If you are having issues with putting items into the fire, try updating your OBSE to the latest version 22.8 released on 9 March 2023. This update contains several fixes to container inventory handling. I do not know how old these bugs are, but they certainly sound like the sort of thing that could have broken my mod. It's worth a shot.
I am sorry, it is really not easy to convert between TWMP and original. This is not my main project, so I don't have the time to maintain both versions. Someone else is welcome to do it though!
I have the story written for Southpoint and there's a start of the mod, but it is currently waiting in the queue. My main project is Skyrim (TWMP Skyrim Alive), and I am still tinkering with release 3 (bug fixing mostly). I cannot say when I'll return to Valenwood, I don't want to lead you on. It will depend on the overall story that is driving my mods (details on my profile if you are curious).
Is anyone else also finding the NPC named soulgems that has the souls from Elden Root NPCs stored in them to be found in Ayelid Ruins outside Valenwood such as those in Cyrodiil? Well I did come across a Valenwood Cities soulgem in a vanilla Oblivion (cyrodiil) ayelid ruin, so I don't know if it was intentional or what to make exploring Ayelid Ruins more important for finding these soulgems! So does your Valenwood Cities mod add these special named soulgems just in TWMP Valenwood Improved ruins or Ayelid Ruins in Cyrodiil as well?
Okay, I just read the clue thing and it mentions the gems are scattered in Ayelid Ruins, but doesn't mention if just in Cyrodiil and Valenwood Improved or from all mods that have Ayelid RUins! And is it just in Ayelid chests/ayelid containers or could it be out in the open in any Ayelid ruin? Still exploring for those named souljems by looting ayelid chests and ayelid containers!
I don't remember where they all are, exactly. But this is not the clue that I meant. You get scraps of paper with each gem, and those scraps each point at a particular ruin where the next gem might be found. Of course you need to figure it out, they are not giving you the name directly. It will be either in Valenwood or Cyrodiil, not in ruins added by other mods.
I see! Okay, I came across one of those crumpled pieces of paper in my inventory and it says "...ack Soul Gems! Chey..." So I figured Cheydinhall and that one Mages Guild guy named Falcor who left a note showing where all the Black Soul Jem alters are found, including Wendlebeck! So I go to Wendlebeck and searched what I beleive is all over the ruins and to no avail I can't seem to find the named soul gem the note is pointing towards! So is this one a different ruin all along, and if so, which one?
May be not every crumpled paper was a clue. Like I said, I do not remember where all the gems were. Besides, I am not about to post solutions here for everyone to see.
When you find an actual clue, you get a message. But only once, so you need to pay attention, or else keep the clues to check back later. They are quite obvious.
I am impressed by your continuous deliverance, Lena. Patient and thorough too. I wish I had TWMP installed - maybe in my next life? I wish you the best!
Hi, great mod, but I have one small problem I'd need help with: I'm using DarN UI, and I'm at the part of the quest where I have to put the people's soul gems into their firepit. However, the message box saying that I have to leave their house pops up at the same time as the loot menu, which makes it so I can't exit either popups and I'm stuck. Is there a way past this, like maybe setting the quest stage forwards so I get the message box without having to interact with the fireplace? Thank you.
This is really strange because that message should only pop up AFTER you've put the right gem into the firepit container. Because if you put the wrong item, something else might happen... What happens next is not done with the quest, it's the container script doing it, so there's nothing you can advance manually, I'm afraid. Let me review those scripts, I think I can rewrite them to solve your problem.
Which house was it? Or was this happening everywhere?
Thank you for the response. I'm not sure if this happens to all houses, I've only tried the alchemist's house so far, and as I said, the message box only popped up after I put the right soul in, exited the fireplace's inventory, and then entered it again.
Oh, wait, I think I misunderstood. So you are able to put the soul gem into the fireplace to start with, right? Try this: put the soul gem in, close the inventory, wait a few seconds. If it's the right gem, the message should pop up, you can then click it away. Don't open the fireplace inventory again, just leave the house. Does this work or are you getting stuck?
Hi, I can't reproduce your problem, may be because I'm not using DarnUI. But never mind. I modified the script and uploaded a fix v1.2. Try this please, it should solve your issue. You put a gem into the fire, close the inventory and wait a few seconds, the message box should appear soon after. If it doesn't, let me know! I am redoing the quest structure anyway, but it is a more intrusive fix.
Sorry that I'm always asking for help about game crash and other issues, but once again I have an issue with the mod. I'm using the latest version, and my game is constantly crashing to desktop whenever I exit a house after putting the correct gem into the fireplace. Now, it didn't happen at first; I first released the pie maker's soul, no problems there. Then I tried Fillin, in that case I crashed at first but then eventually I managed to get it to work. Now, however, I tried Cheya (the alchemist)'s soul, and in that case I get a CTD every single time I leave the house, no matter what. Tried your suggestion to roll back to the 1.2 ESP, but then the souls never get released even after putting in the correct gem and leaving, even tried travelling away and waiting. I mainly use the TWMP mods that you recommend here on Nexus and on your own site, and no other "big" mod, but I can share my load order if it can help.
Hi, I'm so sorry, I don't know how to fix it. There is a mod conflict there somewhere. What about the version that worked well for you before? If that no longer works, then probably it is not compatible with your save data... I cannot reproduce any of these issues, with any of the versions, so it must be something to do with your other mods. I suspect Northern UI as that one comes with a DLL and modifies many aspects of the game mechanics that have nothing to do with the UI. Another user - coin3223 - was also having strange issues with Northern UI, see comments below.
This mod depends heavily on correct functioning of inventories and on sequencing and timing - all this putting things into the fire business. When you put the correct item into the fire and then leave the house, the cell is switched from the empty house to the lived-in one. It appears that Northern UI changes timings, so the checks for whether you are still in that cell, are not done at the right time. This is what must be causing the CTDs for you when you leave the house. Perhaps you could disable Northern UI just as a test? You would need to remove the DLL as well, this is what causes the conflict, if anything. However, I don't know if that in itself would already break your game, so check your mods first before attempting it. Other than that, well, perhaps we have to say that this mod is incompatible with Northern UI.
Thanks for the response, but I'm using currently DarNified UI, not Northern UI. Or is it the same with all UI mods? EDIT: removed DarN UI, and I still crash. Can I post pictures to my load order for you?
All mods are different. Darnified UI seems to only change the UI though, but who knows. May be there is something else in your load order that conflicts, in particular mods that come with DLLs rather than ESPs as they tend to be more invasive and cannot be readily assessed. I am sorry, but I really don't know why you are having crashes with this mod.
I've downloaded 1.4, but the TWMP Valenwood Cities.esp is reporting a missing master: 0-house-paths.esp. I don't see that available for download here; is it from another mod? I do have all the other prereqs already. Or was it included as a master by mistake? Just wanted to check. Thank you!
So I started a new game to test this mod out after getting twmp valenwood improved and pelletine installed when I already had elsweyr anequina set up and I ran into a bit of a problem.
I'm inside the boarded up chapel of Arkay in the city of Elden Root and I go over to read the "Note of Exception" - when I take the note I get stuck in a never ending message spam of "You put the wrong item into this fire!" - soft-locking the game because the message never goes away, no matter how many times I select "Done"
I don't know anything else about this quest, I just started a new game to test this to see if I wanted it in my load for my next playthrough and I'm kinda lost here.
I have a fairly hefty load order(little under 200 mods total) so idk if this could somehow be some kind of mod conflict or just an unfixed/undiscovered bug
EDIT: actually after a little more testing the message spams occurs even if I don't take the note, just reading it triggers the soft-locking message spam
Have you talked to any NPCs before that, do you have a quest in your journal? Or did you just go into the chapel by yourself? No one reported any such issues before, so I need to understand where you're at with it exactly.
I thought so. It is a timing issue similar to the one experienced by RaineKot below. Some UI mods can cause this. Try the new fix that I just uploaded - v1.3. I cannot reproduce the problem myself, but hope that the fix helps.
The hotfix made it less severe, as in the message isn't constantly popping up over and over, but instead shows up maybe a couple seconds after closing it but it's still being endlessly repeated
Remove whatever you put into the fire, if anything. Which version of OBSE are you running? Do you have any OBSE plugins that alter inventory handling? Try hot fix v1.3.2. I cannot reproduce this, so working blind. But I suspect OBSE sensitivities - some functions seem not to work correctly on your system. I have now attempted to circumvent them in v1.3.2. Hope this helps.
I haven't put anything into the fire. I'm using the latest xOBSE from Github.
I'm not sure if any of my OBSE plugins alter inventory handling. The only ones I could think of that I'm using that'd maybe do that would be Visibly Unlimited and NorthernUI. Also have NifSE which I'm just now realizing I forgot to delete since I originally got it for use with Unnecessary Violence but I don't have that mod anymore
I don't see anything wrong with it. Did the 1.3.2 update work for you? If not, I'm out of ideas, sorry. Something must be conflicting. Possibly NorthernUI through its DLL.
You really deserve quite the applause for this, seriously.
I modded oblivion for the first time around 2009 and I was always excited for new land mods. I manage to install Valenwood Improved but was a hot mesh. My PC eventually broke that year and would take me until 2012 to get a new one and stayed as a console player for that period. Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Skyrim SE, a revisit of Morrowind... I ignored Oblivion for ages, always thinking I would get back eventually.
Now in 2022 I had to upgrade my PC again (2015 was the last time) and for some reason, bored of almost 3 years of playing TESO everyday during the pandemic, I decided to go back to Oblivion. Sadly it seems since 2009 a lot of the mods that gave me mayor hope back then have being abandon or hardly changed since, Valenwood is more stable now and I pressume there´s more locations (I really didn´t see much in 2009, my game was very unstable), but it´s still moslty just an explorable area that works wonky and conflicts with tons of other stuff.
This is not to take credit from the original modders, they did an amazing job providing freely more content to users and the scope of the proyect is astonishing. But off course we all want to see these modding proyects come to finish and become fully stable and playable, we imagine what could be and not realise sometimes that a one team person or small team working for free can only achieve so much before life force them to move on.
To see you, taking this gigantic proyect, making it more compatible, trying to continue it, and even going beyond as to provide several patches and make the whole Valenwood+Elsweyr experience much more stable all together for everyone, with such a detailed description walking new comers and old players to the process of hom to make it run more smoothly, it´s like a divine sign.
Currently I´m not using TWMP because I was confused about it and went the other route with basic Valenwood Improved again since it seems less intrusive and I already had a version of Elsweyr installed, what a mistake it was since I´m experiencing the usual mountains in the middle of a town or terain that dissapears and what not. I´m still instaling things, testing them, and there´s a hard chance that I would eventually had to delete all mods and start over by carefully installing only those I´ve found usefull to me. Maybe it´s tomorrow, maybe it´s on 2045, but def next time I have to test your version when that happens, but today I´m still downloading manually any of the files if only to let Nexus endorse your work (and also make it easier for me to find via download history hehehe, win-win as they say) because I honestly think your doing the lord´s work.
Sorry for a long post, but just wanted to say you´re awesome, and thank you in the name of anyone who may play modded Oblivion from 2022 onwards, it´s modders like you that keep the fire burning that make a better job than even the original developers to maintain this sandbox games alive for so many years and generations. No amount of endorsements or good words would ever be capable of paying your service, but it´s the least some of us can do.
PD: By the way where the hell is Elden Root in the map? I´ve being trying to find it for 3 days now, seriously. I just want to see it and delete the version of the mod I have and see how could I install TWMP proyects in order to minimize conflicts, but I really want to see elden root first because I´m itching for modding Morrowind a bit and by next 2 week I will, hopefully, end the selection process for a new job, so don´t really know how much free time for Oblivion I have in the near future. I founded Arentia, Falinesti and Silvenar so far, but if I continue south I eventually ended up in a beach just where the map ends, limitations of the mod version I have or simply is not that much south of Silvenar?
Hi! Thank you so much for you kind words! Good luck with your setup.
TWMP Valenwood Improved is based on the 2011 version of Valenwood Improved (the last) and is identical to it in content. If you don't have anything much South of Silvenar, then you must be running an older version. Valenwood is filled with stuff! More than half of it is South of Silvenar... Including Elden Root. Have a look at this map, and also here, here and here for more detail (it's from my map mods).
All the time I was running to the south from where it would only lead me to the beach. I did find Elden Root finally as well as southpoint and haven. In the end I don´t know why I got so obssesed with it hahaha, I just wanted to be there after many years visiting the place in TESO. I had to remove hammerfell Graslands and Skyrim nord tombs, and it seems I got all the quests I can complete in Elsweyr, so perhaps I will finish exploring Black Marsh BETA and finally move on into unistalling all of those and go the TWMP route with your mods, since I don´t really care if I have to start a new game as I have done almost nothing and level up way too quick (made the classic mistake or forgetting Oblivion terrible XP system so lock myself out of leveling by level 30 something and I got there in only 3 days XDXD)
THank you for the response and again, regardles of me downloading this tomorrow or in 3 months, can´t stop praising the work you´re doing. Much luck in your endevours.
Thanks so much for your work LenaWolfBravil. I'm looking forward to this. It's exactly what so many great mods could use which is at least one quest to keep your interest going while doing the sightseeing. Otherwise, after one look around I'm finished even though it's a cool look around. I appreciate all the hard work that goes into new land mods and I can see why authors would want to take a break instead of another load of work doing quests which is likely another learning curve to go through.
Could someone please tell me what exactly does T W M P stand for? Is that not an acronym? Where is the point of origin of this thing called TWMP that everyone understands but me?
I hope you enjoy it. TWMP is an acronym, but what it stands for seems to have been lost in disappearing websites. "Tamriel Worldspace..." something, probably. All TWMP-based mods share the same basic landscape and - most impotantly - cell IDs which is what allows them to be used together without the world exploding.
Okay, thanks for the quick reply. I was trying to figure out the whole scope to see what else I might be missing. So I'll just get your mod and all the requirements and that should get me started. I thought I was going nuts that what seemed to be common knowledge can not be found anywhere. Thanks
If you don't have any of TWMP installed on your system yet, it can be a big deal. Have a look at the guide I wrote. Just skip the provinces you don't want to use, but remember that you do need the base installed, even for just one province.
It's a good thing you're so helpful. I thought I had everything I needed when I had this: https://ibb.co/v3GbJLJ Now I'm looking at your guide I have a couple questions. 1. – Tamriel LOD resources? At a glance your download for this looks the same as what I got from onra but yours is better optimized? Also, I don't need this at all if I run Tes4LODGen? My processor is only about 10 years old so I can try it and report back.
2. – Tr Stirk LOD resources – always needed? I haven't started looking for this but maybe I'm making this more difficult than necessary.
I still have to do more reading of your guide but I'll post this for now for a start Thanks
If you are going to build your own LOD, then you don't need any LOD resources for Tamriel. However, Stirk is in a different worldspace, so you need those LOD resources to play it. Stirk is only a small island though, and if you plan to only play Valenwood, you can just ignore it. In fact, Valenwood is a bit of an exception in that it requires less of TWMP than most other provinces. For example, you don't need common resources because Valenwood has its own. I don't know if your minimalist installation is actually going to be enough, but I think it is worth a try. Let us know if that works, then I can update the guide as well!
As for the difference between Onra's LOD and mine - Onra's contains only the landscapes, mine contains also everything else. Of course it is only relevant if you have the same mods as me! And it sounds like you don't. (I have Hammerfell, High Rock, Skyrim, Elsweyr Anequina and Pelletine, Valenwood Improved, Black Marsh and Summerset Isles, with many additions to the base mods.)
****UPDATE****SOLVED********************************************************************** The graphic anomaly in the picture was all my fault. I didn't have the Tamriel Heightmaps installed properly. It all works perfectly and is very impressive. I highly recommend. You won't be disappointed. *********************************************************************************************** I have it working mostly and I have a couple questions and an explanation. As for my minimalist installation, I didn't properly explain that my TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.bsa should contain all the German original stuff: Valenwood Improved 1020 Full Ger-22555 Valenwood Improved 1020 Update Ger-22555 Valenwood Improved 1021 Update Ger-22555-1-02-1 Valenwood Improved 1030 Update Ger-22555-1-03-0 I just named it like that so it would load with the TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp. I think that part is working. I tried to get everything listed as requirements. Maybe I missed something. One thing that did not work is the Tamriel.bsa and that I half expected to not work. There was a lot of what looked like an extreme low resolution terrain layer all over the place, way up in the sky and near the ground too that you can walk through. After extracting Tamriel.bsa straight into the data folder it all looks good except the very southern end, I think, and maybe that's because I don't have the Stirk resources. I started at the Cave of Dusk and going north it all looked good except one spot,so far, that is in the screen shot. I don't know how the terrain LOD works but I'd like to get it figured out and I appreciate your guides on your WordPress site. I have lot of reading to do. The only LOD generating I've done is running TES4LODGen.exe and that looks to me like only for structures. Your guide to build your own LOD is a great resource and just what I need to study in detail. For now if I find out why I have what is in the screen shot I'll be able to start in on your quest or even without any corrections it's fine as it is. Maybe there are some isolated spots or maybe I've missed something. Thanks for all your help!
I think you found a land tear in Valenwood! I haven't explored the whole province yet, but I've read reports about land tears in particular in the South. If you keep making notes of land tears that you find, I'll fix them up when I'm doing the next release of this mod. Or you can make a patch yourself!
Regarding LOD, there are three components to it: land structure, land texture and distant objects. They are independent of each other and need to be done all three. Indeed, TES4LODGen only does distant objects, you need TES4LL to do land structure and land texture, in two separate passes.
Stirk will have no bearing on Valenwood because it's too far away (it is West of High Rock, NW from Cyrodiil).
It is true that Tamriel.bsa only contains primitive land textures - this is just the "scaffolding", so to speak, it is supposed to be overwritten by new land mods that actually fill in the terrain. For Valenwood, your German Valenwood Improved resources should have everything you need. For other provinces you need Tamriel Landscape Resource Pack mentioned in the TWMP guide. I'm not sure why unpacking Tamriel.bsa worked better than using it packed, but I suppose it has something to do with the sequence in which BSAs are loaded. It is not always straightforward.
So that's a land tear. The picture is at VISilvenarExt04: -34 -29 and there's more at -34 -27 looking South SouthEast. Also, at VIEbonRoExt02 looking South. Maybe it's not a coincidence both areas are at settlements. Understanding how to make a patch to fix these things sounds like a fun project but I have some reading to do. It looks like the information may all be in your guides so thanks for that. I haven't found yet how these landscape meshes get into an esp. I see in Tes4Edit that Tamriel.esp has a LAND Form 0102390a but I can't find this LAND Form in the CS. I'm thinking that everything I need to know is in your "Building your own LOD" guide but I'm not sure if I want to take on a project that size at the moment. One question though. I'm stumped where I see "Download a graphical front-end: Multi Purpose GUI. Install it in Oblivion folder. Start it and open batch file Oblivion\Data\Ini\tes4ll\tes4ll_all.mpb." What is this graphical front end? Maybe it will be apparent if I start reading about Tes4LL.
The Tamriel.bsa I made with BsaCommander so that's another factor but I will try it again with SkyBsa.dll installed. I'm guessing this is just a side issue apart from the land tearing problem.
It seems to me the only valid image url's for these forums that work these days have to be on the Nexus so I had to upload my image to my account. I was surprised that two people have commented on the problem. See here: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/images/178992?tab=posts&BH=0 Thanks
BSAcommander cannot make valid BSAs! This is why it did not load correctly. What you need is bsarch. Yes, I know it's listed under Fallout but it is valid for all Bethesda games. It is a simple command-line tool, so you need to open a DOS window, navigate to your folder and run the tool there.
To tell a land tear from an LOD issue is easy: if the problem disappears when you approach the location, it's LOD - only problematic at a distance. If you can walk right through the surface of a mountain, it's LOD. Otherwise it's a land tear. From your pictures it is not completely clear whether it's a land tear or an LOD issue. Also, you can quite literally fall into a land tear, but never into an LOD problem.
Making a patch for land tears is quite easy though. Open the CS and load the ESPs that cause the issue (that'll be TWMP Valenwood Improved and it will pull in all the other ESPs that are required). Do not set an active file - it will be your new patch. Then open the cell view window, select worldspace Tamriel and find one of the cells where you saw the land tears. All the form IDs are there. Double-click the cell and it will show in the Render Window. There you can see your land tear and you can fix it with land editor. Ok, admittedly if you've never done it before, there's a learning curve to climb - a lot of new elements. I can recommend CS Wiki for most things. If you decide to start modding, I would also recommend installing Construction Set Extender.
Regarding the graphical front-end for TES4LL, it is a separate program which gives you a graphical user interface instead of running batch files. See TES4LL page, it's got the link and further explanations.
Regarding pictures, you can upload your photos anywhere you like, not just here. You can then link them into your comment with a link button. But if you wanted to insert them in-line, I think indeed they have to be on Nexus.
I think then it is LOD. In the picture the top half is the view from a distance although not much of a distance. That's typical for what I'm noting but the same thing can be seen at greater distances as well. The bottom half is after moving forward just a few steps. There's just a narrow range where you can see both the newly visible terrain and the brown stuff so I tried to capture that point. One or two steps more and the brown is completely gone and you can't see it by turning around either. It's like one way textures where only one side of the mesh is rendered.
I'll have to look in the CS again and follow what you are saying but I've already looked at the cell where my picture was taken and it looked good in the render window. So, maybe that's more evidence that it is LOD and not a tear. As for the form IDs, in the cell window all I see are the objects that you can find in the object window. I don't see any objects that are the terrain itself like what I'm guessing is this LAND form which I'm thinking must link to the nif file that is the terrain. I've looked at those with nifskope and they look like terrain for a single cell. I'm looking to find in the CS the location where the terrain nif file for the cell is selected or specified. I'll have to look at it some more later. Thanks
Right, the problem does sound like LOD rather than a tear. If it looks fine in the CS, that's most likely - meshes. This is one of the two steps that is done with TES4LL.
LAND form ID is not shown as such in the CS. What you do is select the cell you are interested in (in the left-hand side of the cell view window) and then use the land editor to modify the landscape. This is done by pressing H or by clicking "land" icon in the toolbar of the CS or also from the menu World -> Landscape Editing.
I found that the problem was caused from extracting my bsa file with Oblivion Mod Manager. All the little bad spots are completely gone. In the end the loose files from Under the sign of the dragon - Tamriel Heightmaps - at Oblivion Nexus - mods and community work fine and my original bsa file made with BsaCommander works fine, if you have the obse plugin SkyBsa.dll installed. The size of the data in the two folders meshes\Landscape and textures\LandscapeLOD are identical to the originals but something has to be wrong with the content. I've tested back and forth and on a second computer and I'm confident that's what the problem was so it's all my fault for not just using the loose files at the start.
I made another bsa using bsarch and comparing the two using the hex editor frhed.exe the two are identical except for the flag bits. I've used BsaCommander to make at least 100 bsa files that work but I know everyone else says it's been superseded too. There is one little trick when putting in the archive name, you have hit the button with the elipse first, select the folder where you want the output, and put the name in that window. Other than that it gives you a little more information about what the flags do. I always use all f's for the Files flags because why not. It doesn't hurt anything if the extra file types are not present. You can see what I mean here: https://ibb.co/2KRqN5d
I'm glad you told me about bsarch. It's a slick program and you can't get too many bsa tools. It has the ARCHIVE INFO feature and the source code is cool. I've had my share of bsa problems but BsaCommander hasn't been the problem yet that I know of. I know Oblivion Mod Manager has a probem where if there is a single international character in a file name, like any of these à å ä ç ? é è í í ò, it will create a bsa file that looks like it will work and might work at first but eventually you will find missing meshes and textures. With BsaCommander the single file with the international character won't work but the rest is okay, so far from my experience. Now I know OBMM can't be trusted for extraction either.
Well, a little long winded but I'd hate leave bad, incomplete, or misleading information out there. So, now I can start in on your quest mod and save my landscape education for a project down the road I have in mind. The whole Valenwood is very impressive. I normally get some slow down with even a moderate sized modded open settlement but some of the towns in Valenwood are really big and very detailed and my framerate is holding good. I wonder how did they do it. They must know some optimization tricks.
Thanks for all the extraordinary support on something that was my error.
It makes sense what you say that BSA Commander gets the flags wrong. I just never took the time to investigate what exactly was failing - I just use bsarch, and it always works.
I'm glad it all worked out for you! Enjoy your game!
The most important flag from BSAs is whether it is compressed or not: bsas with only meshes and textures are usually fine to compress,but ones with audio files should never be. About lod,I suggest to just delete all lod related files from twmp bsas and just use tes4ll instead (exception,Stirk lods,being in another worldspace)...also,when 2 or more bsas contain same files,those won't work always (sadly twmp bsas often have copies of same files...) You can check the latter easily in wrye bash
That's good to know. Maybe someday I'll have a working knowledge of BSA's. I never use compression so I've been lucky on that. I've even decompressed the original bsa files. Maybe what you say about "2 or more bsas contain same files,those won't work always" is why my Tamriel.bsa didn't work without SkyBsa.dll. I'm going to start leaving SkyBsa installed permanently. In theory I believe you could put the entire Unofficial Oblivion Patch in one or two bsa files and it would work with SkyBsa. I haven't tried it because I've been doing without UOP. I don't like all it's loose files in my data folder. I have to start reading up on Tes4ll and Wrye bash.
Is what you are saying possibly why I see maybe a 1000 errors from the CS like these: Type 1. Potentially duplicate Land (0202b026) encountered in file TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp Type 2. Non-parent form '' (0000B015) exists in both file 'TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp' and 'Tamriel.esp' Type 3. Non-parent form 'TreeJuniper01' (000761E9) exists in both file 'TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp' and 'Tamriel.esp'
well yes, SkyBSA is the best modern archive invalidation method for Oblivion, so.... multiple files in multiple BSAs can sometimes cause CTDs ('cause the engine goes in a loop, not knowing which one should use, I don't think timestamps or load order make any difference here....)
Sounds good. It's all working great. The quests and story are cool too. It's a very clever and unique idea. As I discover the huge detailed creation of Valenwood I'm thinking the builders were no doubt hoping someone would come along and add some quests. There's a lot to do here now so thanks a lot.
Just gave this mod a try and boy Elden Root, a city that was near empty of life yesterday became full of NPC! By surprise after talking to one of them I even accepted a quest from them!!!! Keep up the good work, mate!
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Also, when are you planning to fill the other cities?
I have the story written for Southpoint and there's a start of the mod, but it is currently waiting in the queue.
When you find an actual clue, you get a message. But only once, so you need to pay attention, or else keep the clues to check back later. They are quite obvious.
!::! Fred
Which house was it? Or was this happening everywhere?
Thanks for the report!
I'm using the latest version, and my game is constantly crashing to desktop whenever I exit a house after putting the correct gem into the fireplace. Now, it didn't happen at first; I first released the pie maker's soul, no problems there. Then I tried Fillin, in that case I crashed at first but then eventually I managed to get it to work. Now, however, I tried Cheya (the alchemist)'s soul, and in that case I get a CTD every single time I leave the house, no matter what. Tried your suggestion to roll back to the 1.2 ESP, but then the souls never get released even after putting in the correct gem and leaving, even tried travelling away and waiting.
I mainly use the TWMP mods that you recommend here on Nexus and on your own site, and no other "big" mod, but I can share my load order if it can help.
This mod depends heavily on correct functioning of inventories and on sequencing and timing - all this putting things into the fire business. When you put the correct item into the fire and then leave the house, the cell is switched from the empty house to the lived-in one. It appears that Northern UI changes timings, so the checks for whether you are still in that cell, are not done at the right time. This is what must be causing the CTDs for you when you leave the house. Perhaps you could disable Northern UI just as a test? You would need to remove the DLL as well, this is what causes the conflict, if anything. However, I don't know if that in itself would already break your game, so check your mods first before attempting it. Other than that, well, perhaps we have to say that this mod is incompatible with Northern UI.
EDIT: removed DarN UI, and I still crash. Can I post pictures to my load order for you?
https://ibb.co/Svx5qwm
https://ibb.co/VW4yCgF
https://ibb.co/0MQCk50
I'm inside the boarded up chapel of Arkay in the city of Elden Root and I go over to read the "Note of Exception" - when I take the note I get stuck in a never ending message spam of "You put the wrong item into this fire!" - soft-locking the game because the message never goes away, no matter how many times I select "Done"
I don't know anything else about this quest, I just started a new game to test this to see if I wanted it in my load for my next playthrough and I'm kinda lost here.
I have a fairly hefty load order(little under 200 mods total) so idk if this could somehow be some kind of mod conflict or just an unfixed/undiscovered bug
EDIT: actually after a little more testing the message spams occurs even if I don't take the note, just reading it triggers the soft-locking message spam
The hotfix made it less severe, as in the message isn't constantly popping up over and over, but instead shows up maybe a couple seconds after closing it but it's still being endlessly repeated
Which version of OBSE are you running? Do you have any OBSE plugins that alter inventory handling?
Try hot fix v1.3.2.
I cannot reproduce this, so working blind. But I suspect OBSE sensitivities - some functions seem not to work correctly on your system. I have now attempted to circumvent them in v1.3.2. Hope this helps.
I'm not sure if any of my OBSE plugins alter inventory handling. The only ones I could think of that I'm using that'd maybe do that would be Visibly Unlimited and NorthernUI. Also have NifSE which I'm just now realizing I forgot to delete since I originally got it for use with Unnecessary Violence but I don't have that mod anymore
I modded oblivion for the first time around 2009 and I was always excited for new land mods. I manage to install Valenwood Improved but was a hot mesh. My PC eventually broke that year and would take me until 2012 to get a new one and stayed as a console player for that period. Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Skyrim SE, a revisit of Morrowind... I ignored Oblivion for ages, always thinking I would get back eventually.
Now in 2022 I had to upgrade my PC again (2015 was the last time) and for some reason, bored of almost 3 years of playing TESO everyday during the pandemic, I decided to go back to Oblivion. Sadly it seems since 2009 a lot of the mods that gave me mayor hope back then have being abandon or hardly changed since, Valenwood is more stable now and I pressume there´s more locations (I really didn´t see much in 2009, my game was very unstable), but it´s still moslty just an explorable area that works wonky and conflicts with tons of other stuff.
This is not to take credit from the original modders, they did an amazing job providing freely more content to users and the scope of the proyect is astonishing. But off course we all want to see these modding proyects come to finish and become fully stable and playable, we imagine what could be and not realise sometimes that a one team person or small team working for free can only achieve so much before life force them to move on.
To see you, taking this gigantic proyect, making it more compatible, trying to continue it, and even going beyond as to provide several patches and make the whole Valenwood+Elsweyr experience much more stable all together for everyone, with such a detailed description walking new comers and old players to the process of hom to make it run more smoothly, it´s like a divine sign.
Currently I´m not using TWMP because I was confused about it and went the other route with basic Valenwood Improved again since it seems less intrusive and I already had a version of Elsweyr installed, what a mistake it was since I´m experiencing the usual mountains in the middle of a town or terain that dissapears and what not. I´m still instaling things, testing them, and there´s a hard chance that I would eventually had to delete all mods and start over by carefully installing only those I´ve found usefull to me. Maybe it´s tomorrow, maybe it´s on 2045, but def next time I have to test your version when that happens, but today I´m still downloading manually any of the files if only to let Nexus endorse your work (and also make it easier for me to find via download history hehehe, win-win as they say) because I honestly think your doing the lord´s work.
Sorry for a long post, but just wanted to say you´re awesome, and thank you in the name of anyone who may play modded Oblivion from 2022 onwards, it´s modders like you that keep the fire burning that make a better job than even the original developers to maintain this sandbox games alive for so many years and generations. No amount of endorsements or good words would ever be capable of paying your service, but it´s the least some of us can do.
PD: By the way where the hell is Elden Root in the map? I´ve being trying to find it for 3 days now, seriously. I just want to see it and delete the version of the mod I have and see how could I install TWMP proyects in order to minimize conflicts, but I really want to see elden root first because I´m itching for modding Morrowind a bit and by next 2 week I will, hopefully, end the selection process for a new job, so don´t really know how much free time for Oblivion I have in the near future. I founded Arentia, Falinesti and Silvenar so far, but if I continue south I eventually ended up in a beach just where the map ends, limitations of the mod version I have or simply is not that much south of Silvenar?
TWMP Valenwood Improved is based on the 2011 version of Valenwood Improved (the last) and is identical to it in content. If you don't have anything much South of Silvenar, then you must be running an older version. Valenwood is filled with stuff! More than half of it is South of Silvenar... Including Elden Root. Have a look at this map, and also here, here and here for more detail (it's from my map mods).
All the time I was running to the south from where it would only lead me to the beach. I did find Elden Root finally as well as southpoint and haven. In the end I don´t know why I got so obssesed with it hahaha, I just wanted to be there after many years visiting the place in TESO. I had to remove hammerfell Graslands and Skyrim nord tombs, and it seems I got all the quests I can complete in Elsweyr, so perhaps I will finish exploring Black Marsh BETA and finally move on into unistalling all of those and go the TWMP route with your mods, since I don´t really care if I have to start a new game as I have done almost nothing and level up way too quick (made the classic mistake or forgetting Oblivion terrible XP system so lock myself out of leveling by level 30 something and I got there in only 3 days XDXD)
THank you for the response and again, regardles of me downloading this tomorrow or in 3 months, can´t stop praising the work you´re doing. Much luck in your endevours.
Could someone please tell me what exactly does T W M P stand for? Is that not an acronym? Where is the point of origin of this thing called TWMP that everyone understands but me?
Thanks
Thanks
Now I'm looking at your guide I have a couple questions.
1. – Tamriel LOD resources? At a glance your download for this looks the same as what I got from onra but yours is better optimized? Also, I don't need this at all if I run Tes4LODGen? My processor is only about 10 years old so I can try it and report back.
2. – Tr Stirk LOD resources – always needed? I haven't started looking for this but maybe I'm making this more difficult than necessary.
I still have to do more reading of your guide but I'll post this for now for a start
Thanks
As for the difference between Onra's LOD and mine - Onra's contains only the landscapes, mine contains also everything else. Of course it is only relevant if you have the same mods as me! And it sounds like you don't. (I have Hammerfell, High Rock, Skyrim, Elsweyr Anequina and Pelletine, Valenwood Improved, Black Marsh and Summerset Isles, with many additions to the base mods.)
The graphic anomaly in the picture was all my fault. I didn't have the Tamriel Heightmaps installed properly. It all works perfectly and is very impressive. I highly recommend. You won't be disappointed.
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I have it working mostly and I have a couple questions and an explanation. As for my minimalist installation, I didn't properly explain that my TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.bsa should contain all the German original stuff:
Valenwood Improved 1020 Full Ger-22555
Valenwood Improved 1020 Update Ger-22555
Valenwood Improved 1021 Update Ger-22555-1-02-1
Valenwood Improved 1030 Update Ger-22555-1-03-0
I just named it like that so it would load with the TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp. I think that part is working. I tried to get everything listed as requirements. Maybe I missed something.
One thing that did not work is the Tamriel.bsa and that I half expected to not work. There was a lot of what looked like an extreme low resolution terrain layer all over the place, way up in the sky and near the ground too that you can walk through. After extracting Tamriel.bsa straight into the data folder it all looks good except the very southern end, I think, and maybe that's because I don't have the Stirk resources. I started at the Cave of Dusk and going north it all looked good except one spot,so far, that is in the screen shot. I don't know how the terrain LOD works but I'd like to get it figured out and I appreciate your guides on your WordPress site. I have lot of reading to do. The only LOD generating I've done is running TES4LODGen.exe and that looks to me like only for structures. Your guide to build your own LOD is a great resource and just what I need to study in detail. For now if I find out why I have what is in the screen shot I'll be able to start in on your quest or even without any corrections it's fine as it is. Maybe there are some isolated spots or maybe I've missed something.
Thanks for all your help!
Regarding LOD, there are three components to it: land structure, land texture and distant objects. They are independent of each other and need to be done all three. Indeed, TES4LODGen only does distant objects, you need TES4LL to do land structure and land texture, in two separate passes.
Stirk will have no bearing on Valenwood because it's too far away (it is West of High Rock, NW from Cyrodiil).
It is true that Tamriel.bsa only contains primitive land textures - this is just the "scaffolding", so to speak, it is supposed to be overwritten by new land mods that actually fill in the terrain. For Valenwood, your German Valenwood Improved resources should have everything you need. For other provinces you need Tamriel Landscape Resource Pack mentioned in the TWMP guide. I'm not sure why unpacking Tamriel.bsa worked better than using it packed, but I suppose it has something to do with the sequence in which BSAs are loaded. It is not always straightforward.
The Tamriel.bsa I made with BsaCommander so that's another factor but I will try it again with SkyBsa.dll installed. I'm guessing this is just a side issue apart from the land tearing problem.
It seems to me the only valid image url's for these forums that work these days have to be on the Nexus so I had to upload my image to my account. I was surprised that two people have commented on the problem. See here: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/images/178992?tab=posts&BH=0
Thanks
To tell a land tear from an LOD issue is easy: if the problem disappears when you approach the location, it's LOD - only problematic at a distance. If you can walk right through the surface of a mountain, it's LOD. Otherwise it's a land tear. From your pictures it is not completely clear whether it's a land tear or an LOD issue. Also, you can quite literally fall into a land tear, but never into an LOD problem.
Making a patch for land tears is quite easy though. Open the CS and load the ESPs that cause the issue (that'll be TWMP Valenwood Improved and it will pull in all the other ESPs that are required). Do not set an active file - it will be your new patch. Then open the cell view window, select worldspace Tamriel and find one of the cells where you saw the land tears. All the form IDs are there. Double-click the cell and it will show in the Render Window. There you can see your land tear and you can fix it with land editor. Ok, admittedly if you've never done it before, there's a learning curve to climb - a lot of new elements. I can recommend CS Wiki for most things. If you decide to start modding, I would also recommend installing Construction Set Extender.
Regarding the graphical front-end for TES4LL, it is a separate program which gives you a graphical user interface instead of running batch files. See TES4LL page, it's got the link and further explanations.
Regarding pictures, you can upload your photos anywhere you like, not just here. You can then link them into your comment with a link button. But if you wanted to insert them in-line, I think indeed they have to be on Nexus.
I think then it is LOD. In the picture the top half is the view from a distance although not much of a distance. That's typical for what I'm noting but the same thing can be seen at greater distances as well. The bottom half is after moving forward just a few steps. There's just a narrow range where you can see both the newly visible terrain and the brown stuff so I tried to capture that point. One or two steps more and the brown is completely gone and you can't see it by turning around either. It's like one way textures where only one side of the mesh is rendered.
I'll have to look in the CS again and follow what you are saying but I've already looked at the cell where my picture was taken and it looked good in the render window. So, maybe that's more evidence that it is LOD and not a tear. As for the form IDs, in the cell window all I see are the objects that you can find in the object window. I don't see any objects that are the terrain itself like what I'm guessing is this LAND form which I'm thinking must link to the nif file that is the terrain. I've looked at those with nifskope and they look like terrain for a single cell. I'm looking to find in the CS the location where the terrain nif file for the cell is selected or specified. I'll have to look at it some more later.
Thanks
LAND form ID is not shown as such in the CS. What you do is select the cell you are interested in (in the left-hand side of the cell view window) and then use the land editor to modify the landscape. This is done by pressing H or by clicking "land" icon in the toolbar of the CS or also from the menu World -> Landscape Editing.
I made another bsa using bsarch and comparing the two using the hex editor frhed.exe the two are identical except for the flag bits. I've used BsaCommander to make at least 100 bsa files that work but I know everyone else says it's been superseded too. There is one little trick when putting in the archive name, you have hit the button with the elipse first, select the folder where you want the output, and put the name in that window. Other than that it gives you a little more information about what the flags do. I always use all f's for the Files flags because why not. It doesn't hurt anything if the extra file types are not present. You can see what I mean here: https://ibb.co/2KRqN5d
I'm glad you told me about bsarch. It's a slick program and you can't get too many bsa tools. It has the ARCHIVE INFO feature and the source code is cool. I've had my share of bsa problems but BsaCommander hasn't been the problem yet that I know of. I know Oblivion Mod Manager has a probem where if there is a single international character in a file name, like any of these à å ä ç ? é è í í ò, it will create a bsa file that looks like it will work and might work at first but eventually you will find missing meshes and textures. With BsaCommander the single file with the international character won't work but the rest is okay, so far from my experience. Now I know OBMM can't be trusted for extraction either.
Well, a little long winded but I'd hate leave bad, incomplete, or misleading information out there. So, now I can start in on your quest mod and save my landscape education for a project down the road I have in mind. The whole Valenwood is very impressive. I normally get some slow down with even a moderate sized modded open settlement but some of the towns in Valenwood are really big and very detailed and my framerate is holding good. I wonder how did they do it. They must know some optimization tricks.
Thanks for all the extraordinary support on something that was my error.
I'm glad it all worked out for you! Enjoy your game!
Is what you are saying possibly why I see maybe a 1000 errors from the CS like these:
Type 1. Potentially duplicate Land (0202b026) encountered in file TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp
Type 2. Non-parent form '' (0000B015) exists in both file 'TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp' and 'Tamriel.esp'
Type 3. Non-parent form 'TreeJuniper01' (000761E9) exists in both file 'TWMP_ValenwoodImproved.esp' and 'Tamriel.esp'
Thanks