Save Game Cleansing - courtesy of the SKSE mod!

[WaxenFigure]

 

Save games that have wrong version scripts loaded or still running scripts for mods that have been disabled or uninstalled can now be cleansed.

 

This means that a lot of great character saves that became unplayable because of that problem can now be recovered!

 

The latest versions of SKSE added a new console command: ClearInvalidRegistrations

 

This command can be used to purge your save game of those dead scripts (I suggest you not have loaded any version of the mod that gave you the bad script just to make sure it gets killed).

 

They recommend you wait a couple of game hours after running the command, I suggest you follow that with a couple of real time minutes to make sure it's had time to purge all the bad scripts.

 

They also allow this to be set in the INI file for every game startup use, I highly recommend any modder never use that option. You need to know if your mod is leaving behind these artifacts so you can fix your mod, having them auto-removed means you may miss the fact that your mod has bugs needing fixed.

 

Forgive me if I seem to have spammed this across the forums but this has been such a big problem for so long I wanted to be sure everyone gets the word as quickly as possible.  (Notice placed in existing threads on the other forums but...)

[VectorPlexus]

actually no, it just clears unregistered Update events, not scripts. although I think thats a goal the SKSE team is trying to achieve, it doesnt do that yet. So far the only method to remove script references is by hack 'n slash your saved games with an hex editor, and its not recommend at all. Here's the full transcript from the 1.6.9 Readme file:

 

 

- add console command ClearInvalidRegistrations to remove invalid OnUpdate() registrations
    This prevents orphaned OnUpdate() events and the resulting bloated/broken saves when removing certain mods.
    When applied to an already bloated save, it will stop growing further and instead shrink over time
    as the game processes all queued events. This may take hours depending on the amount of bloat.
    To execute automatically after each reload, add this to \Data\SKSE\skse.ini:
    [General]
    ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

 

[LaEspada]

Oh? This looks mighty interesting. The future of skyrim modding looks extremely promising all thanks to skse.

I tip my hat to you development team.

[mr.bananas]

Hmm... Now if I just could get the game to actually "load" the botched savegame, I'd totally type that command in.

Thanks for the tip, this may save some other save and hopefully, save me the day. XD

[scepth]

I don't see the skse.ini file in my Data folder, did I miss something on previous downloads?

[Vioxsis]

If it's not there make one.

[WaxenFigure]

Hmm... Now if I just could get the game to actually "load" the botched savegame, I'd totally type that command in.

Thanks for the tip, this may save some other save and hopefully, save me the day. XD

 

Try loading a near the damaged save that still works and then once it's loaded load the save that doesn't load.  It's a trick many have learned to get back into a save game that won't otherwise load.

[ReMeDy]

I'm kinda scared to do this .

 

Edit: I did a test with this. My most recent save had a file size of 9,311kb. I used the console command and the console said it removed one object (I was expecting a bit more!) My new file size was then 9,304kb. I then quit the game, reload the save, and decide to also sleep a few hours and wait a few minutes in real-time. Saved. Then my file size jumped to 9,342kb!

 

So yea... It didn't really do anything for me, although I have no issues and rarely CTD, so I'm probably not the best candidate for this.

 

 

[Crowzer]

I did to thing to, a least, clear my savegame, the same used from the release day of Skyrim.

 

The ClearInvalidRegistrations command has clear about 40 dead scripts.

Also tried this. The size of my save has been reduced by 2 mo.

[aelfwyne]

 

Hmm... Now if I just could get the game to actually "load" the botched savegame, I'd totally type that command in.

Thanks for the tip, this may save some other save and hopefully, save me the day. XD

 

Try loading a near the damaged save that still works and then once it's loaded load the save that doesn't load.  It's a trick many have learned to get back into a save game that won't otherwise load.

 

Yeah, tried that myself and no dice.

 

For me, I lost 10 levels on a character due to this problem. Three days worth of saves went corrupt all in one fell swoop. I know what did it too, but I can't seem to "fix" it. I uninstalled Crossbows Basic Collection and installed Crossbows Revamped. Then 3 days later, I *deleted* Crossbows Basic Collection. For some reason, thanks to Nexus Mod Manager, the two had been in a "mixed" state I think, when I thought the first was completely disabled, it wasn't actually. When I deleted it, my savegames suddenly quit working. Restoring it did no good.

 

Tried the INI file feature, tried loading a working save first, nothing works. Thinking of doing the hex edit fix but man that's a real pain in the wajeebers.

[Alphaman]

Thinking of doing the hex edit fix but man that's a real pain in the wajeebers.

 

 

If you're talking about zeroing out the papyrus section of your save file, I'll have to advise against it if at all possible. I've tried it, and it works, but the price to pay is way too high (in my opinion at least)

 

My problems are rather minor. In fact, the only thing I can remember right now is that when reverting from Vampire Lord form, my character goes back to the non-vampire version of its race (LunariRace instead of LunariRaceVampire). Doing the zeroing-out method worked, even for something as small as this

 

However, the downside to it is absolutely enormous. Quests get broken, conversation lines get broken, variables, everything really. You'll have quests you can't complete normally, you'll have follower problems, you'll have frozen NPCs, you'll have NPCs always standing in the same spot in town doing nothing because the papyrus variables are telling them they never had a pre-programmed conversation with another NPC, and the game state is telling them they already have... You'll essentially be continuing your game in a broken world

 

I saw someone making an analogy between this method and removing a tumour with a chainsaw. I can't think of a better one myself

[Dorikin]

Thanks WaxenFigure for pointing this out. It helped turn what was once an unstable save to a sturdy one that barely CTDs.

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

How do I know if my save is being bloated? After approx. 15 saves on a lvl 5 character, the .ess save version is 4711kb - is that bad?

 

I made an SKSE.ini file in the location suggested above, with the required command enabled, entered the command in-game & received a msg "Removed 0 invalid OnUpdate registration(s)".

 

 

[RJLbwb]

How do I know if my save is being bloated? After approx. 15 saves on a lvl 5 character, the .ess save version is 4711kb - is that bad?

 

I made an SKSE.ini file in the location suggested above, with the required command enabled, entered the command in-game & received a msg "Removed 0 invalid OnUpdate registration(s)".

 

 

You're fine, saves of about 8K are normal.

[WaxenFigure]

How do I know if my save is being bloated? After approx. 15 saves on a lvl 5 character, the .ess save version is 4711kb - is that bad?

 

I made an SKSE.ini file in the location suggested above, with the required command enabled, entered the command in-game & received a msg "Removed 0 invalid OnUpdate registration(s)".

Putting it in the INI also means you should never see anything but that message if you run the command in game because any such registrations would have already been removed during the loading of the save.

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Ah cool - thanks people!