Installing SkyUI without a mod manager?

[verdeimparat]

So, I tried installing mod managers like Vortex or Mod organizer to add some mods but i failed every time. Now I'm trying to get at least SkyUI but every time I try and run SKSE it just opens for half a second then closes. I tried every tutorial on the internet, I've been trying since I got the game, but I never managed to install any mod other than SKSE and Bethasda.net mods

[Silent Protagonist]

if you go on the skyrim SE discussions and look at the top at the pinned threads look for one called "Helpful Links and Discussions" it has all the info you need to get your game up and running smoothly

[Wolfpack]

The in-game mod manager disables SkyUI. Better to go with MO2 or Vortex.

[cfs111]

We have a Discord server called Modding U, glad to teach you how to mod the game. Just join and request class time.
https://discord.gg/qh4gbv39

[biceps always together!!]

The files go in /data/.

That's the answer you were probably looking for, and the answer that took me like 15 minutes of googling instead of having one line on the mod page or a readme (SkyUI has neither).

Why people insist that you should install a third party "mod manager" software to handle the delicate task of COPY PASTING TWO FILES IN WINDOWS EXPLORER is beyond me. Even more so why people don't seem willing to give up this info and just insist you install MO2.

[Grumpy Old Dude]

I for one, am stymied over HOW "I tried installing mod managers like Vortex or Mod organizer to add some mods but i failed every time.", is even possible?

I haven't tried MO2, so will restrict my comment to VORTEX.

Select your game and thus set VORTEX to manage that title,
Follow VORTEX instructions and begin by getting SKSE64 and Vortex will will automatically set it up.
Now click MODS on the left,
Get mods on the bottom center,
pick a mod, any mod...read the front page, look at the bug reports if any, read recent comments...looks good? Click FILES tab in NEXUS
click Download with manager and wait a few seconds, a popup appears to "open vortex"
select it, ...now wait. Your mod will DL and install.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by biceps always together!!:

The files go in /data/.

That's the answer you were probably looking for, and the answer that took me like 15 minutes of googling instead of having one line on the mod page or a readme (SkyUI has neither).

Why people insist that you should install a third party "mod manager" software to handle the delicate task of COPY PASTING TWO FILES IN WINDOWS EXPLORER is beyond me. Even more so why people don't seem willing to give up this info and just insist you install MO2.

People recommend using a mod manager because manually installing things into the data folder can break things sometimes. It gets extremely delicate when you have mods overwriting files from other mods, you replace the wrong one and you will have no clue why a mod stopped working if it was all done manually.

I would only ever suggest doing manual installs for someone with a very small mod list because of that.

But yes, you simply drop the files into the data folder to do it manually.

[HauntedShadowsLegacy]

Originally posted by Silamon:

People recommend using a mod manager because manually installing things into the data folder can break things sometimes. It gets extremely delicate when you have mods overwriting files from other mods, you replace the wrong one and you will have no clue why a mod stopped working if it was all done manually.

So basically, if you install the mods in the wrong order, it breaks. But then if it's such an issue, why don't mod authors just say which mods need to be installed before theirs? Hell, why don't mod authors just say where their files go in the folders? So people install those bloatware programs? Look, I get that some people are too inept to click and drag files, but it's demeaning for the rest of us who wanna save hard drive space and aren't so inept to be shoehorned into the same dunce cap as everybody else.

Look at what the other user managed to say. "The files go in /data/." Look at how simple it was. Why can't mod authors just put that in their description or in a ReadMe? Mod authors know where their files belong, so it should be as simple as saying where they belong. Yet instead of saying 'the files go there', they choose to go with a sentence that takes up just as much space but is far more dismissive.

I'm not even new to modding. I've been modding for years. The issue isn't me or anyone else who's willing and able to drag files from one folder to another. The issue is a refusal- an outright, explicit refusal -to provide the most basic level of documentation to those who would understand it. This is my one and only gripe with the Skyrim modding community.

[Ilja]

Originally posted by HauntedShadowsLegacy:

So basically, if you install the mods in the wrong order, it breaks. But then if it's such an issue, why don't mod authors just say which mods need to be installed before theirs?

Because there are F-ton of mods and not all of them are Nexus or BethNet. How could anyone possibly know every mod which should load before or after them?

I am constantly finding new conflicts, while using MO2. I try to pass them on to mod authors, when I can. Several authors indeed post the order for most popular mods, but they can't rummage over ever single modding site, blog, Patreon, Japanese community forums etc. It is simply impossible task.

Then there is also the issue with self standing mods, which are using custom skeletons, or older parts of utility files merged in to them. Those are fun to manage manually.

People with large lists will want to manage conflicts. Personally I also prefer seeing them directly from UI, which is why I am using MO2 for BGS games.

[Kussin]

Originally posted by HauntedShadowsLegacy:

Originally posted by Silamon:

People recommend using a mod manager because manually installing things into the data folder can break things sometimes. It gets extremely delicate when you have mods overwriting files from other mods, you replace the wrong one and you will have no clue why a mod stopped working if it was all done manually.

So basically, if you install the mods in the wrong order, it breaks. But then if it's such an issue, why don't mod authors just say which mods need to be installed before theirs? Hell, why don't mod authors just say where their files go in the folders? So people install those bloatware programs? Look, I get that some people are too inept to click and drag files, but it's demeaning for the rest of us who wanna save hard drive space and aren't so inept to be shoehorned into the same dunce cap as everybody else.

Look at what the other user managed to say. "The files go in /data/." Look at how simple it was. Why can't mod authors just put that in their description or in a ReadMe? Mod authors know where their files belong, so it should be as simple as saying where they belong. Yet instead of saying 'the files go there', they choose to go with a sentence that takes up just as much space but is far more dismissive.

I'm not even new to modding. I've been modding for years. The issue isn't me or anyone else who's willing and able to drag files from one folder to another. The issue is a refusal- an outright, explicit refusal -to provide the most basic level of documentation to those who would understand it. This is my one and only gripe with the Skyrim modding community.

How would you start to name a number when there is an infinite amount of modlist/order.
After modding for years, you should be aware of it.
And for the mods where the order really matters (most likely where LOOT wont get it), it's mentioned in the description/readme/whatever. Its up to you, the customer enjoying free work from other people, to educate yourself what kind of mod should be at what place; according to your individual mod list that can be potentially anything from 1 to 1000 different mods.

[HauntedShadowsLegacy]

Originally posted by Ward:

How would you start to name a number when there is an infinite amount of modlist/order.
After modding for years, you should be aware of it.
And for the mods where the order really matters (most likely where LOOT wont get it), it's mentioned in the description/readme/whatever. Its up to you, the customer enjoying free work from other people, to educate yourself what kind of mod should be at what place; according to your individual mod list that can be potentially anything from 1 to 1000 different mods.

"educate yourself" and where, pray tell, would one garner such 'education', hm? Like I said, I'm not new to modding. I know how to read documentation. The problem is that mod authors *don't make their documentation available.* If the information isn't made public, then you can't blame the public for not having the information. Besides, I'm not asking for a full list of every potential configuration, just that mod authors disclose if their mod should be installed after a different mod or mod type- y'know, the kind of thing that only matters if mods have overlapping functions.

Also, "It's mentioned in the description/readme/whatever." No, it isn't always mentioned there. *That's the whole problem.* That's the complaint. Mod authors wasting their time and effort by saying 'use a mod manager' instead of 'the file goes in this folder'. *After* the mod author discloses the most basic of information, then fine, whatever happens after that is on me. You can't just hand someone a specialized piece of equipment and expect 'em to use it without basic instructions. But I guess basic instructions is too much nowadays...

[Kussin]

I dont share these Problems. Hope you will sort it out some day.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by HauntedShadowsLegacy:

Originally posted by Ward:

How would you start to name a number when there is an infinite amount of modlist/order.
After modding for years, you should be aware of it.
And for the mods where the order really matters (most likely where LOOT wont get it), it's mentioned in the description/readme/whatever. Its up to you, the customer enjoying free work from other people, to educate yourself what kind of mod should be at what place; according to your individual mod list that can be potentially anything from 1 to 1000 different mods.

"educate yourself" and where, pray tell, would one garner such 'education', hm? Like I said, I'm not new to modding. I know how to read documentation. The problem is that mod authors *don't make their documentation available.* If the information isn't made public, then you can't blame the public for not having the information. Besides, I'm not asking for a full list of every potential configuration, just that mod authors disclose if their mod should be installed after a different mod or mod type- y'know, the kind of thing that only matters if mods have overlapping functions.

Also, "It's mentioned in the description/readme/whatever." No, it isn't always mentioned there. *That's the whole problem.* That's the complaint. Mod authors wasting their time and effort by saying 'use a mod manager' instead of 'the file goes in this folder'. *After* the mod author discloses the most basic of information, then fine, whatever happens after that is on me. You can't just hand someone a specialized piece of equipment and expect 'em to use it without basic instructions. But I guess basic instructions is too much nowadays...

SSEedit allows you to look at 2 exes and see if one is overwriting records from another one. It also allows you to fix conflicts resulting from those overwrites yourself. You don't need any documentation from a mod author to see that.

But I guess if you think mod organizers are just bloatware, SSEedit probably is too....

[HauntedShadowsLegacy]

Originally posted by Silamon:

SSEedit allows you to look at 2 exes and see if one is overwriting records from another one. It also allows you to fix conflicts resulting from those overwrites yourself. You don't need any documentation from a mod author to see that.

But I guess if you think mod organizers are just bloatware, SSEedit probably is too....

So that solves one thing for lazy mod authors who refuse to document their work. Now how about the other? Which file in which folder? Is there another piece of bloatware to fix that? Oh, right, there is. So, hard pass. Two sentences to free up hard drive space.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by HauntedShadowsLegacy:

Originally posted by Silamon:

SSEedit allows you to look at 2 exes and see if one is overwriting records from another one. It also allows you to fix conflicts resulting from those overwrites yourself. You don't need any documentation from a mod author to see that.

But I guess if you think mod organizers are just bloatware, SSEedit probably is too....

So that solves one thing for lazy mod authors who refuse to document their work. Now how about the other? Which file in which folder? Is there another piece of bloatware to fix that? Oh, right, there is. So, hard pass. Two sentences to free up hard drive space.

Oh right, you need to save that 20 mb of hard drive space so badly, yeah I forgot about that. Those damn bloatware programs should really be avoided.

[Ilja]

Originally posted by HauntedShadowsLegacy:

Mod authors wasting their time and effort by saying 'use a mod manager' instead of 'the file goes in this folder'.

I do not understand this issue, because unless mod is in FOMOD mode (which requires mod manager to begin with), archives always already include the file path. Unless it is ENB or SKSE64: unpack and drop it in to Data folder. Period.

Subfolders will merge with existing ones, or create new ones.

And that is the real issue. Files might share same names, but are actually different versions. Solving compatibility issues require that correct files will win conflicts against other ones.

If you install files manually, then you are directly overwriting files from the folder. If you ended up doing this in unwanted order, or want to change the order due to installing another mod that relies on different version of the file, you will have reinstall files manually again.

Often you do not know where the mistake was done. It is highly possible that mod author doesn't know it either, seeing that they can possibly be aware of every mod that has been released, even those that have potential conflicts with their mod.

So, if you did install files manually and there are several mods overwriting same files, you will have to reinstall them in different orders and test them around.

If you are using mod manager, you can simply change the resource priority order for mods from UI and check how your game behaves.

And if you are using MO2, you can check directly from UI which files are actually conflicting and focus sorting those.