guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[alaunus01]

6 hours ago, Villiana said:

Hi! I'm thinking of installing this modlist (because I am LAZY and I like having my hand held, but also because collections suck ass and I like modlists that are properly curated and not just thrown together and labelled as 'THE BEST'), but I'm also running on a fairly low to mid-end laptop. I'm a little bit concerned about the stress such an intensive list will put on my system, is it viable to just skip out on stuff like the ENB, DynDOLOD (Though I'm not sure how impactful this actually is, or will actually BE if I turn my LOD down), and 2k textures for all of the random clutter and stuff?

Is there anything else on the list I should consider being wary of, too? 

A proper DynDOLOD will actually improve your FPS. Anyway..... *inhales*

Most important thing to make this list run on a potato is to obey your VRAM limitations. Once your system starts swapping textures from VRAM to RAM you will have noticable framedrops. 1080p with an 8GB gpu using 2k textures or less should be fine, 1440p you probably want 12GB. If you introduce 4k textures all bets are off. Easy to use 16GB of VRAM that way.
Now if you have a GPU with less than 8GB VRAM I would suggest stepping down to 1k textures. It is much easier to upgrade something like player character textures to 2k after the fact than having to go through ALL texture packs because you bit off too much for your GPU to chew on.

*exhales*

[Villiana]

1 hour ago, alaunus01 said:

A proper DynDOLOD will actually improve your FPS. Anyway..... *inhales*

Most important thing to make this list run on a potato is to obey your VRAM limitations. Once your system starts swapping textures from VRAM to RAM you will have noticable framedrops. 1080p with an 8GB gpu using 2k textures or less should be fine, 1440p you probably want 12GB. If you introduce 4k textures all bets are off. Easy to use 16GB of VRAM that way.
Now if you have a GPU with less than 8GB VRAM I would suggest stepping down to 1k textures. It is much easier to upgrade something like player character textures to 2k after the fact than having to go through ALL texture packs because you bit off too much for your GPU to chew on.

*exhales*

Oh, nice! Appreciated.

[wollboi]

I used to run this on a pretty mid-level "gaming laptop." I'd say go for it. Maybe skip ENB and whenever presented with your choice of 2k, 4k, 8k, etc. texture mods go for the lower-end.

[Samson21]

so i finally got this to not CTD (was an outdated mod install) but when i load in, 90% of the people have purple hands and are stuck in a t pose like stance, i've also noticed that i have no animations as well, and it feels like the game is in a "cinematic mode" with the camera. can someone give me a few tips on what i should be looking at to fix it?  i'm guessing i need to run FNIS again, but when i run it, do i need to update the FNIS output folder and do stuff with the nemesis stuff again? I also cannot go into 3rd person camera.

enb2024_5_4_13_18_16.bmp

Edited May 4, 2024 by Samson21

[hardcoremanuel]

9 hours ago, Samson21 said:

so i finally got this to not CTD (was an outdated mod install) but when i load in, 90% of the people have purple hands and are stuck in a t pose like stance, i've also noticed that i have no animations as well, and it feels like the game is in a "cinematic mode" with the camera. can someone give me a few tips on what i should be looking at to fix it?  i'm guessing i need to run FNIS again, but when i run it, do i need to update the FNIS output folder and do stuff with the nemesis stuff again? I also cannot go into 3rd person camera.

enb2024_5_4_13_18_16.bmp 7.91 MB · 1 download

The "cinematic mode" is an ENB setting. The usual hot key to bring up the ENB menu is "Shift + Enter". Look for a letterbox setting to get rid of the black bars. Whenever you rerun FNIS and Nemesis be sure to delete your previous outputs before rerunning either. Purple texture mean you probably installed BnP or RBT incorrectly. For the BnP RBT patches look under the "Old Files" Section of the BnP download page.

[wollboi]

Always better to rerun FNIS and Nemesis. Just either delete the output folders and make new ones afterwards or delete their contents and drag the newly created files/folders from Overwrite to those folders.

[Caxapo4ek]

Hi all.
I have a problem with simple wearable lanterns - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
 Same with npcs - flashlights just don't emit light, in a dark room/outside at night/dungeon the flashlights don't illuminate anything.
The mod comments are closed, I can't even see if anyone else has the same problem.
In this thread it was advised to install a fixed script for this mod - and I installed it, but the lanterns still don't emit light everywhere... And some dungeons are incredibly dark to play without lights at all.

Help pls

Edited May 6, 2024 by Caxapo4ek

[Bigglsby]

3 hours ago, Caxapo4ek said:

Hi all.
I have a problem with simple wearable lanterns - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
 Same with npcs - flashlights just don't emit light, in a dark room/outside at night/dungeon the flashlights don't illuminate anything.
The mod comments are closed, I can't even see if anyone else has the same problem.
In this thread it was advised to install a fixed script for this mod - and I installed it, but the lanterns still don't emit light everywhere... And some dungeons are incredibly dark to play without lights at all.

Help pls

 

I remember when I was reading in on simple wearable lanterns, there are issues with light source limits.  If I'm remembering correctly, there is a hard limit on the number of light sources at a given time (possibly fixable, dunno).  So I've always preferred working around to an ENB that just doesn't require light sources...

 

But, there was an older mod I'd played around with recently that worked well.  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12633

Quick Light - basically a Pip-boy light like effect for Skyrim - MCM configurable to taste.

 

[asebw]

Running into two strange problems that may or may not be related. Hoping someone might be able to give me some direction. 

 

1. When I hit the esc key to open the system menu, the game crashes. Currently I only have the SKSE Extensions, Foundation, and UI sections up and running for troubleshooting purposes. While a log file is being generated, I am not seeing anything that points to anything obvious (might be a little rusty admittedly). 

 

2. When ever the game closes, either normally or because of a crash, all of the plugins get disabled. Not sure if this is something new with MO2 2.5.0, or if it is related to the above issue. 

 

The only other issue atm is that some of the rocks are missing their textures. Haven't been able to track that down yet, since it doesn't seem to be related to the crashing issue, and is most likely just missing a mod further down in the list.

 

If anyone has any idea as to what could be the cause, or at least what I should be looking at, please do let me know. I have also attached a crash log in case someone is more proficient in reading those than I currently am. 

 

 

crash-2024-05-07-02-41-47.log

[Caxapo4ek]

15 hours ago, Bigglsby said:

 

I remember when I was reading in on simple wearable lanterns, there are issues with light source limits.  If I'm remembering correctly, there is a hard limit on the number of light sources at a given time (possibly fixable, dunno).  So I've always preferred working around to an ENB that just doesn't require light sources...

 

But, there was an older mod I'd played around with recently that worked well.  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12633

Quick Light - basically a Pip-boy light like effect for Skyrim - MCM configurable to taste.

 

Thank to your answer.

Quick light safe to install in midgame?

 

 

@asebw i think it's SSE Engine Fixes. Try this:  found EngineFixes.toml file and modify EnableAchievementsWithMods = False

[Bigglsby]

6 hours ago, Caxapo4ek said:

Thank to your answer.

Quick light safe to install in midgame?

 

It should be as safe as any other simple mod is to add midgame.  Tack it to the end of your load order and leave it there until you decide if you don't like and want to remove, or until you start a new game.  Don't adjust your load order mid-game (adjust position of other plugins).  Simple non-script stuff is generally OK(ish) to tack on to the end, or peel off from the end, as it doesn't mess with the order of plugins already in-play.

[trgdolors]

22 hours ago, Bigglsby said:

But, there was an older mod I'd played around with recently that worked well.  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12633

Quick Light - basically a Pip-boy light like effect for Skyrim - MCM configurable to taste.

I have happily used Quick Light SE for a long time. I use it with (SJG) Quick Light Patch (based upon in game Torch values for light settings) and Quick Light SE - Settings Loader.

 

I have not compacted and ESLed Quick Light yet, but may try it before my next play through. It may be OK to do, though it does have scripts. There is Quick Light SE - ESL Flagged, but I might rather ESL it myself.

[asebw]

7 hours ago, Caxapo4ek said:

Thank to your answer.

Quick light safe to install in midgame?

 

 

@asebw i think it's SSE Engine Fixes. Try this:  found EngineFixes.toml file and modify EnableAchievementsWithMods = False

 

 

Wow, not only did that work, but it also got a bunch of other mods in foundation working that I had not realized were not working. Never seen that happen before with SSE engine fixes. Now I am very curious as to why it's happening ><. 

 

Regardless, thank you for the input. 

[monkinsane]

Just a quick Heads-up, 

New version of NGIO (No Grass In Objects) is out - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42161?tab=description

[monkinsane]

11 hours ago, asebw said:

Running into two strange problems that may or may not be related. Hoping someone might be able to give me some direction. 

 

1. When I hit the esc key to open the system menu, the game crashes. Currently I only have the SKSE Extensions, Foundation, and UI sections up and running for troubleshooting purposes. While a log file is being generated, I am not seeing anything that points to anything obvious (might be a little rusty admittedly). 

 

2. When ever the game closes, either normally or because of a crash, all of the plugins get disabled. Not sure if this is something new with MO2 2.5.0, or if it is related to the above issue. 

 

The only other issue atm is that some of the rocks are missing their textures. Haven't been able to track that down yet, since it doesn't seem to be related to the crashing issue, and is most likely just missing a mod further down in the list.

 

If anyone has any idea as to what could be the cause, or at least what I should be looking at, please do let me know. I have also attached a crash log in case someone is more proficient in reading those than I currently am. 

 

 

crash-2024-05-07-02-41-47.log 32.78 kB · 2 downloads

You need to edit EngineFixes ini and disable (Enable achievements in steam on modded game).

[monkinsane]

8 hours ago, Caxapo4ek said:

Thank to your answer.

Quick light safe to install in midgame?

 

 

@asebw i think it's SSE Engine Fixes. Try this:  found EngineFixes.toml file and modify EnableAchievementsWithMods = False

Alternatively - you can use Light Limit Fix to get around the light limit instead. 

Note that this will require you to switch from ENB to Community Shaders instead.  (Can't use both)

 

I use this setup as it looks almost as good as a good ENB with far less of a performance hit.

 

Community Shaders - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/86492
Light Limit Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/99548

Reccomended Plugins for Community Shaders:

 

Auto Parallax - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/79473

Community Shaders - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/86492
Dynamic Cubemaps - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/112763
Complex Parallax Materials - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/95134
Vanilla HDR - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/76521
Grass Lighting - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/86502
Tree LOD Lighting - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/86617
Grass Collision - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/87816
Screen-Space Shadows - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/93209
Water Parallax - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/112761
Water Blending - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/95145
Water Caustics - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/112762
Wetness Effects - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/112739
Subsurface Scattering - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/114114
Light Limit Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/99548

 

[monkinsane]

On 5/2/2024 at 4:04 PM, wretched creature said:

went back and disabled all mods section by section until i got to high poly heads and just having that active causes crashes when i swap the females to the high poly head part. not sure how i managed that one, maybe when i went to to the vampire fix part later on down the guide, i did it wrong. reinstalled it and now it works again

Yeah I had similar issue.

Also turned out to be High Poly head - when switching to the Headpart for it. 

Never did solve it - I ended up ditching HPH and dependant mods from modlist.

Note: I was probably having issues due to not having the exact modlist in the guide - I used guide as a base but did make changes. If you're using mods not in the modlist - start there as it could be a mod conflict with one of the mods you used that's not on the list (It could also be that a newer version of a mod on the modlist is causing the issue a the newer version has a conflict the older didn't). I just got impatient and frustrated enough where I just decided to ditch HPH.

Edited May 7, 2024 by monkinsane
Added extra Ifno

[asebw]

Just a heads up to @Aylis and anyone else who might be interested, but the list points to the wrong capital windhelm expansion patch for RS children. The patch in the list is fore Realistic RS Children Overhaul, while the list using realistic children overhaul. Proper patch can be found here. 

[monkinsane]

9 hours ago, asebw said:

 

 

Wow, not only did that work, but it also got a bunch of other mods in foundation working that I had not realized were not working. Never seen that happen before with SSE engine fixes. Now I am very curious as to why it's happening ><. 

 

Regardless, thank you for the input. 

The last AE update changed the way the game updates steam achievements (don't remember the details).  So that setting causes the game to force unload mods when it fails to disable achievements when starting a game with mods enabled.

[Varithina]

15 hours ago, monkinsane said:

Yeah I had similar issue.

Also turned out to be High Poly head - when switching to the Headpart for it.

 

Try removing CBBE 3BA - V's Cut, from the final section, you may need to rebuild bodies and armour afterwards, that sorted it for me anyway.

[monkinsane]

33 minutes ago, Varithina said:

 

Try removing CBBE 3BA - V's Cut, from the final section, you may need to rebuild bodies and armour afterwards, that sorted it for me anyway.

Thanx for the info, 

Will give that a try next playthrough. 

[monkinsane]

22 hours ago, monkinsane said:

Just a quick Heads-up, 

New version of NGIO (No Grass In Objects) is out - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42161?tab=description

Generated Grass Cache - new version works as intended without DYNDOLOD. Currently rebuilding my DYNDOLOD with Grass Cache to test Grass LOD Generation.

Will post feedback once done.

EDIT:

I am happy to report you can now again generate your Grass LOD with DYNDOLOD without having to downgrade your Skyrim AE to an earlier version. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2024 by monkinsane
Replaced image with better one

[asebw]

15 hours ago, monkinsane said:

The last AE update changed the way the game updates steam achievements (don't remember the details).  So that setting causes the game to force unload mods when it fails to disable achievements when starting a game with mods enabled.

 

Eh, its interesting little tid bits like this that make me wish I had kept up with my programming skills... Thanks for the info.

[asebw]

Has anyone had an issue with Terrain Parallax Blending fix causing the game to go into infinite load when your start it up? Cannot even reach the top menu. Unsure what it's doing to cause the game to freeze, but it's doing something. 

[Bigglsby]

17 minutes ago, asebw said:

Has anyone had an issue with Terrain Parallax Blending fix causing the game to go into infinite load when your start it up? Cannot even reach the top menu. Unsure what it's doing to cause the game to freeze, but it's doing something. 

 

If you're using the most recent versions of Terrain Parallax fix, and Atlantean - there is an issue.  The newest version of Blending fix made some fundamental changes, and the patch in Atlantean landscapes isn't up to date with those changes.  There is a bandaid patch in the Blending fix optional downloads that removes the error records (likely cause of your problem).  But Atlantean recommends using the earlier version of the Blending fix until an updated REAL patch is finished.  So you have your choice of temp solutions.  :)