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Solutions for abstruse problems


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This is a catalogue of solutions for non-trivial problems: fixes for issues that can plague even experienced Skyrim modders.

 

The guide assumes a certain level of competence and familiarity with modding the game and editing settings, and focuses on problems that can remain even after properly following the instructions of all the mods that are installed. This is primarily about general issues; if you are having problems with a particular mod, make sure to check its instructions and FAQ first.

 

 

Q1. Lag when scripts equip items, mod initialization takes a long time in-game

 

Not enough system resources are allocated to the Papyrus scripting system. Check if you have a [Papyrus] section in Skyrim.ini , and replace/add the following:

Quote

[Papyrus]
fUpdateBudgetMS=800.0
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=800.0
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000.0
iMinMemoryPageSize=256
iMaxMemoryPageSize=512
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=153600

 

Q2. Significant lag or low FPS outside, but decent performance in inside cells

 

The most likely culprits are grass and tree mods. Uninstall mods that enhance the detail or add more trees or grass. Explicitly performance-focused mods that simplify or remove grass or trees can be okay to keep.

 

Replace/add the following to SkyrimPrefs.ini :

Quote

[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=0

Replace/add the following to Skyrim.ini:

Quote

[Grass]

fGrassWindMagnitudeMax=0
fGrassWindMagnitudeMin=0

If the issue persists, check your [LOD] settings in SkyrimPrefs.ini and lower them as needed.

 

 

Q3. Some random textures appear to be missing (purple), even though other textures from the same mod appear just fine

 

The most likely issue is running out of video memory: textures that are loaded later in-game may no longer fit in memory and a placeholder (purple) texture may be displayed instead. Some mods do not offer textures lower than 4k resolution; this can be an issue on weaker systems. The solution is to reduce the size of the textures using DDSopt or Ordenador (use just one of them after searching for and reading an up-to-date guide) to 2k, or if really necessary, to 1k.

 

Make sure you are not immediately skipping to mipmaps in your in-game settings: if you are resizing textures using one of the tools above, you presumably want to use by default the size you optimized for, not a (half-sized) mipmap of it. So change/add the following line in SkyrimPrefs.ini :

Quote

[Display]

iTexMipMapSkip=0

 

Q4. Some buildings abruptly change shape when getting closer to them

 

Force-disabling mipmapping can have such an effect on a weaker system, as the computer struggles to load and display full-sized texture data even at a distance. This can be especially noticeable when approaching windmills and stables. The ideal is to use higher-level (lower-resolution) mipmaps for distant objects, and lower-level (higher-resolution) mipmaps for nearby objects.

 

"iTexMipMapMinimum" controls how low-resolution to get when necessary (distant things), while "iTexMipMapSkip" controls how high-resolution to get when necessary (nearby things). Higher numbers mean lower resolution, with 0 being the highest resolution (full-size textures). To allow distant things to render more efficiently, change/add the following line in SkyrimPrefs.ini :

Quote

[Display]

iTexMipMapMinimum=4

 

Q5. Trees or buildings appear jarringly abruptly in the distance

 

Mods that add new objects to the outside world tend to not include LODs. This means that such newly-added objects just suddenly appear when they are close enough to be loaded into the cell. With LODs, lower-resolution versions of such new objects can be seen even from a greater distance, which then change into their normal-resolution forms as you get closer. Use DynDOLOD (better) or TES5LODGen (simpler) to generate LODs.

 

 

Q6. Eyes sometimes look weird after texture optimization

 

Avoid mipmaps for eye textures; they tend to look terrible. Most mods that provide eye textures do not include mipmaps in those files for a reason. Replace your optimized eye textures with the original ones from the mods, or use a texture optimizer to remove mipmaps specifically from eye textures.

 

 

Q7. NPCs struggle to climb stairs or get stuck while walking on uneven terrain

 

This can happen with mods that adjust stairs or NPC walk speeds. Assuming the navmeshes are fine (they are heading in a direction that makes sense, just struggle to actually make progress), this can be fixed by using a speeds mod that slightly increases NPC walk speed, such as Movement Speeds Fixed. Use TES5Edit to check how your preferred speeds mod interacts with other mods that affect speed (e.g. if you use combat mods like Mortal Enemies), and make a patch to use the best parts of both mods if necessary.

 

 

Q8. Lag or low FPS using ENB or ENBoost and Wine

 

While most guides strongly recommend using at least ENBoost to get better performance, this can have a surprisingly detrimental effect on some setups under Wine. Try running Skyrim without any ENB (no d3d9.dll) and see if the performance improves - e.g. Elys Meminfo can be used to compare the FPS.

 

 

Q9. Limiting FPS without ENB under Linux

 

Limiting FPS can improve overall performance on weaker systems, with lower graphical demands resulting in less frequent and less severe stutters. Libstrangle can be used to effectively limit FPS under Linux.

 

 

Q10. SKSE memory tweaks not recognizing Steam

 

This can be an issue with Wine/Linux, and possibly on other systems too. To fix it, append a command line argument: skse_loader.exe -forcesteamloader

 

 

Q11. Missing meshes or missing textures under Mac or Linux

 

Filenames and folders are case-sensitive under Unix-like systems, but case-insensitive under Windows and Wine. This means that after installing mods under Mac or Linux one may end up with multiple folders or files that differ only in the letter case of their name. When starting Skyrim under Wine, it will (randomly?) pick one of the (from a case-insensitive perspective) "identically named" folders or files and ignore the others.

 

With files split between folders that differ only in the letter case of their name, this can result in a large number of important files being effectively ignored by Skyrim under Wine, producing all kinds of weird errors. To check if you have this issue, run the following command in a OS terminal (outside of the game) when the current folder is your wine-prefix for Skyrim:

Quote

find . | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sort | uniq -d

This will list all files and folders that differ only in the letter case of their name. To then fix the issue, you will have to manually merge the "identical" folders and make sure that for each pair of files located in the same directory that only differ in the letter case of their name, you only keep the one you prefer.

 

 

Q12. Unable to sell certain items to vendors

 

Some mods include non-quest items that vanilla vendors do not buy, which may then accumulate endlessly in your inventory. To remove item category-based vendor restrictions (e.g. selling a weapon to an alchemist, etc), enter the following in the in-game console ("~"):

Quote

player.modav BypassVendorKeywordCheck 1

Note that this command plays nice with mods and does not break things: untradeable/quest items will still be untradeable; vendors who refuse to buy stolen goods will still refuse to buy them; if a mod specifically prevents you from selling certain things to certain vendors, that restriction will still remain.

 

 

Q13. Player or follower cannot draw weapon, stuck in an endless bleedout state

 

Some mods that offer death alternative or surrender options may get you or your follower stuck in a bleedout state when that is not appropriate (e.g. you managed to flee from the attackers, no hostiles are nearby, but the character still refuses to recover). To fix this issue, open the in-game console ("~"), select the character in the inappropriate bleedout state as your target, and use the command:

Quote

resethealth

If it is your own character who is in the bleedout state, you can use "player.resethealth" instead. Close the console and wait a few seconds.

 

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