Hey Pogo, do you know of any reason that your enb settings wouldn’t work with Climates of Tamriel? I really liked the way the game looked using them, but I wanted some features of the latter. Do you have any advice on the right protocol to follow when installing your mod (in terms of saving inside a structure, waiting a certain amount of in-game time, etc.) after something like CoT? I ask because the last time I installed I didn’t follow any special protocol, and the game ended up doing a CTD after about 10 minutes.
What is the general wisdom surrounding combining texture packs? I have been running with the official Bethsoft HD textures for a little while but on Sunday decided to try the Skyrim 2k HD textures (the full version) too. The game looks incredible with the 2k textures, but with the official HD pack installed and the .esps activated too, I am getting massive performance hit (on a Core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz w/ GTX580) in the form of slowdowns when turning round quickly. If I uncheck the official esps, the game still looks great and the performance is back to normal. I’m not quite sure why this is, since I think the 2k textures override all or most of the official textures anyway, don’t they?
As an aside, is there much benefit in running both packs simultaneously?
Get the Texture Pack Combinermod. It’s one guy’s decisions (but very popular and recommended by lots of people) of how to combine all the top texture packs (also incl. clutter mods, etc.), with the aim of choosing stuff that least departs from vanilla in spirit, and most goes together, and is least taxing. There are heavy and lite options.
You need to download all the individual required texture packs. The setup process is a bit finicky, but you can do it in about half an hour (there’s an instructional vid that makes it easy as pie if you have WinRar), and it’s well worth the effort.
The great thing is you end up with a single mod that you can switch on and off when you’re fiddling about with other textures and comparing to vanilla.
Another question about Climates of Tamriel–it says one’s supposed to be able to see lightning but I’ve only seen the flashes and heard the thunder, but never seen the lightning itself. Does it require something else for that?
milspec
1785
Here is my current mod list and rough load order as of Feb 2013. The goal is a realistic world (food, sleep, cold, etc) without adding or changing content and no framerate impact. Everything works nicely with each other. I spent 35 hours on my initial vanilla run through when it was released, but have doubled that and just hit 70 hours with this mod list. Its an enjoyable world. :-)
ini settings to shadow time updates
set timescale to 10 (day is twice as long)
skse_1_06_06
Climates Of Tamriel - Final Edition - Loose Files-17802-v2-1
WARZONES - Civil Unrest - V5B-9494-v5B
Unofficial Skyrim Patch-19-1-2-7
Frostfall 2_0 Release-11163-2-0
Better Dynamic Snow v2-13-10383-2-13
Improved Combat Sounds V2 2-5289-2-2
Immersive Skyrim Thunder V6-1702-V6
SMIM v1-32-8655-1-32
Economics of Skyrim v1-4-1-11919-1-4-1
Birds of Skyrim 065_BSA archive-17723-0-6-5
Wearable Lanterns 2_2a-17416-2-2a
Immersive Patrols Modular Installer-12977-1-4
Diverse Guards Skyrim 4-3 BSA-8943-4-3
Lore-Based Loading Screens 1_0-21265-1-0
Footprints v0_96-22745-0-96
Wet and Cold v1_10-27563-1-10
SkyUI_3_1-3863-3-1
Immersive HUD v2_2-3222-2-2
WIC Cloaks 2_1b-13486-2-1b
Complete Crafting Overhaul 1-1-2-8003-1-12
CEx - RND Support UPDATE-28591-1-2
Better Quest Objectives 1-5-11135-1-5
Guard Dialogue Overhaul-23390-1-2
SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_27E Full Pack-10175-1-27E
Realistic Ragdoll Force-601-1-8
RealisticNeedsandDiseases-26228-1-8-5
Realistic Running Speed-1931-1-3
Balanced_Magic_v3_05-2275-3-05
Duel Combat Realism 5-2700-5-1-1
Weapons and Armor fixes v-2-0-5-4719-2-05
Weapons and Armor fixes_Compatibility_Patch-26230-0-11
Cooking Expanded 1_2b-1409-1-2b
ACE - Master File - Version 12a-10037-12a
No Spinning Death Animation v1-17214-1-0
Alternate Start - Live Another Life-9557-2-1-8a
Get Snowy V5-19660-5
Unread Books Glow v2_0_1-10012-2-0-1
HD Texture DLC Fix v1_3b-8236-1-3b
Shooting Stars v1_032-25022-1-032
WATER 1_5d-13268-1-5d
Convenient Horses v4_5-14950-4-5
UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul-14037-1-2i
RealisticRoomRental-Enhanced-25029-1-5
Open Face Guard Helms-9514
ASIS Patcher 1-34-18436-1-34
Better Dialogue Controls v1_2-27371-1-2
Better MessageBox Controls v1_2-28170-1-2
Enhanced Distant Terrain 1-4 HD-1598
Quality SnowFlakes V2-7405-2-0
Enhanced Night Skyrim v04 Medium Stars-85-0-4
Hires Road Signs Version 3-436-3-0
Better distant LOD waterfalls
Glowing Ore Veins 300 2_00-193-1
Time on loading v5-98
HighResTexturePack DLC Tweaks v3_2-14719-3-2
Pogo
1786
Are you running any overlay programs, including MSI Afterburner, FRAPs, ANY screenshot program, ATI Catalyst, eVGA PrecisionX?
Are you running on a desktop graphics card or a laptop?
Are you sure it’s definitely the settings? The installation is the settings files, the .dll file, and I think that’s it.
Are you using the FXAA Injector 1.3 or are you using the HDRv1-8?
I would put more stake in actual game mods causing crashes more than the .dll file, unless you’re possibly using an overlay program as I listed above.
Actually I think lightning is another mod entirely.
Pogo, I might have been running FRAPs at the time of the crash. Desktop card, a GTX 560 Ti. Pretty sure I was just using the HDR 1-8 “packaged version”–the top one that appears on the downloads page at Skyrim Nexus. In the game’s settings I probably had FXAA on, but I don’t know.
The only screenshot program I may have been running would be the Steam community one–the one you access through shift-Tab.
Daagar
1788
The biggest issue with TPC at the moment is that it is built heavily around the SRO texture pack, which is no longer generally available. You can still find it via other means (you want v1.6), and if you’re willing to do so then this indeed is the way to go.
If that is not the way you want to go, consider looking at the STEP 2.2.1 guide for a non-SRO based install order that has already been tested for both compatibility and looks. http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.1. The guide isn’t final, but they aren’t making sweeping changes at this point so you should be okay to base some texture work on what you see there.
Pogo
1789
If you want to attempt using it again, make sure FRAPS is not loaded (forget the FPS counter, just decide yourself if the game is playable), and disable Steam in-game interface.
milspec
1790
I had to bump this thread because I sensed a dangerous “don’t mod Skyrim” theme from the other thread. :-) Actually I have to ask a question - a very important question.
I have a lot of mods, see above for the full list. I think they work amazingly well, and the food spoilage in Realistic Needs and Diseases 1.9 only adds to my fun. But there is one mod I am missing.
Deadly Dragons
I have not installed any DLC or expansions yet and this one requires Dawnguard. I don’t mind getting Dawnguard but I do mind if it breaks some of my other mods.
Does anyone have any practical experience with Dawnguard or Deadly Dragons? My current character is at level 23 (after a leisurely 60 hours of mostly eating and sleeping and standing by fires), and I have to admit the last dragon fight was… underwhelming. I am more afraid of a Draugr Scourge.
I consider Deadly Dragons not quite a must have, but very nearly. It’s highly customizable from the in-game menu, which allows you to keep tweeking their power (the default settings will probably rip up low level characters). Dragon fights can be tuned to be much more satisfying, and it’s great to never have to see wildlife killing dragons again.
Dawnguard seems to play nice with all my other mods, although a few require downloading additional compatibility patches. Deadly Dragons MAY have been screwing with some of Alduin’s scripted events, or it may have been another mod, but I did have to reload a fight with him a few times to get his scripts to play nice. It’s hard to say, since he can break unmodded as well.
The only really bit of weird I’ve encountered with Deadly Dragons is if you configure it to set quest givers as essential (revered and legendary dragons will wreck up NPCs) the White Phial quest will bug out, but that’s easy to resolve once you realize what’s happening.
I prefer running the mod in “loremonger” mode, as I want greater challenge from dragons, but not new kinds of dragons.
Re: dragons, it’s weird. I’ve had dragons that were total pushovers and others where it’s been a knock down/drag out fight (at least earlier, when my character level was in the mid-teens). But it’s true that most of the time I fear necromancers and such living in caves, and trolls of various sorts, much more than dragons.
Scuzz
1793
I had to bump this thread because I sensed a dangerous “don’t mod Skyrim” theme from the other thread. :-)
I have no problem with anyone running whatever mods they can get to work and improve the experience in their mind. I can think of few things that are as individually experienced as video gaming so anything that makes it better for you is fine.
I just basically lack the patience, knowledge and experience to do the kind of modding you guys are talking about.
Kadath
1794
Bump, anyone got an up to date list of best visual mods that do not affect game play? I have a semi beefy machine. i7 and 680 etc.
Just wet through this process. Here’s what I installed:
True Vision ENB mod
Skyrim HD
Detailed Bodies
Detailed Faces
Detailed Lips
SMIM (Static Mesh Improvement Mod)
Weathered Warpaint and Improved Dirt
ASG (Alternate Sun Glare)
some of these mods can be installed via the nexus mod manager, others like the ENB mod need to be installed manually.
Daagar
1796
This may be more than what you want, but consider looking at STEP. You don’t have to go down the rabbit hole and install everything, just consider it a decent list of battle-tested addons (that are mostly graphical and not gameplay changing). If you like deep dark rabbit holes, you can look at this. I did it once. It was crazy. Avoid rabbit holes.
Periodic shout-out for Mod Organizer. I cannot stress enough that if you are seriously, or even half-heartedly into modding Skyrim, do yourself a huge favour and use Mod Organizer. It allows you to have as many virtual modded installs of the game as you like, on as many characters as you like (the virtual installs can even get badly broken and it doesn’t matter), while still keeping your pristine original, or lightly-modded original game intact. No more feeling of dread when something breaks. STEP recommends it, use it.
I also agree with Daagar that STEP is a great, uh, step-by-step approach to laying a good foundation for modding Skyrim without touching the feel of the original game too much. GEMS is great if you’re into realism mods, combat mods and such. I’d avoid any of the total overhauls until you’ve played the game through. Requiem is a cool overhaul that makes the game feel much more old-skool like Morrowind.
Wolff
1798
STEP is just too much of a pain in the ass for too little individual gain and their step by step directions are anything but. The list starts off nice enough but then of course they just have to include mods that require some third process. Not to mention downloading every-single-mod from the incredibly slow and clunky nexus. The modding community split between nexus/workshop/other sites makes compilations an even greater pain in the ass. Nexus absolutely needs a packaged service like steam where I can one-click download someone’s compilation. Let the insano-mod authors that don’t want their mod included in a compilation (even if they are credited!) inhabit some small corner of the internet where they can back-slap each other with all the enb configuration “authors” on private message boards.
I have eventually settled on about 50 mods or so from the workshop - mostly graphical improvements and you know what - playing an actual elder scroll game is way better than playing the never-ending wyre-bash/boss/java/TES5edit one.
Currently playing as a sneaky/bound weapon thief and loving yet another playthrough.
Daagar
1799
You can’t blame STEP for the fact that a mod needs 3rd party goop to work. STEP is just kind enough to tell you exactly what that needed goop is so you don’t have to crawl through 1000’s of nexus pages reading instructions (and they have already vetted it as working/worthwhile!) - just skip them if you don’t care. You answered yourself why a pre-package service won’t exist - the drama is just too great. STEP just saves you the effort of sorting past all the latest ‘put everything in lingerie’ mods.
I agree that nexus is slow and clunky, but that’s where the majority of mods are, and paying for a premium membership makes the pain better.
Wolff
1800
Oh I admire what the step folks are trying to do - just wish there was an easier way. A moded skyrim can be wonder outs the pain to pleasure ratio just isn’t there for me.
