noob at installing, need major help

[asahinta]

I've seen threads on this already, I already have OBMM, I can download the esp. files into it, but when it comes to any sort of character/race mod I have no idea what to do. my characters in creation have pink skin and no head, or they have a black head and no eyes. I checked and there are no conflicting mods. what do I do?

 

also when people are saying place files in oblivion/data folder, what folder? I cant find any folder by that name, and I have no clue where to place textures and meshes. please help. I've been trying for the last three days with no luck.

 

if some kind of sowtware is needed can someone please tewll me where to get it?

[bben46]

If you installed to the default location - OK for Winxp, NOT for Vista, Here is the path

 

C:\program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data

 

The default for Vista is the same, but NOT recommended as it causes problems when installing mods.

 

The fact that you are getting something to show up indicates the mod is managing to find the data folder somehow.

 

When using the Optional OMOD feature ONLY in OBMM, the OMOD is placed in your OMOD folder and not the data folder. You should still see a .esp file in the data folder.

 

Invisible body parts or purple objects

 

This is probably the second most common problem in mods. It is caused when the game cannot find the texture

called for by a mod.

 

All except the simplest mods have new textures and usually Meshes. If you look at the zipped files (expand them to see what is there before installing) you will usually see several types of files. The filename.esp is the actual mod, it goes into the Oblivion\Data folder.

A filname.txt or Readme.txt file - this is the read me file that you should read to see if there are ant special instructions for this file, such as it may need another mod to work or need OBSE.

Textures folder. this contains the texture files (.dds) for the mod. this should be copied to the Oblivion\data\textures folder

Meshes folder. This contains the meshes for the mod, it should be copied to the Oblivion\data\meshes folder

Sounds folder. This contains any new sounds needed by the mod. it should be copied into the Oblivion\data\sounds folder

 

.bsa files these are compressed files that may contain all of the different files. Any .bsa file should be copied without change into the Oblivion\data folder

 

There may be other files or folders included, but those are the most common.

 

If you look in the Oblivion/data folder and see a bunch of .dds files, .nif files, .mp3 files they are in the wrong place. You need to MOVE them to the proper folders.

.dds to the textures folder

.nif to the meshes folder

.mp3 to the sounds folder

 

 

One of the most common things I have seen is a folder inside of the data folder with the name of the mod. It may have the texture and mesh files you need. Example Oblivion\Data\mod_xyz.

Then inside the \mod_xyz You may find \Mod_xyz\textures and mod_xyz\meshes folder

 

These folders Meshes and textures inside of the \data\mod_xyz folder need to be moved into the \data\textures and \data\meshes folders.

The easiest way to do this is to right click and hold the folder you want to move, then drag it into the \data folder.

You will probably get a message that you will overwrite files. Actually it will not overwrite, but append to the original folder.

[asahinta]

thank you for the detailed reply. i never see any "folders" when it comes to the files so im guessing you mean the individual txt and meshes. also, I use winzip to open the files, does that have anything to do with my not seeing any folders?

[bben46]

When you download a mod, it will come packaged in a compressed format such as .7z or .rar.

When you open that compressed file you will see at least one .esp file, that is the actual mod. It may (or may not) have folders for meshes, textures or other file types.

If you extract the mod directly into the data folder, using an unzipping program - I recommend 7-zip. It SHOULD put all files where they belong - the esp in the data folder, the meshes in the data\meshes folder, the textures in the data\textures folder.

 

When you see the warning about overwriting files answer YES to ALL or Yes. They will not overwrite, but append to the existing folder which is what has to be done to work.

 

If you only have one simple mesh or texture, the mod maker may not have packaged the textures and meshes into a sub folder, in this case, when you open the compressed folder after downloading you will see some files that look like xxx.dds and xxx.nif. These are textures and meshes. The .dds files need to be put in the data\textures folder and the .nif need to be put in the Meshes folder.

 

If there are meshes and Textures subfolders and they are not automatically put in the proper place, then you can manually put them there. I usually see this when a new subfolder is put into the \data folder. It will look like \data\mod_name. inside the mod_name will be a \meshes folder (data\mod_name\meshes) and texture folder.

 

 

Ether copy or move the meshes folder from the mod folder directly into the \Data folder - NOT the meshes folder. Answer yes when asked about overwriting.

 

Do the same with any other subfolders - copy or move them into the \Data folder. They will be placed in the proper sub folder.

 

After you are done, the structure will look like \data\meshes\mod_name. The new mod_name folder inside the meshes folder is the original \mod_name\meshes folder renamed the .nif files for that mod will be in that folder where the mod expects to find them. And the textures will do the same thing. Be sure to copy all folders as there may be some others there such as sounds.

 

Any .bsa file should be put directly into the \data folder

 

I bet you didn't realize that a short course in computer file structures came with installing mods.

[asahinta]

yay! after 4 days I finally got my first mod to work! bunny fufu lives!