guide Skyrim SE for Beginners - V 3.2.6 (3BBB / HDT-SMP / HPH)

[Aylis]

4 hours ago, blsrazor said:

@Aylis I would love to, but I have no idea how to figure out what mod is causing the issue.

Simple, its the mod for precaching the grass...

 

The problem with such an error code is that only a programmer understands it.

 

But i'm off to bed. Have been on it for ~13 hours almost non-stop...

Edited October 6, 2021 by Aylis
Typo

[blsrazor]

@AylisLol ok ill do that then. Thank you

[Aylis]

Hotfix

The following things were added/changed in the guide and the last status update.

 

Removed/deactivated mods

Spoiler

Foundation

The Jedi Trees                                                                                 Removed as it illegally uses content from 'Unity Engine'. 

Majestic Landscapes - XLODGen                                                    Causes a visual bug

 

Textures

Ruins Clutter Improved                                                                  Redundant

 

Added/moved/renamed mods

Spoiler

Foundation

Enhanced Vanilla Trees - Lush Trees                                               Replacement for 'The Jedi Trees'

Reach Tree Replacer SSE                                                                                    ''

Enhanced Landscapes - Oaks Mixed Greens SSE                                               ''

Green and Lush Aspen Trees SE                                                                         ''

Alpine Forest of Whiterun Valley                                                    Moved within the group

 

Override

Odin - Summons Redone                                                               Improved visuals

Odin Cleaned Textures                                                                                 ''

 

Sound

Yggdrasil Music and SoundFX Overhaul                                         Still not sure if i hate or like it.

Battle Horn Level Up                                                                       I prefer it to the standard sound.

 

Patches

Improved Sparks                                                                             Improved visuals

 

Do you like how the instructions show up in the guide? Tell me and i might redo the other ones as well.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Aylis

[Nelmas]

Barely 5 minutes in and I've already tripped.

 

In the guide it says to add DynDOLODx64, TexGenx64 and xLODgen to the Mod Organizer 2 menu, simple enough, but does that mean the xLODgen.exe one or the xLODGenx64.exe?

 

Also, Install the main file to be able to create LOD later on (see 'Tips and Tricks'), but there's nothing regarding that under Tips and Tricks. Do you mean post #3 maybe?

 

Another small one would be "Install the main file" when installing DynDOLOD, but since we require version 3.00, that's under Miscellaneous Files not Main Files. - I think I get what you mean though.

 

 

Instructions unclear, dick stuck in toaster.gif

Edited October 6, 2021 by Nelmas

[Temphyx]

9 hours ago, blsrazor said:

Hey everyone, I seem to be having an issue with precaching the grass. It gets to SolitudeWorld(-12, 25) then give the error "Unhandled native exception occurred at 0x7FF7EC1DDDDA (SkyrimSE.exe+D6DDDA) on thread 4596!" I have very little idea how to fix this.

 

 

Crash_2021_10_5_22-55-21.txt 42.45 kB · 1 download

The Precache Grass MO plugin is expected to crash several times and restart each time.  Crash reports like the one you posted are normal.

Are you saying it wouldn't restart or did you abort the run? 

Either way, my suggestion is to restart the precache and keep doing that one way or another until it tells you it's completed. 

If you have previously deleted anything from overwrite\grass rather than saving it, you should delete the final grass folder in overwrite and start another full run it to get a complete cache.

One problem is that the Precache Grass plugin doesn't appear to be resettable during a run, so you have to let it finish before you can start a fresh run. 

In the end, getting crash reports is expected behavior and you can toss them from Overwrite once you get the "Completed" message box that looks like an error but isn't.  Hope this helps.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Temphyx

[jaeos]

On 9/30/2021 at 5:34 PM, alaunus01 said:

 

a) What Aylis said.

 

b) Also keep in mind that your shiny m.2 drive needs at the very least 20% free space or its performance will start to tank horribly. Similar for regular SSDs however in comparison they have 'less' performance to loose.

 

I am flabbergasted at your performance issues. 5600x 16gb ram 5700xt should be decent enough for 1080p. Did you accidentally pick 8k textures every time? Or put skyrim and mo2 on different drives? Or even worse have it on ye'good'olde spindrive HDD. 200gb worth of modded skyrim might prove difficult to handle by a 200mb/s HDD (if it even gets that fast). Current SATA SSDs are able to do 500-600mb/s, pcie3 m.2 drives should do 3000+mb/s, good pcie4 m.2 drives are already at 7000mb/s read (still expensive however). You see where I am going with this?

 

edit: @wollboi Fairly confident you are using all of your 10gb VRAM too

I think you mean ye olde platter drive. ? All of mine are on platter drives, but it also all loads when the game starts into a solid state "ram drive" so it takes a minute to get the load screen. (5tb storage plus a tb ram drive is way cheaper than 3 2tb solid state drives) (the platter drive when i bought it was 100.00usd and the solid state was 90.00usd) so ymmv.

[jaeos]

56 minutes ago, Nelmas said:

Barely 5 minutes in and I've already tripped.

 

In the guide it says to add DynDOLODx64, TexGenx64 and xLODgen to the Mod Organizer 2 menu, simple enough, but does that mean the xLODgen.exe one or the xLODGenx64.exe?

 

Also, Install the main file to be able to create LOD later on (see 'Tips and Tricks'), but there's nothing regarding that under Tips and Tricks. Do you mean post #3 maybe?

 

Another small one would be "Install the main file" when installing DynDOLOD, but since we require version 3.00, that's under Miscellaneous Files not Main Files. - I think I get what you mean though.

 

 

Instructions unclear, dick stuck in toaster.gif

Preinstall is just that, it's all the "programs" that need to be installed and linked to MO2 in order to do the lodgen, animations etc thats towards the end. since i'm assuming you are running windows 10, and not modding original skyrim everything should be run with the x64 tag at the end when mod authors make a dual system mod/program. (32 bit vs 64 bit) 

When nexus did the whole we now own your stuff power move aylis didn't change the instructions about the main file, just posted the older version into misc files, she also has a mod page where all the stuff shes done is stored rather than in a file on the thread somewhere. but dyndolod-main and dyndolod-textures would be 2 separate files and you are told to install the "main" file, not the "textures" file. still clear as a muddy river? ?

Edited October 6, 2021 by jaeos

[trgdolors]

@Nelmas So to be clear, as the ever knowledgeable and helpful jaeos says, assuming you have Skyrim SE and not Skyrim LE (this guide assumes you have SE), you will use xLODGenx64.exe, not xLODgen.exe. That tripped me up, too, in the past. If you run xLODgen.exe you will get errors that are not obvious. I think it was out of memory stuff, when I have 32GB of RAM. For now, I am holding off doing the Dyndolod thing.

[Nelmas]

High Poly Bones:

 

 

By the Skyrim Gods! This is EXTREME overkill! I will be skipping this one even though it's not marked as Optional. Why, just why...

[Aylis]

@Nelmas

Thats called quality.

 

Its no problem with that mod (otherwise it wouldn't be in the guide).

__________________________________________________

 

Started to inject instructions into the guide. Some will be tricky others are already in.

 

I also might have found a way to stabilize the texture generation. Which will take some time for tests.

[Nelmas]

31 minutes ago, Aylis said:

@Nelmas

Thats called quality.

 

Its no problem with that mod (otherwise it wouldn't be in the guide).

__________________________________________________

 

Started to inject instructions into the guide. Some will be tricky others are already in.

 

I also might have found a way to stabilize the texture generation. Which will take some time for tests.

 

Yes, some extra info would be greatly appreciated, especially with the AIO Installers. For example, I'm at the Foundation > Blended Roads and I have no idea if I need the SMIM Compatibility Patch ticked. My guess is yes since we installed SMIM, but what if the patch is covered further down the line? Same thing with Better Dynamic Snow SE, you make no mention that we need to tick Snowy Farmhouse or if we need the Majestic Mountains patch, or not.

 

Maybe some things would be obvious for the veterans in here, but the guide is called "for Beginners" after all.

 

So many questions...

 

EDIT: Majestic Mountains. For fuck's sake, what do I tick lol! What the hell is ESL vs ESP! Do I need Effect Meshes?! What about the Sun Direction?!

Edited October 6, 2021 by Nelmas

[unnameable]

@Nelmas

I agree its a bit much, but its nothing that might affect a gaming PC unless there is a cave full of them flying around with floppy HDT horns and tusks.
Even so, to me this amount of sub-division makes more sense for the bigger props.

[Aylis]

 

3 hours ago, Nelmas said:

 

For example, I'm at the Foundation > Blended Roads and I have no idea if I need the SMIM Compatibility Patch ticked.

 

... you make no mention that we need to tick Snowy Farmhouse

 

or if we need the Majestic Mountains patch, or not.

1. Do you have SMIM installed at this point? I guess that answers the question... 

2. I wrote Snowy Farmhouse has to be below the main ESP. You can't move something that you havn't installed.

3. Do you have MM installed at this point? No? Then it is covered later

 

Being a beginner doesn't excuse you from reading the description of the mods you install. Especially as a beginner you have to read a lot.

Quote

Recommended additional threads

There are a two threads i can only strongly recommend:

If you're new to modding take a look at Mod Organizer 2 & Other tools - From zero to "Hey Sexlab is working!". @Just Don't Does an excellent job there. ?

When it comes to conversions and/or updates for SE then SE Compatibility Tracking is incredible useful. Thanks to @tasairis for keeping this updated. ?

 

You don't know what something does: Read the description/instructions of the mod.

You don't know what something is     : Read about it in the net.

 

If you read something and didn't understand it, then feel free to ask...

 

Make a guess how we got our knowledge.

 

Except me, getting a crazy idea (after reading about it) and then tinkering with it is my way of learning. Otherwise i'd propably never have started with building my first own computer.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Aylis

[jaeos]

3 hours ago, Nelmas said:

High Poly Bones:

 

 

By the Skyrim Gods! This is EXTREME overkill! I will be skipping this one even though it's not marked as Optional. Why, just why...

don't skip it, the more polys you have the closer it can look to "real" it doesn't make sense to high poly buildings just improve the texture that goes on it. Thats a "static" object (yes i know you can kick it while moving and it goes flying off somewhere) so a 2k or 4k texture on the poly on the left will still look a little blocky, whereas the exact same texture on the poly on the right will make it almost look like a real skull.

I may be mis-understanding @Aylispurpose for the list, but it is generally set up to be as close to actual historical buildings, plants, trees, and animals found in the real world, higher poly counts help with that, unless you are running a 900 series nvidia or equivalent AMD product the poly count will not cut into the performance of your card, it's not something thats rendered by the card, just how smooth the texture you do render looks. but it's still your choice. 

I'll suggest you install it, but shut it off and go find a skull like whats pictured. screenshot it. save game, exit. turn on the poly "make sure to adjust any esp or esm inconstancies load back into the save and screenshot it again, that will give you a side by side comparison. then make the choice to runb with it or not.  

[jaeos]

22 minutes ago, Aylis said:

 

 

Make a guess how we got our knowledge...

 

Except me, getting a crazy idea (after reading about a mod) and then tinkering with it is my way. 

spending hours trying to figure out why i ctd when i have not changed anything in my list... ?Then realizing it's a windows conflict and not a game conflict.. ?

or taking over 100 screenshots of one hallway to find how far away a missing mesh causes a CTD from an add-on.. 

or sitting on the floor mopping up 2 gallons of coolant to find out BPT and NPT might be close, but not close enough to seal completely and your cooling loop drained out overnight and all the major cooling companies like alphacool use metric and getting 1/2 glass tubing to find out a 13mm fitting will not seal right... sp you then reorder 13mm tubing... 

(in other words.. by messing up)

[Aylis]

31 minutes ago, jaeos said:

in other words.. by messing up

?

 

But at least we don't tend to make the same mistake twice... Spectacular failures make spectacular memories.

Don't ask about my first cake!

Edited October 6, 2021 by Aylis

[blsrazor]

@Temphyx The issue I am having is that once it gets to this stop it will no longer continue. It will restart the game just fine but it will not precache grass any further. I had left it alone for 3 hours and it would not pass that spot. I tried this a half dozen times with no progress. No completion and not much precache grass (about 165mb in all after 3 hours).

Edited October 6, 2021 by blsrazor

[wollboi]

@Aylis Very much prefer the install instructions listed the new way. Also, this looks very nice. Dunno how it would affect framerate: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/56361

This may be better Dirt textures for D&B. I'm trying them out: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/56596?tab=files

Also, speak for yourself. I make the same mistake twice constantly.

 

@jaeos Oooh, we should start making a list stupid things we all did when starting out. It took me literally DAYS to try to figure out why Bodyslide was altering the proportions of NPCs but not my character ... only to realize there's a body size slider.

 

Unrelated - There's a new release of DynDOLOD 3. I'm hoping it magically gets rid of all my floating integer issues. And of course there's a thunderstorm, so I'm sure the power will go out right when I'm at 98% complete.

 

Edited October 6, 2021 by wollboi

[Temphyx]

5 hours ago, blsrazor said:

@Temphyx The issue I am having is that once it gets to this stop it will no longer continue. It will restart the game just fine but it will not precache grass any further. I had left it alone for 3 hours and it would not pass that spot. I tried this a half dozen times with no progress. No completion and not much precache grass (about 165mb in all after 3 hours).

Have you been able to repeat this run once/crash/and done behavior or are you still hung by the first crash instance?

If you're still stuck from the first crash, try completely removing the mod and the MO plugin including its logs and reinstalling -don't forget to close and reopen MO in between.  One thing that isn't clear to me yet is how the precache plugin keeps track of where it was after a crash. whether its in the plugins/data folder or even .net, I don't know.  wherever, I strongly suspect you need to clear its status before you can start over cleanly.  One other thing:

Have you carefully removed DLL Plugin Loader?  If you've had it installed:

1) go to Main Game directory and remove, delete, or change the extension of binkw64.dll (for example (maybe): binkw64.dll.DLLPluginLoader.old, if you want to keep it)

2) remove the underscore from binkw_64.dll so its name is again binkw64.dll.  If you did it any other way, you may need to find the correct binkw64.dll and replace it.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Temphyx

[axz2]

11 hours ago, Nelmas said:

High Poly Bones:

 

By the Skyrim Gods! This is EXTREME overkill! I will be skipping this one even though it's not marked as Optional. Why, just why...

 

Last test  ran Skyrim Performance monitor while playing.  My VRAM was constantly maxed out even though I've selected some lower poly versions of the mods here.  I doubt that mod makes a huge difference but it the type of mod I could remove because it only effects on thing and not one of the most important ones.   For many other textures Aylis has a complex series of one mod overwriting another and in turn being overwritten by another.   I worry that if I uninstall one of the bigger mods I'll mess up the whole look.  But this mod I think I'll remove.  I'm going to try reducing/compressing the textures in Skyrim 2020 using Cathedral, if it makes things look ugly or doesn't help I'll just reinstall the mod.

 

Never thought of my PC as a potato before but its starting to look that way.  It was a mid-range laptop but that was 6 years ago. Not a good time to buy a new PC though.

Edited October 7, 2021 by axz2

[Aylis]

@axz2

The big problem with laptops is that they age very fast. The components (especially graphics) are already specced down so they keep a certain temperature and don't overheat. Another thing is that they tend to accumulate dust inside which can lead to throtteling. 

 

Dusting them out with compressed air, just make sure the fans don't spin, can help with that and give the laptop a longer lifetime.  

 

 

@wollboi

Already seen it and i'm not sure about the first one. We already got something similar for bears. In the distance they look great, but close-up not so much.

The second mod is one i downloaded an hour ago. That one looks very promising (now the dirt is just too 'blocky').

___________________________________________________

 

I'll also take a look at the mods from ModpocalypseGaming

 

There are different versions for the hair available, so i might give the physics another shot, and he got one for 'Immersive Patrols'. If no black faces show up, like last time, i could readd the mod.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Aylis

[Varithina]

9 hours ago, trgdolors said:

@Nelmas So to be clear, as the ever knowledgeable and helpful jaeos says, assuming you have Skyrim SE and not Skyrim LE (this guide assumes you have SE), you will use xLODGenx64.exe, not xLODgen.exe. That tripped me up, too, in the past. If you run xLODgen.exe you will get errors that are not obvious. I think it was out of memory stuff, when I have 32GB of RAM. For now, I am holding off doing the Dyndolod thing.

 

x64 versions if you are using a 64bit os, non x64 versions if you are on 32bit os.

[jaeos]

2 hours ago, wollboi said:

@Aylis Very much prefer the install instructions listed the new way. Also, this looks very nice. Dunno how it would affect framerate: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/56361

This may be better Dirt textures for D&B. I'm trying them out: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/56596?tab=files

Also, speak for yourself. I make the same mistake twice constantly.

 

@jaeos Oooh, we should start making a list stupid things we all did when starting out. It took me literally DAYS to try to figure out why Bodyslide was altering the proportions of NPCs but not my character ... only to realize there's a body size slider.

 

Unrelated - There's a new release of DynDOLOD 3. I'm hoping it magically gets rid of all my floating integer issues. And of course there's a thunderstorm, so I'm sure the power will go out right when I'm at 98% complete.

 

lol lets see..

i ordered 2 420 rads for my current pc and could only use one, so i'm throttling out on heat (1 amd 3900x and 2 rtx 2070 supers makes a little more head than the single 420 rad can dissipate, i never drained the loop an added in a second rad, i don't go after OC records so i'll probably just leave it and build a new computer and double loop that one.

i've installed an aio the wrong way and burned the pump out in a few days, bricked a mobo trying to flash the bios (with the wrong bios) caught a weed wacker on fire.. burned a car to the ground (it had been sitting and a rodent chewed through the main power cable.. attached a battery and yeah...) , but i still have everything i was born with so i've been pretty lucky.. 

Edited October 7, 2021 by jaeos

[axz2]

@Aylis Yeah.  Laptops are more expensive for the same performance, and with a lower possible performance maximum and usually less performance consistency with thermal throttling.  And more susceptible to dust buildup.   There also less upgradeable.   I always used to use a desktop for that reason, but I travel more now than I used to.

[Nelmas]

8 hours ago, Aylis said:

 

1. Do you have SMIM installed at this point? I guess that answers the question... 

2. I wrote Snowy Farmhouse has to be below the main ESP. You can't move something that you havn't installed.

3. Do you have MM installed at this point? No? Then it is covered later

 

Being a beginner doesn't excuse you from reading the description of the mods you install. Especially as a beginner you have to read a lot.

 

You don't know what something does: Read the description/instructions of the mod.

You don't know what something is     : Read about it in the net.

 

If you read something and didn't understand it, then feel free to ask...

 

Make a guess how we got our knowledge.

 

Except me, getting a crazy idea (after reading about it) and then tinkering with it is my way of learning. Otherwise i'd propably never have started with building my first own computer.

 

But if you have the knowledge already, it doesn't make sense not to tell me from the start what exactly I need to tick and install, instead of leaving me to get frustrated, wonder why my installation is not working right, post and ask a bunch of silly questions and eventually quit and move to something different.

If I am to learn, I will learn by my own accord, not because a not-quite-for-beginners, left to your own devices guide is forcing me to do it via lack of actual guidance.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Nelmas