Since I always use texture overhauls I thought it would be a good idea to save time by updating the Oblivion - meshes.bsa and Oblivion - textures - Compressed.bsa files with the textures I will use.

My first test was to update Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa with Corpec's vibrant textures. So I created a vibrant folder, copied the necessary files as per instructions. Then I extracted Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa toa folder, then overwrote these files with the files from my vibrant folder.

Started a vanilla GOTY game with the updated bsa (had to compress it to keep the file size under 2GB).

I was surprised that the game still used vanilla textures, as I thought that vibrant ones overwrote them. I had no loose files, so that was strange.
I then configured archive invalidation manually (as I did not have OBMM or Wrye Bash installed at this point) by puting the archiveinvalidated bsa file in the data folder and modifing the oblivion.ini file.

Loaded the save and BAM, I had vibrant textures.

So the lesson is you need archiveinvalidation if you make changes to the core files. If I am wrong I hope someone corrects me. I am just posting this in case someone is or has done something similar and can maybe offer further advice. My challage will be to modify the vanilla meshes and textures bsa files with HGEC meshes and textures and QTP3 textures. The QTP3 will be a challenge as I am sure I will need 2 Oblivion - Textures bsa files, thus requiring a modification to the oblivion.ini file again for the bsa search string.

There is a 255 Character Limit to the Sarchive list once again..

So you can't have over 255 characters letter's, numbers, spaces.

So you will need to shorten the name of bsa a little bit

QTP will take up two bsa for sure so renaming the bsa like this work

Oblivion - Textures1.bsa
Oblivion - Textures2.bsa

The game cannot load the vanilla files if they are not there. The loading process is not magic. Unless the textures have different file paths, your results make no sense to me. The game cannot load nonexistent files.


Check that BSA again.
- Tomlong75210

But it does with replacers. Once I added archive invalidation then the vibrant textures were used from the Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa. I had no loose files.

My puzzlement was where would OB find the original (non-vibrant) textures if the Vibrant files ovewrote them. Unless Brumbek's normal maps for vanilla, which were required for vibrant are not replacers for the vanilla maps.

Over my head and although it does not matter how as long as it works, it would be nice to know. The vibrant textures really change the ambiance for me so no way I would consider startuing a new game without them, and putting them in the Oblivion bsa files saves some clutter for me and eliminated an entry from my BAIN tab

I will try QTP3 in Oblivion BSA as it is easier to switch textures by swapping bsa files than the files method, at least I think so. Some time back I tried a combination of vibrant and QTP3 and it was quite nice and blended well. There are a few other combinations I would like to try also for the PERFECT look.

Are you talking about adding an Archive Invalidation BSA? This only makes sense to me if the textures did not actually overwrite the original textures. Does the texture replacer you use also include meshes that are using textures with different file paths?

Over my head on that question. All I did was unpack Oblivion - textures - Compressed.bsa. Then installed the Bomrets Normal Maps for vanilla, then the vibrant textures. Repacked Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa. Game used vanilla textures UNTIL I installed the archive invalidation. I believe vibrant REPLACES the vanilla textures but the game did not act that way until archiveinvalidation. No mods were installed during this test, just GOTY.

The files had to be somewhere. The BSAs aren't there for kicks. Did you check the BSA afterward, to make sure the files you expected were in it? This is so weird...

All the files were in the bsa and when I overwrote the vanilla there were maybe 6,000 files overwritten (or 600 I do not remember which). And if you look at Corpec's description these replace vanilla so I assume they must have the same file name and would overwrite vanilla. Weird is right but I am sure someone has an explanation. There is absolutely no othe rplace there were any files.

Since no meshes were replaced, perhaps you are correct, it may have something to do with that, but it is over my head to even begin to understand something like that. Do a test like mine and you will see, if you ever find the time.

Anyway, at least it works, just needed the extra step and I hope my experience, provided it is not erroneous, helps someone trying something similar.

You didn't actually overwrite the files, simple as that. I've had this same issue happen before, I'll describe the situation a bit.

I was PyFFI'ng the vanilla BSA's and as a result the wolf mesh got screwed up and the tails stretched on to infinity. I still have a few screenshots uploaded http://img109.imageshack.us/i/wolftailtorch.png/ and http://img195.imageshack.us/i/wolfwftriangle.png/ showing the issue. So after noticing this I unpack the newly PyFFI'd BSA and overwrite the creatures folder with an untouched vanilla backup, repack the BSA, and load Oblivion. Guess what? Same issue, and no there is not another mesh in the loose folders. The only mesh related to the wolf is in the BSA. So what happened was even though I "overwrote" the mesh by copy/paste it didn't actually replace the file. I tried again, same process as before, same results. So how did I fix this? I had to physically delete (read: no creature folder present in the meshes directory) the PyFFI'd (screwed up) creatures folder and then move the original creatures folder back to the meshes folder. Then I repacked the BSA again, loaded Oblivion, and viola! The wolf mesh is now "http://img245.imageshack.us/i/wolftailfixed0.png/", or back to vanilla I should say.

I know that might sound a little confusing but trust me, that's how it works. So you need to physically delete the vanilla files and then place the vibrant files into the proper folders. Then repack the BSA and then the proper files will load, since they are actually there this time.

I'll check this weekend if I have time (and I'm not too tired...)

OK, took tylenol, feel bettwr now after reading response

I can work that fix but no way to know what files to delete as not all files get updated. So for practical reasons I need to use the archiveinvaladation method.

Thanks for sharing, I will try to duplicate your experience.