Automatic Variants

[TheMerryPloughboy]

Hi Guys.

 

Obviously, I'm new to S.T.E.P. I spent the weekend diligently following all the instructions, reading forums, watching Michael at Gamer Poets (he rocks!), and generally getting set up. We sort of non-technical types owe you all a huge debt of gratitude for all of your work.

 

I've been struggling to get automatic variants working. I've read all the STEP forum discussions about it, the AV readme, and nexus forum. I think I understand most of it, but I am still struggling to get it to have an effect in the game.

 

Here's the long and short of what I'm doing (though at this point I've tried lots of different ways), and the problem.

 

1. Download AV via MO.

2. Download core packages (Bellyache, etc).

3. Install AV on MO.

4. Install core packages under MO, merging files. This seems to be the only way to get the files to show up in AV directory.

5. Go to AV directory and run the jar file.

6. Everything shows up fine. Everything is enabled. Per instructions, I untick the move variants file in "other settings."

7. Click patch.

8. The patcher runs in about a split second (which I know is not long enough).

 

Go to in game and there's no effect. I've manually installed and tried various ways as best I can in trying to understand the lingo on STEP and nexus.

 

I don't get an error message or anything, it's just that there are no variants in the game (textures are still vanilla). I know that AV is not an official part of STEP but seems like folks get it to work.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks again and forgive my lack of technical prowess; I have certainly been trying.

[Aiyen]

Verify that you got the .esp and the textures in your overwrite folder. If they are not there then the patcher did not do anything. 

 

Also before you run the process verify that all the package content is in the path 

...\ModOrganizer\mods\Automatic Variants\SkyProc Patchers\Automatic Variants\AV Packages

[TheMerryPloughboy]

TYVM for quick reply.

 

\ModOrganizer\mods\Automatic Variants\SkyProc Patchers\Automatic Variants\AV Packages is correct. the next folder after AV packages is Bellyaches animals.

 

There is no .esp or textures in my overwrite folder. I suspected this was the problem from one of the videos I watched. Do you know how I remedy that? Sounds like a silly question, but I suspect I should be doing seomthing with MO?

 

EDIT:

 

Come to think of it, there's really nothing in my overwrite folder in general: D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\Mod Organizer\overwrite\SKSE.

Edited December 15, 2014 by TheMerryPloughboy

[Aiyen]

AV have not patched properly until they are moved there and the .esp is created.. it should come with an error message etc if it fails to create it. 

 

Can you actually see the packs when inside the program , and manually select deselect which should be a part of it ? 

 

Can you create it just by using all the default settings ? 

[TheMerryPloughboy]

AV have not patched properly until they are moved there and the .esp is created.. it should come with an error message etc if it fails to create it. 

 

Can you actually see the packs when inside the program , and manually select deselect which should be a part of it ? 

 

Can you create it just by using all the default settings ? 

Yes. You can see the folders when you're inside AV Jar, and can select and deselect them. I don't get any error messages. They just don't appear in the game.

[Aiyen]

Hmmm try to use SUM and make that create the patch instead. Perhaps that will work. 

 

If the files are no moved and no error happen then I am at quite a loss. Never encountered that happening before. 

[TheMerryPloughboy]

Yeah it's pretty strange. Thanks for input. I will try and figure out how to use SUM.

[GrantSP]

Sorry to break topic, but why is there a SKSE folder in the overwrite folder?

After installing SKSE there should be nothing in that 'temp' folder. Whatever files are in it should either be moved to the mod that provided them or made into a new mod themselves. That is what you would do with the output from AV.

After every operation by any tool check what is placed in the overwrite folder and deal with it appropriately then move on to the next step.

 

On-topic.

How exactly are you doing this step?

5. Go to AV directory and run the jar file.

 

If you are navigating to the AV directory outside of MO then that is the reason for their absence.

[Aiyen]

Some SKSE plugins will make a log or ini file that is placed there.. it does not hurt that they are there. Especially the logs will just be recreated when you run certain other things again. 

 

As for removing stuff from overwrite that is a separate debate altogether. I say it does not matter as long as you know what is in there and why. But some people like to keep it tidy, but it is not a game breaking requirement. (The only reason the advice to keep it clean is even a thing is because people tend to not understand why things are in there!)

For this specific matter anyways.. I have always had my AV textures in there, because then I know it works. 

 

Ofc I assumed that you had created an executable in MO and run it though there. If you did not then that would be why, since then it does not access the proper virtual file system. 

[GrantSP]

The reason I raised it is because @TheMerryPloughboy will be making a mod out of the overwrite folder, if there was an ini for SKSE, for example, when he makes the new mod that ini will be present and depending on how he sets the priority for the new mod it will take precedence. 

 

I keep "bangiing on" about this in the hope that all new users will learn about priority and conflicts and avoid flooding forum posts with questions that could be easily fixed by some simple house-keeping.

 

With all due respect, there shouldn't be a debate about this. The wiki clearly explains the overwrite folder should be cleared.

[TheMerryPloughboy]

I did not create an executable for AV Jar in Mod organizer like I did with wrye bash, tes 5, etc. (I must have missed those instructions). So I ran the executable from within the mod folder itself (which is inside the Mod Organizer folder).

[Aiyen]

GrantSP you are right there should not be a debate. Keeping overwrite tidy n stuff is imo something you do at the very end of creating a new list, not something you do on the fly, and definitely not something you do when asking for help. Here it is nice to have this feature since it does eliminate certain potential problems. 

 

Overwrite is the same as ANY other mod folder.. the only difference is that it have automatic priority over anything else. So as long as you know what is in there and why, you know you wont have to worry about if it appears in the game. If the .esp is correctly made and the textures are there.. it will work! If you start moving stuff about for these testing purposes then you will introduce more potential issues. 

 

So that is why I say to people that they should not begin to move the stuff out when asking for help. 

 

 

As for the issue at hand, then that is why it is not working, I do hope you report back that it has now succeed and you can spawn 20 different awesome mammoths at once and see them fly in different colors! 

[TheMerryPloughboy]

Ha! Thanks again and, the moment I see twenty mammoths of differing colors, you will be getting a screenshot.