Exceeding the Mod Cap

[Yknuf]

Hi everyone,

 

if I recall correctly, it is possible to have up to 256 esp's / esm's running at the same time. Half a year ago, this number seemed ridiculously high to me. But the absolute awesomeness of the Skyrim modding community has caused the amount of my mods to grow steadily. Meanwhile I've reached 250. In the last few days I have tracked several further mods, however I actually don't have enough room left to install them all without exceeding the 256 cap.

 

So my question is, is there a way to overcome or extend the mod cap beyond 256?

[McclaudEagle]

I think you can create a merged patch which could essentially drop your mod count massively, but I'm not sure as I've not had to do that.

[bben46]

Short answer - NO.

 

Long answer (Geek stuff and probably more than you want to know) - 256 is a hard cap determined by the hexadecimal number of characters that can be stored in the register allocated to the number of mods. That register holds 2 hexadecimal characters (0 through F) and the biggest number that can be stored in 2 spaces in hex is FF or decimal 255. (or binary 1111 1111) The 256th is always the game esm file.

 

Hexadecimal is base 16 - meaning it has 16 numbers. (0 through 9 & A through F)So we can put bigger values in less space.

Decimal (What you normally use) is base 10 which uses 10 numbers, (0 through 9) makes it convenient for counting on your fingers.

Binary is base 2 which is what computers actually use is just 2 numbers , zero and 1.

 

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those that don't. :tongue:

 

However, mods that don't have an esp - such as texture or mesh replacers only don't count toward the cap. You may be able to combine some esp mods using Wrye Bash to keep the number down

[Sjogga]

Replying to wrong topic. Appologies. Edited September 22, 2012 by Sjogga

[David Brasher]

If you are skilled with the CK and Version Control, you could start merging some of your mods that are too complex for Wrye Bash to do. In a few weeks or months, I expect that TES5Gecko will be released and have merging capabilities usable by people of any skill level.

[AnkhAscendant]

I was just trying to use version control myself (as it bothers me to have 20 little one-note mods sitting around), but be forewarrned, it's a headache. :facepalm: I had to give up because it decided my CK is outdated and needs to be updated before I have those capabilities.

[Yknuf]

Thanks a lot for the answers. So I guess I'll have to look into mod merging. However, I am a big noob when it comes to stuff like this. Currently I don't use Wyre Bash at all (I think I downloaded it once, didn't understand what it's even there for, let alone how to use it, and got rid of it again). Laugh at me if you want, but I'm extremely proud to have been able to figure out how to use BOSS, which is basically essential with so many mods.

 

Long story short, is there any helpful guide for Wyre Bash and mod merging out there, preferably one that a noob like me would understand?