Greetings,

I'm new to modding and I have been following this guide: http://www.somethingfornobody.com/2011/oblivion-modding-guide/ to get the most out of oblivion. I think I got most of it right but right now I am having a lot of problems with the body mods listed in that guide (and the new landscape and architecture textures). I've followed the guide very closely and have been reading the readmes.txt and following their instructions but I have been comming across a few problems. The main problems are with the character bodies and that they seem to not be working and the only character model I can see when I start up the game is the vanilla imperial (both male and female) and their eyes are missing while all the others just do not show. For the architecture and landscape textures, it just doesn't seem to be kicking in (it's still the vanilla textures but there is noticeable slowdown when there wasn't any before). This all may be due to my inexperience with modding so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Can you tell us what mods you installed? What is your game version? What is your OS and where did you install the game? Have you done Archive Invalidation(BSA redirection is recommended with reason)?

OS: Window's 7

Game is installed at: C:\games\Steam\steamapps\common/oblivion (I moved my entire steam folder just for this game)

Game version: 6.1 ? (not sure where to look)

and yes, I have done archive invalidation but I'm not sure if I have done it right (and I am assuming no)

And I have no idea what BSA redirection is or what .BSA files are suppose to do (am I suppose to just leave them there in the data folder or do I have to do something with them)

Here is what I currently have installed:

Managers-
BOSS
OBSE (along with streamline, stutter removal, fast exit and crash prevention system)
Wrye Bash
OMM
4GB patch

Mods:
Unofficial Mod Patches (Oblivion and DLC)
FCOM
OOO
MMM (the MMM.bsa has been renamed)
Franc's level creatures and items
Warcry
Bob's armory
Unofficial FCOM patch
Qarl’s Texture Pack 3
Koldorn’s Ayleid Ruins
Ampol’s Caverns
Cleitanious’ Regal IC + Darker Regal IC
Natural Environments w/ Improved Trees and Flora & 2 (left out harvest flora because FCOM has it already)
All Natural w/ Immersive Interiors
Unique Landscapes (all of them)
Awesome Sauce
Robert’s Male Body Replacer with Robert Male Muscular Stock Clothing and Armor, Robert Male Muscular SI Clothing and Armor, obert Male Muscular OOO Armor and Robert Male Muscular Frans Armor and Robert Male Muscular MMM Armor
Madcat’s HG Eye Candy with EVE HGEC
F-INev
Natural Faces with Beauty Patch
Better Looking Bosmer, Redguards, & Dunmer

and that's all I have installed. This is my second attempt at installing oblivion mods. The first time I got to the body changes part of the guide but when I would start the game it would automatically crash but I somehow fixed the problem this time (I had to uninstall it and do a fresh install).

please and thanks

Looks like you wanted to make an FCOM installation.... There is a dedicated FCOM thread here. Go read the post #1 there.

If FCOM is not you intention, I would suggest you install not everything at once. However there will be considerable incompatibilities if you do a self-made quasi-FCOM setup. Immediate crashes on startup are usually linked to missing master files, they have the file extension .esm I suspect a renaming issue with the MMM.bsa, but I'm groping in the dark.

If you want to have all these overhauls running more or less smoothly all at the same time, you have to go the FCOM install way, and there is a dedicated thread for that.

It's not FCOM that I the problem, what I am having problems with the textures because everything seems to be screwed up.

Good luck then.

Did you enable the BSA redirection option in the right click menu in BAIN and use the method in OBMM for the mods you have there as described in their readmes? And BSA files are simply archives that hold stuff. They keep the files together in contiguous memory space. That's the gist of them, anyways. And ditch the CPS, it causes a bunch of issues and could potentially make things even worse. Best to just let the crash happen and reload the game. And the 4GB patch is only good for a 64-bit OS, which you didn't specify either way so I wanted to mention that. I'd also check to make sure you're installing things in the proper order. That is even more of a problem when using OBMM since you can't easily see the order they were installed or the conflicts between packages.

What's BAIN and what method in OBMM? The guide didn't mention anything about that and I may have failed to see the OBMM method in the readmes. And yes, sorry I forgot to mention that I am using a 64-bit OS system. I'll get to ditching the CPS. Please remember that I am just a complete and utter noob when it comes to modding. With the guide I am using now was something I just happened upon when I was browsing through the GFAQs forum and I had not really thought about what mods I would end up useing either (the only mod I knew that I wanted was Unholy Darkness and was not sure what else that I would want to get). So if there is a better and more noob friendly guide out there I would greatly appreciate it.

BAIN is the installer portion of Bash in the installers tab. It's much better than OBMM, to be honest. OBMM should really only be used for shaders and BSA packaging. And if the OBMM method isn't mentioned in the readmes, you should be using Bash to install then to help lessen the confusion. And to those who say Bash has a steep learning curve, it's actually very straight forward once you get used to using the right click menus. It's really just the interface that may look a bit off. >.>

Try this. http://tescosi.com/wiki/Main_Page is a much more noob friendly guide.

It sounds like you are trying to do too much at once without understand what it is you are doing, or what it is you want from mods. What utility did you install the body mods and landscape mods with?
Have you created a bashed patch in Wrye Bash? You'll need one for body mods. It also sounds like you have no BSA Redirection on, so the loose texture files aren't being noticed. In OBMM, go to Utilities > Archive Invalidation or in Wrye Bash go to the Installers Tab and right click on the header Package. Select BSA Redirection.

Oh, that's what that installer tab is. And whats a shader as I'm not familiar with these terms. So I should use BAIN then for anything that does not have any BSAs in them and shaders (what ever a shader may be) and OBMM instructions? How well does BAIN work with texture replacements like HGEC, Robert's Better Bales mod and others?

For Bash, it's best to use auto for first timers.

Shaders are used for stuff like editing smoke colors and night eye and stuff like that. BAIN can be used for BSA install. It just can't unpack them, which is not too necessary unless you want to optimize them. The game engine will load the BSAs as long as they are associated with a plugin. BAIN works with all mods, so no issues there. You just need to ensure that the folder structure is right. If it shows grey in the Installers tab or not everything is showing up in the info window to the right for the package, that means it needs to be restructured. For that, Psymon has a guide but I am unable to pull it up at the moment.

so it would just auto instal them with little to no hassle? I might just have to uninstall oblivion again and try the BAIN method but the previous question still stands, whats a shader (or considered a shader)

Sorry, I was updating while you were posting. We're playing post tag here. >.>

Ah, I see <-<. So by the defenition of shaders it does not seem like I am using any so I wont have to worry about it then. Using BAIN will also allow for easy FCOM installation I am assuming (so I won't end up sweating drops of blood hoping that I installed everything correctly <-<). Hopefully BAIN can easily fix this texture problem <_<;;.

It should. For FCOM, make sure you follow the main thread. It'll help. And generally, the readme will tell you when you need to muck around with the shaders.

Alright, thanks for the info.

One more thing I forgot to mention, make sure to use a Bashed patch in the Mods tab. If one isn't there, right click in there and say new.

Can you please go into more detail? Do you mean create a bash patch or does there have to be one previously of installing a mod through BAIN.

There should be one there already. If not, right click and say new Based Patch. Once everything is installed and you have run BOSS, you right click on the patch and say Rebuild. You then select the options based on what the installation instructions for your mods tell you you should and any other tweaks that you may wish to set.

There is a very good pictorial guide for using Wry Bash on tesnexus. It will explain quite a bit about BAIN and using bashed patch. It is much simpler than it sounds, you just have to get familiar with it. The whole OBMM vs BAIN because of editing shaders you should not worry about, and just use BAIN.

But, if you are stuck with OBMM and want to enable archive invalidation by using BSA redirection you do this in OBMM. If memory serves me, you click the utilities button, then archive invalidation (I think it is called that). It will have bsa redirection selected. just click update now button and exit. That is it. You do not have to check the box to update on exit.

I really feel that both OBMM and Wrye Bash are needed. Wrye Bash does all sorts of things, but there are so many complex mods that were packaged with OBMM in mind that not using it requires a very firm grasp if both Oblivion and modding in general.

BAIN is great for replacers, since it makes it simple to undo changes, or switch between two different sets of replacers, but for mods that have a lot of options on installation (Sensual Walks, or some of the UI mods, just off the top of my head), OBMM still has the advantage, its installs are still far more widely supported than BAIN wizards.

Now, if WB could process OMOD files, that would be just spectacular.

Bash can process OMODs, it converts them back into a 7z archive. An OMOD is a container format for 7z archives and nothing more.

OMOD installer scripts, I meant.

Good point as many mods installed through BAIN do not have wizards (equivalent of OBMM scripts) to install more complex mods with choices.

All points taken, there is no problem installing all mods through OBMM and using bash just for load order and bash patch. Many are still doing that and I have done that for years until I switched to BAIN. If you just want to install some mods and play, stick with what is easiest for you.