How to use Vortex Mod Manager?

Vortex mod manager is a massive open-source mod manager that allows you to download, install and manage different mods for your games with an easy to use interface. It supports quite many games and is available for download on Windows 7, 8 and 10 along with support for Windows XP as well.

What is the Vortex Mod Manager?

The vortex mod manager is the latest manager from Nexus Mods. This newer manager is an upgrade from their older manager called the Nexus Mod Manager which became quite famous among developers.
This mod manager does everything from downloading and installing the mods as well as managing your game mods and keeping them in one place. It supports multiple games, with an easy to use user interface and close integration with nexus mods allowing you to find, download and install mods with ease. So let’s get started

Downloading and Installing Vortex

1. To get started with vortex, head over to the website www.nexusmods.com and register yourself or login to an existing account. They offer both premium and free memberships. After you register yourself, log in and download the vortex mod manager.

   

   This application can work for all kinds of mods, the ones that you download from nexus mods (recommended) and ones you download from some other sources. Although due to its close integration, it works best with nexus mods.

Interface

The Vortex interface is pretty straight forward.  But before we move on, we need to log into the  Vortex desktop application. The easier way to do it is to log in first on your default browser and then log in to the Vortex.

Vortex provides you with an interactive interface providing you with quick link buttons on your main screen, and all the panels you see can easily be arranged the way you want them to.

Changing the Paths

Before we start installing the mods, we need our mod manager to manage our games by changing the paths of games and mods. Some mods can only be deployed if the game and mods share the same drive.
Once you have set the directory of mods in the same drive as your games, you should see the option of  Hardlink Deployment, make sure that it is selected.

1.  Navigate to Settings>Vortex. Here you will see the option to set Multi-User mode giving you the option of  Per-User or Shared. As their name suggests, Per-user will give each user account on the computer his preferences of mods and settings while under the shared mode, preferences remain the same for all the users.

   

2. Since the game we will be modding for this tutorial is Skyrim Special Edition we have to change the  Base Path to the same drive as our game.

   

3. After you set the  Base Path you will observe that Download Path and Install Path use the same directory as Base Path.
4. Once you have set the directory properly, you should see the option of  Hardlink Deployment.  Make sure that it is selected.

   

Installing the Mods

1. First, we need to set the Vortex to handle Nexus Links. You can easily do so by clicking on the blue button or by going to the    Settings>Download and check the handle for Download with Manager.

   

   

2. For this tutorial, we are adding a new map style to the Skyrim Special Edition called Classic with All Roads. Head over to the following link
   Skyrim Special Edition Mods
   This will land on the Quality  World Map page. Under the “File” tab, download the map mod.

   

   For now, we will learn how to download directly with Mod Manager. Click on the  Mod Manager Download it should open up the Vortex even if it was closed and begin downloading.
   Once the download finishes,  a notification will pop up asking you to install the mod. Hit install.

   

   Now you need to enable your mods. You can do so by clicking enable from the immediate pop-up message after installation or by simply going to the  MODS  tab and clicking on the grey button of your newly installed mod which should turn green.  You can also verify your mods by going to the  Plugin tab.

   

3. Now open your game and you should see the visible changes.

   

Manually Downloading the Mods

1. To manually add and install the mods, go to the same link. This time we will be downloading a new map mod called  Paper  . Hit  Manual Download.

   

2. Once downloaded, open Vortex. Navigate to  MODS. From the top Menu select  Install From File.

   

   You can also drag and drop the file directly to Vortex. Which is a bit faster than browsing through all.

   

   Once you add your file, it will be listed as  Never Installed.  Before you install it, you have to disable your previous mods by clicking on the green enable button.

   

   Again, you can verify your installed mods by simply launching the game and see if it has modded the element it was supposed to.

   

Removing a Mod

If you wish to remove a mod that you no longer use, you can simply hit the Remove button, which will give you the option to remove  Mod and its archive. Check both and then click on remove.