load order, the openMW way

[josaaku]

Hi,

seeing that openMW is so far, I started to play around with the build-in "Mod Organizer" a bit.

First thing: Adding lines to the "data=" list works perfectly.

There are some interesting facts though:

1. texture/meshes : As stated here https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title ... stallation the folder further down has the higher priority. I tested that with 2 folders with different crosshair textures and it worked.

2. (here's the interesting part) gameplay-mods / esp-loadorder : the folder further UP has the higher priority. And thats funny. I tested it this way: I installed two different mods changing birthsigs. The first in the list "won".

Conclusion: It is still possible to maintain a real load order. I did it this way:

Spoiler: Show

data="C:/Spiele/Morrowind for OpenMW/Data Files"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Tribunal\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Bloodmoon\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Bodies\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Clothes Complete\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Robes\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Armor\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Heads\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Better Blood\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Brandarks Better Hair\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\LizTail's New Beast Bodies\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Westly Head Replacer\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Pluginless Khajiit Head Pack\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Darknut Armor Textures\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Darknut Weapon Textures\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Tamriel Rebuilt\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Morrowind Visual Pack\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Signposts\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Clothiers of Vvardefell\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Fine Clothiers of Tamriel\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Morrowind Comes Alive\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Antares Big Mod\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\NPC Commands\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Morrowind Advanced\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Leveled Magicka\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Magicka Regen\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Madd Leveler\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Quick Char\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\BTB\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Crosshair\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Morrowind Patch\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Bloodmoon ESM\"
data="c:\Spiele\Morrowind for OpenMW\Mods\Tribunal ESM\"

[ "/" or "\" doesn't seem to make a difference.]

Explanation of load order:

- first you go with the virgin morrowind folder
- folders with Tribunal and Bloodmoon bsas (without the ESM)
- Everything changing textures, meshes.... stuff that doesnt conflict and therefore doesn't need special treatment concerning load order
- gameplay mods in the order "top priority --> less priority"
- unofficial Morrowind patch
- Bloodmoon and Tribunal ESMs

I didn't find that kind of information in the forums so far, so I decided to go for a new topic.

What are your experiences with the build-in "Mod Organizer" of openMW? Now that I understand it... I'm loving it.^^

Best regards,
josaaku

[PoorYorec]

For me I have it so the expansions and official addons are first then I have various mods afterwords in no particular order. Nothing I use overhauls the game too much so I don't think it really matters, nothing seems to conflict anyways as far as I can tell. The only mod I made sure to have load directly after another was More Better Clothes because it's the only way the Argonian scripts will work with Better Clothes.

[Clatch]

First off, this openmw.cfg setup is very cool! OpenMW is cool. I can hardly believe I'm playing this on my Mac.

So I've been toying with mods and testing out what I'd like to have and what's compatible. I've mostly been working with texture and mesh replacers which all seem to work without a hitch. I noticed though in another thread here someone mentioned bsa's work from openmw.cfg if they are directly added? Do they get added using fallback= or content= ?

Also, the OpenMW launcher seems to have a load order built into it, is that right? It was mentioned before in this thread, but I'm not sure I understood it. After adding the data= items, it looks like OpenMW is auto-sorting the esp and esm items in the proper compatibility order like the old BOSS tool? If so, this is amazing! There's hardly any work involved here.

[Magecoerlin]

I've been trying unsuccessfully to utilize openmw.cfg. Would you mind giving exactly what a small example of the lines should be. I'm on a mac, and I'm not sure if that changes the way to get to the files.

I'd specifically appreciate the very first line through one or two mods as an example, followed by the last couple of lines so I know what is sandwiching the commands.

Apologies, I'm new to modding and don't really know what I'm doing yet.

[Clatch]

I've been trying unsuccessfully to utilize openmw.cfg. Would you mind giving exactly what a small example of the lines should be. I'm on a mac, and I'm not sure if that changes the way to get to the files.

I'd specifically appreciate the very first line through one or two mods as an example, followed by the last couple of lines so I know what is sandwiching the commands.

Apologies, I'm new to modding and don't really know what I'm doing yet.

One of the first mistakes I made was editing the openmw.cfg in the actual application folder. That get's you nowhere; it's only used as a template on the very first load. You'll have to edit the one in ~/Library/Preferences/openmw/

Scroll to the very end of that file and find the line "content=Morrowind.esm". Right above that start adding your data lines. I throw my mods in the base application folder like: "/Applications/OpenMW/Mods/". I created the Mods folder.

When placing your mods in that directory, make sure that the data files are top level and not in an actual directory called "data files". For instance, if you placed the Graphic Herbalism mod in that directory, the esp files, meshes and texture directories should all be at top level.
A Good example:
/Applications/OpenMW/Mods/GraphicHeralism/Meshes.

The bad way:
/Applications/OpenMW/Mods/GraphicHerbalism/Data Files/Meshes

In the OpenMW.cfg add data="?local?Mods/GraphicHerbalism"
The ?local? denotes the base directory that the OpenMW.app is in. That way you don't have to include the full path.

Start up OpenMW.app and select the jackknife (data files). Select the Default profile or create a new one. Then select Morrowind.esm. All the esp files you have included via openmw.cfg should be there to select. The software appears to order them correctly. It will also prevent you from selecting mods that aren't compatible. Click Play and start Morrowind. When you start morrowind, OpenMW overwrites your changes to the openmw.cfg to clean up entries there and add the content lines automatically.

If you've screwed around with wrye bash, boss and all that jazz, this is a walk in the park comparatively.

Also note that your data lines aren't re-ordered by openmw.app the way the content lines are. So if you include some mods that do not include any esp or esm, the new textures, meshes, sounds, etc. will just automatically be loaded first in the order that you put them in. So anything last on your list will override the previously loaded item if any conflicts occur. So when you look at the openmw.cfg, you'll be able to check out the true load order and move things around as you need. As long as you don't hit up the jackknife settings again, the file will retain your changes.

[Magecoerlin]

I was modifying the right file, but there is no "content=Morrowind.esm" line. You mentioned scrolling, which would seem to indicate there should be more here. But it is actually quite small for me. Before I change anything, the file contents look like this:

data="?global?data"
data="?mw?Data Files"
data-local="?userdata?data"
resources=${OPENMW_RESOURCE_FILES}
script-blacklist=Museum
script-blacklist=MockChangeScript
script-blacklist=doortestwarp


I've tried entering data lines like this into it:

data="c:\Applications\Morrowind\Mods\Weathered Signs\”


Could I possibly have installed either morrowind or openmw wrong? I installed morrowind through a wine bottled steam, and I can run the game fine and all. I even got some mods to work by just putting the mods in the data files directory.

There just seems like there is a lot that I could be doing wrong and I don't know which parts are right and which aren't.

Thanks for the help though, I really appreciate it.

[Pop000100]

I was modifying the right file, but there is no "content=Morrowind.esm" line.

well if you use windows the file you are looking at is the program files openmw folder however the file mentioned here is located in My Documents\My Games\openmw\openmw.cfg on my computer.

[dEnigma]

Here are the paths to the configuration files: https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Paths

[Danjb]

Explanation of load order:

- first you go with the virgin morrowind folder
- folders with Tribunal and Bloodmoon bsas (without the ESM)
- Everything changing textures, meshes.... stuff that doesnt conflict and therefore doesn't need special treatment concerning load order
- gameplay mods in the order "top priority --> less priority"
- unofficial Morrowind patch
- Bloodmoon and Tribunal ESMs

What if you have 2 conflicting mods, A and B. You want the assets from A to override the assets from B, but you want B to load first.

Seems to me there needs to be both an "install order" and a "load order". Is this not currently the case?

[Magecoerlin]

Here are the paths to the configuration files: https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Paths

I have no openmw folder in my preferences. Was I supposed to put that there manually or was it supposed to install?