Merging Esp's

[Bashis]

so im about to do something i probably shouldnt with the number of plugins i have currently, and that would be dump unique landscapes, tales from elsweyr aquina, and the landscapes for the surrounding territories into my game. the amount of plugins and patch esps needed is gong ot be alot, so im wondering how safe it would be to say, merge the entierty of unique landscapes mod into one plugin instad of each individual location having its own, and combining the outer reigons into another. i dont like merging plugins with scrips and quests but im just wondering if merging landscape and worldspace plugins are relitively safe.

[Sarnaath]

I looked into that myself a while ago, and came to the conclusion that merging ULs was not a good idea. Here is one page that mentions UL and UL patches, see the sections First Step and Be Aware. More discussion on this thread on what to merge and what not to merge, and why ULs are problematic. I've seen this advice echoed in other discussions. I didn't find any post or discussion of anyone advocating or suggesting merging the ULs and/or UL patches.

 

I've only merged armor mods, small tweak mods that are unrelated to each other (but not with too many scripts) and the unofficial DLC patches into the respective DLC esps. I also find C-bash merges in about ~10 more of my mods than P-bash (although C-bash is beta, so it's a risk).

[Bashis]

is there any other utility besides tes4 gecko that can merge plugins, even following guides on the internet to the letter the damn thing cant find my oblivion install directory, seems to be a recurring issue with 64 bit.

[Ark of Truth]

I use 64bit and it works fine. Your doing it wrong.

 

Just manually set the Oblivion directory using the "Set Directory" button.

[gerra6]

is there any other utility besides tes4 gecko that can merge plugins' date=' even following guides on the internet to the letter the damn thing cant find my oblivion install directory, seems to be a recurring issue with 64 bit.

[/quote']

 

I tend to manually merge mods with Tes4Edit rather than Tes4Gecko.

 

Tes4Gecko is amazingly useful, but it can be a bit finicky at times about what it thinks is mergeable and what isn't.

 

My method isn't terribly elegant. I basically hit the esp with a giant hammer until the edges pop off and it fits neatly into its round hole.

 

Here is my basic tes4Edit esp merging workflow

 

0. Backup any esp or esm that you will be modifying. Hell, even back up esps and esms stuff you don't plan on modifying.

 

1. Add the mod that I want to merge to (target) as a master to the source mod

2. Select all of the blocks that I want to merge and hit F2

2.a. This will open a window listing available esp/esm targets. Choose the target mod.

2.b. The formids of the selected blocks will have changed to match the load order of the target mod.

2.c. Take a moment to doublecheck that all of the blocks and sub blocks that you want to merge were properly renamed

3. Select the blocks that I want to merge, right click and select copy as override or deep copy as override. Because the formid's have the load order prefix of the target esp/esm, the target esp/esm should appear in the list.

4. Save the target esp/esm (no need to save the source)

 

This method works great so long as none of the objects in the two mods share the same six digit formids. If any of them do, you will need to manually modify their formid before merging. The easiest time to check is immediately after you changed the formid load order prefix...any overlaps in form id will be highlighted.

 

Your best bet for merging mods is to start with mods that do similar things in similar ways. So, if you have a mod that adds a chest with clothing to the game, find a way to merge that with every other clothing addition mod that you have installed.

 

The big thing that you want to watch out for are mods that serve as resources for other mods. Don't touch those. There are lots of examples, but let's take Setbody.esp as one.

 

Although no mods exist (to my knowledge) that use Setbody.esp as a master, there are tons of mods that call setbody functions. They do this with a getFormFromMod lookup that passes Setbody.esp and the specific formid of the function that they want to call.

 

So mucking with either the formids of Setbody scripts, or the name of the Setbody esp can potentially make very bad things happen.

[Bashis]

I use 64bit and it works fine. Your doing it wrong.

 

Just manually set the Oblivion directory using the "Set Directory" button.

 

thats the problem, i click the plugin to launch it and it sais cannot find install directory, and closes, only option is ok, so ive never been able to even get into the program

[Bashis]

is there any other utility besides tes4 gecko that can merge plugins' date=' even following guides on the internet to the letter the damn thing cant find my oblivion install directory, seems to be a recurring issue with 64 bit.

[/quote']

 

I tend to manually merge mods with Tes4Edit rather than Tes4Gecko.

 

Tes4Gecko is amazingly useful, but it can be a bit finicky at times about what it thinks is mergeable and what isn't.

 

I prefer to hit square pegs with hammers until the edges break off and they fit neatly into their round holes.

 

is there a guide on how to merge plugins with tes4 edit? i didnt see any options for it and usually just use that for troubleshooting/merged patches

[Sarnaath]

thats the problem' date=' i click the plugin to launch it and it sais cannot find install directory, and closes, only option is ok, so ive never been able to even get into the program

[/quote']

 

You have to get the short cut right. I'm on 64 bit too, it was tricky. Currently I have: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\javaw.exe -Xmx1024m -jar "C:\TES\TES4Gecko 15.2\TES4Gecko.jar" I think I had to change the path to javaw.exe from what the TES4Gecko documentation and sample shortcut used.

[Bashis]

thats the problem' date=' i click the plugin to launch it and it sais cannot find install directory, and closes, only option is ok, so ive never been able to even get into the program

[/quote']

 

You have to get the short cut right. I'm on 64 bit too, it was tricky. Currently I have: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\javaw.exe -Xmx1024m -jar "C:\TES\TES4Gecko 15.2\TES4Gecko.jar" I think I had to change the path to javaw.exe from what the TES4Gecko documentation and sample shortcut used.

 

all my paths are correct, still get unable to find install directory

[gerra6]

is there a guide on how to merge plugins with tes4 edit? i didnt see any options for it and usually just use that for troubleshooting/merged patches

 

I edited my post with my workflow and some additional information.

 

Using Tes4Edit this way is a bit of an advanced technique, but since I like to be in control of exactly how things get merged, it's become my go-to approach.

 

Honestly, I don't really know whether or not anyone else uses Tes4Edit the weird hacky way that I do...I just sort of stumbled onto the technique one day when I was trying to merge some stuff that Gecko stubbornly refused to have anything to do with.

[Bashis]

is there a guide on how to merge plugins with tes4 edit? i didnt see any options for it and usually just use that for troubleshooting/merged patches

 

I edited my post with my workflow and some additional information.

 

Using Tes4Edit this way is a bit of an advanced technique' date=' but since I like to be in control of exactly how things get merged, it's become my go-to approach.

 

Honestly, I don't really know whether or not anyone else uses Tes4Edit the weird hacky way that I do...I just sort of stumbled onto the technique one day when I was trying to merge some stuff that Gecko stubbornly refused to have anything to do with.

[/quote']

 

ok i started working on tes4edit merging, so far it all looks good, except cell blocks, all the data gets copied over just fine but the block/sub block numbers changed, is that a problem or not? for example the old plugin had blocks, 1,7,and 8, with sub blocks 5,8, and 3, the new one used block 1,2,3 and sub block 3 for all the data, do i have to rename the blocks and sub blocks or is that just an orginazation format?

[gerra6]

 

ok i started working on tes4edit merging' date=' so far it all looks good, except cell blocks, all the data gets copied over just fine but the block/sub block numbers changed, is that a problem or not? for example the old plugin had blocks, 1,7,and 8, with sub blocks 5,8, and 3, the new one used block 1,2,3 and sub block 3 for all the data, do i have to rename the blocks and sub blocks or is that just an orginazation format?

[/quote']

 

Yeah, you generally have to open all of the sub blocks and select them en masse as well.

[Garudax]

cannot find install directory' date=' and closes

[/quote']

 

I get that with Gecko v15.2. Gecko v12 works, however.

[Bashis]

figured i'd ask it here, instead of opening a whole new thread because im pretty sure i know whats wrong but want to get a second opionion, a few days ago i tried to get uv2 working with my lovers installs, got everything working and runnning, installed the bbb/uv2 compatability skelly. the skeleton worked fine for my character, but random enemies/npc females still had the infinite breasts bug. am i right in assuming that its because those npcs are refrencing skeletons in different directories than just the _male folder, and that the fix would be to track down all the skeleton.nifs outside of that folder that are used for females and replace them with the compat skelly?

[gerra6]

Did you replace both the Skeletonbeast.nif and skeleton.nif?

[Bashis]

Did you replace both the Skeletonbeast.nif and skeleton.nif?

 

what i was doing was since i have lovers first, overwrighting it with the uv skeleton then overwrighting that with the compatability skeleton, oo damn, i think i might see the issue, should i just have the standard bb skeleton and install the uvII compat one and completely ignore the skeleton that comes with the uv package? since the compatability one is a first person only .nif

[gerra6]

 

what i was doing was since i have lovers first' date=' overwrighting it with the uv skeleton then overwrighting that with the compatability skeleton, oo damn, i think i might see the issue, should i just have the standard bb skeleton and install the uvII compat one and completely ignore the skeleton that comes with the uv package? since the compatability one is a first person only .nif

[/quote']

 

No idea. I use Growlf's Controllable skeleton for most things.

 

I really don't know anything about UV or UV2

[Bashis]

my god unique landscapes has to be the most irritating mod out there, 29 plugins, no all in one, even though i merged them the patches for other common mods to make them work together means half of them cant be merged because they are still masters, if i cant sort this mess out in another hour im throwin the whole project out the window

[gerra6]

my god unique landscapes has to be the most irritating mod out there' date=' 29 plugins, no all in one, even though i merged them the patches for other common mods to make them work together means half of them cant be merged because they are still masters, if i cant sort this mess out in another hour im throwin the whole project out the window

[/quote']

 

Yeah...You'd have to merge all of the patches into a single mod and have the master set to your new mod.

 

One trick that I should have mentioned...it is extremely important that every esp/esm that might be impacted be loaded tes4edit at the same time while you do this. That way, changes like updates to the formids will be propagated to every mod that needs it.

 

So, given that I have never used unique landscapes and really don't know how it is set up, here's the first thing I would do.

 

First of all, try merging a couple of small esps together to get a feel for how it all works together. You're starting with a very nasty merge that sounds like a total nightmare.

 

Second, practice iterative saves with backups for each stage so that you can backup a step without needing to start over if everything goes south.

 

Third, here's how I'd start with what you've described

 

1. Create a new empty esp.

2. Place it ahead of everything that you are merging together in the load order.

3. Open Tes4Edit, set it as a master to every single mod that you are merging, and as a master to every single mod that is mastered to one of the mods that you are merging.

 

Why do this first? This allows the changes to formids to be propagated to every loaded esp that is mastered to the new merged patch.

[Bashis]

my god unique landscapes has to be the most irritating mod out there' date=' 29 plugins, no all in one, even though i merged them the patches for other common mods to make them work together means half of them cant be merged because they are still masters, if i cant sort this mess out in another hour im throwin the whole project out the window

[/quote']

 

Yeah...You'd have to merge all of the patches into a single mod and have the master set to your new mod.

 

One trick that I should have mentioned...it is extremely important that every esp/esm that might be impacted be loaded tes4edit at the same time while you do this. That way, changes like updates to the formids will be propagated to every mod that needs it.

 

So, given that I have never used unique landscapes and really don't know how it is set up, here's the first thing I would do.

 

First of all, try merging a couple of small esps together to get a feel for how it all works together. You're starting with a very nasty merge that is sounds like a total nightmare.

 

Second, practice iterative saves with backups for each stage so that you can backup a step without needing to start over if everything goes south.

 

Third, here's how I'd start with what you've described

 

1. Create a new empty esp.

2. Place it ahead of everything that you are merging together in the load order.

3. Open Tes4Edit, set it as a master to every single mod that you are merging, and as a master to every single mod that is mastered to one of the mods that you are merging.

 

Why do this first? This allows the changes to formids to be propagated to every loaded esp that is mastered to the new merged patch.

 

they guy a few comments aboav that said that gecko v12 wasnt as retarded as v15 was right, so i got v12 working and just rammed them all together, if it doesnt run that way im just not going to use unique landscapes, as cool as it looks its not worth the amount of work fixing it manually would take

[gerra6]

 

they guy a few comments aboav that said that gecko v12 wasnt as retarded as v15 was right' date=' so i got v12 working and just rammed them all together, if it doesnt run that way im just not going to use unique landscapes, as cool as it looks its not worth the amount of work fixing it manually would take

[/quote']

 

I do recommend Gecko as your first resort. If Gecko is willing to merge the esp's you should definitely use it.

 

My method is more an alternative for merging things that Gecko doesn't want to touch, or for people who can't get Gecko to run.

 

I tend to merge strictly using Tes4Edit, but that's just because, as I mentioned before, I like to be in control of the process.

[Bashis]

my god.....it actually booted up and loaded everything, that had to be the most bootleg merg/patching job ive ever done and it freakin worked, got 35 plugins down to 7.

 

end result, a complete rebuild of cyrodill from the ground up, and added every outer reigon except morrowind and skyrim, complete with towns, dungeons and quests.

[gerra6]

my god.....it actually booted up and loaded everything' date=' that had to be the most bootleg merg/patching job ive ever done and it freakin worked, got 35 plugins down to 7.

 

end result, a complete rebuild of cyrodill from the ground up, and added every outer reigon except morrowind and skyrim, complete with towns, dungeons and quests.

[/quote']

 

Congratulations.

[Sarnaath]

my god.....it actually booted up and loaded everything' date=' that had to be the most bootleg merg/patching job ive ever done and it freakin worked, got 35 plugins down to 7.

 

end result, a complete rebuild of cyrodill from the ground up, and added every outer reigon except morrowind and skyrim, complete with towns, dungeons and quests.

[/quote']

 

So, how does everything look in game? I might try merging some of the UL esps if you think it all looks ok.

[Satyrist]

my god.....it actually booted up and loaded everything' date=' that had to be the most bootleg merg/patching job ive ever done and it freakin worked, got 35 plugins down to 7.

 

end result, a complete rebuild of cyrodill from the ground up, and added every outer reigon except morrowind and skyrim, complete with towns, dungeons and quests.

[/quote']

 

Sounds interesting - I'd be grateful if you could list which esp's you merged together, as I think I'm about to try something similar.