So, yesterday at 3 AM I finally completed building my fifth build of the game. Rather than building it from scratch, I dismantled half o my last build, particularly all animation related stuff, as my tinkering in the last build eventually led to everyone T-posing, and then rebuilt it again.

Then came the time to launch, and of course the game immediately crashed, but this time, I got a warning that SKSE log reports some incompatibility. Conveniently, Vortex provided a link to the log file.
I was wondering where this particular log file was, before, but somehow I never got around to actually seriously looking for it. Well, its in Documents/My Games/Skyrim VR/SKSE.

Once I opened the log, I was pleasantly surprised by how clear the language in it was, so I quickly established that the problem lies with Devious Devices. I had the latest version installed, plus the VR patch. So I did some digging and eventually found, on a forum here, a link to a mod named Devious Devices SKSE 1.5.62 runtime 2.0.12, which seemed to have resolved this same issue for someone else.
But installing that didn't help either, the crashes (or failed launches rather), persisted. So I went and looked directly in the deployment directory, whether the Devious Devices dll from the newest addition was really deployed, and it was. But then it occurred to me, what if the dll from the VR patch (from before adding the runtime mod, wasn't deployed – something similar happened to me before, with the Papyrus extender. By the way, the only way to get that one working is to unpack the Sexlab Framework mod, remove the PapyrusUtil.dll from there, repack it, install, and then install the standalone papyrus VR mod). So I manually overwrote the current dll with the one from the VR patch, launched...

And the game started up, right on the first try, no relaunch necessary on every launch, like in my previous build, which is really encouraging, a significant step up. What's more, all animations work again and the gagged mouth closed issue was resolved (not sure which of my measures fixed it, but I did add a mod named MfgFix-vr-11669-1-0vr which was supposed to address this exact issue). I removed the DD runtime thingy, as I thought it's probably redundant (also older than the actual DD) and the game still runs like butter.

This new build is very stable, I  played for several hours and launched it several times, so I finally feel confident enough to share my mod list and order at the end of this post.

 

The issues that remain:

- Racemenu still won't appear, but works in some fashion, because other mods rely on it and those do work. This is currently the highest priority along with,
- Sexlabs, since my previous build doesn't hand over camera controls, even when set to free camera and 3rd person. I am always stuck in 1st person, what would be fine, if in some cases the camera wouldn't spin like crazy. The spinning can actually be stopped by turning one's head veeeeery slowly in a very precise position, so it seems that it actually works (in 1st person) correctly, but the controls are overly sensitive. It is the same issue I had with the camera, when racemenu was disabled in my last build. Also, there is another issue, which I failed to mention last time, which could also be related,

- In inventory, magic and dialogue menus the stick controls are extremely sensitive so that you zoom through the entire menu within a fraction of a second. The menus can still be navigated, but it's a pain in the ass.

- I still feel that there should be way more animations available. This time around I installed ZAZ 7 first and 8 second, but it does not seem to have made any difference, so I'm thinking of removing 7 again. Maybe, they aren't separate packs after all. Couldn't find a clear answer for that, as of now. I did manage, however, to successfully install and launch the SL Animation Loader and imported the Cobalt (SE) spanking animations. They registered with SL and do appear in spanking scenes, but they are a little stiff and often rely on furniture which isn't there, so I guess I'll give Rydlin another chance, ignoring the FNIS inconsistency messages. I'd be very thankful for any suggestions for BDSM related animations, ideally for the SLAL, as that works reliably now.
- Finally, I have an issue with the ZAZ leash, in combination with Prison Overhaul Patched. Whenever I am teleported, I stop being able to move, when following a guard. I resolved this by setting guard speed to walk, but still, when you finally reach the cell and the Jailer tells you to go in, I get stuck. When stuck after a teleport, switching to VRIK selfie mode, I can see that the body wants to go in the suggested direction, the upper body and hands stretch in that direction, but the feet remain fixed to the ground and won't let it happen. At the cell, a walking animation plays, when I try to go in, but I can't move.
Eventually, after wriggling the controls frantically for a few minutes, in small jumps my body did eventually move into the cell. Before that, I tried using the "push actor" debug feature in the Skyrim Utility Mod, but I am not sure that this was what got me partially unstuck. It was clear that the direction is not controlled by me, but rather the leash. And yes, I tried to restore (override) control over my body in ZAZ, but that did nothing. When the Jailer left, controls were restored. But there was another problem, when opening the game menu, I was still in the Skyrim Utility Mod MCM menu and couldn't leave it or manipulate it in any way. So I couldn't save my game either. I suspect this may be due to the fact I have the "hardcore mode" engaged in POP, so I'll test that.
- the collars around the hands and feet of NPCs still remain. I am sure this is due to my experimenting with Bodyslide. In the fourth build, I tried using CBBE instead of UNP and accidentally checked the morph option, what applied, I guess the presets from the individual mods (I wanted to keep the vanilla proportions) and now I can't get rid of that. In this build I switched back to UNP and rebuilt everything with the morph box unchecked, but I guess the settings from the previous build were used, so I'll have to figure that one out somehow.

- SlaveTats works but says my body doesn't support overlays. I guess I'll have to revert to CBBE (?)

 

There are still many things to be tested, but there is definitely a trend towards everything working as it should and I am pretty sure, I'll eventually get there.

 

So here's the promised mod list. I am sure that, due to my ignorance, there still might be some significant issues with that, so if you are more experienced than I am, I'll welcome any suggestions. Note: I did not set the order of all mods manually (edit - after reviewing the list now, I see that many mods are in completely different positions than I want them to be), as there are still a lot of question marks for me what rules to apply, many just ended up in the place they are through the inner workings of Vortex, quite differently from the order I installed them. The core gameplay mod for me is Submissive Lola Resubmitted by HexBolt8 and previous authors, which I highly recommend. All the others mods are built around that to enhance this experience.

 

0 - Bodyslide and Outfit Studio

1 - EstrukBooze

2 - FNIS Behavior VR 7_6 XXL

3 - FNIS Creature Pack SE 7.6

4 - SexLabsArousedSSELoose-29

5 - SL Defeat SSE

6 - SexLabFrameworkSE_v163_BETA8SLSSE 163 (With the PapyrusUtil.dll removed!)

7 - ZAZ 7.0SE

8 - ZaZ Animation Pack+ UUNP HDT V.8.0+SEREV3

9 - CobaltAnimationSpankingPack SE v1.4.3.7

10 - SexLab Body Search 2019814

11 - XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended-1988-4-72

12 - Devious Devices SE 5.0

13 - MfgFix-vr-11669-1-0vr

14 - Fuz.Ro.D.oh.VR.-.Alpha.3

15 - HDT-SMP for VR 1.4.15 v2.2 (BETA)

16 - Hydra_Slavegirls_SSE_v1.0

17 - JContainers VR-16495-4-1-13

18 - Kozakowy 1660 Gown UNP 1.4-beta

19 - DeviousDevices VR Release

20 - Laura's Bondage Shop v3.21 SSE version - by tznvlw

21 - Papyrus Extender - VR - 2.3-22854-2-3

22 - PapyrusUtil VR - Scripting Utility Functions-13048-3-6b

23 - RaceMenu VR 0.4.14-19080-0-4-14

24 - Radiant Prostitution_Gigolo SE v4.1.1

25 - Raven's Luxurious Seduction - Main Version (CBBE, can't find the UNP version at Nexus anymore, due to its completely broken search function, but it's there, I've seen it, but didn't download)

26 - SL VRpatch Beta8 38 - test

27 - SL VRpatch hotfix for v38

28 - SLAL_SE

29 - SLSFFameComments v2.0 SE(should go afted SLFF but works)

30 - Sex Lab - Sexual Fame Framework SE V0.99

31 - Simple Slavery Plus Plus 6.3.4 [SE]

32 - SkyUI-VR.v1.0-beta.4.7

33 - SlaveTatsSE-1.3.5.2.7

34 - SubmissiveLolaResubmission 2.0.6 (I think there's a newer version out)

35 - UNP BASE Main body V1dot2-6709 (I have no idea, how this ended up this far down, installed it among the first)

36 - VRIK Rift-Index-WMR Controller Bindings V2.1.0 (again, this should load after the master)

37 - VRIK V0.8.1 In-Dev Build 28

38 - ZAZmouthfix (I forgot about this one, probably useless, my first attempt at fixing the bug, which didn't work and I forgot about this mod)

39 - Skyrim Script Extender VR (SKSEVR)

40 - Skyrim - Utility Mod 153

41 - xazPrisonOverhaul - Patched 452

42 - FNIS Data

 

42, my favorite number. Anyway, that's that for now. I will have people visiting until Tuesday, so I probably won't post until then. Hope this was helpful to someone.