ok, so im new to doing a topic, (and i'm not sure this is the right place to post this) so please bare with me here, but anyway, to the point that i wish to get to. for the past 3 install attempts ive made for the game of the year edition of elder scrolls iv, ive found that the textures IS a file, such as the shaders file (textures being its own file of course) but where as my meshes, is not a file, where it should be, but for what ever reason its not :swear: . when ever i do attempt to open the meshes, it come up with "please choose the programme you wish this to open with" but i cant seem to make it into a file like the textures, or the shaders files. could anyone please help me on this matter :confused: if so thank you ALOT ^_^, but if not then :banghead:

First, welcome to the forums, and http://www.uesp.net/w/images/images.new/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

Second, you'll find lots of info about working with the game files in the Mods and Construction Set forums. IIRC you'll need to open the mesh files directly through another program, either a meshing program or a converter made to extract the files.

I believe you are referring to .nif files. You need a specific nif based program such as NIFscope. Blender can also load nif files although it converts them to blender format and then converts them back when saving. There may be mesh support in some other programs as well but those are the two I'm familiar with. Have a look here http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

There's some apparent terminology confusion and a lack of important details here that both need to be dealt with before I can do more than guess at what you're asking.

First-- are you sure you mean "files" in all of those uses? A "file" is an individual item, and is recognizable because it has an extension at the end of the name. For instance, "Meshes.bsa" is a file-- a bsa file, specifically. And yes, a bsa file can only be opened with a program designed to do so. A folder, on the other hand, is the thing that has an icon that looks like a file folder (possibly the source of what appears to be the confusion) and that's what your computer uses by default to store things in. So if you have a folder named "Meshes," you can just double click on it and open it and see what's inside of it.

By default, Oblivion installs all of its basic meshes and textures and so on in large bsa files. These files can only be opened with a program designed for that purpose. Anything that's added to the game after the fact will go into a folder with the appropriate name-- "Meshes" or "Textures" or what-have-you.

The game doesn't care which is which. If the information it needs is in a bsa file or in a regular folder, it will handle it just the same. But if you want to look at the stuff that's in a bsa file, you're going to have to use a program that will open one.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3311 is a simple, free, stand-alone program that will do just that.

normaly (you probarly know anyway) when you right click the icon for the game, theres the "Open File Location" and when i click that its opened like a normal file, with mine, the only options of the files are as follows for the Data file folders: Textures, Shaders, Music and Video, and like i said befor, the Meshes isnt a file that can be opened, if i try to open it (as mentiond abouve) its just askes me where i'd like to open it, just some examples are:internet explorer, itunes, adobe reader 9.1, but im not sure what exactly to do for that, and its beginging to be abit of a problem as i would like to use some mods on it

and would me having Windows 7 + a Zoostorm gaming pc be anything of a problem?

That means your meshes are still in the .bsa archive, although your textures don't appear to be. As stated above, you will need a special program to open a .bsa archive. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3311 is one such program. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097 also has a utility that will do this.

so get this, BSA or OMM? or both? do both do the same job?

To be honest, I'd recommend OBMM. As stated, it has a utility for unpacking BSA archives, but it also makes installing some mods (specifically, those in OMOD format) much easier.

ok great, thanks for all your help guys :rock: i'll kep you posted if i'm able to get mods to work via OBMM ^.^