XGE Style Graphics Mod Compilation For Oblivion?

[MikJames]

Does anyone have something like this in the works?

 

It would be great to be able to launch an installer and have the following installed automagically :smile:

 

Oblivion Reloaded

Qarls Tp3 Redimized

Character Overhaul

A few flora packs

Shivering isles texture pack

Clutter/weapons/armor Texture Packs

shademe (optional due to performance loss)

 

Is would be fantastic to have all that just working nicely together without game crashes everywhere, I tried installing 20-30 texture packs with MO and had crashes at every turn. I feel like I missed the memo on how to properly install conflicting texture packs, I assumed MO would just sort it out and use the most recently installed texture but instead I get black empty patches in the game world and random crashes.

[Surilindur]

That is not Mod Organizer's doing. I use it myself with a ton of texture and mesh mods, and a ton of other mods installed, and the game does not really crash much at all. It still does it a few times a week, but it does not crash every twenty minutes like some people seem to have it do. Getting the game completely crash-free is probably something that happens the same day large corporations actually start caring about the customer. :sweat:

 

Of those mods listed, everything but shademe should be pretty straightforward. I do not use shademe myself, either, it completely murders my performance for some reason despite all sorts of tweaks to the ini files (even in addition to using the starting spreadsheets on Google Docs). So everything excluding shademe should not take too much effort even from a beginner (have you modded Oblivion before?). Maybe an automatic installer would be an overkill?

 

If you use Mod Organizer, remember that all OBSE plugins need to be placed in the actual folder, they do not work with MO's virtual file system. If you use all those mods, and also the unofficial Oblivion patches (you do use them, right... right?), you should have at least some dlls from the unofficial patches, OblivionReloaded.dll/ini and Blockhead.dll/ini in your OBSE plugins folder. There were some issues with Oblivion Reloaded grass and equipment modules a while back, so those might be worth checking, maybe Alenet has fixed them but checking it never hurts (changelog or sticky posts maybe). You could also try Oblivion Stutter Remover and ENBoost if they make any difference.

 

Also, Mod Organizer might not always work with all installers (BAIN, OMOD, etc.) so extracting and restructuring mods manually before adding them to Mod Organizer's mod storage folder (wherever you have it) might be a good way to make sure everything ends up where it should eventually be. This is the way I have done it, I just use Mod Organizer for its virtual file system - if there were no virtual file system, I would still be using Wrye Bash for installing mods.

 

And about mod packs... maybe the list of things to consider could include something like:

• permission issues, many authors do not want their creations packed up in some distribution
• mods for the pack have been selected by one person, so the overall experience is also designed by that one person
• installing a mod pack does nothing to help people understand how mods work and how to troubleshoot issues
• the one who makes a mod pack usually has no idea how mods work so the packs end up totally broken and not working
• the one who makes the pack thinks his/her work assembling that pack is of huge value so he/she deserves some insane praise for it, and usually fail to fully recognise and credit the original authors' work
• updating the pack when a single mod is updated might cause some issues, also continuous compatibility and how to modify the pack's contents when needed (and how it would affect people's savegames and such)

All the issues have been seen with the 'mod packs' some individuals have uploaded to Steam: the one who makes the pack has no idea how to use mods so the 'mod pack' will never work, original authors are not asked for permissions and probably not even credited, the download is huge, and users learn nothing by pressing the big green 'download' button. :tongue:

 

Maybe MGSO (if that was the one you meant) is a better example and does actually work. Difficult to tell. I tried MGSO once, but when I encountered issues in-game, I could not do anything about it because I had no idea what the different mods and such were, the automatic installer had just stuffed the game full of mods and I did not even know what mods they were, I would have had to spend an insane amount of time figuring out the different mods and it was not worth it - installing mods one by one myself was easier and I knew exactly what each mod did. That was my only ever experience with mod packs and it was definitely also the last one ever. Never again. :laugh:

 

Sorry about the rant. I just passionately dislike mod packs myself. :blush: Are those the only mods you use? What does 'clutter/armour/weapon packs' include? Are all the others just normal texture mods? Are there any special circumstances under which it crashes? How often does it crash (approximately, once an hour or every three minutes)? Just curious.

Edited December 29, 2015 by PhilippePetain

[Surilindur]

Apologies if I sounded a bit harsh or such. It was not my intention. The issue you have should be fixable, depending on how much the game crashes: some might say once every three hours is a lot, whereas others might say once an hour is not much at all. If you use Mod Organizer, remember to:

• use version 1.3.11 from Skyrim Nexus (if your OS is newer than XP)
• put all OBSE plugins (dll+ini) in the actual folder
• avoid all archive invalidation methods other than the one MO offers (tickbox in profile list I think, might take some clicking and such to get working, but will work just fine in the end)
• check the Archives tab to make sure all relevant archives are loaded (also tick the 'let MO handle archives' option)
• try manually downloading, extracting, restructuring and then adding mods to MO so everything is put in the right place
• try to avoid using any other utilities for installing mods (such as Wrye Mash and OBMM)
• use Wrye Bash to set load order and build Bashed Patch (launch it through MO, like all other utilities)
• and everything else

And I can see you are not a new member. But have you modded Oblivion before? Other Bethesda games? Skyrim? How much do you know about all mod-related? I have no idea what to tell you when I have no idea how much you know about things. Also, was this just a request in general, or did you have some difficulties trying to get the thing working and need help with it? What am I actually doing? :psyduck:

 

Happy new year! :dance: