You may have covered this already, but a pretty useful piece of advice, if I do say so myself: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1078392-oblivion-and-memory-usage/ see first quote block. Made all the difference for me.

Edit: ...

Yeah did for me too. I think this has been a major advantage for my system that is for sure, combined with OSR as well, my system can stretch its legs and not crash in the process.

Hello, Arthmoor and thanks for OSR!
now, I posted your quote where the tools section of installation is.
I increased the heapsize from 450 to 1024 as you recommend.

I have a question: Which one you recommend more: Heap1 mode or Heap5?

Hi Blade Of Mercy

On TomLong's site you mention using a main quest skip mod. Can you tell me what mod you use?

Thanks

I do not know which version Blade of Mercy uses, but it is probably one of the mods mentioned here: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1087966-main-quest-skip-mod/page__p__15856324__hl__main%20quest%20complete__fromsearch__1&#entry15856324. He will see this soon and give you the definite answer to your question I suppose...

First - OSR isn't mine. I love it though

Keep in mind, the advice to boost the heap size to 1024 will only work well on 64 bit systems where the LAA patch has been applied. Doing that on a 32 bit system may actually result in MORE crashes because you're asking it for a significant chunk of memory.

I use heap mode 5, I tried 1 but as it turns out the Borland module mode 1 depends on doesn't like my setup. Perhaps it's not happy with Windows 7 x64. I don't know. Switching to 5 cleared it all up and with the increased heap size, I only crash in the vicinity of Kvatch.

Blade Of Mercy, I had a moment and just wanted to say thanks again for this guide. I've been playing on this build for a pretty solid couple of weeks now, and I am asolutely thrilled with the fact that in that time I've actually played more that tweaked! It is so nice to finally see FCOM in all its intended glory on my machine! Is it crash-free? Actually, almost! Depending on what I'm doing, I have managed to get in over 3 hours at a time with no issues. I exit the game normally much more frequently than even with Vanilla OB. When I do get a CTD, it is almost always after playing for a while (i.e.: probably hit the mem cap). You know, now that I think about it, my FCOM build on my upper-end-of-average PC runs better, looks better, and crashes less than Oblivion on my step-son's XBox360! He's not very happy about that, either!

So thanks again, and thanks to everyone who has chipped in on this thread. I'll leave with the one thing I think should be a mantra for anyone using this guide (or any other for modded Oblivion, for that matter): Read everything, and take your time! It will be worth it!

best,
veg

Oop, my appologies to Skyranger1!!! My bad, Skyranger.
Arthmoor, the reason to ask is that at heap mode 1 I have best performance and wondered weather to start fixing something that works OK... for the moment I decide to stay on heap mode 1.
however I changed the heap size to 1024, remains to see the difference.


At the moment I have average 4-5 hours gaming between CTDs, but because lately decided to play without cheating in FCOM, I tend to die quite easily even at level 40+.
My PC gives score 5 out of 7 (graphics card is the bottleneck and cannot be upgraded without changing mother board and PSU).
I think it is high time to make FCOM work for everyone. Its development is advanced enough for this to be an achievable goal and give pleasure from playing the game rather than frustration from fixing it.
It's easy as 1-2-...-50.
For TES 5 I intend to buy new rig.

No doubt... heck, I'm kicking around the idea of a new one for FCOM! It's running well now, but then I see this texture pack here, or that enhancement there, and I'm like.... you know, with more juice I could run that! It's a vicious cycle. But man, it is awesome to even be having this conversation, as opposed to "umm, it's still crashing, and I don't know why". Thanks a buh-zillion!

big thanx for taking the time to type out in detail why activating one mod at a time is needed, now I know

one last question would be: when you and shikishima say "chargen/create real character" , do you mean starting a new game or just using the chargen at end of sewers/console ?

They mean use the "showracemenu" console command. You can close the console once the dialog disappears, but you have to open it again so that you can access the ESC menu and save. Load up the save right after saving it, and your character will be edited without all of the stats being reset and whatnot. You can also use Wrye Bash or that face... utility to import faces made with the CS or another utility into your save game.

yeah, I don't really care much about the face as I won't be seeing it

thanx

Hi Guys,

First time poster, nice meeting all of you. I am looking forward to playing Oblivion with these Mods and am working slowly but surely towards getting it done. However I have a couple of questions, I am not experienced in this stuff at all so any help is greatly appreciated...

1. I have been creating OMODS for just about everything. I am a little confused about "topping them off" with a patch or another option when I have already made the original archive an OMOD. What is the best way going about doing this?

2. If this has been answered already I apologize, didn't see it...is it safe to Pyffi the mesh folders in SI Texture Pack and QTP3 Redimized? Does it make a difference?

3. I am scared ****less of TES4EDIT and GECKO. Any guide for dummies on how to use these things would be awesome.

4. When you right click on a mod in OBMM there is a "clean" option. What does this do? Should I use it?



Thanks!

For your first question; Topping off = overwriting folders and plugins. Normally this is done manually, I guess you can add the patch to the archive and create it again..

Someone else will have to clarify on that though. I made OOO into an omod and topped it off with the patch by installing the patch files manually. (the esm/esp and 2 folders).

See my site. This guide is not for beginners. Those details are for other threads. OBMM's "clean" function is fairly worthless because of its (lack of) conflict detection.


TESIV:POSItive suggested pages:

#1 I do not understand your question, please elaborate in the site's thread. Maybe I can add clarification there on one of the OBMM pages.

#2 Yes. See the PyFFI page under Stabilization, or see the site's thread, as I have posted most of the PyFFI page's contents there. There is also a link to the PyFFI info & relz thread (in the site's thread OP) if you have more questions specific to PyFFI's functionality.

#3 TES4Gecko is not for beginners. If you are scared (and new) leave them alone. Ehh, TES4Edit is not scary at all, and anyone can use it. There is a TES4Edit page under "Tuning" Oblivion. Follow the link in the "Related Pages" section to the walkthroughs wherein you can find some examples for how to use it. There is also a link to the manual in the "Related Resources" section on that page.

#4 It is useless, it does not affect the OMOD itself, and do not use it.


Edit: ...ahh, okay. "Topping off" simply means install after. It does not necessarily mean with a patch made explicitly with a mod. For example, some might say they are topping of their setup with mod XX. It is a very loose term, but mainly indicates the installation order of whatever the "topping" was done with. In the case of installing OMODs, this means installing some OMOD after another OMOD. There is no reason to install the OOO 1.34b5 update manually. It is a simple package, and, therefore, can be considered OMOD-friendly (or BAIN-friendly.) However, if you want to be able to have control over installing the extra plugin (as many users setups really cannot handle the addition of that mod) you should add an OMOD script to it.

http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/installmods/obmm-installation/omodreadymods <-- covers OOO 1.34b5 (with a script), OOO 1.33 is OMOD-Ready already, so further instruction is not necessary

Appreciate the info Tomlong. To elaborate on Topping off, for example if I wanted to install EVE HGEC then "top it" with Hi Rez Skin Textures for HGEC, then "top that" with Luciare's Body Seam Remover, can I just make each one into an OMOD, activate them, then load esp's or esm's in the right order with Wyre Bash? Or do I need to do it manually and replace files, or possible esp's, through a manual install?

How about we drop the "top it" terms, and use "install after" instead. I am more familiar with those, haha. You can certainly pack those mods into separate OMODs. "Topping off" is usually used in reference to installation order, not load order. There is a huge difference. Use BOSS to sort out your load order.

Also, I just put the script for the OOO 1.34b5 update on that page. I thought it was there, but I have been really busy recently. The site will be cleaned up in a few weeks. Anyway, about the distinction between load order and installation order:

http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/installmods <-- covers installation order
http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/finishinstall/loadorder <-- covers load order
http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/lists/mybainlist <-- corresponds to install order
http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/lists/myloadorder <-- corresponds to load order
The orders can very tremendously. This is a good distinction to make now.


Edit: Some specifics about the case you mentioned above...Eve HGEC contains one plugin (I think) but it mainly replaces data files. The plugin would only add female versions of certain items. The seam reducer only replaces a data file or few. There isn't much ordering for you to do, other than installing the seam reducer on top of the mod it patches. I am not even sure that they conflicts, but it makes sense to install them in that order anyway, given the nature of the latter.

To clarify, my goal is to OMOD almost every mod I'm installing, because if I screw something up that makes it easier to fix, just deactivate and delete. So when you say "install the seam reducer on top of the mod it patches" does that mean that as long as I'm creating separate OMODS from each archive in the right order, everything will work as it should? For example a lot of these mods have FCOM patches and such, and I'm just trying to figure out if I can install everything as an OMOD separately, or do I have to sometimes edit the original OMOD I created with (for example) the updated esp.

HI, I have tested that program to the utmost. First IF you can have Heap 1 run Stable keep it, according to Sky it is the Fastest and most Flexible. (and doesent require a mem Size)

Changing that to 1024 Will do nothing. When you are using Heap 1 It will not need OR use that setting.
That setting Is for the Other choices.

Wish i could use heap 1 but on Win 7 X64 and 8 gig it crashes in about 5-10 min. With heap 5 @800 I get 3-4 hours!!

I can sometimes play for 3 hours before crashing. I haven't made any changes to OSR, don't think I will need to.

I don't generally have any problem with heap 1 on Win 7/64, but evan if I can run 6hrs. as soon as I Crash, I'm Imeadiatly looking for something wrong..., evan thogh I realize that's pretty good, I just Gotta screw it up. :blush:

Toward the new 50 steps... http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1090232-50-steps-to-stable-fcom/.
50+50+50 = Stability
As long as there is interest in it we'll keep it alive

Something that I might suggest a note in the section about loading mods one at a time: If you're using OBMM to activate mods one at a time, the changes don't take effect until you close OBMM. So if you activate a mod, leave OBMM open, and load-save-exit oblivion, then you've basically done nothing because the mod is still deactivated until you close OBMM. So you could go through this process for 10 mods, then finally close OBMM and all the mods are activated all at once. So basically you can accomplish the opposite of what you wanted if you make this mistake like I did and waste alot of time.

Hey guys just 4 questions,

is in general

-safe to pyfii later after finshing the installation and already playing
-add new mods after the inst finish
-is it normal that sometimes with obmm there appears to be no file added after clicking add archive but installing and creating omod nevertheless

thx for the awesome work!