Launching Oblivion Wrye Bash

[snuke12]

I still don't completely understand how mods work so forgive me if this is a stupid question.....

 

Since installing and using wrye bash, I've been launching Oblivion through the wrye bash application. I assumed that was necessary but I'm not completely sure. If I use the oblivion launcher will it still work? Or OMM?

 

Part of my confusion stems from the oblivion.ini file and whether that is even used when launching through wrye bash.

[Striker879]

You don't need to launch the game thru any mod manager such as Wrye Bash or OBMM.

 

How you launch the game will depend on whether you use the disk version or Steam version, and on whether or not you use OBSE. For Steam I believe you still launch the game the same way whether you use OBSE or not (I'm a non-Steamer, so I could be wrong there). For the disk version of the game you must change to use the OBSE launcher obse_loader.exe (I simply edited my desktop shortcut, as outlined in obse_readme.txt).

 

If you use the disk version and don't use OBSE then simply use the desktop shortcut that gets created when yoou install the game.

[snuke12]

Thanks for the info. I do use the disk version and have obse installed since it's needed I think for one or two mods I want to use.

 

I've edited my desktop shortcut like it said too. But is wrye bash still working if I use it to set up my mods but launch the game through obse_loader.exe? Do I need to edit my .ini file at all or does wrye bash do that for me?

Edited July 30, 2016 by snuke12

[Striker879]

I use the disk version myself and Wrye Bash.

 

I start the game using my desktop shortcut. When I have edited an ESP using the Construction Set or have installed a mod (I'm an old manual install dinosaur, though I have used Wrye Bash to install a few mods) I fire up Wrye Bash and run BOSS from the button in the lower left of the WB window. Once BOSS is done I rebuild my bashed patch, and when that is finished I close Wrye Bash and then start the game using my desktop shortcut.

 

BOSS takes care of sorting my load order and WB takes care of the bashed patch (and installing any mods I have decided to use it to install ... once installed it becomes the routine BOSS, bashed patch and play from the desktop).

 

- Edit - Personally I have never tried using Wrye Bash to edit Oblivion.ini ... all my edits were done using Windows Notepad.

Edited July 30, 2016 by Striker879

[snuke12]

I use the disk version myself and Wrye Bash.

 

I start the game using my desktop shortcut. When I have edited an ESP using the Construction Set or have installed a mod (I'm an old manual install dinosaur, though I have used Wrye Bash to install a few mods) I fire up Wrye Bash and run BOSS from the button in the lower left of the WB window. Once BOSS is done I rebuild my bashed patch, and when that is finished I close Wrye Bash and then start the game using my desktop shortcut.

 

BOSS takes care of sorting my load order and WB takes care of the bashed patch (and installing any mods I have decided to use it to install ... once installed it becomes the routine BOSS, bashed patch and play from the desktop).

 

- Edit - Personally I have never tried using Wrye Bash to edit Oblivion.ini ... all my edits were done using Windows Notepad.

 

OK, so the only thing I'm iffy on is the bashed patch - I'm not 100% on how it works. Once Ive installed my mods using wrye bash by either using the wizard feature or the other way, how do I go about doing a bashed patch? I've tried to figure it out using the readme but I don't fully understand what I need to do.

 

And re: the .ini file, is it necessary for me to make changes to it at all if I use mods? I don't really know what I need to take care of there.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[Striker879]

Some mods will require you to edit Oblivion.ini to work (some UI mods I think, and another example would be house/castle/quest mods that require the game borders turned off so you can go past the normal "invisible walls" into the areas of the game you normally wouldn't be able to reach).

 

The most common reason people edit Oblivion.ini is for those ever elusive "performance" tweaks, some of which work and others don't. If your game is running acceptably well for you there is no need to edit Oblivion.ini for more "performance".

 

For the bashed patch you just start Wrye Bash, and when it finishes loading go to the Mods tab. At the bottom of your load order (or it could be somewhere in the middle I guess if you haven't run BOSS) you will see a "mod" named Bashed Patch 0.esp ... just right mouse click on it and from the menu that opens select Rebuild bashed patch (there will be two ways to rebuild the bashed patch ... I use the CBash method myself). It will bring up another dialogue which you can just leave at it's default selections and then click on Build Patch (not at my gaming machine so I could be wrong about the exact wording used on the button to continue building the bashed patch ... it will be the default selection if you just hit Enter).

 

Depending on how many mods you have it can take a while ... be patient. Once the bashed patch is rebuilt it will display a report which you can read or not read. Again after you close the report it will take some time before you can close Wrye Bash. I wait until the tool tips that are displayed as I move my mouse over the different mods in the list change as I fiddle around with the mouse as I wait (some mods will show just just active, some merged into the bashed patch).

 

- Edit - If you aren't using BOSS you should be ... it's the best tool for sorting your Oblivion load order. Once you have it installed you'll mostly run it from the Run BOSS button in the lower left of the Wrye Bash window. If you have a mod that isn't recognised by BOSS you can run BOSS from the desktop or Start menu and set up a User Rule for that mod (and report it here and mhahn123 will get it added to the list).

Edited July 30, 2016 by Striker879

[Striker879]

Here's an explanation of what the bashed patch is.

 

What Wrye Bash does when it builds/rebuilds your bashed patch is it resolves all of the conflicts between the different mods in your load order. It uses something called bashed tags (most commonly added by mod authors to tell WB what to do, but you can add bashed tags yourself) and load order to determine which changes from which mods will "win" those conflicts. There are many mods that simply won't work (or work correctly) without a bashed patch.

 

The bashed patch is then put at or very near the bottom of your load order so that the combined changes it contains will "win" in the load order. Some mods will require to be placed below the bashed patch to work (e.g. Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul), but in general your bashed patch will be right at the bottom of your load order.

[snuke12]

 

 

For the bashed patch you just start Wrye Bash, and when it finishes loading go to the Mods tab. At the bottom of your load order (or it could be somewhere in the middle I guess if you haven't run BOSS) you will see a "mod" named Bashed Patch 0.esp ... just right mouse click on it and from the menu that opens select Rebuild bashed patch (there will be two ways to rebuild the bashed patch ... I use the CBash method myself). It will bring up another dialogue which you can just leave at it's default selections and then click on Build Patch (not at my gaming machine so I could be wrong about the exact wording used on the button to continue building the bashed patch ... it will be the default selection if you just hit Enter).

 

Awesome, thanks so much. That makes it much clearer. I'm assuming you must have Bashed Patch, 0.esp checked as well?

 

I have downloaded BOSS and tried to install it but its not showing up in the lower left corner. Per the instructions I clicked on the .bat file to install and it and a command box quickly appears and dissappears and then a notepad log file shows up blank. I have all three files in my /data folder so I'm not sure what the heck is wrong.....

[Striker879]

I wouldn't suggest installing a bunch of mods before running BOSS and building your bashed patch.

 

The best way is to add a single mod, run BOSS and rebuild the bashed patch and then test thoroughly in the game. That way you will know how each mod you add affects how the game runs, and if you run into something that causes problems it will be trivial to figure out where to start troubleshooting.

 

If you add a dozen mods and then your game runs like crap or crashes it will be much much harder to figure out which mod was the culprit.

[snuke12]

Ah, ok. My mistake. I had installed a bunch of mods before installing BOSS to wrye bash. Still not sure why the button wouldn't appear in wrye bash but I will uninstall all mods first, install boss again, and then install the mods and hopefully that will work. I'm only using about 5 mods so it shouldn't be a big deal (i hope!).