LE/SE/AE/GoG so many questions

[uguu123]

Hello there

My question is it worth to switch into new engine?

 

I runned AE for a first time and first difference i noticed - is a water.

It's much better than in vanilla, objects are swimming, like it should, waterfalls doesn't look ugly from distance (not static mesh for lod anymore?)

 

But how bad is situation about porting old mods: skeleton, race meshes are they portable by usual mortal with some knowledge of CK/tes5edit/nifscope?

SE/AE are better in terms of modding (new features, easier editing, better skse, etc)?

 

Currently i found that new CK is a bit clunky. Some submenus overlapping main one, also new challenge with utf strings for non-English versions.

Are there any other downsides in new CK?

 

Also are there tool to downgrade "SE meshes" tp LE if it's required?

Edited September 23, 2023 by uguu123

[Andy14]

3 hours ago, uguu123 said:

SE/AE are better in terms of modding (new features, easier editing, better skse, etc)?

 

It's not really better, but naturally has newer mods because it's more up-to-date.
It's not really more stable either - it just crashes later because a lot more RAM can be addressed.
There is no bug fixing whatsoever - it has the same bugs as LE already had.
And that's a matter of taste - it looks terrible. Completely incorrect lighting, no or only very poor shadows. Looks like photo wallpaper in the background of a theater stage.

 

3 hours ago, uguu123 said:

Also are there tool to downgrade "SE meshes" tp LE if it's required?

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/113338/

[uguu123]

48 minutes ago, Andy14 said:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/113338/

thx for this, seems i'll stay with my beloved Oldrim

 

[Tlam99]

56 minutes ago, Andy14 said:

Completely incorrect lighting, no

Poor SE lighting

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Andy14]

13 minutes ago, uguu123 said:

thx for this, seems i'll stay with my beloved Oldrim

 

If in doubt, you can install both versions as normal and see which is better and worse and which of them is important.
I have both LE (actually not even LE, but Skyrim + all DLC's from the first release) and SE. I have uninstalled SE again.
I don't use ModManager and I only had to reinstall Skyrim once because of a hard drive error.

Edited September 23, 2023 by Andy14

[uguu123]

15 minutes ago, Andy14 said:

If in doubt, you can install both versions as normal and see which is better and worse and which of them is important.
I have both LE (actually not even LE, but Skyrim + all DLC's from the first release) and SE. I have uninstalled SE again.
I don't use ModManager and I only had to reinstall Skyrim once because of a hard drive error.

i didn't have LE exactly too. I bough Skyrim when it out and DLC one by one, but LE is how "Oldrim" is called now.

Even SE i got for nothing, probably because i had Skyrim with all DLC before.

 

I expected to see just DX11/64bit version of Skyrim, but Todd don't think so.

[Tlam99]

12 hours ago, Andy14 said:

Completely incorrect lighting, no

Poor SE lighting

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

SE, no shadows

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Just Don't]

On 9/23/2023 at 4:24 PM, uguu123 said:

I expected to see just DX11/64bit version of Skyrim, but Todd don't think so.

???

Skyrim SE is 64 bits DX11. There's some forum sections about Skyrim SE right here. Plenty of info about mods and stuff in there.

 

There are new mods that aren't available for LE.

There are old mods that aren't available for SE.

Going into which one looks the best is like a dick measuring contest where you gotta justify all the hours you've poured into your setup. Not fun IMO.

 

Porting assets from LE to SE (and the other way around I guess) is relatively easy, depending on the file type you can let a program like Nif Optimizer or Cathedral Assets Optimizer handle it (animations, textures, meshes). Plugins should work fine save very few exceptions where there are new record types for SE that aren't available on LE. Nothing a quick check in CK or xEdit can't tell you if you know what you're doing. But if you're comfortable with your LE setup and you don't see any benefits (almost 9 years since the SE re-release) I don't see why you'd want to switch now.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Just Don't

[uguu123]

17 hours ago, Just Don't said:

???

Skyrim SE is 64 bits DX11.

yeah, but also lot of crap like shop

[uguu123]

17 hours ago, Just Don't said:

I don't see why you'd want to switch now

DX11 which is not using usual RAM for VRAM needs, unilke DX9. Well it's can be resolved by using ENB.

64bit which allow to avoid famous 3.2Gb RAM point of crash.

 

My point, my hope/wish for SE was simple upgrade without touch anything else, but Toddy don't think so

 

 

[Just Don't]

15 minutes ago, uguu123 said:

My point, my hope/wish for SE was simple upgrade without touch anything else, but Toddy don't think so

You don't need to interact with the shop at all. If all you want is the Skyrim + 3 DLC content you already have that. If you want all the CC that was released for SE you can get the paid AE DLC (not recommended really).

 

I also got SE for free because I had bought Skyrim + all the DLCs back in the day. I waited a couple of years to try it and now that's all I use. As usual you set up your game/Steam/mod manager to avoid automatic updates, I disabled the creation club, in game mods menu and announcements (very easy to find menu declutter/replacer, also a recommended INI tweak). I know which version of the executable I use (important for SKSE and SKSE plugin compatibility) and that's it. No surprise updates that break compatibility, no shop announcements and shenanigans I don't want. Nothing. Just the game I got for free modded to the top.

[Tlam99]

On 9/23/2023 at 9:24 PM, uguu123 said:

just DX11/64bit version

 

2 hours ago, uguu123 said:

DX11 which is not using usual RAM for VRAM needs, unilke DX9

left or right

forward or backwards

 

I don't want to convince anyone for LE, SE, whatever.

What I do is clarifying false or incomplete claims, as this is a public forum.

If the things are not cleared, it may stay as the real truth for people which read an believe it.

The quality of LE or SE depends fully on the time you invest to improve it.

A tweakened LE version looks betterthan a poorly modded SE version and vice versa.

The really BIG BIG advantage of SE is the almost not limited use of ESP FE mods.

One gets so many new stones to setup a building which an even a very good modded LE  cannot come close to.

[belegost]

19 hours ago, Tlam99 said:

The really BIG BIG advantage of SE is the almost not limited use of ESP FE mods.

And that's it. With LE you're limited to 255 plugins. Can't go over it, no matter what. You can merge and tweak, but you still will reach the limit at some point if you;re serious about modding. With SE, and it's introduction of "light" plugins, there is no practical upper limit that's possible to reach before either your game crashes on its own, or your PC melts.

 

Plugin limit is the thing. Everything else is superficial.

Edited September 26, 2023 by belegost

[Roggvir]

On 9/23/2023 at 3:59 PM, uguu123 said:

Hello there

My question is it worth to switch into new engine?

 

I runned AE for a first time and first difference i noticed - is a water.

It's much better than in vanilla, objects are swimming, like it should, waterfalls doesn't look ugly from distance (not static mesh for lod anymore?)

 

But how bad is situation about porting old mods: skeleton, race meshes are they portable by usual mortal with some knowledge of CK/tes5edit/nifscope?

SE/AE are better in terms of modding (new features, easier editing, better skse, etc)?

 

Currently i found that new CK is a bit clunky. Some submenus overlapping main one, also new challenge with utf strings for non-English versions.

Are there any other downsides in new CK?

 

Also are there tool to downgrade "SE meshes" tp LE if it's required?

 

Yes, it is most definitely worth switching to SE.

 

SE is way more stable than LE out of the box.
And still even more stable with the bug fixes that are available for it.

 

Graphics depends slightly more on what mods you use, rather than on version of the game.
But having said that, SE has a big advantage over LE in more recent, better maintained, and actively updated/developed mods (way more new mods are actively developed for SE than LE. LE is mostly destined to be stuck with same old crap, because most people, who know how to create anything worthwhile, focus more on SE).
Whether that matters depends on what visuals you are after, but when in doubt, SE is objectively the safer bet.

 

Regarding mod compatibility, you are objectively much better off with SE.
Porting mods to SE is very simple.
All mods that are worth having, have been either converted to SE, or have a newer and better alternative for SE.

One possibly tiny problem that comes to mind could be with the Faster HDT-SMP, which while being better, faster, and more stable than its LE counterpart, doesn't seem to be able to properly simulate chained bones that are attached to something at both ends, but that is rather a non-issue anyway, because there are literally just two or three items in one existing mod that use such feature.

Apart from that i recall somebody somewhere mentioning one mod that doesn't seem to exist in SE, but i can't remember what that mod was (so, probably nothing important).

Any of the 2 or 3 mods that may not be currently available in SE, are very likely something anybody can live without.

 

New CK is way more stable and even loads much faster than the old one, but you MUST install the CK fixes.
I can tell you almost exactly when i had my last crash in CK - it was sometime before Jan 2019, when i installed then current CK and CK Fixes.
So, it has been at least 4 years, 8 months, and 10 days, since i had a crash in CK - your mileage may vary, but you can be sure that you will be MUCH better off with the new CK (with fixes).
If you run into problems with unicode, you are probably doing something wrong, maybe you need to change the way you work - maybe it depends on what you are doing, but i do not have any problems like that.

Yes there are tools to convert meshes (and other things) between LS and SE, CAO is maybe the most commonly used tool for that.
 

 

If somebody likes antiquities, they should probably stick with LE.

If somebody wants something more future proof and with much more potential, they should absolutely get SE.