SMIM Installtions, Overwritting Textures & Meshes

[Sigyn]

I've spent most of yesterday and about 6 hours today trying to get my mods into MO and attempting to understand how to use MO.  The guide/wiki reads like it was written by someone who writes White Papers for a living, meaning it gets rather obtuse when you're not someone who READS White Papers for a living.  Not a user friendly guide imo.

 

Anyways, I have my mods installed.  I found ways to get patches into mods (not all are as simple as the videos show).  While my handful of Steam mods are installed, all of the DLC and HD Texture Packs are still shown as "unrecognized" but I guess that's ok?? 

 

My problem is SMIM (Static Mesh Improvement Mod) installation.  I can do a direct install but it doesn't allow me to selectively overwrite files.  The install order, per the SMIM Nexus page:

 

Skyfalls / Skymills (allow SMIM to override conflicts)

Ruin Clutter Improved (allow SMIM to override conflicts)

Ultimate HD Fire Effects

Complete Crafting Overhaul (allow SMIM to override conflicts)

 

SMIM

 

WATER (No SMIM Override)

Skyrim HD (No SMIM override)

Better Dynamic Snow (ALLOW SMIM to override conflicts)

 

 

WATER and Better Dynamic Snow are now apart of Ruffled Feather so their esp files get bundled on the left pane.  I have to go to "information" to even see the esp files that are installed by Ruffled Feather.  Therefore I cannot move Better Dynamic Snow above SMIM.  When I was using NMM, dialogue boxes would appear to allow me to choose which files / folders to override but not so with MO.  So how to do I do that??

 

I run a lot of texture improvement mods and sometimes I need to selectively overwrite .dds files.  Again, this was simple in NMM but I can't figure out how to do it in MO.  I watched videos that said I can open explorer on a mod and move stuff but that's not helpful since that means (at least as far as I can figure) I have to manually download these mods elsewhere & extrac there contents to figure out which specific files I need to drag and drop to what directories (which makes me think that NMM may be better even if it is problematic).   I thought about using NMM to install all my texture mods and using MO for everything else but that still doesn't solve my problem when it comes to SMIM and the Complete Crafting Overhaul. 

 

Are there videos or user-friendly guides that I'm missing that shows this type of installation step by step? 

 

Something I think that could use a bit of improvement is the warning for missing masters.  Right now I have an .esp that's missing master.  It came from an install of a larger mod with a bunch of compatibility patches.  Unfortunately I don't remember which large mod that was and the warning doesn't say.  It would be nice if the warning list would read something like "xxx.esp (part of xxx mod)"

 

 

Sorry if I come across obnoxiously, I've been trying to get this stupid game to work for over a week.  After several reinstalls I decided to try MO over NMM.  At this point I remember why I stopped playing Skryim to begin with so my frustration level is well past maxed out. 

 

[GrantSP]

Welcome to the STEP forum.

 

MO can at first be daunting because it handles mods in a completely new way.

Nothing is actually 'installed' into the game's Data folder until you actually execute the game with the 'Run' button. Up to that point you can, and should, rearrange your mods into the correct order. But first things first. You mentioned you have newly converted to MO fro NMM and you have some mods installed from Steam. This is going to sound like a pain, but you should make archives of those Steam mods and then unsubscribe from them in the Steam client and then 'install' them using MO. This is to have them managed properly and not be listed as 'unrecognized'. That is MO's way of saying they exist in the Data folder and CAN'T be moved around to eliminate potential conflicts. This also applies to any mods that you may have installed using NMM. For MO to function properly it needs to have a clean, 'Vanilla', Data folder.

 

Now to use some of your 'issues' to highlight how MO functions.

I can do a direct install but it doesn't allow me to selectively overwrite files.

 

Because MO doesn't actually 'install' anything until the game is executed, this isn't an issue. All the assets in the mod can be given a higher or lower priority in the Left-hand pane to provide the game with the desired textures/meshes/menus/sounds/scripts/etc. regardless of when the mod was installed. Simply drag/drop the mod or change the 'Priority' number in the UI.

WATER and Better Dynamic Snow are now apart of Ruffled Feather so their esp files get bundled on the left pane.

 

A common mistake made with new users. Plugins, esps/esms, are listed in the Right-hand pane not the left and are prioritised separately to the mods themselves. Any plugins can be sorted either by hand or with tools such as LOOT and this has no bearing on the assets used by those mods as that is sorted in the Left-hand pane.

I need to selectively overwrite .dds files.

 

If the priority of your selected *.dds can't be sorted by moving the whole mod in the Left-hand pane, each file can be 'hidden' using 'Information' tab accessed by double-clicking or right-click context menu for the specific mod. Then looking in the 'Filetree' tab you can navigate to the desired file and invoke the context menu and choose 'Hide' from that menu. This removes the file from the game and the next highest priority version of that file is used.

 

If you look to the top of this page there is a link to the Wiki which has a dedicated page for MO and some links to tutorial videos that explain these functions.

After familiarising yourself further feel free to ask for additional advice, all the STEP staff are more than willing to help.

[TechAngel85]

The BDS and SMIM issue is no longer an issue. We've updated the mod with a SMIM option so uses of SMIM and BDS no longer have to worry about the install order and asset overwrites.

[Sigyn]

Thank you!  You're answers are exactly what I needed (that plus coffee and a walk) I started from a fresh install so I only had the main files in the 'real' data directory.  I already learned, the hard way, to backup my Steam mods and unsubscribe long before I made the attempt to use MO so I already had that covered.  I just zipped those up individually and used the manual installer which seems to work fine.  I did download all my mods with NMM but I hadn't installed them yet so I was able to have MO move the downloaded files over which was really handy.  My 'real' data directory was nice and clean before I started using MO  :)   - and still is of course.   

 

I realize that MO creates a virtual data directory, a primary reason for me attempting to abandon NMM.  After 3 uninstall / reinstalls (I was testing overhaul mods) through the Steam engine I came across a post somewhere that explained that MO was more than just another NMM.  

 

I do feel like a tool though.  Of the 5 or 6 videos I watched, at least 1 went over the method of 'hiding' files but it was a general tutorial and I didn't make the connection to my 'problem.'  The priority system takes a bit of getting used to for more complicated things. I keep getting confused by the additional priority tab on the right side.   I wish there was a less complex way of dictacting which individual files should and should not be overwritten without having to open each individual mod.  Then again my husband keeps pointing out that if I used less mods I wouldn't have these issues.  Philistine.  I may try to bundle the texture mods (which don't have anything scripted or an .esp) into a new mod.  That may make my life a bit easier. 

 

Thanks again for the help!  I was (am) suffering from some serious information overload

[Sigyn]

The BDS and SMIM issue is no longer an issue. We've updated the mod with a SMIM option so uses of SMIM and BDS no longer have to worry about the install order and asset overwrites.

Thank you!  That's wonderful to hear  :) 

[aaltair]

If you run into something like that again you can always install the mod twice, selecting the different options you want for each and naming the new one something different from the old. Then you can arrange them however you like.