Removing Mods Misconceptions

Troubleshooting Baldur's Gate 3 with Mods Reference

About this Guide

This guides goes into detail explaining common misconceptions about mods.
If you are just looking for a way to remove mods and turn your game back to vanilla, use this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024252010
Screenshots of common mod issues

Official Mods Support

Is there official mods support for Baldur's Gate 3?

Long story short: yes.

Despite a Steam Workshop connection is currently missing, Baldur's Gate 3 supports modded content. The game not only scans game folders for additional (modded) contents, but also prepare user profile folders and files specifically to support the addition and usage of modded content.

In the release version of the game the folder Mods and the file modsettings.lsx are created in the user profile folders for that matter.

%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\

%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles

In addition to that the game scans the game's root folder, bin folder and Data folder for additional contents.

Uninstalling / Reinstalling Does Not Help

Uninstalling Baldur's Gate 3 and reinstalling never helps.

In fact: the only cases where it actually does anything is with hardware defects.

What help for troubleshooting are

• cleaning cache / user profile folder
  
• verify game files integrity
  
• repair Steam Library
  
• moving the game onto a different partition / storage drive *

* for the same reason where a reinstallation would help: hardware defect; by moving the game onto a different partition the usage of defective sectors within a storage device will be avoided

Redownloading Baldur's Gate 3 is virtually never necessary, so you can save time and bandwidth.

The problem with mods in that regards looks like this:

What you can see on the screenshots are leftover files from mods after a proper uninstallation of the game via Steam, using RevoUninstaller.

RevoUninstaller detected the leftover registry entries of the game, but neither RevoUninstaller nor Steam did remove the leftover files which can be found in the game's bin, Data and root folders.

Plus the user profile folder is untouched and remains as it is

%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\

The consequence if you reinstall now

... without removing the leftover files and user profile is that the game will be reinstalled into the state as it was before: including the mods.

Imagine you having coloured paper in your printer and you wish to change back to white paper, returning it back to "vanilla". All what you would have done with reinstallation of the game is as if you replaced the printer and then again load it with coloured paper instead of white paper. Because the coloured paper was never removed alongside the old printer.

BG3MM is a Text Editor

...more or less ~

All what LaughingLeader's popular Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager does is helping you with things you can and should do manually first to understand how it works. Which are

• locating and moving PAK mod files into the correct user profile folder
  
• editing modsettings.lsx file
  
• checking for updates if the mod is supported e.g. via Nexus Mods
  
• checking for popular mod dependency with Norbyte's Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender

Whether you have this



or this



It is important that it means the same as in the modsettings.lsx content is identical as you would have done it manually, as well as the PAK file is placed correctly as you would have done it manually.

Nonetheless LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager is more or less just a text editor which puts the content of modsettings.lsx into a graphical user interface and checks the relevant folders for associated content.

It is an issue if you do not fully understand that, as in Dice_Set06.pak and Honour.pak are actually native game files. The LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager app is just missing an update which takes that into consideration correctly.

Mod Manager: Inactive =/= Removed

Having a mod set inactive in LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager does not mean the mod is disabled nor removed.

It only means that there is no set mod load order for that item.

The game will still scan the folders and recognise the additional content.

It might not load properly, but the game will still consider that there is additional content, whether the game can access it correctly or not.

Originalmente postado por A Popular Mod's Installation Instructions:

Place both ImprovedUI.pak and any optional file(s) under "%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods" - no mod list entry required.

Because of that feature of the game, which allows easy mod usage, it will never suffice just to "deactivate" mods in the LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager to have them properly removed. Think of it like tracks on your MP3 player. The mod load order is like a playlist. But just because a track is not listed in the playlist, it is still in your MP3 player and will get loaded alongside your playlist.

Only if you properly delete mods, whether via Windows Explorer or the inbuilt feature of the app, the mods will no longer get loaded with the game.

Mod Dependency

I do not know why, but there have been many people who got the wrong idea that mods can be turn off and on at their leisure without any issues ever. Which simply will not work. There might be exceptions if a mod is coded well and e.g. temporarily replaces a skin of an object. That way the original object might not be altered but rather get a disguise on top of it. Such can work. But most mods work with hard dependencies.

That means they alter the story scripts for the game, and those alterations get saved into your ongoing savegame.

A dependency got created where your savegame only can work alongside the mod(s) used.

Originalmente postado por アンジェル:

Basics
There are three types of mods currently popular with Baldur's Gate 3. Do not mind the terminology, just take it for understanding as they are mentioned.

Wrappers
The kind of mods which change how the game is loaded within the engine.
Examples: WASD mod, camera mod

Expanders
The kind of mods which add content to the game.
Examples: items, textures, objects

Manipulations
The kind of mods which change content in the game.
Examples: no party limit

Think of the game as a letter.

The wrappers are like the envelope of the letter. You can use the standard envelope, a coloured one, a bigger one, and so on. It affects how the letter is perceived in total, but is in general a very harmless change as it does not affect the actual content of the letter.

Expanders are like additions. Whereas at the beginning there are 20 lines in the letter, you add contents into it. Either by adding it directly between or after the lines, or by using a "hook" aka "see attachment". Hooks are saved in a special modssettings files which is often managed by mod managers, which are effectively nothing more but fancy text editors if you want. If the content of a letter is adjusted like that, of course the meaning of the letter might change. A savegame affected by expanders will stop working once the expanders or the original letter are changed if the compatibility is no longer given.

Like when you play an ongoing game of monopoly and all of sudden there is a rule change which says "every tile gets a hotel". The game will stop working (fairly) unless you start the whole game anew.

Manipulations are like you erasing or change certain grammar rules of the letter. Imagine instead of dots you use only commas. They are most likely to break the game in whole and are enjoyed only with proper understanding.

What to pay attention for
Good mod creators will always make it clear how to install a mod, how to uninstall a mod, and what effects can be expected. They will also make it always clear which mod version fits for which game version. If they do not, you should be wary. Providing a mod cost a lot of work, even with small changes as the documentations are immense when you want to make it right. Most mod related issues are in fact user errors. If you think in your case it is not, consult the mods authors for help. We mod authors are creators who have pride in what we do. We will not stay still if we made a mistake in our creations, but we also tend to get annoyed after reading through hundreds of comments of complaints just to find out those who complained have not read the instructions properly.

The problem which can occur is: is the mod update-friendly?

A while ago I explained a very common mod dependency issue on a forums thread:

Originalmente postado por アンジェル:

(...)modfixer: it is to recompile the story scripts for the game, so the game's story accepts foreign items to the existing story. (...)

Think of it like two baskets.
Basket A is the game's native pool of items.
Basket B is the additional pool.
The modfixer is like saying: check basket A then basket B, consider both as basket A when you are done - that way the content of basket B is accepted by the game's story.

What now happened is that Basket A got an addition(hotfix#16), let us call it (...) Basket A0 (...)

The modfixer is still saying check basket A + basket B and the result is basket A

In the progress the basket A0 gets forgotten and the game treats it as if it does not exist.

And that is what can happen with mods ever so often.

That you e.g. have less issues when starting a new game is naturally explained: if you start a new game, there is no need for the A0 basket with the conversion. New games just start with basket A including basket A0. It is therefore mainly affecting savegames which actually got converted from hotfix#15 to hotfix#16. Hence the unsurprising experience if you encoutner less issues in new games, or like another player mentioned before "if you start a new game, the issue is gone".
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/3/6852856365571691531/
because it makes sense, after all.

The point here is: the game gets updates. And whenever new lines of code gets added to the game there is a risk that the core idea of a mod no longer works, becoming obsolete or worst: causing a savegame corruption in combination with the latest version of the game.

That has nothing to do whether there is mod support or not, whether there is Steam Workshop or not - the problem lies with the mod/mod's author(s) as they did not adjust their items accordingly. Such risk is constantly available, even with Steam Workshop items for games which have access to it.

A savegame that already has a mod dependency cannot be restored to "vanilla". You will either have to use that savegame only with the mods you have already used, or restart the game from the beginning. For anything else, contact the mod(s) author(s).

The best one can do here is using a copy of the game to "freeze" the game version. Ensuring that a modded game does not get an update prevents incompatibility issues of a specific mod version with future game updates. However, the responsibility lies within the mod(s) author(s) in updating their mods so they become compatible with the latest version.

Think of it like buying clothes. If you lose weight, you need to get new clothes that fit you. Not the other way around, where the clothes stay the same and you have to gain weight again to fit the clothes.

Mods affect Achievements

It does not matter whether you are using a mod which "just replaces a skin of an object", or one which adds additional content. Loading the game with mods has not only the risk of savegame corruptions and issues throughout your playthrough, Steam achievements are often affected as well - even while using "achievements enablers".

Using and Removing Mods Safely

For most people I recommend to work with a copy of the game, as described here
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3126703693
in step 1 of the Preparations before installing a mod.

However, that is not always possible. So the second best approach is to take proper notes when installing mods and/or refer to the mod author. Good mod authors not only provide guides on how to install and use mods correctly, but also important hints on how to remove them.

Here are three examples

Norbyte's Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender
https://bg3se-updates.norbyte.dev/Channels/Release/ManualInstall.zip
(https://github.com/Norbyte/bg3se)

Unpacking the Norbyte's Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender gives us two files



DWrite.dll and libprotobuf-lite.dll

The installation is as simple as putting those files into the game's bin folder where the game's executable is located. It activates automatically next time you load the game.



All you need to do to uninstall is to remove those two files from the folder again. Revert the content of the game's bin folder to how it was.



bin folder content as it is with game version number 4.1.1.4494476

Lune's BG3 Sex Framework
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/6045

As shown before, the easiest way is to remove it with the LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager.





Since it uses Norbyte's Baldur's Gate 3 Script Extender as requirement, make sure to remove it as well, unless you still need it for a different mod. Previously Lune's BG3 Sex Framework came with additional loose files which are to be put in the game's Data folder.



Those would have been needed to be removed as well. Since the mod got updated it is now only a single PAK file mod, which is much more user friendly as the content is not spread throughout multiple locations anymore.

WASD Character Movement
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/781

I like to use that one together with

Native Camera Tweaks
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/945

After unpacking both mods and the required Native Mod Loader (https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/944) you get a bin folder which you move or copy & paste into the game's root folder.



The content of the bin folder looks like this



When putting the file's into the game's original bin folder two files get replaced:

bink2w64.dll and SDL2.dll



Not to worry. I could have backed up the original files for the time when I want to uninstall the mods. But I keep things simple. If I want to remove the mods I delete

bink2w64.dll
bink2w64_original.dll
SDL2.dll

and the NativeMods folder from the game's bin folder.

What to do about the missing original files? I just trigger a Steam file verification -> Steam will notice files are missing from the game and will automatically download the original files in mint condition.





As long as you remember how you installed the mods, there should not be any issue in removing the mods. If, for whatever reasons you forgot about where you put the mods, make sure if you uninstall the game for a fresh installation, to delete manually any leftover files in the game's folder and in the game's user profile folder.