ESP limit

[Lehcar]

Please, please, PLEASE tell me there is some way to bypass that ludicrous 255 plugin limit that causes the game to not start if you're over the limit.

 

There's a bunch of weapon mods I want and I'm so upset about this it's unreal.

 

I searched everywhere but found nothing. Please tell me there is a way to get rid of this limit. :(

Edited February 3, 2011 by Lehcar

[Yamcakes]

Calm down, kiddo.

Here's one solution. This is something I do.

It's recommended that you only do this with mods that only add models and objects to the game. Don't try it with anything that alters gameplay, has quests, uses scripts, etc.

Open the construction set.

Check off all of the weapons .esp's that you want to install.

Don't select an active file.

Go to tools -> combine loaded plugins.

If any of those esp's are dependant on an esm, make sure you hold onto that .esm.

Now save your new plugin. Call it whatever you like.

You now have just made X amount of mods a single mod.

Take the .esp's you loaded, and put them in another folder somewhere for safe keeping. Remember not to remove any .esm's you loaded.

This is how you conserve space.

In case anything doesn't work out, you should still have the original .esp's somewhere.

[bben46]

The 255 number is hard wired into the game engine.

 

If you need a technical explanation, :rolleyes: decimal 256 is hex FF or binary 1111 1111 which is the largest value that can be put into the 8 digits allocated for that in the game engine. (binary only allows 1 & 0 ) And no, it's not possible to make it 9 or 10 digits as that would involve rewriting a part of the Gambryo game engine itself. Which we cannot do. :confused:

 

The 255 counts zero as a number (It's a programmer thing, you need to be a programmer to understand why) so it's really 256, but zero is always taken by Oblivion.esm so its still 255. :pinch:

[lonewolfkai]

The 255 number is hard wired into the game engine.

 

If you need a technical explanation, :rolleyes: decimal 256 is hex FF or binary 1111 1111 which is the largest value that can be put into the 8 digits allocated for that in the game engine. (binary only allows 1 & 0 ) And no, it's not possible to make it 9 or 10 digits as that would involve rewriting a part of the Gambryo game engine itself. Which we cannot do. :confused:

 

The 255 counts zero as a number (It's a programmer thing, you need to be a programmer to understand why) so it's really 256, but zero is always taken by Oblivion.esm so its still 255. :pinch:

Oh my gosh! I knew that number was familiar but never could remember why! <kicks self for not seeing that>

[Lehcar]

Thank you so much for your advice. *sigh* Time to get to work reducing all of my junk I suppose. That's unfortunate that we can't get around the limit, but maybe it's better that way because hundreds of ESPs would really cripple the game.

 

I do hope someone makes a combined ESP for the Unique Landscapes mod, that's what's taking up a big chunk of my limit. :(

Edited February 3, 2011 by Lehcar

[Noggog]

Im using Wrye to merge a good chunk of mods into the bashed patch, and then ghosting them.

 

And with similar/harmless/small mods, I'm using GECKO to merge the mods into one.

[Lehcar]

Gecko... link? :)

[lonewolfkai]

Gecko... link? :)

TES4edit is a good utility for that as well.

 

Just beware of what you merge. Somethings are not meant to be merged. UL mods are one of them, but from what I understand the UL patche are fine.

[VictoriaG]

You could give this a try, it moves your clothing/armor to the save allowing you to disable the associated esp files: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36694

[Zetsuboketti]

Gecko... link? :)

 

Here's the link to Gecko.

 

Keep in mind that some mods should not be merged with this method as they will not work correctly afterwards. Usually mods with complex scripts or that edit the Tamriel worldspace need to be manually combined or left alone.

For example, I used Gecko to combine about 75 armor mods together into 5 separate esps and all of them worked just as they would if they were separate. However, Tona's mod store would not actually show up despite the armors and clothes being available through the console.

 

Regardless of which mods you merge, keep a backup of the esps, make some kind of text document detailing which mods you combined, and include the names of the mods combined into the merged esp's header so you won't be struggling to remember which mods you fused together months down the road.