GUIDE Mod Organizer Guide

[DoubleYou]

Soon...

[DoubleYou]

Note to self: need to add section on merge, replace, cancel functions, especially related to adding optional files. There is a brief mentio of these in Updating mods at bottom of Installing mods, but this question and confusion is so prevalent, especially with NMM switchers, it needs a mroe prominent and detailed discussion.

[TechAngel85]

Note to self: need to add section on merge, replace, cancel functions, especially related to adding optional files. There is a brief mentio of these in Updating mods at bottom of Installing mods, but this question and confusion is so prevalent, especially with NMM switchers, it needs a mroe prominent and detailed discussion.

+1 to that! I think at least 1 out of every 10 questions have been about this.

[DoubleYou]

Added. It is a sidebox in the Installing Mods tab at the top. Can't miss it.

[DoubleYou]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I've been attempting to make the MO guide easier to skim. I'm doing this by highlighting "skim phrases" in white text (it pops out with the default slightly gray text). Any feedback is appreciated.

[DoubleYou]

Shortcuts section is finished. Let me know if there are other Shortcut tweaks I should mention.

[DoubleYou]

Added an extensive How to use this guide tab to illustrate the innovative features implemented to help quickly find the information desired. Check it out!

[DoubleYou]

Finally added a simple guide to installing Steam Workshop mods on the Installing Mods tab.

[EssArrBee]

Uhh... so this came out.

Version 1.2.10- plugin priority can now be changed directly using F2 - deleting a savegame from MO now also removes the corresponding skse/obse file - deleted savegames now go to the recycle bin - savegame tab now supports multi-select - when changing the mod/download/cache directory, the new directory is created if necessary - MO now keeps the UI locked as long as indirectly started processes are running - bugfix: MO couldn't log in to nexus - bugfix: in rare situations the potential-modorder-suggestion algorithm could crash MO - bugfix: text files weren't discovered in the mod info dialog - bugfix: in rare situations the overwrite dialog could end up displaying the top level path (listing system drives) - bugfix: changes to active ini tweaks wasn't saved - bugfix: list of files to hide from the vfs wasn't removed if the corresponding feature was disabled - bugfix: some strings couldn't be localized

[junglejudas]

Installed Step Core 2.2.9 with the Mod Manager 1.2.8 and played a new game for 2 hours with no issues. Only thing that bothers a bit is that the newer versions of mod manager reubicate dawnguard and dragonborn optimized textures from ddsopt and it also deselect them. 

this is the closest thing i've found to a mention of what i'm currently wondering about.  (not sure i've parsed "reubicate" accurately...)  guessing there's no response because it's in the wrong thread?  but hopefully i can engineer my question to at least prompt advice on where to relocate:

 

(background) currently up to the unofficial High-Res patch portion of step 2.D, and with my current left pane arrangement:

- update (clean)

- unofficial skyrim patch

- optimized standard vanilla textures

- unmanaged dawnguard

- cleaned dawnguard

- unofficial dawnguard patch

- optimized dawnguard vanilla textures

- unmanaged hearthfires

- cleaned hearthfires

- unofficial hearthfires patch

- optimized hearthfires vanilla textures

- unmanaged dragonborn

- cleaned dragonborn

- optimized dragonborn vanilla textures

- unmanaged hi-res packs

etc.

 

my optimized textures for the three expansions [DawnguardOpt etc.] have acquired the redundant 'white lightning' icon.  this only seems to change (so that nothing on the list shows as redundant) if i place unofficial patches where i am told not to put them (both by the STEP guides and by MO warnings).  what gives?

 

(1) i have a sneaking suspicion it is too late for me to click 'backdate BSAs' (if i didn't already - sadly my wetware memory is that bad - or does 'backdate BSAs' need to be freshly clicked after any relevant rearrangement?)  is this a problem [yet]?

 

(2) is there not a screenshot or textfile sample of what the left pane list should look like (order-wise) at the end of, e.g., a Core installation?  or just what's visible without scrolling by the end of 2.D?  i've been trying to look under rocks and in nooks and crannies but haven't spotted something like this yet.

[Kelmych]

The optimized standard textures should be installed before the unofficial patches so the unofficial patches can overwrite textures as needed. For example, optimized vanilla textures should be before the unofficial skyrim patch. This screenshot shows the order; the figure will be added to the Skyrim DDSopt QuickStart guide at the next update. There are some screenshots of the early part of the MO install order and text descriptions of where the optimized textures go in various posts on this website, but they aren't always easy to find when searching.

[junglejudas]

thanks again; i must be confusing my/others' alignments/interpretations of "above/below", "higher/lower" etc. and the reversible perspective of the left pane.

[junglejudas]

 This screenshot shows the order

okay, still befuddled unfortunately:

 

i've matched that order, but

(a) i also have Cleaned entries for DLCs, each placed after unmanaged and before unofficial

(b) optimized textures are still showing as redundant...

[GrantSP]

From top to botton of the left-hand pane it goes from first loaded to last loaded. In other words if a mod is lower in this pane it will have priority and be used in game.

 

So if we take that list and look at it logically, ANY mod that has the same named files in it as an early mod, appears LOWER, those files will be used.

 

Looking at the screenshot provided, Unmanaged: Dawnguard has the same files as Dawnguard Textures opt BUT, the files are only the textures, if you have cleaned your Dawnguard.ESM it isn't part of the Dawnguard Textures opt so it too can be placed below the vanilla Unmanaged: Dawnguard. Likewise the Unofficial Dawnguard Patch, it contains changes to files NOT in the Dawnguard Textures opt and can safely go above OR below the optimized mod, but it must go below, ie have a higher priority than, your cleaned ESM.

Now to the Hi-Res Textures. All your optimized versions must be below the vanilla Hi-Res Textures, which are in turn below the vanilla standard textures.

 

The MO 'Information' window has a tab called 'Confilcts' which shows which files are going to win or lose the conflict in game.

 

In this case Unmanaged: Dawnguard, Dawnguard Textures opt, Unmanaged: HighResTexturePackXX and  HRDLCXX opt all contain textures but only the HRDLCXX will win, because they are LOWER or have a larger PRIORITY number. All of these mods though only affect the textures.

 

Unmanaged: Dawnguard and your cleaned Dawnguard.ESM will have no bearing on the placement of textures since it is only the placement of the master plugin, Dawnguard,esm, that is important. In this case your cleaned ESM can go ANYWHERE LOWER that the Unmanaged: Dawnguard.

 

In this specific scenario, where you have optimised versions of both the vanilla and the Hi-Res textures, I do find it strange to have them both.

As I don't have any optimised versions of textures in my game, yet, unless there are certain files that exist ONLY in one or the other, I see no reason why you would optimise the vanilla textures IF you are later going to have Hi-Res textures replace them, let alone if those are optimised or not.

 

If a texture, let's call it TextureA exists in the standard resolution vanilla mod and in the Hi-Res Texture mod, you clearly need only ensure the Hi-Res has the greater priority. There should be no need to optimise the vanilla or standard res file if the Hi-Res version will replace it.

I will bow to greater authority here as I said, I currently have no optimised versions in my game but I find it hard to conceive there are files (textures) in the vanilla that aren't in the Hi-Res.

[Kelmych]

If you have each of the cleaned Bethesda DLC esm plugins in a separate mod then each one if these is installed right after the equivalent unmanaged DLC, as you show in your earlier post. The problem with the initial order you showed is that the optimized textures should be installed after the corresponding cleaned DLC plugin and before the unofficial DLC patch.

 

You need to optimize all of the BSAs since the High Res Texture packs only replace a portion of the vanilla textures in Skyrim - textures.bsa and the DLC BSAs. Mod Organizer then takes care of providing the correct texture (the one with highest MO priority) to the game, and it does this on a file-by-file basis. There is no straightforward way, for example, to optimize only the vanilla textures that are not replaced by a High Res texture.

 

If you include all of the STEP CORE mods then you could potentially use the STEP BSA which includes optimized replacement textures for all of the vanilla textures that they determined make sense to optimize and are not replaced by mods in the STEP Core list.