Oblivion Mods FAQ

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How to find, install, make, and get help with Oblivion mods.

Updated 04-24-2009

by dev_akm (with a lot of help from others) --Dev akm 17:11, 6 June 2006 (EDT) t

This FAQ is primarily aimed at mod users rather than mod makers, but as such it addresses a lot of basic issues about how users will play a mod, and thus serves as a good introduction to mods in general.

This FAQ is intended to be a living document, so I frequently update parts of it and add new material. If you're trying to find information about Oblivion mods or mod-making, it's worth checking here to see if I've added something about it. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or corrections you'd like to contribute, you can edit the appropriate section yourself and I will review your suggested changes.

What are mods?

(adapted from a Morrowind Mods topic by Tegger)

What are mods? Are they the same as plug-ins, patches, or expansions? What do they do? Will they mess up my game? What else do I need to know before using them or making them?

Mods are modifications of the original game.

The terms "mod" and "plug-in" are interchangeable (in other words: yes, they're the same). Patches and expansions are not the same, however. Patches are official files intended to correct errors in the original game, and expansions add official content to the game.

Some mods add content (such as new weapons, NPCs, quests, clothing, faces, buildings, etc.), and others seek to balance issues in the original game, such as making items or NPCs either more or less powerful. Still others seek to improve upon what was already in the game in various other ways.

Mods for Oblivion are a lot less likely to cause game-breaking problems than with Morrowind, due to major improvements in the way the game engine handles mods. This doesn't mean mods can't cause problems. It does mean that Oblivion mods can almost always be removed safely if you decide you don't like them.

Before using mods, you'll need to decide what kind you want to play. No one can answer that for you, so don't bother asking very broad questions on the forums such as "Which mods should I download?" It's fine to ask for other members' opinions on specific mods you're thinking of downloading, though.

Note: Many veteran players recommend that you not use many (if any) mods if you haven't yet played the game through at least one time. You can always replay later with mods installed, and you'll be better able to recognize what the mods added to the game. On the other hand, if there are things you don't like about the original game, chances are that someone has already made or is working on a mod to change that aspect of the game.

While many players only run a few simple mods that change some basic elements of the game, many other players run 50, 100, or even 200+ mods at once, dramatically altering and expanding numerous aspects of the game, as well as adding thousands of new weapons, armor, spells, NPCs, creatures, companions, dungeons, and quests. Oblivion is capable of running roughly 250 mods at one time, depending on your system, so the possibilities are almost limitless.

If you're ready to go get some mods, see the section "Where can I find good mods?" (below).

And for those new to using mods, don't forget to also see "How do I install mods?".

If you think you're ready to try your hand at making a mod, the first thing you should do is see "How do I make a mod?"

Where can I find good mods?

If you already know something about what you're looking for (like the author's name or a keyword like "armor"), then your best bet for finding a mod may be Buddah's List o' Links (downloadable XL spreadsheet) since it includes mods from all the major hosting sites. Also, ES Search provides a very simple and effective search tool for multiple mod sites, and the ES Forum Archive keeps old discussion threads that may have been purged from the official Bethesda forums.

If you don't have any idea where to start or what you're looking for, then the vast number and variety of mods available for Oblivion can be quite intimidating. Fortunately, there are a few really good lists of "recommended mods" that can help you get started. These lists tend to get outdated pretty quickly, so here's a list of lists:

However, these "recommended" lists are really just a starting place. The full scope of what's available is staggering. The ESF Mods forum keeps a pinned thread with an alphabetical list of Oblivion mod download sites, which can help you find lots more good stuff. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of sites is a bit overwhelming, so it may be wise to start out by looking at the largest of the download sites. Here's a few of them:

  • TESNexus -- Previously known as TESSource, this site is by far the largest database of Oblivion mods. Mods are uploaded by their creators with little or no intervention or review by the site's moderators. Downloads are free, as with all such sites, but the paid membership option offers some great extra features and is worth considering.
  • PlanetElderScrolls -- This site has fewer mods than TESSource, but all of the mods are checked by moderators before being released. Many people make the mistake of thinking PlanetElderScrolls requires you to pay for a membership. This is not true. It's not necessary to pay for access to PlanetElderScrolls -- they just make it a bit tricky to spot the free options. You just need to sign up for a free account and then when you go to download a mod, the list of download mirrors sites will pop up. All of the first ones you see in the list are paid-only premium servers, but if you wait a minute for everything to finish loading and scroll down to the bottom, you will see where the free servers are listed. The free servers work great.
  • ElricM and TES File Front -- These sites are smaller than the first two, but they host some excellent mods, often ones you can't get anywhere else. ElricM doesn't offer paid memberships, but they do accept donations via PayPal and Amazon. TES File Front appears to be supported entirely by advertising.

Also, bridgepiece has written an excellent guide on how to avoid Fake/Malicious Mods.

How do I avoid corrupt downloads?

Q. I keep getting corrupt or incomplete downloads. Why can't I download this? Can you host it somewhere else?

Quick tips for a successful download:

  • Check free drive space.
  • Disable firewall.
  • Use a Download Manager

There are quite a few very large mods for Oblivion, and a lot of players seem to have trouble downloading them.

If you're having trouble downloading a large mod file, especially when the download consistently dies just before finishing, chances are that it's your firewall causing the problem. Temporarily disable the firewall, download the file, then re-enable the firewall. You should also check to make sure you have enough free space on your boot drive (where the temp file is kept during the download) and wherever you're saving the file. Using a Download Manager is also a very good idea, and may be critical for some really huge mods.

(The following is adapted from Using a Download Manager by Monica21.)

With very large mods, it's a good idea to use a download manager. Among some critical features like the ability to resume downloads when connections are lost, download managers also claim to speed up downloads by opening up multiple connections. The idea is that if one connection is good, then 5, 8, 10 or even 20 simultaneous connections must be terrific. This probably isn't really the case most of the time since the limiting factor is probably your connection speed. However, download managers are critical when attempting to download very large files. Some work better than others.

Here's a few that work well:

How do I install mods?

This depends largely on where the mod came from and how it was packaged.

The Bethesda official mods come packaged with an automatic installer that does everything for you. Once you've downloaded the .exe for an official mod, just double-click it to launch and follow the prompts. However, if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, the official mod installer will not work.

Fan-made mods often require a bit more involved process to install, unless they come as a self-installing .exe, in which case you can just double-click it as with the official mods. However, it's fairly rare to find mods that install this easily. It's much more likely that you'll need to install the mod manually by copying files from the mod package (typically a .zip, .7z or .rar file) to the Oblivion\Data directory.

If the mod comes packaged as an .omod file, then the installation process is very easy but requires an extra tool called Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM). The .omod format is popular, supports advanced install scriping, and has been widely used for several years, but it's still far less common than standard manual archive formats. The reason for this is that OBMM requires either that that mod package be provided in OMOD format, or that the user convert the original mod archive to an OMOD before installing it.

A new feature of Wrye Bash called Bain hopes to make the installation process easier for typical manual archive formats. Using Bain, some standard manually installable mods can also be automatically installed.

Note that an important feature of both OBMM and Bain is their ability to uninstall mods. This is important since it reduces resource and directory clutter (too much clutter can affect Oblivion performance for a variety of reasons). Better mod file management can also remove some obscure sources of errors. (Note that manually removing mods can be difficult if the mod contains a lot of files, in which case it is usually a task best left to one of these two tools.)

OBMM

Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) is the original and most popular mod installer for Oblivion. It has a variety of special tools and abilities that make for powerful installation processes.

When mods are provided in OMOD format, they're very easy to work with. When mods are not provided in OMOD format, they must be converted into OMOD format by the user. This is almost always very easy to do, but in a few cases it may be rather more complex, depending on the complexity of the mod involved.

Once an OMOD is acquired, it can be added to OBMM and then easily installed by double-clicking on it (or select it and click the Activate button). If you create the OMOD yourself, then it is automatically added to OBMM so you can easily install it the same way. The mod files will be extracted into the proper place and any required plugins will be enabled.

To uninstall a mod in OBMM, just double-click it again (or select the OMOD again and click the Deactivate button). OBMM will disable and uninstall the mod (removes all the files it installed).

Creating OMODs

Creating your own OMOD may seem intimidating at first, but it's really very simple after the first few times.

If you have already downloaded a mod archive that is organized correctly (i.e., the archive can be extracted directly to your data directory without any changes), then the basic process is as follows:

  1. Launch OBMM
  2. Click create
  3. Click add archive
  4. Browse to the mod archive you want to convert and open it (this will import the files from the selected archive)
  5. Check to make sure the data files were added with correct paths (switch to the Data Files view and make sure the file paths start with "Meshes\", "Textures\", etc.
  6. If the mod uses a plugin, right-click the main .esp file and select import mod details (this will usually fill in most of the fields for you)
  7. Fill in any blank fields (most are optional, except for name and version)
  8. Click create omod

If the mod includes optional files, or isn't organized correctly, you'll probably need to extract it to a temporary folder somewhere, rearrange it correctly with the options you want to use, and then use add folder instead of add archive. Alternately, if you're really ambitious and have some scripting experience, you can attach a script to the OMOD so it will prompt you for the option choices during Activation.

Unfortunately, most of the early tutorials written about OMOD creation have expired from ESF, but LHammonds' web site devoted to OBMM has several excellent OMOD tutorials. If you want to do more advanced things with OMODs, LHammonds also offers a very good introduction to OBMM scripting.

Bain

Bain is a new feature of Wrye Bash. It's available through the Bash: Installers Tab. It offers some potential advantages and may become more popular in the future.

Bain was specifically designed to work well with most manually installable archives, which means that most existing mod archives should work fine without changes and archives designed specifically to work with Bain can also work well as manually installable archives.

To add a mod package to Bain, simply download it to the Bain Installers directory. Archives with a simple structure will work immediately with no extra effort required. More complex archives may require some restructuring before all of their components are available.

Once a package is available in Bain, you can configure and install it. The process is typically:

  1. For complex packages, activate sub-packages as desired.
  2. For mods with alternate/optional esps/esms, use the Esp/m Filter list to ignore plugins that you want to skip.
  3. Right-click the mod and choose "Install".

To uninstall a package in Bain, right-click it and choose "Uninstall".

For more information on Bain, see:

Manual Installation

If you'd rather install mods manually, Apy has written a good beginner's guide to Installing Oblivion mods (includes screenshots). For a more detailed explanation of this process, read the next section of this FAQ.

Note however, that it's difficult to manually un-install mods that have many resources. The difficulty lies not just in finding all of the resources to remove, but also in avoiding removal of resources that are in use by other mods. The ability to uninstall mods is one of the major reasons for using a mod installer.

Mods on Windows Vista

Installing mods on a Windows Vista system is bit trickier than it is on Windows XP due to Vista's increased security.

For best results, it is recommended to install Oblivion to a location other than the default C:\Program Files\ folder. Another location such as C:\Oblivion\ or D:\games\Oblivion\ will work better. This will avoid the file permission problems many users have experienced due to the increased security restrictions Vista places on the Program Files folder.

Official Plug-ins

Bethesda's official mods for Oblivion are available for PC players from the Oblivion Downloads site.

UESP.net has an excellent guide called Oblivion: Official Plug-ins, which includes details about Installation Issues under Windows XP, Windows Vista and the especially problematic 64-bit Windows variants.

How do I install plug-ins manually?

(based on a Morrowind tutorial by lochnarus)

FOR BEGINNER MOD USERS

Locating Oblivion Data Folder

This will be located wherever you installed Oblivion, so it is usually: 

 C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\

Unless you installed Oblivion in a non-standard location, in which case the path will be: 

 <install path>\Oblivion\Data\

For example, a lot of people install Oblivion to: 

 C:\games\

Because it's a lot easier to find things there than under "Program Files\etc".

In this case, the path would be: 

 C:\games\Oblivion\Data\

Under Windows Vista, if you installed Oblivion under C:\Program Files\, you may need to install mods in the "virtualized" per-user "program files" path under: 

 C:\Users\%user%\appdata\local\virtualstore\programdata\

If you're not sure where you installed it, one easy way to locate the folder is to go to your desktop, right-click on the Oblivion icon, select Properties, and select the Shortcut tab. The path to your main Oblivion directory is shown in the "Start in" box.

You will know you've found the correct location if you find several very large files that look like this: 

 Oblivion.esm
 Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa
 Oblivion - Voices1.bsa
 etc.

This is the final destination where you will put the mod files. Don't put anything there yet, though.

If you want to be able to easily revert to the unmodified version of Oblivion, you can make a backup of the entire Data folder at this point (assuming you have plenty of free drive space). Doing this will avoid the need to reinstall Oblivion if you ever have a major problem down the road. You may also want to consider installing the 1.1 patch before making the backup so you don't have to reinstall the patch either.

When you're ready to install a mod, you will need to download the mod archive to a temporary folder and extract it, so let's talk about that next.

File Compression

Virtually all Oblivion mods are "compressed" into one easy to download file that is commonly referred to as a "zip" file or "archive". This makes the file smaller and keeps everything in one file. There are numerous types of these programs:

All of which can be found by doing a search on Google. Each one is different and some of them will not open all of the file formats from the rest of them. For example: 

 .7z - opens with 7zip, PowerArchiver, WinRAR, IZArc, but not WinZip
 .rar - opens with 7zip, PowerArchiver, WinRAR, IZArc, but not WinZip
 .ace - opens with Winace, PowerArchiver, WinRAR, IZArc, but not 7zip or WinZip

...and so on.

7zip is favored by many mod makers because it can produce dramatically smaller files than the other formats. It's also free, open-source, and supports most of the other common formats, so if you want to cover all your bases with one download, get 7zip. This is a personal bias on my part. Many people will argue in favor of one of the other tools.

Unzipping to a Temporary Location

Double click on your downloaded mod file. The program should open it, displaying the files inside. Depending on which mod you are unzipping, it should have an .esp file (looks like a swiss army knife), a "Meshes" folder, a "Textures" folder, and lastly a README file. Sometimes mods will have all their files placed into mock directory folders, like so: 

  Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\

this is for automatically unzipping the files in to your \Oblivion\Data\ folder, which I NEVER do. You're bound to come across a mod that will not unzip correctly and you'll have loose files cluttering up your folders. (This is a MANUAL installation guide, after all.)

Select ALL the files by highlighting them. Then select the program's "extract" feature and a new window should come up asking WHERE to unzip it to. You will now need to pick a folder to be a temporary folder. It's probably a good idea to create a temporary "mods" folder in an easy-to-find location such as "My Documents"...

Some archive programs will also let you use a right-click method of extraction, with simplifies the process. In this case, download the mod to your temporary directory, then right-click it to see what options you have. You should see a menu choice for the archive program, and under that a submenu (or "context" menu) that says something like "Extract Here" or "Extract to ...". WinRAR even has an "Extract each archive to separate folder" option which will allow you to highlight all of your archives and extract each to its own folder with two clicks of the mouse. I find this method significantly easier to use once you get used to it.

In either case, you'll need to extract (i.e., "unzip") the files to the temporary folder. Then open that folder and you will see either exactly the items you need, or you may have to dig down a bit further.

If the mod-maker structured things correctly, it is most common to find some combination of items like this: 

  "mod file".esp (usually whatever the mod was named)
  Meshes
  Textures
  "mod file README".txt (or any text filetype)
  ArchiveInvalidation.txt

However, you might have to keep digging down a bit to find this stuff, so if you don't see a structure like that, then open any other folders you find until you get to the "Data" folder with those items in it.

With some mods, you might POSSIBLY have these folders: 

  Video
  Music
  Sound
  LSData
  Menus
  Shaders

Select all of these items -- except ArchiveInvalidation.txt, which we'll deal with in a minute -- and copy/paste or drag them into your Oblivion "Data" folder (described in Step 1 above).

If you already have some of these folders, Windows will prompt you with a warning about files with the same name. Click "Yes to All".

That's it! The mod is installed. Just a few more details and you're ready to go.

Archive Invalidation

Oblivion normally gets all of its media assets (artwork, spoken dialog, music, etc.) from within a few large .bsa files rather than in individual folders (such as Meshes, Textures, Sound, etc.). The original game and official plugins use these .bsa files (it stands for Bethesda Softworks Archive). These .bsa files are organized internally just like your "Data" folder is.

Although fan-made mods are starting to use .bsa files more often, most mods still place individual meshes, textures, etc. into folders within your "Data" directory. This isn't a problem for new items added by a mod, but it can be a problem for some "replacer" mods that alter original game items. For example, some of the most popular types of mods are "armor texture replacers" and "landscape texture replacer" mods that improve the look of the game by replacing the original "stock" textures.

Normally, this isn't a problem since Oblivion is designed to automatically load any meshes, textures, etc. that it finds in your Data folder, as long as the timestamp (Modification Date) on each of these files is more recent than the timestamp on the original .bsa files. Since the .bsa files are older, items in them get replaced by any newer items with the same name that exist in your Data folders.

In some cases, however, this doesn't work correctly. It now seems fairly certain that this is caused by a bug in Oblivion's ArchiveInvalidation system itself. After more than a year and several official game patches, it seems unlikely that Bethesda will ever correct this bug. This means you will have to use one of several workarounds if you want to install any "replacer" mods.

Further details on this subject, as well as extensive testing results for ArchiveInvalidation problems in general, can be found in the article ArchiveInvalidation Explained (the ESF threads on the topic have expired).

Each of the known workaround solutions has advantages and disadvantages. The first two methods in the list below -- BSA-alteration and BSA-redirection -- are the only recommended solutions. The last two methods -- BSA-invalidation and BSA-extraction -- have such serious drawbacks that they are not recommended solutions. Here's the list of methods along with some description of what's involved in each:

  • BSA-alteration: This was the first true solution to the problem. It is widely used, very reliable, fairly simple, and most Oblivion mod users are by now familiar with using it. The disadvantages are that you must use one of several external tools (not a big deal since you probably need one of these tools anyway), you must update the BSA changes after installing or removing any replacer mods (although most of the tools will do this in an automated way), and you must remember to remove BSA changes before applying any of the official patches from Bethesda.
  • BSA-redirection: This is a newer solution that has proven to be very effective. This method has advantages that make it preferable over BSA-alteration. The biggest advantage is that it does not require any external tools (although it does require you to install some files and you may want to use a tool to help you configure it) and once it's set up, you can pretty much forget about it (no intervention is required after adding or removing any replacer mods).
  • BSA-invalidation: This was the first solution discovered, and as a result was the most widely used method for a long time. However, it has severe limitations and problems and is rarely used anymore because of this. Unfortunately, many early mods still recommend this solution, so lots of users get fooled into thinking it's a good idea. In fact, it's a terrible idea under most circumstances and the only way to make it work reliably is to also use BSA-extraction (see below). You should avoid this method if at all possible.
  • BSA-extraction: This solution works well for mod creators (who often need to have the source files extracted from the BSAs anyway). However, it has major disadvantages for mod players and because of this it is not discussed in any great detail here.

Next we'll examine these methods in a bit more detail.

BSA-redirection

This method works by tricking the Oblivion game engine into using its bugged ArchiveInvalidation method on the wrong BSA file. By doing this, it allows all files in the main Textures BSA to be reliably superseded by any more recent files found in your Textures folder.

OBMM

For OBMM users:

  1. Start OBMM.
  2. Click Utilities.
  3. Select Archive invalidation. You'll get a popup window.
  4. Click BSA redirection (it's the default choice).
  5. Click Update Now.
  6. Close the Archive invalidation popup (click the red X in the upper-left corner).
  7. Quit OBMM or click Launch Oblivion.
Wrye Bash (Bain)

For Wrye Bash users:

  1. Start Wrye Bash.
  2. Go to Installers tab.
  3. Right-click the column header.
  4. Select "BSA Redirection".
Mod

Alternately, you can install a mod specifically designed to do BSA-redirection. It's called ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated!.

Manual

You can also set up BSA-redirection fairly easily yourself if you don't mind a bit of tweaking. In the Oblivion.ini file, there is a configuration entry called the SArchiveList. It lists all of the standard BSA files. It normally looks like this: 

  SArchiveList=Oblivion - Meshes.bsa, Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa, Oblivion - Sounds.bsa,
  Oblivion - Voices1.bsa, Oblivion - Voices2.bsa, Oblivion - Misc.bsa

By changing the list to include another BSA containing at least one texture, you can trick the game engine into processing the bugged ArchiveInvalidation logic for that new dummy file rather than the real Textures BSA (called Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa). So, the modified SArchiveList should look something like this: 

  SArchiveList=DUMMYFILE.bsa, Oblivion - Meshes.bsa, Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa, 
  Oblivion - Sounds.bsa, Oblivion - Voices1.bsa, Oblivion - Voices2.bsa, Oblivion - Misc.bsa

To do this, you'll need to either use a BSA file that came with some other mod to be your DUMMYFILE.bsa (any BSA file containing at least one texture should work) or create one yourself using a tool like BSA Commander (you only need to put one texture in the BSA).

Warning: BSA-redirection relies on date precedence to override the textures BSA. This is generally not a problem, since most mod files are more recent than the standard Bethesda ones. Still, if you run into problems with some textures not loading, you may want to check the dates on the files. All replacement files must be dated more recently than the associated BSA file. If they're not, you can either give the BSA an older date or give the replacements a more recent date. Useful tools for doing this include FileDate Changer (for changing specific dates on specific files) and RTouch (for recursively changing the dates on a lot of files).

BSA-alteration

BSA-alteration requires one of these tools:

What OBMM, BSA Patcher and Wrye Bash do is to sidestep the ArchiveInvalidation problem by making Oblivion think it never had a copy of the textures you are replacing.

In other words, these utilities edit your Textures BSA so that Oblivion cannot find the original version of texture files you have replaced, thus forcing the game to load the replacements instead of the originals.

Oblivion Mod Manager

Download Oblivion Mod Manager.

OBMM will keep track of which files have been renamed in your BSAs and provides a Remove BSA edits function to rollback any changes it has made to your BSA just in case you don't like the results. You should probably make a backup of your BSA files if you have the space (or a DVD-burner) just in case, but so far nobody has reported any corruption issues. OBMM supports a more complex set of options for BSA Alteration than Wrye Bash does, but none of these extra options are necessary. Only textures need invalidation.

OBMM requires .NET 2.0 to work, so if you can't run .NET 2.0 then you'll need to use BSA Patcher instead.

Assuming you have OBMM 0.7.10 or later installed already, and have already installed this mod, the steps you need to take are as follows:

  1. Start OBMM.
  2. Click Utilities.
  3. Select Archive invalidation.
  4. Click BSA alteration (called Directly Edit BSAs in older versions).
  5. Check Textures.
  6. Check Generate archiveinvalidation entries on hash collision.
  7. Check autoupdate on exit and/or click Update Now.
  8. Close the Archive invalidation popup (click the red X in the upper-left corner).
  9. Quit OBMM or click Launch Oblivion.

Here's a screenshot of the exact options to use in OBMM 0.7.11:

Recommended OBMM settings for BSA-alteration

You can try different settings if you want, but these are known to work. You do need to make sure to check the box for Generate archiveinvalidation entries on hash collision, since that setting is critical. Using the above settings in OBMM will take care of everything for you.

If you didn't check the box for autoupdate on exit, then you'll need to click Update Now after each new mod you install.

For more detail on the BSA-alteration method of invalidation, please see ArchiveInvalidation Explained.

Wrye Bash

Download Wrye Bash.

The Wrye Bash Replacers Tab and its BSA-Alteration technique are officially deprecated as of Wrye Bash version 245, having both been superceeded by the newer Installers Tab and BSA-redirection technique, respectively. See the section on BSA-redirection above. However, if you have an old version of Wrye Bash, or still need BSA-Alteration for some reason, then read on!

Wrye Bash provides a Replacers Tab that lets you easily add/remove texture replacement mods. It keeps track of which files have been renamed in your Textures BSA and provides a Restore button to rollback any changes it has made to your BSA (if you don't like the results for some reason). You can use the Replacers tab in several different ways:

  • Manual update: Click the Update button after adding/removing replacers. This also works on any replacers you already have installed manually or via another program (like OBMM).
  • Automatic update: Check the Automatic checkbox. The Textures BSA will be automatically updated whenever you add or remove a Replacer. Only works for texture mods installed/removed using the Replacers tab.

You should probably make a backup of your BSA files if you have the space (or a DVD-burner) just in case, but so far nobody has reported any corruption issues.

Wrye Bash requires Python 2.5 and wxPython 2.8.0.1 ANSI to work.

Assuming you have Wrye Bash 0.61 or later installed already, and have already installed a one or more texture replacement mods, the steps you need to take are as follows:

  1. Start Wrye Bash.
  2. Click Replacers tab.
  3. Click the Update button under Archive invalidation.
  4. Quit Wrye Bash

Note that Wrye Bash checks to make sure you don't already have any active BSA alterations from OBMM or BSA Patcher before allowing you to use this feature.

BSA Patcher

Download BSA Patcher.

BSA Patcher is a standalone program that will run with .NET 1.1 or with mono for those who don't have .NET 2.0. Like OBMM, it will rename textures in your BSA files if you also have the same texture in your Data folders. It does not offer all of the configuration options found in OBMM, but it will get the job done. The latest version (as of this writing) uses the same BSA alteration code from OBMM 0.7.10 and is vastly easier to use than previous versions.

You should probably still make a backup of your BSA files before using it just in case, but nobody has reported any corruption problems so far.

BSA Patcher automatically invalidates ALL replacement files, regardless of type. This is not really necessary, since only textures have a problem loading, but it does get the job done.

Put BSAPatch.exe into your Oblivion\Data folder and double-click it once to rename textures in your BSA. Run it again to restore them to their original names.

You can find more information on BSAPatch usage in ArchiveInvalidation Destroyed.

Other Solutions

If you don't use BSA-alteration or BSA-redirection for some reason, then the only way to convince Oblivion to load these problem textures from the individual folders rather than from the .bsa files is to specifically force it to do this by creating a special file called (you guessed it) "ArchiveInvalidation.txt".

The ArchiveInvalidation.txt lists the relative path (from the "Data" folder) of texture files you want to replace the default artwork shipped with the game.

As a result of the extensive testing reported in the ArchiveInvalidation Explained threads, we now have very clear information about how ArchiveInvalidation works and how it fails to work. Suffice to say that it can get extremely complicated.

My current best practice, based on the above-mentioned research, is that ArchiveInvalidation.txt should only list just the DDS textures from the original game that are being replaced by individual files in your Data folders. In other words, this means it should only contain entries for texture replacement mods. No meshes, sounds, or voices should be listed.

Be aware, however, that many earlier approaches recommended listing ALL your moded meshes/textures/etc. in ArchiveInvalidation.txt, regardless of whether they replace anything from the original game.

If you do use any texture replacement mods, there is a high probability you will need an ArchiveInvalidation.txt file listing these replacements (if you don't use the OBMM's "Directly Edit BSAs" feature). Without it, chances are that many of Bethesda's default textures will continue to be loaded. Also, if you have bad entries in your ArchiveInvalidation.txt file, or even in some cases if your ArchiveInvalidation.txt file is perfectly correct, you may see items in the game appearing purple or even invisible.

Given all these warnings, if you still want to try using an ArchiveInvalidation.txt file, there are several fan-created tools that will generate these file listings for you automatically.

ElChE's Oblivion Automatic Content Validator 1.1.0 (also called Automatic Content Validator) will create an ArchiveInvalidation.txt file for you automatically, and it also does some other very useful things like making sure all of your meshes have valid texture paths. Be sure to get 1.0.2 or later because it adds the option to only generate listings for replacer files. You may need to manually remove any meshes from the list it generates.

Oblivion Mod Manager, which we mentioned earlier, also has an excellent set of options for automatically creating the ArchiveInvalidation.txt. This process executes automatically every time you quit from OBMM or use OBMM to launch Oblivion. Make sure to get version 0.7.10 or later.

If you prefer to create ArchiveInvalidation.txt by hand, this will work fine, but you can probably guess that it will quickly become a huge problem to maintain all the file listings if you try new replacers very often.

If you do create it by hand, here's what you need to do.

Create a text file named "ArchiveInvalidation.txt" in your main Oblivion folder. This is not the "Data" folder, but is one level up from that, in the same folder with OblivionLauncher.exe and Oblivion.exe. The reason for placing it here is primarily to avoid accidentally overwriting it when you install a new mod.

(You can put the ArchiveInvalidation.txt into your "Data" folder if you want. It will work there as well, but be wary of accidentally overwriting it during mod installation.)

For the sake of creating an example, let's say you have two replacer mods, one that replaces the texture for Daedric cuirasses and one that replaces the texture for glass shields. Your ArchiveInvalidation.txt would look something like this: 

  textures/armor/Daedric/cuirass.dds
  textures/armor/glass/shield.dds

Note that textures whose names end with "_g.dds" and "_n.dds" don't need to be listed. Other DDS files that don't need to be listed include those in the Menu directory and those in "icon" directories.

If your replacer mod came packaged with an ArchiveInvalidation.txt file, you can copy and paste the contents of the lines of that file into yours. If you do this, be careful not to accidentally paste over any lines that you've previously added for other replacer mods.

Many people claim to use a "universal" or "global" ArchiveInvalidation.txt. However, extensive testing by numerous people has determined that this approach does not work at all. It is the same as running with no ArchiveInvalidation.txt file. If someone offers advice saying you should use a file like this: 

  meshes/ \s
  textures/ \s
  sounds/ \s

Don't believe it. It's a great urban legend, but it doesn't work.

Playing the Mod

The only thing left to do now is to activate the mod. Note that some mods, like texture replacers, don't need an .esp, in which case you can skip this step.

  • If you are using Wrye Bash, then you can activate your new plugin ESP and ESM files from the Mods tab.
  • If you are using Oblivion Mod Manager, either with or without .omod's, then you can activate your mods using the ESP list on the left.
  • If you do not use OBMM or Wrye Bash, open the Oblivion Launcher and click the "Data Files" button. This will show you an alphabetical listing of all the .esm and .esp files you have installed.

Regardless of which method you use, you must make sure the plugins you want to use are checked with an "X" using one of these tools. The Oblivion.esm file must always be checked. The others shown in this list (usually .esp files) will represent whatever mods you have installed.

If you did everything correctly, you should have no problems with your newly-installed mod.

You can launch the game and test it out now.

Note that if you play with a very large number of mods (i.e., more than 100), it's a good idea to keep most of your inactive mods somewhere other than in the \Oblivion\Data\ folder. Having a very large number of inactive mods in the Data folder can cause system slowdowns and crashes. You can just move them into a separate subfolder (i.e., "InactiveMods" or something similar). Wrye Bash includes a feature to help you "hide" such inactive mods.

Can I get these mods on my Xbox-360?

The Official mods from Bethesda are available for the Xbox-360 via Xbox Live Marketplace.

Fan-made mods are NOT available for the Xbox-360.

How do I solve a problem with a mod? (Common Issues)

(some parts of this are adapted from the article Optimising Oblivion v3.0: Into Modblivion by Martigen)

Q. I installed the patch, how do I get my texture mods back?

The most common issues people have had with Oblivion mods are:

  1. Known Bugs
  2. The Official Patches
  3. Load order and mod conflicts
  4. Load order, mod names, and lost items
  5. ArchiveInvalidation problems
  6. Performance tuning
  7. Tracking down problems with specific mods

Known Bugs

There is a long list of known bugs in Oblivion that are often mistaken for problems introduced by mods. Before you assume that a bug is caused by a mod, it's a good idea to be sure the problem isn't a generic issue. Many of the fixable bugs are already corrected by the official patches (see below) and the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. Many generic issues with Oblivion are listed here (along with some workarounds). Another good list of known bugs with the game engine and TESCS can be found in the Troubleshooting category.

The Official Patches

The official 1.1 and 1.2 patches from Bethesda both impact the display of texture packs and the operation of mods.

Before installing the patch, make sure you have the original, unmodified versions of Oblivion.exe, Oblivion.esm, 'Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa', and the default shaders. To do this:

  • If you've been using Oblivion Mod Manager or BSA Patcher to alter your BSA files (as suggested in this guide), make sure you Remove BSA edits before applying the patch.
  • If you've been using Wrye Bash's BSA-Alteration feature, go to the Replacers tab and click Restore.

The patch updates the compressed textures .bsa file, causing it to have a newer date than your texture replacement mods, and giving the textures in the .bsa file priority. The best solution for this is:

  • Re-set the date on 'Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa' back to its original date (24th Jan 2006). A handy tool for changing file dates is, funnily enough, FileDate Changer. [download] (credit goes to Koroush Ghazi of Tweakguides for this link)

If you follow both of these steps, your texture replacement mods should continue working just fine.

Oblivion.esm, the master data file, will have a new and recent date after the patch, causing it to appear near the end of your mod load order. Because this is an ESM file (Elder Scrolls Master), it will load before any ESP files (Elder Scrolls Plugin) and shouldn't cause any problems. However, if you have any other ESM files, you may need to reset the load order for Oblivion.esm. You can easily do this with Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM) or Wrye Bash:

  • In OBMM, set the view to 'Load order', click on 'Oblivion.esm', then click on 'Move up' until it's back at the very top.
  • In Wrye Bash, click the Load Order column header to sort your mods by Load Order, then click on 'Oblivion.esm' to select it and type Ctrl-UpArrow to move it back to the top of the list.

If you forgot to remove custom shaders before installing the patch, you will quickly notice a problem the first time you venture outside after installing the patch. Most of the landscape textures you see will be replaced with a miniature map of Cyrodiil.

Yellow Exclamation Marks

Many people have encountered problems with yellow exclamation marks appearing frequently in the game. The most common cause for this problem (by far) is that the user forgot to install (or incorrectly installed) the meshes for a mod. However, it can also happen because Bethesda changed the way the game loads BSA files in the 1.2 patch.

With Oblivion 1.2, Bethesda removed the ability to have an ESM file automatically load an associated BSA. However, BSAs that are associated with ESP files still autoload correctly. Some ESM-based mods (such as Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items) use a BSA for their artwork, so many users got burned by this change.

The typical solution is to register these problem BSA files in your Oblivion.ini so they always gets loaded when the game starts. To do this, add the BSA filename to the SArchiveList entry in your Oblivion.ini (\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini). If you do this, however, you should make sure the BSA has a nice short filename -- like NewItems.bsa or similar -- because the SArchiveList cannot be more than 255 characters long.

There is one other way to solve this for any problem BSAs. It's slightly more involved, but probably more elegant since it doesn't involve editing your Oblivion.ini (which can be a big help if you frequently recreate your ini file). The trick is to create a standard placeholder ESP that doesn't really do anything except autoload BSA files. For example, if you create a new plugin (or rename one that has a few simple game tweaks in it) to something like: 

 BSAloader.esp

then you can rename the problem BSA to be called something like: 

 BSAloader - Cool New Items.bsa

and as long as the BSA starts with the same name as the (active) placeholder ESP file, the BSA will load automatically without needing to be registered in your Oblivion.ini.

In fact this is exactly what Bethesda did with the Shivering Isles expansion BSAs. They created an empty placeholder ESP called DLCShiveringIsles.esp and then named all of the BSA files like DLCShiveringIsles - xxxx.bsa

If you're using BSA-Redirection, then you should already have an empty plugin named: 

 Oblivion.esp

(note the .esp part -- this is not the same as Oblivion.esm)

If you already have this plugin loading, then simply rename the problem BSA file to take advantage of it, like this: 

 Oblivion - Cool New Items.bsa

This will force the BSA to load without having it registered in your Oblivion.ini file.

Mod Load Order and Conflicts/Overlaps

It's inevitable that the more mods you use, the greater the chances some of them will clash. While mods that address different areas of the game are, for the most part, clearly compatible it's not so simple for mods of similar intentions, due to the way the game handles its data structures.

For example, if you want to use "Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul" but prefer a different rate of skill leveling as provided by the "Level Rates Modified" mod - how does Oblivion handle the conflict?

Quite simply actually - the last mod loaded takes precedence. So if you did want to use the skill rates that "Level Rates Modified" provides, simply ensure it's loaded after Oscuro's. And how do you do this? Glad you asked.

Setting the Load Order

Oblivion loads mods by order of date. Ensuring a mod is 'newer' than another causes it be loaded last, and thus take priority.

The problem with this is that the mod selector under 'Data files' in the Oblivion launcher lists mods alphabetically - good to find and choose the mods you want to use, but doesn't tell you the order they are loaded in.

The best way to see the load order - and more importantly, re-order them - is to use one of the excellent fan-made tools for managing your mods.

For Oblivion Mod Manager, you'll need .NET installed, but it's well worth it. From OBMM, making sure you are in the 'Load order' view (found in the bottom-left corner of the main window), you can simply click-and-drag a mod to change it's position in the load order. Alternatively, you can select the mod you want to move, and then use the 'Move up' or 'Move down' buttons to re-order them. You can also right-click on a mod and select Move to Top or Move to Bottom.

Be sure to get the latest version of OBMM (0.9.16 or later) since earlier versions had a problem with the Load Order View failing to sort masters (ESMs) and plugins (ESPs) properly. ESMs always load before ESPs, but OBMM's load order view wasn't reflecting this fact until Version 0.9.16 or later. You can also export a copy of your load order and then reload it later if something goes wrong or you just don't like the way things are working with your load order changes.

For Wrye Bash, you'll need Python and wxPython installed, but it's also well worth the hassle. From the Mods tab, sort your mods by Load Order (click the Load Order column header), then select a single mod and type Ctrl-UpArrow or Ctrl-DownArrow to change its position in the list.

If you run a lot of mods, need to change your load order a lot, or install frequent updates, it's arguably easier to use Wrye Bash to manage your load order. Like recent versions of OBMM, it properly sorts masters (ESMs) and plugins (ESPs). It provides a Lock Times feature that keeps mods "locked" into their place in the list (much like an automated version of OBMM's Export/Import Load Order). This means that if you install some new mod updates, you don't need to worry about the load order because as soon as you launch Wrye Bash it will instantly reset your plugins back to the dates they had the last time you arranged them. It also lets you Ctrl-Click to select a whole group of plugins at once and then change the dates for them all at the same time (right-click in the list of selected mods and then pick file->redate). This is extremely useful if you need to move a whole bunch of files up or down in your load order.

It's perfectly fine to use both OBMM and Wrye Bash, but be careful if you use Lock Times in Wrye Bash and then change the order for some things in OBMM. If you use both programs and you want to alter the order of your mods in OBMM, you should first disable the Lock Times option in Wrye Bash or it will revert your changes the next time you launch it.

See General Load-Order Guidelines for more detail on which types of mods should go where in your load order.

Checking Conflicts/Overlaps

For a more detailed explanation of this topic, see the pinned thread Conflicts and You, as well as Understanding Mod Conflict Reports.

Probably the best tool to use for exploring overlaps between mods is TES4View. This utility will let you easily see how multiple mods interact and override each other, as well as giving you a quick view of the changes that a plugin makes. It lets you browse a graphical record tree of your active plugins, revealing the values set by most record types and comparing overlapping changes from each active plugin. You can also use TES4View as an editor to easily resolve conflicts and do many other advanced editing jobs not possible using TESCS.

TES4View also has a sibling, TES4Dump, which produces a text report with most of the same detailed information.

You can also test to see where mods overlap using OBMM, but this is a lot less accurate than TES4View since it doesn't let you see exactly what was changed. To use it, simply click 

 Utilities -> Conflict Report

and look at the list. Don't worry about 'green' or 'yellow' warnings, mods crossing data entities here are compatible unless they edit the exact same object (such as a location on a map), which is rare. The conflicts to look for are those in red - these are the ones where only one mod or the other can have its changes go through, and again the mod loaded last will stick.

If it looks a little overwhelming, follow this guide: as the leveled list mods like Oscuro's or Sagerbliv's are the most important with regards to balance, load these mods last with the exception of specific changes you want to make to them. For example, you may want to load a mod like Level Rates Modified after Oscuro's to adjust the skill gain rates differently than Oscuro does by default. This way you get the best of both worlds.

Lots of players make the mistake of getting overly worried about red conflicts, so this is worth restating. Stop worrying so much!

When you have conflicts, even red ones, it just means that two mods are changing the same thing and the last one will get precedence over any earlier ones. OBMM lists mods in the order they load, and you can easily change the load order using the move up or move down buttons (behind the scenes, OBMM is changing the dates on the files to alter the load order).

It is fairly rare to find conflicts that actually break anything. The conflict report is mostly useful for tracking down problems where a mod is not working the way it's supposed to work because a later mod changes the same thing. In this case you just have to decide which behavior you prefer and then move that mod down (later) in the load order so it gets precedence by loading last. If you really want to use conflicting changes from more than one mod at the same time, check to see if anyone has released a compatibility patch to make the mods work together, and if not you may be able to merge the two mods together using TES4Gecko.

Load Order, Mod Names and Lost Items

Many people have experienced problems with losing stuff they had previously acquired after installing a new mod or updating an existing mod. This happens because Oblivion savegames keep track of items based in part on the load order and based in part on the mod filename.

If you've been playing with some mods for a while and then add a new mod or update an existing one, this may change the load order (a new mod may have an older date than mods already in the list, or an updated mod may have a newer date than the previous version. Frequently, mod .esp filenames include a version number, which helps you and the author to keep track of which version is old and which version is new, but it also means that the filename will change when you replace an existing mod with an updated .esp file.

Changing the load order of a mod does not seem to have much effect on whether Oblivion can keep track of that mod, so generally this is not a problem. However, changing the filename of the ESP will almost always cause Oblivion to lose track of previous data for that mod. This means the game will lose track of which mod an item came from, your progress in a quest added by a mod, or even worse, which mod added a storage container that you've stored a bunch of stuff in. If this happens, the items in question may disappear from your inventory or from a storage container.

Load order is critical for making sure you get the changes you want when more than one mod changes the same thing(s), as noted above in the "Load Order and Conflicts" section. Since the "Data Files" selector you get when running the default OblivionLauncher.exe lists mods alphabetically, you have no way of knowing what the load order is without using an external tool or using Windows Explorer to sort your "Data" folder by date.

This is yet another powerful argument for using a tool like Wrye Bash or Oblivion Mod Manager. They can list mods in load order. OBMM also automatically adds new mods to the end of the load list so they don't mess with your existing load order, although this feature can be problematic when installing updates to mods you already have. OBMM and Wrye Bash also make it easy to move mods up and down in list so you can make sure that an update to an existing mod gets moved into the same position previously occupied by the old version. They both also let you keep a version number for the mod without having to include it in the .esp filename.

Mod-makers should avoid the practice of naming mods with a version number, because users installing a mod update that has an even slightly different .esp filename is a surefire way to make their savegame lose track of any related data (such as loot they won or items they stored in cells or containers added by the mod). Most of the time, keeping the same .esp filename on all versions of a mod will prevent lost data even if the load order of the .esp file changes.

Note: You can use Wrye Bash to rename the masters of your savegame, and thus move from an older to a newer version of a mod whose name has changed without losing any data.

Missing Textures or Meshes

If your ArchiveInvalidation.txt file does not contain the proper entries, or is in the wrong location, etc., you may notice that some or all of the textures you installed with a mod will not work properly. This usually shows up as items becoming invisible or appearing purple when playing the game. See the section How do I install mods? in this FAQ for more information.

If you're still having problems with invisible, purple, or black items, please see ArchiveInvalidation Explained.

If you're seeing large yellow exclamation marks, this is NOT an invalidation problem. It indicates missing meshes, which almost always means you either did not install all of the files needed for a mod or you installed them in the wrong place. It may also mean that one of your mods uses a BSA file that is not not registered in your Oblivion.ini (or forced to load some other way).

Performance Tuning

Oblivion is a very resource-intensive game and many different factors can cause it to run slowly even on a very powerful computer. If you're having FPS (frames-per-second) or other performance problems, or just want to get the most you can out of the game, the best bet is to read Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide. It's by far the most comprehensive guide to Oblivion performance tuning I've found. You may also find some other good tips in The Oblivion Texture Overhaul site.

Tracking Down Problems with Specific Mods

(adapted from a post by Kivan)

Q. Help! I just installed a bunch of mods and now everything is in Spanish! How do I figure out which mod is causing this problem so I can disable it?

If you're having problems with an item, building, NPC or any other object in the game, you can easily find out which mod (if any) has added or changed the object by using the Beta Comment file. Note that if more than one mod has changed the object, only the changes made by the last mod to load will actually affect the object, so it will be the one this technique will find.

To use the Beta Comment file, you will first need to enable it (if you haven't already). Start by editing your Oblivion.ini file: 

 My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

Double-clicking this file will usually open it in Notepad.

Look for the line: 

 SBetaCommentFileName=

If there isn't a filename after that already (which there won't be unless you already added it), you'll need to add a filename after it with a .txt extension (i.e., MyBetaComments.txt), so the line looks like this: 

 SBetaCommentFileName=MyBetaComments.txt

(Or whatever name you chose to use.)

Save your changes and close Notepad.

Once you've got the Beta Comment file enabled, follow these steps:

  1. Start Oblivion and find the mystery object.
  2. Open the console with the ` or ~ key, or whatever key is specific to your locale.
  3. Click on the object so that you see its name and reference ID (eight hexadecimal characters, ie "001C8F02") at the top of the screen.
  4. Typing in the console, add the comment with bc (for beta comment) followed by a space, followed by the comment in quotes, such as: bc "This object should not be here" (and try not to use punctuation as most of the symbols aren't allowed)
  5. It's a good idea to include the name of the object in the comment so you can use this as a search string later.
  6. Press Enter and you should see the message: Beta Comment added.
  7. Quit Oblivion (you can use qqq to quit right from the command console.)
  8. Go into the main Oblivion folder, the one where the game program and Data folder lives.
  9. There will be a file there with the name you chose above (i.e., MyBetaComments.txt in the example.) Open the file in Notepad.

Here's an example of what you will see in the file. It shows the date and time the comment was added, the filename of the source of the object, the last modification date and time of the file, the name of the logged-in user, the cell name or cell coordinates if it's outdoors, the X/Y/Z coordinates of the object, and the comment you added:

(NOTE: Due to restrictions on the width of this page, each single line has been returned and indented) 

 8/15/2006 (10:12)	Oblivion.esm	5/19/2006 (14:42)
	MyName		SomeOutdoorCell (8,3)	38235	14531	1508	"This looks fine"

 8/15/2006 (10:13)	PrankMod.esp	8/12/2006 (15:30)
	MyName		SomeIndoorCell	-1914	682	-80	"This object should not be here"

Anything with the source Oblivion.esm is from the original game and hasn't been altered. Anything that has been added by a mod will list the name of the problem mod, in this case the fictional "PrankMod.esp".

Unfortunately this may not always tell you which mod altered something from Oblivion.esm. Also, the spot where you would normally see the plugin name may be blank if the object came from Oblivion.esm. This is particularly true for spawned creatures or other dynamic elements placed with scripts because the modindex will point to your savegame rather than a plugin (you can tell if this is the case when the FormID starts with "ff").

The easiest solution is to use a special mod designed for tracking down spawned references and random items that have an "ff" modindex. There are two OBSE mods that can help you quickly find out where the base object case from: FormID Finder and RefScope.

If you don't want to use one of those OBSE mods, you can also usually get around this problem if you included the name of the object in your comment. Having the name or even part of the name will let you easily search through your plugins for this name using a free utility like WinGrep.

That's it! Now that you've found the problem mod, all you have to do is disable it by unchecking the .esp file in your Data Files selector (and/or you can delete the .esp file itself if you're really mad by now). If you like the mod and want to see the problem fixed, you can always open the plugin with the CS yourself and try to figure out what's wrong, or you can report the problem to the mod creator (and/or the mod community if you can't locate the creator) using a discussion forum such as ESF.

You can find more tips in Troubleshooting.

Console Commands and FormIDs

Many other console commands can be extremely useful when trying to track down issues, but such details are out of the scope of this FAQ. Please see the Console Functions category here and the UESP Console page for more details.

Console commands can be confusing because they often require the FormID of an object. The FormID is a hexadecimal number, such as 0A082B43C, that is slightly different in-game than it is in TESCS). If you're trying to figure out the in-game FormID for something, remember that the first two digits change depending on the load order of the source mod. The easiest way to figure this out is to use a tool like Wrye Bash, which shows you the ModIndex for each active plugin. See the UESP FormId page for more details.

Finding Your Location

In some cases you may need to know your location without using the beta comment method. You can do this using Debug Text. Open the console (~), then type: 

 SDT 31
 TDT

This will display location info as you travel around the game world.

Asking for Help

If you just can't seem to figure out the problem yourself, you can always post a request for help in your favorite mod forum. If you do this, however, be prepared to provide a complete list of the mods you're using and the order in which they are loaded. The easiest way to do this depends on which tools you have available.

If you use Wrye Bash (version 0.83 or later), you can right-click on the column header in the Mods tab, then select List Mods. If you want a list of which mods are used for a particular savegame, go to the Saves tab and select a savegame. If you have a recent version of Wrye Bash (0.80 or later), you can simply right-click the savegame and select List Masters from the context menu. If you have an older version, you'll need to look in the lower-right corner of the savegame details panel, right-click on the header of the Masters list (the header label says "File") and Choose Copy Masterlist. Either way, it will copy the load order list to your clipboard so you can paste it into Notepad or directly into your help request.

To do this with OBMM (version 1.04 or later), you can use the view load order command (select export/import->view load order).

You can also usually find a good list in your Plugins.txt file, which is typically located here: 

  C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion\Plugins.txt

Where <user> is your Windows login. You should be able to open this file in Notepad and copy/paste it into your help request, but it will be sorted alphabetically rather than by load order unless you use OBMM to set your load order (Wrye Bash doesn't sort that list by load order).

You can also use the standard Windows CMD prompt (Start->Run->CMD), and the following command sequence: 

 cd \Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data
 dir *.es* /od/b > C:\Mod_List.txt

This will create a new text file (C:\Mod_List.txt) containing a list of all your mods sorted by date. You can then open this file and copy/paste it into your help request.

To quickly find out where an object you see in the game comes from, there are two OBSE mods that can help a lot: FormID Finder and RefScope.

You can find more tips in Troubleshooting.

How do I make a mod?

The most important place to look for information about making mods, including many tutorials and how-to articles, is this very web site. The best tutorial to start with is Dtom's Modding Tutorial. You should also be familiar with Modding Etiquette. You may also want to check out bioxx's CS/NifSkope Video Tutorials.

The best place to find help with the Construction Set is the official CS forum on the ESF boards.

If you're looking for technical details about the Oblivion file formats, fan-made tools, etc., you should definitely try the Oblivion Modding and Tech Support section of the UESP Wiki.

Mods you create should be packaged in a common format (see the list of archive formats) along with a readme file describing what it does and how to install/uninstall it. The Modding Etiquette page provides some good tips on how to package and distribute your mod. If you want to make it really easy for users to install your mod, you should consider distributing it as an OMOD. Basic instructions for creating OMODs are included near the start of this FAQ. See OMOD tutorials and the OBMM Manual for more details. If you want to do more advanced things with OMODs, LHammonds also offers a very good introduction to OBMM scripting.

3D Mesh Exporter

Bethesda didn't release an official 3D mesh exporter for Oblivion, but the NifTools team has stepped in to fill the void. So, if you're looking for information on how to create 3D meshes for use in Oblivion, the NifTools Wiki is the place to look. In particular, you should download the latest release of NifSkope, grab the latest mesh exporter for whichever modeling program you want to use, and find help on the Help Forums. Also, NIBlE will let you edit Oblivion meshes, as well as convert Morrowind NIFs to Oblivion NIFs.

Custom animations and completely original creatures are now possible in Oblivion thanks to the hard work of Tazpn and the NifTools team. XMarksTheSpot has written a great Basic Animation Tutorial and Breeze582000 has written a tutorial on Importing Animations from Blender. In an effort to make all this a bit easier, SnowFoxZA has created a command-line utility called NifBlend to help with exporting Blender animations to Oblivion .kf files.

Essential Mod Tools

Here's a list of must-have tools for mod creators.

  • Mod Installers
Oblivion Mod Manager provides advanced mod installation scripting support via its OMOD format, described earlier in this FAQ.
Bain is a new mod installer component of Wrye Bash. Bain is described earlier in this FAQ. See Wrye Bash: Installers for more details.
  • Mod Managers
Oblivion Mod Manager provides a variety of powerful mod management features. For more details, see the OBMM documentation.
Wrye Bash is a general mod and savegame management tool with a large suite of functions. Probably it's most popular function is the Bashed Patch, which is an automatically generated mod which resolves many conflicts beween mods. In addition, you can: reorder your mods; sync your modlist to your savegame; get a load order list of your mods; switch between character profiles (different save/mod sets for different characters); import/exort player and NPC faces between saves and mods; relevel NPCs when adding/removing major releveling mods like Oscuros' or Francescos; rename masters of a mod or savegame; edit names of custom spells, enchantements, etc. in a savegame; delete spells from your savegame spell list; repair the animation slowing bomb; merge leveled lists; and more.
  • General-Purpose ESP/ESM Editors
TES4View, TES4Edit, and TES4Dump. If you want to gain a better understanding of how multiple mods interact and override each other or just gain a quick view of the changes that a plugin makes, you'll definitely want to try ElminsterEU's excellent TES4View. It lets you browse a graphical record tree of your active plugins, revealing the values set by most record types and comparing overlapping changes from each active plugin. TES4View also has a sibling, TES4Dump, which produces a text report with most of the same detailed information.
You can also use TES4View as an editor. Even though it's still in beta, this is quickly shaping up to be an extremely powerful tool for editing plugins.
TES4Gecko. If you need to merge several plugins into a single mod, quickly delete records from a mod, copy records from one mod to another, create/apply a patch file, or merge a mod into its master, then you'll need TES4Gecko. Recent versions have added new functions for splitting mods into master/plugin components, comparing differences between two plugins, quickly removing accidental changes, moving worldspaces to avoid vanishing landscape problems, searching for specific FormIDs and EditorIDs, and much more. It will also automatically set up the silent MP3 files needed to keep dialog lines on-screen for more than a few seconds (when you don't have full voice acting done or the mod is still in development). TES4Gecko is based on ScripterRon's original TES4 Plugin Utility.
Other Editors. Several other low-level record editors are available for Oblivion: TESsnip, ObEdit, and TES4++.
  • Scripts
Oblivion Script Dumper takes an ESM or ESP file and extracts/dumps all of the scripts in it to a directory. It then creates an Index of functions, commands, spell effects and global variables with hyperlinks to the script files. The index and the scripts also have hyperlinks for the commands and functions back to the CS Set Wiki site. This becomes even more useful when working with Oblivion Script Syntax for EditPlus (includes syntax highlighting for OBSE functions).
The Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) has created dramatic new possibilities for modding in Oblivion, including new combat moves, expanded hotkeys, universal ingredient sorters, polymorph (controlling a creature), etc.
  • Resource Files and BSAs
Both BSA Commander and Oblivion Mod Manager allow you to browse/unpack/create BSA files.
The TES4Files utility will automatically gather up all the resources (textures, meshes, etc.) used by your mod and package them up for distribution. It can also create a BSA file for your mod.
  • Mesh Optimization
PyFFI is an optimizer for .nif meshes. If you're not afraid of running some lengthy batch scripts on your installed mod resources, you can use PyFFI to improve the performance of Oblivion by optimizing your mesh files. Most recent mods include meshes already optimized by PyFFI, but many older mods do not. You can find more details and usage guidelines here.
  • Landscape and Distant Objects
Lightwave has created a bunch of great tools to help with landscape creation. TESAnnwyn lets you import and export 8/16/32-bit RAW files or 8-bit(Greyscale)/16/32-bit BMPs containing height map data to and from a 3D landscape in Oblivion and Morrowind. TESport is a tool for porting landmasses and NPCs from Morrowind mods into Oblivion mods. TES4qLOD is a tool for quickly created the textures for LOD landscapes and/or VisibleWhenDistant data. TEStroi is a tool for porting Oblivion worldspace landmasses, NPCs and placed objects back to Morrowind.
Wz created a GenerateFar utility, based on the NifTools NifLib, to automatically create low-poly Visible When Distant *_far.nif files. This made it much easier for modders to make sure their houses/castles/etc. are visible from a distance. Unfortunately, the wzLabs site is currently down.
  • EGM Files
The Conformulator. This tool will let you generate EGM files for custom meshes (EGM files are needed to resize hair and helmet meshes to fit various races).

Mod Resources

Need content for your mod project? Here's a list of some great resources.

  • The Imperial Library. This is the resource for TES lore, maps, etc.
  • Oblivion Real Estate (aka MORE/Modders of ORE). A fantastic guide to modder resources, including new tilesets, creatures, armor, and more!
  • Modders Resources. An excellent list of modders resources, including free-source meshes/textures, tutorials, and FAQs.
  • The Voice (The Voice Over International Cadre). If you're creating a mod that includes new dialog, you can get voice acting help from this wonderful group, which replaced the now-defunct Oblivion Voice Actors Guild (OVAG).

Advanced Mod Creation

Once you've gotten past the basics of mod construction, it's very likely that you'll run into areas where the basic tutorials don't help. Since it can often be difficult to find information on the specific topic that you're looking for, here are some suggestions for finding help on some of the most common advanced mod creation topics.

  • Troubleshooting. This is a collection of articles on common problems -- gotchas, common mistakes, CS bugs, etc.
  • De-Isolation. Trying to alter one of the official DLC mods or use an object added in one of them? Maybe you want to make an add-on for Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul or some other popular mod? You can't use content from other non-master plugins when working in the CS, but it works fine in-game if you do it correctly. This article explains how.
  • NifSkope Alchemy. No, this isn't about making potions. It's a guide to many of the amazing things you can accomplish using NifSkope.
  • NifSkope Comprehensive Guide. The definitive guide to using NifSkope.
  • Choose the Right DXTC Compression Algorithm. Trying to create some new textures, but confused about all the different DDS compression options? The answers are here.
  • List O' Tutorial Links. As the name suggests, this is an extensive list of modding tutorials, focusing almost exclusively on 3D modeling and texture editing tools. An updated version of the list is also available on TESNexus here.

Where can I find more information? (Further Reading)

Some of this same ground is covered in the article Optimising Oblivion v3.0: Into Modblivion, but that article is now a bit out of date.

Another very extensive guide to playing mods is the OVERCLOCK.NET FAQ on Oblivion Modding by jamenta.

The most comprehensive guide to performance tuning is Koroush Ghazi's Oblivion Tweak Guide.

Also, addiktive has created a very good collection of helpful topics and links in his ReAdMe If you're NEW to oblivion mods.

However, if you're looking to create your own mod, you're already at the right place.

Who contributed to this FAQ? (FAQ Credits)

Assembled and adapted for Oblivion by dev_akm using material from:

  • lochnarus
  • Martigen
  • Tegger
  • Kivan

Additional material, testing, and moral support provided by

  • Auctionmule
  • DoomedMarauder
  • Wonder Dog
  • Malifrax
  • Zanderat
  • Jarol
  • Scanti
  • adeliedreams
  • Acleacius
  • pintocat
  • Baphomet
  • MadBat
  • kalikut
  • _Psimon_
  • DarkDragon
  • Grumftheld
  • jodoebell
  • motub
  • alex_ro
  • Fragment
  • BallOfFire
  • Conan_Lon
  • Adriana35
  • Ensis
  • Cosmic-Banana
  • Tom Supergan
  • Qazaaq
  • Majin Vegeta21
  • Quarn

and many others on the ESF forums and CanadianIce forums.

A lot of the material in this FAQ is based (at least loosely) on the Morrowind Mods FAQ, assembled by the moderators of the ESF boards with input from many others.

Special thanks to Archeopterix for first agreeing to submit this to the ESF administrators to try and get it pinned (and for answering many PMs from me on the subject), and to Blith Erring Idio for getting it pinned! Also, Grizz deserves a huge thank-you for pinning the FAQ on the CanadianIce forums.

I did manage to get permission from all the folks whose work I have mangled here, so a very special thank-you is in order for all of them. This FAQ wouldn't exist without all that great source material to draw from!

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