FO3 MO Archive Invalidation not working

[Cl90]

Hi.

 

I've read a lot of threads here and on other forums, and tried a very lot of things to get it working. Still not successefull.

The Fear and Loathing guide did not help aswell.

Because the other thread arround here is related to Fallout New Vegas i thought it would be bedder to open a new one.

 

The Problem:

Archive Invalidation not working with Mod Organizer for Fallout 3.

 

Why i know that?:

Any textures or meshes added to Mod Organizer does not show up ingame. (but .esps are loaded)

I made a new profile, and checked the auto archive Invalidation (Yes it is checked), and all default bsa etc are checked.

No mod or extras are added, except one texture changer. (for testing purposes)

A Laser Rifle texture which is also checked in the mod section.

When i run the game through MO: no texture changes.

When i run the game through Steam->FO3 Launcher: texture changed.

 

Info:

Windows 8.1, Game from Steam. Installed in default steam directory (no external Library)

The game dir is clear and fresh, its FOSE and an ENB installed.

MO installed on another SSD.

MO Version: 1.3.4

Started every program with admin rights.

MO profiles are set to r/w with windows so changes should save properly.

And i want to get this working because i dont want to use something like Fallout Mod Manager =/

 

[Kelmych]

I've not had this problem with MO and Fallout 3 myself. Some have had success in fixing archive invalidation problems by deleting the fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini files and using the Fallout Launcher to recreate them. You'll also find some other possible solutions searching on the STEP site; I haven't seen any solutions that seem to almost always fix the problem.

[GrantSP]

Which mod are you using for testing? All my bsas were extracted when I installed this guide. But the only laser rifle mods in the guide don't come packed with bsas if I remember correctly.

[Cl90]

Thanks for the replys so far :)

 

I use this mod for testing if it works. (Bodytextures does not work aswell, so do Rock textures etc.)

Its just the rifle to keep the list of errorpossebilitys slim.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/21152/?

 

I will try to recreate the ini files, but MO uses its own ini files. so the Launcher will use different ones.. wait... brb testing...

 

Edit:

Okay... chaning the ini does not fix anything. But somehow my "Blank" Profile now has the correct rifle texture.

But rock textures still are bad vanilla.

 

Edit 2dn:

I found out that at least for a fresh installation of Mod Organizer with nothing except the Rifle texture mod, works.

So my Problems seem to be mod specific, and not related to Archive invalidation.

 

Edit 3rd.
But somehow it is not working properly.

Either most mods i use have a completely messed up dir structure, or archive inv. does not work.

If i run the game with the usual launcher everything works fine.

So it must be a problem with Mod Organizer.

 

Edit. 4th.

But why does it work for the laser rifle texture??

I tryed the following:

1) i added a bodymod to the FO3 data directory and deactivated the archive invalidation with this little 200kb program - started the game - Same messed up Texture like i run it with Mod Organizer.

2) reactivaed archive invalidation again - started the game - Textures work fine!

3) I coppied the laser rifle mod to the FO3 data dir - started the game - textures work. For both, body and gun.

4) deactivated archive invalidation - start the game - Both textures are gone.

So far for vanilla Skyrim with no Mod Organizer.

5) Deleted all textures and Meshes form FO3 Data dir.

6) activated both mods in mod organizer. - started the game - Bodytextures Messed up, rifle textures are fine... wtf?!

 

Can anybody explain?

Edited April 29, 2015 by Cl90

[GrantSP]

Okay, let's clear up something first. The mod you linked to is a texture replacer, but it isn't packaged in a BSA so Archive Invalidation has no bearing on your situation.

 

Now, in your posts you have stated: " I coppied(sic) the laser rifle mod to the FO3 data dir - started the game - textures work. For both, body and gun."

Obviously this will work because those assets are physically in the FO3 Data folder and the game engine sees them.

The problem arises perhaps for two reasons.

1)

The mod is packaged poorly and if you just clicked 'Ok' on the MO install dialog instead of opening the 'Manual' option, the assets will be added to a secondary 'Data' folder under the 'actual' Data folder in MO's VFS (virtual file system). 

This can be checked in MO by double-clicking the "Laser Rifle Hi-res Retexture" mod in the left-hand pane, to show the 'Information' window, and viewing the 'Filetree' tab. The file structure will show th top listed folder as 'data', which is incorrect. Removing this mod and re-installing it correctly will fix this issue.

2)

You simply have this mod in the wrong position in the left-hand pane and it is losing in the 'conflict' with another mod.

Again, examining the 'Information' window and this time viewing the 'Conflict' tab will show which mods are providing the same assets as this mod and which is winning. In this case, using the 'Clear and Present Danger' guide's setup, 'FWE' and 'Hall of Weapons' provide the same files as this mod. (This mod also adds hi-res normals)

 

As for your other texture issues, I would assume similar installation or left-hand order problems are to blame.

[Satur9]

Bumping this thread because I'm having similar issues. I just updated to 1.3.6 from 1.2.18 and found that all loose texture files, e.g. NMC, Hectrol's, etc. and all those that would normally be loaded through MO's Fallout - Invalidation.bsa were no longer present in the game. I checked the right MO panel and Fallout - Invalidation.bsa was indeed present, checked and greyed out, just as it appears in 1.2.18.

 

So then I tried deactivating Archive Invalidation under the Clear and Present Danger profile and then re-enabling it. That did nothing. Interestingly, the familiar progress bar that runs from left to right when enabling or disabling AI did not run at any time while trying this. It does not run when starting FO3 MO, either, while it always ran at startup with prior MO versions.

 

I also tried deleting the AI BSA to see if MO would generate a new, hopefully functional, AI BSA. Oddly enough it did generate a new BSA, but it still does not seem to be able to read it.

 

To fix the problem was ultimately as simple as reinstalling 1.2.18. Everything simply works normally again.

 

MO 1.3.6 seems to be working just fine with Skyrim, but Skyrim does not need Archive Invalidation since back dating the BSA's suffices for it to use texture mods.

 

I may try Kelmych's INI trick later, but for now I'm just going to stick with the older version of MO, at least for Fallout.

[Adonis_VII]

I myself went back to 1.2.18 after updating because of AI not working.

[Satur9]

I myself went back to 1.2.18 after updating because of AI not working.

Good to know it's not just me, but hopefully Tannin can narrow it down. MO is a great utility, even if there are still a few bugs.

[GrantSP]

What I don't understand with all of this is, the way MO sets the invalidation BSA is exactly the same as all those old mods with their dummy BSAs and a text file to change some settings in the INI!

 

MO's invalidation BSA is just another dummy BSA that has it's name recorded in the 'archives.txt' and the correct settings are set when you select it.

bInvalidateOlderFiles is changed from 0 to 1

SInvalidationFile changed from ArchiveInvalidation.txt to nothing

 

If there is something inherently wrong with MO's implemenatation, try renaming the BSA and setting the 'archives.txt' to look for that.

 

I haven't played enough of any of the MO supported games lately to see any issues but just the few times I do load up a saved game everything looks fine, are you sure you have the INI settings set?

[Satur9]

What I don't understand with all of this is, the way MO sets the invalidation BSA is exactly the same as all those old mods with their dummy BSAs and a text file to change some settings in the INI!

 

MO's invalidation BSA is just another dummy BSA that has it's name recorded in the 'archives.txt' and the correct settings are set when you select it.

bInvalidateOlderFiles is changed from 0 to 1

SInvalidationFile changed from ArchiveInvalidation.txt to nothing

 

If there is something inherently wrong with MO's implemenatation, try renaming the BSA and setting the 'archives.txt' to look for that.

 

I haven't played enough of any of the MO supported games lately to see any issues but just the few times I do load up a saved game everything looks fine, are you sure you have the INI settings set?

bInvalidateOlderFiles=1

 

But, yes, SInvalidationFile was indeed changed from ArchiveInvalidation.txt to nothing. I don't recall ever touching that value in the past, so I'm uncertain if MO set it that way or if it always had that value, but the default is unchanged in my FO3 user folder, so it looks like a setting MO likely made. I'll play with the settings you've suggested tomorrow.

 

ATM, I'm just sightseeing what with all this amazing new LOD.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

[GrantSP]

When you open the 'Profile Manager' and select any of the profiles you have made, the option at the bottom of that window about "Archive Invalidation" applies to that profile. Checking the box applies these changes:

bInvalidateOlderFiles is changed from 0 to 1
SInvalidationFile changed from ArchiveInvalidation.txt to nothing

and unchecking it reverts them.

[Satur9]

I think I may have just found the source of the problem.

 

The MO 1.2.18 active profile archive.txt sets this order:

 

Fallout - Invalidation.bsa
Fallout - MenuVoices.bsa
Fallout - Meshes.bsa
Fallout - Misc.bsa
Fallout - Sound.bsa
Fallout - Textures.bsa
Fallout - Voices.bsa
Anchorage - Main.bsa
Anchorage - Sounds.bsa
ThePitt - Main.bsa
ThePitt - Sounds.bsa
BrokenSteel - Main.bsa
BrokenSteel - Sounds.bsa
PointLookout - Main.bsa
PointLookout - Sounds.bsa
Zeta - Main.bsa
Zeta - Sounds.bsa
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.bsa
JIP Companions Command & Control.bsa
DCInteriors_ComboEdition.bsa
xCALIBR.bsa

 

MO 1.3.6 orders the BSAs differently:

 

Fallout - MenuVoices.bsa
Fallout - Meshes.bsa
Fallout - Misc.bsa
Fallout - Sound.bsa
Fallout - Textures.bsa
Fallout - Voices.bsa
Fallout - Invalidation.bsa
Anchorage - Main.bsa
Anchorage - Sounds.bsa
ThePitt - Main.bsa
ThePitt - Sounds.bsa
BrokenSteel - Main.bsa
BrokenSteel - Sounds.bsa
PointLookout - Main.bsa
PointLookout - Sounds.bsa
Zeta - Main.bsa
Zeta - Sounds.bsa
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.bsa
JIP Companions Command & Control.bsa
DCInteriors_ComboEdition.bsa
xCALIBR.bsa
 

In order for Archive Invalidation to work properly it must be at the very top of the archives list. Moving it manually to the top solves the problem.

 

I hope those who are having similar problems will try this and see if this is a viable work around until the problem is addressed in a MO update.

[DragoMorph]

I think I may have just found the source of the problem.

 

The MO 1.2.18 active profile archive.txt sets this order:

 

Fallout - Invalidation.bsa

Fallout - MenuVoices.bsa

Fallout - Meshes.bsa

Fallout - Misc.bsa

Fallout - Sound.bsa

Fallout - Textures.bsa

Fallout - Voices.bsa

Anchorage - Main.bsa

Anchorage - Sounds.bsa

ThePitt - Main.bsa

ThePitt - Sounds.bsa

BrokenSteel - Main.bsa

BrokenSteel - Sounds.bsa

PointLookout - Main.bsa

PointLookout - Sounds.bsa

Zeta - Main.bsa

Zeta - Sounds.bsa

Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.bsa

JIP Companions Command & Control.bsa

DCInteriors_ComboEdition.bsa

xCALIBR.bsa

 

MO 1.3.6 orders the BSAs differently:

 

Fallout - MenuVoices.bsa

Fallout - Meshes.bsa

Fallout - Misc.bsa

Fallout - Sound.bsa

Fallout - Textures.bsa

Fallout - Voices.bsa

Fallout - Invalidation.bsa

Anchorage - Main.bsa

Anchorage - Sounds.bsa

ThePitt - Main.bsa

ThePitt - Sounds.bsa

BrokenSteel - Main.bsa

BrokenSteel - Sounds.bsa

PointLookout - Main.bsa

PointLookout - Sounds.bsa

Zeta - Main.bsa

Zeta - Sounds.bsa

Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.bsa

JIP Companions Command & Control.bsa

DCInteriors_ComboEdition.bsa

xCALIBR.bsa

 

In order for Archive Invalidation to work properly it must be at the very top of the archives list. Moving it manually to the top solves the problem.

 

I hope those who are having similar problems will try this and see if this is a viable work around until the problem is addressed in a MO update.

Another vote for having this issue, updating to 1.3.7 seems not to have done anything. I checked the archives.txt, as you suggested, and didn't even find the Falout - Invalidation.bsa anywhere on the list, despite having it checked under the Archives tab. I placed it in at the top, but as far as I'm aware this hasn't fixed the issue.

[DoubleYou]

Drag and Drop the Invalidation BSA to the top. Also make certain that Automatic Archive Invalidation is checked in the profiles menu.

[DragoMorph]

Drag and Drop the Invalidation BSA to the top. Also make certain that Automatic Archive Invalidation is checked in the profiles menu.

AAI was checked, but I wasn't able to drag the Invalidation BSA to the top; it was greyed out. Is there a setting that would enable me to move it that I don't have set properly?

[DoubleYou]

Hmmm... It appears that Fallout 3 version of Mod Organizer is a little confused about what files to "force-enable." I might want to make a bug report on that.

 

The workaround is simple. Go to Settings --> Workarounds and untick Force-enable game files. Then you can drag and drop it simply.