Difference between modding the older and newer Skyrims

[DarkKrusty]

So, I am curious about this, loads of people mod skyrim and people will without a doubt mod this updated version, the question is this, how much different is the engine that skyrim is using? I get that there has been a fair bit in the way of graphical updates but I am not sure how much the engine has changed between the two, could somebody who knows what the hell they are talking about explain this for me? I have be scratching my head deep in thought and its starting to hurt now.

[Kaz Aanh]

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[Guest]

Meshes: compatible support for old and support of new

Archive: only new

Papyrus VM: compatible 99.99%

Conditions: just the same

Objects: just the same

Shaders: totally different

Light effects: totally different

Havok: seems to be different. But here I cannot be sure

Anims: different

Skeleton: different

Textures: compatible with old

SKSE: missing (so no advanced mods)

Flash/Scaleform: pretty much the same

Memory management: way better

Identifier format: exactly the same (so same number of objects and mods)

Face morphs: different

 

 

TL;DR: Basic mods can be ported in a breeze, advanced mods are hard if not impossible to port.

 

[sora3]

Havok is different but it is backward compatible with the old Skyrim files.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Better meshes, slightly better base textures which are still inferior to anything SMIM or other mesh and texture mods already do, 64-bit support for the engine, otherwise it's just the same game all over again. And no Script Extender, obviously, so no advanced mods. Also no FNIS (yet) so no new animations.