First Impressions

[aravis7]

About SKSE, one of the devs has answered here: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4979480-skse/page-4

 

 

 

We'll start investigating, but this is going to take some serious effort and time to get done. There is a ton of functionality in SKSE. We won't get it all implemented at once for the Special Edition. Expect early versions for the Special Edition to have a lot less functionality. And no ETA at all for when we'll have anything to show.

[Molokkx]

Just wanted to point at the new NVIDIA driver, version 375.70.

 

It supports Skyrim Special Edition. So maybe it will help with the performance-related issues that some people experienced with SSE so far.

[Antrox]

It's great and all but there is no way in hell I will be re-modding because it would be useless. Plus the fact that I can still get the original Skyrim to look better then SSE.

[Mastodon]

It's basically the same old Skyrim, with memory patch and SweetFX taped onto it. Same old bugs. No new content (obviously). Oh, and the sound is horribly crushed, apparently.

Closest analogy? Imagine a wrinkled old lady wearing a heavy makeup.

[UZero]

Speaking of the wait for porting it over, does anyone have a general idea of how long it will possibly take a lot of mods to be ported over?  I know no one can do anything other than a rough timetable but I'm new to modding and have no clue over some of this stuff.

I've been using SSEEdit to convert quite a few mods I used in classic (including the beast ones in my signature) and there's been very little to do so far. To be honest, I've spent more time making compatibility patches between mods (such as between NPC appearances and stat changes or conflicting leveled lists) than I have editing the original ones. Anything that modifies a Cell or Worldspace probably needs an update. Some NPC/Race changes may need to be made, but I haven't run into too many yet that seem to be SSE-specific. There was a wiki post on reddit saying that old plugin files won't work and SSE will refuse to load them, but I've yet to have that issue. For example the beast mods load fine, and Ethereal Elven Overhaul just needed some merging with USSEP changes.

 

That's all data, of course. Older meshes using primarily NiTriStrips are going to have a bad time. I'm dreading that possibility for Ihlenda; they aren't my meshes so I don't know what I'm in for. Nifskope can fix them up with a little elbow grease, and the CK apparently has a converter, so we'll see there.

 

UI scaleform has changed slightly, so many UI-related mods are going to take some tweaking. That of course includes SkyUI once SKSE is updated.

 

Not related directly to porting, but sound quality took a nosedive in SSE. They converted the sound files to some heavily compressed format, and while it may be hard to tell through your speakers it's more apparent with most headsets.

 

 

It's basically the same old Skyrim, with memory patch and SweetFX taped onto it. Same old bugs. No new content (obviously). Oh, and the sound is horribly crushed, apparently.

 

Closest analogy? Imagine a wrinkled old lady wearing a heavy makeup.

They've acknowledged the problem and have said they'll likely be updating next week to fix it.

[chevalierx]

without mods

the game is stable but the question if SSE can handle +100 mods and texture and mesh

is only for money no real improvement and in 2017 and compare to the witcher 3 ......

[UZero]

without mods

the game is stable but the question if SSE can handle +100 mods and texture and mesh

is only for money no real improvement and in 2017 and compare to the witcher 3 ......

 

Considering the majority of crashes in classic Skyrim had to do with out-of-memory errors (solved with 64-bit architecture), Papyrus script delay/overload/dropping due to processing restrictions (greatly alleviated by 64-bit architecture but reliant on your CPU), or rendering issues (fault of the mod author and/or your hardware, not Skyrim itself), I would damn well hope it can handle more than that!

 

To put it another way, my load order's currently at 174 plugins with ~10GB of additional assets. The only crash I've had yet is the one I forced by supermanning myself across the continent.

[Mastodon]

SE made the game less bleak and colorless, so that's good in my book. It also indirectly solved roughly half of all the memory related problems by... allowing the game to use more memory.

I honestly don't know why LE and SE were split. It would have been best if they released it as a patch with 86/64 launcher options, yet they decided to advertise it as a completely different version of the game, rather than a patch. One could argue that it was made for the sake of consistency with console releases, but I call bullshit on that. Even if they did a-stupid and made the build just for the consoles (I would refrain from referring to console architecture conspiracies, at least for now), and then re-f**king-imported it on PC, it's not like they have re-written the entire code just for that. Default saves work for either version, right?

[UZero]

The newer graphics options would likely just exacerbate the memory and script load issues on the 32-bit version, so that isn't really an option. There were also some format changes and compression improvements with the archive files. Splitting the two allows them to fully implement new technology while also helping to prevent confusion between the different versions. Also cash grab for the consoles, but we don't talk about that.

 

Unmodded save files from classic Skyrim work in SSE, yes. Anything modded most likely won't.

[Nazzzgul666]

 

How can people not understand that this game was made better and will work better with mods?  I mean 6 months from now, I would be shocked if less than 90% of the major mods used on here and on Nexus aren't already ported over.  I'm perfectly fine with receiving this game for free and waiting 6 months to be able to enjoy it more than I do the original, heavily-modded Skyrim I have now.  Sure with the heavy modding, there's going to be a lot of frustration and waiting 3-6 months for things to be ported over will suck but...it's worth the wait.

 

Speaking of the wait for porting it over, does anyone have a general idea of how long it will possibly take a lot of mods to be ported over?  I know no one can do anything other than a rough timetable but I'm new to modding and have no clue over some of this stuff.

 

 

You'll probably see a healthy flood of content after next week when the CK is released publicly... thats hurdle number one.

 

Hurdle 2 is SKSE... that could well take a matter of months... its hard for anyone to guess at right now.

 

Hurdle 3 is SkyUI and MCM... either someone has to be willing to take up porting it over with the original teams permission... or someone has to create a whole new MCM from scratch... but neither of those can feasably happen until SKSE is updated.

 

While we're on LL, you forgot FNIS which isn't totally unimportant here.

 

SE made the game less bleak and colorless, so that's good in my book. It also indirectly solved roughly half of all the memory related problems by... allowing the game to use more memory.

 

I honestly don't know why LE and SE were split. It would have been best if they released it as a patch with 86/64 launcher options, yet they decided to advertise it as a completely different version of the game, rather than a patch. One could argue that it was made for the sake of consistency with console releases, but I call bullshit on that. Even if they did a-stupid and made the build just for the consoles (I would refrain from referring to console architecture conspiracies, at least for now), and then re-f**king-imported it on PC, it's not like they have re-written the entire code just for that. Default saves work for either version, right?

That's because you don't know what you're talking about. Even if there wouldn't be a single texture/light changed from original Skyrim, technically it's still a completly different game.

There is no way to "simply patch" from x32 to x64, not if you want to be able to use the old version as well.

The code of SSE has more in common with FO4 than Skyrim, so actually you can say SSE is rather FO4 with a new story, quests and fighting system. A game is more than you can see, especially if you don't take a close look.

 

And if it's better or more stable depends a lot on your hardware... a port from x32 to x64 doesn't magically fix any bugs (and afaik they didn't do much else), it just increases the possibilities you have, if you have the proper hardware. And i don't complain about more possibilities, even if i can't use them right now, atm i'm not really sure if the limits i have with the old version is because of Skyrim or my hardware. But my hardware might change, maybe in one or two years, and then i can use the new version and more mods and be happy.

 

And for mods... there is a chance some will never be updated. Some modders maybe don't want to switch, some mods are simply abandoned without anybody who cares about upgrades.

On the other hand, there is a chance some modders who disappeared might come back to Skyrim and not only update but also expand their mods, so hopefully and with some time we have more content avaivable than now. My guess is that you don't need to care about upgrading before next year, not if you want to use sexlab mods.

[loopie]

I tried it out of curiosity, got it for free anyways via steam so why not ?

 

And I got reminded just how horrible the game actually is without mods. By the time I made it to the jarl in Whiterun I have already had enough with just inventory management alone to make me quit and perhaps revisit it when mods are available. Until then, just not worth it.

 

Since I have played the game back and forth many times already, its just not even worth touching it without full sex mods. I might come back to the SSE, or might not, depending on mods and timeframe they take.

 

 

[carnifex]

Installed SSE yesterday, on my laptop which runs old Skyrim reasonably well with ENBoost, ICBINE and a number of graphic-enhancing mods.

 

Tried high settings, got a slideshow. Reduced to low, game still ran like shit, and looked way worse than the modded original.

 

I'll probably try installing it on my actual gaming rig just to see how it looks in highest possible settings - and how it compares to original ran with a full ENB - but so far I'm beyond skeptical.

[slutofshades]

 

 

How can people not understand that this game was made better and will work better with mods?  I mean 6 months from now, I would be shocked if less than 90% of the major mods used on here and on Nexus aren't already ported over.  I'm perfectly fine with receiving this game for free and waiting 6 months to be able to enjoy it more than I do the original, heavily-modded Skyrim I have now.  Sure with the heavy modding, there's going to be a lot of frustration and waiting 3-6 months for things to be ported over will suck but...it's worth the wait.

 

Speaking of the wait for porting it over, does anyone have a general idea of how long it will possibly take a lot of mods to be ported over?  I know no one can do anything other than a rough timetable but I'm new to modding and have no clue over some of this stuff.

 

 

You'll probably see a healthy flood of content after next week when the CK is released publicly... thats hurdle number one.

 

Hurdle 2 is SKSE... that could well take a matter of months... its hard for anyone to guess at right now.

 

Hurdle 3 is SkyUI and MCM... either someone has to be willing to take up porting it over with the original teams permission... or someone has to create a whole new MCM from scratch... but neither of those can feasably happen until SKSE is updated.

 

While we're on LL, you forgot FNIS which isn't totally unimportant here.

 

 

 

Didn't mention FNIS because from conversations on here already, FNIS isn't gonna be too big of an issue... and I trust FNIS will likely be done long before SKSE is... so I saw it as a moot point to list as a hurdle.... the Animation system used in SSE isn't as limiting to modders as FO4's is... Fore seems optimistic of getting a FNIS 7.0 for SSE.

[finalx31]

without mods

the game is stable but the question if SSE can handle +100 mods and texture and mesh

is only for money no real improvement and in 2017 and compare to the witcher 3 ......

 

so the stability everyone is talking about is due to the fact that we haven't modded the shit out of it yet. is there a way to test if the new engine is actually more stable or do we have to wait for all the mods to come out to pile on?

[blueballbob]

Finally had time to start playing today.  Went all out with 4K at Ultra from the gate. 

 

• Super Smooth in 4K so far!  Was really impress there's no stutter or major frame loss like in the 32bit version.
• Shadows look massively better than Vanilla 32bit.  Can't tell vs a ENB on shadows yet.  Have to go back and play some ENB.
• DOF on the SSE is really good.  Some ENBs have shitty DOF, but the default DOF of the SSE is superior to almost all ENBs IMO.  Plus no real noticeable frame hit.  Of course I can't play the 32bit in 4K have to use 1440p.
• Textures are a big improvement over the default from 32bit, but are still pretty poor compared to some texture packs you can get from Nexus.  Probably going to throw a bunch of texture mods in there first and see if I can keep 4K above 60fps or not.
• Meshes still look pretty vanilla.  Hopefully SIMM is ported fully soon.
• Foliage looks denser and actually would only really need a texture pack and perhaps a grass addon.  Impressed by that improvement.
• Distance is a HUGE improvement.  OMG it's so much better to see into the distance and it doesn't look like shit.  Not DynDLOD detail, but still is way better. 
• Popin is basically unnoticeable as far as I could tell.  In 4K could've been pretty bad.
• Transitions into buildings etc is super smooth.  Must be making use if the extra RAM now with 64bit.
• Scripted sequences don't show that stutter that I got on the 32bit version.  Hopefully with DX11 things are getting distributed across cores and memory much better.

Overall it's a big performance improvement.  I couldn't even run the vanilla 32bit version very well in 4k, but this version it plays like it was meant to be played.

 

Can't wait till the mods catch up.  Hopefully the better stability means a lot less CTD and the ability to have scripting run better without competing for the same resources as the graphics.

 

Things I missed right away:

• SkyUI - damn the original UI was crap.  Had forgotten how bad it was.
• Alternate Start - Was cool seeing the cart opening once, but after that need to be able to skip it.
• 4k Textures - in 4K you can see where the new textures fall short in some cases.
• RaceMenu - Original Character creation, so limited. 
• CitrusHead - Need sculpting tools.
• HDT SMP - Miss the bouncing right away in town.
• FINS - Original animations are just bad.  Still are.
• Real Clouds - I use this mod in 32bit, the volumetric clouds create all kinds of immersion.  Might try this http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39450/? in the SE since I can't see anywhere that it needs SKSE.

 

Overall super happy with it.  Just need to be patient and let people update mods for it.  Kind of glad it came along as it'll force a lot of dead mods out of my load order and will allow a few modders to make improved version of their originals.

 

 

[Nazzzgul666]

 

without mods

the game is stable but the question if SSE can handle +100 mods and texture and mesh

is only for money no real improvement and in 2017 and compare to the witcher 3 ......

 

so the stability everyone is talking about is due to the fact that we haven't modded the shit out of it yet. is there a way to test if the new engine is actually more stable or do we have to wait for all the mods to come out to pile on?

 

In another thread CPU spawned 5000 NPCs at once and it didn't crash. If that counts as "more stable" than yes, it is. But that doesn't mean it's impossible to fuck things up, of course. Several things that are a bit messy in the Skyrim engine weren't touched afaik, so not everything will get better, only some points.

[pipdude]

Haven't been able to check it out yet.

 

In terms of adult mods, there are so many key mods (SKSE, FNIS, SOS, etc.) from old Skyrim that would need to be rebuilt. Given how that hasn't really begun to happen in FO4, I wonder if it will ever happen for SSE...

 

It seems like, with the next version of Skyrim coming out soon, mod efforts will end up going into that before the key SSE mods are updated (if they ever are at all).

[Dtech]

Haven't been able to check it out yet.

 

In terms of adult mods, there are so many key mods (SKSE, FNIS, SOS, etc.) from old Skyrim that would need to be rebuilt. Given how that hasn't really begun to happen in FO4, I wonder if it will ever happen for SSE...

 

It seems like, with the next version of Skyrim coming out soon, mod efforts will end up going into that before the key SSE mods are updated (if they ever are at all).

 

FO4 was a lot more of a headache to deal with regarding animations than Skyrim SE is, though it seemed at the time a bigger problem FO4 really had was the let down a lot of the old school people felt it was compared to FO3/FONV.

[pipdude]

 

Haven't been able to check it out yet.

 

In terms of adult mods, there are so many key mods (SKSE, FNIS, SOS, etc.) from old Skyrim that would need to be rebuilt. Given how that hasn't really begun to happen in FO4, I wonder if it will ever happen for SSE...

 

It seems like, with the next version of Skyrim coming out soon, mod efforts will end up going into that before the key SSE mods are updated (if they ever are at all).

 

FO4 was a lot more of a headache to deal with regarding animations than Skyrim SE is, though it seemed at the time a bigger problem FO4 really had was the let down a lot of the old school people felt it was compared to FO3/FONV.

 

 

FO4 allows adding custom animations out of the box. In terms of animations, it is way ahead of where Skyrim is. And that was sorted out a lot faster than on Skyrim.

 

But, we're not seeing as much interest/support for F4SE, FalloutUI, etc. Maybe they will come along in time. But, even at a much faster pace than that, we'll have a brand new Skyrim that everyone will be playing instead.

 

In my opinion, the pattern that is emerging is that the mod scene for old Skyrim demonstrated the potential interest that mods create. But, the pace of new games since has tended to spread out and sort of wash out efforts. The people who build some of these breakthrough mods, after so many years of support, don't want to rebuild the same thing over and over again. They aren't companies with a singular purpose. But, people who are moving on through life and are really only in a position to contribute for so long.

 

I think that Bethesda needs to recognize this and take more cues from what the mod community is doing. They should recognize the business advantage for them and pre-package some of these tools so that they don't need to be recreated. They did surprise us with better tools for animations in FO4. So, it seems like they are thinking this way. But, I see no reason why they wouldn't just give us the SKSE command set built right into native Papyrus. They even allow documenting those commands on their own Papyrus wiki.

 

That is some low lying fruit for them to break down a significant barrier for modders.

[UZero]

Things I missed right away:

• Alternate Start - Was cool seeing the cart opening once, but after that need to be able to skip it.

Overall super happy with it.  Just need to be patient and let people update mods for it.  Kind of glad it came along as it'll force a lot of dead mods out of my load order and will allow a few modders to make improved version of their originals.

 

SURPRISE!

Alternate Start - Live Another Life SE

 

Arthmoor's a machine.  He's been churning things out constantly since the beta.

[DasReverend]

Even if it was the only change, the fact that my time spent in loading screens has been cut by 80% would make waiting for the script extender worth it

[Wast1980]

First impressions?

Skyrim SE still looks like an old game, but now it also runs like an old game (in a positive way), everything is smooth, 2-5 seconds loading times, stability.

Once I said to my gf "I'd rather play Morrowind again instead of Skyrim remastered", well now I play Skyrim SE...

Most SKSE mods I used were for stability, memory patches and such, thanks to the 64bit Engine these things aren't necessary anymore (I just badly miss SkyUI).

[WarsunGames]

FX 9370 4.4 to 4.7GHz

R9 390 OC edition

 

The game runs at 60fps then drops to 30 on purpose.It wont climb back up to 60.It will only jump to 60 if the game tries to get 71.Which means you have a high end card.But once it sees you hit 60fps.it waste 2 seconds then tried to FORCE drop the frame rate down to 30fps.It does this as a mechanic.Because i can get 150fps on normal skyrim at all times.

 

But i limit my fps on that game.But on this game.No no no.This game tries to go low.So low the the game feels sluggish stuttery an just gives poor performance.It did not recognize my graphics card at first.I disconnected my DPI connection an moved it around the graphics card to the far end.Then it identified my graphics card.

 

Even then.It gives the worst performance.Even in areas that should get 60fps.Nope.Drops down to 30.Out of the many bug fixes the game got.That was not a bug issue.That was a Nvidia Gameworks program.I know this because they use the same thing on Fallout 4 for my AMD graphics card.That's OK i have the original.

FX 9370 4.4 to 4.7GHz

R9 390 OC edition

 

The game runs at 60fps then drops to 30 on purpose.It wont climb back up to 60.It will only jump to 60 if the game tries to get 71.Which means you have a high end card.But once it sees you hit 60fps.it waste 2 seconds then tried to FORCE drop the frame rate down to 30fps.It does this as a mechanic.Because i can get 150fps on normal skyrim at all times.

 

But i limit my fps on that game.But on this game.No no no.This game tries to go low.So low the the game feels sluggish stuttery an just gives poor performance.It did not recognize my graphics card at first.I disconnected my DPI connection an moved it around the graphics card to the far end.Then it identified my graphics card.

 

Even then.It gives the worst performance.Even in areas that should get 60fps.Nope.Drops down to 30.Out of the many bug fixes the game got.That was not a bug issue.That was a Nvidia Gameworks program.I know this because they use the same thing on Fallout 4 for my AMD graphics card.That's OK i have the original.Also i noticed a lot of things.

 

Water looks more like it has a current.However.The water moves too slow.The Water is too shiny.The game is covered with a Annoying VERY annoying White filter.Like the Netherlands never had a Blue Sky.Its just a white sky.It make me want to fall asleep.I was playing a Male.An Ralof says She saved my life.If it where not for her.I said fuck this game an quit.Clearly there are still bugs.But calling me a man a girl pissed me off from the Nords in Windhelm Having Ralof say that made me want to beat the shit out of him.So i quit.You enjoy.

[Iyeru]

Moon godrays were a nice surprise.

 

 

 

Things I missed right away:

• Alternate Start - Was cool seeing the cart opening once, but after that need to be able to skip it.

Overall super happy with it.  Just need to be patient and let people update mods for it.  Kind of glad it came along as it'll force a lot of dead mods out of my load order and will allow a few modders to make improved version of their originals.

 

SURPRISE!

Alternate Start - Live Another Life SE

 

Arthmoor's a machine.  He's been churning things out constantly since the beta.

 

 

Now all we need is Death Alternative / Your Money or your life. I want to be able to do the soul trap death/start alternative again.

[MikeyD28]

Thanks to those that answered my questions in my last post.  What about Sexlab Framework and Sexlab Defeat?  With those two is it just about getting the dependencies to work to get them up and running on Special Edition?  Or will those two not likely work without being converted and possibly redone as well?