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How the hell do I mod my Skyrim LE? Series 5


Ma Ri

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Moving On to the Amateur Level, Skyrim LE

Episode Five - It Must be Love?!

 

 

 

 

From the last episode of this particular blog ( How the hell do I mod my Skyrim LE? Series 4 ), we installed and used the Sexlab mod that enables your character to have sex with the selected partner by using the menu or by spell. Actually those are the only basic guide on using this Sexlab mod, there is a better guide and explanations out there that is why I didn't tackle it any further on the tutorial. I also want you, the new modders of Skyrim LE to discover it for yourselves. You will only enjoy using this mod and have fun if I don't spoil too much attention about it right? I also explain how to use GIMP which is also a basic one to give you an idea on how to use it. Changing the color of the textures are one of it's use so if you have background or have a knowledge how to use Photoshop, then they are basically the same. But don't worry, I will raise our level on how to use GIMP and Paint.Net later on and so we will have another tutorial about it.

 

To start on with our guide, I will show you all on how to use the BodySlide and Outfit Studio application once again. But this time around, we will particularly use the BodySlide and not the Outfit Studio program. So now let us begin...

 

If you notice from the previous screenshots I have used, there are some parts of those which are hidden so that you will not get confused on using them with your build. And also I hide them so that you will not bother me on where do I got these mods. Actually some of it are private mods which I might share on the future as well, and so it all depends on the situations.

 

You will see below that there are two BodySlide and Outfit Studio, one for BHUNP body types (UNP) and another for CBBE body. That is the very reason why I hide the other one on the screenshots which I used from the previous tutorials. You will really get confuse because I am using two. But anyway for the new modders of Skyrim LE, I recommend you to use or focus to only one body type for example - you only use UNP (BHUNP) or CBBE. For an advance modder like me, I can use two and there is really an ultimate reason why I do this. I am just preparing my Mods list for the mod that I will use later on which allows me to use any body types. So for now, let us forget about it first and just focus on only one body type which is the BHUNP body type. BHUNP got a very decent body parts physics, the only issue you might encounter later on was you might have CDT on your games. For me I still experience CDT for a while but that is actually normal for me because your PC or laptop will certainly reach a point for it's maximum performance. In short, I am expecting it to happen on my game for some time now but not all the time. If the CDT happens to you all the time by using this BHUNP body then your system was telling you that it is not supported to work normally of course unless you upgrade your hardware. Even you have the very best or latest computer specifications, CDT will still happen to your game not because you have a wrong mod lists or load order, but because there is a point where the performance have already reached it's maximum point and the system's way to prevent damaging your computer further is by means of CDT. It is like you reach the boiling point and to settle or to cool it down is by just turning the stove off. 

 

BHUNP body type is certainly a high performance mod that uses HDT SMP Physics and I use it because some body shapes and physics look realistic for me. We just focus on one body type which is the BHUNP body and deactivate the other BodySlide mod for CBBE body. I also deactivated the CBBE 3BA mod which is the All-In-One HDT SMP 3BBB Skyrim LE Setup so that MO2 will not get confused on which body it was using on the game. Since we are using BHUNP Body Shape, of course the skin textures will follow it. I deactivated all the CBBE Body Skin Textures and activated the Diamond Textures for UNP body types. Don't get confused between the BHUNP and UNP, what ever skin textures you used wether it is for BHUNP, UUNP, UNP, 7BO and more - they are all for UNP body types and very compatible on those. So just like what you see below I used UNP Skin Textures for the BHUNP Body type, it will work naturally and there will be no issues on doing it. Just focus on one body type and use one body skin textures that is compatible on the body type you are using. Deactivate the other mods which use are the same with them so that they will not overlap each other and the MO2 program will not get confused which ones to use.
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Then I downloaded the [NINI] Blue Elfin - BHUNP outfit mod for this particular tutorial.

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This oufit mod is a port meaning it was originally for Skyrim SE and I ported it to work for Skyrim LE. So I cannot give you a direct link where I got it and I am only after how to use the BodySlide program. I placed the outfit mod in Mods list in the left panel of MO2, just above the BodySlide mod and I do this as well on the right panel where the list of plugins are found.

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The two mods that will affect the outfit mod which is the [NINI] Blue Elfin are the BodySlide and Outfit Studio mod, and the Body mod name UNP Remastered BHUNP TBBP 3BBB Body LE. As you can see they all match together because all of them are/for BHUNP body type. Always remember that when you are installing an outfit mod, it should match the body type you are using or the one that is activated on yor MO2.  So even I have two body types in the MO2, I deactivated the other body type that are not compatible on the body type that the outfit was using.

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In the left panel of MO2, right click the BodySlide and Outfit Studio mod by selecting Open it in Explorer.

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In the BodySlide and Outfit Studio folder, select Caliente Tools and open it.

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Then select the BodySlide folder and open it.

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There are a lot of files in this folder but we are only after the BodySlide program. You can choose either the BodySlide x64 or simply the BodySlide, just run one that you like. Their only difference is the BodySlide x64 supports colored viewing of body or outfit.

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When you run the BodySlide program, it will look just like below. You can see in the upper left corner, the Outfit/Body which is boxed in yellow. The BHUNP 3BBB Advanced Ver 2 is the body type I am currently using.

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You can drop down this Outfit/Body options, scroll it and you can select among the choices which body type or outfit you want to be active there. But for this tutorial  we are just after the outfit that we download earlier which is the [NINI] Blue Elfin, we are looking for that outfit in the list. And I found out that  it was not present there so it means that the Caliente Tools folder of the outfit is not working. We have to make it work so that we can prevent some issues to happen when we play the game. Those outfit issues were it is not visible in the game, another one is even the body of your character becomes invisible and lastly the body doesn't fit the outfit you are wearing.

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When the outfit we installed in MO2 is not present on the BodySlide program then we need to make it work by doing these succeeding steps or guide. First right click the outfit we installed which is the [NINI] Blue Elfin on the left panel of MO2, then select Open in Explorer to open the folder.

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Then select the CalienteTools folder, right click it and Copy that folder. Always remember that we can only do these steps for the outfit mods which had a CalienteTools folder. So if this CalienteTools folder was not present then just forget about doing this. 

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Once you Copied the CalienteTools folder of the outfit mod, just go back to the MO2 program and select the BodySlide and Outfit Studio mod. Right click it there and select Open in Explorer to open the folder of this mod as well. 

12.png

 

When the BodySlide folder opens, right click anywhere on the files desktop and Paste the copied CalienteTools of the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit mod. The base or default CalienteTools folder of the BodySlide and Outfit Studio  folder will update where it adds up the presets from the outfit mod we copied. It means that we did manually copied the CalienteTools folder of the outfit  directly to the CalienteTools folder of the BodySlide folder to make sure that it is going to work later on when we open the BodySlide program once again.

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It loads a bit then the Caliente Tools folder was now updated with the addition of the presets coming from the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit mod. Then now let us open the CalienteTools folder once again.

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Then select and open the BodySlide folder.

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Then once again among the files there, you can either select the BodySlide x64 or the BodySlide program. Choose one which you would like to use and run it.

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On the upper left corner of the BodySlide which is the Outfit/Body, just drop it down once again

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When you drop it down and scroll a bit, there you can finally found the set of the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit parts. In short the CalienteTools we copied before was finally working and we can now make outfit parts' presets for this oufit. Preventing us to encounter some common issues on the outfit mods we installed. You can also notice that these was supposed to be used in Skyrim SE but just like what I told you all before, I personally ported this outfit mod to work on the Skyrim LE game.  I cannot change the name of the parts of the outfit so I just leave it like that.

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After you have selected you default body shape then in the lower left corner of the BodySlide program, there is an option with Batch Build... button and option to Build Morphs just beside it. Just tick the Build Morphs to activate it while making the bodyslide for your body or outfit. This is important so that there will be no shape error on your game when you modify the weight of your body or outfit in the game. Meaning you can modify the weight of your body or outfit in the game, which is from 0 up to 1 weight. 

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Then tap the Batch Build... button and a new window will open afterwards. It will look just like what we can see below. At default all the body shapes and outfit parts were all tick so always remember to only select and tick those that you really needed. For example we need to have a shape build for the parts of the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit that we were working so we only need all the [NINI] Blue Outfit parts excluding all the others. To exclude the other body parts shapes and outfit parts, first you need to click the very first option to turn it into a blue background. Then drag your left click to all options below to make all the options turn into a blue background. When you drag it down, the scroll will also go down until you reach the very last option. When you have selected all the options turning them all into a blue background which is making them all active, then tap SPACE key to untick all these option. 

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When you are done with the previous steps, you can see that there are no more checks on all the options.

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Then find all the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit parts, and select them all by doing what you did before. Select first the very first [NINI} Blue Elfin Feet and it will turn into a blue background then drag the selection up to the very last [NINI] Blue Elfin Back (SMP).

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When you are really sure that you have selected all the outfit parts that you needed then tap the SPACE button again to tick all your selected parts. You can see below that all the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit parts was chosen and got checks on them. Then press the Build button just under that window.

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It will load just like below.

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Wait until it finishes the building of all the outfit parts.

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When it is done, it will just look like below. Then tap OK and then you are done.

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Now that we have build all the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit, then let us check it on the game. I access the outfit by using AIM (Add Item Menu) spell, then I check if you can view it witout wearing it first. As you can see below, I can see each of the outfit parts evenwithour wearing it. The one thing you will notice is the skin textures or color are odd in some parts.

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There is a purple part of the outfit, it only means that there are textures that are missing, not working or unsupported by your game.

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To fix these issues, quit the game and go back to the MO2 program. Right click the [NINI] Blue Elfin mod in the left panel of MO2, then select Open in Explorer.

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A window will open showing the [NINI] Blue Elfin folder in the mods of the MO2 folder, just open the textures folder there.

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Then open the ninistuff folder. You can actually see on those sample pictures, that the appearance of the outfit is really different there.

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Then open the Blue Elfin folder.

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Let us look for a particular part/parts of the outfit that have some issues in the game. The outfit2.dds was mostly covering  the main parts of the [NINI] Blue Elfin Outfit so I chose it to be fixed first. Maybe we will check mostly all of the texture files here in order to really comes close to the actual appearance of the outfit.

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Then right click the outfit2.dds file and open it with GIMP first.

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The GIMP program will load some time before it opens. It will just look like below when it opens first. When you tap the OK button...

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A notification will appear that the dds file is not not supported meaning it will not open using the GIMP program. Just press the OK button then and close the GIMP program.

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Let us go back to the textures folder of the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit and select Open with the outfit2.dds using the paint.net program this time. This is the reason why I also recommended to install the Paint.NET program because we might encounter some .dds files that are not supported by the GIMP program. Most of the .dds format or compressions are supported by Paint.NET, the only issue using this is it is harder to edit the textures here.

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Now it open using the Paint.NET program just like what we can see below.

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On the Paint.NET program particularly at the upper left corner, select the File option there to drop down the other options under it. Select Save As.. and not the Save option because Save As... will overwrite the entirety of the exact file you are working now. 

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When you tap the Save As..., a new tab will open and ask you to Save the file you are working. Just leave the File name as is and make sure that the file you are saving is at DirectDraw Surface (DDS) (*.dds) format. And Save it by tapping the Save button under.

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A notification window will open that tells you to Confirm Save As because it has the exact same file name that was already existing. Just replace it as is by tapping Yes button.

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A new tab will appear again but this time you are ask for the Save Configuration. It is a settings format of your save where as you can change the Compression format/speed, the type of metric and more. Skyrim LE was already considered a very old game so it's format supports old compression types of textures. I want the texture to fully work in our game so I chose the very simple compression type which is the BC1 (Linear, DXT1). I leave the other options as is or on it's default form, then press the OK afterwards.

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You can see on the compression speed that there are a lot of choices there, but we are playing Skyrim LE and it can only support up to BC5 which I enclosed with yellow box. Skyrim SE can support textures up to BC7 so it is no wonder it needed a x64 systems.

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We are playing Skyrim LE so I only selected the BC1 because the textures of the [NINI] Blue Elfin outfit was already tough for it. And when you press OK under, it will automatically replace the existing texture file with the same name. Also always remember to save a copy of the old file which is going to replace as a backup if ever you will encounter issues in the future about this.

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Run the game and check wether you finally fixed the textures of the outfit. I check every oufit and every parts of it, you can notice that it doean't look like the one on the photo examples that came along with this outfit mod.

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So it is not fixed yet and we just need to go back to textures files of the [NINI] Blue Elfin. And fixed all of the textures there one by one by using Paint.NET program this time around. I downgraded the Compression type/speed of all the textures of this outfit to BC1 so that it will really work as intended  in Skyrim LE game. You can see below that it was finally fixed by just downgrading them.

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Now from the earlier guides or tutorial, you can notice that the outfit I am using was intended to be used on Skyrim SE. So maybe now, your questions are how did I use an Outfit from Skyrim SE to Skyrim LE?, how did I do it? and how did I make it work? Actually as I said before it was a ported outfit mod, meaning I converted the Skyrim SE outfit to work also to Skyrim LE.

 

First we need a program that do this, the SSE NIF Optimizer.

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As the name suggests, it was a porgram to be used on Skyrim SE. It is but it also has a feature that can also port back Skyrim SE mods into Skyrim LE so even it is found in the Skyrim SE mods storage of Nexus Mods, it can still be used on Skyrim LE. The link of the download was available below,

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4089

 

I already downloaded it before as you can see in the above screenshot. To install this is just by extracting it to another folder. You can see that it was an executable program.

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Then I also downloaded a Skyrim SE Outfit mod that we are going to use. For example I downloaded the [COCO] Succubus [SE] - BHUNP outfit mod that was supposed to work on my installed body type which is BHUNP. They should match on both the shape/meshes and skin colors/textures.

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Then I run the SSE NIF Optimizer v3.0.14 program which looks like below,

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There are two options that make this programs work in Skyrim LE as well, the Browse button and the LE option below.

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I installed the [COCO] Succubus [SE] on MO2, and placed the mod on the left panel of MO2 in their respective positions. I also done that in the right panel of MO2, where the plugins can be seen.

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Just remember to tick the LE below because we are going to port the Skyrim SE outfit file into Skyrim LE Outfit file. When you press the Browse button of the SSE NIF Optimizer v3.0.14,

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a new window will appear dor you to find the exact location the the folder you are going to port. For instance we are looking for the [COCO] Succubus [SE] - BHUNP mod folder, it can be found under the MO2 folder which contains the mods folder. Select the [COCO] Succubus [SE] - BHNUP folder to change the folder name below and then tap Select Folder to activate that folder.

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You can see that the destination path was changed into what we activated earlier, then the LE was tick below and tap Optimize afterwards. Just leave the other choices or options on their default form, we will have another tutorials covering about these options.

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It is running when you can see just like below where it was loading for quite some time.

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It will end and goes back normally. Just close the SSE NIF Optimizer afterwards and oprn the folder where you extract this program, you will notice that there is a notepad that was produced there. It is just the notices about the port you did using the NIF Optimizer. If there are errors or warnings, you can also see it here.

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After porting the outfit mod, let us open the BodySlide so that the outfit will fit our character. On the BodySlide program in the lower left corner, just tick the Build Morphs so that you can modify the shape/weight of your outfit freely in the game without any issues before tapping the Batch Build... button. A new window will appear just like below then find if the [COCO] Succubus outfit parts are present there.

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Only select and tick all those [COCO] Succubus outfit parts so that when you build these, it will not take very long. Then tap the Build button below afterwards.

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It will load just like below and it will time some time.

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When it is done, a new notification just like below will appear. Then tap OK afterwards. 

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I play the game to check the outfit if it is working there. It is working just fine, no problem or issues on it. Yeah I love porting outfit mods especially when they look beautiful in the game. We will have more of this kind of tutorial on the next episodes for more practice and experience.

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This time aside from outfit mods, let us try another type of mod - for example a Beautifications mod. Let us port the Tullius Eyes Pack 6.1 SE because there are no Skyrim LE version of this mod yet. I already downloaded it before from the Tullius Channel, a Korean Site of Skyrim mods which are mostly for Skyrim SE. I cannot find the direct link for this particular mod anymore but it is alright because we are just practicing on how to port or convert Skyrim SE mods to work on Skyrim LE.  

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Then I installed it on MO2 and placed it together with the other eyes mod so that it will look organize somehow. We group them together on the Mods List in the left panel of MO2 and we do this also in the right panel where the plugins can be found.

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When we are done, of course it will not work right away because that mod is for Skyrim SE right? So we need to open the SSE NIF Optimizer program to port that eyes mod. On the SSE NIF Optimizer program, tap the Browse button.

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Then a new window will open that lets you select a folder on which you would like to work on. In our case it is the Tullius Eyes Pack v6.1 because it is still on SE form, then tap Select Folder below.

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You will notice on the program that the address near the Browse button has changed to the address of the folder you are working to port. Then tick the LE  instead of SSE because we are porting the Tullius Eyes Pack into Skyrim LE version. And tap the Optimize button afterwards.

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And the you will see that loads just like below before it finishes. When it is done then just close this program and see the outcome in your game.

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There are some eyes textures that are not working or not supported in the game but I have a way to fix them. It is just it is too laborious because there are plenty of eyes to work on. Vanilla Eyes + NINI Eyes + Tullius Eyes which total of 539 I think which almost 200 Eyes need to be fixed.

When you are done choosing the right eyes for your character you can see on the Enhanced CharacterEdit how I save my character presets. The eyes I really want to use had some issues so I will try to fix it.

 

To fix the textures of the Tullius Eyes Pack, right click and Open in it Explorer.

1.png

 

Then open the textures because most of the time when the part of the mod turn into purple color, it might mean that it is not working or not supported by the game.

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When you found that the textures are just icons of GIMP and cannot be veiwed actually, then it means that it will not open in GIMP program right away. 3.png

 

So if we try to open it directly using GIMP, then this notification will appear meaning that the texture was unsupported format. Just press OK button to close this notification.

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But we can open it directly using Paint.NET program. So in order to open on the GIMP as well, we need to always do the succeeding steps.

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We can see how large is the file we are currently working by hovering the ppointer of the mouse on it. It is quite  small size already but still it is an unsupported file by the GIMP and the game as well. So in order to make it work in the game it should be readable by the GIMP first.

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To make it readable by GIMP later on is don't do anything to edit it on the Paint.NET, but just save it by clicking the File option on the upper left corner of the program. Then select Save As... there.

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A new window will open and you can see/notice that it might overwrite the existing files which has the same name of the file. Just leave the File name as is and tap the Save button below.

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A notification will appear because we already anticipated that it might replacethe existing file with this file we are working. Just always remember to make a Backup folder and place there an original copy of the file you are working so that if you encounter some issues later then you can just use the backup copy of the file. Then tap Yes right away.

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Another window will appear again telling you to set the Save Configuration of the texture you are working. BC3 is supported and will be readable on both GIMP and the Skyrim LE game, so just choose that as your Compression Speed.Then press OK afterwards to complete the save.

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When all the textures you are modifying using the Paint.NET becomes photos of the files, it means that it will also be readable and can be opened using the GIMP program. When that happens then it will work on the Skyrim LE game as well.

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And when I run the Skyrim LE game, I somehow mange to make some of the eyes to work there.

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As you add/install more mods in the MO2, you will definitely experience issues, notifications and even CDTs more frequently. So the real modding of Skyrim LE game will really begin at this point, after all we have done - installing all the mods from the previous tutorials or guides. That is not considered modding yet? Maybe you will not understand my point but the previous tutorials was just about installing mods by using MO2 and how to place them in such an order they will work fine in your game. As I explained before, every mods you install in the MO2 are connected to each other and must have an harmony so that they will not cause some issues in your game.

 

Modding was actually fixing, repairing and also a test of patience on how you make your game work without any issues at all when you added a lot of contents on it which we called mods that might modify not only the appearance but also the game itself. So modding is making your game still playable after placing all the files you want to include there.

 

So the very start of modding is just by fixing the CDT of the game first, I am not saying that you will not ever encounter CDT on your entire playing of Skyrim LE. We will do this to somehow minimize the frequent CDT of the game because Skyrim LE is a very old version of the game so the required system specifications for it was also low. The game was made to perfectly fit or can be handled by a low specs system, in other words it is a x32 bit game.

 

The reason when we used new mods at this point in time to work in Skyrim LE is it will not work most of the time because you had already reach the maximum limit or threshold of the game. For example when it comes to textures, most we  used now in Skyrim SE will not be supported on Skyrim LE anymore because it was using the latest or the updated version or format. So when you try to play Skyrim LE using these mods with not supported textures will make your game CDT right away. Even if we modify, downgrade or port these mods, still we can not prevent the game going CDT. So some modders and authors research and find a way to prevent these issues happening in your game by creating and sharing these mods to everyone.

 

These mods might prevent, and I am not saying it will entirely remove CDT in your game but somehow minimize it. The four files or mods are the Crash Fixes, the Safety Load, the SKSE for Lazy Users and the Skyrim Startup Memory Editor. These files are actually helpful especially when playing Skyrim LE that is why I recommended  to use these in your game. The whole descriptions, usage, limitations and operations of these mods can already be found from their respective download links below so I will not elaborate further about them.

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Crash Fixes v12
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72725

 

Safety Load

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/46465

 

SKSE for Lazy Users (So that you will have SKSE.ini file where you can modify the amount of memory you are going to use in your game)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51038

 

Skyrim Startup Memory Editor (SSME)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305

 

 

 

When you install Crash Fixes and  Safety Load just placed them together with the Scripts file we did on the very start of the tutorials. Their usage are to fix/repair bugs, crashes/CDT, loading, and patches so we group them together with th eother mods like this. They will not produce plugins so just leave them like that.

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And the SKSE.ini should be placed at the very bottom, under the Output Overwrite folder we made from the previous tutorials so it will overwrite all the SKSE.ini file if ever it is present on any mods you installed earlier. It will not also produce a plugin and just proceed to the last step.

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To install Skyrim Startup Memory Editor is by extracting it directly on the Game file of Skyrim LE. When done, just leave the four files we install as is and don't do any editing or modifications on them yet. Just run the game normally and see if the loading of the game was somehow fixed, the loading of some menu, the loading of your game character and also the loading of the places you will go. Also see if the CDT of the was not as frequent as before.

 

That's it for now and see you again on the next episode of the tutorials.

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To be continued...

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ma Ri
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