Kelmych

The drive substitutions are created by the HRDLC_Removal_Fix-START.bat file. In the batch files shown here you will see the steps where they are created by this batch file and then, when processing is finished, removed by the HRDLC_Removal_Fix.bat file. You don't need to create these substitutions yourself, but you need to make sure they work on your system. Some systems have already assigned these virtual drives for other purposes, in which case you would need to edit the batch file to use a different drive letter for the affected virtual drives.

Use either DDSopt or Optimizer Textures, not both.

If you had any mods installed that were SKSE plugins, including several STEP mods, then you would already have an SKSE folder (you would also have an SKSE\Plugins folder) in Skyrim\Data. Yes, SKSE.ini goes in Skyrim\Data\SKSE\ .

DDSopt remembers the last directory you pointed it at. When the error message finishes you should be able to open the Browse window and enter the correct directory. After you use it on a proper directory it won't give the error message any longer. It is best but not necessary to optimize vanilla textures first. You can come back later and do it if you prefer. If this is the first time installing STEP you might want to skip this until you have had a chance to use Skyrim a little with the STEP mods. If you want to optimize the vanilla textures you can do it anytime. When you create an optimized texture archive file of vanilla textures you add it to the installation order using WB or MO (whichever you use) and then remove the associated vanilla BSA as mentioned in the DDSopt guide. DDSopt is more comprehensive than Optimizer Textures and is the one most people using STEP choose. We are not as familiar with the details of Optimizer Textures.

The STEP guide itself doesn't include optimization as it is fairly complex; only a portion of the users optimize textures. Just because a file is in the Utilities list doesn't mean you need to use it; this is a list of tools you might want to use.

WB shows when masters are missing. If you use WB then in the mods tab and don't have a red check then you don't have missing masters; you don't have to use WB to install mods to use the Mods tab. As Neovalen said, you can use WB through MO if you are using MO. The other possibility for CTD very early in the loading process is SKSE and plugins. You can always temporarily uninstall any SKSE plugins and see if you get a different result. I'm assuming when you ran BOSS to set load order that it fixed the out of order master issue; if you run it again are the warnings gone?

If you don't have the textures in their proper folder hierarchy DDSopt will not run. In the Browse menu it needs to be pointed at a "textures" folder or a folder above this. You can't run DDSopt if you point it at a folder inside the textures folder. Is this what you were trying to do?

If you are planning on optimizing the entire Skyrim textures folder (not the recommended approach which is to optimize a selected set of mods only and to optimize before installing them) then in the DDSopt Browse window you would need to select Skyrim\Data\Textures. As an output you would need to select a new folder somewhere else and create optimized versions of the textures in the new folder. The you would need to replace the old Skyrim\Data\Textures folder with the one that has been optimized. If you optimize the entire textures folder it will take a long time in DDSopt. I've never done this so I don't know if there are any problems in doing this.

DDSopt is for both mod makers and users; a few mod makers use it on their textures before releasing them. It does provide some reduction in VRAM use and improved game performance. We recommend using it on all of the vanilla Skyrim textures but we don't recommend using it on all STEP mods since many of them, particularly the mods with large sets of textures, are already optimized. The QuickStart tab in the guide, and the table in the DDSopt and Texture Overhaul guide, have some guidance on this. It is preferable to use it on individual mods before installing them. If you use it at the end of installation you will be using it on the textures from all mods, and you will find many textures that look better before optimization than after.

As other mentioned, it's still unfortunate it was removed since even in its current state it is very useful and there are no similar collections of normal maps that I am aware of.

SkyUI changed today to version 3.3, so NACIM will need to update the patch.

It doesn't need to be installed afterwards. Loose files (which are what my mod is comprised of), are always made as the primary files if there was a conflicting file inside of a .bsa etc. I actually asked about this sort of thing when I was getting ready to make the patches, as I was confused about how to do it properly. I've installed SkyUI first, and then my mod and then patch, as well as my mod first, the patch, and then SkyUI. It works eitherway because of loose files being considered first (I'm actually playing my current save with this latter order and it's working just fine). I have it added in the descriptions now for both patches to install them IF you already have SkyUI 3.2 installed just incase, but it shouldn't matter eitherway from what I've been seeing. However, thanks for providing the updated info here! But some clarification does need to be done regarding this specific issue. It shouldn't matter either way, but if there was an actual issue that popped up for someone else, then it's something they can try out! The STEP guide recommends that users extract the BSA files so what Kelmych said applies to those who do it ;) Since this is on a STEP forum, I did assume that users were extracting all BSA files. SkyUI currently does not have any other files that conflict with different mods so I could actually leave it as a BSA, but I always extract the files both to make sure the load order is correct and so I know what is being installed. For example, some mods I've installed have a number of scripts and resources which are used only by that mod but in addition have at least one file that affects other mods or sometimes a vanilla script or resource. I also wanted people to know about the availability of the new SkyUI 3.2 patch and using it with the STEP-recommended version on NACIM.

Now that SkyUI 3.2 has been released and includes a map menu, the install order for NACIM in the STEP guide needs to be changed to have NACIM load after SkyUI. NACIM also needs the SkyUI 3.2 patch. I posted a message in the STEP Mod Anthology section about this.

SkyUI 3.2 added a new map menu, and NACIM has an updated map.swf file for compatibility with SkyUI 3.2. It works with STEP recommended version as well as some other versions. Details on the update are in the NACIM description page but may seem a little confusing to some. Install only the updated map.swf from the NACIM SkyUI 3.2 Patch - default and make sure that NACIM is installed after SkyUI (which now also has a map.swf file). This changes the installation order for NACIM in the STEP 2.2.2 guide; the guide will need to be edited to make this change.

Some of Vurt's tangent space normal maps in Skyrim Flora Overhaul are already half the size of the corresponding standard color map, by the way.

The order was changed recently when some additional mods were added. I edited the table to add the most recent additions (STEP 2.2.2) and to redo the order.

I do prefer the ivy from this mod vs. the vanilla ivy. The screenshots show 4 options: HD Ivy - Vanilla Color Scheme - 1024, HD Ivy - Original Green - 1024, HD Ivy - Original Green (2048), and vanilla Ivy from Skyrim - textures (512). Â Â Â Â Â Â The vanilla Skyrim ivy texture yields ivy leaves that are too big IMO; I prefer the smaller leaves that result when using HD Ivy. I don't see any advantage to the HD Ivy 2K texture vs. the 1K ones. Personally I like the ivy in the first image with the vanilla color scheme, although the green ivy in the 2nd screenshot is more like ivy that we see everyday.

There is certainly some benefit from using reduced size normal maps with the large texture packs that have architectural and landscape textures; I measures some significant gains when I did benchmarks. There may be some value doing this with dungeon and cave textures. There haven't been any measurements yet to show the performance improvements with reduced size model space normal maps. If there is improvement, I expect it would be in situations where there are a number of NPCs on the screen simultaneously. I created a table in the DDSopt guide to help determine which STEP mods to optimize. I plan to add the ones in SR soon; I have all the data I just need to add it to the table.

Are you running DDSopt to reduce the resolution or for some other purpose? The other SFO versions you are having problems with require more VRAM and GPU as well as CPU/RAM (because of the required change to one of the grass texture parameters), so it isn't surprising that the basic version runs with more stability.

I have desktop composition enabled, which changes the screen interface to a more generic version while Skyrim runs (e.g., Aero is disabled and then re-enabled when Skyrim exits), but I don't enable the themes box since I don't want to lost my desktop background, etc.Â

When I delete an existing bash patch I usually copy a vanilla version of the patch from the installation file into the Data directory; the vanilla version will be quite small. Did you do this?

It's a good idea to use a bash patch if you have any mods with leveled lists, but it is only available with Wrye Bash. Some people using STEP have Mod Organizer. The Skyrim Revisited page discusses how to use bash patches with MO. There are only a few STEP mods that have leveled lists.