guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[Aylis]

@psychoqwirk420

XPMSE (you got 4.81, right?) has to get overwritten by several mods to work as it should.

 

Also did you redownload it? It might have broken somehow. Worst case try this here:

Spoiler

Those are the ones i use here and they do work.

XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended.7z

 

If you still got the issue then something else is really broken. SKSE perhaps?

 

But now i'm off to bed (half-asleep already). In 6 hours i got to get ready for work.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Aylis

[Alabaster_Stone]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but somehow I keep hitting this texture bug with the werewolves.

 

Spoiler

 

[psychoqwirk420]

@Aylis Yes, I tried uninstalling XPMSE (verified 4.81) and then reinstall. I tried your file as well, no go. Also downloaded a fresh copy of SKSE, but no go. I fear I'm going to have to do a 100% fresh install (which I was hoping to avoid). Not looking forward to that outcome, if it comes to it.

[h8rt3rmin8r]

Following your install guide. Very well built, by the way. I can tell you have spent a great deal of time weaving it all together. So first of all - THANK YOU.

 

I am working my way down the Foundation section of mods currently and I just found one possible oversight - after installing Cathedral - 3D Thicket and Dead Shrub, the Seasonal Landscapes installer should be re-run at that time to enable the related FOMOD patch for Cathedral's "Shrubs and thickets" (wording used in the FOMOD - next to last optional toggle).

 

Please keep up the great work. While many guides exist, this is one of the only CURRENT and UP-TO-DATE ones on the Internet. I've wasted probably three or four days of time following out-of-date and poorly written guides by this point so your work is a breath of fresh air.

 

Spoiler

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by h8rt3rmin8r

[alaunus01]

@Aylis Some more CACO patches to check.

 

- Rerun The Great Town of Ivarstead Patch Collection

- Rerun JK's Interiors Patch Collection

 

And this extensive Patch-Hub has a 'few' more. FOMOD page 2 needs MANUAL selection though.

[nightred]

23 hours ago, h8rt3rmin8r said:

I am working my way down the Foundation section of mods currently and I just found one possible oversight - after installing Cathedral - 3D Thicket and Dead Shrub, the Seasonal Landscapes installer should be re-run at that time to enable the related FOMOD patch for Cathedral's "Shrubs and thickets" (wording used in the FOMOD - next to last optional toggle).

 

 

This is a new version of Seasonal Landscapes (1.18) the guide uses 1.17 for instructions.

I have been using 1.18 without issues and have also noticed the two new options in the installer.

 

Follow up to lod issues, I think I have fixed my issues.

I had a few mods done incorrectly, skyland, majestic mountains, stone walls, lost track of things it might have been.

I did not fix my lod issues on further testing

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by nightred

[alaunus01]

And SDA 4.0 Open Beta was just uploaded.

[h8rt3rmin8r]

11 hours ago, nightred said:

lost track of things it might have been

omfg I know - literally have to keep a note pad to jot down exceptions along the way as they pile up. Then the adderall starts wearing off and I start forgetting to include notes of exceptions. Then the following day I'm confused at why things were named incorrectly etc. ? if only mod stack assembly could be more modular. Or if a specific stack could be frozen together in one location for easy distribution to newcomers etc ... but that'd crap all over everyone's rights as developers so we can't do that. The struggle is so real. 

[psychoqwirk420]

@Aylis

I found the culprit in my XPMSE issue. It was the mod "Female Mannequins" (which I don't even remember installing. It's not the one from your guide). Apparently, it uses a skeleton that overwrites the one in XPMSE (and/or the one used by Maximum Carnage). I must have (at some point) unpacked the BSA file and made them loose. So in the end... I'm an idiot, lol. Thanks for your help!

 

On a second matter, I found out that Nemesis has a bug/typo in its scripts for XPMSE. I read about it when I was trying to figure out why things wouldn't load. You can read about it here, but basically it's a quick edit with Notepad+ to the last line.

[h8rt3rmin8r]

On 11/15/2022 at 8:11 AM, Aylis said:

Vanilla Hair Remake

?DON'T use the version with SMP. It can cause CTD!

 

The scary red text says not to use the hair remake with physics...

 

Spoiler

 

... but the link goes to a direct download button for the hair with physics. So which do I ignore - the giant tempting orange button or the scary red text? ?

 

When I try to reason through this on my own, I observe the following requirement for the SMP hair:

 

Spoiler

 

Well that's easy enough to acquire. So a quick addition to the physics section would grant my vanilla hairs with the power of physics ... or maybe the scary red text is correct and my game will blow up ?

 

Spoiler

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by h8rt3rmin8r
pics to spoilers bc that's how it should be

[Aylis]

1. Pics still belong into spoilers.

2. Link is fixed.

 

Got 10 min left to get ready for work... (overslept)

[lolthisis]

Have you seen this user's uploads? https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/14801994?tab=user+files 

They seem to be going through a bunch of bad scripts that can cause loops and FPS drops. To be honest, none of them are ones I can remember happening to me, but hey, when was the last time I played more than an hour of a new game before adding a ton of new mods?

 

 

[Aylis]

HOTFIX

The new update for 'Seasonal Landscapes' requires a few changes and a rerun of the creation of billboards for DynDOLOD.

 

Mods to ADD/MOVE

Spoiler

Nightshade                                                                                 Replaced with the 'Cathedral' version (I was waiting for the inclusion)

Reach Fern                                                                                  Improved plants

Thicket and Dead Shrub                                                          Moved up in the group

Subgroup: Trees                                                                       Moved up before 'Seasonal Landscapes'

Water in Wells                                                                          Moved up in the group

FYX - Smooth Wells                                                                 Moved up from 'Patches'

 

But now i'm lying down. Had an accident and made more contact with the concrete floor than i ever intended to have...

Edited April 25, 2023 by Aylis

[h8rt3rmin8r]

7 hours ago, Aylis said:

1. Pics still belong into spoilers.

Sorry about that - I'm new here. Still figuring everything out. Edited as requested.

 

7 hours ago, Aylis said:

2. Link is fixed.

Perfection.

 

Thanks for the latest updates.

[Alabaster_Stone]

Question;

With the female and Male RBT skins, those mods are supposed to directly download into the RBT main file and prevent the glorious purple skin bug right?

[Aylis]

5 hours ago, Alabaster_Stone said:

With the female and Male RBT skins, those mods are supposed to directly download into the RBT main file and prevent the glorious purple skin bug right?

No, otherwise i would've noted that in the guide.

__________________________________________________

 

Forgot to mention that i did update the instructions of 'Seasonal Landscapes' too (and added the names to the steps in 'Flora'). 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Aylis

[Alabaster_Stone]

3 hours ago, Aylis said:

No, otherwise i would've noted that in the guide.

__________________________________________________

 

Forgot to mention that i did update the instructions of 'Seasonal Landscapes' too (and added the names to the steps in 'Flora'). 

 

Fair, still trying to figure out how to make RBT work... I keep getting the purple skin every time I try and utilize it.

[BlueInkAlchemist]

On 4/22/2023 at 2:36 PM, Aylis said:

Try the files for RBT first. Those are most likely the ones causing issues.

Reporting in to say... this was a user error. I didn't complete the steps to configure RBT before starting. ?

Am I correct in thinking that changing/updating the list for v0.9.15 requires starting a new game? Especially with CACO in the mix it seems like there's some big changes/improvements.

[markvarley]

22 hours ago, Aylis said:

 

But now i'm lying down. Had an accident and made more contact with the concrete floor than i ever intended to have...

 

ooof hope you're ok!

[alaunus01]

5 hours ago, BlueInkAlchemist said:

[...]
Am I correct in thinking that changing/updating the list for v0.9.15 requires starting a new game? Especially with CACO in the mix it seems like there's some big changes/improvements.

 

CACO alone does not require a new game, it is more likely you run into 'oddities' with the removal of the vanilla armor replacer.

 

Serana Dialogue AddOn 4.0 absolutely requires a new game though. Unless you have not started the Dawnguard content yet and very carefully removed SDA 3.2 (uninstall old SDA, wait 48 hours in a small cell, clean that save)

 

@Aylis I am not sure if anything requiring a DynDOLOD rerun qualifies as a 'Hotfix' ? Spreading the misery around, I can stand behind that. ?

[Aylis]

10 hours ago, Alabaster_Stone said:

Fair, still trying to figure out how to make RBT work... I keep getting the purple skin every time I try and utilize it.

Did you activate the RBT option during the installation of the NPC replacer? Those were included in the FOMOD after their update.

 

 

6 hours ago, BlueInkAlchemist said:

Am I correct in thinking that changing/updating the list for v0.9.15 requires starting a new game? Especially with CACO in the mix it seems like there's some big changes/improvements.

No, CACO just replaces the vanilla method and works fine with an existing save. 

 

 

@alaunus01

Good thing with DynDOLOD 3 is that you usually don't have to rerun the whole process. This time its only plants (aka the billboards) that have to be rerun.

________________________________________________

 

The strongholds cause quite a drop in FPS. I have to see if there's something that can be done about it.

Dirt and Blood and Dirt and Blood Expanded work fine in this setup.

Remi is always talking about being a scholar. So i guess the College Prestige Mage Outfit (beautiful set btw) would fit that description quite well.

For Daegon i'm considering to add her old outfit (Countess Armor) to the game. Her 'new' setup is no armor (and got a lot of 'wrong' with it). 

Project Cougar - Anise works, but Project Cougar - Hilde from Riverwood doesn't. I'm trying to find the reason for it.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Aylis

[alaunus01]

1 hour ago, Aylis said:

[...]The strongholds cause quite a drop in FPS. I have to see if there's something that can be done about it.[...]

 

The latest Faster HDT-SMP has moved all the physics calculations into a different cpu-thread and claims that provides a significant FPS boost. Have not verified how much because all the naked headless solitude guards in my build need a solution first (Me problem not Aylis problem (yet)).

[h8rt3rmin8r]

On 11/15/2022 at 8:11 AM, Aylis said:

FYX - Smooth Wells

For this one, I'm just grabbing the very first download option "FYX - Smooth Wells", and NOT the parallax version and NOT "FYX - Smooth Wells - Water in Wells - Parallax" (even though we're using Water in Wells). Is this correct?

[h8rt3rmin8r]

On 11/15/2022 at 8:11 AM, Aylis said:

2.5     3D Juniper 

The FOMOD install instructions for Seasonal Landscapes says to select 3D Junipers but the texture pack we are supposed to install is actually Juniper by Mari. Are we supposed to install the wSkeever based Junipers or are we sticking with Mari's?

 

[edit] Sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to follow the guide very closely - paying attention to the exact title you state on the mod list since most of the mods offer 4 or even like 20 different downloads and I want to be sure to get the right ones.

Edited April 26, 2023 by h8rt3rmin8r

[h8rt3rmin8r]

On 11/15/2022 at 8:11 AM, Aylis said:

Seasons of Skyrim - Less Snowy Shacks

For anyone who hasn't been in the Skyrim modding community for very long (such as myself) this mod presents a significant problem. There is no option to download with MO2. So you manually download it and MO2 rejects manually adding it in as a mod (all that is inside the compressed archive is a single .ini file). I went over to the Posts section of the mod page to try to figure out what's going on and found nothing useful except people talking about putting the .ini file into some "seasons" directory (like wtf? how do I even find that? am I supposed to manipulate the MO2 virtual file system?).

 

So I set out to resolve the issue. I figured out how to work around the mysterious MO2 bug that requires an empty "meshes" directory etc and set up a proper 7z archive that MO2 will recognize as a valid mod. (I feel educated now). 

 

Here's the archive I put together.

Seasons of Skyrim - Less Snowy Shacks.7z