RG4's PC Modding Crisis Thread Options

[Renee]

Did that 'WalMart' lighting start after you began modding?

No, the lighting has always been that bright in the Tutorial, I know this because when my Dunmer was looking across the hallway to the other Dunmer (the one who insults) I could see him clearly, and that's not what I've been used to on console. On console he'd just be a dark shape behind his jail cell bars.

But just to double-check, what I can do is start all over again from the very first save and not add any mods. Let the Emperor & guards do their thing (open up the wall) and see if that makes a diff.

Did you ever use the console command TLB, which is short for Toggle Lite Brite? It makes everything really bright like that. Try running the command from the console and see if it changes things.

Nope. I've only used the console to (1) slow down the Timescale and (2) remove the starting Flare spell. I'll try that TLB command though.

I looked in the Darker Dungeons description for a clue about what’s going on, and it says “New in Version 1.1- A Shivering Isles ESP! It REPLACES the one you may already have (Also, the old version of the ESP is packed in too).”

Does this mean you should only be using the SI esp? Perhaps the SI version is the original plus SI, not just the SI part. Maybe try that?

Okay.

Added: I can’t see in the picture, do the Darker Dungeons mods have the same date as Camping (or each other)?

Umm. I don't think so. How do I find out?

I'd add BOSS. Even though you don't have a lot of mods, it will fix this, as it re-dates the mods to get them in the correct order to override each other properly. It also knows which mods are incompatible, and which need cleaning. Launches from Wrye Bash, and Bash picks up the changes immediately.

And that's not nearly enough mods! Not to mention, none of them are mine!

Lol, cool thanks! .. I've got BOSS installed but barely know how to use Bash at this point.

I know Wyrd is a Bash-master, looks like I'll have to PM him about the red background bit, assuming BOSS can't figure it out.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jan 16 2014, 06:51 PM

[haute ecole rider]

I'm no WB expert, but I do use it quite a bit. I also second ghastley on BOSS. Never add a mod without my full complement of utilities - WB, BOSS, TES4Edit and TES4LODgen.

Run Boss on your mod list, then see if the problem persists in WB.

I can't quite remember what that red background means, but I do suspect it means the dates are somehow identical. BOSS fixes that for you.

I'll take a look at my WB stuff and see if I can't explain things a little better for you.

Thomas Kaira is the big WB user around here, but I don't see him just yet . . .

[Renee]

HA! figured it out! SubRosa gets the cookie. She was right. IT was the TLB command. For some reason it was on. Well at least I know what to do to fix this.

My game looks nice and dark now, I might not even need a darkness mod.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jan 16 2014, 10:59 PM

[Acadian]

That's great news, Renee! Sometimes the answer is indeed the simple one - and SubRosa is indeed a smart cookie.

[ghastley]

It does make you wonder why the TLB command exists, but I suppose the devs might need it if they forgot to put in any lights in a cell at all.

[King Coin]

I read that command can make the game run a lot better if you PC is not running it well.

[Renee]

It does make you wonder why the TLB command exists, but I suppose the devs might need it if they forgot to put in any lights in a cell at all.

I am guessing it's for gamers that have some sort of intolerance to dark spaces? Dunno.

All I know is I'm done assisting my daughter with her homework and now it's GAME ON. I am so psyched you guys & gals, you don't even know.

Edit: Maybe TLB is for partially blind gamers? I just had that thought.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jan 17 2014, 02:22 AM

[SubRosa]

I am pretty sure the TLB command is out there as a way to speed up the game on really old computers. It disables all dynamic lighting, which gives an FPS boost. It is easy to forget now that the game is many years old, but when Oblivion first came out, it really pushed the boundaries of computer technology. When I first tried to play it, it literally would not run on my PC. Not because of compatibility issues, but simply a lack of power. I got as far as the character creation. Then I would move the mouse, wait five minutes, and see the cursor move. My comp at that time was not a blazing speed demon, but was not an old, dead horse either. It was years before I had a computer that could run the game.

I think the TLB command might be enabled by default at the lowest graphics setting. That might be why it was turned on in your case Renee.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 17 2014, 03:13 AM

[haute ecole rider]

I'm glad to know that you're off and running again, Renee!

[ghastley]

I think the TLB command might be enabled by default at the lowest graphics setting. That might be why it was turned on in your case Renee.

Good point - being an older game, the Oblivion installation often can't recognize the current video cards, and assumes the worst (the idea being that the game will at least be playable before you adjust it). You may want to review ALL the video settings and move them off the bottom end of the scale.

[Thomas Kaira]

TLB is not for vision-impaired gamers. What happens when you use it is it completely turns off the game's dynamic lighting and makes the ambient light full-strength white.

It's the ingame version of a Construction Set feature. In the CS, there is a work light you can toggle on and off to do the same thing. Idea being that if you are designing a dark location you can see what you are doing while you work. TLB is meant for the same purpose.

TLB does not get enabled at very low graphics because it changes the ambient light color to full white. At low graphics all that is done is the dynamic lighting gets disabled.

This post has been edited by Thomas Kaira: Jan 17 2014, 06:31 PM

[Renee]

Interesting, Thomas, SR, and ghastley.

I have some (more) questions. I want a mod that slows magic down somehow. I'm looking for a mod that can possibly slow all the magic down to Restoration levels. In other words, Restoration is the slowest-leveling skill in the vanilla game, and I've always felt that the rest of the magic skills (all of them) move upwards way too fast.

Back in my tabletop days (way back in the '80s) I had a wizard character who became all-powerful, but this took years to achieve. Not a few weeks as in TES. Granted, tabletop games are intrinsically slower because they're all about dice rolling and pencil notations, but even still I think it would take a long time for my wizard to level upwards even if his game was in real-time.

Any sort of mod like this out there?

You may want to review ALL the video settings and move them off the bottom end of the scale.

Bottom end of the scale? Not sure what you mean. The general setting is Medium, and I haven't messed with any of the other settings (the ones that affect grass and leaves and distant buildings and stuff. First thing I'm gonna do is figure out what sort of video card I've got in my PC, but I'm too afraid to open it. I've got a friend that's done this before though, so he'll probably be over tomorrow.

You all are gonna laugh, but after all that stuff with the TLB and too-bright dungeons, once I got to gaming last night, I was thinking it's still too bright. It's about the level of brightness as what's on consoles, basically. So I did wind up trying Darker Dungeons again, and this time it DOES make a diff. Areas where there's no ambient light are now BLACK, and I do need a torch to see once I'm in these areas.

But it still wasn't dark enough. So (check this out) I added my Darker Dungeons pretend mod to the Darker Dungeons actual mod. This means I push a button on my TV screen (the button toggles a setting called "Sports") and FINALLY I got what I want. With Darker Dungeons, yes there are areas that are darker, but they're more of a washed-out gray than what I want. With my DD pretend mod, these washed out areas are now pitch BLACK. YES!

Um. I had another question, but I forget it now. Had something to do with TES4Edit though. I was messing around with this last night. The thing that's weird is even though Wrye Bash still puts a red background across Darker Dungeons, this mod seems to work fine.

[King Coin]

If you would like to know what graphics card you have, click the Start button and in the search bar, type DxDiag, and run that program. When it appears and is done running, click the Display tab. That will detail what you have.

[Renee]

If you would like to know what graphics card you have, click the Start button and in the search bar, type DxDiag, and run that program. When it appears and is done running, click the Display tab. That will detail what you have.

Naah, didn't work. It says "No items match your search".

[haute ecole rider]

Um. I had another question, but I forget it now. Had something to do with TES4Edit though. I was messing around with this last night. The thing that's weird is even though Wrye Bash still puts a red background across Darker Dungeons, this mod seems to work fine.

TES4Edit cleans mods, but does not fix their dates. BOSS? (Better Oblivion Sorting Software) does this for you. That should get rid of the red bar.

Here's my usual modding routine: Add a mod using WB or OBMM (some mods like OBMM, like DarNUI and Robert's Female Body Replacer). Run BOSS to sort load order, fix dates, and identify dirty mods. Run TES4Edit on the dirty mods identified by BOSS. Play the game. No crashes? Great, add another mod, or keep playing.

[SubRosa]

I don't know of any mods off the top of my head that slow down the time it takes to raise your magic skills. Why don't you just make one?

I don't know what version of Windows you have. If it is Windows 7 or Vista, you can click on Start, then type Device Manager into the Search field. Click on it in the list that pops up. Look down through the list for Display Adapters, and open that line up. It will give you the name of your video card.

[King Coin]

Naah, didn't work. It says "No items match your search".

Really? What's your operating system?

[Acadian]

Renee, there are indeed mods that let you customize how quickly differing skills level up. I can't recall any of the names because I don't use any mods that affect leveling or skills. But Pseron does and I'm sure he can give you the insight to select the best choice.

[Renee]

King Coin: I have a Hewlett Packard Pavillion 500-023W which has Windows 8. I'm supposed to upgrade to 8.1 (I get reminders on the PC telling me to do this occasionally) but I've heard 8.1 will possibly mess up my Xbox controller when I'm gaming. Besides, everything is working fine to some extent on 8, why should I upgrade? I'm in no hurry.

SubRosa: MAKE one? .. Eeesh, I dunno about that! I'm too much of a n00b for that! .. Maybe when I'm not so green I'll feel more confident in that regard.

Start > Search > Device Managers did not work either. Win 8 does a lot of [censored] different and it's basically the new kid on the block that nobody fully knows yet. I've noticed (for instance) that whenever I'm looking up modding info or computer info, everything is written for Win 7 or Vista or XP.

My friend was supposed to come over and dismantle the back of my PC for me but he ran into probs. If I have nothing else to do this weekend maybe I'll go on You Tube and watch a vid (there's gotta be one somewhere) of somebody removing their video card. Not that I'll do this, I just want to try and get in there, at least.

HER: Yes, I've got BOSS installed. I'm not sure how to figure about the Darker Dungeons date thing, but this is what it says next to Darker Dungeons:

Dark Dungeons.esp Version 1.0 Active Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: C.Light, Deactivate}}

I have no idea what this means, though. It's suggesting something about Deactivating Light, but what is it? I have not a clue.

It also says See You Sleep has a "dirty edit", and that's how I wound up messing with TES4Edit, but I couldn't figure how to clean this up. I'll have to explain what the directions said, but that'll be for later.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jan 18 2014, 11:11 PM

[SubRosa]

Every modder in the world started out knowing absolutely nothing about modding. We all have to start somewhere, and that is usually the situation of saying "I really wish I could change this." So jump in the pool and have fun. The link I posted on page 2 to the construction set wiki has all the info a first-time modder needs.

I have Windows 8 on my Surface. Assuming it works the same on a Desktop, open the sidebar, and click on Search. Type in Device Manager. It will say 0 items at first. Look down in the list, and you should see it say Apps, Settings, and Files. Click on Settings, and Device Manager will be the first thing that comes up on the list.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 19 2014, 03:14 AM