Need some help cleaning a mod with TES4Edit, please.

[Jumbotron]

Hello!

 

I want to clean Weapon Expansion Pack for Oblivion Nthusiasts.esp with TES4Edit since after running BOSS I get this message concerning that mod: "Contains dirty edits: 1 ITM, 0 UDR records. Needs TES4Edit cleaning". The problem is that I am not sure which mods I have to select in TES4Edit.

 

Here you are a pic of my current list of mods in TES4Edit. Please, could you tell me which ones I have to select from the list, please?

 

http://thumbnails44.imagebam.com/16212/fdd07f162117214.jpg (Click on the thumbnail to get a larger image).

 

I'd check only both the mod itself and oblivion.esm, but I think it would also be a good idea to check DLCshiveringisles.esp since in the readme of the mod it is explained that it adds dozens of new weapons to both Oblivion and Shivering Isles. What should I do?

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited November 30, 2011 by Jumbotron

[LFact]

DLCShiveringIsles.esp is not required in this case, unless the mod has said plugin as its master(To make sure you're having SI). SI plugin is only needed for loading resources in-game, for it is a dummy plugin.

[AlfredTetzlaff]

Hi,

for cleaning, only pick the mod you want to clean. TES4edit will load necessary masters (oblivion.esm for example) automatically.

For more comprehensive Info on mod cleaning check out this article. Certain mods which require a special cleaning procedure are also listed in that article.

Happy cleaning ;)

[Jumbotron]

Hello,

 

Thanks both of you for your help.

 

@AlfredTetzlaff

In fact I started cleaning the dirty edits of the mods I was planning to use in my game after reading that guide. And there, in that guide, they say when cleaning dirty edits it is basic not only to pay attention to the explicit dependencies of the mod you're going to clean (which are the master files that mod depends on), something that can be easily checked selecting the targeted mod in Wrye Bash for example and something that, as you've explained before, TES4Edit does itself automatically as well, but also to the implicit dependencies, those other plugins that not being master files, the mod you want to clean depends on them as well. So, when cleaning with TES4Edit, you should select these "implicit masters" (there is no program or utility that is going to tell you which they are), in the case they exist, as well as the mod you're cleaning.

 

Quoting the definition they give of what implicit dependencies are in the guide:

An implicit dependency is more tricky because you won’t see the required files listed in Wrye Bash. The most common implicit dependency is when dealing with the many landscape patches by Vorians and some by Arthmoor. The only way to know what implicit dependencies a mod has is to know what the mod does, which can discovered by reading its readme usually. Here again is why understanding what a mod does is crucial. Specifically, you must understand which mods a patch mod is designed to patch!

 

And with these ones, with the implicit dependencies is with the ones I want to be as careful as possible as there is not a direct easy way to know them.

 

Regards.

 

P. S. I guess it can be difficult to understand what I want to say well, but I've had a hard time trying to explain, since I'm not a native English speaker, sorry for that.

Edited December 1, 2011 by Jumbotron

[Keirgarth]

By implicit, the author is talking about things that a mod is made to work with, but are not it's masters. For instance, if you downloaded a patch mod that makes the horse barn outside compatible with a landscape mod, the mod might not list the landscape mod as a master. By knowing that this mod changes the barn to work with the landscape mod, you know that you will have to load the landscape mod as well.

[David Brasher]

I would say that you should not worry about implicit dependencies. You are not likely to break anything. Just don't worry about it.

 

On the other hand, I can tell you that you should never ever modclean a compatibility patch. Patches are in some cases designed to be dirty on purpose. You should only modclean a compatibility patch if you are a skilled modder and have studied the three or more mods involved carefully and know exactly what you are doing. Then you will manually do most of the cleaning in TES CS and not TES4Edit. Then you will need to carefully play-test afterward to make sure you did not break the patch. (Just don't clean compatibility patches.)

[Jumbotron]

Thank you both for the new comments!

 

Well, obviously I am not a skilled modder. I am not even a modder and I don't think I'll ever try modding TES. That has to be too complicated; all my respect for you, modders. For me it's even difficult to get modded Oblivion to work fine, hehe! I just want to install a not very big quantity of mods to experience Oblivion gameplay in a different way. I've already tried to do this once, but I found during my game a missing mesh (with the big yellow wtf! sign) where it should have been one of the creatures that appear in Oblivion. Since I had no idea of how to resolve that, it was the beginning of my game and I thought it was very likely that I met that undesired error more times if I kept playing that game, I decided to uninstall the game and start the whole process again because I was really willing (and I still am) to play modded Oblivion. I hope this time I manage to avoid missing meshes at all.

 

Regards,

 

Jumbo

[David Brasher]

A missing creature mesh could result from one of two problems:

 

(1) A mesh replacer mod with an .esp.

(2) A mesh replacer mod without an .esp.

 

To test and see which problem you have, deactivate every one of your mods and see if the problem is fixed. If it is, then one of your .esp files is bad or that mod was installed wrong.

 

If you deactivate all your mods and you still have a missing mesh, then it is the fault of an .espless mesh replacer mod. You can see what mesh is missing in your game and then go to your directories and delete that mesh. The game will then revert to the original one. So if you determine that the missing mesh is a rat, then you go delete the rat mesh from your directories.

[Jumbotron]

@David Brasher

Thank you a lot for those instructions, I really appreciate them! Hopefully if I find that problem again I will know how to solve it thanks to you.

 

Regards,

 

Jumbo

[Keirgarth]

Jumbo, if you are seeing the missing mesh yellow thing, I would suggest downloading and installing this mod here.

When in game open the spell book and choose the refscope spell, hit the ~ key to open the console and then click on the yellow thing to highlight it and hit your cast key. This should bring up a dialog that will allow you to look at the object and see what mod it's from and should also report if there are any missing meshes or textures.