Skyrim Unplugged (by stoppingby4now)

[stoppingby4now]

Skyrim Unplugged has been released on The Nexus and is available at the Skyrim Unplugged project page.Further information is available on the Description view. In short, Skyrim Unplugged allows you to enforce the Automatic Updates setting in Steam, allowing you to choose when you want to update Skyrim.

[stoppingby4now]

 

They must be finding a lot of bugs. I think wrinkly has had 3 or 4 hopeful time tables for release.

 

In looking at the Wrye Bash forum on Beth, it looks like 1.5 has thrown them a curveball by changing the structure of update.esm. As I read it, they think it is the killcams.

 

 

Lovely. I'm definitely glad I'm still at 1.4.27 then.

[stoppingby4now]

I had been playing around late last night with WB, then fired up Steam (client was updated), then launched Skyrim Launcher to re-download a couple SW mods...then the game wouldn't launch. I just got a small window in the upper left hand corner. I switched to WB to shut it down and got the message about sanitized mods, and it had "cleaned" Updates.esm. Odd. I tried to relaunch WB to see if I got the message again, and this time it said it couldn't find TESV.exe. So I go into my Skyrim folder. TESV.exe, Updates.esm, Update.bsa, and some other Skyrim<...>.bsa files were missing. I restores them, and was able to play again, but now I'm worried that either Skyrim Launcher or Steam removed them in preparation for an upgrade to patch 1.5. I can't think of anything that I would have done to cause them to go missing with WB or any other means. I'm leaning more towards Skyrim Launcher as the culprit.

 

So...is there anyone here that has used Skyrim Unplugged to prevent a patch and notice any of the above files go missing?

[Asimov]

I had the same thing happen with my highrez texture mods last night...I though I had done something wrong though. Also, I am not sure if it works or not but under the game Steam gives me the option to not update it. Is there a reason we don't use that?

[Faitmaker]

So...is there anyone here that has used Skyrim Unplugged to prevent a patch and notice any of the above files go missing?

 

No.. Mine did update though. I *thought* I had SU enabled (or depending on how you are looking at it), but I can't swear to it. I had to restore previous, made sure it was enabled, and haven't had much of a problem since.

 

I did notice that I can't package and upload a mod to STEAM as it says I'm not connected to the cloud, but I presume that is a side effect of SU?

 

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I had the same thing happen with my highrez texture mods last night...I though I had done something wrong though. Also, I am not sure if it works or not but under the game Steam gives me the option to not update it. Is there a reason we don't use that?

 

We don't use that because we all have tried and Steam doesn't respect the setting. I HAD it set and still updated.. multiple times. It's why SU was created.

[MontyMM]

AFAIK, these are the files updated by 1.5, which may lend support to your suspicion.

 

TESV.exe

SkyrimLauncher.exe

 

From the Data folder:

Skyrim – Interface.bsa

Skyrim – Misc.bsa

Skyrim – Shaders.bsa

Update.bsa

Update.esm

…and the Strings folder

[Bealdwine]

I didn't have these issues (yet) but did notice that after starting to use NMM as a download manager & tracker my plugins.txt file had altered (haven't run WB or the Beth Launcher for some time). It now had Update.esm as #1 in the load order rather than Skyrim.esm (which has left the list completely???) :puzzled: the loadorder.txt file still lists Skyrim.esm so still trying to figure what has happened. I don't have time to run the game just now but will check if it functions tomorrow.

[stoppingby4now]

 

So...is there anyone here that has used Skyrim Unplugged to prevent a patch and notice any of the above files go missing?

 

No.. Mine did update though. I *thought* I had SU enabled (or depending on how you are looking at it), but I can't swear to it. I had to restore previous, made sure it was enabled, and haven't had much of a problem since.

 

I did notice that I can't package and upload a mod to STEAM as it says I'm not connected to the cloud, but I presume that is a side effect of SU?

 

It is possible. There is another value name in the registry that gets block for write called updatecrc which may have something to do with that. Though to be honest, I don't know for certain, or to what extent that crc is used for. I am still able to turn steam cloud syncing on and off though.

 

AFAIK, these are the files updated by 1.5, which may lend support to your suspicion.

 

TESV.exe

SkyrimLauncher.exe

 

From the Data folder:

Skyrim – Interface.bsa

Skyrim – Misc.bsa

Skyrim – Shaders.bsa

Update.bsa

Update.esm

…and the Strings folder

 

I was missing TESV.exe, Update.bsa, Update.esm, and two of those Skryim bsa files (can't remember which ones I had to restore as WB changed the timestamp on them). SkyrimLauncher.exe and the Strings folder were untouched.

[Faitmaker]

 

 

So...is there anyone here that has used Skyrim Unplugged to prevent a patch and notice any of the above files go missing?

 

No.. Mine did update though. I *thought* I had SU enabled (or depending on how you are looking at it), but I can't swear to it. I had to restore previous, made sure it was enabled, and haven't had much of a problem since.

 

I did notice that I can't package and upload a mod to STEAM as it says I'm not connected to the cloud, but I presume that is a side effect of SU?

 

It is possible. There is another value name in the registry that gets block for write called updatecrc which may have something to do with that. Though to be honest, I don't know for certain, or to what extent that crc is used for. I am still able to turn steam cloud syncing on and off though.

 

AFAIK, these are the files updated by 1.5, which may lend support to your suspicion.

 

TESV.exe

SkyrimLauncher.exe

 

From the Data folder:

Skyrim – Interface.bsa

Skyrim – Misc.bsa

Skyrim – Shaders.bsa

Update.bsa

Update.esm

…and the Strings folder

 

I was missing TESV.exe, Update.bsa, Update.esm, and two of those Skryim bsa files (can't remember which ones I had to restore as WB changed the timestamp on them). SkyrimLauncher.exe and the Strings folder were untouched.

 

When it patched for me, the only thing that I saw changed was TESV.exe, the launcher, and the creation kit exe. I did only look by date and did a previous restore. Game is working with only those items changed.

[stoppingby4now]

When I did a restore on my directory, the files that were recovered had last night's date on them. WB has since changed the date on the BSA files, so I can't tell anymore by timestamp.

 

Another curious question arises. If you are missing any of the delivered BSA files, will the game still run? I guess it would and just wouldn't have access to the resources they provide.

[frihyland]

yep, if missing textures you get purple blocks, and if sound well than no sound, etc. you can quickly test it out by editing your ini archive list. I should work the same if the file is actually missing or renamed but I haven't had a reason to test that.

[MadWizard25]

In regards to the a potential skyrim unplugged version for SW, would it be possible to incorporate some method of locally downloading and halting installation of the SW mods for use with a mod organizer of choice (Wrye Bash)? Currently no way of knowing what WB packages are being overwritten by SW packages installation. This may be a little out of focus for the tool though, not even sure how complex something like this would be to make. I could also make a request thread on the mod request sub forum in nexus if anybody thinks this is a decent idea.

[stoppingby4now]

I've done some preliminary testing to try and handle SW downloads, and so far, the only way I can see to manage that is to block network communication for Skyrim Launcher. That could open up bigger problems, and not everyone uses the same firewall, etc. Not saying it's impossible, but I'm not a full time programmer, and at this time it's currently above my head for a quick solution.

[stoppingby4now]

I know there is at least one person out there that has used the Steam Linker program, or whatever it was called, that allows you to move Steam games to another location. Could someone confirm if it creates a Junction or a symbolic link? I'm updating Skyim Unplugged to lock down Skyrim files so that they can't be deleted, but it also requires setting a permission on the Skyrim\ folder itself. If it's a symbolic link, I'll have to see about determining that and following to the new location.

 

Will likely also call upon some brave souls to test the update if you have the game installed under C:\Program Files to make sure the permissions get set correctly.

[Asimov]

I believe it created a junction. It is called Steam Mover. I am not sure though, the program I used did it all for me.

[Bealdwine]

*Warning* I just loaded Skyrim and Steam installed an update (not the one I did Wednesday) to 1.5.25.05 (iirc). I double checked and DID have Unplugged set to Disable :(

 

 

[edit] Worse yet if i attempt to start with SKSE (so that it launches Steam) I get to the Skyrim Launcher and it wants to "Detect Graphics.." again. This resets the launcher settings and overwrites my SkyrimPrefs.ini losing all my careful tweaks If I run Steam FIRST, then SKSE launcher, it misses out the game launcher and all is well.