Oblivion Mods: Common Questions and Problems

[DeadMansFist849]

Stuck with a mod? Here's a list of the questions that modders such as myself are asked on a regular basis, so regularly in fact that we're actually at least a little sick of hearing them.

 

First off, let's start off with one basic thing we all have to agree on: ALWAYS READ THE README. To not read the readme, is to set yourself up to fail. If you don't understand, you could ask somebody (not necessarily the author, as most aren't multilingual.)

 

Q:How do I install mods?

 

A:Well, it's always difficult the first time. I would recommend reading the Planet Elder Scrolls tutorial for installing Oblivion mods. Some mods require Oblivion Mod Manager. The mods you're trying to install with Oblivion Mod Manager will give you instructions too--or they should do, anyway.

 

Q:Nothing shows up in game.

 

A:You could be experiencing the following problem:

1) You forgot to activate the ESP file, or, if it's a replacer, use some kind of archive invalidation. I use Archive Invalidation Invalidated. If it has any plugins, activate these in the game launcher, and if you have an archive invalidation issue, use that.

2) You haven't patched the game to the latest version. You need to do that in order for any mod to work. This page will show you where a download can be found. You do not need this patch if you bought the Game of the Year Edition as it comes pre-patched.

3) You have Windows Vista or 7, and the User Account Control (UAC) is screwing up your game. Reinstall the game outside of the UAC protected folders which is where the game installer puts it if you don't specify otherwise. Try C:\Games\Oblivion, for example.

 

Q: My body textures are screwed up!

 

A:That's one of two problems. The first is that your game is reading the vanilla textures, which are in the original game BSA archives, rather than the ones in the folder you've just installed. Please use the Archive Invalidation Invalidated method I mentioned before. The second problem is that you have equipped clothing incompatible with the body mod you are using. Clothing made for Fantasy Figures, for example, will not work with Exnem's Eyecandy body textures installed, since the body meshes are radically different and thus have the textures wrapped around them differently. To correct this, either install the body mod that the clothing is made for (it should be clearly tagged and labelled as being for HGEC, Fantasy Figures, BAB or Robert's Female and Male Bodies), install a compatibility patch for your chosen body, if one is availabe or uninstall the clothing that isn't working with the body you use. Clothing that is for any body mod will not work with the original game's bodies. Also, races made for one body mod will not work with others. A race for HGEC/Eyecandy won't work on Robert's Female meshes, and as with clothing, non-stock races will not work with the original (otherwise known as vanilla) bodies.

 

Q: Why do I see exclamation marks and purple textures?

 

A: Exclamation marks mean that you have missing meshes. You may not have installed the meshes from the mod correctly or you may not have installed the required mod properly. These can also occur when the modder has forgotten a texture path or to include something, but check that you have installed everything properly, according to the readme, before you ask. Purple textures mean that there are missing textures. Again, this could be because you didn't install the mod or its requirements properly, and it could also mean the modder forgot something. As always, check and double-check, when you are sober and not sleep-deprived, that you have done everything in your power to be sure you did not mess up the install.

 

Q: The character has missing body parts.

 

A: This is probably another sign that you've missed out some requirement or to install the mod itself properly. A missing body part is a missing mesh and/or texture for that specific thing. Always be sure that you copied and pasted everything over from where you extracted the mod to. Also, you want to be dead certain that you've installed requirements stated in the description and readme before you ask the mod author.

 

Q: I can't find the body mods!

 

A: All right, check out these links:

You can find Fantasy Figures here.

Eyecandy/HGEC is just over there.

Robert's Male is yonder in the fields...

Robert's Female is right this way!

Eshme's body is right here.

Biu's Adventuress Body (BAB) is in this direction.

I will update this as necessary.

[bben46]

RE #2, Nothing shows up in the game - You are positive you followed the directions perfectly, checked the mod in the list and it just isn't there. Along with the other suggestions, if you use either Win7 or Vista you could be the latest victim of the dreaded Windows UAC. This security 'feature' of windows will prevent changes to programs and sees mods as a change to prevent. And it does this without bothering to tell you.

 

Best solution: Reinstall the game outside of the UAC protected folders which is where the game installer puts it if you dont specify otherwise. I recommend putting it in C:\Games\Oblivion

[darkedge42392]

Heh. This is definitely a very helpful thread, baron. :thumbsup: Now people can't say they don't have an answer to their problems.

[TOkoolforskool]

is it possible to have 150 mod without crashing your game cause mine won't even let me have 5 before either freezing or crashing at new game loads or before the game can begin, HELP!

[bben46]

Yes it is very possible. Many people have over 250. The hard limit is 255 including Oblivion.esm.

 

The way they did it was to install only one mod at a time and test. If it didn't work, they made adjustments until it did, or discarded that mod. Then, after it worked, they added another one.

 

When they found a stable load, they made a backup of the data folder. That way if the next mod they added caused major problems, they could discard that entire data set and reload the backup.

 

Utilities like BOSS & Wrye Bash made it easier for people to pile on a dozen or more mods at a time and possibly get lucky.

 

1. Install the game outside of the Program files folders to avoid problems with UAC

2. Use BOSS, OBMM and Wrye Bash, but don't rely on them to do the work of troubleshooting.

3. Back up your data, ini and saves

4. Back up (yes, it's important enough to list twice.)

5. if you do have a problem, don't add any more mods until it is either fixed or the mod responsible is removed.

6. READ the documentation on each mod, Read the forums on each mod before installing. There are often hints there.

[BGDummy]

I don't know if this counts as a common question, but I see lots of guys in here that seem to know what they're talking about so even if this isn't the place or the people to be asking, maybe I can be helped in the right/proper direction.

 

I have a mod that I really like called "piiip - enhanced grabbing" and the only thing about it that's not working is the function of removing the "inventory item" that it adds. The creator (shademe) went through the trouble of making it possible via his mods .ini file to remove the inventory item, but no matter what I've tried (changing 1 to 0, 0 to 1, using an item deleter mod, looking at it in the CS) it just won't go away.

 

Is it something wrong with his script or .ini? or is there something else I might be missing?

[Iameggman]

In my Oblivion data folder. I have a file called: Omod Conversion Data: Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion/Data. What Is it?

 

In my Oblivion main folder: Bethesda Softworks/ Oblivion. I have a file called OBSE. What Is that?

[NiktheTerrible]

Hey all. I'd like to use MMM with OOO, but they're apparently incompatible. I've read about FCOM, but I'm a long way from being a wrye bash user. What issues will I find and what can I do to mitigate them? Will a particular load order help at all, or do I just have to suck it up and only use one?

 

Thanks very much.

 

[EDIT] Also, OBMM crashes every time I try to activate MMM. Is this because it's incompatible with OOO, which is already activated? If not, is there a reason?

 

Thanks again.

Edited June 5, 2011 by NiktheTerrible

[RebelOConner]

In my Oblivion data folder. I have a file called: Omod Conversion Data: Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion/Data. What Is it?

 

In my Oblivion main folder: Bethesda Softworks/ Oblivion. I have a file called OBSE. What Is that?

"the Omod conversion data" is a file created by OBMM, a simple help to manage omods. it's not essential if your omod is already loaded, so you can remove it if you don't need to change it.

but the OBSE folder is essential, it's not added with OBSE, but with some utilities which use OBSE, like CS extender. to remove it will certainly cause crashes .

OBSE itself only adds a folder called "src" in the oblivion folder.

[Iameggman]

I'm trying to download the Oblivion Graphics Extender. But I have no idea where to extract it to. I normally just extract the mods to the data folder but that doesn't work sometimes, I have the latest version of Oblivion.