Opinions please - Mod/Download directories

[rmm200]

When you "Install from file" vortex doesn't copy the archive, that is true. Did NMM do that?

What you can do however is is drag&drop files to the download list (the drop zone below it) to import the downloads and then install them.

Both operation can be done in bulks (you can drop multiple files at once and you can select and install multiple files on the download page)

 

In both MO and NMM I just copy mods directly to the downloads directory, and both mod managers recognize them there (as uninstalled).

I am severely remiss in not knowing if Vortex behaves similarly, but I am pretty sure there is a reason I always use "Install from File".

I apologize if Vortex is happy with extra mods being added to it's download directory. All I want is Vortex to have a read-only Archive it can install and re-install from.

[rmm200]

- Duplicate - sorry -

[Michelangelos]

To clarify: You want a selection dialog to pop up for every download when the active game is not the same as the game associated with the download?

 

Yes, with an additional option to just default to a game during the work session.

 

Like setting Now I'm working on Skyrim VR and set it as ACTIVE game or similar mechanic.

 

Probably the user will need to have a way to copy mods between Skyrim VR & SSE to skip repeated downloads...even if that means having a duplicated copy of a mod between the 2 games..but it is still a way to keep the process working smooth on each game.

[kamikatze13]

 

NexusMods can't duplicate mods on a new game section, that would have to happen through the mod authors. Since many mod authors are not around anymore, wouldn't be capable of testing their mod with VR or may simply not care enough about VR to do the extra work, this new Skyrim VR section would be missing a lot of mods that actually do work.

Therefore you'd still have to get many (most?) of your mods from the SSE section, so what would be the point of the VR section? It's just more work for everyone involved and it would fragment the communities more.

late to the party but i thought i'd chime in:

 

I see the the ball is currently on the nexus side: Dark0ne needs to separate SSE and VR. If i understood arthmoor right, beth don't support mods on VR (minor issue) as well as VR being developed on a much older code basis (major issue), rendering sse-compatible mods incompatible on a subtle level anyway, e.g. USSEP is unsupported for VR, for a reason. This issue needs to be communicated clearly - which only a clean cut will adress properly. VR is not just SSE in 3D.

 

imho it's much more of a hassle to find out if a given SSE mod works for VR. Dealing with VR support also means additional workload for mod authors.

 

TL;DR: split the games at nexus level.

 

However, if the split is not feasable, i'd vote for Sol B Var 1 (not var 2) as well as what @Michelangelos proposed (user prompt with a checkbox for setting a default until application restart)

[Tannin42]

Bethesda don't officially support mods in Skyrim VR, the same way they don't officially support mods in Oldrim, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Morrowind, ...

It means they don't sell them (yet), their game works with mods just fine.

 

Skyrim VR was apparently forked off from SSE 1.3 but iirc there were only two major updates to SSE after that, one was preparing for the CC, the other was adding the CC.

 

USSEP is unsupported in VR because arthmoor doesn't want to support it, that doesn't mean it doesn't work. There are a few differences between SSE and VR and there is a

mod to account for that: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspeciale

 

There are mods for SSE that don't work with VR at all, but the majority do. Having a VR section on Nexus would be pointless, because a huge number of compatible mods

would not be found there so VR users would still have to get the majority of their mods from the SSE section.

It would just be more hassle for users and all mod authors who explicitly want to support VR because they would have to maintain two identical mod pages.

It wouldn't help anyone either: if a mod is compatible with VR but isn't added to the VR page, users would still download it from the SSE page, they would still ask for help on

that page, the mod author would still have to give support or say he can't support VR. We would still have to make it easy to install SSE mods to VR in vortex.

A separate VR page would profit no one so I really hope it won't happen.

 

I also won't consider a pop-up prompt before every download, sorry. When I download mods (and I assume others work the same) I work in the browser, downloading several mods at once.

I don't go back to Vortex until I have started all the downloads. Having to go back to Vortex just to select the game would be hugely annoying and it's not really necessary.

Plus it would still be confusing, you could get into a situation where you downloaded a mod for VR and later find you'd also like to install it in SSE, now you also have to

dig in your VR downloads when installing mods for SSE, I'd prefer if that was a one-way thing.

 

I'm actually considering another variation that combines Solution A with B:

Like in Solution B we have a global download directory, downloads still go to the game they are associated with (SSE if the mod has been uploaded to the SSE section of

Nexus)

However, we also add a "compatibility" flag to games so Vortex knows that Skyrim VR is compatible with SSE and then Vortex shows the downloads for the current game and the

compatible games in the downloads and mods page.

This way you don't have to redownload mods and all features in Vortex work as usual.

[Malific]

I like Michelangelos' idea of the popup with a default for the work session, with separate game directories. Though in my case I'd only want the popup if I was DLing SSE while managing VR (or DLing a game that wasn't the same one I was currently managing). If I'm managing SSE I shouldn't be getting a popup asking me to send it to VR.

 

I have SkyrimVR, SE and Oldrim (as well as several others that I get modes from nexus for). I'm mainly playing VR right now, so naturally I'm working with SE's mods. I would find it extremely annoying to have to say "put it in SkyrimVR" For every DL I make so having a default check box would be lovely.

 

I like the separate folders, because there are times I have to go in and mainly unpack/repack the dled files, and we know that the file names can be confusing at times as well as to which mod they go to. I'd rather not complicate that with mods from 10 different games all being in one directory.

 

I don't really like the idea of SSE and VR being auto marked as compatible because there are a LOT of SSE mods that break VR completely and I don't want mods I have DLed for SSE showing up in my VR list.

But I DO like the Flag idea and don't see why it can't be implemented but give us control over it.

 

for example: let's say I dled all 8GB of SSE higher Quality Voices (which I have)... I don't want copies of 8GB in DLed files in multiple directories. So I'd like an option to 'flag' a mod as compatible with another game. Then, with hardlink, nothing changes with the files themselves, but they now show up in Vortex listed under the other game I just flagged them for as well as the one I originally DLed it for.

 

 

So I will have the DLed files sitting in my VR Directory but can Install/activate them in both SSE and VR without creating a second copy of the DLed files, only a second copy of installed files.

 

Giving us options to actually move or copy the files between games via menu would also be nice.

 

As to branching off a new VR section... yeah I think sticking to SSE with the existing VR category works just fine.

[Countryrobin]

If I had to choose between the options, I'd go with A. I'm a big fan of how Vortex's current directories are set up, it's just the bug between Skyrim SE and Skyrim VR that's really an issue.

I've been working on a few different ways to try to get it working. Maybe these can help be possible solutions to the issue.

-Setting the Downloads folder to be the same location

-Using Symbolic Links to combine the two. (Sym Link is \skyrimvr\downloads which directs to \skyrimse\downloads)

-Copy the archives from \skyrimse\downloads to \skyrimvr\downloads

 

The first two ways somewhat worked, but they both had similar issues issues

-Mods would install, but it would then also show an uninstalled copy of the archive in the mod list. If you select remove on the duplicate to clear up your mods list, it'll delete the archive preventing the original mod listing to reinstall.

-It would clear mod information like version, author, source, etc This prevents the mod from getting updates so you'll have to manually download and update mods.

 

The final option works better than the first two. The downfalls though is that it's tedious and you'll have two copies of the archives (one in \skyrimse\downloads and one in \skyrimvr\downloads) essentially doubling the storage space you'll need for each mod archive. Vortex may need you to reinstall the mod for it to update properly, and it doesn't carry over nexus mod info like description and mod ID since it's technically installed by file and not by download.

 

Some other notes from what I've been working on.
-Currently using Vortex v0.15.0

-Clean install of Windows

-Installed only SkyrimVR initially. (No other versions of Skyrim had been installed yet)

-Prior to installing SkyrimSE for the first time on the PC. All SkyrimSE Mod downloads would go to the SkyrimVR folder where I was also installing the mods without any need for tinkering.

-Post installing and uninstalling of SkyrimSE, Vortex will create a "skyrimse" folder to download mod archives to even though "install for SkyrimVR" was selected.

-If you uninstall a mod on SkyrimVR and the archive is in \skyrimse\downloads, it'll delete the mod from SkyrimVR's mod list instead of marking uninstalled. (Solution: go to Downloads>View All Downloads>Find Mod>Click Install>Select for SkyrimVR). It'll reinstall and add itself back to the SkyrimVR's mod list.

 

 

Hopefully that helps solve the issue,

GamePlayerCole

[greyday01]

I would prefer to have the download go to the current Nexus directory with an option once it is downloaded to rclick and have a popup option to copy it into a different directory along with the install and enable options. I don't mind having two copies of a download as long as I can easily find them.

[Khumak]

For me it mostly comes down to how profiles behave and I confess that I haven't really done much with profiles yet in Vortex. The primary thing I use profiles for is testing new mods. So ideally I want a shared download directory for each game, but separate mod directory per profile. So if I have my current game working, stable, looking just the way I want I can ensure that nothing ever touches that installation. When I see a new mod I want to try I can copy that profile, install the new mod, redo patches, remove/reinstall things that were copied from my stable profile, etc without touching any of the mods from that original profile. If I decide I don't like the new mod or just can't figure out how to deconflict it, I just delete that profile and go back to my original one. If I decide I do like it and it's stable then I delete the original profile and the new one becomes my new stable profile with no changes made to any mod from any profile ever propagating to any other profile except when I initially copy an entire profile.

[greyday01]

For me it mostly comes down to how profiles behave and I confess that I haven't really done much with profiles yet in Vortex. The primary thing I use profiles for is testing new mods. So ideally I want a shared download directory for each game, but separate mod directory per profile. So if I have my current game working, stable, looking just the way I want I can ensure that nothing ever touches that installation. When I see a new mod I want to try I can copy that profile, install the new mod, redo patches, remove/reinstall things that were copied from my stable profile, etc without touching any of the mods from that original profile. If I decide I don't like the new mod or just can't figure out how to deconflict it, I just delete that profile and go back to my original one. If I decide I do like it and it's stable then I delete the original profile and the new one becomes my new stable profile with no changes made to any mod from any profile ever propagating to any other profile except when I initially copy an entire profile.

 

I like that idea. Download to Nexuses download category and decide for ourselves what profiles to install them to.