How do you use Mods?

[Daledge]

Ok, well I've been playing Oblivion for years now on the PS3 and only recently bought it for PC and I was wondering, how do you use mods? Do you just download them and then their on your game or is their something else you gotta do?

 

And also, is it safe? Like, does TESNexus have any virus' or anything like that?

 

Thanks in advance,

~Daledge

 

:cool:

[Hickory]

First of all, unless you install OBSE plugins, regular oblivion mods have no executable content, and so won't be a virus vector. However, that is not to say that somebody might upload an executable and tell you to click on it to install -- it has happened. To that end, you should ALWAYS scan downloaded files before opening them.

 

Now on to installing mods. All Oblivion mods (not including OBSE plubins etc) need to go into your \Oblivion\Data\ folder. This becomes a problem if you are using Windows 7 or Vista and install the game into the default 'Program Files' protected folder structure. Solution? Uninstall Oblivion and reinstall it outside of Program Files, somewhere like C:\Games\Oblivion to aleviate Windows' UAC nightmares.

 

When you download a mod archive (usually in 7z, zip or RAR format, extract the contents to a temporary folder and examine the structure, but MOST IMPORTANTLY read the installation instructions. The general structure of mods goes:

\Data\xxxx.esp

\Data\Meshes\xxxx.nif

\Data\Textures\xxxx.dds

 

There may be subfolders, too. Basically what you need to do is from the temporary folder you created and extracted to files to, drag the esp to your \Data\ folder, drag the \Meshes\ folder to your \Data\ folder and drag the \Textures\ folder to the \Data\ folder. If you are asked to overwrite, answer yes. That's (in a nutshell) the manual way.

 

There are other ways. You can use OBMM to download or create OMODs -- a simple double-click installation. More complex, but more powerful, is Wrye Bash's BAIN installers, but you need to understand Wrye Bash fully before going this route.