Skyrim: mods and tweaks

Pogo · 2013-01-03T07:39:33.000Z

That looks good but I’m having a very hard time with their claims about being the first “real” HDR mod. The algorithms look like the same approximations ENB used to use when it was just simulating HDR with screen brightness and bloom.

BiggerBoat · 2013-01-03T10:23:02.000Z

Pogo:

That looks good but I’m having a very hard time with their claims about being the first “real” HDR mod. The algorithms look like the same approximations ENB used to use when it was just simulating HDR with screen brightness and bloom.

They might be overstating things but I’m not going to pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. It looks great to my eyes, and doesn’t impact performance on my machine.

I’ve fiddled with the ENBseries, but that fiddling is a bit of a time suck. Also, there’s something about the slightly desaturated, ethereal quality of the vanilla graphics that I like and it’s hard to hit that mark for me with ENB. This mod seems like a good compromise. Nights are nice and dark now, clear days are brighter, and there’s depth to the shadows and colors without turning the dial up to 11.

On a related note, anyone else using the Mod Organizer in place of the Nexus Mod Manager and/or Steam Workshop? It’s fairly brilliant, basically working some sort of voodoo magic to build a virtual data directory ondemand to ensure that you are never unintentionally overwriting another file. The vanilla data directory remains pristine. It has its foibles (particularly when trying to use the built-in browser to download files from Nexus) but I think it’s the best solution out there if you are a bit anal retentive about your mod organization.

triggercut · 2013-01-03T10:58:26.000Z

RCRN doesn’t run with Climates Of Tamriel, that’s always been a stopper for me.

I get better nights with CoT and a good ENB like Quiet Cool…and the daytimes there’s just no comparison; CoT rules that roost.

BrianRubin · 2013-01-03T11:12:31.000Z

BiggerBoat:

Spent the weekend modding up Skyrim in preparation for another playthrough.

For visual enhancements, everyone tends to focus on the various ENB options, but I settled on something called “RCRN” (Realistic Colors and Real Nights), which tweaks the lighting, weather effects, and nighttime/dungeon darkness. I haven’t been too fond of the color/saturation changes I’ve seen with the ENB mods, and this one really hits a sweet spot for me, adding some contrast and depth without changing the overall aesthetic. Plus, it’s nearly idiot proof, doesn’t seem to hit performance, and is nicely supported.

I am loving how Skyrim looks with this mod, and it’s so nice to finally have an Elder Scrolls engine that performs great even when maxed out.

That looks really pretty! Would you suggest it to a first time player such as myself?

I’ve only used two mods so far, the SkyUI one and the map one with improved roads, which is making the game much more efficient and enjoyable for me. :)

BiggerBoat · 2013-01-03T11:27:09.000Z

Brian Rubin:

That looks really pretty! Would you suggest it to a first time player such as myself?

I’ve only used two mods so far, the SkyUI one and the map one with improved roads, which is making the game much more efficient and enjoyable for me. :)

Hey, Brian.

(I will resist the temptation to make some dumb crack about there not being any spaceships in Skyrim. You’ve probably heard it already).

I think that the RCRN mod is actually a good option for someone newish to modding Skyrim. It has it’s own installer and config, and if you decide you don’t like it or if it causes problems you can just uninstall. The Enbseries stuff is much more finicky.

You can hit the pause key once it is loaded to compare the difference between default and RCRN.

You’ve already done SKY UI. Apart from that, The Categorized Favorites and Immersive HUD are nice additonal UI Mods that complement SkyUI.

Enjoy your time in Skyrim.

BrianRubin · 2013-01-03T11:56:41.000Z

BiggerBoat:

Hey, Brian.

(I will resist the temptation to make some dumb crack about there not being any spaceships in Skyrim. You’ve probably heard it already).

I think that the RCRN mod is actually a good option for someone newish to modding Skyrim. It has it’s own installer and config, and if you decide you don’t like it or if it causes problems you can just uninstall. The Enbseries stuff is much more finicky.

You can hit the pause key once it is loaded to compare the difference between default and RCRN.

You’ve already done SKY UI. Apart from that, The Categorized Favorites and Immersive HUD are nice additonal UI Mods that complement SkyUI.

Enjoy your time in Skyrim.

That’s AWESOME! Thanks!

Ender · 2013-01-03T17:12:59.000Z

quarryman:

Time for my monthly foray back into Skyrim.

I might start a new game just to get things feeling “fresh” again.

Can someone direct to a mod pack on Steam that gives the best bang for buck in terms of graphical improvements?

I’m not interested in adding hundreds of mods that make minimal improvements and mostly just offer headaches with compatibility and CTDs. I can understand people wanting to make the game look as perfect as possible. But I just want to play it.

+1 on this.

I need either this or an “Idiot’s Guide” to modding on Skyrim.
I was inspired by the podcast and want to play to see if it can get its hooks into me.

Daagar · 2013-01-03T19:38:11.000Z

Ender:

+1 on this.

I need either this or an “Idiot’s Guide” to modding on Skyrim.
I was inspired by the podcast and want to play to see if it can get its hooks into me.

Said guide will be http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.1 once it is ready. There is an older version of the STEP guide via the nexus, but this one looks to be quite a huge update.

Wolff · 2013-01-04T04:08:37.000Z

I like alot of what step and gem are trying to do. I dislike the install this one or this one…or don’t install this if you installed this other thing up list. I get it modders have magical toes made of pearls and honey but just choose one for your package. That we still aren’t at click a few times, walk away from computer for an hour and come back to a stable awesome looking awesome playing skyrim experience is nuts.

Ender · 2013-01-04T08:45:10.000Z

Ok, I dug in and installed a few mods. Then I had to deal with some sort of sound bug conflict with my Realtek card (fun!).

Looks great, and I’m excited to finally get playing this game which I bought a year ago or something.

Pogo · 2013-01-04T08:48:15.000Z

BiggerBoat:

They might be overstating things but I’m not going to pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. It looks great to my eyes, and doesn’t impact performance on my machine.

I’ve fiddled with the ENBseries, but that fiddling is a bit of a time suck. Also, there’s something about the slightly desaturated, ethereal quality of the vanilla graphics that I like and it’s hard to hit that mark for me with ENB. This mod seems like a good compromise. Nights are nice and dark now, clear days are brighter, and there’s depth to the shadows and colors without turning the dial up to 11.

It’s true, people way too quickly oversaturate and overbloom the game with ENB settings.

I should look into making another subtle settings version of ENBSeries, but I fear the amount of time it takes to get things looking exactly the way I want in all situations. Usually I dial down saturation and bloom myself via the text files.

Joe_M · 2013-01-04T09:36:24.000Z

Yeah, I recently decided to drop ENB in favor of setting ugrids to 7 and an FXAA injector, and I found exactly two presets on the Nexus that even attempted more natural, subtle coloring. If I didn’t have CoT already installed I’d give RCRN a go because it looks beautiful without going crazy with the saturation.

Pogo · 2013-01-04T15:30:25.000Z

Yeah I’m saddened to see that CoT and RCRN don’t play together because of all the changes to weather systems. I’m starting to think that CoT may not be worth it.

Another issue with ENBSeries settings right now is that people are quick to keep Depth of Field enabled, and it’s a pretty buggy feature for archers, since the settings I’ve seen so far blur out the world and keep the arrowhead in focus, which is just stupid. It’s also a huge performance hog that adds little to the game unless you want to be a virtual photographer (in which case it’s actually pretty awesome).

I gotta try Mod Organizer so that I can switch things out more easily. All these loose files are kinda pissing me off.

Daagar · 2013-01-04T19:05:11.000Z

For people that like RCRN and aren’t fond of tweaking ENB profiles themselves, one of the STEP team has created ‘RCRN Plus’. If you don’t want/like ENB/RCRN Plus I’d also suggest switching from FXAA to SweetFX. It uses a ‘newer’ SMAA injector method similar to FXAA but subjectively better (very true for me… FXAA was always a blurry mess). While I haven’t used it for Skyrim yet, I’ve toyed with it in Settlers 7 and Borderlands 2 and it is great. A bit of poking around should turn up a few pre-configured presets specifically for Skyrim. Like FXAA, the performance hit should be minimal.

(I’m not a STEP shill, honest. I’ve merely been following their 2.2.1 thread and am very impressed at the level of testing/decision making they put into their mod selections).

Arkon262 · 2013-01-04T20:57:32.000Z

SkyUI version 3.0 was released today, I am really liking the improvements.

triggercut · 2013-01-04T21:01:47.000Z

Arkon262:

SkyUI version 3.0 was released today, I am really liking the improvements.

This is probably bigger than either of the two DLC packs that Bethesda has released. Essential in every way.

Daagar · 2013-01-04T21:17:55.000Z

Oh wow. All mods with configurable bits need to support SkyUI’s config menu system NOW. That looks beautiful.

Ender · 2013-01-04T22:29:28.000Z

Seriously, less than 24 hours after I finally decide to take the plunge and start playing this game after a year+ wait and they have to update SkyUI. I was freaking out trying to figure out what broke with my mods tonight.

Ender · 2013-01-04T22:30:55.000Z

Although now it says that the SKSE mod is not running, but it is. Any tips?

I followed the Gopher vid and have SKSE installed as a mod in my NMM. Should I just completely install SKSE and not treat it as a mod?

HighPlainsDrifter · 2013-01-05T02:37:50.000Z

Arkon262:

SkyUI version 3.0 was released today, I am really liking the improvements.

Excellent. Needed to update SKSE to latest build but no problems so far. Potions color coded to show the effect is worth the update all on its own.

I’ve been holding off on Immersive Hud because some nice features (specifically, being able to configure everything through a graphical menu instead of arcane console commands) requires v3.

Time to try it out!