guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[Jessica_Degurechaff]

On 9/25/2026 at 9:53 PM, safado said:

 

Why not use newer Community Shaders or Open Shaders(better)?  It has frame generation and upscaling plugins included.  

 

I honestly had such a hard time on the past with the whole parallax vs no parallax version of the mods that i went "well i will just not install parallax mods then", bah, ill start from the user interface section then, i prefer that than having to redo near the end.

i suppose i should use parallax version unless state otherwise?

as i said on the other message, i sometimes get confused by the mods having patchs and optional files for mods we do use later on, bah, im just dumb

Edited September 27 by Jessica_Degurechaff

[Tiemphyx]

Actually, the way this list is set up, you should take almost all non-parallax and def all non-enb options.  There may be a few unavoidable choices, I forget, but the end result with CS is definitely worth the time.  Beautiful and leaves more cpu for other things...

The patch confusion is no joke, and no lie making this work is a loong hard slog -  but I'd still do it again

Edited September 28 by Tiemphyx

[Jessica_Degurechaff]

On 9/28/2026 at 5:59 AM, Tiemphyx said:

Actually, the way this list is set up, you should take almost all non-parallax and def all non-enb options.  There may be a few unavoidable choices, I forget, but the end result with CS is definitely worth the time.  Beautiful and leaves more cpu for other things...

The patch confusion is no joke, and no lie making this work is a loong hard slog -  but I'd still do it again

Fully agree i had to do some concesions the few times i got it up and running properly, but it was so worth it, this time that i have a good pc im trying to make it "right" but yeah, its confusing, a simple "avoid parallax options" would had saved me a lot of time. oh well, im again at User Interface so even if i had to go back i dont think i had selected any parallax version, same for ENB 

also whats "CS"?
" forget, but the end result with CS is definitely worth the time.  "

[KCOLL]

CS  is community shaders  and all its derivatives  has stuff ENB does not have and now you can add ENB,s using effects11 mod its a collaboration by some very experienced modders 

[Tiemphyx]

@KCOLL Thanks for bringing this up here, it's news to me and sounds really interesting.  Unfortunately, when I looked for it, Effects11 got bumped from Nexus over what reddit thinks is a bogus DMCA issue, but it's still up on Mod Pub.

 

Have you got it installed and working and what are your fps/cpu penalties/benefits etc?

@Jessica_Degurechaff All that PBR stuff way down the list is CS dependent

 

Edited September 30 by Tiemphyx

[KCOLL]

effects 11 by doodlum is still on the mod authors page on nexus!  No i don't have it installed no longer use any ENB because my video card needs an upgrade! And I dislike patches!! With CS I have no patches just works and the results are  fantastic. CS now has more features than ENB and with effects 11 you are able to add ENB like ruby to it. Also add any ENB features that are missing to CS. There are derivatives to CS out there as well that have different configurations but i don't follow what they are doing my video card is getting terribly maxed out as it is! running an AMD 5700xt 8g ram with approx 3000 mods at about 60 frames  have no problems or crashes but card is a chugging.

Edited September 30 by KCOLL

[trgdolors]

Hi everyone!

 

I am still running ENB but would consider trying Community Shaders. I am neutral in the drama between ENB and CS authors. The conventional wisdom I have seen seems to say CS runs a little lighter and has more features. Effects 11 lets you use ENB presets (but not ENB itself) with CS. Effects 11 was off but now back on the Nexus (due to the drama). Even with that, ENB allegedly still looks a little better, though CS is catching up.

 

CS is getting multiple forks, potentially complicating things on that side. 

 

Both ENB and CS are still being developed.

 

The current version of this guide dropped ENB some time ago and is definitely now for CS. If anyone wants to use this guide AND use ENB they will have to figure it out.

 

But at this point, you will have to do quite a bit of "figure it out" if you are trying to strictly follow this guide. It has not had an update in a while. Still, it is a great and relevant template and fantastic mod list. And people here are willing to help.

[Jessica_Degurechaff]

In general, do you guys recommend that if i see a patch for a mod that we use later on but its no where on the list, to install it or to skip it?

Like: 

 USER INTERFACE
- mod 1 (has patches for mod 2 on optional files, but never addressed on the guide)

TERRAIN
- mod 2

I install the optional files still but i never know if i should or shouldn't. What do you guys do?

[Tiemphyx]

imho, given the age of this build, I'd download  and consider the patch as long as the exact versions of the two mods are the ones patched, but not install it yet. 

I'd say don't worry too much about patching for now, just take notes,  Later, when you get  down to the patches section, some patch collections will auto- detect and provide large numbers of patches.  After that you can run LOOT (do not sort with it of course) but it  can give tips on more patches you may need -  tho  you  may not  find all of the ones  it mentions...this worked well for me, but @trgdolors  and otthers may have a different  take