Mystery loading screen

[Bluegunk]

I use a nice mod that does loading screens (between cells and such stuff) for me. 

 

The last 3-4 days, another single loading screen has arrived and taken the mod's place.  It's a screenshot (not taken by me) of a lady reading a book outdoors in one of Skyrim's towns.

 

I absolutely cannot track where this picture is coming from. I use MO2 and no overwrites show at all. I've been through the Data tab, Win Explorer, etc. I've trawled recent mods installed. No luck.

 

Is there any way to identify exactly what menu loading screen(s) the game is accessing?  (I'm not talking about the initial game splash screen, by the way.)

Is there a unique folder structure to the game loading screens?

 

If I could get an ID for the DDS file, I can track it and destroy it with prejudice.  But I'm stuck.

 

Any ideas most welcome!

[深淵の神]

Yeah, it's fucking disgusting when some smartass adds some loading screen ruining your perfect set build, like the cow guy and your firstborn. Maybe a screenshot can help you find it.

[traison]

All load screens are LSCR records. "Load Screen" in xEdit. If "a nice mod" is or contains a dll then all bets are off, and that includes the source of the mystery image as it could just be baked into the dll.

[libertyordeath]

What traison said: Load all mods into XEdit, then check the "loadscreen" category for each. Yes, it's a pain to do. You could save yourself lots of monotonous work, if you remember which mods you installed last.

 

Stuff like this is, why i don't install lots of mods at once, or in a short timespan.

[Grey Cloud]

On the Horny Creatures page MMG gave instructions on how to remove the loadscreen that HCOS adds. Look in the location he gives.

[Bluegunk]

Thanks! Some great help here. Appreciate it. Nothing came up in trawls through DDS files.

 

I'm completing a new play-through build. Since I load mods and test them in small batches, knowing what to look for makes it much easier to track which little s@d put this screen into my game.

 

It arrived about 3 days ago but I didn't pay enough attention to it due to other RL stuff and things. So, there are only a few mods to check in detail. 

 

Doing this to mod users almost as bad as delivering a virus!

 

I'll let you know the culprit.

[libertyordeath]

8 hours ago, Bluegunk said:

Doing this to mod users almost as bad as delivering a virus!

Nah, virusses propagate and cause harm as part of the means of propagation (read: it spreads by reckless means). The correct skyrim analogy for a virus would be Pregnancy Normalmap Swapper, aka PNS. 

Edited September 30, 2024 by libertyordeath

[zeelok]

SSE Display Tweaks has an option in its ini file to block loading screens from particular mods or only allow loading screens from certain ones - you could try adding only the mod you want loading screens from to the LoadScreenAllow list and set LoadScreenFilter to true.

[Bluegunk]

Thanks zeelok! I didn't notice that option in Display Tweaks, but that's a great solution!

Edited September 30, 2024 by Bluegunk

[Bluegunk]

This is the image that's bothering me.  Any clues of its source? It is incredibly well buried. Not even a search on LSCR records in SSEEdit is finding it.

I also tried a Google image search.

 

I'll try a wider request separately on the image. Maybe Reddit.

 

 

Edited September 30, 2024 by Bluegunk

[深淵の神]

Aniya - A Custom Voiced Follower at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

I think it's this character, did you install this mod? If so proceed to delete the loading screen with XEdit

[Bluegunk]

Thanks for the suggestion, but she's not in my game.

[zeelok]

If it helps, here's an SKSE DLL I made that just lists off all of the loading screens, what mod they came from, and the path to the file they show, at startup. You can check <SKSELogPath>/Test/LoadingScreens.log for the list.

 

No need to actually play at all, just loading into the main menu is sufficient. The output will look something like

[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin Dawnguard.esm with index 02019ADB and model LoadScreenArt\LoadScreenSmith01.nif
[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin HearthFires.esm with index 03015FBA and model _BYOH\LoadsScreens\LoadScreenAdoptionGirl01.nif
[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin HearthFires.esm with index 03015FB9 and model _BYOH\LoadsScreens\LoadScreenAdoptionGirl01.nif
[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin HearthFires.esm with index 0300F838 and model _BYOH\LoadsScreens\LoadScreenAdoptionBoy01.nif
[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin HearthFires.esm with index 0300F837 and model _BYOH\Furniture\DraftingTable01.nif
[2024-09-30 15:23:35.250] [info] [35276] [plugin.cpp:65] Found loading screen in plugin Dragonborn.esm with index 0403B04F and model DLC02\LoadScreenArt\LoadScreenAdventure02.nif

 

Might be easier to find in that list than searching through xedit.

 

LoadingScreens.zip

[Bluegunk]

Wow - thanks Zeelok! Did you make that specifically for this situation? I'm impressed! Appreciate it.

 

Sadly, the DLL crashes at the initial menu screen. (Log attached) 2024-09-30-21-35-59.log

 

As it happens I've just found the culprit.  It is an image in the mod Malryn (Nexus - Companion). the author has left it as a Photo Mode screenshot. Since I have Photo Mode (which I don't use for Loading Screens) it must have been picking the image up.  No way to find it, since I hadn't even considered Photo Mode as the likely source.  I'm mentioning it to the mod author.

 

SOLVED!

Edited September 30, 2024 by Bluegunk

[zeelok]

Not sure why it crashes (probably a null pointer if I had to guess, I see a few places where I didn't check that) and I get permission denied when I try to view that log file, but glad you found it - the DLL probably wouldn't have helped find that image anyway since it's not from a load screen entry in a plugin.

[Bluegunk]

51 minutes ago, zeelok said:

since it's not from a load screen entry in a plugin.

Thanks, nonetheless, for offering help.  Yes, no wonder it took me ages to find it.

[traison]

10 hours ago, zeelok said:

Not sure why it crashes

 

Would be easier with a pdb file but here's a 3 minute analysis:

 

It crashed because of a null pointer in the false block of an if statement where the true block would have printed "nif was null for plugin {} index {:08X}". This function is called from SKSEPlugin_Load, or may have been part of it. The crash occured on the switch statement in that false block. Note however that you may not have had a switch statement there - no disassembly is 1:1 obviously. The presumed switch statement (which crashed) precedes this message: "Found loading screen in plugin {} with index {:08X} and model {}".

[Bluegunk]

3 hours ago, traison said:

It crashed because of a null pointer

 

 

Brain...quietly...explodes....  💥

[zeelok]

4 hours ago, traison said:

 

Would be easier with a pdb file but here's a 3 minute analysis:

 

It crashed because of a null pointer in the false block of an if statement where the true block would have printed "nif was null for plugin {} index {:08X}". This function is called from SKSEPlugin_Load, or may have been part of it. The crash occured on the switch statement in that false block. Note however that you may not have had a switch statement there - no disassembly is 1:1 obviously. The presumed switch statement (which crashed) precedes this message: "Found loading screen in plugin {} with index {:08X} and model {}".

 

Now the original log file does download for me, but it wouldn't before.

 

It crashed because some loading screen didn't actually have a model set on its associated object and I didn't check for that - I checked that that the pointer to the static object in the load screen wasn't null, but not that the static object had a non-null model inside. So this would be a load screen that may display text but would just have a black screen behind it, no image.