For everyone getting a fatal error, here's how to fix that (as of January 2024). Back up your save files as I make to guarantee to your success. I'm not a programmer so I can't answer questions past what I explain here:
1) Once you've installed the mod, go to your Data Files folder and right click on the file called MergedObjectsFix.pl. Choose 'Open'. The file should now be open in Notepad (or your default txt editor)
2) On the fifth line from the top, change it to: next if $plugin =~ /Merged_Objects.esp/i; (there was an extra / that messed everything up)
3) Save & exit
4) Look at your Merged patch in the data files folder. Make sure that your file name is exactly: Merged_Objects.esp The underscore MUST be there! This is from an era when you could not put a space in a filename.
5) Double click MergedObjectsFix.bat (NOT the file you fixed above), hit enter when prompted.
6) Your text editor should open & show you the changes that were made (if any). Give it a few seconds to populate the document as the text isn't always immediate (even on a brand new gaming rig).
7) You will now have a new file appear called _Merged_Objects.esp
8) Delete Merged_Objects.esp, that is the old file! Rename _Merged_Objects.esp to just Merged_Objects.esp
9) If you use Wrye Mash (polemo's fork, here on Nexus), update your save file: Click on the first save file once Click anywhere in the list of mods that pops up on the right. Click Save Repeat for any other saves you might load. IF your load order changed (you added / removed or changed a mod's position in the load order), you will also need to revisit the arrows (after saving) & choose "Sync to Load List" & then save again. (hint: pinkish/purple is good as I recently learned)
**** You will need to repeat Steps 4 thru 9 anytime you update your Merge file! *****
Addendum:
First: Do NOT merge all the Better Clothes mods into one file. I did this & it was not a great idea on many levels. Leave them all separate.
Second: If you are also getting the Animation Group Warning error when you start your game (or randomly while playing), follow the steps below. The Animation Group Warning error is apparently caused by mods not having master ESM files listed. To find & fix the problem mods:
Open Wrye Mash (Polemo's fork, here on Nexus)
Go down your list of mods & make sure *every single mod* has at least Morrowind.esm listed has as a master. (I had several w/o masters)
When you find one without masters, select the mod (just click on the name once)
On the right side of the screen, at the bottom, click the arrows next to the save button. Choose "Sync to Load ESMs."
You should now see a list of ALL the ESM files in your load list. In most cases, ONLY leave Morrowind.esm (plus the expansions if you have them) checked. Uncheck everything else.
Hit Save. All the unchecked ESM files should vanish.
Clean your save file(s) in Wrye Mash via Step 9 above.
Thanks for sharing, this is actually fairly important! In his edited version of the script, abot suggested changing line 5 "next if $plugin eq /Merged_Objects.esp/i;" to "next if $plugin =~ /Merged_Objects.esp/i;" by the way. This helps avoid a warning message.
This technically fixed the problem for me, albeit by creating a new one. Having the new Merged_Objects.esp active somehow reverts all clothing meshes and textures back to default. This includes shirts, robes, etc., not just pants. Equipping an Exquisite Shirt even gave me the missing mesh exclamation mark, which wasn't present before using the new Merged_Objects.
I tried moving the new Merged_Objects around in the load order, using different meshes/textures from an older version of Better Clothes, and even having both the old and new Merged_Objects active at the same time, (didn't expect that to work, but hey, worth a shot). No matter what I tried, though, it seems it's either A) clothing has the correct meshes and textures but with left leg clipping, (using Merged_Objects from TesTool), or B) no left leg clipping but all clothing has default meshes/textures (using Merged_Objects creating by your .bat file).
Any help is appreciated! Also, thanks for creating this in the first place; I was worried I was the only one with this clipping problem.
I'm not using OpenMW, no. Not even MGE. I have around 200 plugins and my install behaves very strangely at times.
I've been testing various things off and on, whenever I'd come up with another idea. Last time I tried using uncleaned .esp's for all my clothing mods, which didn't work, as expected, nor did using Better Clothes 1.4 beta (from an older install).
The clothing mods I use are: Better Clothes 1.1, More Better Clothes, Better Clothes for Tribunal, Better Clothes for Bloodmoon, UFR, and CanadianIce's Robe Replacer. That's their load order too, and they're in the top half of my whole load order. I also use some of DarkNut's retex's for clothes, but those are just textures and wouldn't have any effect, no?
I'll try doing what you suggested and report back here as soon as I can. Thanks for your response!
EDIT: Tried your suggestion, and doing exactly that didn't work, but I did try this variation: turned off all plugins except for .esm's, Better Bodies, and all the clothing mods I listed above. Ran your .bat file and then used the resulting .esp. In-game, everything appeared as it should. Correct textures and no mesh clipping. Even after re-activating all plugins, everything stayed correct.
However, I don't feel very comfortable using a Merged_Objects that was created in this way. I'd rather have all the necessary mods included in the creation of Merged_Objects, instead of just those few, you know? If I were to create two Merged_Objects, one with just the clothing mods (using your .bat file) and another (using TesTool) with all other plugins EXCEPT the ones in the other, what effect do you think that would have? Would it cause any issues to have two Merged_Objects active at the same time, or is there a better, more reliable way to go about this?
That one didn't work either, I'm afraid, though I do greatly appreciate your effort. I ran the new .bat file with all mods active like I did the first time, checked the .esp, and all the textures/meshes were back to default again. I tried running it with TesTool's Merged_Objects active and another without it. I put the .esp at the very bottom of my load order, beneath Mashed Lists/Tes3cmd's Multipatch.
I think as long as I can use two Merged_Objects at the same time as I described in my above post, with no repercussions, then I'll just do that. I'll probably be the only person to ever have this problem with your file, so I don't want you to have to go through all this trouble just for me. I got it to work in some way, after all, I just have to go through a few extra steps. I'll keep playing around with it though, and see if something clicks into place, I'll let you know.
Happy to share it. Apparently it's caused by the fact Better Clothes pants models use none of the left leg slots, which allows for additional apparel slots if one wanted to make clothing or armor that doesn't take up any of the vanilla slots (such as shirts or pauldrons). Unfortunately the merging process refills these empty slots with the vanilla pant-leg model segments, causing unsightly clipping through the Better Clothes models.
TESTool just doesn't know how to handle removed data at all, as detailed in another comment regarding containers and inventories.
Yeah, I'm hoping Abot can put together a similar kind of batch file to prevent object-merging from reversing the removal of container items, NPC/creature inventories and other similar balance changes -- another obscure issue that's been really bothersome. Basically, if two mods edit the same object and only one of them actually removes something, then TESTool's gonna add it right back.
14 comments
1) Once you've installed the mod, go to your Data Files folder and right click on the file called MergedObjectsFix.pl. Choose 'Open'. The file should now be open in Notepad (or your default txt editor)
2) On the fifth line from the top, change it to:
next if $plugin =~ /Merged_Objects.esp/i;
(there was an extra / that messed everything up)
3) Save & exit
4) Look at your Merged patch in the data files folder. Make sure that your file name is exactly: Merged_Objects.esp
The underscore MUST be there! This is from an era when you could not put a space in a filename.
5) Double click MergedObjectsFix.bat (NOT the file you fixed above), hit enter when prompted.
6) Your text editor should open & show you the changes that were made (if any). Give it a few seconds to populate the document as the text isn't always immediate (even on a brand new gaming rig).
7) You will now have a new file appear called _Merged_Objects.esp
8) Delete Merged_Objects.esp, that is the old file! Rename _Merged_Objects.esp to just Merged_Objects.esp
9) If you use Wrye Mash (polemo's fork, here on Nexus), update your save file:
Click on the first save file once
Click anywhere in the list of mods that pops up on the right.
Click Save
Repeat for any other saves you might load.
IF your load order changed (you added / removed or changed a mod's position in the load order), you will also need to revisit the arrows (after saving) & choose "Sync to Load List" & then save again.
(hint: pinkish/purple is good as I recently learned)
**** You will need to repeat Steps 4 thru 9 anytime you update your Merge file! *****
Addendum:
First: Do NOT merge all the Better Clothes mods into one file. I did this & it was not a great idea on many levels. Leave them all separate.
Second: If you are also getting the Animation Group Warning error when you start your game (or randomly while playing), follow the steps below.
The Animation Group Warning error is apparently caused by mods not having master ESM files listed. To find & fix the problem mods:
"next if $plugin eq /Merged_Objects.esp/i;"
to
"next if $plugin =~ /Merged_Objects.esp/i;"
by the way. This helps avoid a warning message.
I tried moving the new Merged_Objects around in the load order, using different meshes/textures from an older version of Better Clothes, and even having both the old and new Merged_Objects active at the same time, (didn't expect that to work, but hey, worth a shot). No matter what I tried, though, it seems it's either A) clothing has the correct meshes and textures but with left leg clipping, (using Merged_Objects from TesTool), or B) no left leg clipping but all clothing has default meshes/textures (using Merged_Objects creating by your .bat file).
Any help is appreciated! Also, thanks for creating this in the first place; I was worried I was the only one with this clipping problem.
Also try disabling all mods except for Better Clothes and one mod that edits pants stats and see if that makes a difference.
In the meantime I'll check in with Abot about this and see what he has to say.
I've been testing various things off and on, whenever I'd come up with another idea. Last time I tried using uncleaned .esp's for all my clothing mods, which didn't work, as expected, nor did using Better Clothes 1.4 beta (from an older install).
The clothing mods I use are: Better Clothes 1.1, More Better Clothes, Better Clothes for Tribunal, Better Clothes for Bloodmoon, UFR, and CanadianIce's Robe Replacer. That's their load order too, and they're in the top half of my whole load order. I also use some of DarkNut's retex's for clothes, but those are just textures and wouldn't have any effect, no?
I'll try doing what you suggested and report back here as soon as I can. Thanks for your response!
EDIT: Tried your suggestion, and doing exactly that didn't work, but I did try this variation: turned off all plugins except for .esm's, Better Bodies, and all the clothing mods I listed above. Ran your .bat file and then used the resulting .esp. In-game, everything appeared as it should. Correct textures and no mesh clipping. Even after re-activating all plugins, everything stayed correct.
However, I don't feel very comfortable using a Merged_Objects that was created in this way. I'd rather have all the necessary mods included in the creation of Merged_Objects, instead of just those few, you know? If I were to create two Merged_Objects, one with just the clothing mods (using your .bat file) and another (using TesTool) with all other plugins EXCEPT the ones in the other, what effect do you think that would have? Would it cause any issues to have two Merged_Objects active at the same time, or is there a better, more reliable way to go about this?
I think as long as I can use two Merged_Objects at the same time as I described in my above post, with no repercussions, then I'll just do that. I'll probably be the only person to ever have this problem with your file, so I don't want you to have to go through all this trouble just for me. I got it to work in some way, after all, I just have to go through a few extra steps. I'll keep playing around with it though, and see if something clicks into place, I'll let you know.
Thanks again!
TESTool just doesn't know how to handle removed data at all, as detailed in another comment regarding containers and inventories.