Skyrim Modding Guide

[Sacremas]

Oooh, looks great! Did you get the Parallax terrain features working well? You need Realivison 0.256 enabled (or another 0.265 based ENB) to make Parralax terrain work, however Tamriel Reloaded does not replace Expanded Towns and Cities, you read me wrong there, it's JK's Skyrim which does that, and that intergrates fully without patches needed with Tamriel Reloaded, and is a lot more compatibility friendly than ETAC is.

 

The graphics I have enabled in addition to Tamriel Reloaded are SMIM and Vivid Landscapes - All in One, Vivid Landscapes adds even with the overwritten 476 files being provided by Tamriel Reloaded another 873 files that aren't overwritten, and it's in a BSA archive so it's good performance, and better yet it doesn't take space on your plugin list if you are using Mod Organizer because the ESP is only there to enable the BSA, which MO can do automatically. I've also left in Skyfalls and Skymills, SFO, Realistic Water Two + RWT ENB Textures, Unique Grasses and Groundcovers (though honestly I'm not seeing much of this anymore, I think TRHD and Verdant is covering it all up, this is probably safe to remove without noticing anything). And for Solsteheim I'm also using aMidianBorn Solstheim Landscape and Solstehim Landscape Overhaul - Dead Edition, neither of which conflcits with Tamriel Reloaded much. However i have never actually been to Solstheim once (yeah I'm embarrased, I'm heading there very soon in my current play however) so I don't know how good it'll look with that. I'm also using both Enhanced Distant Terrain 2, and Skyrim Distance Overhaul to make my LODs look great, especially with my uGrids 7 load, I practically never notice things popping into view unless I'm flying around really fast and low (hint if you're using flying and coverign big distances, fly as high as possible so basically eveyrthing below is "distant terrain", you'll load faster then, and won't provoke every critter and bandit on the way).

 

A few more graphical mods that add a lot to your game, most of these have NO PLUGINS so they don't take any space on your load order, and can be uninstalled at any time; aMidianBorn Book of Silence (Creatures, weapons, armors, landscape get overwritten by Tamriel Reloaded, use his landscape textures if you are not using Tamriel Reloaded) is awesome, only the Skyforge bits and new armor adds an ESP, Ren's HD Shrines is a mod I just adore, Rustic Alchemy and Enchanting Tables look aweosme and you're probably going to spend a long time looking down on it if you have Immersive First Person camera or Skyrim Enhanced Camera (LOVE that mod, it's so simple and works so well[/url], and Virtus Imperii just makes the imperial gear look amazing.

 

Note that all landscape and graphical textures in general is completely script free of course, you can install them and take them out at any time without any bad effect. I took out all of the other graphical mods I was using (6-7 of them) when I put in Tamriel Reloaded HD into my level 60+ character and I could just continue playing, this is completley risk free.

[Mimirue17]

ok sorry for the confusion, but some off these were added after others but I think need to overwrite.   So let me list the mods that were mentioned and see if I can get a correct install order.   This is assuming that all the correct ini files were changed as posted in this thread or on the mod pages themselves (lots of items changed but believe I got them all).   Here is the full list of graphic changes.

 

JKs Skyrim - all in one (really cool mod thanks for pointing this one out)

Realvision 265a with patches as needed

Enhanced Distant Terrain 2

Vivid Landscape All in one

Stable U Grids (forget which one I picked)

Enhanced Lights and FX

Skyfalls + Skymills

SFO 2.0F

TR 4k version with patches as needed

Project Reality Climates of Tamriel V3

SMIM

Cinematic fire effects 2 HD

Skyrim Distance Overhaul

 

I am still using NMM so listed them as they showed up.  I will be doing a fresh install with MO next week so wanted to get everything lined up.

 

All of the above are currently installed and shown in the screenshots above except Distance overhaul, Skyfalls, Vivid Landscape and Distant Terrain 2.

 

Thanks again for the help, this is alot of fun to keep pushing the envelope!

[Sacremas]

You want to install Realvison after ELFX to let it overwrite some files and intergrate better, otherwise as Tamriel Reloaded is so all covering if you just put it at near the end of the install followed shortly by Verdant if you want some more FPS (overwrites the ncie grass textures of TR, skip it if you have a really good computer and no slowdown with Realvision full + TR 4k - I use 2k - 1k myself). During the install make sure that Tamriel Reloaded is overwriting as many of the other mods as possible, including SFO and Vivid Landscapes, you want the additional stuff that those mods add, not overwrite the awesome textures in TR.

 

Also if you haven't put it in yet you also want Climates of Tamriel, the Weather Patch for CoT and Supreme Storms for Climates of Tamriel. Also you're going to want a water mod of some kind, I prefer Realistic Water Two and Watercolor for ENB for RW2, both taken from Realivison's list of suggested mods. All of these should also be installed before Realvision. Go to the Realvision page and follow his instructions on how to install them for best effect.

 

As an alternative to Realvision if you want a ENB that looks really "Next-Gen" without being too resource demanding, T.A.Z. Visual Overhaul is incredible, the ligthing kinda robs some more detailed textures like face textures of their closer look but it's insane otherwise. However be aware that Climates of Tamriel doesn't work with this and should be left out if you want to try this, and the nightvision fix I posted on the ENB post to use with mods like Predator Vision does not work with TAZ and will destroy it. TAZ should combine very well with Tamriel Reloaded.

 

[Sacremas]

A new set of mods, to deal with that ever-present thing in your game, that you're going to see the most individuals of. Imperials? Stormcloaks? Nazeem? Nope, the guards of course!

 

First off we want to fix their dialogue a bit, they'll still complain about arrows in the knee but it'll generally just be better; Guard Dialogue Overhaul does exactly that, at this point I don't know what nonsense the guards normally spout because I've had this enabled forever.

 

Next up, did you know that 1) there are not a single female Imperial soldier or Haafingar guard in the base game, and 2) that all guards are actually headless if you take off that ever-present guard helmet? Don't proposition a guard with Radiant Prostitution or you'll see freakshow, and I'm not talking about the jail! Diverse Guards fixes both of these problems, and you'll even be able to see the faces of guards around now, and they'll use helmets from all your installed mods (or rather whatever's on your leveled lists for their level, Wrye Bash is your friend!), favoring things like the Einherjar hood from Immersive Armors.

 

And lastly, every guard armor in the game is the same! Plus it looks kinda crappy. Town Guard Armor Retextured fixes that, every hold's guards will be wearing a different looking uniform, and it's ALL TEXTURES, which means that both you won't need a new ESP addon for this, and that your newly female guards will still be wearing their skimpy replacers if you're using such a mod. Which you might not want anymore as some of those female guards are kinda fugly...

[Sacremas]

Another themed set of mods for that most important thing in your life for many. Sex? Dragons? Nope, the phat lewt of course! Everyone loves it when they clear that hard dungeon above their level, get to that treasure chest and open it up and find...

 

1 iron armor.

23 steel arrows.

43 septims (I don't care if it's a ancient dwemer dungeon sealed for thousands of years, someone still put a coin that's only been in existence for the last 1000 into those chests!)

 

So let's fix that, let's get some epic loot!

 

First off a mod from the Deadly Dragons/Forgotten Magic creator, Dynamic Loot, this creates enchanted versions of all the armors available to you, you won't need to be a master enchanter any longer to beat the game as you can actually (I did) end up with a perfectly good double enchanted set of Dragonbone armor if you wait around a bit! And if you got mods like Immersive Armors or Warmonger Armory you'll also want the  addons for Dynamic Loot.

 

Of course some random enchanted loot on bandits, forsworn and draugr is nice, but how about that big cool treasure chest at the end of the dungeon? What about the dragon loot? More Interesting Loot is exactly what it claims to be, you'll find a nice amount of gold, gems, precious items, and new potions and alchemical items, like a potion that puts a guardian circle or flame cloak on you, or a Shockball poison that cause enemies to take continuous shock damage then explode in a electric explosion once they die. You'll find books that when you read them they'll teach you the properties of various alchemy ingredients from either the base game or this mod without you needing to taste them with a high Alchemy skill or experiment to find out what they do. And you'll find new artifacts as well, including weapons, armors and jewlery from previous games.

 

And about those septims in a ancient draugr or dwemer ruin... Piratelords Loot Adjustment fixes that, and makes EVERY container in the game and it's expansions lootable, all those crates and barrels can now be opened as containers... and you'll find mostly clutter and crap in them but even so! Might be some nice items. It'll also adjust the stuff that's available for purchase in stores, you won't find as many enchanted items but you might luck out and find an item way above your level range for sale. And yes, it adds dwemer and ancient nord coins to the game instead of those septims. Though note that this is not perfect, money bags will still become septims and the other mods installed could put septims in the end chest and on enemies.

 

Now that's well and good, but how about the problem with everyone else out there not bothering to temper their items? Or what about the fact that Smithing is absolutely necessary in your game, if you don't learn it as a warrior you'll be way behind. And of course once your chosen set of armor or weapons have been improved to where you want it to be, you never want to work on your weapon again, there's no maintaining the sharpness of your sword, because it'll never grow dull, and has no chance to break! And if you're figthing in Civil War and you and your chosen army kills every soldier in an enemy fort, you're the only one that's allowed to go aorund and loot their things and grab what you want. Loot and Degradation fixes all of that, enemies and friends will loot things they need (can be toggled off in MCM), your weapons and armor will degrade and can even break (likewise can be toggled), you'll be able to pay smiths to improve the quality of your gear instead of leveling smithing yourself, and every item in an enemy's inventory has a leveld chance of being improved, and that includes all the items from Dynamic Loot! So you can find for example a Legendary Stalhrim axe that does a random 50 points of shock, fire or cold damage with near infinite amount of charges if you REALLY luck out.

 

Now about those enchantments, Skyrim's echantment amount is kinda low, and most of them are boring... let's add Wintermyst to the game, this is a mod made by the Apocalypse and Thunderchild author, and adds 104 brand new enchantments to your game, like sunlight damage, or being able to put some of your health to your magicka or stamina and vice versa. Note that I'm 95 % certain that the SkyProc patcher that comes with it is broken, but don't worry, you'll still find the items in treasure chests and store inventories if you don't use it, you just won't find for example an Einherjar armor with these enchantments.

 

As for those normal encahntments, like when you make a flaming katana, it's kinda dull how it's only a slight shader on it, don't you want to see a real FLAMING sword in your hands that look really cool? Enchanted Arsenal is your out, this does little to begin with, but has an extensive MCM menu where you can pick what individual enchantment types should look like in game, and put cool looks on new Wintermyst enchantments as well.

 

But what about those already enchanted items, those legendary artifacts out there like Wuuthrad, the Galdur Amulet and Auriel's Bow, these things you really quest for and strive to get, only to find that they're... kinda meeh when you come to it and not something you'd actually want to use? Yeah I'm totally swapping my flaming dragonbone greataxe for +50 % damage vs elves, thank you no Ysgramor, you can keep your legendary axe of rage that I spent a whole questline assembling. Improved Artifact Collection makes those things worth getting suddenly, and have things like a different effect for Auriel's Bow depending on if you're a mortal or a vampire, and the ability to use both Wuuthrad and the Shield of Ysgramor at the same time, or visit Archmage Gauldur's refuge in oblivion! As for the Daedric artifacts, like Wabbajack, the Sanguine Rose, Rings of Namira and Hircine, Dawnbreaker, Spellbreaker and the Mace of Molag Bal, Daedric Artifacts Improved is your way out, to use this you take the artifact to a Well of Urd on various locations and plunge it in, then you can pick from a crafting menu a new version of the artifact, like changing the Staff of Magnus to magnify a specific school while giving you a new spell while you're wielding it (ever wanted to summon your ancestors?), or letting Dawnbreaker either become devastating to undead, or give you powers while you're wielding it like letting fire damage actually heal you instead of damage you (which ironically is perfect for vampires... or dragonslayers). Due to how this mod works it actually doesn't overwrite any other mod, including if Improved Artifacts changes the same artifact around.

 

All of that together should in theory keep you well and happy with loot for the rest of your Skyrim career. True we still have those dragon priest masks to fix, but honestly I never use those anyway for being fugly... but if you want them, a replacement for Daedric Artifacts Improved and Improved Artifact collection is to get Mighty Magick Artifacts (including Dragonborn artifacts) plugins, which are independent of the main mod and makes those dragon priest masks pretty epic, and also makes them invisible so they won't cover up your pretty looks any longer. Note that the main mod is actually great as well if you're doing a Mage playthrough, it's truly Mighty while still fairly balanced.

[Sacremas]

ok sorry for the confusion, but some off these were added after others but I think need to overwrite.   So let me list the mods that were mentioned and see if I can get a correct install order.   This is assuming that all the correct ini files were changed as posted in this thread or on the mod pages themselves (lots of items changed but believe I got them all).   Here is the full list of graphic changes.

 

JKs Skyrim - all in one (really cool mod thanks for pointing this one out)

Realvision 265a with patches as needed

Enhanced Distant Terrain 2

Vivid Landscape All in one

Stable U Grids (forget which one I picked)

Enhanced Lights and FX

Skyfalls + Skymills

SFO 2.0F

TR 4k version with patches as needed

Project Reality Climates of Tamriel V3

SMIM

Cinematic fire effects 2 HD

Skyrim Distance Overhaul

 

I am still using NMM so listed them as they showed up.  I will be doing a fresh install with MO next week so wanted to get everything lined up.

 

All of the above are currently installed and shown in the screenshots above except Distance overhaul, Skyfalls, Vivid Landscape and Distant Terrain 2.

 

Thanks again for the help, this is alot of fun to keep pushing the envelope!

 

By the way I just looked at the SKSE readout you posted previously, I see you have "Gildergreen Regrown"? You can remove that mod if you're using JK*s skyrim, as a similar function is included in JK's version of Whiterun if you bring back the sap (if you don't then the Gildergreen takes years to regrow).

 

I'm not sure what Havoc Breast Physics is, but HDT phsyics extension and a BBP enabled skeleton should deal with all the breast and butt and pecker physics you need.

 

You can take out Unlimited Training and other mods that change limiters because SkyTweak allows you to remove those limits anyway, and do so much more.

 

If you're using UNP or UNPB which it looks you are I suggest taking out the various armor mods you have like Sotetta and Merta and instead installing UNP Clothing Merchants, it's less esps and you get A LOT more armors and clothes to play with as well as jewlery, and you get HDT physics on some that don't have it now.

[HounDog]

Thank you so much for this guide!

 

I started a new install last week and tried to follow the guide as much as possible and here i am on 109 mods and counting and everything seems to be ok, i have not done any heavy testing but using MO has given an amount of control i did not thought possible.

 

There are 3 things i skipped for personal reasons:

 

ENB - i liked it, i really did but i could not give up the 4k DSR, even the performance enb made my 780 cry at those resolutions. 

 

ugrids - there seems to be a lot of debate on the safety of this modification so i'll play it safe and wait until i have tested everything else.

 

Live another life - In order to obtain a "clean" save i started a game before installing anything (not even SKSE) i selected the default nord as PC and started to play without doing anything at all, no crouching, no armor, no speech checks, no looting, follow the main quest and ignore everyone else, let lydia do all the fighting up to the point where Parthurnax teaches you Yol (the point where i consider that the world is fully open to the player) then dismiss lydia, buy breezehome, wait, and then save (and another save in a cellar just to be safe). I was level 4 at this point, 25 one handed, 25 marksman, 20 speech (from selling stuff to buy breezehome). now this save will be the save for all my subsequent playthroughs. An obsessive and maybe useless thing to do but hey, i had fun seeing lydia being useful for once. 

 

Anyway, Thanks again, i was about to drop skyrim and move on but it looks like i'll be here for a while.  

 

 

[fishburger67]

Thank you so much for this guide!

 

I started a new install last week and tried to follow the guide as much as possible and here i am on 109 mods and counting and everything seems to be ok, i have not done any heavy testing but using MO has given an amount of control i did not thought possible.

 

There are 3 things i skipped for personal reasons:

 

ENB - i liked it, i really did but i could not give up the 4k DSR, even the performance enb made my 780 cry at those resolutions. 

 

ugrids - there seems to be a lot of debate on the safety of this modification so i'll play it safe and wait until i have tested everything else.

 

Live another life - In order to obtain a "clean" save i started a game before installing anything (not even SKSE) i selected the default nord as PC and started to play without doing anything at all, no crouching, no armor, no speech checks, no looting, follow the main quest and ignore everyone else, let lydia do all the fighting up to the point where Parthurnax teaches you Yol (the point where i consider that the world is fully open to the player) then dismiss lydia, buy breezehome, wait, and then save (and another save in a cellar just to be safe). I was level 4 at this point, 25 one handed, 25 marksman, 20 speech (from selling stuff to buy breezehome). now this save will be the save for all my subsequent playthroughs. An obsessive and maybe useless thing to do but hey, i had fun seeing lydia being useful for once. 

 

Anyway, Thanks again, i was about to drop skyrim and move on but it looks like i'll be here for a while.  

 

I would be interested to know an estimate on the time it took you to get to a stable game replacing all your mods and setting MO and the like.

 

[Sacremas]

Thank you so much for this guide!

 

I started a new install last week and tried to follow the guide as much as possible and here i am on 109 mods and counting and everything seems to be ok, i have not done any heavy testing but using MO has given an amount of control i did not thought possible.

 

There are 3 things i skipped for personal reasons:

 

ENB - i liked it, i really did but i could not give up the 4k DSR, even the performance enb made my 780 cry at those resolutions. 

 

ugrids - there seems to be a lot of debate on the safety of this modification so i'll play it safe and wait until i have tested everything else.

 

Live another life - In order to obtain a "clean" save i started a game before installing anything (not even SKSE) i selected the default nord as PC and started to play without doing anything at all, no crouching, no armor, no speech checks, no looting, follow the main quest and ignore everyone else, let lydia do all the fighting up to the point where Parthurnax teaches you Yol (the point where i consider that the world is fully open to the player) then dismiss lydia, buy breezehome, wait, and then save (and another save in a cellar just to be safe). I was level 4 at this point, 25 one handed, 25 marksman, 20 speech (from selling stuff to buy breezehome). now this save will be the save for all my subsequent playthroughs. An obsessive and maybe useless thing to do but hey, i had fun seeing lydia being useful for once. 

 

Anyway, Thanks again, i was about to drop skyrim and move on but it looks like i'll be here for a while.  

 

Hey, good to hear things worked out for you! But with a 780 gtx you shouldn't have any issues whatsoever running Realvision full even with Tamriel Reloaded active, as I'm running it with a 580. I suggest reducing your textures  instaed, you get a LOT more back from a good ENB than you do from ANY texture pack, and the ENB thanks to ENBoost and ENHost makes your game use more memory more efficiently and run smoother as well.

 

Would you mind Posting MO's list of active mods so we can shave down a bit and make Realvision work for you? You can find this under Profiles.

 

Hint by the way, whenever possible try to use a single big texture pack that covers a lot of things like Tamriel Reloaded does instead of a ton of smaller ones, because the game spends more resources dealing with conflicting textures and things bumping into each other, like if you have a Whiterun makeover and a Breezehome makeover that changes it's exterior in a way that conflicts with your Whiterun makeover, your FPS will slow down to a CRAWL whenever you get near Breezehome as the game tries to decide what texture to show you. Always strive for compatibility first and looks second.

[Mimirue17]

i am downloading skyrim now to start the new load with MO.   Had a question about body mods and textures.   Here is my debate, based on a comment you had made about the armor mods taking up so many esps

 

I normally use cbbe for 4 reasons.   

1.  its been constantly updated with a new version even last month I believe

2.  It has the best textures of any body mod out there.   Some people call it fake looking, I call it damn sexy and the nipples not only look real but are in the right place.

3.  It uses bodyslide to easily adjust the body to whatever you prefer.

4.  the elves now look good, without installing other mods to make them look good.   Normally they are just plain ugly to look at.

 

now I have been looking for textures and at different bodies for the past 2 days trying to find a replacement using the UNP or UNPB body.

here are my findings so far.

1.  The base textures available with the bodies are plain ugly.   even the 4k textures from SG are not even close to CBBE textures

2.  none of them help the elves look any better

3.  The nipple textures and placement are just not right, not something you would expect to see.

 

here is how I made it look passable.   I stole the textures from the Lunari Warriors seven-base version and copied it over the character ones.   The nipples look natural, if not still a little large, and the textures are much better.   However they are still not as good as cbbe.

 

I would love your input on what you use for body mods and textures.   I have looked high and low and cant find anything that just says here, UNPB that looks great!   I have seen screenshots that look good mind you, so I know they are out there.   I just cant find them.

[Sacremas]

Okay here's what I do with textures and bodies for UNPB.

First install UNPB Redux; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37900/?You don't want the skin for this, you may want the skeleton but probably not (use the instructions in my Flying Mod post for that).

 

Next install Better Females by Bella; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2812/?This will fix your elves look.

 

Now install SG Female Textures Renewal, overwriting Better Females; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35267/?

 

At this point your install or load order doesn't matter for other mods like Eyebrows (which are some of the most important parts of the human body, so I have 3 mods for eyebrows alone), but if you install NPCs later on like an NPC overhaul mod like Ultimate NPC Overhaul you should take your SG Female Textures Renewal and move it as low as possible on your load order, then disable and reeenable it, and that will fix grayface on those NPCs.

 

I prefer UNPB myself because it's got the greatest variety in breast and butt size (you can have a tiny butt with a cup tits, or round volptous butt with EE cups). You also want RaceMenu3; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29624/?This will allow you to adjust the curves of your breasts to make them fit into things like Devious Devices and piercings better than they might normally. UNPB has a MASSIVE amount of clothing available to it, if you set your weight to 50ish (I prefer 75) then you won't really notice it too much if you're putting on something sized for the normal UNP body either unless you look very closely when undressing.

[Sacremas]

Keep in mind however that even with SG skin and UNPB/UN7B/Dreamgirl the whole idea with UNP is to go for realistic proportions and flawed skin, so you'll often see things like moles and scars on the skin that you don't see in CBBE, which is more for the polished cartoon look (which I like on some goddess type characters as well). If you want a UNPB body for yourself rather than NPCs that don't have those imperfections, what I would recommend is to go for a custom race with their own skins, the best of which IMHO is the Ningheim, during install you'll have the option to remove things like scars and imperfections and go with a perfectly smooth body for yourself, though NPCs will still use SG or whatever else you put in.

[Mimirue17]

Okay here's what I do with textures and bodies for UNPB.

First install UNPB Redux; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37900/?You don't want the skin for this, you may want the skeleton but probably not (use the instructions in my Flying Mod post for that).

 

Next install Better Females by Bella; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2812/?This will fix your elves look.

 

Now install SG Female Textures Renewal, overwriting Better Females; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35267/?

 

At this point your install or load order doesn't matter for other mods like Eyebrows (which are some of the most important parts of the human body, so I have 3 mods for eyebrows alone), but if you install NPCs later on like an NPC overhaul mod like Ultimate NPC Overhaul you should take your SG Female Textures Renewal and move it as low as possible on your load order, then disable and reeenable it, and that will fix grayface on those NPCs.

 

I prefer UNPB myself because it's got the greatest variety in breast and butt size (you can have a tiny butt with a cup tits, or round volptous butt with EE cups). You also want RaceMenu3; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29624/?This will allow you to adjust the curves of your breasts to make them fit into things like Devious Devices and piercings better than they might normally. UNPB has a MASSIVE amount of clothing available to it, if you set your weight to 50ish (I prefer 75) then you won't really notice it too much if you're putting on something sized for the normal UNP body either unless you look very closely when undressing.

you cant use the NPC overhaul anymore as it requires KS hair which if you are following Sex Slaves they are discussing that whole matter now.   I do use Racemenu 3.   Did you install any of the options for Bella?  Or SG Renewal?

[Sacremas]

I found KS hairs just fine, but if you can't find it this is the same mod's predecessor that includes a few less NPCs (maybe 10ish or so) and with much less requirements; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23755/?

 

I don't use any options for either Bella or SG Renewal myself, I tried them but they just added more stuff I didn't need. You should check out the Ningheim if you're looking for a "perfect" look for your character without any imperfections and lots of makeup options.

[HounDog]

 

Thank you so much for this guide!

 

I started a new install last week and tried to follow the guide as much as possible and here i am on 109 mods and counting and everything seems to be ok, i have not done any heavy testing but using MO has given an amount of control i did not thought possible.

 

There are 3 things i skipped for personal reasons:

 

ENB - i liked it, i really did but i could not give up the 4k DSR, even the performance enb made my 780 cry at those resolutions. 

 

ugrids - there seems to be a lot of debate on the safety of this modification so i'll play it safe and wait until i have tested everything else.

 

Live another life - In order to obtain a "clean" save i started a game before installing anything (not even SKSE) i selected the default nord as PC and started to play without doing anything at all, no crouching, no armor, no speech checks, no looting, follow the main quest and ignore everyone else, let lydia do all the fighting up to the point where Parthurnax teaches you Yol (the point where i consider that the world is fully open to the player) then dismiss lydia, buy breezehome, wait, and then save (and another save in a cellar just to be safe). I was level 4 at this point, 25 one handed, 25 marksman, 20 speech (from selling stuff to buy breezehome). now this save will be the save for all my subsequent playthroughs. An obsessive and maybe useless thing to do but hey, i had fun seeing lydia being useful for once. 

 

Anyway, Thanks again, i was about to drop skyrim and move on but it looks like i'll be here for a while.  

 

I would be interested to know an estimate on the time it took you to get to a stable game replacing all your mods and setting MO and the like.

 

 

Well, it was tricky to say the least, i spent a lot of time learning to use the tools, tracking mod versions, reading descriptions, testing load orders, installing and reinstalling stuff and not to mention tweaking outfits and a number of other things i don't remember. I would say 48 hours? (a week) but i'm not done yet, right now i'm almost done with what i would call "core" stuff plus some outfits and followers, but i still have to track down gameplay stuff, weapons, overhauls,  etc. 

 

All in all, it was a learning experience, if i had to do it again i would say that it would take me 2 days tops.

[HounDog]

 

Thank you so much for this guide!

 

I started a new install last week and tried to follow the guide as much as possible and here i am on 109 mods and counting and everything seems to be ok, i have not done any heavy testing but using MO has given an amount of control i did not thought possible.

 

There are 3 things i skipped for personal reasons:

 

ENB - i liked it, i really did but i could not give up the 4k DSR, even the performance enb made my 780 cry at those resolutions. 

 

ugrids - there seems to be a lot of debate on the safety of this modification so i'll play it safe and wait until i have tested everything else.

 

Live another life - In order to obtain a "clean" save i started a game before installing anything (not even SKSE) i selected the default nord as PC and started to play without doing anything at all, no crouching, no armor, no speech checks, no looting, follow the main quest and ignore everyone else, let lydia do all the fighting up to the point where Parthurnax teaches you Yol (the point where i consider that the world is fully open to the player) then dismiss lydia, buy breezehome, wait, and then save (and another save in a cellar just to be safe). I was level 4 at this point, 25 one handed, 25 marksman, 20 speech (from selling stuff to buy breezehome). now this save will be the save for all my subsequent playthroughs. An obsessive and maybe useless thing to do but hey, i had fun seeing lydia being useful for once. 

 

Anyway, Thanks again, i was about to drop skyrim and move on but it looks like i'll be here for a while.  

 

Hey, good to hear things worked out for you! But with a 780 gtx you shouldn't have any issues whatsoever running Realvision full even with Tamriel Reloaded active, as I'm running it with a 580. I suggest reducing your textures  instaed, you get a LOT more back from a good ENB than you do from ANY texture pack, and the ENB thanks to ENBoost and ENHost makes your game use more memory more efficiently and run smoother as well.

 

Would you mind Posting MO's list of active mods so we can shave down a bit and make Realvision work for you? You can find this under Profiles.

 

Hint by the way, whenever possible try to use a single big texture pack that covers a lot of things like Tamriel Reloaded does instead of a ton of smaller ones, because the game spends more resources dealing with conflicting textures and things bumping into each other, like if you have a Whiterun makeover and a Breezehome makeover that changes it's exterior in a way that conflicts with your Whiterun makeover, your FPS will slow down to a CRAWL whenever you get near Breezehome as the game tries to decide what texture to show you. Always strive for compatibility first and looks second.

 

Oh no, i did not mean 4k as in 4096 textures but as in 4k DSR, a thing on newer nvidia cards that renders the game at higher resolutions (e.g. 3840x2160 aka 4k) and then scales it down to 1920x1080, it looks pretty awesome on a 144hz monitor, it does not add any eye candy like an enb of course, but it certainly puts a shine on what is already there. 

 

To be honest, i'm on the fence here, if i had tried enb before i got this card i probably wouldn't bother with DSR but as it is now i may have to alternate between one and the other because i can't possibly use both at the same time.

 

anyway her's what i have installed so far and it all seems to be working just fine:

 

 

mod_installed_name

All Body Mods compatible Female mannequin

ApachiiSkyHair1.5

ApachiiSkyHair1.6

Auto Unequip Ammo

Bijin Warmaidens

Bikini Trouble - UNP UNPB 7B MTM BBP BBPx TBBP

BodySlide Stuff Misc

Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE-

CBBE HDT Piercing Sets v1.0

CBBE Heels Collection HDT v1.3

Chaconne Follower

Daedric Chainmail Bodyslide CBBE TBBP

Danariel Stormbow - Standard CBBE - UNP

Dark Disciple Bodyslide Support

Dark Disciple Standalone

Devious Devices Assets

Devious Devices CBBE CT77 Body Conversion 3.2

Devious Devices Expansion

Devious Devices Integration

Deviously Helpless 1.15d

display-model-9

Elven Textures

Emfy Cleric Robes UNP - CBBE

Enhanced Lights and FX

Enhanced Lights and FX DB

Enhanced Lights and FX DG

Falskaar 1.1.5

Female Facial Animation

FNIS Gen

FNIS Sexy Move

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - Creature Pack

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS

Fuz Ro Doh 6

Girls of Skyrim - Alexina and Stella

Girls Of Skyrim - All in One

Girls of Skyrim - Variety Patch

HDT HighHeels System

HDT Physics Extensions

Imo Follower

JaySuS Swords

Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One

LustDesign - Sovngarde Steel Armor v2 - CBBE_UNP_CHSBHC_ADEC

Merta Assassin Armor UNP - CBBE

MiasLair V042 Loose

MiasLairHairPack42

Minou Aradia Bikini

MoreNastyCritters8 23

Non-SexLab Animations Pack ver 2.2

Osare Underwear - UNP

papyrusutilv28

Project Reality - Climates Of Tamriel-V3

Project Reality - Dawnguard

Project Reality - Dragonborn

Project Reality - Sounds

Project Reality - Sounds DG

RaceCompatibility with fixes

RaceMenu

Remodeled Armor for CBBE Bodyslide TBBP HDT

Seranaholic

Seraphine Armor - CBBEv3 - UNP

SexLab AmorousAdventures v1_32_0

SexLab Aroused Animations v20140109

Sexlab Defeat 5b3.3

SexLab SOS Strapon

SexLab Sperm Replacer 3dm forum version

SexLab Submit + DD Progression 1.71

SexLabAroused Redux V16a

SexLabFramework

sexy idle Animation

SkyUI

SOS

SOS - Equipable Schlong v0.3

Sotteta Huntress Armor UNP

Sotteta Necromancer Outfit UNP - CBBE

SoulGem Oven 206

Tembtra Thief Armor UNP - CBBE

The Ningheim - Brows

The Ningheim Race

Toccata Follower

Unmanaged: Dawnguard

Unmanaged: Dragonborn

Unmanaged: HearthFires

Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack01

Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack02

Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack03

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch 2.0.9

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch 2.0.9

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch 2.0.9

Unofficial High Resolution Patch 1.1.9a

Unofficial Skyrim Patch-19-2-0-9

Ursine Armor Pack UNP

Wearable Lanterns

Wild Huntress UNP Top Model with TBBP - UNP

YuiH StandAlone Follower S2 v1_0 CBBE

ZazAnimationPack Main V0604

ã€ÂSkeleton】XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended

 

[Sacremas]

What I would really suggest is that you try it without that setting, and use an ENB of your choice (I like Realvision but it's far from the best or even most performance firendly ENB) using ENBseries 0.265, then you install Tamriel Reloaded like I explained with the various settings, and then you try it in game. If you still think the 4K DSR looks better then by all means go with that.

[fishburger67]

Sacremas

 

I am really conflicted about using MO.  I know the raw machine down to the capacitors on the motherboard.  I write software for the operating system.  I understand most things about it.  I do not know about MO and how it utilizes these mapped directories.  I know about mapped directories but I don't know how MO does it and how it's file structure is organized.  Because I understand the skyrim file structure, I can usually fix anything and I am hearing lots of issues related to MO (Carida and others).

 

Also, I use Creation Kit like 8 hours a day.  I saw CK in one of the gopher videos I watch (haven't gotten through the whole series yet) so it obviously works.  I am worried about this too.

 

I have lots of disk space.  I am thinking about making a new directory for an MO based Skyrim install and keeping what I have for CK work.  What do you think of that idea?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sacremas]

That should work... but MO wouldn't actually do anything, you kinda need a clean install of SKyrim and then install all mods via Mod Organizer for it to work as it should. However for just finding out how it works and playing around with it that should work fine. You won't get a zit of benefit out of it for actual use of course, but even so.

 

Also one happy news to anyone who used my CFF explorer thing to change SKyrim's TESV.exe to use >2 gb memory; this makes Steam think you don't have it installed any longer, you can run it still but Steam have no way to affect it, and anyone who ended up with Skyrim reading as not being installed any longer due to this will not be affected by the issues currently plaguing Carida and others because Steam can't cause incompatibilites in something it can't touch! I have none of the problems being reported by others due to this.

[Sacremas]

In the Animated Dragon Wings/FNIS section I changed my Skeleton recommendation to the much better XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended.

[HounDog]

Fish, i think you would find MO to be immensely useful for testing and version control, and your knowledge of the skyrim structure will only make things easier.

[fishburger67]

Thanks you guys.  I'm installing a new skyrim in a new directory this weekend and then I will import all my mods using MO in this new place and see how it goes.  I am really interested in seeing how MO implements is directory sturcture.

[Sacremas]

Okay I recently ran into a problem where the game was slowing to a crawl and stuttering a lot, and I had no idea what was going on. Turns out the reason I was doing so was because I'd activated the Bethesda High Res Texture packs as well some other graphical landscape mods along with Tamriel Reloaded. This causes Skyrim to spend a lot more time on trying to decide which texture to show you than it spends on showing you the textures it picks!

 

So if you installed Tamriel Reloaded, what I want you to do is to go into your SKyrim/Data folder and delete all the high res texture pack DLCs (BSAs and ESPs), and in Steam go to your Library, find Skyrim, go to Properties, to DLC and uncheck your subscription to the high res textures DLC. Also if you're using a mod like Vivid Landscapes you should stop using it along with TR, and most likely the same with Skyrim Flora Overhaul. I'm going to try out with and without Verdant and see what looks better and what gives better performance, it may be best to only go with that single landcscape alteration if you're using such a big all-encompassing pack.

[Sacremas]

Update: Removing SFO and Verdant led to a marked FPS increase with Tamriel Reloaded, and I still get grass and shrubbery, just not to the degree with Verdant, and it plainly just looks better. As such I only recommend you use Tamriel Reloaded alone, and no other landscape mods.

 

Here's my SKyrim.ini [Grass] Section;

 

 

 

[Grass]

iGrassCellRadius=2

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

bDrawShaderGrass=0

bGrassPointLighting=1

b30GrassVS=1

iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=15

iMinGrassSize=40

 

I thought reducing iMinGrass and seting up types would hurt performance a lot but the opposite was actually true instead!

 

Other than these I'm also using Rustic Alchemy and Enchanting Tables, Rustic Cooking Station, Rustic Clutter Collections (includes Silverware etc), Rustic Potions and Poisons (don't use if you use Radiant Potions and Poisons!) and Rustic Windows, as well as Ren's HD Shrines. Make sure Enhanced Lights and FX and Climates of Tamriel or any other weather/lighting mod always overwrite all your textures!

 

Note that while all texture mods can be removed at any time, when you load up the game again do not use Continue, use Load Game, as COntinue will crash your game then! This is only the first time you've loaded up with your new textures, after that feel free to use Continue.

 

Here's a video of Tamriel Reloaded in action if you're still undecided;

 

[fishburger67]

Whoa, nice stuff.