actual data. Some of the shortcuts I use are, current mod projects, FO3 Data, FOMM, Toolz, GECK, FOSE Edit, FO3edit, Downloads, plus temporary files, and finally the fake data folder which is basicly a current projects folder for meshes an textures, you know because Nifscope will only look in folders named data for textures, I only put stuff I'm going to work on in there, then if I'm done with it, then it gets deleted, thus keeping the desktop clean.

 

Get into the down and dirty work already...

[someone344]

I reckon what has happened here, is that one of your mods changed the item, this could be just using the unpacked version of the mesh, not really changing anything, but depending on the install/build of fallout 3 which the person did that you can end up with a edit to an item that uses Meshes/DLC05/Clutter/AlienApoxie.nif (just a guess) But in their data folder it's path is spelled different meshes/dlc05/clutter/alienapoxie.nif Very simple mistake, you see the mesh has lower case in the name, an this might also happen from the folders themselfs, maybe, idk. The other cause would be a semi-glitch of the archive invalidation invalidated set up we use, for one reason or another from time to time certian items get bugged or glitched, thus missing, when in fact they are there inside either the .BSA or loose folders.

 

The fix for both or any other reason for a missing mesh big red blucko ! triangle error, are the same. First you need to find out the name of the missing mesh. If it's something in a NPC inventory then use a mod like groovatron which has many tool like uses besides being able to allow you to view inside a NPC's inventory. Once you have the name, then just open the load order with FO3edit. We know you are looking for the Epoxy, so the fastest way for you to find that an also find any other mod using that refrence would be to look inside the Zeta.esm for it. The reason you load up the whole load order is because even though you know it's a Zeta item, it could be the case that one other mod or many mods are making small edits to this refrence or entry whatever you like to call it.

 

Once the whole thing loads up, yah wait for it to say finished before you start any work. Open the + next to the Zeta.esm, then open the + next to ingestable (what what what, who's going to eat Epoxy it's ridiculouz) yah they just mean consumeable as in the item gets used up when activated. Now often when you get to this point you are looking at 654 different things, so in practice it's a good idea to orgainize those items A-Z or Z-A by either the editor ID or Name, this is done by clicking those tabs at the top that say Form ID, Editor ID, Name, it gives a arrow depending on which direction. Form ID is the Hex number for the item, Editor ID is the name fallout uses for the refrence, then the name is the In-game name, note that by default FO3edit uses whatever order things are loader or were created in for the Form ID, so to switch back after your A-Z just click on the Form ID, then the load order goes back to the default view.

 

Okay so you found Epoxy which was easy, there's only 4-5 items in ingestables in that .esm. Click on the Epoxy, this puts it in the view tab, meaning you can now view the data, It should just be a single entry, by that I mean it's in white, all white, an the only mod listed in the view window is Zeta.esm, FO3edit will display other mods if they are making changes to the same refrences in different colors depending on the situation which it creates. What you are looking for here is just the path to the model, and also you are looking to see if any of your other mods have made changes to this item. You now at least know the name for the mesh it's using, so write that down or copy it an paste it into a temp notepad file.

 

First go to the data folder then follow the path down an see if you have a file there, which you shouldn't, there's no reason for you to have the Epoxy mesh unpacked, no reason for anyone else either, but we are all idiots modding things. If you don't find a mesh there by that name then you should probably use FOMM (the tools tab) an BSA unpacker to unpack a version of the mesh from the Zeta.BSA For safety reasons I usually just unpack things straght to the desktop, you can type in the name which will filter out entrys in the FOMM .BSA unpacker, you can also open the + sign an look at the folder paths to narrow things down, it will arange files by folder or other options too.

 

If you pick two files at one time to be unpacked to your desktop at the same time, then FOMM will also create the folders following the folder path for the item based off what it was in the .BSA, this helps because you don't have to think once you move it to the actual data folder. Just delete the file you unpacked just to get the folders unpacked too, then only that file you needed is in there, so drag an drop that to your data folder. Which if you have spent any amount of time modding fallout 3 then you probably already have a shortcut to the data folder you created from right clicking on the actual data folder, then moving that shortcut to the desktop, this way when you want to install things there, you just drag the files or folders to that shortcut you placed on the desktop. Quick easy, an without the need for a brainpower.

 

Since we are on the subject of the desktop, there's no need to keep any actual data there. Main reason why is because too much data on the desktop will crash your applications when they exit, thus having to reload into the windows shell, with the desktop being a part of that data, so if there's too much data there, you end up with a crash an crash report dialog anytime you exit a application, but certianly each time you exit fallout 3. That being said, keep your desktop as small as possible, this is done by only placing shortcuts to data on the desktop rather than actual data. Some of the shortcuts I use are, current mod projects, FO3 Data, FOMM, Toolz, GECK, FOSE Edit, FO3edit, Downloads, plus temporary files, and finally the fake data folder which is basicly a current projects folder for meshes an textures, you know because Nifscope will only look in folders named data for textures, I only put stuff I'm going to work on in there, then if I'm done with it, then it gets deleted, thus keeping the desktop clean.

 

Get into the down and dirty work already...

Thanks for the help, I was finally able to find it.

It took some time, but I was able to find it hidden in the wrong file section.

 

Thanks greatly for the help.