Edit: 2/9/10 clarify where to copy files toEdit: 3/10/10 Redo Shivering Isles part to correct an errorEdit 3/28/09 added section on what to do with saved games - Thanks to NoisabHere is a troubleshooting suggestion - put your Oblivion back to an unmodified state. Using this procedure you can always revert to your current data folder with all of the mods and any problems they may cause. And then back to the unmodified with a simple rename A to C and B to A operation Where A is your current data, B is the Oldata and C is the unmodded data folder. Just remember which is what to keep from overwriting and losing anything.Rename your data folder to something like oldata - the name doesn't matter as long as you know what it is and it is NOT data.Create a new data folder where the original one was.
ObliviondataNow, copy - DO NOT MOVE the following back into the new data folder if you do not have Shivering Isles installed. Music (folder).
Shaders (folder). Video (folder). Credits (text). Oblivion - Meshes.bsa. Oblivion - Misc.bsa.
Oblivion - Sounds.bsa. Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa. Oblivion - Voices1.bsa. Oblivion - voices2.bsa. Oblivion.esmUnmodified Oblivion data with Shivering IslesThis is the data folder with Oblivion & Shivering Isles installed. Before adding any mods or any DLCs.
Music - Folder. Shaders - Folder. Video - Folder. Credits.txt - Text file, not needed. DLCList.txt - Important - needed for Shivering Isles. Oblivion.esm - This is the main Oblivion. DLCShiveringIsles.esp - a dummy (empty)file, but must be here.ONLY copy the file DLCShiveringIsles.esp into this.
UNLESS any of the other DLCs are there be sure not to include any that are not installed or your game crash on start. DLCShiveringIsles-Meshes.bsa. DlCShiveringIsles-Sounds.bsa. DlCShiveringIsles-Textures.bsa. DlCShiveringIsles-Voices.bsa. Oblivion-Meshes.bsa.
Oblivion-Misc.bsa. Oblivion-Sounds.bsa. Oblivion-Textures-Compressed.bsa.
Oblivion-Voices1.bsa. Oblivion-Voices2.bsa. Textures - Folder.
ONLY copy the following ONE file.TexturesEffectsTerrainNoise.ddsThe easiest way to do the Textures is Create a new folder named Textures. Inside of that create a new folder named Effects, and copy the file TerrainNoise.dds into that.This will be your unmodified game, (also called vanilla) with the official patch already installed (if you installed it already) back to the exact configuration it was in before you installed any mods.
It will not affect OBSE as that is installed in the Oblivion folder. It Will remove any OBSE plug ins though.This will not remove your saved games. However, they will probably no longer work as they are dependent on a set of mods that are no longer installed. If you wish to reset your save game folder go to the location they are in:. For XP this will be C:Documents and settingsuser namemy documentsmy gamesOblivion.
For Vista or Win7 C:usersuser namemy documentsmy gamesOblivionIf you want to start over, just erase everything in the my saves folder and your saves will start over from #1Start a new game WITHOUT starting OBSE. If it works, your problem was caused by mods. If not, you must reinstall.
Once you get a working vanilla game - NO mods make a COPY of this in a new folder outside of the Oblivion folder - this will be your emergency backup to avoid having to reinstall when you have problems. Now start the game using OBSE to see if that works. The game should start just as if OBSE wasn't started.
This does not test all of OBSE, just the start game part.Now install OBMM. You will use OBMM and not the game data to activate mods from now on. They will show in load order. Test to be sure it works. There is a launch Oblivion function - one of the blocks on the right side of the main screen. It will automatically launch OBSE first if it is installed.Now install ONE mod.
Start using OBMM. Activate the new mod and launch the game. Test to be sure that mod works. Once you are sure it works, install another mod and test again. When a problem shows up, you will know what mod caused it and can either not use that mod, Be sure to uninstall completely - meshes and textures also and not just the esp. OR, try troubleshooting - changing load order and other things to get it to work.By installing and testing just one at a time, your load order will build itself.Other suggestions:Always read any documentation such as a readme file for every mod.
And look in the forum topic that is automatically created for each mod when it is uploaded. Usually any special problems other people have encountered, along with any solutions will be listed there.When you download mods, download them into a separate folder outside of Oblivion. Then create a new sub-folder for each mod. Extract (unzip) the mod into that folder and not directly into the Obliviondata folder. Then COPY - do not move the parts of the mod into the proper places in the data folder. Or if you decide to use OMODs create the OMOD in the proper place using the files in that separate folder.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the fourth game of the official series. Set upon Cyrodiil, the main country containing Imperial City during Oblivion Crisis, A champion raises to take challenges in order to save Tamriel from Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction. Set upon medieval temperate forest with diverse locations, in the themes of vegetation and the architechture, and thanks to the colorful visuals, it is appealing even with vanilla graphics to this main day.Unfortunately, playing it for few hours will show down the worst aspects of the game; leveling that requires minmaxing in order to be efficient, fights that lasts over minutes due to a high healthpool and extremely forced level scaling, making sure that nothing high or nothing lower ever spawns, only revolving around the player. Also, the game introduced character face generation, which sounds cool in concept to create unique faces, the modeling of the faces came a bit off, leading to creations of monstrosities rather than ordinary looking people. As a final nail into the coffin, the game is as buggy and prone to crash like other games Bethesda has made.Having played Oblivion for hours, first with retail version, then with Steam version, I decided to go forward and create up a guide in a way to help others not only to fix these errors, but to also help people to get into the game. These tools are helpful to make the experience more worthwhile and breathe new life into the game, while retaining the normal experience you would have in this game even in vanilla.Notice: This is not a guide to make your game as beautiful as possible or make the game as hard as possible.
This is to give out vanilla focus upon the game and not resort into flashiness the other modding guides are prone to do. With all these said, let's get upon to prepare our game to be modded. Here are few things to do beforehand;. Have installed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Delete/Move every DLC.esp and.bsa files but Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine out of the Data folder. Personally, the other plugins are immersion breaking, inconsistent and doesn't fit into the game well. Ran it at least once (to generate.ini files and setting your video settings.
Start the game, create character and quit). I would recommend having all the fade sliders at maximum and autosaves off. Backed up the files (incase problems would occur)With these done, we can start to install tools for ourselves. Wrye BashLink:Wrye Bash is one of the oldest running mod managers. You can sort your mods and load order, get conflict notifications, edit INIs, and organize your saves. There are a few key features that seperate this from the rest of the mod managers. First off, you can merge mods and make bashed patches.
A bashed patch is when you combine features with several different mods and make them not conflict or interfere with each other. It's a really great tool for someone who likes variety in there game. For Oblivion's case, Wrye Bash is required to make ANYTHING work together properly because mod conflcits happen all the time with Oblivion mods and Wrye Bash will clean that mess up for you.To Install, download the installer and follow it's instructions. A Mopy folder should be upon your folder, where the Oblivion.exe is located at. Launch it once and then quit.
Oblivion Mod ManagerLink:OBMM is quite standard Mod Manager, relative to FOMM (Fallout Mod Manager). The reason to have it is to install.OMOD files.
What's an OMOD? An OMOD is an archive that's specifically made for Oblivion Mod Manager.
It's fairly easy to install, just click on it and it will promt you to a some options that you can choose depending on your personal preference.To Install, choose the manual version and drop the contents upon Oblivion folder, the one with Oblivion.exe.Now you don't have to use OMODs all the time. However you can use a little tool that comes with Wrye Bash called BAIN to install other archive files such as 7z, RAR, and ZIP. But just in case you don't want to go and deconstruct an OMOD archive to use with BAIN because it's too much trouble, then just keep Oblivion Mod Manager handy. BOSSLink:Load order sorting for TES IV: Oblivion. While sorting, BOSS checks for load order errors such as incompatibilities and missing requirements, and notifies you of any issues that it detects. It also provides thousands of plugin-specific messages such as usage notes and bug warnings, to help keep your game healthy.To Install, pick up either installer or manual version. Installer lets you install it the way you want, while manual should be dropped on it's own folder.
Inside the folder is bin folder, which contains Boss.exe either for 32 or 64 bit computers. Launch boss.exe and let it sort it out.
If you have another Gamebryo engine, you are required to press a number of the game, before it sorts up your modlist. 4GB PatchLink:Enables the usage of 4GB virtual memory for those that are locked in 2GB, like Oblivion.To Install, simply drop into root folder, where Oblivion.exe is and launch it, navigate Oblivion.exe and press ok.Here are steps-by-step procedure to make 'clean, mod open' state for the Oblivion and also showing how to clean mods:. Run BOSS once. It should open up your browser, showing Summary of all the plugins you have, OBSE ones and recognized and unrecognized.
It should also show plugins which has notification about Undeleted References (UDR) and Identical to Master (IMR). These are referred as 'dirty edits'. Keep it open.
How To Install Armor Mods In Oblivion Download
Go and search TES4Edit.exe, right click it, select create shortcut, right click on the created shortcut and select properties. At the end of the Target field, enter: ' -QuickAutoClean' with a space. This procedure means that TES4Edit is automatically cleaning plugins that are loaded with the software. Launch TES4Edit. Open each DLC/mod one at a time. Messages window at TES4Edit should show when it's done with cleaning, then you can simply quit and repeat the process with other DLCs/Mods.And with this you know half of the modding of Oblivion.
Next, we shall move upon OBSE plugins. Now we get into the meat of it, the mods.
The ones which play the huge part upon the game, or rather, catches your eye.Most mods are to be installed with Wrye Bash, unless they have.omod file or omod conversion data. Then it is preferrable to use Oblivion Mod Manager to install them, as they can have installer within to do the work for you. Most mods are easy as to install as dragging the downloaded archive into installer window in Wrye Bash and dropping it there. First time prompt asks if you want to copy or move file there, just select copy to ensure you have the archive still where you downloaded it. You can also drag mods up and down on the list, showing which mod takes priority over other.
Maskar's Oblivion OverhaulLink:MOO Themed Loading Screens:Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul is the most configurable overhaul ever present on Oblivion. The huge attraction to this is how it makes encounters more unpredictable and makes level scaling and loot placement much better. Laulajatar has also made up a mod to add loading screen text for various things mod offers.Also you might want to check out 2 mods that can go well with MOO, which are also made by Maskar.Basic Primary Needs:Camping:For further explanation and demonstration of the mod, check out my video about it. Oblivion Stereo Sound OverhaulLink:All the sound effects are now enhanced.That should be about the mods. Next, you want to go to Mods section and enable every single one of the plugins there, excluding Bashed Patch.
Run BOSS and sort out your load order. You should see Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul mod going after the Bashed Patch. This is normal for it (as mod needs to do edits that Bashed Patch removes). After sorting it out, right click upon Bashed Patch and choose Rebuild Patch.
Click Ok to merge what mods it shows up and click Build Patch. It takes a while and then the patch is created. Enable it and close Wrye Bash for now. Music is great for the atmosphere. Jeremy Soule has done amazing work with the ost, although it is kind of lacking, like with Morrowind & Skyrim. However, you can balance it out by including your own custom music.
Yes, you can drop your.mp3 files into the music folder and the game will play it out, A feature that seems to be lacking in Skyrim for some reason.So for my music recommendation, I would want to offer you the music of second Elder Scrolls game, Daggerfall. A composer, Dan Gooddale, had made amazing remakes of the original soundtrack, which enhances the experience and fits well into the game. Here is an example of the most popular tracks upon Daggerfall. The link above contains a download section for his tracks, and the installation of the music in game is simple. Drag the track you want into Oblivion Data Music and to Battle, Dungeon, Explore or Public, where you see it fit. Battle is for the battle music, Dungeon is for the dungeons, explore plays on outside world, public plays inside towns/cities.
Special is for the title, fanfare and game over music.Also remember that each tracks must contain 192 kbs bitrate and suggested to be on mp3 format, otherwise The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion might not play them. Why did you create this guide? There are other mod guides as well which could do the same thing and adds a lot of cool stuff. When I started modding, there were two things in my mind, which I always wanted from the game; Stability and configurability. The former is good to ensure experience doesn't get frustrating because of issues or crashes and the latter allows you to suit the things for your taste. Besides, I try to aim to enjoy basegame as much as possible, only seeking out to change things that are universally and personally loathed. The configurability helps a lot too, since there's always option to disable unwanted features.
I installed mods, booted up my game and the game crashes/crashes while playing!. If it's unmodded game, try redoing your.ini files. Simply go to My Documents and delete Oblivion folder. Then launch the game and let it regenerate them automatically again. If it isn't automatic, go to options and let the game detect your video card to generate.ini files. If it's modded game, try deactivating mods one at a time to pinpoint the trouble and see if it vanishes.
A faulty installation or dirty edits might be in that mod. You should also remember to redo Merged Patch each time you sort your load order or add another mod. If it's due to excessive playing, Remember that Oblivion has not been configured to handle more than 2GB VRAM. 4GB enabler is good enough for it, and you might want to try ENBoost to boost it further.
The game is too hard! Bandits kill me way too easier and mudcrabs deal a lot of damage!. Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul by default increases damage dealt by enemies and you by double, in addition of making bandits higher leveled and mudcrabs rather resilient. You can disable the double damage, although the quick fix for huge damage is that you should either come back later when you have better equipment, or lower the difficulty slider.I would also like to thank you all for reading my guide, and anybody who has commented and asked for their problems, as I seek out to update and make this guide better and up to date as possible.