Plugin Deletion? : IV

» Sat May 14, 2011 5:05 am

I noticed that I have a large ammount of plugins that I don't use and don't do anything. I was planning on deleting them but then I remembered that last time I did that I couldn't play Oblivion for a month. So I was wondering if it was the deleting plugins that caused my Oblivion to stop working, or was it coincidence that Oblivion stopped working them?

» Sat May 14, 2011 4:32 pm

Deleting plug-ins themselves shouldn't cause any problems. The problem is that it's easy to accidently delete files from the vanilla content while doing it which can cause problems. I myself have a bunch of old unused mods that I've been meaning to delete for ages but I haven't gotten around to it yet because it's such a pain to sort through all of the folders trying to determine what's from a mod and what isn't.

» Sat May 14, 2011 7:25 pm

Two ways of doing this, first is to only delete the .esm file, this way the mod will not show up in the list anymore.

Second is to track down and delete all the relevant files, this would usually require that you have the archive to make sure you don't delete other files and main reason to do this is to free up hard dive space.

» Sat May 14, 2011 8:33 pm

This is why using an installer like OBMM or BAIN is the best method. If you're not using a mod anymore, then uninstalling it removes all its components

» Sat May 14, 2011 6:56 pm

There appear to be a few 'urban legends' perpetuated in this thread...but instead of picking nits :wink_smile: ...let me share with you the link for a great tool that can be used to remove mods which have been manually installed...http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7557.

Regards,

Hem

» Sat May 14, 2011 5:16 pm

Oblivion Mod Remover has the same problem of OBMM: It does not restore overwritten files. If the mod you want to remove overwrites something, you must try to figure out what it is and restore it by yourself. I wish there was a mod manager for Oblivion like the one for Fallout 3...

» Sat May 14, 2011 5:32 am

Oblivion Mod Remover has the same problem of OBMM: It does not restore overwritten files. If the mod you want to remove overwrites something, you must try to figure out what it is and restore it by yourself. I wish there was a mod manager for Oblivion like the one for Fallout 3...

Three words...

Wrye Bash BAIN

As to deleting an esm, that's a sure fire CTD on starting the game. You CANNOT load a game if an esp is missing it's esm.

» Sat May 14, 2011 3:06 pm

Three words...

Wrye Bash BAIN

As to deleting an esm, that's a sure fire CTD on starting the game. You CANNOT load a game if an esp is missing it's esm.

Well technically, Bain stands for BAsh INstalers soooooooooooo one word BAIN!!!!

Plus Wrye Bash will highlight any mods which are missing masters as red (cos its ace)

OBMM is really good for scripted installed, especially for OBSE mods utilising ini (it'll set up the ini as you want if scripted properly)

» Sat May 14, 2011 3:59 pm

Oblivion Mod Remover has the same problem of OBMM: It does not restore overwritten files.

1. The vanilla files are all in BSA's, so there's nothing to overwrite. If the file is present in your folder structure, it's used; otherwise the BSA is checked.

2. I'm pretty sure OBMM does restore overwritten files, if the overwritten file came from another installed OMOD.

» Sat May 14, 2011 9:55 pm

Nope, OBMM has no intelligence when it comes to shared resources. It's the whole reason BAIN is miles ahead of it. And since BAIN has scripted install support, there's hardly any reason to keep relying on OBMM at all except for BSA management and the rare mod that needs to edit the vanilla shader files.

» Sat May 14, 2011 9:27 am

~ there's hardly any reason to keep relying on OBMM at all except for BSA management and the rare mod that needs to edit the vanilla shader files.

Or to extract an OMOD so you can make a BAIN with it instead

» Sat May 14, 2011 3:52 pm

Nope, OBMM has no intelligence when it comes to shared resources.

Well, I would say that the truth is somewhere inbetween, though I know you have no love for OBMM

But after all, OBMM keeps track of whether a resourece is shared or not, and only removes a shared resource when the last omod owning it is uninstalled, and I would call that some intelligence, but of course quite inferior to BAIN which also keeps track of different versions of the shared resource.

It's the whole reason BAIN is miles ahead of it. And since BAIN has scripted install support, there's hardly any reason to keep relying on OBMM at all except for BSA management and the rare mod that needs to edit the vanilla shader files.

Can the BAIN scripted install edit ini files like OBMM now? It could not last time I checked (though that's some time ago), and this is the main reason for my OBMM install scripts. I will also maintain that OBMM is simpler to use for a newcomer, but that's not something that matters too much to you and me...

» Sat May 14, 2011 9:42 pm

No, I don't think BAIN wizards support ini editing yet, or if there's even plans to do that.

And you're right, I definitely have no love for OBMM, but that's mainly from a modder's angle. I hate having to deal with it's clunky script system. BAIN is so much easier since you just edit a straight text file.

I've seen enough reports from people uninstalling mods via OBMM who have then wondered why there's missing meshes to think that it's resource tracking is broken in some way and therefore unreliable.