Even though I already have a boxed copy of Oblivion I recently grabbed the GoTY edition on Steam for $10. It’s nice to have the game in Steam and I didn’t have Shivering Isles.
I have since seem a plethora of forum posts asking, “Can I mod my steam copy of Oblivion?” It’s insanely easy. I am going to talk about how to install Nehrim in this tutorial. If you are just interested in getting Qarl’s Texture Pack III to work in steam then skip down to section titled: “Installing Qarl’s Texture Pack III in Steam”.
Nehrim is German total conversion and will overwrite your copy of Oblivion. Don’t worry when I say “German”. It’s insanely good and there is an English version. Here is a trailer:
It is a destructive mod in the sense that you can’t play Oblivion anymore but I doubt you will mind. Nehrim adds a lot of depth to the Oblivion style gameplay. It borrows elements from the Gothic universe and feels nerdier in general. The installation process is a little different but still easy.
Before Installing Nehrim in Steam
- Make sure your steam folder is NOT in your Program Files directory. This should not work in the Program Files directory for some reason. I have my steam folder in c:games on my laptop and d:games on my desktop (which I need to fix).
- Install Oblivion.
- Download Nehrim here: http://www.nehrim.de/dataEV.html
- Download Qarl’s Texture Pack III (let’s go ahead and let this massive file start downloading).
- Download the Oblivion Mod Manager (OBMM): http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
Installing Nehrim in Steam
- Open the Nehrim installer and install it into a folder. It can be installed anywhere.
- Open the Nehrim folder and cut the entire contents of the folder.
- Paste this directly into your oblivion folder. It should be: /steam/steamapps/common/oblivion/
- Overwrite everything! Keeping both copies of the files will really mess up your game.
- If your system is slower you should probably hold off on Qarl’s Texture Pack III. Skip to the
Installing Qarl’s Texture Pack III in Steam
- Open the self extracting file and extract it to your Oblivion data folder: /steam/steamapps/common/oblivion/data/
- Overwrite everything. If you keep both copies there will be trouble.
- Install the Oblivion Mod Manager in your oblivion folder.
- Open the Oblivion Mod Manager.
- Click Utilities.
- Select Archive Invalidation.
- A dialog box will open with several options. Select these exact options:
- Click “Update now”.
- If you are simply adding Qarl’s Texture Pack III to Oblivion you are finished and ready to play. If you are playing Nehrim we need to enable the Nehrim bsa files and disable the Oblivion ones.
- When you start the Oblivion launcher select “Data” and deselect DLCShiveringIsles.esp, Knights.esp, and Oblivion.esp. Select Nehrim.esm, NehrimData.esp, and NehrimEnglish.esp (if you don’t speak German). I am also using the StealthOverhaul. It works fine (as do many other Oblivion mods) in Nehrim.
Let me know what you think of Nehrim. I am really enjoying it.
Installing and Modding Nehrim with Qarl’s Texture Pack in Steam (Oblivion Total Conversion Mod)