guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[Aylis]

@YuFeng

Crap,,, erhm... Thanks and fixed 😊

[YuFeng]

Also as far as I remember, the AI Overhaul did have a mention to use the LITE version before, but now that is gone. Is it still the LITE version or the full one?

[Aylis]

1 hour ago, YuFeng said:

Also as far as I remember, the AI Overhaul did have a mention to use the LITE version before, but now that is gone. Is it still the LITE version or the full one?

No mention of lite means full one. 😉

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Great, Bethesda account is borked and now I can't get Khajiit Caravan Kittens - Children Of Tamriel. 

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Added Klarity as the first option for a Reshade.

Good PDF for OStim: NSFW Skyrim (OStimSA) Mod List (I might have to rework the entries)

Edited September 19, 2025 by Aylis

[Fakenet]

9 hours ago, Aylis said:

There's your problem. Make a guess why I removed all the parallax files I could find.

 

So in the end you complain about something you broke yourself...

I really wish that would have been communicated more clearly.

I have installed the Parallax version of dozens of new mods becasue to my knowledge that was the last instruction.

How can I now find the Parallax mods without reinstalling everything?

[KCOLL]

try the keyword parallax should bring up most of them 

[YuFeng]

Also check the whole World - Textures [Fixes] section. The FYX mods there almost all have parallax options.

[Aylis]

So far it looks like this:

ENB => 'Parallax' and 'Complex Material'.

Community Shaders (CS) => 'Physical Based Rendering' (PBR).

 

CS can handle 'Complex Material' (aka the 'new Parallax') but PBR works better witth it.

 

When it comes to performance CS is a great leap ahead. The FPS are much higher than with ENB. And you don't have to sell a kidney to get good visuals.

 

The big issue with CS are the snow shaders and texxture combination. We need to use a 'single pass shader' which we can only get from the newest version of 'Better Dynamic Snow 3.X'. 'Simplicity of Snow' uses the old 'double pass shader' and works fine for ENB and 'Parallax' but not so much with CS.

 

Its this conflict between meshes, textures and shaders that can drive you insane. I always ended up with too shiny and/or silvery rocks and (sometimes) glowing rocksections at night. On top of that came white plates sticking out of the ground in some places, discolorations and broken textures.

 

Meshes:

Parallax => Require the 'double pass shader' to work properly with snow. Fine in non-snowy situations.

Complex Material => Fine with ENB.

Non-Parallax => No issues (unless you screwed up somewhere else).

 

Textures:

Skyland landscapes => 'single pass shader' => gray snow and white rockformations. Working fine with 'Simplicity of Snow'.

Cathedral landscapes PBR => 'single pass shader' => White snow and white rockformations. Looks as intended.

 

Those issues are resolved in the current build and thats what I've been working on for the last few weeks.

 

There are still some details I have to work on (DynDOLOD messing some things up?), but those will be resolved too.

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Checking out EasyNPC

For the mugshots Natural Lighting Mugshots seems to be the best solution as it got files for every mod we use.

Edited September 20, 2025 by Aylis

[Fakenet]

10 hours ago, KCOLL said:

try the keyword parallax should bring up most of them 

I don't think that is an option with MO2. I can only filter for names.

[Aylis]

@Fakenet

There's no easy solution. You have to manually go through the groups 'Textures - Landscape', 'World - Textures' and 'World - Textures (Fixes)'. With some it is easier as the parallax textures are a seperate download while others have it as an option in the FOMOD.

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Testing (Update)

Moved to the next page.

Edited September 22, 2025 by Aylis

[Was1]

@Aylis In the World - Textures [Fixes] do we still need FYX - Solitude Arch since we get Improved Solitude Arch now ? or did you forgot to remove it from the guide ? thx for the guide

[Fakenet]

8 hours ago, Aylis said:

@Fakenet

There's no easy solution. You have to manually go through the groups 'Textures - Landscape', 'World - Textures' and 'World - Textures (Fixes)'. With some it is easier as the parallax textures are a seperate download while others have it as an option in the FOMOD.

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Testing (Update)

  Reveal hidden contents

A bug reappeared that is caused by CoS. so I can't add them while I am working on a fix here.

Auto Unequip Shield to Back - Clipping patch for CoS

Weapons Don't Clip Cloaks

 

To be added

FYX - SMIM Barrels - Smooth and New Metal and Wood Texture

Snowy Barrel

Better Argonian Horns

Better Argonian Horns - HPH Patch

Children of the Hist

Children of the Hist - Textures Patch

Children of the Hist - AI Patch

Children of the Hist - Fishing Patch

Children of the Pariah

Sentinel Zweihander

Sentinel Zweihander - PBR

Dolls

Dolls - Passives Fixes

Heart-To-Heart                                                                                                     For immersion

Better Bellows - Blacksmith Forge Mesh Improvements

   We need the version for 'ElSopa Anvil' and 'EmbersXD'.

 

 

Under consideration

Core Impact Framework (CIF)

Sanguine Symphony                                                                                            Should replace several mods.

Sanguine Symphony - Gore Enhanced Settings

Headhunter - Bounties Redone

>Dragon Wall Wisdom

Camilla Gets Married                                                                                           For immersion

>Disguise

>Disguise - Ordinator Patch

>Farmhouse Chimneys

>Farmhouse Chimneys - USSEP Patch

>Hold Riders

>Hold Riders and Guards Armor Replacer Patch

Leaps of Faith

OBody HotSwap

M.E.I. - Maven Elenwen Ingun

Realistic Firm Breasts Butt Belly and Thighs

Visual Animated Enchants

Dagger (1st person animations series)

EmbersXD Fire Animation Fix

Fires and Embers Clipping Fix

Rest By Campfire

Missives - Redbag's Solitude

Missives - The Witcher Board

Missives - Notes Retexture

Missives - Notes and Announcements

Missives - Settings Loader

Missives - Stay in Skyrim

Missives - Fortified Morthal

Missives - Quickloot Patch

Missives - Track Fugitive Objectives

Missives - Blacklist Expanded

Missives - Quest Edits for Unique Missive Board Mods

Diverse Witcher Missives Boards - Base Object Swapper

CCC Divine Crusader Replacer

Chevalier's Armor Set                                                                                             Paladin armor?

Crusaders Knights - Medieval Armors

Crusaders Knights - Textures

Crusaders Knights - No Castle Version

Crusaders Knights - Imperial Legion Replacer                                                      Solution for the roman pseudo-imperial armor?

Crusaders Knights - SPID                                                                                        Manual rework required

>Markarth - LOD Unlock 

Khajiit Caravan Kittens - Children Of Tamriel

>Khajiit Has Tents

>Khajiit Has Tents - Animated

>Khajiit Has Many Things

>Khajiit Has Tents - Additional Navcuts

Khajiit Caravan Kittens Has Tents                                                                           I simply had to change the name. 

 

Thank you, that is already a lot easier than checking everything.

[Aylis]

2 hours ago, Was1 said:

@Aylis In the World - Textures [Fixes] do we still need FYX - Solitude Arch since we get Improved Solitude Arch now ? or did you forgot to remove it from the guide ? thx for the guide

Yes, the FYX isn't necessary anymore. Fixed

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Now a new char for the things i just added.

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Had several crashes here and it looks some stuff got under while I was updating. I'm starting to think Win11 is more sabotage than an update to the OS. With Win10 the system was stable as a rock, now I get several crashes every day. And the system logs show no errors that would explain this behaviour...

Under pressure though (like testing/gaming), when the system is taxed, no problems at all.

Edited September 20, 2025 by Aylis

[Kamikatana]

Hi Aylis, just a thought, and just take it with a grain of salt, but once i started adding some additional "adult" mods, I started crashing when trying to create a new character.

Can't remember where I got this, but for me, it got solved once I re-enabled a change I had made on my previous build.

 

In the Papyrus Tweaks NG app, change the PapyrusTweaks.ini setting bSpeedUpNativeCalls from false to true.

Someone mentioned that it's a problem for folks who have a relatively fast monitor, which I do.

 

Anyway, just try it once to see if it helps.

 

Edited September 20, 2025 by Kamikatana

[trgdolors]

I see you are looking at EasyNPC. Another newer contender is NPC Plugin Chooser 2. I have not tried it yet, but it looks interesting.

 

Also, there is NPC Face Finder (actual site here: https://npcfacefinder.com) for quickly looking up NPC replacers. It doesn't have everything, but it is being developed.

 

I have been using FaceFixer Synthesis patch (obviously needs Synthesis). It has been good enough paired with the Synthesis AI Overhaul SSE patcher, which has been great.

 

You are also looking at Seb263's mods. Together, they are fantastic.

 

Visual Animated Enchants - Really a good mod, but I have been using it with addons that reduce the glaring brightness if you are in 1st person. But I still have ENB installed so that may brighten them.

[thegoodbuoy0]

23 hours ago, Aylis said:

When it comes to performance CS is a great leap ahead. The FPS are much higher than with ENB. And you don't have to sell a kidney to get good visuals.

Few months ago, I heard people say that CS with resource intensive addons and reshade is almost as heavy as ENB. Can you please share your experience on frame drops / frame rate consistency after switching to CS? 

[thegoodbuoy0]

5 hours ago, trgdolors said:

It has been good enough paired with the Synthesis AI Overhaul SSE patcher,

iirc that requires you to use AI overhaul full version but the version recommended in this modlist is the lite version of it.

[Aylis]

6 hours ago, thegoodbuoy0 said:

... but the version recommended in this modlist is the lite version of it.

Nope, that has changed.

 

Quote

The community shader are really fast and I noticed no drops below 60 FPS. Too bad that my old screen can't give me more, but with my RTX 3080 the difference was very noticable.

 

Edited September 21, 2025 by Aylis

[thegoodbuoy0]

33 minutes ago, Aylis said:

Nope, that has changed.

welp. serves me right for not reading the revised modlist and thread before commenting. If that is the case then in line with @trgdolors post, I think it would be better to use synthesis patcher along side Wyre bash.  Wyre bash can be run first for everything excluding AI packages and then Synthesis patcher can be run for patching AI overhaul. Similarly, the synthesis patch can be loaded after bashed patch. Synthesis also has patches for experience (the XP mod), weapon speed fix which could be very useful for the modlist.

Edited September 21, 2025 by thegoodbuoy0

[Aylis]

One thing is sure EasyNPC isn't that easy. I want to change two faces and not disable two third of my LO, having USSEP tweak half of the rest and then end up with a 4,5GB 'patch'. Trying the next tool. So much for having a nice evening in Skyrim. 

 

On the plus side: Bethesda is surprisingly fast with their support. I thought it would take days... If all goes well I can start to test the kittens tomorrow. 

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EFF it!

 

I've been on it for ~14 hours now and still have no clue what exactly I have to do. I'll simply move the cloaks up and disable the armor. Done!

 

Why the heck do we have armor mods that completely change the head of NPC? 

Edited September 21, 2025 by Aylis

[KCOLL]

you talked about having head parts in an armor mod. Yeh come across that before Wtf. Now i just downloaded an sound mod really like this guys sound files they are awesome. So sound mod called babbling brooks! Great nice mod. But it has a patch available for parallax meshes. Like why?

Edited September 21, 2025 by KCOLL

[Aylis]

Some lighting impressions:

Spoiler

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The more I go through the game - the more it becomes clear that switching to CS was the right choice. I'm still blown away with the visuals we get with them. And all the rest gets better and better too.

The NPC are now fitting better into the visuals, animals needed the updates and the creatures look good as well. With the switch to OStim here I could finally use new meshes (no MNC or ABC) and that shows. The new deer, (upcoming) horses and wolves look so much better now.

It has always bothered me that the farms outside of Whiterun couldn't have fed the population. The new farms (coming with the tree mod for cities) could actually work and the added trees and other flora enhances the surrounding area a lot.

The (again upcoming) mod for wild horses seems to change some areas in the Tundra. I know the game like the back of my hand and still got lost (and loved every second of it).

 

In my first post on page #1 I promised a 'beautiful game'. It took a while, but we're getting there and I'm starting to run out of ideas how to improve the visuals any further... Recheck storms and lightning.

 

Its mostly down to bug-hunting, details (also not much left) and gameplay (there I still got some ideas).

Edited September 22, 2025 by Aylis

[DarkForce_256]

I just finished setting everything up and I am blown away. The Community Shaders and PBR stuff is pretty breathtaking. The game looks amazing. I still have a few things to work out. I might have messed up somewhere in the DynDOLOD stuff, I have textures flickering in the distance. Thank you again for the guide.

[Varithina]

6 hours ago, KCOLL said:

you talked about having head parts in an armor mod. Yeh come across that before Wtf. Now i just downloaded an sound mod really like this guys sound files they are awesome. So sound mod called babbling brooks! Great nice mod. But it has a patch available for parallax meshes. Like why?

 

Any mod that manually adds items to an npc includes that npc in them, and you will be surprised by the number of mods that have npc records in them, that do not require it, but still add them.

[Skjall]

 

In this topic, someone shared an ABC patch for draugrs we have on a list. So one incompatibility less for SL part of a list. Dindu nuffin to check if it's actually working tho.

[Magma57]

15 hours ago, Aylis said:

Some lighting impressions

 My lighting looks absolutely not like yours. I have way too bright candles, blinding torches in the prison cell etc etc...

 

Let's not talk again about parallax (mistake from my side with the skyland PBR which IS a fomod ... stupid me, was way too tired this day) but your list absolutely NEEDS more guidance: True lights, what ambiant lighting works good with this modlist ? And Ambient Templates for Lighting Mods ? And DIAL ? Let's not even talk about Embers XD, which has a ton of options that could really broke the lighting  if setup incorrectly. 

 

Don't get me wrong Aylis, it's really nice that you put so much effort to share this modlist, but we aren't all modding experts, or don't have enough freetime to learn how the skyrim engine works. If I had some guidlines for the more complex fomod out there, I wouldn't have wasted so much hours fixing my mistakes.

 

 

On another subject, for NPC's I have a setup that suits my liking and without any single blackface (well, except the wounded soldier in the temple of Kynareth from Sons of Skyrim 😓). It's mostly Immortan for the men then Children of dawn's beauty like your list but then I add TheFaceSculptor's "nyrified" packs for his gorgeous women and then Exquisite NPC, which is a very convenient Fomod where you can choose every single NPC you want or not, or even deselect all the males/females ... The cherry on the cake ? Exquisite  is powered by skypatcher so It's not supposed to give blackfaces. 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited September 22, 2025 by Magma57