1661

Ya still a big hit. I have an older video card so maybe I’ll revisit the ENB stuff when I get a new one. Running RCRN + Enhanced Lights and FX and it looks fantastic.

Pro Tip: If you are testing gfx mods install alternate start and have a save at the start. You can just pick each area and jump to it. Made my life super easy as I just killed my entire install and put the gfx mods back one by one. Still waiting on Frostfall 2.0 and I’m going to start a game. Only took me a week. :)

1662

Delete d3d9.dll and the data\shaders directory

1663

Yeah, you can run ENB, but unless you’ve got a very souped up CPU, disable SSAO and DOF.

A new video card can help…somewhat, but the way the engine is programmed, it’s actually lopsided in a manner that once you’ve got a 1024mb to 1536mb VRAM video card going, it’s likely that your CPU is the bottleneck.

1664

I have a I5 3750 and 8GB of ram. I think that’s pretty decent, but I’ve totally fallen off paying attention to hardware over the last few years. It’s more likely that I messed crap up in my preference file. Seriously though RCRN looks fantastic. If only it worked with COT. :(

1665

Got my problem fixed. After reinstalling (redownloading the entire game) and pulling my hair out trying to get skse and skyui to work properly on my 2nd day of playing the game/modding I went to the tried and true “turning the computer off and on again” trick. That cleaned out some skse file that was lodged in memory somewhere and let me reinstall it. I’m back and running.

Now I need to figure out whether to jump on the Dawnguard DLC while it is on sale. I’m only level 5 so I’ve got to extrapolate a lot.

1666

Thanks. I’m pretty sure all I have installed graphics-wise* is your “Skyrim_Enhanced_Shaders_v1-8_Pogos_Subtle_Settings_-_Packaged-760-1” from Skyrim Nexus. Looks like I installed it over a year ago. At the time I installed it manually–looks like it’s just a few files: two .dll files, two .ini files, and an effect.txt file, all installed in the main Skyrim directory. That’s all that’s in the archive of the same name on Skyrim Nexus even now. Is there something else I should have installed along with that? I don’t even have a data\shaders directory, so maybe I’m missing something.

Honestly all of these abbreviations (FXAA? I know what FSAA meant, but how is this different?) and terms (injector?) turn into gibberish for me after a while, so it wouldn’t surprise me if I had neglected to install something important. As it stands the files installed do make a difference in the look, especially the interiors and the woodsy scenes outdoors.

*Apart from Bethesda’s high-res texture pack and a couple of tweaks and fixes for that.

BTW, what could be causing a “sync conflict” (not that I ever play from another computer, so I should probably just turn syncing off)?

1667

Well then, you got ready just in the nick of time. Frostfall 2.0 was just released.

And it’s another mod leveraging SkyUI 3’s graphical menu for configuration. It’s getting easier and easier to run mods.

1668

Ya I was up late last night so I grabbed it already. Only had time to install it. From the brief two seconds I looked at it the interface seemed pretty slick.

1669

So I installed a few mods. Once I’ve started the game, how do I tell if they are actually installed and working? Most of these are lighting and environment mods, etc., so can’t just look at something and say, “That HUD item isn’t there anymore, must be working.”

I have Nexus Mod Manager installed, but of course it immediately popped an error about not being able to load an Install Info folder into C:\Games. The instructions told me I should move the Install Info folder from the Program Files folder to something else, but of course there is no “Install Info” folder in Program Files or elsewhere that I can find, nor is there even a C:\Games folder to move it to.

So basically, I’m trying to figure out how to get 3-4 mods loaded up and working, and to know that they actually are loaded and working in game.

1670

Frostfall looks both like an amazing mod, and complete insanity at the same time. I love modding things out of this world, but adding something like that just looks like horrible tedium! Would love to hear from folks that use it why they enjoy it so much. I have a hard time seeing how it doesn’t just make tedium get in the way of actually playing.

1671

FXAA is a newer way of anti-aliasing & requires less computation than FSAA.
“Injector” basically just means it’s external to the ordinary rendering process.

I wouldn’t worry about the particulars if I were you. What matters, I think, is understanding firstly that post processing (applying special effect filters to the rendered frame) slows things down, the more so the more times it gets done per frame. An secondly that post processing outside the ordinary rendering process is pretty much by definition a sub-optimal way to go about it.

Basically: fancy in-engine post processing options are the first things you should try disabling if you have low FPS. And fancy post processing mods are pretty much the most performance reducing thing you can do, short of turning off your computer.

BTW, what could be causing a “sync conflict” (not that I ever play from another computer, so I should probably just turn syncing off)?

Mind that I really haven’t a clue, but try rebooting your machine and/or network. Worked for me when Dragon Age & EA’s DRM scam thingy de-synced.

1672

I suppose the sync conflict might be due to the fact that I have the unofficial Skyrim and Hearthfire patches installed?

1673

I sort of wrote about 9,000 words on the subject of “why”, as well as doing a podcast to that effect…but I’ll take another bang at it for you.

It’s a choice by gamers for how a specific set of players would like to play the game. For some folks, Skyrim is an RPG, and you go from quest to quest working your way through the story.

That’s a valid way to play.

For me, the fun of Skyrim isn’t the quests and story. They’re there, and I’ll interact with them, but the fun is actually feeling like I’m living in the world. That’s really only possible in a big open-world game like this; you can’t really get that same feel out of other RPG’s I love; The Witcher 2 or Dragon Age: Origins or Drakensang River Of Time are all very linear, closed-world dioramas and shoeboxes.

So. I want to “live” in the Skyrim world. And a mod like Frostfall forces a player into making decisions. Most of the time, those decisions aren’t very interesting…but the hope is that you get enough moments where the mod does ask you to make interesting choices. If I’m up around Windhelm, to I wear one set of mod that gives me more protection in combat, or do I wear another set that gives me more protection from the cold? A realistic needs mod might be making your character tired and hungry while you’re out on a journey…but what if you’re in a terrible spot to pitch a camp? Do you press forward with the negative modifiers to your combat skills and hope you don’t run into a fight you can’t handle, or do you chance it against the elements and build a camp in the middle of a snowstorm?

I love those decisions. I also love the way “immersion” or “realism” mods put me into the world.

As I said on the podcast, if you play a big, ambitious open world game like Skyrim, you’re gonna see some janky stuff happen. There’s no way around it, even “bug-free”, sometimes the engine is going to hiccup and you’re going to see stuff that totally reminds you that you’re playing a computer game. User interface can take you out of the moment, too. Gameplay moments can take you away. (When I see a player–even a frost-resistant Nord–plunge, fully clothed, into icy water that breaks immersion for me because I’m well aware that in a cold weather environment your main point of survivability is staying dry.)

Having to fret over provisions before undertaking a long overland journey brings me back. Having to carry around a good set of fur armor before I head to Winterhold brings me back. Having to craft camping supplies and waterskins brings me back. Hunting up my own food and cooking it brings me back. I love that stuff.

You may not.

It’s all about what you want out of Skyrim.

1674

God bless diversity. That sounds almost-physically painful to me.

1675

I fail at remembering to read the actual front-page of the site, and almost never listen to podcasts, so thank you for re-hashing :)

1676

So for some reason, when my character is underwater apart from just below the surface, the world just goes blank entirely. I don’t think that’s supposed to happen, is it?

BTW, the game uses DX 10 or 10.1 if available, correct?

EDIT: Someone on the Steam forums suggested the following fix and it worked–I needed to change the values from 1 and 2 respectively to 0:

c:\Users<your_name>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\SkyrimPrefs.ini
you need to write this:

[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=0
iRadialBlurLevel=0

1677

Skyrim redone has been updated with the patch for Frostfall. Time to start my real game.

1678

Speak to me of this Skyrim Redone. It seems like a pretty dramatic overhaul. I see that there is a patcher that might help me integrate it with Immersive Weapons and Armour mods, but things like Apocalypse Magic are probably a no-go. I do find the Skyrim skill system a bit meh, and would be interested in an alternate approach, but I worry that this one might be just too ambitious. Have you gone through a game with it yet?

1679

Apocalypse works just fine with Skyre. It only adds new spells, it doesn’t mess with perks or anything.

1680

I don’t have any mods that effect armor, weapons or spells so I can’t really say. I haven’t played it a ton as I was trying to finalize my mod list. I already have 140 hours in the game so I’m not that picky if it breaks something. From what I played so far I’d say it’s pretty darn solid though. It’s been out a while so they have had some time to work out the kinks.