Kelmych

Did you try moving the existing bash patch out of the data directory, so Bash will rebuild it, or deleting it? If you leave the existing bash patch in the Skyrim\Data directory you will continue having this problem even through you reinstall WB.

The screenshot that was on the Terrain Bump page (before it disappeared from Nexus) shows the Windhelm puddle looking the way it should. I've never been able to make it look like that screenshot even when using Terrain Bump.

Yay I can login againÂ

I've had this bug with WB; I'll try to remember the solution. Try getting a vanilla original version of the bash patch and replace the current one with it.

Which ice puddle textures?

The STEP Mods table has a list of effects from optimizing. If columns 2-5 are all no, then ignore optimizing it unless you need to make the texture smaller. Even if there is a Y in one of the columns you can decide whether optimizing is worth the effort, especially column 3. Mods with note 6 included are worth making reduced size normal maps. Once I can login to the Wiki again I'll add some additional mods to the table and some material to the Normal Map tab.

The recent updates have added some good Dragonborn DLC textures, and Cestral chose a number of textures from this mod for TPC. Since we seem to be willing lately to be willing to add selected textures from at least some mods (we've been doing this for some of the foliage mods) we might want to look at what Cestral selected from this mod as well as comparing the new Dragonborn textures with other alternatives.

The Langleys tents look too new IMO; they don't show much if any wear. The ones from Benjamin318 are quite different than the vanilla ones; they have dirty areas but not as much of what I would call wear. They have better resolution than vanilla and are probably a little better. I don't feel either is nearly as good as the ones in SRO that I am using (as a point of comparison).

Recently whenever I try to login to the Wiki so I can do external editing of a Wiki guide page I get an error saying I can't because I don't have cookies enabled. I tried 3 different browsers and the result was the same for all three. I don't have cookies disabled in any of the browsers. I normally use Chrome and when this happened I cleared all the cookies associated with the Wiki but I still get the same result.

Cleaning the master files shouldn't cause CTDs.

Yes. The optimized Skyrim textures would be first, then the optimized HRDLC textures, then UHRP.

The Ultimate HD Fire Effects mod has been updated and provides optional campfire meshes that are compatible with SMIM .

Yes, you can install them directly. To me the main value of the manager is in maintaining and removing mods; this can be very tedious and error-prone if you don't use a manager. That is why we strongly suggest using a manager, in spite of the initial pain of learning how to use the manager.

DDSopt will eventually add support for at least zip files (this is being currently tested with the beta version of BSAopt). Unfortunately DDSopt only handles loose files at the moment. If you are being fairly selective about which mods you optimize there might not be a lot of them you need to process especially if you don't need to use DDSopt to change the resolution of the texture files for many mods. Even if you want to use DDSopt to change the resolution of the normal maps there are only 5-10 STEP mods that seem to provide noticeable VRAM reduction with this technique.

Archive the 4 texture folders and move the 4 archive files into whichever directory you use for installing mods (e.g., Bash Installers if you are using Wrye Bash). You can then keep or delete the 4 texture folders (I usually keep them). You can keep or delete the 4 BSAs; we generally recommend moving them somewhere else (as discussed in step 8) in case you need them again.

For this to happen you must have previously assigned BSA Browser to the .bsa extension. BSAopt can extract files from a BSA and can also reassemble file into BSA format, so we usually recommend assigning it to the .bsa extension.

I've been using Immersive Patrols for a long time and I haven't had any CTDs in areas that it uses; I have STEP and Skyrim Revisited mods as well as other mods. It doesn't have any scripts, so it is less likely to cause problems. Â Perhaps some other mods like Travelers of Skyrim or maybe SkyRe use the same areas on the map that it does; I don't use either of these. The only problems with Immersive Patrols I've seen reported are when another mod has changes to the same places that Immersive Patrols uses.Â

Brass tarnishes fairly fast so I'm surprised the mod increased the brightness.

A 2K version is now also available which was not available when the mod was originally posted; I wonder how it compares with the DDSopt reduced size version that WilliamImm made.

Putting the screenshots into the guide would be great; we indeed need to add more of them to show the effect on graphics quality. They could be put, along with a a few comments on the benchmark results on VRAM use, in the Appendix or perhaps even better in the "Normal Maps and VRAM usage" section to show the effect of both "standard" DDSopt optimization and additional gains resulting from reduced size normal maps. I have made reduced size normal maps for some other textures in my game, but I haven't seen much VRAM use improvement beyond what I saw with reduced size normal maps on the large texture mods. In my game the places that most need VRAM reduction are the main areas in Windhelm (highest VRAM use for me), the road from the brewery into Whiterun (next highest) and on the steps in Dragonsreach (3rd highest). My VRAM use is also affected by the weather and spell effects/dragon breath, and some margin is needed to accommodate these. If you find other mods where using these smaller normal maps helps please let us know so we can note this in the mod table. In case anyone wonders about it, I didn't include Skyrim Flora Overhaul as one of the recommended STEP mods for reduced size normal maps since Vurt was already doing some of this in the base mod.

A while ago I put a sidebar note in the DDSopt guide about BSAs vs. loose files and the implications. We might want to copy this sidebar into other guide(s) (and revise it as needed).

I'll change the wording in the guide to make it clearer. Steps 7 recommends you archive the 4 folders. You can use 7zip, zip, or rar to archive; like most other STEP users I use 7zip. At the end of step 7 you then have either 4 files, each containing one of the folders, or one file (a "complex BAIN archive" file for use with Wrye Bash) that includes all 4 folders. These (1 or 4) archive files are in the Skyrim\Data directory. In step 8 you move the 4 original BSAs (Skyrim - textures.bsa and the 3 HRDLC BSAs) out of the Data directory into another directory (the name suggested for this directory is "Original Vanilla BSAs").You can put this directory wherever you want, just don't put it in the Data directory.

I still prefer the golden ones for all of the temples, but I agree the golden ones aren't the best choice for shrines in dungeons and outside areas.

I just commented on a similar issue in the Stealth Skills Rebalanced thread. Lock Overhaul is useful in that it allows spells and bashing to open locks. It also adds minimum skill levels for opening locks (you need to check to appropriate box in the MCM menu as it is not enabled by default). I don't like the way this feature works in Lock Overhaul (vs. Stealth Skills Rebalanced) in that it is all-or-nothing; if you are even 1 point below the minimum skill level you can never open the lock (vs. a more progressive change where the chance of successful picking gets higher as your skill increases, but the chance of a novice opening a master lock is extremely low).Not true if you only enable auto pick and do not enable the hard limits. Anything you can't auto pick it makes you do manually. But for locks that end up being manually picked it isn't any different than vanilla Skyrim. Autopick is a useful addition as a way to save time if a lock is quite simple relative to your skill. My comment is that the mod doesn't change the difficulty of doing a manual pick vs. some other mods that do.

I just commented on a similar issue in the Stealth Skills Rebalanced thread. Lock Overhaul is useful in that it allows spells and bashing to open locks. It also adds minimum skill levels for opening locks (you need to check to appropriate box in the MCM menu as it is not enabled by default). I don't like the way this feature works in Lock Overhaul (vs. Stealth Skills Rebalanced) in that it is all-or-nothing; if you are even 1 point below the minimum skill level you can never open the lock (vs. a more progressive change where the chance of successful picking gets higher as your skill increases, but the chance of a novice opening a master lock is extremely low).