GrantSP

Not really the correct place to post that question, you probably should ask Nexus if it really concerns you. However I wouldn't be too concerned about the differing results from VT. Each file you download could be coming from a different server as Nexus uses a distributed network to handle the actual file downloads.

Both KDiff3 & WinMerge have directory/folder compare and the ability to perform merges. As for comparisons of other filetypes, I use a number of smaller specific tools to do that so I'm more interested in the text comparisons. Thought o be honest the table comparisons do look useful. I have never really been a fan of any closed-source/commercial software that is so priced to drive the part-time coder, such as myself, away. I can't justify US $30 for something that can be done for free. I've never used Beyond Compare, only gone on reviews of others, but I can't see that the feature set or performance is greater than the others. But to each his own, I'm not going to champion the open-source method over closed-source just to bolster my decisions.

Thanks. You look... different, have you changed your hairstyle?

I've been a big fan of WinMerge for many years, and also the 64bit branch that is currently in development, but after seeing the Witcher Script Merge tool uses a version of KDiff3, it got me wondering which tool might be better. So which tool do you prefer and why? Ideally the tool should be able to handle large files, which is why the 64bit WinMerge is appealing.3-way file compare is a bonus, which WinMerge currently lacks.Various in-built syntax highlighting.Extensibility via plugins or other methods.

The unfinished.meta files being in the Recycle Bin are normal. They are generated by MO while you are downloading a file from Nexus and once the file is fully downloaded the "unfinished" meta files are removed.

I have now just gone to the DarkUI page on Nexus and you are correct, the manual version no longer has the BAIN wizard.txt in it. I don't know when that changed, I'm fairly sure I got my copy from Nexus, but it was a very long time ago. Apologies for leading you astray on that.

You're already leaps and bounds ahead of most people, the majority of users can't even be bothered to read the wiki, or even see where it is, you're examining the console output! Bravo to you.

You can install MO into separate user accounts and change the settings to point to a single set of downloads and mods and then each install will have separate profile folders but the same access to your downloads and mods. So long as the user account with the lowest privileges doesn't have to access any tools that require Admin privileges, I think you should be good to go.

Welcome @ritiyu. When you install FNIS you should have a mod in the 'left-hand' pane called "FNIS -- Always Necessary" (or something similar), this is the mod that contains the actual FNIS tool. You should never deactivate this mod as doing so will cause the shortcut link to the tool to fail, as you have found. Next you can install some animation mods such as those from the FNIS page: Creature Pack or Spells or some other animation mod from another author. These animation mods should be placed after the main FNIS mod in the 'left-hand' pane. Next you must run the tool to generate the output specific to your game. Doing so creates a series of files in the 'overwrite' folder and this will need to be turned into a mod by: right-click -- 'Create mod...' and name it something specific to your profile such as: FNIS -- Output -- Magic user This newly created mod is place AFTER the animation mod(s) that were active when you created it. e.g. * FNIS -- Always Necessary * FNIS -- Spells * Some animation mod for magicians * FNIS -- Output -- Magic User Now since you want to un-install FNIS you work in reverse. Simply unchecking all those mods should be sufficient to remove it as no other files are touched by running the tool if you created a mod from the 'overwrite' folder. This is of course contingent on you having installed all of these mods correctly using MO and having nothing from a previous non-MO installation in your Data folder. The biggest mistake people make is to leave the output in the 'overwrite' folder or to merge it into an existing mod. Do not do this. The de-activation of that one output folder/mod is all that is needed to restore the game's animations to vanilla.

Disclaimer: My current rig can not hope to run a 'fully tricked up' STEP install so I have never seen it in play, except from videos by mod reviewers. Likewise with Witcher 3 although I am currently watching @Gopher play through his game. With that out of the way Witcher 3 runs rings around Skyrim in all aspects of graphics. Skyrim will never come close to it no matter how many gigs of textures or mesh improvements you throw at it. Completely different, and better, implementation of how a game engine can be used.

The manual version of the file works just fine with MO. Trying to install it should invoke the MO Bain installer where you will need to make your choices as to which elements to install, if you are unsure which options to pick perhaps unpack the archive first in explorer and look through the 'readme'. Using MO means you no longer need to make the font changes in the oblivion.ini just use the INI Tweaks that the installer sets up. So since you have a bare minimum active at the moment it looks good to go. Just to make sure there isn't something else going on. Order you mods in the left-hand pane, so that the Unofficial patches follow immediately after the DLC they are for and then make sure the BSAs are managed by MO, you have Archive Invalidation checked and the actual BSAs are enabled in the 'Archives' tab.

I didn't like it.

Not sure of the situation you are experimenting with but I would say in any situation as soon as you rename the extension of a config file the executable will no longer view it as one and just consider as another random file. I don't believe any executable reads first the contents of a file before examining the extension. So config.xml is read as is but config.xml(2) will be read, at best, as just a text file.

Python needs them to parse the command correctly. Otherwise a single backslash is treated as an "escape sequence".

Actually that DLL should be: boost_python-vc120-mt-1_56.dll not boost_python-vc100-mt-1_56.dll So yes, everything is fine if you have that file.

Welcome to STEP @kesnit Are you sure you have installed DarkUI correctly and it is enabled in the left-hand pane? Perhaps if you provide your modlist.txt or other diagnostic material for us to examine. You are using the latest 1.3.11 version of MO?

That's fine, I didn't mean to initiate an "all hands to battle stations" alert, just curious. As stated elsewhere, I missed that recommendation in the wiki about enabling it, sorry about that, and have run Skyrim without back-dated BSAs with no issues that I have seen. Since everyone else I assume has them back-dated it is probably clear that it makes no problems with it enabled. There has been a lot of work done to the MO code since those earlier issues were noted and more than likely the issue has now been obscured or removed by new code. I'll put in an 'Enhancement' request in the Bug Genie about this and see if @tannin can shed some light on it.

Obvious question, but not been asked yet, Oblivion does run without issue when you call the Oblivion executable from that location? By that I mean it isn't a new install that is lacking in the correct INIs or registry entries yet? You didn't explicitly answer the question about whether WB runs with Oblivion as the game when you select it from the selector dialogue. Does it? If it does, then you may need to ask the current development team in the Bethsoft forum as I'm clueless as to why it wouldn't run using the switch.

I really like how a throw away line from SP about my next computer, has turned into an earnest discussion of the pros & cons of varying energy production! Well done @sparrowprince, here have this cuttlefish.

Cross posted from the Development thread: Although the text on the 'Workarounds' dialogue says this method "can be" used, it is implied by the text at the bottom of the dialogue that changes should be made only if problems arise. Since it is quite possible to play Skyrim without back-dating BSAs and not see the problems mentioned there, it needs to be clearly stated what the problem is that is being 'worked around'. Since all of this is in the MO UI, clearly this is a MO development issue. If, as you say, all Skyrim games should be using the 'back-date' method, then that function should be moved from the main MOprogramme to the Skyrim specific DLL and remove the option from the user's choice. If it must be on we don't provide an option to NOT use it.

That'd be it then.

I'm not exactly sure why or how this has happened, I tend to think it might be the latest Chrome update, but I am now getting ads whenever I watch any YouTube videos. For years I've had Chrome and Ghostery, now I have uBlock, and I have never had any pre-load videos show up. Now if I watch anything I get a 30 sec video before the main feature, and if the video is longer than 30min I get one midway through and then one on completion. Does anyone else with Chrome get a flood of ads now in YouTube and if not what setup do you have?

I'll check with the rest of the STEP team about that recommendation as to its need, but you can safely assume since it has been used by everyone else, it makes no adverse changes to your game. As to how it works, all it does is resets the datestamp on the BSA files to 1/1/2000.

Sorry about missing the point about not using MO. I'm at a loss as to why it isn't working for you. When you run WB, without the "-o" switch you get presented with the game selection dialogue, does everything work correctly if you select the appropriate game? All that the "-o" switch is doing is automatically choosing the game in the same manner as when you click the button for that game, so if it works with the dialogue selection it should also work with the switch. Assuming you have Skyrim installed in the default location this is what should be in the commandline: "C:\Games\Utils\Mopy\Wrye Bash.exe" -o "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\SteamApps\\common\\skyrim\\"

The ability to "back-date" BSAs is part of MO's 'workarounds' in the Settings, and as such is only necessary if your system exhibits problems with the regular methods of BSA management, ie. enabling Archive Invalidation in the Profile manager and having MO manage your archives. Since 1000's of users allow MO to provide AI and don't report issues you can safely assume the process is working as expected.