Fallout New Vegas textures and meshes missing/ auto save deleted automatically.

[MihoSan217]

I'm not sure if this is from my end but I've been modding New Vegas for a while and I never had this. Basically I just installed 2 new mods(. I merged patch my plugins again removing my old one and I make sure Archive Invalidation is ticked(which is always on) and boot up the game. The meshes and textures for both guns are working. But after reequipping some of my weapons I get a red ! mark(which is weird since Archive is on and every mod I have is properly installed). Since I was in Nipton I decided to go into one of the houses. The loading screen somehow turned into purple squares as if it was missing the texture and the walls were messed up. I exit out of NV and relaunch but then there was a problem. Some how my auto save decided to delete itself without me doing anything. I actually got this when I hit the untick button for all my plugins by accident and that my other auto saves were messed. For example Novac would have messed up textures while Goodsprings would not and vice versa. I decided to start over from scratch again since I did finish the game but its still acting up. I have no idea how to fix this. If you're wondering this is the Ultimate Edition of New Vegas that I got as a gift on Steam. But if anyone had this problem I would like to know how to fix it, even if it means I have restart with a clean installation.

 

Edit: Fixed this a long time ago. Can somebody lock this?

Edited July 29, 2017 by JohnnyXD23

[dubiousintent]

Two possibles.

 

1) Depending upon your mod manager, you may need to "toggle" ArchiveInvalidation off and then on again. Can't hurt regardless.

 

2) There is a limit to how many plugins you can have "active" (or even in the Data folder) plugins (ESM and ESP). The game has a hard-coded warning at 139. In practice you can hit this limit anywhere between 130-140 depending upon your system. Move any "inactive" plugins out of the data folder. Exceeding this limit can cause "strange" texture problems like you are reporting.

 

As for the "autosave", it you are using the game's builtin option, just don't. See the sub-topic 'Issue: CTD on interior/exterior/"fast travel" cell change' in the wiki article Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting for the explanation and alternatives.

 

You might also want to look over the "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article.

 

-Dubious-

Edited August 7, 2016 by dubiousintent

[MihoSan217]

Two possibles.

 

1) Depending upon your mod manager, you may need to "toggle" ArchiveInvalidation off and then on again. Can't hurt regardless.

 

2) There is a limit to how many plugins you can have "active" (or even in the Data folder) plugins (ESM and ESP). The game has a hard-coded warning at 139. In practice you can hit this limit anywhere between 130-140 depending upon your system. Move any "inactive" plugins out of the data folder. Exceeding this limit can cause "strange" texture problems like you are reporting.

 

As for the "autosave", it you are using the game's builtin option, just don't. See the sub-topic 'Issue: CTD on interior/exterior/"fast travel" cell change' in the wiki article Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting for the explanation and alternatives.

 

You might also want to look over the "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article.

 

-Dubious-

Thanks. I'll let you know if it works.

 

Edit: I should update this. Everything is working.

Edited May 30, 2017 by JohnnyXD23

[Funeralwolf]

It would do wonders if you had explained how you fixed this, as I now have the exact same problem

[dubiousintent]

Can't speak for the OP, but three years later on we have expanded upon the number of potential solutions we can offer. But without details, we can only offer generalities.

 

Please provide ALL the information requested in the wiki "How to ask for help" article. Don't forget to identify things that do not appear in the "load order", such as if you are using a "regional language version" of the game (even if you are playing it in English); using the FNV4GB Patch, NVSE and it's related plugins; replacements for textures (specifically their larger image sizes: 1024x1024, etc.), animations, or "bodies", etc.; and "post-processors" like ENB or SweetFX. It saves us playing "20 questions" and gets you a more specific answer more quickly. (The usual turn-around on post and reply in an older game forum is 24 hours.) Screenshots don't usually work so well because they tend to cut off or fail to display needed information and are hard to "piece together" into a complete and coherent picture.

* See "How to markup images (etc) in forum posts and comments" article for how to use "Spoiler tags". LOOT already includes those tags in the "load order" it copies to your clipboard, so you can just paste it's list into your post.

 

I recommend anyone read the entire "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article to understand the differences between this game and others you may have experience with; especially if this is your first attempt to play a modded FNV or it's been more than a year since you last did so.

Your problem #1) Missing textures. If you haven't exceeded the "active plugin cap" (which can be as low as 128 depending upon system and mix of plugins), then please see the 'Solutions to Mesh (Red "!" icon) or Texture (solid color) problems' section of the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" article.

"Texture packs" don't usually show up in the "load order". (They are replacing vanilla assets; thus they overwrite existing files.) And the issue with them is what size/resolution of the images you are using. Larger/"hi-rez" textures require more pixels, and larger screen display monitors multiply that requirement in a non-linear way. While your hardware may technically be able to handle it, the game was published in late 2010, designed for Windows Vista with maximum screen displays of 1920x1080, with default image sizes of 512x512 pixels. The game engine texture cache tends to be the bottleneck: "leaking memory" and causing "stutter". Please see the wiki "Display resolution versus Image Size" article.

Because "Texture/Mesh" replacement mods replace vanilla versions of those files, you absolutely have to toggle "ArchiveInvalidation (AI)" off-and-then-on again after installing or removing one of them so it recognizes that there are loose files (added by the mod) which have to be used in place of the vanilla files in the BSA files or are no longer there and the BSA files should be used instead. That failure to toggle is the most common reason behind most "texture problems". This is usually evidenced by red "!" icon for missing meshes, and solid colors for missing textures, or "messed up" textures. This "ArchiveInvalidation" mechanism is incorporated in all the currently used mod managers, so there is no need to (and problems arise if you do) install older mods to provide that capability. ONLY USE ONE METHOD of AI, especially if you have multiple mod managers installed. Otherwise they will conflict, as they use their own "arbitrarily chosen" names for the AI BSA files. (There is not a standardized name used among them all.) Please see the 'ArchiveInvalidation (by Manager)' section and also see the 'Checklist Item #15 & 16' entries in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide.

The usual reasons why a texture is not found and ends up displaying as a solid color such as black (other than failing to toggle AI) are:

1. It was packaged in such a way in the archive that when it was unpacked into the "Data" folder it got placed where the engine isn't looking for it. You can manually drag the folders to the correct locations, or repackage the archive to avoid that problem against the next time you need to install it.

In the case of (for example) "Weapon Retexture Project" (WRP) v1.95, the package has a "non-standard" folder structure. (Not an uncommon mistake by mod authors, so learn from this.) The game (to include most mod managers like NMM, MO, and FOMM) is expecting the top level folder of an archive package to be standardized; with folder names such as "Textures" or "Meshes" (etc.), or ESM/ESP/BSA files. It assumes they are being placed under the game "Data" folder. This example package starts with a "RLS" folder, which the game does not recognize, and so it places that as the "top level" under "Data". (Sometimes this is the author's name or initials, other times it's the mod name and version, but anything unexpected is treated the same way: as a new folder or file. Sometimes it's "Data" so you end up with "Data\Data" which is also unexpected.) Most likely when the files are "installed" but aren't found correctly, something similar to this is your problem. Unpack the mod archive (WRP in this instance) to some other location and then either rebuild the archive so the top level folders are "Textures" and "Meshes" (in other words, without the "RLS" folder from WRP at all), and then install with your mod manager, or manually drag those folders into the game "Data" folder.

The text file under the WRP "RLS" folder is a documentation file. If you want to keep similar in the package, just place it in the top level along with the "Meshes" and "Textures" folders. Personally, I rename such to "<mod_name>_ReadMe.txt" so I know which package they came from, and place them all in a "Docs" folder for easy access, but it's not a requirement. (Many authors act as if their mod's text file is the only one that might possibly exist in the same location or use the same common name (i.e. "Readme.txt"), so consequently only the last installed exists.)

2. The texture path embedded in the NIF mesh file is not valid as your game is not installed in the same path as the mod creator. This is the fault of the mod creator, but something you can fix yourself. Please see the wiki article "How to fix hard-coded texture paths in NIF files" for the procedure to locate the texture file entry within NifSkope. (The path needs to be "relative" instead of "absolute"/"hard-coded" in order to be found on various installation locations, which is what that article covers.)

3. The "garments" (clothing and armor, etc,) are not using the same "UV Map" (AKA "texture coordinates") as the body replacement. If the texture coordinates are not compatible with the underlying "body type", the UV Map can throw off the engine. Your problem might be due to an update to the body replacer rendering it incompatible with the "garment" from the mod used.

Your problem #2) Missing save files. This is more unusual. There is a limit in the game to displaying only 1000 saves. Any exceeding that may still be present, but you need to reduce the number below 1000 in order for them to show up in the game list. But can't tell if that is actually your issue. More detail would be helpful.

 

-Dubious-