Share your recommended modlist! All pointers and tips welcome!

[BrimstoneOmega]

 

 

I suppose I can throw in a bit of my life lessons learned in Skyrim modding, though I'm definitely not an expert or anything.

 

 

General Improvements

-USLEEP- Absolutely needed. There are no incompatibilities as long as this is like the very first thing in your left hand list.

 

-SKYUI- See you already have that.

 

-Fuz Ro D'oh-  Others have mentioned this, but I don't know if they explained it well enough. It does not change any of the normal behavior of the games shouts or dialogue. What it does is something similar to FNIS only it involves custom shouts or dialogue. What it most noticeably does is gives NPCs the ability to speak in text format only; i.e. they will talk to you, their mouths move but no sound comes out, instead you get subtitles. Like I said this changes nothing about normal game play, but if a mod were to add dialogue somewhere this lets you actually see/read it. Have you noticed in playing the game that the subtitles are in sync with the spoken words? Well in a mod that has no spoken words in without Fus the same thing would happen; since there are no spoken words the subtitles would not be played.

 

-SKSE- You've probably already gotten this one.

 

-Modern Bugs Brawl- Basically fixes a lot of issues with brawls and many mods kind of need this, especially the kinky ones. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24020/?

 

-UIExensions- This one's pretty helpful too, the name says it all. What it does is allow mods to have thier own UI interface. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57046/?

 

-Race Menu- This is a must.

 

World Beautification

This one comes down to personal tastes, so I'll just throw in a few of my personal tastes.

 

-Skyrim Floral Overhaul- Makes Skyrim much more lush and fancy looking, but very flowery. I love it but others don't like all the flowers. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141/?

 

 

-Purity 2- This does so much I can't even begin to make it short enough. Click this link and read up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65242/?

 

-True Storms- Very nice improvements to, you guessed it, storms. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63478/?

 

NPC Beautification

One word; Bijin. No that's a lie but those are some of the best out there, but there's others that supplement what left out by his.

 

-Bijin Wives- Check out the rest of these, Warmaidens and NPCs, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63473/?

 

-JH People- This is a set of Korean mods for npcs, has a few dependencies, but covers a ton, I mean a literal ton of NPCs. http://nsfwmods.com/files/file/110-jh-people-npc-cosmetic-surgery-englishkoreajapanese-ver-integration-pack/

 

-Facelight plus- Most of the time you see pictures of babes in Skyrim they have this little mod on them. It sounds silly, but it works wonders. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71063/?

 

Gameplay

-Ordinator- This reworks the perk trees and give you a ton more options, makes many of the vanila skills way more usefull and fun. I can't play without this anymore.

 

-Apocalypse Spell Package- Adds a ton of new and awesome spells to Skyrim leveled lists and vendors. Another can't play without mod for me, just make sure to grab the patch if you use it with ordinator. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16225/?

 

-Individualized Shout Cooldowns- Name says it all. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52648/?

 

-Alternate Start - Live Another Life- Lets you start the game how you want to play. Plus helps out a lot when just making new charaters to try different mods out. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

 

-Populated Cities Towns Villages- Theres a whole bunch of these that add generic NPCs all over the place, even an all in one, links on mod page. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/73147/?

 

Executables

You said that you didn't really want too many third party exe. stuff, but I'm going to advise these anyways.

 

 

-Bodyslide- Make your clothes fit you body and your body fit your tastes. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49015/?

 

-WryeBash- Make patches that are needed to get the stuff in your game, and a bazillion other things. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1840/?

 

-TESV Edit- A million uses, but most important lets you make merged patches. Not the most knowledable person about this, but basically when you mod an assest in Skyrim, say Lydia's sword in one mod, then her armor in another, and finally her face Skyrim has issues knowing what goes where and wich one wins out. A merged patch helps it figure out what's up. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859/?

 

-FNIS- Without this no new animations. Without new animations you can't use Devious Devices. Without Devious Devices no BDSM. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11811/?

 

-Ordenador- Not to be confused with the mod, this is a tool that will help to compress texture files. Even with an outstanding rig, Skyrim gets bitchy when you start adding too many graphically heavy mods and will crash. This will help you to downsize some things that you don't need at 8BazzilionK resolution. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/?

 

Followers

There's so many out there I can only give a few actual NPCs to advise, but these first two are a most for better interaction.

 

 

-Relationship Dialogue Overhaul- Uses assets already in game to give followers much better dialogue. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74568/?

 

-Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks- Does a ton of stuff, basically lets you actually command, dress, ext. followers and have more than one at a time. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71689/?

 

-Inigo- Super awesome Kajit follower with tons of things to say about everything. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960/?

 

-Vilja- Works very well with Inigo, they talk to each other and everything!

 

-Sofia- Another awesome custom voiced follower, she's one of my absolute favorites. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54527/?

 

Skellybones

-XPMSE32-  I see you've looked at this a bit already, but let me explain a bit about it. You said you were a bit put off because you need FNIS for it. That's not completely true. The full download does in fact need it, but there's a lot more in that download than just the skeleton. What you absolutely need is the skeleton. I would recommend the whole thing, but if you don't want all the extra stuff then all you have to do is install it in MO, check it on the left window, but leave the right side esp. unchecked. That will give you the skeletons without the added bits. The reason it wants FNIS is there are tons of sustainable animations and weapon styles that you can set up in the MCM, but if you don't want that stuff you don't need it for the Skeleton to work.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that's about all I have time for right now, I'm sure others have more or better suggestions, and I am by no way the best person to give advice. Hope this helps some.

 

You may be no expert, but you're certainly more qualified than I.

 

General Improvements

USLEEP: figured that one out yesterday. Also figured out I was fearful over nothing.

SkyUI: Gosh, it's so purdy.

Fuz Ro D'oh: I see now. Installed it yesterday as well, without problems.

SKSE: Oh yeah. Definitely.

Brawl Bugs: Also part of STEP, just installed it today. Glad to hear it's so useful/important, because it was a cinch to toss in.

UIExtensions: Huh, thought MCM took care of that. I'll take a look.

RaceMenu: So I've gathered! So long as it's a simpler install than FNIS, I should be good haha

 

World Beautification

Skyrim Floral Overhaul: I was eyeballing this one, can't remember why I never pulled the trigger. Possibly because I was evaluating DynDOLOD instead.

Purity: Looks amazing, but is it compatible with Realistic Water Two? RWT is required for STEP Core, and I'm worried there'll be conflict.

True Storms: Wow. This looks amazing.

 

NPC Beautification

Holy shit, these mods are bitchin' (kill me pls, I can't stop punning)

Bijin Wives: Amazing. Definitely going on the list.

JH: These are beautiful too, but holy shit the English haha. I'm almost certain to muddle my way through, and likely to set up an account over there.

Facelight: Ingenious. Also going on the list.

 

Gameplay

Ordinator: I've heard a lot about this. Can't seem to find it though.

Apocalypse Spells: Holy shit I love magic.

Individualized Shout Cooldowns: Another one that's definitely going on the list.

Alternate Start - LAL: This is insanely popular. IDK if I want it or not, but I'll probably do the random start if I get it.

Populated CTV: This looks good. Maybe it'll give the dragons some fodder so essential NPCs don't die and prevent me from questing.

 

Executables (noooooo)

Bodyslide: Everyone says it. Looks like it's mandatory.

Wyre Bash: Doesn't MO do what Bash does?

TES5Edit: Got it. Didn't want to fiddle with it and couldn't figure out how to use FO4Edit on Skyrim, but I found a link to an old TES5Edit and was in business.

FNIS: Just got it tonight. Kind of confusing, but absolutely essential.

Ordenador: Oooh. This looks badass.

 

Followers

RDO: Dude, wouldn't you know it, I was eyeballing this too.

Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks: That's pretty cool. I saw another mod that does this more realistically (Dialogue: "So... you know you're naked?"), but I seem to recall compatibility issues with that.

Inigo: Darn, I can't stand Khajiit. I might have to make an exception here.

Vilja: She's purrrdy.

Sofia: She's a little big in the jaw in that Liv Tyler sort of way, but I think I can see why she's your favorite.

 

Skellybones

XPMSE32: I opted for the outdated one for compatibility reasons, but I installed XP32 MS and FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

 

This helps a ton, are you kidding? Thanks so much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

See, I thought I gave a link for everything, sorry about that one. Here's Ordinator; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68425/?

 

As for the loose FNIS ends, you're pretty much gonna end up with this only if you have a bunch of profiles. If you were to add new animations or remove animations you're going to want to uncheck your FNIS output, go into it, delete everything, rerun FNIS and then just drop the new output into your old folder then recheck it.

 

I think Vachnic already covered most of your other questions, but if there were some missed point them I out we'll help where we can. Merged patches and Bashed patches, while aren't absolutely necessary will help with stability in the long run. I never used to make them, seamed like too much work to learn and do, but once you get the hang of it it's not any harder than just going through the motions, and will help make a far more stable build in the long run, which will lead to a lot less headaches.

 

I forgot to add that you may want to look into Crash Fixes http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72725/?

as well as Continue Game No Crash http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78557/?

Once you start throwing a lot of stuff at Skyrim it gets very cranky and WILL give you troubles. Eventually you'll get it sorted out, and these two will help you along that path. We've all been there, hell, I still am from time to time, but in the end taking your time and doing the extra steps will get you a much better playing experience. Sounds like you have a level head and are willing to learn, you have MO which will help a lot, and you do your homework and read. That's all it take aside from a bit of trial and error, and a few lost characters.

 

One more bit of advice for now, make a Profile that has you core mods in it, I call mine "Baseline", and DON'T add new mods to this. Use it as the name I gave it, a baseline to try new things from. When you do want to try out new things, make a copy of this profile and add the mods to it that way, you can make it so that it copies over your save file so that you can see how it works. That way if you find it doesnt mesh with your setup or you just don't like it you haven't messed up the game you want to play. Because let's face it, there's always just one more awesome mod that comes along, and even though you know you shouldn't add or remove things from your saves it's bound to happen. This way you minimalism the aftershock and hopefully don't cause yourself any lasting issues which can be hard to track down sometimes.

 

Watch me, I'm about to mess up another quote. You might say I have a quota to fill, hehe.

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

[...]FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

 

The easiest way to deal with the FNIS output, is create a "fake" mod from the files in Overwrite (right-click > Create Mod) and name it FNIS Output. When you need to run FNIS again, you simple delete this "FNIS Output" mod and create a new one with the new files that will appear in Overwrite.

 

You can do something similar with SKSE files that end up in Overwrite (like Sexlab profile files). Create a "fake mod" called "SKSE Output" and put SKSE files in it. Every time a new SKSE file appears, you can simply drag&drop the file from the Overwrite window ONto the SKSE Output mod.

 

Same with TES5Edit (xEdit) files. Create a fake mod for those.

 

So: NO, don't combine the files from the Overwrite. Keep them in seperate mods, which are easier to maintain/ delete as needed.

I've just put the output of FNIS inside the FNIS folder. Like, it outputs 3 folders, one of them being "meshes". If you open the FNIS mod, you actually see those same folders. So if you drag the overwrite output into the FNIS folder, it's a plain copy over job. So is it safe to copy over the original FNIS files? Well, I suppose so, as FNIS has generated these new files for a good reason. It generates them based on what is seen as appropriate when you run FNISforusers.exe. Just...the way MO happens to handle such a file generation happens to be by putting them into the overwrite folder. But that gets messy really fast, so you have to get rid of them.

 

So why not do as suggested and make a fake mod out of the overwrite folder's contents? Well, many different mods can generate overwrite folder content with the same name, and I want those new files to remain associated with the mod which generated it. Because one day I might want to deactivate one of these mods, and I couldn't very well deactivate my fake overwrite mod along with it, because it would also contain a variety of files from different mods. But I don't want these generated files to remain activated while the mod that generated them no longer is.

 

As an example, plenty of mods generate an "SKSE" folder in the overwrite folder. If you dig deeper into it you will find the actual mod's name, but the top level folder is often SKSE, because it's a script, or something like that.

 

There, I hope I didn't generate any confusion, and that I got it right, myself. Plenty of tips in this thread that I can use myself, btw, so thanks for that.

 

 

 

What i do to keep my FNIS folder clean, and to allow for the use of multiple profiles is once FNIS is done doing it's thing I right click the overwrite folder, go to "Create New Mod" and name it whatever character's name I have that profile set up for. Same with my many bash and merged patches, and the occasional SkyProc patch. I.E. i have one called FNIS Huntress, one called FNIS Bre'Elling, ext., ext. Same for the others, Merged Bre'Elling, Bash Bre'Elling, blah blah blah. Then when I want to play a different mod set up on a different profile it's all good to go and I don't have to redo everything. Just make sure if you do something like this with multiple profile that you dont have multiple patches for the same thing checked off.

 

 

[IronPrimarch]

See, I thought I gave a link for everything, sorry about that one. Here's Ordinator; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68425/?

 

As for the loose FNIS ends, you're pretty much gonna end up with this only if you have a bunch of profiles. If you were to add new animations or remove animations you're going to want to uncheck your FNIS output, go into it, delete everything, rerun FNIS and then just drop the new output into your old folder then recheck it.

 

I think Vachnic already covered most of your other questions, but if there were some missed point them I out we'll help where we can. Merged patches and Bashed patches, while aren't absolutely necessary will help with stability in the long run. I never used to make them, seamed like too much work to learn and do, but once you get the hang of it it's not any harder than just going through the motions, and will help make a far more stable build in the long run, which will lead to a lot less headaches.

 

I forgot to add that you may want to look into Crash Fixes http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72725/?

as well as Continue Game No Crash http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78557/?

Once you start throwing a lot of stuff at Skyrim it gets very cranky and WILL give you troubles. Eventually you'll get it sorted out, and these two will help you along that path. We've all been there, hell, I still am from time to time, but in the end taking your time and doing the extra steps will get you a much better playing experience. Sounds like you have a level head and are willing to learn, you have MO which will help a lot, and you do your homework and read. That's all it take aside from a bit of trial and error, and a few lost characters.

 

One more bit of advice for now, make a Profile that has you core mods in it, I call mine "Baseline", and DON'T add new mods to this. Use it as the name I gave it, a baseline to try new things from. When you do want to try out new things, make a copy of this profile and add the mods to it that way, you can make it so that it copies over your save file so that you can see how it works. That way if you find it doesnt mesh with your setup or you just don't like it you haven't messed up the game you want to play. Because let's face it, there's always just one more awesome mod that comes along, and even though you know you shouldn't add or remove things from your saves it's bound to happen. This way you minimalism the aftershock and hopefully don't cause yourself any lasting issues which can be hard to track down sometimes.

 

Watch me, I'm about to mess up another quote. You might say I have a quota to fill, hehe.

 

 

 

[...]FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

 

The easiest way to deal with the FNIS output, is create a "fake" mod from the files in Overwrite (right-click > Create Mod) and name it FNIS Output. When you need to run FNIS again, you simple delete this "FNIS Output" mod and create a new one with the new files that will appear in Overwrite.

 

You can do something similar with SKSE files that end up in Overwrite (like Sexlab profile files). Create a "fake mod" called "SKSE Output" and put SKSE files in it. Every time a new SKSE file appears, you can simply drag&drop the file from the Overwrite window ONto the SKSE Output mod.

 

Same with TES5Edit (xEdit) files. Create a fake mod for those.

 

So: NO, don't combine the files from the Overwrite. Keep them in seperate mods, which are easier to maintain/ delete as needed.

 

 

 

I've just put the output of FNIS inside the FNIS folder. Like, it outputs 3 folders, one of them being "meshes". If you open the FNIS mod, you actually see those same folders. So if you drag the overwrite output into the FNIS folder, it's a plain copy over job. So is it safe to copy over the original FNIS files? Well, I suppose so, as FNIS has generated these new files for a good reason. It generates them based on what is seen as appropriate when you run FNISforusers.exe. Just...the way MO happens to handle such a file generation happens to be by putting them into the overwrite folder. But that gets messy really fast, so you have to get rid of them.

 

So why not do as suggested and make a fake mod out of the overwrite folder's contents? Well, many different mods can generate overwrite folder content with the same name, and I want those new files to remain associated with the mod which generated it. Because one day I might want to deactivate one of these mods, and I couldn't very well deactivate my fake overwrite mod along with it, because it would also contain a variety of files from different mods. But I don't want these generated files to remain activated while the mod that generated them no longer is.

 

As an example, plenty of mods generate an "SKSE" folder in the overwrite folder. If you dig deeper into it you will find the actual mod's name, but the top level folder is often SKSE, because it's a script, or something like that.

 

There, I hope I didn't generate any confusion, and that I got it right, myself. Plenty of tips in this thread that I can use myself, btw, so thanks for that.

 

 

What i do to keep my FNIS folder clean, and to allow for the use of multiple profiles is once FNIS is done doing it's thing I right click the overwrite folder, go to "Create New Mod" and name it whatever character's name I have that profile set up for. Same with my many bash and merged patches, and the occasional SkyProc patch. I.E. i have one called FNIS Huntress, one called FNIS Bre'Elling, ext., ext. Same for the others, Merged Bre'Elling, Bash Bre'Elling, blah blah blah. Then when I want to play a different mod set up on a different profile it's all good to go and I don't have to redo everything. Just make sure if you do something like this with multiple profile that you dont have multiple patches for the same thing checked off.

 

Yay Ordinator! Thanks a million.

 

So let me get this straight. If I load several packs of animations at once (within reason) and run FNIS, then manage the output, then uncheck them if I need a different profile of animations, that should be fully functional?

 

Basically:

1.) OOH these animations are shiny! Those too! I want them both!

2.) Download packs

3.) Install

4.) Run FNIS

5.) Turn output into a single output mod

6.) Man, I wish I'd opted for THESE two animation packs instead...

7.) Uncheck animation packs and delete output mod

8.) Download new packs, install, run FNIS, manage output

...would that work?

 

Bashed patches: I'm loath to learn them, but reassured to know they're so easy after you've done em once or twice. I plan to learn them in the near future then.

 

Thanks for the tips. I anticipate needing to scale some of this stuff back anyway, I'm about halfway through step 2 of the STEP guide and I'm getting 30fps in Riverwood haha. I'm sure I messed up somewhere, but every optimization recommendation you guys have is like gold to me.

 

Baseline profile: brilliant! I should try that. Right now, every mod I download goes into a folder designated MOD BACKUP so if I have to reset to zero, everything's that much easier to locate and re-install. Maybe not the exact thing you've done, but certainly the same concept.

[ButchDiavolo]

 

[snipped]

 

Basically:

 

1.) OOH these animations are shiny! Those too! I want them both!

2.) Download packs

3.) Install

4.) Run FNIS

5.) Turn output into a single output mod

6.) Man, I wish I'd opted for THESE two animation packs instead...

7.) Uncheck animation packs and delete output mod

8.) Download new packs, install, run FNIS, manage output

 

...would that work?

 

Bashed patches: I'm loath to learn them, but reassured to know they're so easy after you've done em once or twice. I plan to learn them in the near future then.

 

Baseline profile: brilliant! I should try that. Right now, every mod I download goes into a folder designated MOD BACKUP so if I have to reset to zero, everything's that much easier to locate and re-install. Maybe not the exact thing you've done, but certainly the same concept.

 

 

Yes, that would totally work. But... you can add a ton of animations these days, so you may not have to uncheck the animation packs for a while.

Just remember that any time you add a mod with animations, you have to run FNIS.

 

Creating a bashed patch is very simple. STEP has good information about creating one (at the end of the STEP guide) and you basically just follow what Wrye Bash "says"/ suggests. But like FNIS, every time you add a new mod, you might want to create a new bashed patch. So do the same steps as with FNIS.

 

Also, the baseline profile is indeed a good idea. With MO you can have multiple modlists. So you can create a new profile for each different playthrough. Just remember to name the Overwrite files (fake mods) accordingly as said above.

But keep a baseline profile that works as backup. My baseline profile is called STEP for example. And keeping a backup of all the mods you download is also a good idea, because sometimes mods you have decided you can't play without can disappear from Nexus. Just make sure you keep those backup mods outside of the Steam and MO folders. Perhaps even on a USB stick.

 

[BrimstoneOmega]

 

 

See, I thought I gave a link for everything, sorry about that one. Here's Ordinator; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68425/?

 

As for the loose FNIS ends, you're pretty much gonna end up with this only if you have a bunch of profiles. If you were to add new animations or remove animations you're going to want to uncheck your FNIS output, go into it, delete everything, rerun FNIS and then just drop the new output into your old folder then recheck it.

 

I think Vachnic already covered most of your other questions, but if there were some missed point them I out we'll help where we can. Merged patches and Bashed patches, while aren't absolutely necessary will help with stability in the long run. I never used to make them, seamed like too much work to learn and do, but once you get the hang of it it's not any harder than just going through the motions, and will help make a far more stable build in the long run, which will lead to a lot less headaches.

 

I forgot to add that you may want to look into Crash Fixes http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72725/?

as well as Continue Game No Crash http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78557/?

Once you start throwing a lot of stuff at Skyrim it gets very cranky and WILL give you troubles. Eventually you'll get it sorted out, and these two will help you along that path. We've all been there, hell, I still am from time to time, but in the end taking your time and doing the extra steps will get you a much better playing experience. Sounds like you have a level head and are willing to learn, you have MO which will help a lot, and you do your homework and read. That's all it take aside from a bit of trial and error, and a few lost characters.

 

One more bit of advice for now, make a Profile that has you core mods in it, I call mine "Baseline", and DON'T add new mods to this. Use it as the name I gave it, a baseline to try new things from. When you do want to try out new things, make a copy of this profile and add the mods to it that way, you can make it so that it copies over your save file so that you can see how it works. That way if you find it doesnt mesh with your setup or you just don't like it you haven't messed up the game you want to play. Because let's face it, there's always just one more awesome mod that comes along, and even though you know you shouldn't add or remove things from your saves it's bound to happen. This way you minimalism the aftershock and hopefully don't cause yourself any lasting issues which can be hard to track down sometimes.

 

Watch me, I'm about to mess up another quote. You might say I have a quota to fill, hehe.

 

 

 

[...]FNIS together earlier today. Not nearly as terrifying as I feared, though I'm worried about future FNIS interaction. I'm probably fretting over nothing, but Gopher's tutorial on FNIS shows creating mods out of FNIS loose ends every time animations are included. Can I combine these loose ends in the same mod, or am I damned to a terrible fate in which I must clutter my modlist with separate FNIS loose-end mods?

 

The easiest way to deal with the FNIS output, is create a "fake" mod from the files in Overwrite (right-click > Create Mod) and name it FNIS Output. When you need to run FNIS again, you simple delete this "FNIS Output" mod and create a new one with the new files that will appear in Overwrite.

 

You can do something similar with SKSE files that end up in Overwrite (like Sexlab profile files). Create a "fake mod" called "SKSE Output" and put SKSE files in it. Every time a new SKSE file appears, you can simply drag&drop the file from the Overwrite window ONto the SKSE Output mod.

 

Same with TES5Edit (xEdit) files. Create a fake mod for those.

 

So: NO, don't combine the files from the Overwrite. Keep them in seperate mods, which are easier to maintain/ delete as needed.

 

 

 

I've just put the output of FNIS inside the FNIS folder. Like, it outputs 3 folders, one of them being "meshes". If you open the FNIS mod, you actually see those same folders. So if you drag the overwrite output into the FNIS folder, it's a plain copy over job. So is it safe to copy over the original FNIS files? Well, I suppose so, as FNIS has generated these new files for a good reason. It generates them based on what is seen as appropriate when you run FNISforusers.exe. Just...the way MO happens to handle such a file generation happens to be by putting them into the overwrite folder. But that gets messy really fast, so you have to get rid of them.

 

So why not do as suggested and make a fake mod out of the overwrite folder's contents? Well, many different mods can generate overwrite folder content with the same name, and I want those new files to remain associated with the mod which generated it. Because one day I might want to deactivate one of these mods, and I couldn't very well deactivate my fake overwrite mod along with it, because it would also contain a variety of files from different mods. But I don't want these generated files to remain activated while the mod that generated them no longer is.

 

As an example, plenty of mods generate an "SKSE" folder in the overwrite folder. If you dig deeper into it you will find the actual mod's name, but the top level folder is often SKSE, because it's a script, or something like that.

 

There, I hope I didn't generate any confusion, and that I got it right, myself. Plenty of tips in this thread that I can use myself, btw, so thanks for that.

 

 

What i do to keep my FNIS folder clean, and to allow for the use of multiple profiles is once FNIS is done doing it's thing I right click the overwrite folder, go to "Create New Mod" and name it whatever character's name I have that profile set up for. Same with my many bash and merged patches, and the occasional SkyProc patch. I.E. i have one called FNIS Huntress, one called FNIS Bre'Elling, ext., ext. Same for the others, Merged Bre'Elling, Bash Bre'Elling, blah blah blah. Then when I want to play a different mod set up on a different profile it's all good to go and I don't have to redo everything. Just make sure if you do something like this with multiple profile that you dont have multiple patches for the same thing checked off.

 

Yay Ordinator! Thanks a million.

 

So let me get this straight. If I load several packs of animations at once (within reason) and run FNIS, then manage the output, then uncheck them if I need a different profile of animations, that should be fully functional?

 

Basically:

1.) OOH these animations are shiny! Those too! I want them both!

2.) Download packs

3.) Install

4.) Run FNIS

5.) Turn output into a single output mod

6.) Man, I wish I'd opted for THESE two animation packs instead...

7.) Uncheck animation packs and delete output mod

8.) Download new packs, install, run FNIS, manage output

...would that work?

 

Bashed patches: I'm loath to learn them, but reassured to know they're so easy after you've done em once or twice. I plan to learn them in the near future then.

 

Thanks for the tips. I anticipate needing to scale some of this stuff back anyway, I'm about halfway through step 2 of the STEP guide and I'm getting 30fps in Riverwood haha. I'm sure I messed up somewhere, but every optimization recommendation you guys have is like gold to me.

 

Baseline profile: brilliant! I should try that. Right now, every mod I download goes into a folder designated MOD BACKUP so if I have to reset to zero, everything's that much easier to locate and re-install. Maybe not the exact thing you've done, but certainly the same concept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[snipped]

 

Basically:

 

1.) OOH these animations are shiny! Those too! I want them both!

2.) Download packs

3.) Install

4.) Run FNIS

5.) Turn output into a single output mod

6.) Man, I wish I'd opted for THESE two animation packs instead...

7.) Uncheck animation packs and delete output mod

8.) Download new packs, install, run FNIS, manage output

 

...would that work?

 

Bashed patches: I'm loath to learn them, but reassured to know they're so easy after you've done em once or twice. I plan to learn them in the near future then.

 

Baseline profile: brilliant! I should try that. Right now, every mod I download goes into a folder designated MOD BACKUP so if I have to reset to zero, everything's that much easier to locate and re-install. Maybe not the exact thing you've done, but certainly the same concept.

 

 

Yes, that would totally work. But... you can add a ton of animations these days, so you may not have to uncheck the animation packs for a while.

Just remember that any time you add a mod with animations, you have to run FNIS.

 

Creating a bashed patch is very simple. STEP has good information about creating one (at the end of the STEP guide) and you basically just follow what Wrye Bash "says"/ suggests. But like FNIS, every time you add a new mod, you might want to create a new bashed patch. So do the same steps as with FNIS.

 

Also, the baseline profile is indeed a good idea. With MO you can have multiple modlists. So you can create a new profile for each different playthrough. Just remember to name the Overwrite files (fake mods) accordingly as said above.

But keep a baseline profile that works as backup. My baseline profile is called STEP for example. And keeping a backup of all the mods you download is also a good idea, because sometimes mods you have decided you can't play without can disappear from Nexus. Just make sure you keep those backup mods outside of the Steam and MO folders. Perhaps even on a USB stick.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, and yep.

 

As to FNIS and maxing out animations, like Vachnic said, that's gonna take a while. The one I use has like 8000 animation limit, and then there's the XXL versio that can do 12000. That's quite a few. But on the other hand, you only need to delete the output folder if you're using it on the same profile. So with multiple profiles you can have multiple sets of FNIS overwrites.

 

One more thing about FNIS is there's this awesome mod called PCEA2- Player Character Exclusive Animations http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71055/?

You can use this handy little mod to not only make your animations player exclusive, but to have multiple versions of the same type that you can change on the fly. You can set up 10 different sets that you can access with the MCM. I have three sets of walking animations, each with their own idle, a few magic ones, and a few attack ones. In actuality, I set up different movement and idles for all males and female, and then there's the three extras for my character alone, so at any given time I have access to four whole sets of idles and movement animations that I can change in game on the fly without needing new FNIS meshes.

So if you're looking to just try new stuff out and want to see it in game you could potentially test out 10 new sets of animations in game from one run with FNIS.

Naturally this isn't going to count for like the sexlab stuff that has...well sex... but for combat or magic or movement it's all good.

 

 

 

EDIT: I have no idea why when I post it ends up all long and to the left. Sorry about that......

[IronPrimarch]

Yep, and yep.

 

As to FNIS and maxing out animations, like Vachnic said, that's gonna take a while. The one I use has like 8000 animation limit, and then there's the XXL versio that can do 12000. That's quite a few. But on the other hand, you only need to delete the output folder if you're using it on the same profile. So with multiple profiles you can have multiple sets of FNIS overwrites.

 

One more thing about FNIS is there's this awesome mod called PCEA2- Player Character Exclusive Animations http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71055/?

You can use this handy little mod to not only make your animations player exclusive, but to have multiple versions of the same type that you can change on the fly. You can set up 10 different sets that you can access with the MCM. I have three sets of walking animations, each with their own idle, a few magic ones, and a few attack ones. In actuality, I set up different movement and idles for all males and female, and then there's the three extras for my character alone, so at any given time I have access to four whole sets of idles and movement animations that I can change in game on the fly without needing new FNIS meshes.

So if you're looking to just try new stuff out and want to see it in game you could potentially test out 10 new sets of animations in game from one run with FNIS.

Naturally this isn't going to count for like the sexlab stuff that has...well sex... but for combat or magic or movement it's all good.

 

 

 

EDIT: I have no idea why when I post it ends up all long and to the left. Sorry about that......

 

Eight thousand animations? Mother of God. I imagine that someone, somewhere, has actually maxed that out.

 

I was also eyeballing PCEA2. I didn't install it because I'm still elbow deep in STEP patching, but it's starting to sound like a must-have. Due to its complexity (of use, not installation), I may not use it to its fullest extent, but I can see some situations in which it would be super useful.

 

[posts end up to the left because of improper quote structure haha -- happens to the best of us sometimes]

 

Merry Christmas, you beautiful creatures!

[Nefim]

Just putting my two cents in here... FNIS is essential for any mod that uses it's own animations... period. I consider it a must have for any and all modlists... right up there with SKSE and papyrus utility.