The Synx custom race and HG EyeCandy Body

[Sylvaeria]

To preface, this is my first time modding a Bethesda game so feel free to be as hand-holdy or half-assed to hurry up and solve my topic as you'd like: Any help at all would be appreciated!

 

I've been using OMM to download and install a suite of mods, all of which have worked fine up until this point. Just a little while ago I attempted to download and turn both of these mods into "omod"s to use with OMM:

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/15802/? which is apparently necessary for the next one to work:

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/38471/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Foblivion%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D38471%26preview%3D&pUp=1

 

Now on OMM itself, there are no .esp files that show up on the left side of the window where the rest of the mod's .esp's are that correspond to Synx or HG EyeCandy. Of course, when I boot up Oblivion and start a new game as well, the Synx race is unavailable in the list of the default 10 upon character creation.

 

I'd be happy to provide any further info needed to help solve this problem and provide screenshots and whatnot. Thank you in advance!

Edited November 9, 2016 by Sylvaeria

[DrakeTheDragon]

Well, first off HGEC does not have any ESP. It's taking the term "body -replacer-" literally. So that one's fine alright.

 

The Synx mod, however, does have an ESP, but the folder structure inside the archive is... let's say non-standard and unusual:

 

The Synx

---Synx Readme.txt

---Data

------Synx.esp

------meshes

------textures

 

There's a Data folder inside a mod-named folder at the root of the archive. While the OBMM "might" be able to guess the structure correctly regardless, if it didn't work for you, chances are it can't guess this one.

 

You said you "turned" them both into OMODs. HGEC comes "OMOD-ready", with an "omod conversion data" folder included to guide OBMM along this in an automated way, but the Synx mod does not in any way, so it must've been you turning it into an OMOD likely by clicking "Add from archive" or whatever it's called inside OBMM's "Create OMOD" dialog.

 

I'd say your best bet would be to extract the Synx archive and package only the contents from "inside" the Data folder up into a new one to import into OBMM. The one true universal way of structuring archives for all managers to be able to read them successfully is by having them only contain the folders from inside the Data folder. No Data folder itself and especially no additional arbitrarily named folders going around them should be included. In this case it should look:

 

Synx.esp

textures

meshes

 

when extracted into a folder (or opened by an archiver to look inside). The readme should either be moved inside or done away with completely, and the folders "Data" and "The Synx" should disappear.

 

 

If you look into your Data folder now, you should actually find "another" Data folder right inside I think. That'd be what OBMM did wrong when it mis-guessed the packaging structure from the Synx archive there. And the .esp will be inside there instead of in your Data folder where it should be. Needless to say, the meshes and textures folders inside there will also not work, mis-placed as they are. So the above way to manually fix the structure should be the advised way.

[Striker879]

None of the HGEC variants require an ESP to work ... they are simple replacers. You will find some distributions of HGEC that do include an ESP or two but those ESPs are just to enable female versions of male only armor (e.g. steel armor) or fix a problem that arises with female Khajiit (Bethesda used the vanilla male foot texture for the female Khajiit, which causes problems because HGEC uses the foot texture for the entire body except hands and head).

 

If you are going to use HGEC I suggest you use EVE HGEC Eyecandy Variants Expansion, which is a more recent version that also includes an equipment replacer. If you use HGEC without installing a HGEC compatible equipment replacer you will get weird texture problems on exposed skin areas while wearing clothes or armor (the vanilla texture mapping doesn't work with the HGEC texture mapping). Don't be fooled by the "Last updated" dates shown on each HGEC variants page ... I know that the more recent date on the one you linked is because the mod author released a Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) version ... no other changes were made. Use the top listed download from EVE ... it is already in OMOD format and has an installation script to walk you through the options ... simply download to a folder, double left click on the downloaded file and make a few selections as they are offered ... done.

 

Get HGEC installed and then test to make sure it's working. Note that on the Synx page it says it also requires Robert's male (found here at RobertMaleBodyReplacerV52 for the most recent version ... also has a pre-made OMOD version at the bottom of the Main Files section and also includes the required equipment replacer ... same deal double left click and make some selections).

 

The other requirement listed for Synx is a custom race fix (otherwise you will be forever stuck in the tutorial prison cell waiting for Valen Dreth to say his bit ... no Emperor, no getting into the tutorial dungeon, no exiting into Tamriel ... ever). The most common way to take care of that these days is by installing the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. It includes a custom race fix as well as fixes a huge number of problems with the game.

 

Last bit to get you started ... replacer type mods rely on something called archive invalidation to work. By default the vanilla game has it's assets (meshes, textures etc.) stored in compressed archives (think ZIP files only with a different file extension ... e.g Oblivion - Meshes.bsa and Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa) found in the game's Oblivion\Data folder. When a replacer type mod wants to change something in the game (remember they don't use ESPs to make the game use the change) they simply use the same file name as the vanilla object and place it in the same folder path as the game uses inside it's BSA files. The problem is, the game will just continue to use the version it finds in it's BSA files and ignore the new replacement.

 

A few different ways have been tried over the years to overcome this. Both of the earlier methods had problems with their use and maintenance. The modern method is called BSA Redirection, is reliable and maintenance free. The easiest way to implement it since you use Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) is by clicking on the Utilities button in OBMM and select Archive Invalidation. In the Archive Invalidation dialogue that opens make sure BSA Redirection is selected (top left corner of the dialogue). If you use the Steam version of the game click on Reset BSA Timestamps (for the disk version you can skip that, though it will do no harm) and then click Update Now and close OBMM ... done.

 

- Edit - Drake's wearing the :ninja: today ... big wave from across the pond.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Striker879

[Sylvaeria]

Thank you both so much for your help. I'm going to get started on properly installing that up-to-date version of HGEC, test it and follow up with The Synx. I'll edit this post with my success (or lack thereof) once it's all said and done.

 

Update: Success! Thanks again for pointing me in the direction of that updated version of HGEC. I'm pretty damn certain that's what did it for me. The Synx works wonderfully as well.

 

While I might still have your (or anybody else's) attention, would ya'll mind terribly if I asked what I should be looking for if I wanted these HGEC bodies to have a bigger bust size and wider hips? I tried deactivating and reactivating the mod through OMM with different settings (bigger cups and "wide" lower body, as previously mentioned) but it looks like it didn't really do anything. Nothing noticeable, at least.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Sylvaeria