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Archive Invalidaion - How to use
Archive invalidation is a feature that is necessary for Fallout3\New Vegas modding.
It is essential for the installation of custom textures. By default they'll not overwrite the default game textures, so you need o trigger archive invalidation, so that the new textures can be loaded, each time you install a new texture replacer.
There are multiple ways to apply archive invalidation, but you must note that you can only use one.
Using multiple archive invalidation utilities, will cause them to conflict with each other, and stop working.
No matter which tool you chose to apply Archive Invalidation with, you still need to DEACTIVATE it and REACTIVATE it every time a new texture replacer mod is installed.
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What is a texture replacer mod? it is a mod that uses the same filepathing for textures as anythign that is contained in your "out of the box" vanilla game.
Examples of such mods are:
Type 3 Body, NMC Texture Pack, and in general any other mod that specifically require archive invalidation in their description. However not all mods require it. For example, new custom outfits do not, because they do not alter any texture in the vanilla game, and so applies to model replacers. Models (meshes) are excluded from Archive Invalidation rule.
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1-The first thing you have to know is that any mod manager ever created, has an untility that handles archive invalidation, this is an issue, since if you have multiple mod managers, it'll create conflicts. So you should make sure that ALL other archive invalidations, besides the one you intend to use are DISABLED.
2- Make sure that the Mod managher\method you chose, runs as admin, so that it has permission to create files.
3- Use Archive invalidation each time a new texture replacer is added.
What does it mean to use archive invalidation?
it simply means install the mod, turn Archive invalidation OFF; and then Back on, so that the new textures get calculated into the archive invalidation.
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Here is a list of all the known Archive Invalidation utilities:
- Nexus Mod Manager, is the best and easiest to use, especially when concerning Archive Invalidation.
Here's how to:
I can't stress enough times how much better this mod manager is compared to all others, and Archive Invalidation, is no exception. If you have encountered issues with the other mod managers, please try this one.
- Vortex, why would anyone pick this is beyond me. Anytihing it does, NMM does it better, easier and faster. With vortex you'll hit lots of walls, in trying to do normal things other mod managers do, and its AI never worked for me. Some users reported no issues with it at all.
Vortex has archive invalidation under tools and it should be listed on there (I think the exact words are BSA invalidation). Just enable it and a new mod will appear on your mod list called ArchiceInvalidation. If you have issues running Vortex, open a ticked in Vortex support section
- Mod Organizer 2 is pretty much like vortex, it may work for you, but i personally dislike it, and seems to have a few more issues than NMM.
If you have issues, try "disabling and re-enabling Automatic Archive Invalidation under the profile options (Click on the Profile dropdown, Manage, checkbox at the bottom for Automatic Archive Invalidation)."
- Mod Organizer is quite similar to MO2, but with a different method used by the devs who built AI. Seems to be more reliable.
Mod Organizer\MO2 video tutorial:
- FOMM (fallout mod manager) which is a tool that you may have ,and it's mostly used to open BSA files.
The little thing nobody knows is that FOMM in the past was also used as mod manager and contais its own archive invalidation, that must be disabled for FNV if you use a different one. It's active by default.
- Archiveinvalidation invalidated (at fnv nexus) - it's an utility that was used in the past, when mod managers didn't exist. Now everybody has a mod manager, so it's kind of outdated.
- Archive Invalidation Generator.If you still cannot figure out how to use the inbuilt Archive Invalidation tools, you can try this Archive Invalidation Generator. it's a recently created mod, and it has a probably higher learning curve, but it will not rely on automated creation, and if this one doesn't work, you're clearly doing something wrong.