Besidilo

The Start Button in Windows 8.1 is just that, a button that takes you to the Start Screen (Modern UI, or Metro for those that tested the beta). AFAIK, you'll be able to boot straight into desktop, which is what a lot of people are after. I do find myself going back to using start menu replacers since I often multitask and having my entire desktop in the background when I'm using the start menu is essential. The only driver issues I had was with my soundcard, months before the official Windows 8 release. It was all mostly sorted on the launch date. Windows 8 will never fully replace Windows 7 and there's no compelling reason to upgrade, unless you want faster boot times or will use the touchscreen interface. I suspect the next viable upgrade will come with DirectX 12, which could very well be in the distant future. As a side note, Windows 8 is a lot smoother than Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and above on my netbook (Acer Ferrari One). I prefer Debian Sid anyway.

I think you should leave detailed feedback on the mod's page, since there's always room for an improvement and I'm sure they'd appreciate an honest opinion. Just be polite and specific, good criticism can go a long way.

I could never get used to Mod Organiser so I keep using Wrye Bash. The only thing missing is virtual profiles, but I don't really need those anyway.

How did you come up with the idea that it was bad video memory causing the artifacts?

I don't understand, I thought you were forcing it from the CCC.

That's correct. But make sure it works in the first place. Take some screenshots for comparison and post them here. Also, you will need to use the override multisampling method, since enhancing only works on existing AA render.

Mods like Interesting NPCs is what Skyrim lacks the most. Something that makes the world lively and authentic.

I agree with that notion as it's the rule of thumb for most of the games. However, Skyrim is one example where the in-game AA and AF options aren't the best standards of quality. Whilst it's not so evident when it comes to Anisotropic Filtering, AntiAliasing is one area where Skyrim really lacks grunt, hence why most people resort to other means, such as post-processing AA or various forms of SuperSampling. Anisotropic Filtering, on the other hand, has little performance impact, so it's best to just compare it yourself and see if the performance hit is significant (it's not from my experience).

Yes, compatibility patches should be loaded after the plugins that they merge. That's the only way they would work anyway.

You should be able to use high resolution textures from all the big packs, assuming you don't game at a higher resolution than 1920x1200 and don't use SuperSampling. ENB doesn't use significantly more VRAM, but it will cripple the fps on almost any config, since its optimisation is at best questionable. You'll probably have to fiddle around with effects to get optimal performance. Personally, I don't really like the Skyrim HD 2K Textures, so I don't install them. It seems like a waste to download 1-2GB of textures for a selected few. I've never been a fan of Serious HD retextures either. The TPC is slightly outdated, but I guess you could get away with using the combo, since I think it supports most of the big texture packs as it is.

No significant changes. https://www.iguanadons.net/Unofficial%20High%20Resolution%20Patch%20Version%20History.html

The basic edition of SFO has a lot better compatibility with a number of other world editing mods, so that's another reason to use it.

That's correct, The Elder Scrolls is an entirely different universe to our own, with its own cosmology, religion, laws of physics (to some degree), chemistry, biology, magic and real-life Gods. It doesn't mean that Nirn itself doesn't follow a lot of our earthly rules or that Tamriel is all that different from our own lands.

It should be possible, yes. But I advise against it since you will most likely edit quite a few packages yourself.

I just use Nexus Mod Manager for downloading packages and Wrye Bash for everything else.

RCRN Community page is full of poop.

So should AMD users just leave it at "let application decide", put it to 16x in the launcher, then also have it enabled in ENB? Or only use ENB? I apologize but I've seen at least 3 different instructions on here for AMD AF and I honestly have no idea which one is recommended. I know more people use Nvidia around here. No. There are three ways to force Anisotropic Filtering: 1) In-game, leave the catalyst alone, 2) ENB, turn it off in-game and leave the catalyst alone, 3) Driver's AF, set it to 16x (or 8x, since the difference is minimal, but so is performance hit) and disable it in the game and in ENB (if it's enabled). The in-game AF is a bit inferior in quality. Especially visible in the distance. ENB should be the best performance/quality trade off in theory. It's up to you in the end, the differences are mostly negligible. Last time I checked, ATI cards had better textures filtering than GeForce, so there's that.

I don't see why that would be the case, but it's easy enough to test it.

Sorry what do you mean by BSA/loose files rule? The game loads its native files first. Then go the files packed in BSAs and referenced by EPSs (plugins). Everything is overwritten by loose files in Data (folders such as textures/meshes/sounds). This is why with a number of mods you have to pay close attention to what you install. There are more reasons for unpacking the BSAs such as faster loading times, lesser chance of incompatibility issues and a clear view of what overwrites what in a mod manager.

I use SMAA so yea, the AA shouldn't be an issue. In terms of AF though, not sure what to do. It shouldn't matter. If you use ENB, you can use that one's AF instead. If you want slightly higher quality at the expense of some performance, use the one in drivers. The difference is pretty minimal anyway, but the in-game's one is generally worse from my experience.

You should either use SMAA/FXAA or the in-game's MSAA. The only thing worth forcing from the drivers is SuperSampling, but I don't think that works properly on AMD cards.

Fermi's thermal spec is way beyond 70ºC. It's actually somewhere around 105ºC, at least for the desktop GPUs. They're quite comfortable with running in the 90s and frying eggs. I'd think the new drivers might be putting an unnecessary stress on the VRMs or disable thermal throttling in some way. Other than that, I don't see how the drivers would be killing the cards. I mean, running Furmark all day with throttling disabled should be safe for them anyhow. Kepler GPUs run cooler and have lower throttling threshold which is what lead me to believe was the reason for the issue affecting Fermi cards only.

Not all mods have ESPs, so it's normal to have a greater number of mods installed than those. Make sure all ESM/ESPs (except for the ones you don't need) are enabled in the Mods tab.

There are two ways of going about it: 1) Using the Steam's library feature that allows you to create new libraries on any partition on your system. 2) Using GameSave Manager's Steam Spreader to create NTFS junction points, which works like a virtual folder that's physically on the other driver. I prefer the latter option for a few of reasons. It's easier to move back the folder when you want to, there is no external library created after all. An NTFS junction is a cleaner way of moving your games since there won't be a new Steam library created, therefore saving some space. You can still use your virtual directory for installation of any files or linking the files on your system. Source games will always take space in your main Steam directory so bear that in mind when deciding what drive to install Steam to.