[Guide] How to Install Daggerfall Unity Mods, Step-by-Step Guide

[Magicono43]

The following is simply going to be a mirror of a guide I wrote on another wiki website. Here is the link to the "original" source, which is probably easier to follow due to the formatting: Installing Mods

Daggerfall Unity has a steadily growing catalogue of mods, some small, some very large in scale and complexity, and all flavors in-between. Mods also come in different "types", which will change the process of installation somewhat for each type. In this guide we will go over the most common types of mods and the general process to installing them.

=Necessary Steps Before Installing Mods=

Step 1: Have A Functional Installation of Daggerfall Unity
In order to start adding mods to DFU, you first need to have a functioning instance of DFU installed on your system in the first place. If this is already done, proceed to the next step.

If not, follow the linked guide for doing that: viewtopic.php?t=2360

Step 2: Making Sure Modding is Enabled in DFU's Settings
1. Launch DFU so you see this screen:

Enable_Mods-1.png (425.73 KiB) Viewed 11080 times

2. Click the "Advanced" button:

Enable_Mods-2.png (425.04 KiB) Viewed 11080 times

3. Click the "Enhancements" tab:

Enable_Mods-3.png (447.38 KiB) Viewed 11080 times

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4. Make sure the "Mod System" box is filled in, (as well as "Asset Injection" if you want loose-file overriding mods to function.):

Enable_Mods-4.png (458.68 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

5. Once that is done, click the "close" button at the bottom and any changes you made will be saved. Mods should now be allowed/enabled for your installation of DFU!

Step 3: Confirm You Can See File Extensions
On Windows 10, file extensions are hidden by default, so I'll demonstrate how to make them visible, on Windows 10 atleast.

1. Open the file-explorer (or open any folder) so you can see something like this:

CAN_SE~1.PNG (37.58 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

2. Find and click on the "View" tab at the top-left of the file-explorer windows. A drop-down interface will appear:

CAN_SE~2.PNG (38.11 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

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3. In that now visible interface, find these check-boxes:

CAN_SE~3.PNG (50.88 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

4. Make sure those two options have a check-mark in them, if they don't click them both so it looks like this:

CAN_SE~4.PNG (51.44 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

5. You should now be able to see the extensions of all files. You should see something like below for various file types:

CAA945~1.PNG (10.58 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

Now you will be able to differentiate through the rest of the guide when I say stuff like, "The .dfmod file" or "The .png file" or "The .txt file".

With that, you should now be completely able to follow the rest of this guide and install mods for DFU!

[Magicono43]

=dfmod Installation=
The most common form that DFU mods will be found in are a file/extension type called ".dfmod" this is a compressed file-type that mod creators convert their mods into using the DFU specific Unity Editor "Mod Builder" tool. The modding framework built into DFU can recognize and use these .dfmod files when placed in the proper '''"Mods"''' folder, making mod installation and uninstallation an extremely simple and clean process. The following steps will focus on the installation of said dfmods.

Step 1: Where .dfmod Files Will be Placed
1. Find the folder that you launch DFU from. It should look like the below picture with "DaggerfallUnity.exe" (or the Linux equivalent) inside it:

Place_Dfmod_Files-1.png (23.5 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

2. Navigate to the "DaggerfallUnity_Data" folder:

Place_Dfmod_Files-2.png (23.36 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

3. From there, navigate to the "StreamingAssets" folder:

Place_Dfmod_Files-3.png (40.31 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

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4. Finally, navigate to the "Mods" folder:

Place_Dfmod_Files-4.png (35.72 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

5. You are now in the location that ALL files with the ".dfmod" extension will be placed.

Place_Dfmod_Files-5.png (14.38 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

Step 2: Finding And Installing A .dfmod File
Obviously, to install a mod, you first need one in mind that you wish to install. In this case, I'm just going to show this process using a randomly selected mod, from the currently most prominent location to find DFU mods, that being Nexus Mods. While you can get DFU mods in many places, such as The Official Forums. Definitely the more popular option is Nexus Mods as of writing this, which is what I'm going to be using as the primary example in this guide.

1. First, find a mod that interests you. When you do, navigate to its main mod-page:

FIND_&~1.PNG (421.62 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

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2. When at the main mod-page, click the "Files" tab as shown below:

FIND_&~2.PNG (321.88 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

3. From there, scroll down until you see a group of files under the category "Main Files". Choose the file that is either the most up to date, or is appropriate for the version of DFU you are using (Organization of this files page will vary greatly depending on the mod author.) But for this example, click the link as highlighted in the below image. After doing so you will be prompted to pick a speed to download the file at, if you don't have a premium membership on Nexus Mods, just go with "Slow Speed". Then specify where you want the file to be downloaded to, put it anywhere you will know where to find it, Desktop, Downloads, Documents, etc.

FIND_&~3.PNG (92.52 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

4. You should be left with a compressed/archived file similar to this:

FIND_&~4.PNG (14.41 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

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5. Move this file back to the location mentioned in the previous step of this section, that being the "StreamingAssets" folder where your DFU folder is. The below image will show you what it should look like, and read the text on the image:

FI0A49~1.PNG (46.85 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

6. Your mod should now be "installed" into the Mods folder and ready to go. Here is what the Mods folder should look like afterward:

FIEED0~1.PNG (18.02 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

Now with our .dfmod file properly installed into the "Mods" folder, we are going to test and confirm that it is working in-game.

Step 3: Confirming Installation & Testing The Mod
1. Launch into DFU so you are at the launcher screen, then click the "Mods" button at the bottom left:

CONFIR~1.PNG (416.45 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

[Magicono43]

2. You will now be at the mod manager screen. All .dfmods that were properly installed will show up on this list, and are the correct versions for the current version of DFU being played. From this list, click the name of the mod you just installed, and make sure the "Enabled" check-box is filled on the right-hand mod-description window. Once you have confirmed the mod is enabled, click "Save and Close" at the bottom right. When back at the main launcher screen, press the "Play" button so we can proceed to confirming the mod works in-game:

CONFIR~2.PNG (426.68 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

3. Not every mod is going to have the same method of testing to make sure it is actually working, MAKE SURE TO READ MOD DESCRIPTIONS AND README FILES CAREFULLY AND FULLY. Now, either load an existing save or start a new-game. In my example mod's case either will work for testing purposes:

CONFIR~1.JPG (101.74 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

4. Now that you are in-game, do whatever needs to be done to confirm if the installed mod is working or not. For this mod's case I just need to check my character's skills window, which will look something like the below image, so I know that I installed and now properly have this mod working in my installation of DFU:

CONFIR~2.JPG (145.2 KiB) Viewed 11079 times

And that is how you install most DFU mods out there, which use the ".dfmod" file format as their means of being used. Not every mod packaged as a .dfmod is put together the same, which can sometimes make it more difficult for users to install compared to the above example. But the general process and end-result should be the same, find the mod's .dfmod file and place it into your DFU instance's "Mods" folder, which is located in the "StreamingAssets" folder.

For now, that concludes this part of the guide. In the next sections of this guide, different formats in which mods can be packaged as will be explained in a similar way on how to properly install them, in most cases. The next being "Quest Packs", hopefully this section was helpful and informative, happy modding!

[Magicono43]

=Quest-Pack Installation=
Daggerfall Unity's quests are written using a custom scripting language that is a recreation of how they worked in the original Daggerfall. These scripts are simply basic text-files, so they are able to be easily edited with any text-editor application, and fairly easy to read and understand, on a basic level atleast.

With that, "packs" of quests generally come packaged as a series of files nested within named folders using a fairly standardized format that DFU can understand and interpret as a valid quest "script." So extremely similar to the process of installing .dfmod files, quest-packs are essentially the same procedure, just put into a different location, instead of the "Mods" folder within "StreamingAssets", quest-packs go within the "QuestPacks" folder. In the following steps I'll show you a step-by-step of this process and a simple example.

Step 1: Where Quest-Pack Folders Will be Placed
1. First, you are going to need to locate your DFU instance's "StreamingAssets" folder. If you need help finding that, please refer to this step in the previous section, Finding StreamingAssets. If not, continue to the next step.

2. Now that you are in the "StreamingAssets" folder, navigate into the "QuestPacks" folder, as highlighted in the below image:

Place_QuestPacks-1.png (36.05 KiB) Viewed 10956 times

3. You are now in the location that ALL Quest-Pack folders will be placed.

Place_QuestPacks-2.png (14.49 KiB) Viewed 10956 times

Step 2: Finding And Installing A Quest-Pack
Nexus Mods is where you will find most DFU mods, including Quest-Packs, so we are going to use that for this example.

1. First, find a Quest-Pack mod that interests you. When you do, navigate to its main mod-page:

FIND_&~1.PNG (335.46 KiB) Viewed 10956 times

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2. When at the main mod-page, scroll down until you find something about "installation", "uninstallation", "notes", that sort of thing. While this step is technically not required, it is HEAVILY ADVISED that you always read any instructions a mod author provides for their mod, this is especially the case with Quest-Packs, which can sometimes have additional steps required compared to "normal" installation of mods, here is an example below for this mod's description page:

FIND_&~2.PNG (30.74 KiB) Viewed 10955 times

3. Now that you have hopefully read and fully understand the instructions for the Quest-Pack mod you are interested in. Go back to the top of this page, and click the "Files" tab as shown below:

FIND_&~3.PNG (332.96 KiB) Viewed 10955 times

4. From there, scroll down until you see a group of files under the category "Main Files". Choose the file that is either the most up to date, or is appropriate for the version of DFU you are using (Organization of this files page will vary greatly depending on the mod author.) But for this example, click the link as highlighted in the below image:

FIND_&~4.PNG (54.81 KiB) Viewed 10955 times