armor meshes don't change

[Glace1221]

Hey, how come whenever I add new mesh files to replace armor meshes in the Data folder, the armor stays the same?

[Striker879]

What type of archive invalidation do you use? The recommended method these days is BSA Redirection, most easily done using Oblivion Mod Manager (though I have seen a report that Nexus Mod Manager also takes care of it ... I don't use NMM so I can't say for certain).

[Glace1221]

Well, I did get OBMM before installing mods, but I didn't really know what to do with it other than to activate mods that used it. I checked to see if Archive Invalidation was checked there, and it was. Recently, I've downloaded and installed another Archive invalidation called "Archive invalidation invalidated". I've also just read today that installing mods to Oblivion isn't all that easy. I usually just drag and drop things into the data folder.

 

I first noticed that the armor meshes don't change when I was trying to install this savior's hide mod that replaced the original mesh and and gave one with sleeves. The files were in "NIF" format, if that's important. Despite following the steps (such as changing the mesh and folder names in the ZIP), it still didn't work. So then, I decided to delete the glass armor mesh folder and try to play the game then, and the glass armor still showed up in the game.

 

What am I doing wrong?

Edited July 3, 2012 by Glace1221

[DrakeTheDragon]

In Oblivion Archive Invalidation was always necessary only for "textures" to be used over the ones inside the BSA.

However, Oblivion from Steam comes with bogus file dates on its BSA files, far too recent to be older as any replacement files.

 

This now makes Archive Invalidation required also for meshes and other files, but it also requires you to first fix those dates.

You can do that via OBMM's Archive Invalidation Utilities simply by clicking "Reset BSA timestamps", or via an external file redate tool, as surely mentioned in several Steam forums in regards to modded Oblivion.

 

However, this is only the case when your Oblivion is from Steam. The BSAs from a disc version are dated somewhere around 2004 or something, if I'm not mistaken, and as such will always be sufficiently older than the loose files to be used instead.

 

 

So to sum up, if you're indeed using Oblivion from Steam, having installed and setup "Archive Invalidation Invalidated!" correctly already is most of the work done. You just need to fix those BSA file dates, too, and things should work.

[Striker879]

In OBMM click the Utilities button and select Archive Invalidation. Select BSA Redirection and leave all other options at their default. Close OBMM so that it saves the changes (it doesn't have a 'Save' function and only does so when you close it).

 

Personally I would uninstall Archive invalidation invalidated. BSA Redirection is the most reliable method of archive invalidation. Reading the description for Archive invalidation invalidated leads me to think it uses the same method as BSA Redirection, but I could be wrong. It hasn't been updated since the summer of 2007. OBMM is also showing it's age as a mod installer, but it's implementation of BSA Redirection works (it's what I use). Wrye Bash also uses BSA Redirection (and is far more useful as an installer).

 

I'm a manual installer myself. Looking at the extracted zip I see it's a typical early replacer mod packaged starting at meshes and textures. You just right click on the extracted meshes folder and select copy from the right click menu and then navigate to your Oblivion install Data folder and right click on Data and select paste from the right click menu. You'll get a prompt about there already being a folder named meshes ... just select Yes to all. Go back to the extracted zip and do the same with the textures folder. I find it most convenient to work with two Windows Explorer windows open at the same time, one open to the extracted download and the other open to my game's folders.

 

If you look in your game folders right now you may find you already have the extracted folders in the correct locations (Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\saviorshide\f\cuirass.nif, Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\saviorshide\m\cuirass.nif and Oblivion\Data\Textures\clothes\sezealot\zealot robes.dds & Oblivion\Data\Textures\clothes\sezealot\zealot robes_n.dds). In that case the other possibility is you have installed the game in the default location C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) and you are running either Vista or Windows 7. In that case you'll need to uninstall the game and re-install in something like C:\Games. Here's a link to Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. If you use the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location, and also don't skip the registry cleaning step ... it's important.

[Glace1221]

I forgot to mention that I'm playing the steam version.

 

Anyways, I went ahead and went into OBMM and set it to BSA invalidation and clicked "Reset BSA timestamps". Then, I checked everything on the list: Textures, meshes, sounds, music, fonts, menus, trees and LOD, misc and base.

 

Now, when I play, the sleeves appear on the savior's hide armor, but now when I equip any other armor (except for that blue curiass for the arena), the part of the body that has that armor on it turns invisible instead of showing the armor.

 

What do you think is causing that?

[Striker879]

No mention of that in the mod comments (the few that there are). Make sure you have the textures in the right location (see my previous post).

[Glace1221]

So....I have to re-install the game? Alright, I'd be cool with that, but the last time I uninstalled the game, I had to spend 4 hours re-downloading it. If that's the case, then I'll just wait until tomorrow before doing all of this.

[Striker879]

If you got the sleeves to show up you probably have UAC disabled or something similar (or perhaps the Steam version gets along better with UAC than the disk version of the game). I'd work through all other solutions to try and get it working before re-installing. I was just throwing that out as another possibility for why you couldn't get it to show.

 

As an aside, I was under the impression that later updates of the Steam version corrected the new date stamp problem ... perhaps I was mislead.

[DrakeTheDragon]

For BSA Redirection leave all options and choices in the dialog alone. Nothing has to be changed here, as BSA Redirection has no options.

 

All it does is placing an empty dummy BSA into your data folder and registering this one at the exact place in the "sArchiveList" entry in the "Oblivion.ini" where the one and only BSA ever requiring Invalidation was previously located. As such the only BSA still requiring Invalidation for external contents to be used over internal ones now is an "empty" one, and thus "nothing" requires Invalidation anymore.

 

This is indeed exactly the same as "Archive Invalidation Invalidated!" does, just that with OBMM or Wrye Bash you don't have to fiddle with the INI yourself.

 

What could've happened now by what you described, is by checking all those options OBMM could've created an "ArchiveInvalidation.txt" file somewhere inside your folders, listing any and all files from inside your folders which has a counterpart in a BSA to be used over the one from inside the BSA... but by installing BSA Redirection you made it so the game gets told to use external file X over internal file X 'in an "empty" BSA'... and this can only lead to issues. Once you installed BSA Redirection, you must make sure there are no left-over "ArchiveInvalidation.txt" files left anywhere in your game's folders.

 

And while we're at it... you aren't by chance using a body replacer like Robert's Male Body now but no so-called Stock Clothing And Armor Replacers for it?

The disappearing bodyparts is a common issue when wearing a still-Vanilla clothing or armor item on a Robert's Male body.

 

But first make sure OBMM hasn't created any such "ArchiveInvalidation.txt" files by your fiddling with its options. Those "must" be deleted now.