Potential issue with Mod Organizer and latest Win8.1 patches

[JHerig]

Good day to you all.  I'm using Mod Organizer with Skyrim, and have for many months without issue.  However, within the last week I have started to get failures with FNIS where it claims that it cannot find a file that does exist on my harddrive.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the latest round of Microsoft Windows patches is to blame, as I got this error after updating, but I have no proof as yet.  I'm running Windows 8.1-x64.

 

The exact error is ERROR(53): "Could not find file 'D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\data\meshes\actors\dlc02\benthiclurker\behaviors\benthiclurkerbehavior.hkx'.", which is in the 'Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS' mod.  I did verify that the file is not corrupted (redownloaded FNIS, ran chkdsk, and made sure I could open it with Notepad++), and I installed FreeCommander XE and verified that the file is in the virtual tree structure properly.  I ran into this problem using ModOrganizer version 1.2.18, and updated to 1.3.1b to see if that might fix the problem, but had no luck.

 

In addition, I found the following in the ModOrganizer log:

 

 

DEBUG (19:12:48.0386): first access to overwrite
DEBUG (19:12:48.0386): get file attributes: temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml -> D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\overwrite\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml: 20
DEBUG (19:12:48.0386): get file attributes: D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\mods\Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml -> D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\overwrite\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml: 20
DEBUG (19:12:48.0386): get file attributes: temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml -> D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\overwrite\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml: 20
DEBUG (19:12:48.0396): createfile w: D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\mods\Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml -> D:\Program Files (x86)\Mod Organizer\overwrite\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users\temporary_logs\benthiclurkerbehavior.xml (80000000 - 3) = 0000062C (0)
DEBUG (19:12:48.0567): hooks removed

 

Following up on that I tried to delete the file in overwrite\...\temporary_logs, and FNIS did recreate it, then halt with the same error.

 

Any ideas on what I can try next, or is there any more information I can provide to help diagnose this issue?  Thank you.

Edited March 15, 2015 by JHerig

[DanimalTwo]

Do you have the FNIS creature pack installed? You maybe using a mod that requires it.

[JHerig]

Yes, I have FNIS creature pack installed, as well as things that use it.  I did try and reinstall those mods as well, to make sure, no luck.

[DanimalTwo]

You are running FNIS through MO and not outside of it?

[JHerig]

Yes, I am, as you can see from the log snippit from MO while running FNIS.  As I believe I said, my setup was working properly until this week.

[GrantSP]

Just to clarify something. FNIS does not contain the file: benthiclurkerbehavior.hkx, what it contains is a set of instructions that the FNIS program reads to 'create' that file if needed.

So the questions are: Which mod do you have installed that requires that behaviour file to be included? Is it installed and active and loaded before the FNIS plugin? FNIS needs to know all those mods so the correct files can be created.

 

As the snippet from the MO log shows, MO is creating the intermediary file, benthiclurkerbehavior.xml, that is then used to create the behaviour file that will end up in the 'overwrite' folder along with everything else.

 

Do you get the same error if you have your existing FNIS Patch active or inactive in MO?

[JHerig]

I've tried disabling and reenabling all animation mods, and basically get similar errors, except with different files (draugr instead of benthiclurker, etc.).  I am finding that the .hkx files are getting created in the Fores module itself, rather than in the overwrite module like I'd expect.  Is that normal?

[GrantSP]

I don't have the specific mod that requires that animation, so I can't be 100% certain.

Generally though, no. it shouldn't be created in the FNIS mod.

 

The way MO's overwrite works is, if the mod is active in the left-hand pane then those files it contains are in the VFS and should be updated and they will be in the mod that contains them. If they are new or the mod is inactive then they will be in the overwrite.

 

In my installation I don't have that specific file anywhere and can't check to see where it is going, correctly or incorrectly.

[JHerig]

I thought that was the way MO worked, which is why I was concerned that things are showing up in the '<MODirectory>/mods/Fores New Idles in Skyrim -FNIS' directory instead of the overwrite directory.  My previous experience was all written files ended up in overwrite, and I moved things from overwrite into a  'FNIS overwrite' pseudo-mod as directed by the MO instructions (and did the same for bodyslide).

 

To confirm, I reinstall the FNIS mod, check that there are no benthiclurker .hkx files in mods/FNIS, empty overwrite folder, start GenerateFNIS from within MO, and now get a new error:

ERROR(53): Could not find file 'D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\data\meshes\actors\character\behaviors\mt_behavior.hkx'  (and this file DOES exist in the base FNIS package).  Curiously enough, if I rerun GenerateFNIS immediately (without changing a thing), it does get past this error and give me the benthiclurker error.  Very odd.

 

One thing I noticed: there are case differences in the directory names of things that are getting looked for.  The base FNIS mod unpacks to create a 'Meshes' directory, while the error report does list the desired path with 'meshes' in lower case.  I know that NTFS is a case insensitive match file system, but could a library change or something within MO's VFS suddenly cause issues?

[GrantSP]

You still haven't said which animation package you are trying to install.

The specific *.hkx files you are referring to are not FNIS specific files, as already mentioned FNIS doesn't have those files in it's package, they are created from a set of instructions included in the package.

 

If you are getting files being created in the FNIS mod and not in either a user defined FNIS patch mod or the overwrite folder then you have not installed it correctly.

Nothing created by FNIS should be added to the base mod installation.

 

That file, 'mt_behavior.hkx' is a vanilla file provided by Skyrim and is being referenced, not provided, by FNIS.

GamerPoets has produced the official STEP guide for FNIS and MO, if you haven't already looked at it I suggest doing so now.