guide Skyrim AE for Beginners - V 3.1.0

[trgdolors]

5 hours ago, Aylis said:

Doesn't work with the big expansion for Whiterun i intend to add later (waiting for a few patches).

 

You don't have to answer if you want to keep it a surprise, but would that happen to be a three word name that starts with a W?

[Aylis]

14 hours ago, trgdolors said:

 

You don't have to answer if you want to keep it a surprise, but would that happen to be a three word name that starts with a W?

Exactly.

Spoiler

 

[Denba]

Hi! I've finished to install all the mods exactly as the guide describes for the third time, I think, but the game always crashes to desktop when I begin a new game. The last time the game was working without issues was when I launched it right after World and Quests Section. Is there anyone who would please help me? I don't know what I did wrong. I saw the crash logs and that's what crash log analyser showed me after I ran it.

 

Quote

################################################################################
Solutions
################################################################################

SkyrimSE.exe: count: (61)
    This file on its own is not the cause, however, we'll do further parsing...

    Could not find any known issues related to SkyrimSE.exe.
    SkyrimSE.exe _might_ be listed for the sole reason of... you're playing this game!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hdtSMP64.dll: count: (6)
    If this appears often, it might indicate a bad config (rare).
    However, it might also just indicate that there were NPCs around that were wearing hdt/SMP enabled clothing...
    Please increase the log level for hdtsmp64 (if you have not done so yet) and check its content.

    Make sure to have Faster HDT-SMP that suits your Skyrim Version:
    - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57339

    Also make sure you have these installed:
    - SMP NPC fix: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/91616

    You are using FSMP version: 2.02.02
    Please ensure that this is compatible with your SKSE version: 1.6.640

    This one is marked as BETA.
    You might want to downgrade to one of the RC: 1.50.7-rc1 or 1.50.9-rc1
    Release Candidates (rc) are usualy more stable than a beta.

    Possible FOMOD settings for installation
    You might want to try different AVX options, because eventhough supported, they might cause shutter/'lag' in populated areas...
    CPU:
        avx:    True
        avx2:    True
        avx512:    False

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

tbbmalloc.dll: count: (21)
    Threading Building Blocks Memory Allocator
    This is either part of:
    - the CreationKit Fixes: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20061
    - the Engine Fixes (part 2): https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17230
    I do recommend to use Engine Fixes (pick 'part 1' according to your SKSE)

    This message is shown without a check:
    Make sure to disable: SrtCrashFix64.dll (Animation Limit Crash fix SSE) as this is handled by the Engines Fixes, which is recommended to use!
    Either way, make sure to have the 'latest' version variant for your Skyrim edition.
    However, this probably is not the cause, but the causing mod relies on excessive memory handling.
        First and foremost, try to close any other application and background processes that might be running that you do not need.
        Like, but not limited to, game launchers, web browsers with 20 open tabs, Spotify, even Discord.
        Also, you might want to consider using lower texture mods, aka, use a 2k instead of a 4k texture mod, or just a 1k texture.

        If the above did not help, you could try apply these config tweaks to: __Skyrim.ini___
        Make sure to comment out (#) any existing variants of these, so you can go back if they dont help or make things worse.

        This is most applicable if you're using 4-8 GB ram or less, you game addicted freak! (said the guy who was playing WoW raids at 3 fps).

        ==================================

        [Display]
        iTintTextureResolution=2048

        [General]
        ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

        [Memory]
        DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
        ScrapHeapSizeMB=256

        ==================================

        Last but not least, increasing your pagefile is a good and simple way to avoid this.
        Best practice: pagefile-size > RAM
        Example: 24 GB > 16 GB RAM

        Please read / follow:
        1. In the Taskbar Search, type “Advanced System“. ...
        2. In System Properties, click Advanced tab.
        3. In Performance section click Settings button.
        4. Performance Options will open. ...
        5. Here, under Virtual memory, select Change.
        6. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
        7. Select a Drive that hardly use (as in not often)
        8. Set manual size
        9. Set value to ~ 150% of your RAM (as shown in example)
        10. Confirm with "OK".

        If you want to read more about (allthough, not related to sharepoint server):
       https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/technical-reference/the-paging-file-size-should-exceed-the-amount-of-physical-ram-in-the-system
        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Modified by: count: (7)
    These are only listed as additional hints for probably debugging. If you have no other indicators, this might be worth investigating. 
    If you do have other indicators, try to solve those first!
    That said, it is common to have 2-4 mods listed in a row, however, 
    lists of 5 or more _might_ cause issues by the sheer amount of what possibly could be overwritten several times.

Chance: LOW (1)
Modified by: The Great City of Winterhold v4.esp -> TGC Winterhold - Sons of Skyrim patch.esp -//- count: (3)

Chance: MEDIUM (9)
Modified by: Skyrim.esm -> Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp -> The Great City of Winterhold v4.esp -> NW_Sons_of_Skyrim.esp -> Lux.esp -> Lux - USSEP patch.esp -> Lux - The Great City of Winterhold V4 patch.esp -> AcousticTemplateFixes.esp -> AcousticTemplateFixes_Lux.esp -> TGC Winterhold - Sons of Skyrim patch.esp -//- count: (2)

Chance: LOW (2)
Modified by: Skyrim.esm -> Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp -> BB's College of Winterhold NPC Overhaul Revisited - Men.esp -//- count: (2)
 

 

I've checked every version of these mods and I double checked if all of them were properly installed. I don't know what to do anymore. Any hints?

Edited November 30, 2023 by denba666

[Denba]

Well, it seems I can't do anything right. Maybe that's the main motive of my depression. 
I think I give up. Anyway, thank you guys!

[KCOLL]

5 hours ago, denba666 said:

Well, it seems I can't do anything right. Maybe that's the main motive of my depression. 
I think I give up. Anyway, thank you guys!

what i look for in the crash log is something that is mentchend very often and consistently like almost a theme. and that will often lead to what the problem is.  no expert but i see faster smp is listed and engine fixes is listed   smp reinstall and double check the avx settings are right for your cpu (avx 2 for some  AMD and careful on intel old intel can be 512 -new intel avx is removed ? i think blocked) as for engine fixes is 2 parts some people forget to manually install 2nd part in the game folder (they are moveing to fast)  wrong config on thesee basic first load mods should couse an early ctd 

Edited December 1, 2023 by KCOLL

[KCOLL]

Also this is a big mod list most users dont get it installed right the first time and some persist and some begin anew with a smaller mod list before they retry this thing is biggy 

[alaunus01]

4 hours ago, KCOLL said:

what i look for in the crash log is something that is mentchend very often and consistently like almost a theme. and that will often lead to what the problem is.  no expert but i see faster smp is listed and engine fixes is listed   smp reinstall and double check the avx settings are right for your cpu (avx 2 for some  AMD and careful on intel old intel can be 512 -new intel avx is removed ? i think blocked) as for engine fixes is 2 parts some people forget to manually install 2nd part in the game folder (they are moveing to fast)  wrong config on thesee basic first load mods should couse an early ctd 

in addition he wants to use Faster HDT-SMP 1.50.9rc-1 instead

[Kadsuki]

Hello!

 

Thank you for this great guide, it is very comprehensive... however it is also quite restrictive, as in it's not easy to see how to combine other mods with this very heavy guide. For example, I used A Dragonborn's Fate guide for my base and gameplay modding, and I tried to use this guide for sex modding, but it started to get unstable when I started to install from the Physics and Animations and the Sex Mods categories. I managed a stable modlist using only A Dragonborn's Fate list and chosen mods from the PC and Body categories, meaning that I got pretty nude bodies to look at but no sex or skimpy clothes.

 

In short, my question is this: is there or will there be a more simple sex modding guide for Skyrim AE focusing only on sex mods (and requirements, bodies, animations, etc.) rather than this massive list of mods that is incompatible with other mod lists?

Edited December 1, 2023 by Kadsuki

[trgdolors]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:58 PM, denba666 said:

the game always crashes to desktop

 

So something that has been helpful to me with CTDs is to first use Crash Logger SSE AE VR - PDB support, which is already in this guide, then after a CTD, copy/paste the log text into the Skyrim Crash Decoder, a website that interprets the results. It is not perfect but it has often been meaningful.

 

[YareYareGunn]

20 hours ago, Kadsuki said:

Hello!

 

Thank you for this great guide, it is very comprehensive... however it is also quite restrictive, as in it's not easy to see how to combine other mods with this very heavy guide. For example, I used A Dragonborn's Fate guide for my base and gameplay modding, and I tried to use this guide for sex modding, but it started to get unstable when I started to install from the Physics and Animations and the Sex Mods categories. I managed a stable modlist using only A Dragonborn's Fate list and chosen mods from the PC and Body categories, meaning that I got pretty nude bodies to look at but no sex or skimpy clothes.

 

In short, my question is this: is there or will there be a more simple sex modding guide for Skyrim AE focusing only on sex mods (and requirements, bodies, animations, etc.) rather than this massive list of mods that is incompatible with other mod lists?

You could simply just focus on the sex related mods in this guide, along with any prerequisites of their own.

That said, I've had some trouble with this modlist because it doesn't often specify what version of the mods I SHOULD stick to. It was last updated in August. Mods get crazy amounts of updates in 3 months.

[Kadsuki]

2 hours ago, YareYareGunn said:

You could simply just focus on the sex related mods in this guide, along with any prerequisites of their own.

That said, I've had some trouble with this modlist because it doesn't often specify what version of the mods I SHOULD stick to. It was last updated in August. Mods get crazy amounts of updates in 3 months.

 

I want to try out DBF on it own (or rather, in its current state with the body mods I added) for a while before I modify it further and risk instability. If there isn't a guide by then, I plan to use the SE Compatibility Tracking page to attempt to mod it myself. The biggest problem I have in my inexperience is not to find/install the mods and their prerequisites, it's in what order to install them and sort the plugin list. DBF gives out its own sort list, which is perfect, but doing it myself I greatly risk overwritting the wrong thing or not loading the plugins in the correct order.

[nokresno]

I need a clarification about sorting, specially with LUX and LUX Orbis. I need to move bold Lux esp's and esm's to the top of their list (bold mods), and keep non-bold Lux files as they are in the mod list?

 

One thing that adds to the confusion is the fact that Lux Orbis Misc Patches is labeled as needing sorting, but it doesnt have bold esm or esp, so how does that one sort?

Also, does bold Lux - Resources.esp and Lux Via.esp go to the top too?

[Twycross448]

@Aylis

If I may be so bold to ask, is the next update to this guide more on the "small maintainance" side or on the "significant changes" one? I am currently pondering installing Skyrim AE using this guide, but am unsure if it is wise to do so before the next update, silly as that sounds. ^_^"

[Varithina]

2 hours ago, reset1560 said:

One thing that adds to the confusion is the fact that Lux Orbis Misc Patches is labeled as needing sorting, but it doesnt have bold esm or esp, so how does that one sort?

Also, does bold Lux - Resources.esp and Lux Via.esp go to the top too?

 

I just left them the way the installer dumped them in my load order, just moving the usleep patch to the top of the list of them.

[Denba]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:33 AM, KCOLL said:

what i look for in the crash log is something that is mentchend very often and consistently like almost a theme. and that will often lead to what the problem is.  no expert but i see faster smp is listed and engine fixes is listed   smp reinstall and double check the avx settings are right for your cpu (avx 2 for some  AMD and careful on intel old intel can be 512 -new intel avx is removed ? i think blocked) as for engine fixes is 2 parts some people forget to manually install 2nd part in the game folder (they are moveing to fast)  wrong config on thesee basic first load mods should couse an early ctd 

I've downloaded the latest version of faster SMP, the description in the mod's page says this is the right one right now. About Engine Fixes, this is installed correctly. I think this has something to do with faster SMP, but if the latest version is not the right one to download I don't know which one could be.

Edited December 3, 2023 by denba666

[KCOLL]

version 2.0.7 is the correct one if it dont work site lists the version 1.50.9 as alterative.  and make sure you have crash logger sse ae vr  installed and look at the log in C:/ documents/ my games /skyrim special edition/skse folder . then copy log to crash log decoder website and see what happens! site is listed in an above post. CPU is what determines what you tick in formod ( problly no cuda and av 2 if amd) so make sure you get specs right with faster smp . and make sure you have all required mods for faster smp  under requirements

Edited December 4, 2023 by KCOLL

[KCOLL]

if you look at this crash log you will see  2 or 3 esp seem to be listed very often  and that tells me to un tick the esp rerun my skyrim and see if the problem salves itself. tundra home remover  esp. BBLS generic tree  patch .esp are the probable ctd villains

crash-2023-11-11-05-49-25.log

[Alabaster_Stone]

Welp, they did paid mods again lets see how long before this crashes and burns

[Denba]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:33 AM, KCOLL said:

what i look for in the crash log is something that is mentchend very often and consistently like almost a theme. and that will often lead to what the problem is.  no expert but i see faster smp is listed and engine fixes is listed   smp reinstall and double check the avx settings are right for your cpu (avx 2 for some  AMD and careful on intel old intel can be 512 -new intel avx is removed ? i think blocked) as for engine fixes is 2 parts some people forget to manually install 2nd part in the game folder (they are moveing to fast)  wrong config on thesee basic first load mods should couse an early ctd 

Yeah, I've done that. I reinstalled engine fixes more than one time, installed the correct versions of faster SMP, changed the options between AVX and AVX2 because I have a Ryzen 5800x3d and nothing solved these CTDs. I really don't know wtf is happening. I'll try reinstalling everything AGAIN this weekend, because I deleted everything after getting frustrated.

[Twycross448]

12 hours ago, Alabaster_Stone said:

Welp, they did paid mods again lets see how long before this crashes and burns

I'm afraid this time it won't. People are far more accustomed to in-game purchases and microtransactions than they were back in 2014 (or was it 2015?). So likely the system is here to stay. Starfield will get the same treatment next year when official modding capability is introduced, and in my personal opinion, it is only a matter of time until they patch this system into Fallout 4 as well.

[Kadsuki]

10 minutes ago, Twycross448 said:

I'm afraid this time it won't. People are far more accustomed to in-game purchases and microtransactions than they were back in 2014 (or was it 2015?). So likely the system is here to stay. Starfield will get the same treatment next year when official modding capability is introduced, and in my personal opinion, it is only a matter of time until they patch this system into Fallout 4 as well.

It's a matter of short time, it's already stated this is coming in max 3 months for Fallout 4 too. They want to keep the creations system unified for both game, and I'm sure they'll use the same system for Starfield.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Kadsuki

[devilsman767]

So weird question, if I wanted to add LoTD, which category/ install order would you recommend to put it in, just trying to figure out the optimum place to put it at, would it work better in world expansion or world and quests? I do apologize if this is an annoying question >__<

[alaunus01]

1 hour ago, devilsman767 said:

So weird question, if I wanted to add LoTD, which category/ install order would you recommend to put it in, just trying to figure out the optimum place to put it at, would it work better in world expansion or world and quests? I do apologize if this is an annoying question >__<

 

I would not recommend shoehorning Legacy of the Dragonborn into this modlist (even if Aylis provided a location in earlier revisions). In my experience LotD is one of those mods you have to build your modlist around with that mod particular in mind. Back in the 'oldrim' day the author had strong 'opinions' about LL mods, not sure if the stance has softened nowadays. And in addition it was a resource hog, not leaving much room for other stuff. At best I would expect lots of compability patches needed but honestly I would worry about your savegame breaking a couple dozen hours in once you accumulated enough baked in lint.

[Aylis]

LoTD is a real pain to integrate. You'll need so many patches and even then compability is wonky at best.

 

Just had a video about another update to Skyrim... This will be another nightmare as quite a few OA arn't there anymore. ? 

[devilsman767]

okay, well thanks for the advice about it, been using this mod set up, since I've recently started to come back and try to a modded Skyrim again, not much for graphics mods, mostly been just trying to have a fun time with it, I just have the bad luck coming back to Skyrim when it updates lol, but I'm gonna try to march ahead anyways, and cobble together a working mod setup, just hoping not to run into a infinite start menu loading (seriously, that seems to be my worst problem, but it's manageable) anyways good luck! nd hey, just to let you know this modlist was what made it easier to come back to Skyrim SE for me, so keep up the great work and take it easy when you need to! P.S. Also Happy Holidays everyone!