Jump to content

(v1.4.3) Mod Organizer 2 & Other tools - From zero to "Hey Sexlab is working!"


Recommended Posts

11 hours ago, joethebeast said:

After the recommended settings in the first post, I added the Remodeled Armor for CBBE. That broke the physics for the CBBE body for some unknown reason. But then I ran Bodyslide again and that fixed it.

You need to use Bodyslide whenever you add or change mods relying on Bodyslide (ex. armor or body mods). If you build the proper sets the first time you don't need to use it again until you want to make changes (new preset, new armors, etc.).

 

11 hours ago, joethebeast said:

I'm still confused how bodyslide works... It is now working flawlessly, that's why I'm afraid to update some settings and break something. (bigger BOOBS!!) Apparently it dumps some .tri files in the MO mod. But also generate some .nif files secretly. Is there any way to backup the current state? So if I break something I can just revert the changes?

From step 8.3

On 1/9/2020 at 8:29 PM, Just Don't said:

Bodyslide is all about re-creating the in game models (.nif files) for the body/outfits that support Bodyslide. When you press "Build" or "Batch Build", all the selected sets will be created again, overwriting any existing .nif file for the sets (body or outfits) that you built. The advantage of this new set of models is that these should match the body shape you select in the "Preset" field. 

 

By default existing .nif files (from any installed mod that is related to body/outfits, example: CBBE SE) are replaced in each mod's folder, while new files (.nif or .tri that weren't already created) will go to the Overwrite folder.

  • Already existing files (.nif and .tri) are overwritten in each mod folder.
  • New files not included in the initial install will be generated in Overwrite.

You shouldn't need to go back to previous files. Just build the proper sets in Bodyslide (selecting the correct sets in the "Choose output set" window as shown in the step 8.4 screenshot, this depend on what you want to build and mods you have installed related to BS). If you find some sets or the entire body doesn't work as intended in game (the armor is not from the replacer you choose or the armor doesn't fit the preset you're using, etc.) you'll need to verify these sets in particular (so instead of doing another Batch build for everything you could select these armor/body sets in the "Outfit/Body" field, verifying how it looks (using the "Preview" button) and which Preset is active, then you can press Build to generate new files and test in game. Some armors have errors, don't work with certain body types or can have other issues, that's specific to each armor you intend to use so there is no way to cover everything here. The only instruction that applies to everything is: build the proper sets and check in game, repeat the process for some sets if you find any issues.

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...
11 hours ago, gyypsy21 said:

can you make a tutorial to install wabbajack too or if already have point me to the page?

No, I don't use it and don't intend to use it either. But there are plenty of videos showing how Wabbajack works, example

 

I don't know if that info is up to date, but in the Wabbajack website there should be instructions to get it working in general. There is also a message about following each modlist specific instructions when you attempt to install them. I'd suggest to start from there.

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

Don't feel the need to post usually, but this helped me finally learn Mod Organizer, thank you for the guide and explanations!  Helped me getting SSE up and running with all my choice mods!  Thank you so much for the time I'm sure it took to make this glorious guide!  ?

Link to comment
10 hours ago, JBRcool said:

Don't feel the need to post usually, but this helped me finally learn Mod Organizer, thank you for the guide and explanations!  Helped me getting SSE up and running with all my choice mods!  Thank you so much for the time I'm sure it took to make this glorious guide!  ?

1st post from a 2014 user, I'm honored. Happy it was useful to you.

Link to comment
On 3/28/2021 at 12:26 PM, Aandrah said:

Thank you bro... THANK YOU ! ???

You're welcome.

Another 1st post from an old account. Is this a hidden camera prank? 

 

---------

Anyways, I was thinking of doing some edits and updating some screenshots (mostly because of the forum format change, but also because MO2 2.4 has some really interesting changes and additions) but the limit for attached files still prevents me from changing screenshots. I'm not sure what to do here (side note, at least for the moment all the info in the main post is still valid and up to date).

Link to comment

Hey there thanks for your nice guide its really helpful but I have one problem at point 8.3

I batch builded all files but in the end it says it failed and i didnt get any files in the "bodyslide output" mod nor the overwrite.
The error message said: unable to load input nif in D:\mygamedirectory\data\CalienteTools\BodySlide\ShapedData\BreastRopeExtreme\BreastRopeExtreme.nif


I followed your guide to the rope except I installed ZAZ Animation pack 8+

Link to comment
2 hours ago, EquilibriuM123 said:

Hey there thanks for your nice guide its really helpful but I have one problem at point 8.3

I batch builded all files but in the end it says it failed and i didnt get any files in the "bodyslide output" mod nor the overwrite.
The error message said: unable to load input nif in D:\mygamedirectory\data\CalienteTools\BodySlide\ShapedData\BreastRopeExtreme\BreastRopeExtreme.nif


I followed your guide to the rope except I installed ZAZ Animation pack 8+

Ok it works so far if i just uncheck this particular nif

Link to comment
8 hours ago, EquilibriuM123 said:

The error message said: unable to load input nif in D:\mygamedirectory\data\CalienteTools\BodySlide\ShapedData\BreastRopeExtreme\BreastRopeExtreme.nif

 

6 hours ago, EquilibriuM123 said:

Ok it works so far if i just uncheck this particular nif

Yep, clearly something is wrong with that nif. If I were you I'd ask in the zaz 8+ post for help. As I don't use that mod so I have no idea if it's a known issue, if there is a fix somewhere or if something else is causing you this particular issue.

Link to comment

Can mods be implemented via Mod Organizer 2? I recently downloaded ?

 

  Fores New Idles in Skyrim SE - FNIS SE

 

 Tempered Skins for Males - Vanilla and SOS version   , Tempered Skins for Females - UNP CBBE and Vanilla

 




<><><>

 

 

 

 

 


(the last one for testing), put them in the the same folder, and enabled them there, but they don't seem to be working.  :( ?

Link to comment
On 4/1/2021 at 11:37 AM, EquilibriuM123 said:

Hey there thanks for your nice guide its really helpful but I have one problem at point 8.3

I batch builded all files but in the end it says it failed and i didnt get any files in the "bodyslide output" mod nor the overwrite.
The error message said: unable to load input nif in D:\mygamedirectory\data\CalienteTools\BodySlide\ShapedData\BreastRopeExtreme\BreastRopeExtreme.nif


I followed your guide to the rope except I installed ZAZ Animation pack 8+

 

I tend to build 1k+ items every time I rerun bodyslide (I can never settle on which body preset I want to use so keep changing it which requires changing the bodyslide build for it), and I always get a few errors like that from it, usually devious devices, but bikini armors also throw these errors out now and then, usually redoing just the items from that mod so rebuild just the devious devices items or which ever mod is causing the errors sorts it out, though if it still gives an error then chances are there is something wrong with that nif file.

Link to comment
On 4/4/2021 at 9:51 AM, sliverB said:

Can mods be implemented via Mod Organizer 2?

Yes. That's kinda the point of this guide. The basic setup (if you follow steps 1-11) will get you the main framework, it's requirements and some additional features. After that you can add whatever mods you want, just go slowly and read everything about the mod in question.

 

On 4/4/2021 at 9:51 AM, sliverB said:

I recently downloaded (...)

Are you aware you linked the SL framework (already covered here) and two retextures for the same mod (Estrus)? (which you didn't link, nor is it covered here so I hope you have that mod already installed).

 

On 4/4/2021 at 9:51 AM, sliverB said:

put them in the the same folder, and enabled them there, but they don't seem to be working.  :( ?

You should install them as any other mods depicted in this guide. Make the habit of checking the mod description, verifying it's indeed a mod made for Skyrim SE, checking it's requirements in case you need to install something else first and any additional install instruction or configuration.

Link to comment

Hello and great guide!!
My game still have one problem... body physic
Custom follower i download have no body physic (boobs bounce etc) but normal npc got the body physic ... anyway to solve it?
not sure about bijin wive etc.. still downloading... if they dont have body physic too.. how to solve it?

*just realize havent download CBBE 3BA(3BBB), does this impact?
 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, ahben9966 said:

Custom follower i download have no body physic (boobs bounce etc) but normal npc got the body physic ... anyway to solve it?
not sure about bijin wive etc.. still downloading... if they dont have body physic too.. how to solve it?

*just realize havent download CBBE 3BA(3BBB), does this impact?

Custom followers usually come with it's own set of body models and textures, sometimes these body models aren't ready for physics. For a setup without CBBE 3BA/SMP you should still get CBPC physics after building the proper sets in Bodyslide (as mentioned in step 8.4, "CBBE Body Physics" is the one if you have at least CBPC installed). If your custom followers don't come with physic ready models you'll have to manually replace their models with the ones built in Bodyslide (either the "CBBE Body Physics" in step 8.4 or the "CBBE 3BBB Body Amazing" + the same sets for feet and hands mentioned in step 12.2, this is only if you go for a CBBE 3BA setup). For that you'll need to explore the folder for the mod containing the body models and the folders of your custom followers.

 

For example:

Spoiler

 

This is my CBBE 3BA folder, inside these folders I have the models (nif files) and morph files (tri files) I built in Bodyslide. After you locate yours (the final location of these files will vary depending on how you used Bodyslide, remember step 8.3) you can copy these into the corresponding folders for the followers you use.

The folder structure is similar, with meshes\actors\character\character assets\, you'll probably see additional folders with the name of the follower in there, all you need to do is explore the Filetree (double click over the mod in the left panel of MO) or right click on the mod (again in the left panel) and select "Open in Explorer" to see the mod files.

 

image.png.6c64d1f61ebf54abecdacdd23b47b520.png

 

 

If you want CBBE 3BA and SMP physics you could complete step 12 before doing this manual replacement (check that SMP is working fine in your character or other female NPCs, then you can manually replace the files of your followers with the proper files and use the spells/hotkeys from CBBE 3BA to enable SMP in these followers, or don't and leave them with CBPC only). 

Link to comment
On 4/7/2021 at 12:44 PM, ahben9966 said:

yeah thank for the explain! after CBBE 3BA install, everything work well

Great.

On 4/7/2021 at 12:44 PM, ahben9966 said:

and if i install combat mod, do i need to delete old generated fnis data or i can just drag all the data at overwrite into the old generated fnis folder?

Doesn't matter really. If you run FNIS without deleting old files first, the old ones will be replaced by the new ones (automatically going to your already created mod like "generated FNIS"). The delete before running again recommendation is how I'm used to do things, I should edit that part to simplify the process, nothing wrong should come from keeping the old files or already created mod if FNIS runs properly later.

 

edit: instructions updated, if you get any new files in Overwrite after running FNIS, simply drag and drop them in your existing mod for FNIS.

Link to comment
On 1/10/2020 at 12:29 AM, Just Don't said:

 

 

1460428795_00header.jpg.17f4dc8ee088babb936ca9030432fdc4.jpg

 

[--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

 Current Skyrim SE version  : 1.5.97.0

Current SKSE64 version    : 2.0.19

Guide tested with: Skyrim SE (1.5.97.0) and SKSE64 (2.0.19)

[--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There will be no further updates or changes to this post unless something big happens (but I doubt it, I'm not playing Skyrim atm and the new forum format doesn't allow me to upload or change screenshots/attached files so that complicates things).

If you have any question or doubts about the instructions presented here just ask. I'll keep checking the forum/this thread.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

The purpose of this guide is to provide a comprehensive source of information for newcomers or people who might want to restart from scratch their modded Skyrim. If you follow the steps described here you'll end up with a basic set of mods covering the requirements (plus some recommendations) to use Sexlab and its additional mods. On top of that I hope by following the instructions given here you'll be able to grasp the fundamental concepts about installing mods and using the different tools available to further tweak your game. This was made with Skyrim Special Edition ("Skyrim SE" or "SE" from now on) in mind. Some of the instructions or complete sections may not apply to regular or Legendary ("LE") Skyrim . And of course most mods won't work if you use the SE versions in a LE game. In the next sections, we'll cover the following points:

 

     00. Preparations - The required and the recommended stuff

     01. Steam Library & Skyrim SE Updates
     02. BethINI
     03. Mod Organizer 2 - The first look
     04. Skyrim Script Extender
     05. A few mods, just to make this work
     06. LOOT
     07. FNIS
     08. BodySlide
     09. SSE Edit

     10. First in game test
     11. Mod Organizer 2 - A second look

     12. Adding support for HDT-SMP (Optional)

     13. ENB Presets (Optional)
     14. Updating Skyrim SE, SKSE and your mods

     15. Locating your files + quick Tool recap

 

Each section will bring you one step closer to the final goal. Just take your time and read all the instructions. I've tried to be as descriptive and direct as possible, using screenshots of my own setup to show the different settings and features used. The way the sections are listed is 100% intentional. So don't try to skip one or do them in a different order. You'll have a better experience if you fully read the instructions the first time and go one step at a time. The current setup can be installed and tweaked in about 4-6 hours (give or take, depending on your knowledge of the tools used here, and the wait times if you can't download mods at full speed). So don't rush it, and aim to learn more than just imitate.

 

 

00. Preparations - The required and the recommended stuff

  Reveal hidden contents

00.1 Required software

 

Before continuing, make sure you have the following software installed in your system:

  • 7-Zip (download link) - required to manage most zipped files. Here we'll use it to zip and unzip things in 7z format, which is commonly used for mods. 

 

00.2 Recommended settings

 

For 7-Zip: With these settings you'll have the options to extract and zip files in .7z and .zip format directly when you right click on a file/folder. This is used during the install of certain parts of the guide.

  1. Open 7-Zip (from the Start menu or double clicking on any zipped file with the 7-Zip icon)
  2. In the menu bar (near the top) press "Tools" and then select "Options..."
  3. In the Options window go to the "7-Zip" tab and check that the highlighted settings are enabled.
  4. Press Apply and then OK. You can close 7-Zip now.

382507570_07zsettings.png.e2c4dfa90c4fd82882aff02d7e97a7a4.png

 

For Windows: This little change will allow you to see the file extensions (examples: .exe, .ini), which are mentioned frequently during this guide. Being able to see these file extensions might be useful to confirm you're following the instructions using the proper files. You might want to undo this change later if you're used to have the extensions hidden, this is easy to do as it can be changed with literally two clicks.

  1. In any Windows 10 folder, press "View".
  2. Find the "File name extension" and enable it.
  3. See this short article for detailed instructions for other versions of Windows and a reference image.

 

For Nexusmods: As you may have noticed in recent changes to the Nexus site, the download process was heavily hindered for non-premium users. Now when you press any of the download buttons you're redirected to a new page and you have to click in another download button. Here is a simple fix for this nuisance of a webpage design. You'll need to install a browser extension and add a little script to it. This script will only help you with the extra redirect mentioned before, it doesn't grant any of the premium benefits.

  1. Install ViolentMonkey (for Chrome) - (for Firefox) - (for Opera, Brave and other Chromium based browsers you can use the Chrome link).
  2. Visit this link, it will add the script to the ViolentMonkey extension. Once there, press the "Confirm install" button in the top-right corner of the page.
  3. You can close that page and everything should be ready now. But just for safe measure, completely close your browser and open it again.
    • You can go into your browser settings -> Extensions and check the settings for ViolentMonkey, you should see the "Nexus Download Fix" in the list (active, of course).
  • Source (RIP, thread removed. Instructions and script are still working tho)

 

 

 

 01. Steam Library & Skyrim SE Updates

  Reveal hidden contents

01.1 Locating your Steam Library and disabling Steam Automatic Updates

 

It is recommended to have Steam (and every other software related to Skyrim mods) installed outside of the default ...\Program Files or ...\Program Files(x86) folders. This is because there are system restrictions applied to the software installed there, which may interfere with the proper functioning of the tools we'll use later.

 

In order to know where your Skyrim SE is installed:

  1. Open your Steam Library.
  2. Locate "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition" in your game list.
  3. Right click on it and select “Manage”.
  4. Press “Browse Local Files”. This will open the folder where your Skyrim SE is installed.

1923032264_1Steam1location.png.fc5c0af1f5eda73dd8563899692895a1.png

 

After pressing “Browse Local Files”, the folder will be opened and you’ll be able to see the full path to your Skyrim Special Edition folder.

  • If yours is outside of ...\Program Files or ...\Program Files(x86), you are good to go. Remember the location as we’ll need to place some files here in the following steps. It would be wise to make a shortcut for this folder too.
  • If your Steam is installed in ...\Program Files or ...\Program Files(x86), you might want to change it before continuing with the next steps. This is totally optional as it may affect not only Skyrim, but all of your games and files from Steam. I take no responsibility about what may happen if you try to change your Steam install. Here is an official article about how to change the location of your Steam Library.

 

Back to Steam, we'll need to disable the automatic updates. In order to do so:

  1.  In the same game list find "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition".
  2. Right click on it but this time select "Properties".
  3. Go to the “Updates” tab and
    • set Automatic updates to “Only update this game when I launch it
    • set Background downloads to “Never allow background downloads”.

1092857812_1Steam2updates.png.0db0521fe17d2c0736be2f5f5b827857.png

 

This will ensure your game won’t be updated automatically, allowing you to choose when to update the game instead (later we'll talk about why this is important, for now let's just say: thanks Bethesda).

 

01.2 Getting a clean copy of the game

 

The next steps require a clean copy of Skyrim SE. If you already have altered your game installing mods (especially if you’ve done it manually or using other mod managers) you'll have modified or additional files from mods, which will interfere with the mods you'll be installing later on.

 

If you just downloaded the game from Steam and haven't tried to install any mods, skip to the step 6 (right below here, not step 06. LOOT).

 

To get a clean copy of the game:

  1. Uninstall Skyrim SE from Steam.
    1. Go to your Steam Library and locate "Skyrim Special Edition".
    2. Right click on "Skyrim Special Edition", select "Manage" and then "Uninstall"
  2. Go to …\Steam\steamapps\common\ and delete the ...\Skyrim Special Edition folder.
    • After uninstalling Skyrim SE from Steam, this folder may contain remaining files (modified or additional ones, not part of the original game), we need to start with a 100% clean game so these files are not useful. Thus, it's better to delete the entire folder.
  3. You should also delete the ...\Skyrim Special Edition folder under your ...\Documents\My Games\.
    • This folder contains your save files, .ini files and other log files. If you're doing a total re-install of Skyrim, chances to keep your saves are very slim, so better be prepared to start a new game if you are following this guide.
  4. If you've ever used Steam Cloud or One Drive, you might see old saves appearing even after deleting your ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition. You'll have to go into Steam/One Drive to disable synchronization for that folder, so old saves and other files won't appear in there. You can re-enable these features after you've completed this guide, and of course if you don't see old files appearing in that folder, you don't need to worry about this.
  5. Go back to Steam and install Skyrim Special Edition again.
  6. When the download finishes launch the game at least once. This should start the Skyrim SE Launcher and generate a default set of .ini files in …\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition and create other registry entries so your Operative System and other software knows where Skyrim SE is located. Close the vanilla launcher after it applies a preset.

Now you can go in game to check if everything is working (I seriously can't think if any reason for things not working right at this point, we've only downloaded the game from Steam which is an automated process, and there are no mods or other changes to check). Oh and never -seriously- never use the default Skyrim SE Launcher again. Your PC will explode in confetti.

 

01.3 Creating a working folder

 

Before moving on, we’ll create a "working folder", to keep all the tools and files we’ll use to mod Skyrim in one place. The only requirement here is for this folder to be outside of your actual ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition folder. If you have an SSD for games you should create this folder in said SSD along all your other game files. As an example, my Steam Library and working folder are:

  • Steam Library  : D:\Juegos\Steam\steamapps\common\
  • Working folder : D:\Skyrim SE Mods\

(Juegos means Games, you’re welcome for this brief spanish class).

 

You can name your working folder however you want, just make sure it’s not inside your “Skyrim Special Edition” folder from Steam. Later on, we'll be moving different folders here. But for now, the first thing you should put in your working folder is a shortcut to your actual Skyrim SE folder (...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition).

 

Note: If you have an antivirus software installed I strongly recommend you to add this working folder to the exclusion list. Some of the tools we'll be using may be detected as a threat and make it impossible for you to use them. These threats are false positives, at least for the links I use on this guide, everything is safe to use if you get it from the sources I'm linking and follow the instructions. Steps to do this will change depending on the antivirus software you use, so this is something you'll have to find on your own.

 

 

02. BethINI

  Reveal hidden contents

This tool provides an easy and quick way to get a basic and  functional set of .ini files (skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini). If you know how to edit and create your own .ini files, this tool might not be for you. But assuming this is the basics about how to mod Skyrim, using this tool properly is enough for most users. You should need to run this tool only once, after a clean install of Skyrim SE and after using the default Launcher at least once.

 

Note: Your antivirus software may wrongly detect this executable as a threat. To be able to use it you can exclude this file from AV scans. Or if you've previously excluded your working folder from your antivirus, extract BethINI temporarily there in order to use it.

 

02.1 Download and usage of BethINI

 

  1. Download the “BethINI Standalone Version” file. Extract it and open the folder called “BethINI Standalone”, inside that folder you'll find the executable BethINI.exe.
  2. Upon launching BethINI.exe for the first time it will ask you to select a game, pick Skyrim SE from the list.
  3. In the next window make sure “BethINI Presets” is enabled instead of “Vanilla Presets”.
  4. Press one of the Presets available (pick based on your system specifications, I recommend to test between Low-Medium-High, avoiding the Low/Ultra presets).
  5. Enable “Recommended Tweaks”.
  6. Check that your resolution is right.
  7. Once you're done changing the settings press "Save and Exit".

2128993215_2BethINI.png.a1e05db371f1f01b3fb0cecbcf32bad1.png

 

02.2 Locating the files generated by BethINI

 

BethINI will generate the .ini files in your …\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition folder. After that, the program will close and you’re done using BethINI. If you go to ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition you'll see there are other files (a backup folder and backups of the original .ini files made by the Skyrim Launcher). You can delete these really, just keep the skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini. You can also delete the “BethINI Standalone” folder and the downloaded file now.

 

 

03. Mod Organizer 2 – The first look

  Reveal hidden contents

Mod Organizer (MO from now on) is a mod manager originally made by Tannin, the updated version (MO2) is maintained by a group of devs who release periodic updates with new features and/or fixes. As the main tool you’ll be using to manage your game and mods, it’s important to know it’s features and have a basic understanding about how it works. Little note about abbreviations: as MO/MO1 is obsolete when people say "MO" it's implied that they're talking about MO2.

 

The usual way of installing Skyrim mods is to place the mod's files directly into your ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Data folder, so the game can detect these files and use them in game. In time, you'll end up replacing original game files with the ones provided by different mods, or worst: replacing some mod files with other mod files you install as you add them to your game.

 

MO changes all of this by using a virtual folder system. This allows MO to add the files from your mods into your game without actually replacing the original game files. This means no matter how many mods you add or remove, your game will be as good as new. And you can add or remove mods safely in just a couple of clicks (given that you've followed all the mods instructions of course). As we'll see later when we get to use MO to manage our mods, MO has it's own folder structure to manage your downloads, installed mods and settings.

 

03.1 Download and placement of Mod Organizer

 

  1. Download the “Mod Organizer 2” file (the only main file, you don't need any of the old or misc. files).
  2. In the installer options point the install path so the "MO2" folder is inside the working folder you created in step 1.3.
  3. You can also choose to add shortcuts in your Start menu and desktop.

 

03.2 Launching MO for the first time

 

Inside “MO2” you’ll find ModOrganizer.exe, this is the executable you need to use to launch MO (you can make a shortcut if you didn't already in the installer options). Once you've opened MO, you’ll be presented with a window to choose an Instance. To keep things simple, we’ll pick “Portable” which means all your mod files will be stored under the “MO2” folder. If you ever need to manage another Bethesda game, you’ll need to download and set up another Portable instance. In the next window you’ll be prompted to select your game. If you did everything right up to this point (clean install + first launch of the game through Steam) you should see your Skyrim SE in the list. Make sure the Skyrim SE it's pointing to your latest install (made during step 1) and not to an old install that is laying around in your computer (which you really shouldn't have). 

 

1218693041_3MO1setup.png.7f6bd11b1ecd44af0dbcde6bdf8859e9.png

 

After you’ve selected Skyrim SE in the previous window, MO will start for the first time. You may receive a couple of messages from MO asking about enabling tutorials, letting MO handle “NXM links” or to login into your Nexus account. Decline the tutorial offer for now. Say yes to handle NXM links. We'll do the login part up next, so don't worry about doing it right now.

 

This is the first look you should have at MO interface. I’ve highlighted the most used parts of the UI:

778980009_3MO2firstlook.png.179bbbbcc24702f1c4b3ba6cb0110523.png

 

Note: if at this point you see anything other than the three DLCs in your left panel, labeled as "Unmaneged" it means your game has old mod files. So you likely failed to remove your previous install, or you pointed MO to an old install of the game that isn't clean. This will cause issues in the long run, so you'll save time by going back to step 1 and getting a truly clean game before continuing with this guide.

 

In the screenshot above you see the icons have names, you can enable this by doing right click in the tool bar near these icons and selecting the option you want (for example Icons and Text). I enabled it for this part in particular, but I tend to use MO with just icons so the other screenshots won't contain the icon names.

 

636990202_3MO3iconnames.png.ffabed361185d2b3764978aaba62fd6e.png

 

In the top-left corner there are 3 highlighted buttons, these are (from left to right):

  • Install mod: when you download a mod from Nexus, it will appear in the Download tab (Right panel), but if you need to install a mod from another source (like the mods from here) you’ll be using this button. It will open a window to select the compressed file (that’s right, you must not extract the mods you download, never). Then you can proceed with the installation as usual.
  • Executables: mods and tools that use an executable will need to be registered in MO so you can use them through MO. This icon gives you access to the list and settings for these executables.
  • Settings: MO settings are here, you should need to enter here only once to set up your Nexus account and change a couple of UI settings based on personal preference.

The “Run” button is the one used to start the selected executable. To the left of the Run button there is a list with all the registered executable files you have, as this is the first start, right now it’s pointing to the default Skyrim Special Edition executable.

 

Then, the elephant in the room. The left and right panels, what are these? Why not just one to keep things simple?

As I said before, the main feature of MO is the way it handles your mod files. In order to be able to see and modify all the files from your installed mods, MO will create a new entry (basically a folder) for each mod you install, these are shown in the Left panel. The Right panel shows your loadorder by default, but it can also be used to show your downloads or other MO features (depending on the tab you have selected).

 

03.3 Basic settings and other tweaks

 

Before continuing, I like to re-size the MO window and adjust the columns of the left and right panels so I can see everything properly. I usually do the following:

  1. Close the “Log” at the bottom of the window.
  2. Remove the “Category” columns of the left panel (right click on the part where it says “Mod Name” and check/uncheck the columns you want to see/disable).
  3. Remove the “Filetime” column of the Downloads tab on the right panel.
  4. Go into the Settings and enable “Show Meta Information” and “Compact List” in the general section.
  5. Go to MO Settings, and in the "Plugins" tab look for "Form 43 Plugin Checker", in the right panel double click in "True" and change it to False. Then press "Ok" to go back to MO*.

1520646442_3MO4disableF43.png.180874a9e0364d5eea2d804c40a20596.png

* This is used to check if you have plugin files with "form43" (format from Skyrim LE). There are several mods that keep this form, to this day there is no solid evidence that using a plugin with form 43 does any harm to your game. So for your own sanity disable this check so you can avoid a permanent useless warning. 

 

A final setting to change is the profile specific .ini files. By default MO will use its own set of .ini files instead of the ones located in your ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition. To simplify things we'll disable this profile specific set of .ini files. To do that:

  1. Press the Profiles button
  2. In the Profiles window select the profile you're currently using and disable the "Use profile-specific Game INI Files"
  3. If you have multiple profiles (not covered in this guide) you should consider doing the same for your other profiles too.
    • Note that if you do want to use profile specific sets of .ini files you should copy the ones generated by BethINI in your ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition to each profile subfolder (...\MO2\profiles\<profile name>). And remember to edit each set of files in their profile subfolders.

1901303067_3MODisableprofileinis.png.a2aa58cd5014b83b598e0a0a0d26ce06.png

 

03.4 Connecting MO to the Nexus

 

Next, we’ll connect our Nexus account to MO, this will allow you to use the “Mod Manager Download” button to add Nexus mods directly to MO. 

  1. Go to Settings, “Nexus” tab and select “Connect to Nexus”. This will open a new browser window to Nexus. 
    • If you are already logged into Nexus you’ll see a message saying MO would like to access your Nexus mods account.
    • If you're not logged in Nexus, you'll need to login now using your Nexus user and password.
  2. Press "AUTHORISE" (sic, hey it's authorize), the page will reload, telling you the process has been completed successfully.
  3. You can close that page and go back to MO. It will ask you to restart MO to save and apply the changes. Restart MO.
  4. Once MO finishes loading, you should see your Nexus user name in the top of the window name.

1936920919_3MO5connectNexus.png.0027a14b5c9e31330690abc1c9d6dd19.png

 

Your account should be saved now, unless you choose to “Disconnect from Nexus” or if you use software to clean cookies and similar files (like Ccleaner). Sometimes you might see a “login failed” message, this usually happens when the Nexus site is overloaded or is under maintenance. Waiting is usually all you can do as this is a problem on Nexus side, not MO nor you.

 

 

 

04. Skyrim Script Extender

  Reveal hidden contents

Now that MO is linked to our Nexus account and most settings have been changed to our preferences, we’ll start to add mods into MO. And the first one is no other than our beloved Script Extender (SKSE from now on, although you might see it written as "SKSE64", that is just another way of saying is SKSE for SE and not for regular Skyrim). We’ll do a mixture of install through MO and outside of MO. This is because SKSE has both files that MO can handle, and files that cannot be handled by MO.

 

04.1 Checking Skyrim SE / SKSE version

 

Go to https://skse.silverlock.org/ and check the “Current SE build x.x.x (runtime x.x.xx): 7z archive” file. Note the numbers version mentioned there:

2139295231_4SKSE1currentversion.png.28569a442b2eb68cb41860d3e9952f0c.png

 

At this point we’ll need to check the Skyrim SE version we have installed (this is the “runtime”). Because SKSE must be updated after each game update (thanks Bethesda), we need to match our Skyrim SE version with the SKSE version. To check your Skyrim SE version:

  1. Go into your Skyrim SE folder (…\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition).
  2. Right click on SkyrimSE.exe and select "Properties".
  3. Go to the “Details” tab and check the “Product version”.

1714249617_4SKSE2gameversion.png.b1c4c0c2c4a6b66ab466ede57d49d84b.png

 

For example, in the previous screenshot of the SKSE website, it says 2.0.17 is for runtime 1.5.97 (as shown in the screenshot taken at the time of writing this guide). After checking we have the proper Skyrim SE version for SKSE, we can continue. As a reference, here is the version correspondence between some of the latest Skyrim SE and SKSE releases

  • Runtime - SKSE
  •     1.5.62 / 2.0.12
  •     1.5.73 / 2.0.15
  •     1.5.80 / 2.0.16
  •     1.5.97 / 2.0.17
  •     1.5.97 / 2.0.18
  •     1.5.97 / 2.0.19

In the near future, when new versions are released you'll have to check the info in the official Script extender website (https://skse.silverlock.org/). Remember the versions you have installed, some mods will specify the SKSE/Game version required in the download page or description.

 

Example of a mod mentioning a particular SKSE version: 

2061629453_4SKSE3exmodversion.png.77e38500303c8d025e14acc5212ea9e4.png

 

04.2 Installing SKSE

 

Download the "Current SE Build 7z Archive" and extract it into a temporary place (like your desktop or any other easy to access folder). We need to move the files from the downloaded SKSE file into two different places. We'll start with the files that cannot be installed through MO. These are the .dll and .exe files, they must be placed outside of the ...\Data folder, which is why MO can't handle this part of the installation.

  1. Extract the downloaded file.
  2. Select skse64_x_x_xx.dll, skse64_loader.exe and skse64_steam_loader.dll.
  3. Cut & paste these 3 files into your Skyrim SE folder (...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition).

1338168251_4SKSE4installpart1.png.9947d0d96692345bca4b825e56f17812.png

 

Now we'll install the other files using the "Install mod" icon in MO.

  1. Go back to the extracted SKSE files and open the “Data” folder (in the downloaded file, not your actual ...\Skyrim Special Edition\Data folder).
  2. Select the “Scripts” folder, right click on it and click in “Add to “Scripts.7z”.
    • This will create a Scripts.7z file, you can leave that file in there or move it to your desktop for easier access in the next steps.
  3. In MO, use the “Install a new mod from an archive” button (top-left corner)
  4. Select the Scripts.7z you’ve just made.
  5. In the "Name" field you can give this a proper name, like “SKSE Scripts” (creative, I know). Don’t change anything else and press Ok.

 

Remember when MO asked about showing tutorial and you said "No"? Well, here is the tutorial, I think there is no actual way to disable them...

 

Just read what it says and skip until you see this:

726627135_4SKSE5installpart2.png.85aae9339f5d20fdb13e269cccc523a1.png

 

  • You can delete all the remaining files (the original download, the "SKSE64_..." folder and the Scripts.7z file). You should have all the required files already installed.
  • Note the "The content of <data> looks valid." message in green, indicating the folder structure for this installation is correct.

 

Note: Whenever Bethesda releases an update for Skyrim SE, SKSE will require an update to work properly. This usually takes a couple of days, and in the mean time you'll have no way to play normally as most mods won't work without SKSE. You can downgrade your Skyrim SE version, but it's just an extra step that we can avoid with the proper settings. This is why in the first section we disabled the automatic updates for Skyrim SE. On top of the SKSE updates, most mods that come with a .dll file will also require an update to work with the new Skyrim SE and SKSE versions. Later on, we'll see how to quickly check which of our installed mods may require these kind of measures.

 

Now you should have your first mod entry in the left panel. Congratulations. Before continuing, edit the "Version" field so you know which SKSE version you have installed. To do this:

  1. Select the mod once, then press again (one left click) over the Version field (by default it should show the install date).
  2. The "Version" field will become editable, change it to the SKSE version you've installed. You can apply the same principle (select, then one simple left click) on the "Mod Name" field to quickly edit the given name, you could add more information to the mod name so you know exactly what's installed there.
    • Most mods will show the appropriate version automatically, the mods you create (like the Scripts.7z we just created), and most of the non-Nexus mods will not have the version added automatically. It's recommended that you keep the "Mod Name" and "Version" fields with the proper information, this will help you to keep track of the versions you have installed, which will come in handy when you want to look for updates to your mods.

 

04.3 Installing SKSE.INI

 

Now we’ll add a pre-made SKSE.ini which contains a couple of useful and recommended settings.

  1. Go to its download page and get the “SKSE64 INI PRE DOWNLOAD v1.2” file (using the “Mod Manager Download” button).
  2. In MO, select the "Downloads" tab and you should see your first downloaded file through MO there:

1645218510_4SKSE6inifile.png.e46d8db63aaa57b2f5cbaf98c4f9daa8.png

 

Double click over the mod name ("SKSE64 INI PRE...") and on the Quick Install window press OK to complete the install. Now you should have two mods listed in your left panel. Good enough for now. Make sure both the "SKSE Scripts" and the "SKSE64 ini pre-download for lazy users" mods are enabled in the left panel (simply click in the "☐" beside the mod names to do so).

 

04.4 Checking the SKSE install in game

 

This quick test will allow you to confirm if you did a proper SKSE install. After installing the SKSE executable and .dll files in your game folder, MO should automatically detect the SKSE launcher and add it to your executable list (if you don't see SKSE in the list close MO and open it again):

949856109_4SKSE7skseexe.png.37a98172de1dc8df767abc214fbfafc8.png

 

This is the executable you need to select for starting the game. With SKSE selected, press the Run button and wait for the game to open (MO will be kept open in the background, don't try to close it). If everything is okay up to this point, you should reach the main menu.

  1. Once in the main menu open the console command (usually it's the key above Tab and to the left of the 1 in your keyboard).
  2. Write getskseversion (no spaces, no punctuation marks, etc.) and press Enter.
  3. You should receive a line saying "SKSE64 version: ....".

1910680842_4SKSE8ingameversion.png.15732b07a29ebe610e76c5ef04f06934.png

 

With this you should know by now if the version that you installed matches with the version shown in game. If you didn't receive the line above, check the previous steps to install SKSE properly.

 

As you have the game already open, and you know at least SKSE is working fine, there is another quick test you can do. Open the console again and write: 

coc riverwood

This will create a test character (male nord with ugly face, etc.) that will spawn in Riverwood. Walk for a bit, see if everything looks and feels okay (but don't expect too much, the game is still vanilla). When you're done close the game and go back to MO to continue with the next steps. If you spot any issue at this point (crashes, visual bugs, poor performance, etc.) it means this is an issue between your computer and the game. It could be that your system specs aren't enough for the preset you selected in BethINI? or you need to upgrade/repair your graphic card drivers, or perhaps you have files from an old install? (I'm seriously insisting on this point: not starting with a clean game is a common mistake that will cost you additional time to fix).

 

 

05. A few mods, just to make this work

  Reveal hidden contents

It’s time to add more mods. We’ll be adding all the required mods to use the Sexlab Framework (which I guess is why we’re all here) and some recommended ones that will offer support for other features you may want to explore in the future. And for the love of all the unholy creations, make the habit to reading the mod descriptions, check the mod requirements and make sure you're downloading the right files. The purpose of this whole guide is to compile information in a -I hope- more understandable way. But that will never replace getting used to check each mod page and get the information directly from there.

 

When we install a mod using MO, we’ll have two scenarios:

  1. Installer: some mods will come with an installer, which automates most of the process, while also providing additional options and information.
  2. Quick Install” window: with [ Manual – Ok – Cancel ] options.
    • If a mod has the proper folder structure (most mods do), MO won't have troubles installing it. This was the case for the SKSE Scripts and the SKSE INI we just installed. In this case, pressing OK should complete the install process correctly. You can also press Manual to check if MO is detecting the mod content as valid.
    • Some mods contain more folders/files in an unusual folder structure, if that's the case you'll be presented with an install window like this:

Note the red message saying the content doesn't look valid, pressing Ok and moving on without fixing this will not install the mod correctly.

1349271044_5mods1exfixstructure.png.9273e90295cb8b5aec1abb18233edb88.png

 

  1. You'll need to expand these folders and check its content.

  2. Select which one contains the files you need to install. In this example the valid mod files would be the ...\Data\Meshes folder, so we need to use this "Data" folder in the next step.

  3. Right click in the chosen folder and then press "Set as <data> directory". Note the change in the message at the bottom of the install window.

  4. Then you can continue with the install as usual.

  • That "Test" mod is just an example, it's not an actual mod nor it needs to be installed. But you'll see this window eventually (soon actually, one of the mods in the next step will require this treatment).

 

05.1 Mod list

 

I’ll list the mods here, why you need them and in some cases additional install instructions. Try to install them in the same order as they're listed:

  • (Required) Address Library for SKSE: this little wonder is required to deal with game/SKSE updates. Just download the main file ("All in one") to MO and install it as any other mod. Make sure it's enabled on your left panel and that you have always the latest version.
  • (OptionalMFG Fix: recommended to fix facial expressions. This mod comes with a little installer, on the install window simply press "Next" and it will finish the install.
  • (OptionalExpressive Facial Animation -Female-: changes the vanilla facial expression for better ones. It says it requires “Fair Skin complexion”, this is because it uses these textures as a basis. It may work with other skin textures. We'll be installing the Fair skin textures later on, so I recommend you to install it.
  • (RequiredFuz Ro Doh:  most LL mods don’t contain voice files, so the dialogue is done 100% using subtitles. This plugin adds some time to the non-voiced dialogue, allowing you to read the dialogues (vanilla behavior is to skip these non-voiced dialogues, giving you no time to read).
  • (OptionalCBPC: this plugin will add basic physics and collision to the female body (for bouncing boobs and butts). In the installer select:
    • Skyrim SE.
    • The SKSE version you have installed.
    • The female body you’d like to use (later on we’ll install CBBE SE, so you can pick CBBE Curvy or CBBE Slim, you may re-install this mod later to select a different body). This does not modify the shape of the body, this is just a reference to establish the collisions/physics.
  • (OptionalJContainers: this mod is Required by SL Animation Loader, a framework to add new animations to Sexlab in an easy way (see below in this list).
  • (OptionalPapyrus Extender: this mod is Required by Sexlab LightMeUp, a mod to add ambient light in dark places when a Sexlab animation starts (see below in this list).
  • (RequiredSkyUI: this is required because a) the default UI sucks and b) it gives you access to the Mod Configuration Menu (MCM), required to -you guessed it- configure a lot of mods. In the “Quick Install” window select Manual, in the install window disable the “fomod” folder, then press Ok. That “fomod” folder should contain the installer, but the installer is neither needed nor ready to be used, so these are just useless files.
  • (RequiredRaceMenu: this mod adds a lot of sliders to the creation character menu, plus other features like face sculpt and face presets. A good addition and a requirement for other mods.
  • (RequiredFNIS: required to properly add all the animations Sexlab and other mods use. There are two options here, regular FNIS and FNIS XXL. FNIS XXL should be used only if you intend to add several animation packs. So just pick one FNIS version (the usage is the same).
    • Regular version: download the latest “FNIS Behavior SE” file. 
    • XXL version: download "FNIS Behavior SE XXL" (name also contains the version number, always pick the latest one).
    • Optional: if you intend to use creature animations, you'll also need to download the “FNIS Creature Pack SE".
    • Then:
      1. Install “FNIS Behavior SE” (regular or XXL, remember only one can be installed at a time), in the Install mods window expand the "FNIS Behavior SE..." folder and right click in the "Data" folder you'll see inside. Then select "Set as <data> directory", the message should be in green confirming the folder structure is valid. Press Ok to finish the installation.
      2. If you downloaded "FNIS Creature Pack SE", install it too. Repeat the "Set as <data> directory" as usual and when you finish MO will ask you what to do with the files. Because FNIS (regular or XXL) share the same mod name as this creature pack, select Merge, so MO will preserve the base FNIS files, adding the creature pack on top.
    • If you went for the XXL version, it's recommended to install Animation Limit Crash Fix, to prevent some crashes while loading a save game. Download with MO and install as any other mod, you can place it near the top of the list in the left panel, with mods like MFG Fix and Fuz Ro Doh. This mod is just a .dll file, so there is no plugin file and won't appear on your loadorder.
  • (OptionalBodySlide: this tool is used to generate new models for the female body and female outfits. Paired with CBBE, you’ll have a good amount of sliders and presets ready to use. During installation, in the “Quick Install” select Manual, then uncheck the “fomod” and “textures” folder, then press Ok. The “fomod” again is useless, and the textures folder there is empty, we only need the CalienteTools one enabled. This is listed as Optional, but it will be Required if you later want to customize your body/outfits shape or if any of the mods you intend to use require body morphs.

  • (Required) A female body replacer - recommended: CBBE SE: I think this is the most popular female body replacer, so it should be relatively simple to find new outfits/presets for this body type. It comes with a basic set of skin textures for the new body model, the sliders to build and reshape your own CBBE bodies and optionally, you can install BodySlide files to reshape all the vanilla outfits.

    • In Body Shape select the one you like the most (it can be changed later, using BodySlide).

    • In Underwear select None (otherwise you’ll have permanent undies).

    • Outfits are optional, these will allow you to build the vanilla outfits for the new body shapes you’ll be using. Install if you want, unless you know you’ll be using another mod to replace the vanilla models.

    • Face/Eyebrows/Miscellaneous: choose based on your preferences, but these may be overwritten by other mods installed later.

    • In the next window select RaceMenu Morphs, this allows mods to change the shape of the body while you’re playing (useful for pregnancy and similar mods).

    • Press Install to finish and go back to MO.

  • (OptionalFair Skin Complexion: different skin textures for the CBBE body. Make sure you download the CBBE and not the UUNP file. This mod has an installer.

    • Diffuse Maps: choose based on the shape of the body you want, especially the boob size (shaved/unshaved are default, skinny is for smaller boobs and flat is for, you know, flat chest).

    • Normal Maps: similar as above, select based on the shape of the body you’d like to use for your females.

    • Spectacular Maps: this adds details to the skin, note that these are active at all times, so the silky, sweaty or goose bumps will be visible always.

    • Subsurface Scattering: this effect simulates skin transparency for a better look under certain lights. You can see the difference in the installer screenshots, but results may vary on your game, depending on the different light mods or ENB effects you use.

    • Optional files: Install them as you see fit, these settings might be overwritten by other cosmetic mods, but shouldn't cause any major conflict.

  • (Required) a male body replacer - recommended: SOS: male body replacer + penis functions for Sexlab scenes. Download the “Schlongs_of_Skyrim_SE” file, not the VR one. Install using the “Install new mod from archive” button. Then select your preferences in the installer:

    • Body Type: Default.

    • Skin Texture: Hair, yes or nay? (if you plan to use alternate textures, covered next, this option doesn’t matter).

    • Schlongs Addons: Pick at least one, this is the basic shape of the pp you’ll see in game. Each addon will add a different plugin (.esp file) to your loadorder. I tend to pick just one and move on.

    • Skeletons: uncheck the “Install male skeletons”, we’ll be using another one and we don’t want this.

    • Optional: the SOS Shop is totally optional, I’ve never used it so I won’t comment about it.

  • (OptionalTempered Skin for Males: alternate textures for the male body, it’s compatible with SOS and provides better quality textures IMO. Make sure you download the “Tempered Skins for Males - SOS Full version” file. The installer will show you the different alternatives of textures, choose based on preference.

  • (RequiredXPMSSE: this is the skeleton we want to have installed and most likely, the only one you'll need. It comes with an installer, we’ll do a simple install with most settings on default:

    • Animation Rig Map: This is based on the support for physics you want:

      • If you installed CBPC previously pick “Physics Extension”.

      • If you don’t want to use CBPC or HDT for physics pick “Fake Physics” (some animations will have body movement, depends on the animations you’ll use).

      • If you don't want bouncy boobs or butts, select “No Physics”.

    • Character Creation: pick Racemenu, because you have it installed, right?

    • Weapon Style Random…: None

    • Animations Variants: these require additional mods, you can check these names if you want to test them later, for now leave everything on None.

    • First Person Animation: don’t change anything here.

    • Mounted Combat Animation: don’t change anything here.

    • Compatibility Patches: The Joy of Perspective is not covered in this guide, so pick None. About SOS, this will install a plugin required if you want to use the Racemenu sliders to change the shape/size of your character penis. Note that if you install this plugin, you won’t be able to change the size/shape using the SOS MCM. Pick whatever you want, just remember:

      • Plugin=Use the sliders in the racemenu (during character creation or using the showracemenu command in the console).

      • No plugin=Use the MCM.

    • Deadly Mutilation: No thanks, pick "None".

    • Enderal: "None".

  • (OptionalAlternate Start - LAL: highly recommended to start the game with an alternate Start mod to skip the tutorial/boring starting sequence and be able to set up all the mods before starting to play / test.

  • (RequiredSL Framework: we’re getting there. Scroll down to the bottom of the first post and download the “SexLabFrameworkSE_vXXXX.7z” file (make sure the Sexlab framework version is compatible with the Skyrim SE and SKSE versions you have installed, at the time of writing this, the version 163 beta 8 is the latest one, compatible with SKSE 2.0.17). Install as usual with the Install Mod button and finding the zipped file.

  • (OptionalSL Ammo Unequip: little addition to improve the Sexlab scenes, if any actor had a quiver equipped at the start of a sexlab animation, it will be unequipped. Quivers cannot be unequipped by normal means, so this mod solves the issue of having to manually unequip them or have them equipped through animations you’re supposed to be nude.

  • (OptionalSexlab LightMeUp: this mod will add ambient light if the space where a Sexlab animation is too dark. You can configure the light level and when is it used in its MCM (it can be set to light up whenever the ambient light is below a configured threshold or by using a hotkey).

  • (OptionalSL Animation Loader: animation framework that allows to easily add new animations that come in the form of SLAL animation packs. I recommend you to at least leave it installed now, you may want to add more animations in the future. Install from archive, give it a descriptive name like “SL Animation Loader SE”. You can edit the version field to show “1.0” instead of the install date (this recommendation applies to most LL mods, as these usually don't display the installed version automatically).

    • To get these animation packs go here. In the spoiler is a list of all the packs available, the green ones are ready to be used, the others require conversion. So stick to the green ones for now. I’d recommend you to install 2 or 3 to start. You can test more, or different packs later. Some packs are in the Skyrim LE section of LL, make sure you download the files for SE always (check the name of the files in the download list), installing animations made for LE in SE will cause you issues.

    • For this guide I’ll install “MilkySLAL for SE” and “SLAL - Ayasato Animations”. The first pack has a download page in the SE section so there is just 1 file to pick from. The Ayasato pack has a LE and SE version, if you’re installing the same packs as me, you know what to pick here (spoiler: the SE one). Just install from archive and as usual and check the folder structure if needed.

  • (RequiredFinally, you need a mod to trigger the Sexlab scenes. As this is just for a quick test, we’ll keep things simple and pick Sexlab Matchmaker. Install from archive as usual. You can remove this mod once you've explored the available LL mods and have chosen a different mod to trigger Sexlab scenes and events.

    • Matchmaker will add two spells, one for the player and another for any suitable NPC. When you cast only one, the selected NPC or the player will perform a solo-animation. When you cast it in two NPCs or one NPC and the player, these actors will engage in a suitable animation for two actors.

 

At this point, you should have several mods installed in MO. The mods installed through MO are stored in ...\MO2\mods, inside this ...\mods folder you'll find a folder named after each installed mods, these are the entries you see in the left panel of MO. If you double click over any mod in your left panel, a new window will open with several tabs. If you go to the "Filetree" tab you can explore the files each mod has.

 

Before moving on, we'll remove or hide a couple of files that could be an issue if we leave them unattended. For this step, I'll mention a nice little MO feature for hiding mod files, but you can achieve the same result if you just delete the files mentioned here. Don't hide or delete files unless you know what and why you're doing it.

  • Find "Sexlab Framework SE" in your left panel and double click over it.
  • Go to the "Filetree" tab and expand the "Interface" folder, you'll find a console.swf.
  • Simply right click on console.swf and select "Delete" or "Hide".
    • Delete: this will remove the selected files from the mod folder, simple and effective.
    • Hide: this will change the selected files extension so the files are kept in there (if you need them in the future), but won't be used in game.

1929151177_5mods2hidefiles.png.cac715b1952e4873a624317c18e25355.png

 

 That console.swf was likely packed in the current beta release by mistake. It isn't needed for the mod to work and it will conflict with other mods (namely More Informative Console which you might want to add later on). Removing that file will help to manage your modlist and avoid some unnecessary conflicts.

 

Enable the mods if you haven't already (in the left panel, mark the "☐" so it looks like this: "☑"), to enable all mods quickly right click anywhere in the left panel, select "All mods" and then "Enable all visible" and confirm the message. If you’ve been installing the mods in the order I listed, you should have something like this:

 

(Image for reference only, some mods may change depending on optionals mods you didn't install or mod availability/changed)

443877048_5mods3installedmods.png.0ee5a1ce04d39cd4348a6c6f5e8ff34d.png

 

So, are we ready now? Can we jump into the game and start playing with Sexlab?

Nope. We haven’t sorted our loadorder nor used any of the tools we’ve been installing. In the following steps we’ll take a look at each tool and how to use its basic features.

 

 

06. LOOT

  Reveal hidden contents

LOOT is a software that will sort your loadorder automatically using a set of given rules. At the very minimum, this tool will give you a functional loadorder and should warn you about some issues (like a missing plugin required for one of your mods, or a compatibility patch). Overall, this tool is recommended for people who don’t know how to manually sort their plugins and solve conflicts. LOOT is installed outside of the default folders (it doesn't go in your ...\Skyrim Special Edition nor in your ...\MO2 folders, but it's used through MO as most tools are.

 

06.1 Download and install

 

Download the installer and make sure you to have MO closed before starting this installation. I like to redirect the install folder to my working directory, just to have all the software related to Skyrim SE in the same place. When the install process finishes, our working folder should look like this:

55840718_6LOOT1installfolder.png.1a5fc84a0a834b6b0f3da804c5f67321.png

 

 Open MO again, you should see that your executable list has a new addition:

1949835859_6LOOT2lootexe.png.ddd7d010a658b712943af36c9e241af2.png

 

06.2 Quick setup to launch it from MO

 

Once you open MO again, you should see there is a LOOT executable listed in there. As this is a tool we'll be using almost every time we make changes to the installed mods, I like to add a shortcut to the MO tool bar. To do this, select LOOT in the list, click on “Shortcut” and select “Toolbar and Menu”. This will add a LOOT icon over the executable list. These icons can be used to launch the executables through MO without needing to select them in the list and pressing Run.

2051841712_6LOOT3lootshortcut.png.68dd67e8918e039f3cab0076647967bd.png

 

06.3 Sorting your loadorder

 

Using the shortcut icon (or the executable selected in the list) run LOOT. You’ll receive some messages about running LOOT for the first time, dismiss them until you get to a window like this:

995029355_6LOOT4lootinterface.png.0361fee50f683790291bed49f64fc7c4.png

 

Once there, press the highlighted button near the top-right corner of the program to sort your plugins. Give it a bit of time and LOOT will finish the process. After its done, the button will change to an "APPLY". Press "Apply", now you can close LOOT and go back to MO, you should see a sorted loadorder now:

1113000194_6LOOT7sortedloadorder.png.bf89805eaffa7231a6a5d1c22ff3a3bc.png

 

You may see warnings about dirty plugins in your LOOT window, it's recommended to perform an cleaning process in some cases. We’ll be adding the SSE Edit and the Quick Auto Clean to MO later. I'll also leave a link to a guide about how to use these tools to clean your master files, so you can also clean them if you want to.

 

That’s all you need to do with LOOT for the moment. You should sort your loadorder whenever you add new plugins to your loadorder. Some mods require you to manually move them to a certain position, these mods should specify this in the description/install instructions. It's your responsibility to know if any of the mods you are using require this special treatment. Among the mods we’ve been installing, there is no need to manually move anything.

 

 

07. FNIS

  Reveal hidden contents

FNIS is already installed in MO, but we need to add the executable and run this tool in order to get the full benefits from it.

 

07.1 Adding GenerateFNISforUsers to MO

 

To add FNIS as a MO executable we’ll select the Edit option in the list or the 2-gears icon in the top-left corner of MO (both methods will open the "Modify Executables" window):

528763789_7FNIS1addexepart1.png.15d87f58182a2785fc4835e37e711117.png

 

  1. In the "Modify Executables" window, press the “+” button and select “Add from file…”.
  2. It will open an explorer window, you will have to find the place where MO installed FNIS. So go to your working folder or wherever you placed your ...\MO2 folder.
  3. Once there, select GenerateFNISforUsers.exe.
  4. Back in the "Modify Executables" window press Apply/Ok and go back to MO.

1168483232_7FNIS2addexepart2.png.1ff6f7d79bfb1d8cf9eb24969df4f6c1.png

 

The full folder path will change depending on where you placed your working folder, here is mine as an example:

335102127_7FNIS3addexepart3.png.470d118957b925f934a8ccfbeb8aed1f.png

 

Now you should have a new executable called “GenerateFNISforUsers”. As we did with LOOT, you can add a shortcut to MO's toolbar:

1887389426_7FNIS4addedexe.png.1c8c0aef202459ce24b02f9b217ff109.png

 

07.2 Using FNIS

 

Using the newly created shortcut or pressing Run with "GenerateFNISforUsers" selected, open FNIS. This is the window you should see. In the Patches section I’ve highlighted two you should always enable (you can also enable the first patch "GENDER Specific Animations, some mods make use of this FNIS feature and if you don't have such mods, having it enabled won't do any harm):

1652933347_7FNIS5fnisinterface.png.06c73175e8c09e9f67474cb9c68fcf7c.png

  • SKELETON Arm Fix: this patch fixes weird/wrong arm position/size in a lot of animations, enable it always.
  • HKX File Compatibility Check: this patch will do a check for incompatible animations*. Using Skyrim LE animations in Skyrim SE or SE animations in Skyrim LE is a bad idea. If you installed the wrong version of any SLAL pack in the previous steps, you should see a warning. Take note of the mod name(s) associated to these warning(s), you’ll need to remove these mods and delete the generated FNIS files.

*: by default FNIS can detect if an entire mod/animation pack is incompatible (FNIS always scans the behavior files in ...meshes\actors\character\behaviors\...). But, if for whatever reason a mod has the proper behavior file, but one or more incompatible animation files (...meshes\actors\character\animations\...) you won't see any warnings unless you enable this check. Enabling this check will give you a clear hint if you have anything incompatible at least in regards to animation mods. 

 

After checking these two patches, hit the yellow “Update FNIS Behavior” button and give it some time. When it finishes you should see something like this:

1738077554_7FNIS6fnislog.png.2f9ec218eb6521f263cb9d418ea5a584.png

 

The amount of animation you have may vary if you installed more or less SLAL packs. All the text it generates is known as the FNIS log. If you ever have any animation issues you must check the text here. If you need additional assistance, providing this text is ideal for others to give you proper help (just select all the text in the white part of the window and copy it).

 

Note: If you receive any warning after running FNIS, you must check the log text. Pinpoint the incompatible mod or error and close FNIS. You'll have to remove the mentioned mod(s) from MO and get the proper version of said mod(s). Then you can come back to FNIS and attempt to Update your FNIS behavior files.

 

07.3 Please stop asking me for shortcuts, it's not going to happen (must be done just once)

 

If you have no warnings, press “Exit” to go back to MO. You’ll receive the following message:

838039956_7FNIS7exitfnis.png.07cb15621aab900dd6dc746a2ba6b188.png

 

Just press “Cancel” and go back to MO. You’ll see a warning in the top-right corner of MO:

500274321_7FNIS8mowarning.png.7a9945535c2ae3bc6814c06bb9925e30.png

 

If you click that exclamation mark icon, you’ll see a new window with the details about the warning. This warning in particular is telling you that there are files in your “Overwrite” folder. The Overwrite folder is the last mod entry in the left panel of MO. For now, it’s important that you know why its there and what to do if you have files there.

 

The Overwrite entry is considered as another mod in terms of structure, but its located in …\MO2\overwrite instead of …\MO2\mods\. It will store all the files that your other mods generate while you are playing or after you use any of the added tools with MO open. Its recommended to keep your Overwrite empty at all times, so after each time you run a tool or play for a while, you should check if there are any files there.

 

In this case, the files generated by FNIS are here. Double click in “Overwrite” and you’ll see this window:

373121940_7FNIS9noshortcut1.png.2eda4e6b3a75fcd2e83ff28f51b5aab4.png

 

As this is the first time we’re running FNIS in this MO installation, we’ll have to do an extra step so FNIS stop asking us about creating a shortcut to our desktop (because as you should know by now, the proper way to run FNIS is through MO, not from the desktop).

  1. Open the Overwrite and expand the \tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users folder as shown in the previous screenshot.
  2. Select the DontAskAgainForLink.txt file and drag it to your desktop.
  3. Then go to …\MO2\mods\Fores New Idles in Skyrim SE - FNIS SE\tools\GenerateFNIS_for_Users and move DontAskAgainForLink.txt there:

181979413_7FNIS10noshortcut2.png.e606159b39b7ae16e4f9d2ebca56f7fa.png

 

7.4 Moving your generated FNIS files outside of Overwrite

 

Now you can close that folder and the Overwrite window too. We'll move the files from Overwrite to a new mod to store the FNIS files. Right click on Overwrite and select “Create Mod…”:

220663090_7FNIS11createfnisoutput.png.edd3d2fafdbafe08998535a6f314a2ec.png

 

Enter a name for the mod in the new window, I’ll call this one “Generated FNIS”. Enable it and place it last (just above the now empty “Overwrite”). With this, you’ve successfully used FNIS.

1673540363_7FNIS12generatedfnis.png.4e23929722a5dd9f5e0b31ec17563015.png

 

You should update your generated FNIS files whenever you add or remove a mod with animations. If you’re unsure about which mods contain animations, just run FNIS whenever you add or remove a mod. If you keep the "Generated FNIS" with the FNIS files, running FNIS again will automatically replace these old files with the newly generated ones inside your created mod ("Generated FNIS" in this case). If at some point other FNIS files go in Overwrite you can manually drag&drop them in your Generated FNIS.

 

 

08. BodySlide

  Reveal hidden contents

Now we’ll add BodySlide as an executable and use it to generate the meshes to get a nude female body and optionally, the vanilla outfits reshaped to the same body shape.

 

8.1 Adding BodySlide to launch it from MO

 

  1. As with FNIS, click on the “Edit…” in the list of executables or use the two-gears icon.
  2. Using the “+” button “Add from file…”
  3. Navigate to …\MO2\mods\BodySlide and Outfit Studio\CalienteTools\BodySlide.
  4. Select “BodySlide x64”.
  5. Press Apply/Ok to close that window and go back to MO.

 

If you’ve done it everything right, you should have BodySlide x64 as a new executable in the list:

56666761_8BS1addexe.png.7a544c6bfd2e84817b267d22077dce34.png

 

8.2 Basic usage of BodySlide 

 

Select it and press Run. As it’s your first launch in this MO install, you’ll be asked to locate your game folder. The install path should be already there for your Skyrim SE (if not, you forgot to launch at least once the game through Steam). Click in “Choose Game” next to the Skyrim SE install path:

539864687_8BS2selectgame.png.fcf5da209fd9d84cb2649b7823f1ae24.png

 

This is the window you should see. We’ll take a look at the most used parts of this tool now:

1831421174_8BS3bsinterface.png.a5aa03750cd50651f484b2b00104b8d2.png

 

  • Outfit/Body: this is the currently selected outfit or body part to modify. Here you can select each installed outfit with Bodyslide support or body type (example: CBBE Body, CBBE Physics, etc).
  • Preset: this is what defines the shape of the female body you’ll see in game, CBBE SE comes with a few presets, and you can download additional ones or create your own (we’ll stick to the basics here and pick “CBBE Curvy”, you can select other presets or explore custom ones later).
  • Group Filter: useful to filter outfit mods (new armors, clothing or vanilla replacers) per groups. After you've built all the sets you have installed, you can filter by groups to tweak the outfits from a specific mod.
  • Preview: opens a new window to show the current body/outfit selected (in the first “Outfit/Body” field). It has a single slider to see the shape of the body at weights 0 to 100.
  • Build: produces the new model for the selected Outfit/Body with the Preset that’s being used.
  • Batch Build: the big cousin of the “Build” button, it allows you to generate multiple sets at once, using the current Preset and selecting all the “Outfit/Body” sets you want in a list.
  • Build Morphs: morphs are an additional function provided by .tri files generated with BodySlide when this setting is enabled. Body morphs are used in game by several mods to apply changes to the female body dynamically. Its used by pregnancy/inflation/lactation mods to emulate belly/boob grow, but it has a lot of other uses. I recommend to enable this setting always.

 

8.3 Redirecting BodySlide files to a separate mod (optional step)

 

To understand why this step is optional, you'll need to know how Bodyslide and MO interact. Bodyslide is all about re-creating the in game models (.nif files) for the body/outfits that support Bodyslide. When you press "Build" or "Batch Build", all the selected sets will be created again, overwriting any existing .nif file for the sets (body or outfits) that you built. The advantage of this new set of models is that these should match the body shape you select in the "Preset" field. 

 

By default existing .nif files (from any installed mod that is related to body/outfits, example: CBBE SE) are replaced in each mod's folder, while new files (.nif or .tri that weren't already created) will go to the Overwrite folder. If you're fine with moving your newly created files into each mod's folder manually, you can skip this step. The purpose of this output folder is to catch all the files generated by BodySlide that would end in Overwrite in a separate mod. Remember that keeping an empty Overwrite is important to be sure nothing is overwriting your other mod files unintentionally.

 

Now we’ll create our own mod folder to store all the files generated with BodySlide.

  1. Close BodySlide and go back to MO, right click anywhere in the left panel and select “All Mods” -> “Create empty mod”.
  2. In the name field write “BodySlide output”. Place it near our “Generated FNIS” mod and enable it, it should look like this:

815202058_8BS4bsoutput.png.fc2e2db030f4e3c9fb789ce89f25d104.png

 

  1. Go to the Modify Executables window (using the “Edit…” in the list or the 2-gears icon).
  2. Select “BodySlide x64” in the list to the left.
  3. Enable “Create files in mod instead of overwrite” and select our created “BodySlide Output” from the list.
  4. Press Apply/Ok and go back to MO.

1124377755_8BS5redirectoutput.png.d75b2545d420eaff31ce18f020cd29f8.png

 

With this done, MO will redirect newly generated files to our BodySlide Output. Already existing files will be placed in each mod’s folder. This setup is simple and an effective way to catch the BS files that would end up in Overwrite. The "BodySlide Output" mod will be flagged with an "X" until some files go in there, which should happen automatically at some point (depending on the mods requiring BodySlide you install and use). Nothing bad will happen if the folder is kept empty, but if you see files generated with BodySlide in Overwrite, it means you probably configured something wrong in this step. In which case, check the settings described above and move the generated files to another location (to the BS Output or to the mod these files belong, etc.) and try again.

 

8.4 Building your body and outfits

 

Now we’ll create all the bodies/outfits you have installed at the moment.

  1. Make sure there are no filters applied ("Group Filter" and "Outfit Filter" fields should be empty, if not press the "x" button in each field).
  2. Enable “Build Morphs”.
  3. Press  “Batch Build” 
  4. You'll see a list with several items enabled, leave everything enabled.
  5. Press “Build”.
  6. On the new window you'll see some sets that are repeated (for example, outfits with physics enabled or not are two sets of the same game item, so you have to pick one). The important part here is the first set, which should be about the body type to build. You can only pick one of the following three types: 
    • Choose "CBBE Body" if you want just the body without physics (if you didn't install CBPC)
    • Choose "CBBE Body Physics" if you want physics (requires CPBC).
    • Choose "CBBE Body Special" if you want physics + vagina collision (requires CBPC). Recommended if you installed CBPC.
    • Select the other sets for the CBBE vanilla outfits you have repeated.
  7. Once you've selected the proper body and all the other repeated sets, press "OK" and you'll see a new window showing the building progress.

1083129307_8BS6choosesets.png.f06d9c6a551f9e1977ec35260c270129.png

 

Wait for BodySlide to finish and confirm the message when it says everything was processed successfully. You can close BodySlide and go back to MO, if you did the optional 8.3 step you should see that your BodySlide Output has files now (and your Overwrite should be empty). The files about vanilla outfits or bodies that already existed in CBBE SE should be in that mod folder (...\MO2\mods\CBBE SE...) and the new files in your Bodyslide output, although this might vary: with this basic install, the only files that you should see in the BS Output are the .tri files for the body/outfit sets. If you didn't enabled the "Build Morphs" settings you'll end up with an empty BS Output (which is fine unless you need morphs for other mods). In the future, if you install other armor or clothing mods, the files created with BS might go directly into these mods folders or end up entirely in your BS Output, this really depends on the pre-made files these mods contain. But don't worry too much about it, as long as you're building all your sets once, you should be fine.

 

If you didn't do the step 8.3, you should manually move any files in Overwrite to the mod they belong (example: CBBE SE). 

 

If you want to use another preset to change how the female bodies look in game, all you have to do is repeat the process, ideally building everything without filters and checking that you select the proper body type and outfit picks in the "Choose output set" window. And once you're more comfortable with Bodyslide and the mods you're using, you'll be able to filter by groups in order to select which outfit/body sets will be affected (for example, if you don't want to re-build all your sets each time you want to build a particular outfit or group of outfits from a new mod). In case you install a mod that adds several outfits, it's recommended to perform a complete "Batch Build" again (without any selected Groups, with "Build Morphs" enabled and picking the proper sets in the "Choose output set"), this is to guarantee that you build every possible set. Then you can use Groups to filter or tweak individual outfits if needed.

 

Note: Bodies and outfits are two separate things. If you change the preset for your female nude body but don’t build the outfits using the same preset, you’ll see that each time your character or NPC wears an outfit their body shape will change. It may revert back to vanilla or to a previous preset you were using, it could even change to another body shape (like UNP) it depends on where does the outfit comes from. So make sure you're re-building everything (Batch Build without filters) whenever you change to a new preset.

 

 

09. SSE Edit

  Reveal hidden contents

SSE Edit, also known as xEdit, is a powerful tool to edit plugins, detect conflicts and apply patches made for certain mods. In this guide I won’t cover how to use it, as its uses are very situational. I’ll just cover how to add it to MO so you can use it in the future if you ever need to do so.

 

9.1 Download and add SSE Edit to MO

  1. Download SSE Edit.
  2. Extrat to “SSEEdit …”.
  3. Rename the new created SSEEdit…” folder to simply “SSE Edit”
  4. Move “SSE Edit” to your working folder
  5. In MO go to the “Modify Executables” window (“Edit…” in the list or the two-gear icon).
  6. “+” button and “Add from file…”
  7. Go to your SSE Edit folder (example D:\Skyrim SE Mods\SSE Edit) and select SSEEdit.exe.
  8. Repeat the process, this time adding SSEEditQuickAutoClean.exe.
  9. Press Apply/Ok and go back to MO.

 

You should have the two executables in your list now:

344876077_9SSEdit1addexes.png.8344ef6b898b5d23f395b05ae858e29a.png

 

9.2 About cleaning Master files

 

Master files (the original files like Update.esm, Dragonborn.esm, etc.) have some doubtful edits (yes, the original game files, thanks Bethesda). Some of these edits are considered bad or even harmful. And while there is not much solid evidence of errors caused by keeping these "dirty" master files, the general consensus is to clean them using xEdit.

  • There is good guide about how to use the “Quick Auto Clean” + some manual clean here. Follow every bit of instruction in that section. After the cleaning process, some SSE Edit folders will be created in Overwrite, you can delete them for now or leave them there until you reach to step 11, there you'll find instructions about how to keep these sort of files and folders outside of Overwrite.
  • Alternatively you can download the already cleaned .esm files here (scroll down until you find the "Cleaned DLC" attached file, thanks to Aylis and jaeos for sharing/uploading these files), you can create an empty mod in MO2 left panel and put the cleaned .esm files in said mod. Move that created mod right after the Unmanaged DLC files in MO2 left panel (that way the original files are kept untouched in your game folder and MO will use the cleaned ones).

 

At this point, you should be ready to go into the game and create a character to do a quick test.

 

 

10. First in game test

  Reveal hidden contents

You installed all these mods, sorted your loadorder, used GenerateFNISforUsers, built your stuff in BodySlide, you've read and re-read every bit of instruction at least 59 times. This is it, time to go into the game and see if everything works as expected (spoiler: I've done this exact same setup at least 5 times, two being in completely different computers and each time it worked fine).

 

10.1 Starting a new game

 

Remember in order to start the game you must do it using the “SKSE” executable, so make sure it’s selected in the list and press “Run”. MO will stay open in the background while you play. Do not attempt to start the game without MO or with MO closed, you'll just find misery.

1571214847_10TEST1skseexe.png.87bd327b28fb982df81c6b867f1a9e29.png

 

Remember we’re assuming a clean start, so there shouldn’t be existing saves (seriously, don’t try to load a save you had before). Press “New Game”, if you installed "Alternate Start" you should be in the starting cell. Create your character but don’t get too attached to it, we’ll be doing just a quick test for now. Talk to the statue, pick an easy start (for example, “I’m a patron at a local inn”).

 

10.2 Installing Sexlab and enabling SLAL in game

 

Before leaving the cell go into the Mod Configuration Menu (MCM). To get to the MCM, press Esc and go to the "SYSTEM" tab, in System you'll see a menu called MOD CONFIGURATION. There you'll find all of the MCM from the mods you've installed thus far (not every mod comes with an MCM). 

 

Select SexLab. You should see something like this:

69754524_10TEST2SLinstall.png.350c80ff9da3d179213d026aeaf7e9e0.png

 

Everything in a calming green “OK”.

 

Note: Sometimes you may see a couple of "?" in some checks, I've seen them mainly in the Idles checks. Usually they go away after switching camera pov (go from 1st to 3rd person or the other way around), sometimes they go away after you leave the cell and start playing for real. So seeing a couple of "?" there shouldn't be a major issue.

 

Press the INSTALL/UPDATE” in the right of the menu and close the menu, wait for a while, you’ll see some messages in the top-left corner of the screen. When you see this one, you can continue:

2069465977_10TEST3SLready.png.90ad63b93fae7a794156d1446c0c51c5.png

 

Note: Sometimes the install won't be completed until you start the game for real (which usually means getting outside of the starting zone of the mod used to skip the vanilla start/tutorial). If the "Sexlab - Sexlab version - Ready!" message doesn't appear after about 1 minute, just finish the starting sequence (if you're using Alternate Start simply use the bed after talking to the statue). Once your character appears in the selected starting location you'll be able to continue the Sexlab install and the other MCM settings described below.

 

Now, if you installed SL Animation Loader and at least one animation pack, you’ll want to enable these animations too. To do this, go to the MCM and select “SL Anim Loader”. Give this menu a bit of time, as it takes a while to load (depending on the amount of animation packs you installed previously). Select the first tab ("General Options"), there you’ll see these “CLICK HERE” lines.

72245954_10TEST4slalmcm.png.cf5b22573dfa3c7c9a373764ff1fd963.png

 

  1. Press “Enable All”, a message will tell you all selected animations have been enabled.
  2. Then press “Register Animations”, the text will change to “REGISTERING”, wait without exiting the menu.
  3. It may take a while (20 sec to a couple of minutes, based on the amount of animations you added). Then you’ll see a new message telling you the amount of new animations registered.
  4. Accept and close the menu to go back in game.

1030888668_10TEST5slalregister.png.f01c2adfb691d34227f19a2afcec7ff2.png

 

10.3 Other recommended settings

 

Before continuing with the test, a couple of settings you may want to change:

 

  • In the SOS MCM – General Settings: You may want to disable the following features:
    • Spells to control erections
    • SOS potions
    • Display SOS notifications.
  • In the SOS MCM – Player/NPC Setting: Increase the size of your character penis if you’re playing male. Remember. If you installed the SOS patch from XPMSSE, you’ll have to do this in the character creation menu, as the MCM settings will have no effect.
  • In Sexlab MCM  – Animations Settings: You may want to enable Facial expressions. Recommended if you installed MFG Fix + Expressive Facial Animations previously.
  • In Sexlab MCM  – Voices & SFX: You can change the voice used by your character during Sexlab animations.
  • In Sexlab MCM  – Rebuild & Clean: Disable “Debug / Development Mode” (this will remove a couple of spells that are not intended to be used during normal gameplay).

 

Note: To access the character creation menu after leaving the starting cell, use the showracemenu” command in the console (without quotation marks). You'll see a “Genitals” tab, see what each slider does and save once you’re happy with the size/shape of your character’s pp). Just make sure you don't change your character race during the process, as it may reset your skills.

 

10.4 Test the animations

 

Now you should be able to go to the bed inside the cell to leave the starting zone. Once you spawn in your selected location, find an NPC to to test the animations. Go into your magic menu and select the MatchMaker spells. Equip both "Irresistibly Attractive” spells, one is on target and the other is on self. Cast the on-target one in the NPC you want, then cast the other on yourself.

1742550773_10TEST6ex1.png.edbbcb2303f0da1b274aa1dce68cada4.png

 

270361072_10TEST7ex2.png.52fda2d1638ddb21d78cc653f0505af5.png

 

 

11. Mod Organizer 2 – A second look

  Reveal hidden contents

 

After you’ve tested the basic features enough, close the game and go back to MO. Your first test is over. So, this is it? Of course not, this is just the bare minimal to make this work. You’ll want to add mods to fix bugs, enhance your gameplay, improve the visuals and so on. But first, let's take a look at MO after its first play session.

 

11.1 Keeping a clean Overwrite

 

You’ll see there are files in your Overwrite. Open the Overwrite window and check its content. As we want to keep the Overwrite folder clean, we'll move these files into a different place. There are two options, pick whichever method you prefer. The most important thing here is: keep them out of Overwrite, but remember where you put them in case you need to edit or check these files later.

 

11.1.A Make a new mod to store all your ini, log, json and other generated files together

  • This method will ensure that the files will be kept outside of Overwrite, in a new mod.
  • Files stored this way will be preserved even if you remove/re-install or update your mods.
  • Note that in rare occasions, when a mod is updated the .ini/.json files storing their settings may change format or name scheme, in this case your old files may be useless even if you keep them in MO. Check the changelog or any comment from the mod author about updating each mod.
  1. Right click anywhere in the left panel.
  2. Select "All mods" and then "Create empy mod"
  3. Name the mod something like "Log & ini files".
  4. Place the mod near the bottom of your left panel, activate it.
  5. Whenever a mod you use generates a .ini, log, .json, .txt or any similar file, move these files into your newly created "Log & ini files".
    1. To do this, you'll have to open Overwrite (double click) and check its content.
    2. Drag&drop the files from Overwrite to "Log & ini files".

1885054541_11MO1loginioutput.png.9437ebde20954478ebbfe6f527ac481a.png

 

11.1.B Move these files directly into each mod folder

 

  • Possible drawback: if you ever update or re-install a mod replacing the old files (instead of merging) you'll lose these files. This means next time you play and go back to MO the files will be in Overwrite again (and your mods will have default settings).
  1. Check the content of the Overwrite (double click).
  2. Drag the files into its respective mod entry in the left panel. In the example of the screenshot, that SKSE folder contains the .ini file from the Fuz Ro D’oh. So that's where you would need to drag&drop said SKSE folder.

1111009791_11MO2dragdropfiles.png.3c60aa1048c2efcb6d775982f160a06f.png

 

Note: Once you’ve opened the folders inside the Overwrite you won’t be able to drag&drop, so check the content, identify to which mod the files belong, close the Overwrite window, open it again and then drag&drop. If there are files from more than one mod, I’d recommend you to drag all the files from Overwrite to your desktop and separate them, then move them manually to each mod folder. I know, it sucks, but you should need to do this only after you play with a mod for the first time (unless you remove/update the mod) and not every mod generates new files.

 

11.2 Handling MO's conflicts

 

Now, on a final look to our MO window we’ll talk briefly about these symbols in the “Conflicts” column. A conflict in the left panel of MO means that there are more than one mod providing the same files (example: two mods offering the same clothing texture or chair model, etc.). It’s represented as a lightning bolt:

 

L-M.png.85198f588d345cc7275d8fd6be5b163f.pngfiles from this mod are being overwritten by other mods

L-P.png.dd76ea59dcd3b8b03f2b9bb4c2e533ea.pngthis mod is overwriting files from other mods

L-PM.png.fddde26b217e7cb750107c7e9c6564bc.png: this mod is both overwriting other mods and being overwritten by other mods

L-S.png.f1fcdc90a16370b13d3e744ee9e48a93.png: there is another mod completely overwriting this mod

 

198388129_11MO3moconflicts.png.926be8fe322b625599e67e80a7fac3ce.png

 

The place each mod occupies in your left panel will determine which mod wins these conflicts. The mods near the top will be overwritten by the ones below, this is why we placed our “Generated FNIS” and "BodySlide Output" near the bottom of the left panel, so these mods take priority over others.

 

Not every conflict is bad, in the case of our mod list, we’re replacing the textures from one mod with another set of textures of our choice (for example, we’re overwriting the CBBE SE textures with the ones from Fair skin complexion, or the ones from SOS with Tempered skins for males).

 

For other mods, you’ll have to check the conflicts and determine if you need to change the order of your mods or not. To do this properly you must pay attention to each mod’s instructions, if you have doubts about it just ask in the mod’s support thread or comment section. A general rule is place the big mods (aka large meshes/texture replacers) near the top of the modlist and let other mods overwrite them.

 

To avoid unintentional overwrites, I like to keep my modlist (left panel, remember) in a certain order (listed below), but even then, I've had to do some manual tweaks and move certain mods out of the given order to make things works. You'll have to check each mod conflict and try different orders if you're unsure about where to place your mods.

  1. SKSE related mods (SKSE Scripts, SKSE INI pre-download, SKSE plugins that are composed of just .dll and .ini files, examples: SSE Engine Fixes, More Informative Console, Fuz Ro D'oh, Better Jumping, etc.).
  2. Bugfixes (Unofficial Skyrim SE Patch, Flora respawn fix, other mods whose sole aim is to fix a bug or inconvenience).
  3. Big Meshes & Textures replacers (stuff like Static Mesh Improvement, Noble Skyrim textures, any major project that replaces several meshes or textures).
  4. Minor Meshes & Textures replacers (minor projects that contains only a few meshes or textures to replace).
  5. ENB / Enviroment stuff (ENB Helper, weather mods, lighting mods, also replacers for grass, water, mountains or other terrain that may not fit into the above Meshes & Textures replacers).
  6. User Interface (SkyUI, A Quality World Map, iActivate, Better Dialogue/Messagebox Controls, etc. anything related to the aspect or usage of the UI).
  7. Appearance and Animations mods (Racemenu, CBBE, BodySlide, skin texture replacers, hair mods, NPC replacers, FNIS, vanilla animation replacers, XPMSSE etc.).
  8. Gameplay / Overhaul mods (mods that change races, perks, standing stones, combat, magic, mods that add or modify any mechanic that affects gameplay in general).
  9. LL mods (Sexlab Framework, SL Anim Loader and its anim packs, other frameworks like DD, ZAZ, other mods like Defeat, Matchmaker, etc.).
  10. Custom patches (Generated FNIS, BodySlide Output, xEdit patches, etc.).

This order ensures that most mods will have a logical place in the modlist, and should help to avoid the most common issues of keeping an unorganized modlist. But I repeat, even this order must be checked and changes may be needed to ensure that all the installed mods work as intended. This is something each one has to do as the overwrites you'll have are particular to your modlist.

 

11.3 Friendly reminder your Nexus downloads are still there

 

All the downloads we’ve done using MO are still there as files, if you need them to re-install or if you’re a mod hoarder, they'll be there for you. These files are located in ...\MO2\downloads and you can see them if you switch to the “Downloads” tab in the right panel of MO. If you want to delete them to save space or just to get them out of the way, right click on an empty space and select “Delete Installed Downloads…” or "Delete All Downloads...".

492409491_11MO4modownloads.png.0cfc5e28711b68458f753e6d11ca85a4.png

 

 

12. Adding support for HDT-SMP (Optional)

  Reveal hidden contents

So, previously I covered how to add CBPC as an optional mod to handle physics and collisions at a basic level. There is another framework to handle physics, called HDT-SMP. This totally optional step will describe how to add this mod to your modlist and make it work in conjunction with CBPC to convert Skyrim into the maximum physics and collisions simulator (SMP is also needed for certain mod features such as Devious Device items with physics). In addition to HDT-SMP we'll be adding CBBE 3BBB, which is a new body type (CBBE based) which allows us to use CBPC and HDT-SMP at the same time (or switch between them at the press of a hotkey).

 

12.1 Installing the mods

 

  1. Install HDT-SMP.
    • Make sure you download the version made for your Skyrim version (current main file is for Skyrim SE 1.5.97).
    • Install as usual and enable it in your left panel.
  2. Install CBBE 3BBB. This mod comes with an installer offering different settings and preset for the both HDT-SMP and CBPC. I recommend you to follow the installer once, go in game and test how things behave, then you can re-install it and pick different settings to see the difference. Some notes on the installer parts:
    • SE 3BBB main: you should keep everything else disabled unless you use one of the races listed there.
    • Base CBPC: you can leave this setting as default ("Performance (improved)", or "Performance (Limited)", your choice based on your system spec.).
    • Physics Selecting: pick between "Full" and "Lite", as with the previous setting, chose based on your system spec. (although you can manually tweak both SMP and CBPC settings to comformt better to your system, this might be a bit out of the scope here, so I won't cover that here).
    • CBPC Physics Preset Type: here you can pick "New Type" or "Old Type" for different preset settings. After this each choice in the installer is pure personal preference, so pick what you want. There are some settings for other mods you may or may not have (like regular SOS or Floppy SOS), so make sure you pick the settings according to what you have installed.
    • After completing the install and doing the next step (12.2) you can go in game and test how things behave. If you want to change something repeat the CBBE 3BBB install with different options (removing the previous install from MO, or picking "Replace" when MO ask you what to do as the old and new install have the same mod name).

As with any newly installed mod, these will be placed at the bottom of the left panel. Make sure they're enabled and I recommend to move them to mimic the order listed in step 5.

  • HDT-SMP can be placed near the top of the left panel, near mods like CBPC and Fuz Ro Doh.
  • CBBE 3BBB can be placed after CBBE SE.
  • No other changes should be needed. 

 

12.2 Building the body and SMP Objects in BodySlide

 

In BodySlide you'll need to build the following sets using your Preset:

  • CBBE 3BBB Body Amazing* - Nude female body that will use any mix of CBPC+SMP (according to your chosen settings during install).
  • CBBE 3BBB Feet - other body parts for 3BBB
  • CBBE 3BBB Hands - other body parts for 3BBB
  • CBBE 3BBB Hands Beast - other body parts for 3BBB
  • CBBE 3BBB Amazing Body SMP ON Object Player -- The (invisible) object that enables HDT-SMP in the player character.
  • CBBE 3BBB Amazing Body SMP ON Object NPC A-cup -- This four sets are different cups to estimate the physics/collisions for the NPCs with HDT-SMP enabled
  • CBBE 3BBB Amazing Body SMP ON Object NPC B-cup -- ^
  • CBBE 3BBB Amazing Body SMP ON Object NPC C-cup -- ^
  • CBBE 3BBB Amazing Body SMP ON Object NPC D-cup -- ^

*This and the other body parts are the only body you should build now (so no more CBBE Body, or CBBE Body Special, etc. You still need to build your other outfits.

By default every NPC will use CBPC only. You can go into the CBBE 3BBB MCM and add the power or spells to enable SMP in the player character or certain NPCs (for example a couple of followers, or your favorite lovers). If you don't want to deal with spells, there are also hotkeys which you can check and configure in the same MCM.

 

You should sort your loadorder as CBBE 3BBB comes with a new plugin file. Everything else should be ready to work, but you might want to search conversions for the armor/clothing mods you use. Regular CBBE will keep working fine, but you won't have the additional physics that 3BBB enables. Same goes for body presets, regular CBBE presets should work fine with CBBE 3BBB, but there are presets specifically made for 3BBB. In case you choose a new preset made for 3BBB or your outfit mods have 3BBB support, you'll need to use BodySlide as usual, building all the sets added by these mods (or doing a Batch build of everything using your new preset).

 

 

13. ENB Presets (Optional)

  Reveal hidden contents

This section is totally optional, as some people prefer to not use ENB at all, due to the performance impact it may have. If you feel confident about your system specifications, give it a try. If you later find you don't want to use ENB, the uninstall process is as easy as removing the mentioned files up next.

 

ENBSeries, or just ENB, is a library of post-process effects. Using ENB will alter the overall look of Skyrim, usually for the better. In terms of files, ENB composes of the following parts:

  • d3d11.dll: also known as "enb binaries", this file can only be downloaded from the official ENBSeries website.
  • d3dcompiler_46e.dll: same as above, the other "enb binaries" file.
  • enblocal.ini: configuration file containing settings like recommended fixes and hotkeys to use. ENB for Skyrim SE requires way less tweaking of settings here, so you can use the one from a preset or the default one (the most noticeable changes are the hotkeys used, as some preset authors like to change the keys).
  • enbseries.ini: another configuration file, this one contains the effects and settings that modify the look of the game. This file, together with the next one is called an "ENB preset".
  • enbseries (folder): contains all the files needed by the ENB preset to show the effects as configured in the enbseries.ini file.

 

13.1 Getting the ENB files (part one) - ENB binaries

 

As you can imagine, we'll need to get these files from two different places:

First, get the ENB binaries and the enblocal.ini file from the official website (this site is weird to navigate, so I linked you directly to the Skyrim SE downloads)

  1. Once in the ENB website, click on the latest version number listed there.
  2. In the new page, scroll down and press the arrow button to download the file.

1989709311_13ENB1download.png.5f12bd7066af2a063daabd13c27f4b26.png

 

Once the download finishes:

  1. Open the downloaded file and go to the "WrapperVersion" folder.
  2. Copy the d3d11.dll, d3dcompiler_46e.dll and the enblocal.ini files.
  3. Go to ...\Steam\Steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition and paste these 3 files in there.
  4. You can delete the downloaded file now, it's not advisable to place any other file from that download into your game.

1159618762_13ENB2enbbinaries.png.94d6f79649376d611da953ccc4bb3819.png

 

13.2 Getting the ENB files (part two) - ENB Preset

 

To get the preset part, you must pick your poison from the hundreds of available presets. Check the ENB Presets category in Nexus and select one you like. When choosing a preset take into account:

  • The final look of the game is the result of several factors, from textures used, weather and lighting mods, to your display/screen calibration and of course the ENB preset you intend to use.
  • Usually, ENB presets works better with the same ENB binaries they were created with. This means that in order to use the latest ENB versions you may prefer to use an ENB preset from the past months, and not a preset that has not been updated since 2016.
  • Check the description of the ENB preset and pay attention to the requirements the author may mention.
    • Some presets are made for an specific combination of weather and lighting mods.
    • Most presets require certain edits to the skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini files. For this you can manually edit the ones in your ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\ or with MO open use the INI Editor (it's an option if you press the jigsaw-puzzle-piece icon).
  • Some presets come with its own enblocal.ini file, if you want to keep your hotkeys and default settings, its better to not use the one from the preset. You can open both and compare the settings to see if the preset requires any particular change to the default settings.
  • Most presets will require the ENB Helper, this is a SKSE extension, install it using MO as usual.
  • Nearly every ENB Preset will reduce your overall performance. After all, you're adding post-process effects. There are ways to get the most efficient implementation for some effects, but chances are you'll lose a couple of FPS with any preset, and probably a lot of FPS with some of the most intense ones.

 

Imaginarium ENB as an example of the contents of an ENB Preset:

528134205_13ENB3exenbpreset.png.c67621b1c09ea5dd55218f2b8967f064.png

 

 

Once you select your preset, make sure you have all the weather/lighting mods the author recommends, install the ENB Helper and check you've correctly placed all the required files in your Skyrim SE folder.

  1. Download the ENB preset. This download should be done using the "MANUAL DOWNLOAD", you can't install ENB files using MO, so downloading it with the "MOD MANAGER DOWNLOAD" is useless.
  2. The ENB preset should come as a zipped file, extract it somewhere to check its content. 
  3. Find the "enbseries" folder and enbseries.ini.
  4. Move both files to your ...\Steam\Steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition folder.
  5. This should be enough for most presets, but some ENB presets come with additional files (multiple enbseries.ini for different levels of performance/effects used, etc.)
    • Don't put all the files in the zipped file directly on your Skyrim SE folder, you should pay attention to what these files are for.
    • Read carefully the install instructions to find what's best for you.

 

After placing every needed file from your choosen preset on your Skyrim SE folder, you should be good to go into the game and test how your game looks now. It's recommended that you play for a while with the Show FPS setting enabled (see the Hotkeys below), to see if your selected preset lowers your performance by a significant amount.

 

If you think your performance is noticeable worse:

  1. Exit the game and look for another preset.
  2. Delete the enbseries.ini and "enbseries" folder inside ...\Steam\Steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition.
  3. Find another preset and repeat the install steps.

 

13.3 ENB hotkeys

 

To check which buttons are used to access the in game config menu or enable/disable certain features, take a look at the INPUT section in the enblocal.ini file. These are the default Hotkeys:

If you'd like to change any of these keys, check the key codes here and replace the numbers for each key.

 

The most used keys are:

  • Show FPS: * in your numeric keyboard, press once to show the FPS you're getting in the top-left corner of your screen, press again to hide it. Useful to check performance (ideally, you want to keep this number as close to 60 as possible, but even without ENB there are some places where your performance may dip to 30-40 FPS, this largely depends on the graphic card and other system specifications of your computer).
  • Use Effect: Shift + F12, will enable or disable the ENB effects used in the preset. You can briefly disable your ENB while playing to compare the game look with and without ENB effects.
  • Editor: Shift + Enter, this will open the ENB configuration menu, it's an overlay displayed on top of Skyrim. To navigate it use your mouse and left click, while you do that your character will move and attack or try to use their equipped items/spells, so be careful (you can open the console at the same time to stop time and stop your character from moving/attacking). This is useful only if you want to tweak a particular effect. To know what to change and how, you'll need to read a bit, the description/comments of your selected ENB preset are a good source of information.

 

Note: Some ENB presets also make use of another post-process library of effects, known as ReShade. Using ReShade is fine for the most part, and the install process may require an extra step or two, but shouldn't be too difficult. I recommend you to pick a preset based on just ENB effects, at least for starters. You'll know if the preset you're looking at uses ReShade features when the file to download contains more files than the default enblocal.ini, enbseries.ini and "enbseries" folder, it will also be mentioned in the description. Once you're familiar with ENB and comfortable with the look of your game you can try a ReShade preset to complement your ENB, or switch to a different ENB+ReShade preset. 

 

 

14. Updating Skyrim SE, SKSE and your mods

  Reveal hidden contents

We've talked about the automatic updates and why these should be disabled by default. Here we'll see how to handle a new Steam update of Skyrim SE and how to update your mods. So, let's start by taking a look at some MO features to keep your mods up to date.

 

14.1 Checking for updates - Nexus mods

 

To check if there are updates available for the mods we have installed: (applies only to mods from Nexus)

  1. Right click anywhere in the left panel of MO.
  2. Select "All Mods" and then press "Check for updates"

1376184749_14Updates2nexusmods.png.d65119700d8a917345c5e46ae787c04c.png

 

After a bit of waiting, you'll see your left panel empty or with just a few mods listed there. Also, you'll notice a red outline (and if you have any mod listed there the version will be red too).

  • If you have mods listed here: right click over them and select "Visit on Nexus", then you'll have to check the download page and get the new files. It would be wise to also check the changelog of the mod or any comments from the author in case your mod requires extra update steps. When you're done with all the mods listed in red, press the "Clear all Filters" near the bottom of the left panel in MO.
    • When updating a mod, you'll be repeating the install process you did the first time. MO will likely assign the same name you gave to your current version of the mod. So when you press "Install" MO will ask you what to do as there is already a mod with that name. You can choose to:
      • Replace: the old files are removed, leaving only the new files inside the mod in the left panel. Recommended for most mods.
      • Merge: keep the old files but overwrite them with the new ones. Useful if you are installing a mod that comes in two or more parts (for example, FNIS and the creature pack of FNIS can be merged).
  • If you have no mods listed here: all your mods are up to date, you can press the "Clear all Filters" to return to the default left panel look.

338065978_14Updates3clearfilter.png.011aae4fc0886115d8bcce76aceb7f0e.png

 

Whenever you check for updates for your mods, MO will also check for MO updates:

 

If you see this icon in color, it means there is an update for MO available

797588080_14Updates1mo.png.d6f6a10426c2272ad06ef74328d6273d.png

 

Pressing that button will open an installer window. There you'll be able to download and install the update in just a couple of clicks. It's safe to update MO as all your mods, downloads and settings will be kept intact.

 

14.2 Checking for updates - other websites

 

For mods from other websites other than Nexus, you'll have to do this manually. If you want to know when a new update is done to LL mods, you can follow the files. The website should give you a notification each time a mod you're following has been updated. To do this press the "Follow" button in each mod's download page:

1493702171_14Updates4llmods.png.f9b9f489d95bb25742ca036158287d38.png

 

Remember you can edit the version of your mods in MO to reflect the actual version number of all your mods. Same for the name given to your mods after they're installed. Keeping that information accurate will help you to track both the content of these mods and their versions. Most mods are safe to update at any time, but you should always check if the author recommends any special steps to update each mod.

 

14.3 Checking for version sensitive mods (mods with .dll files)

 

This filter is especially useful to identify mods that will likely require a particular Skyrim SE / SKSE version. These mods have something in common, they contain a .dll file. Failing to keep all the .dll files from your mods up to date will give you nothing but troubles. This filter will let you see easily which mods you need to keep an extra eye on when looking for updates.

  1. Press the ">>" button in the bottom-left corner of MO.
  2. In the "Filters" list press once over "<Contains Script Extender>", you'll see a "✔" symbol beside it.
  3. Take note of the mods listed there, these mods contain a .dll file which will probably won't work if you update Skyrim SE or SKSE before updating these mods.
  4. Once you're done, press the "Clear all Filters" near the bottom of the left panel of MO to go back to your usual mod list.

1383370789_14Updates5sksefilter.png.aaff9d1ead6c6c9dce17b2a1ce764c54.png

 

I recommend you to rename these mods to help you identify them without the need to apply this filter every time. For example add a "(DLL)" or "Check SKSE version" or "Thanks Bethesda" at the start or end of the mod name. Usually, trying to start the game with an outdated .dll in any of your enabled mods will give you issues (from crashes before reaching the start menu to broken mods). After you're done checking for your mods with .dll remember that you can press the "Clear all Filters" button to return to your full modlist (left panel).

 

14.4 How to prepare your game and mods for a Skyrim SE update (thanks Bethesda)

 

Now that you know how to check for updates and to check which mods will likely require an update once a new Skyrim SE version is released, here is the best way to prepare your game for this new update:

  1. Check the SE Compatibility Tracking post, the very first thing you'll see is the Summary, it displays the current Skyrim SE version and when an update is near there are messages about potential dates for the incoming update.
  2. When an update for Skyrim SE has been confirmed (and released through Steam), you'll have to wait a couple of days for the SKSE team to update a new SKSE release
    1. Go to the SKSE official website and check the "Current SE Build".
    2. When the current build supports the new Skyrim SE version you're almost ready to update.
  3. Check your installed mods for updates, especially those with .dll files. You cannot update Skyrim SE nor SKSE until you know all the mods you use are updated to the latest SKSE version.
  4. During this time you can actually play the game, if you disabled automatic updates in Steam and you don't manually update other things you should be fine. Just avoid any updates, this includes updating Skyrim SE, SKSE and any mod with a .dll file. You can only update them when all these things have been updated.

 

Once you're 100% sure everything has a new version compatible with the new update, you'll have to:

  1. Open Skyrim SE through Steam, this will force Steam to update the game. You don't need to actually open the game, just let Steam know you want to launch it and the update should start downloading.
  2. Go to https://skse.silverlock.org/ and get the latest Current SE Build of SKSE.
    1. You'll have to repeat the install process, the .dll and .exe files go into your ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition, the "Scripts" must be added through MO in the same way, make a .7z file and add it using the "Install mod" button. Replace or delete the old scripts (in MO's left panel) before installing the new ones.
  3. Get all the updates for your mods with .dll files from each mod's download page.

 

A fun process indeed, this is why we say: Thanks Bethesda! each time we have to worry about Skyrim SE updates. But by doing this, we're ensuring all our mods will be working while we wait for updates (so we can keep playing). And at the same time we can jump into the latest version of everything once all our mods have been updated. And to be honest, this is something you'll be doing at most once every two-three months. Luckily, we have the Address Library for SKSE now (listed in step 5.1 as Required mod), which will help to deal with mod updates. All you have to do is install this library as any other mod and keep it updated. Although there are still mods with a .dll file that requires a particular SKSE version, a lot of mods have been updated to use this Library and facilitate the update process for users.

 

 

15. Locating your files + quick Tool recap

  Reveal hidden contents

This section will contain a list of the most used folders and files as well as a list of all the tools mentioned thus far.

 

Steam Library: By default it contains all your installed games through Steam.

  • ...\Steam\steamapps\common\

 

Skyrim SE folder: Contains the original game files and a few additional files (like SKSE and ENB files).

  • ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition

 

Working folder: The folder we created during this guide, it should contain most of the software used to apply mods to Skyrim. The name and location is up to you, just remember: it must not be inside ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition.

 

MO2 / Mod Organizer 2: Our main tool and mod manager, this folder should be under our working folder and it contains the following notable files:

  • ...\MO2\downloads: contains all the zipped files we've downloaded from Skyrim SE Nexus. Remember you can delete the files here once you've installed them.
  • ...\MO2\mods: contains all the mods you've installed in MO. Each folder will have the same name as the mods listed in your left panel in MO.
  • ...\MO2\overwrite: the actual folder of the Overwrite entry at the bottom of the left panel in MO.
  • ...\MO2\profiles: as we've not used the profiles feature, it should only contain one folder named "Default".
  • ...\MO2\profiles\Default: contains the following files:
    • loadorder.txt: contains the list of plugin files (.esm, .esp and .esl) in the order shown in the right panel of MO. Useful if you need to copy&paste your loadorder to ask for assistance.
    • modlist.txt: contains the list of mods shown in your left panel of MO. Useful if you need to ask for assistance and want to complement the loadorder (as you'd noticed by now, not every mod you install appears in your loadorder, because not every mod needs a plugin file to work).
    • other .txt files that you may not use, but that must be kept here (if you use the Profile-specific ini files setting you'll also find the Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini used by MO2 here).

 

Default save & ini files location: Located under your Documents folder by default. It contains your saves, log files (from the game itself or your mods) and the set of .ini files generated with BethINI should be in here:

  • ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\

 

When to use each tool: Here is a quick recap of what does each tool and when should be used:

  • BethINI.exe: generates the game configuration files (skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini) with a set of optimized settings.
    • How: with MO closed, using the executable directly from the BethINI folder. The generated .ini files will be in the default location (...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition).
    • When: Ideally only once, right after you've downloaded a clean copy of the game from Steam. If you want to tweak some settings in particular you might want to do it manually (opening the .ini files in ...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition or using the "Tools" [jigsaw pieces icon] -> "INI Editor" in MO).
  • LOOT.exe: sorts your loadorder with a given set of rules, should avoid most of the obvious conflicts and give you a functional loadorder. Manual tweaks might be needed in rare cases for some mods (should be specified in these mod descriptions).
    • How: use the LOOT executable that is automatically added to MO after installing LOOT.
    • When: whenever you add mods that comes with a plugin file (.esm, .esp, .esl files), as the newly added plugins will be placed at the bottom of your loadorder by default and that might conflict badly.  
  • GenerateFNISforUsers.exe: this executable will update the behavior files so all the custom animations from your various mods are used properly in game. Failing to generate valid behavior files will cause the common T-pose issue.
    • How: using the GenerateFNISforUsers executable that was added to MO during step 7.
    • When: whenever you add, change or remove a mod that comes with custom animations. If you're not sure if a mod that you've recently added or removed contains custom animations, you can use it whenever you add, change or remove any kind of mod.
  • BodySlide x64.exe: allows to use body and outfits presets (these define the shape of said bodies/outfits) and generates new meshes for said presets, so everything fits nicely.
    • How: using the Bodyslide x64 executabled added to MO in step 8.
    • When: After installing a mod that provides new outfits (armor, clothing and other wearable accessories) that use BS (it should be specified in the mod description, also the mod will come with a ...\CalienteTools folder). It's recommended to build everything available at first and then you can go one outfit at a time to check if you can further customize them to your liking or preview them if there is more than one alternative for the same outfit.
  • SSE Edit.exe: powerful tool to edit game records inside plugin files. There are multiple uses for this tool, so if you don't know the specific instructions to use them you shouldn't use it blindly. In this guide the only recommended use is to clean the official master files following a guide, linked in step 9.
  • SSEEditQuickAutoClean.exe: same as above, although this executable in particular is only used to clean the official master files. Should be used following the instructions linked in step 9.

 

 

 

And there you have it. A functional Sexlab Framework with support for additional animations packs, nude bodies for both males and females and optional physics. If you've been following the instructions and had success in completing this first test, you should be ready to follow other guides to achieve a modded game fitting to your preferences. Here are some good sources to get your mods and relevant information:

  • SE Compatibility Tracking - List of available mods for Skyrim SE and information about its updates (especially useful for mods requiring a particular SKSE version).
  • Sexlab Index SE - List of mods for Skyrim SE sorted by categories. Listed mods have a one line description so you can quickly get the gist of each mod.
  • Remember there are two Nexus sites for Skyrim, don't mix LE mods in your SE game, unless you 100% know what you're doing.
  • There are also separate download sections for mods here. But some LE mods have SE versions under the LE download section (that's where threads like the SE Compatibility Tracking and the Sexlab Index SE shine, use them to get a general view of what is available for SE).
  • If you're interested in creature stuff (which isn't covered in this guide) I strongly recommend you to check the MNC Install Guide. Download the latest version, extract the files and check the "Install Guide Notes 64bitSE.txt" file. It contains instructions and links for all the requirements to make MNC work, which I think is the most complete and up to date mod about creatures. Add the required mods as usual through MO and follow any additional advice about loadorder or settings.
  • If you want to expand your mod list by a significant amount you should check the Skyrim SE for Beginners. This is a solid modlist tested and tweaked by Aylis, so if you're willing to give it a try make sure you follow every bit of instruction. Notable warnings:
    • This modlist doesn't make use of LOOT, instead, the install order will dictate the loadorder. Make sure you're installing and enabling your mods in the same order as they're mentioned in the guide. Don't use LOOT.
    • Due to the above requirement, you should remove all the mods you've installed up to this point following my guide. To completely remove a mod from MO you need to find it in the left panel, right click on it and select Remove mod. I know it's counter intuitive to undo all you've done up to this point. But the mods covered here are nothing compared to all the mods you'll have to install if you follow that guide. So you want things to work properly, and for this to happen you better stick to the instructions. By starting with a clean MO profile, your install order will match what's stated in the guide. I hope the knowledge you gained in this threads proves useful when you follow Aylis guide.
  • Don't stop there, check the other forum sections for other mods and interesting threads. Keep in mind you'll need to find mods compatible with SE. So try to stick to the SE forum sections and if you have doubts check the mod information or ask in the existing thread for the mod in question.

"Everything the light touches... is our kingdom".

Also known as: these are the forum sections made specifically for Skyrim SE. Don't post SE content elsewhere (people get angry).

1596119689_99seforums.png.449ded8bbb649b2a658687a04439fe6e.png

 

Lastly, some general advice on how to avoid problems:

  1. Try to keep things in order.
    1. This means knowing the mods you're installing to a minimum extend (why you're installing them, what do they do, what are its requirements, will it conflict or overlap with others mods you have installed, etc.). 
    2. It also means making good use of your tools features. In the case of MO you should:
      • Keep a clean Overwrite (moving any created file to where you see fit).
      • Keep the name and version fields with the actual information for the mods you have installed.
      • Placing newly added mods in the proper place (in both your left and right panel), which means solving any active conflict and following the loadorder given by LOOT or by the mod author.
  2. If you're planning to install new mods do it a few at a time. Install one, double-check its requirements, loadorder, re-run any tool if you need to. You should test the mod in game and confirm things are working as you'd expect. Rinse and repeat with every mod you want to add (you could attempt to install 3-4 mods at a time but pay special attention to each mod features and requirements so you can cover these requirements and test each mod feature in game).
  3. If you ever need to update a mod in the middle of a game, remember to check the mod description/instructions in case there are additional steps to perform before/after updating the mod. Remember there are some mods made for an specific game or SKSE version, so keep that in mind when updating your game/SKSE/mods .
  4. If for any reason you want to remove a mod, also check if there are specific instructions to do so in the mod description. Most of the times removing a mod is a straightforward process where you uninstall it from MO and load your last save and keep playing. There are other cases where you need to disable the mod in game and then remove it for good from your mod manager. There are instances in which you'll also need to clean your saves after uninstalling a mod, for that there is Fallrim Tools. Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and keep a copy of your save prior to any cleaning/uninstall procedure just for safe measure.
  5. Avoid the "Light" version of known mods (examples: Sexlab light, Matchmaker light). These "Light" versions were an early attempt to have a functional framework before we had SKSE and MCM.
    • Nowadays, we have access to SKSE and MCM.
    • Most of the mods have been already ported or have a new version made for SE.
    • There is a high chance these "light" mods are outdated. In some cases said mods haven't been updated in literal years.
    • Even if these "light" mods work for you they'll likely be incompatible with most of the non-light ones and may cause issues in the long run.

 

And if you encounter a problem:

  1. Don't try to add mods until it works. Adding more mods is never the solution, unless your issue is a missing requirement. Try to isolate the issue, making a new game with just a few mods enabled at a time so you can pinpoint which mod or mod combination is the source of the problem.
  2. Use the Support Thread of the mod(s) in question. You can access that post by pressing the "Support Thread" button right under the green "Download" button in every LL mod page. It's recommended to always check at least the last comments in there. Sometimes there are known issues and other users may post their findings in there (possible fixes, how to avoid the issue, etc.).
  3. Check the Technical Support for Skyrim SE, that's the support section for issues if you're playing Skyrim SE. Take a look at the existing threads, you may find someone else with a similar issue, you can even find the solution in one of these posts. As a last resort, you can create a new thread there asking for help.
  4. When asking for help try to be as descriptive as you can. Include all the relevant information you can (your FNIS log if you think the issue is related to animations, your loadorder.txt and modlist.txt, a screenshot or copy&paste of any error messages and so on).
  5. Be polite. All the help you receive here (the whole forum, not just this thread) is from people who chooses to spend their free time trying to help you and others.



 

Sorry for my bad english

Hi guys i am having a problem with almost everysingle mod i installed. 

.again not entirely sure. i even ran mo as admin and i still get that error code.



0.jpg.5d63127ed2279c312f3b70444cb241b6.jpg

Link to comment
5 hours ago, Lalife826 said:

Hi guys i am having a problem with almost everysingle mod i installed. 

That message is telling you SKSE was not properly installed, or you didn't start the game through the SKSE executable in MO2. As SKSE is required by several mods, failing to install it or starting the game without it's executable will cause problems for multiple mods. Verify your SKSE install (step 4).

Link to comment
30 minutes ago, Vrddy said:

Hey I'm on step 04.4 and I've done everything up to this point but SKSE does not pop up in the executable list?

It's added automatically after you copy the dll and exe files from the SKSE64 download into your Skyrim Special Edition install. You just need to do that part of the install with MO2 closed, or close and open MO2 again after you've done that part. Either way the SKSE executable should be added.

 

If it's not (no idea why, and you would be the first needing to do this manually), you can do it manually

  1. Press the Executables button in the top bar
  2. Use the + button and select "Add from file...", this will open an explorer window to select an executable
  3. Go to your Skyrim Special Edition install (the one inside Steam\steamapps\etc) and select the skse64_loader.exe
  4. Press Apply and OK in the Modify Executables window to save the changes.
  5. You should now have a SKSE executable in the list.

image.png.f2f186dbe005595d655e0aee47da9acb.png

 

Link to comment

I just downloaded The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition last night and I realized that in order to make it more than it already is I need some animations installed. I visited countless animation creators nexusmods

 


Can someone help me to find out why animation on The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition mods element doesn't work?

 

 

<><><><><><><><>
 I am attaching screenshots to show

1
1.jpg.c55a28fb1f416fea0315da836756299b.jpg

 

22.jpg.40b01af67eddd94524905df77a1305dd.jpg

 

3

3.png.c5ec98f937a43bb17161114ee5fb7d2f.png

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. For more information, see our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use