Not understanding why texture/skin replacers not working

[covert7]

Hi folks, I've been digging through the forum for some time trying to track down an answer to my problem but I'm just not turning up anything solid. I was hoping some of you more grizzled veterans wouldn't mind advising me here.

 

So basically, I have the GOTY edition installed from Steam on my Win7 64 bit box. Stock game starts up just fine. But of course we want to make the stock game better so I have used this post by Harvald as a starting point on my road to mods. I'll jot down what I've installed below for you:

 

I have installed the three UOP's (oblivion/SI/official mods).

 

I've installed HGEC Body with BBB v1dot12; Coronerras Maximum Compatibility Skeletons; High Rez Skin Textures for HGEC; NoMaaM BBB Animation Replacer. I'm fairly certain they all installed properly as well since in my Data folder, I see all the texture/mesh files and stuff that should be there.

 

Those are all the "mods" I've got installed so far. My problem is that when I load the game and choose "New Game" (since I don't have any previous saves), I do not see all these new & improved skins/textures. It's just the plain ol' stock characters. So can someone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong and why all the new art files aren't showing up please?

 

One other thing that might make a difference is that I'm using NMM to handle the mods. It successfully activated HGEC, Coronerras, & NoMaaM (or at least acts like it since it doesn't throw up any errors). The High rez skin textures are of course installed by their own InstallTool executable. And I do have "Archive Invalidation" turned on.

 

Well I think that should provide most of the info I think might be pertinent. So any help from you experts out there would be greatly appreciated!

Edited December 11, 2011 by covert7

[Striker879]

Is your Steam install in C:\Program Files(x86)? If so UAC (User Account Control) may be interfering. Here's a link to Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. Don't miss the link near the top, at the end of the line saying "For those who need to move the steam client: How to Move your Steam to another location Without having to reinstall anything." and don't skip the part about cleaning your registry.

 

If you are seeing the files from your installed mods in the correct locations in your Data folder and have turned on BSA Redirection for your archive invalidation (Oblivion Mod Manager is the most common way for doing that) then UAC's interference is the next most likely culprit.

[Striker879]

The other thing that could be occurring is the problem that Steam introduced by changing the games BSA file dates to recent dates (they should all be dated in 2006). You can use a utility to change the BSA dates. I've used File Date Changer 1.61 in the past to change file dates, but Google will give other options if you prefer.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Clicking "Reset BSA timestamps" in OBMM's Archive Invalidation Utilities has done the trick for many users of my mods with Steam Oblivion.

 

Only BSA Redirection seems to work with Steam Oblivion so far, any other approach to Archive Invalidation has failed for them, so doing this correctly is paramount.

 

Keep in mind, when switching to BSA Redirection, to get rid of any left-over "ArchiveInvalidation.txt"-files in your folders. They never really worked reliably to begin with, and now that an "empty" dummy BSA is the only BSA the contents of which require Invalidation anymore (that's what BSA Redirection does, eliminating the need for Archive Invalidation itself entirely once and for all), they will keep telling the game to use external files over internal files which aren't in the "now-empty" dummy BSA to begin with, which is bound to cause multiple random issues.

 

You said you're using Archive Invalidation already but didn't mention "which" approach. And I didn't yet get a chance to try out the NNM and don't know what A.I. options it provides.

[covert7]

........

 

You said you're using Archive Invalidation already but didn't mention "which" approach. And I didn't yet get a chance to try out the NNM and don't know what A.I. options it provides.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guys! As for your question Drake, NMM comes with a built in archive invalidation option/utility. It's basically a toggle in the program you check to turn on AI.

 

I think I'll check on the dates as you and Striker mention next and see what that looks like....

[kaburke]

We were discussing this same issue at: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/492965-nmm-and-oblivion/

 

The problem was as Striker surmised: the BSA dates in the GOTY were messing things up. As described here, the AI in NMM will take care of this as of 0.12.17, due out later today.

[orrin88]

"obtained" a copy of oblivion booted with vcd installed everything properly but mods still aren't working.Do to the method of obtainment is there anything different I should be doing? have a moderate understanding of computers and can modify Xbox saves and such but new to modding a PC game.oblivion was a great experience for me on the 360 but the modding community has made the PC version so much better,so if anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it.

No help for pirates.

Take a long walk on a short plank.

bben46

[Keirgarth]

Unfortunately, we don't support anything other than legit installs of Oblivion on the PC.

 

 

Fixed it for Ya. :thumbsup:

Bben46

[Ripaxe]

I am having an issue in NMM, wherein I have download the Female Eyecandy mod, I activate the mod...but it doesn't show up in the plugins list, nor in the data menu in Oblivion opening / start-up menu. The mod appears to not be working at all.

 

I have tried downloading the HGEC, but all that happens is, during activation of the mod, an error message comes up saying: "an exception has occurred in the script" or something like that.

 

I am using Windows XP at the moment, I am using a non-steam disc installed version of the game, and have tried turning Archive Invalidation on and off...

 

Oddly as it is though, most of any other mod works to my understanding, from companions to character idle animations...why is it that texture mods aren't working for my Oblivion?

[talveren]

I am having an issue in NMM, wherein I have download the Female Eyecandy mod, I activate the mod...but it doesn't show up in the plugins list, nor in the data menu in Oblivion opening / start-up menu. The mod appears to not be working at all.

 

I have tried downloading the HGEC, but all that happens is, during activation of the mod, an error message comes up saying: "an exception has occurred in the script" or something like that.

 

I am using Windows XP at the moment, I am using a non-steam disc installed version of the game, and have tried turning Archive Invalidation on and off...

 

Oddly as it is though, most of any other mod works to my understanding, from companions to character idle animations...why is it that texture mods aren't working for my Oblivion?

 

I never had a lot of luck using NMM and Oblivion. I'm not really sure what gives there. One thing you do need to check is if you downloaded the .omod file. That file is for use with Oblivion Mod Manager and as far as I know, those don't work with NMM.

 

The other common culprit is Windows account control. If that's your problem, there are two ways to get around it. One is to move your install folder out of program files. The other is to run your mod manager as an administrator.