Kelmych

DDSopt is used for two purposes: reduce texture size to decrease VRAM usage, orimprove the quality of the textures.DDSopt improves texture quality by replacing the mipmaps included in a texture (this is primarily important if some or all of the mipmaps are missing)changing the texture compression to a efficient one (this is primarily useful in reducing unnecessary VRAM usage, when textures don't use the most efficient compression)fixing small error in textures. It's difficult to determine when DDSOpt optimization will make a noticeable difference in texture quality. As can be seen in the forums when individual textures from different mods are compared, it is often very time consuming to compare different versions of a texture. The criteria used in the QuickStart guide for identifying mods that could benefit from DDSopt texture optimization is a bit simpler and is hopefully effective. First run DDSopt on all the textures in a mod (without any resolution change), and then examine the DDSopt log to see how many errors or texture compression changes DDSopt made. If enough of these are noted in the log for a mod then the mod is put into the list that could benefit from texture optimization. When I've looked at the more recent mods (updated in the last year or so) I haven't seen many that benefit from DDSopt optimization. The existing list is useful, but there didn't seem to be a lot of interest in the list so it has not been actively maintained. If there is interest the more recent mods used in the STEP list and some of the packs could be examined and when appropriate added to the list.

When I use VATS I am seeing a 3rd person view or a modified 3rd persons view based on the setting in Enhanced Camera. I don't see a standard first person view.

In addition to the STEP Extended mods I use most of the SR:LE mods, some of the SR:LE Extended mods, a lot of the mods from the Real Explorers Guide to Skyrim pack (not currently being updated but still very useful), and a few other mods that seem useful. However, as baronaatista mentions, picking and choosing mods is more complicated because of patching. I've been doing a lot of my own custom patches, but this isn't something you want to do until you have tried sets of mods where patches are already available. With Mod Organizer you can even have a profile for STEP Extended and a different one for SR:LE, once you become more familar with using mods and then creating or editing patches.

I use ETAC and it works fine for me with STEP Extended; the modular version is needed and some towns/cities need to be excluded. I prefer ETAC to the equivalent set of mods by Arthmoor; I do use some of Arthmoor's place mods in addition since there are ones that don't conflict with ETAC. If you try to directly use SR:LE or SR:LE Extended along with STEP Extended there is a major problem. The lighting mods used for STEP Extended aren't compatible with the ones used in SR:LE, so the patches provided with STEP Extended and with SR:LE aren't compatible. As mentioned above, Dreadflopp has created patches that allow for compatibility with many of the SR:LE mods in addition to STEP Extended.

Option Two is the best choice. Make sure you get the STEP Extended mods installed and working properly, then activate the extra mods. Create a STEP Extended profile in Mod Organizer that has only the STEP Extended mods activated. If there are problems it is a lot easier to fix them with only the STEP Extended mods activated since there is a large experience base in getting these working. Once you activate other mods then it is difficult to know whether any problems are caused by these mods or your initial installation of STEP Extended. Once the STEP Extended mods work you can create one or more additional MO profiles that include the additional mods you want to add. You will find comments about a lot of the additional mods that interest you in the forums on the site, by the way. With each profile you will create a different bashed patch and different DynDOLOD plugin and associated files. It's easy to do this for the bashed patch since it a single file; it's slightly harder for DynDOLOD since it uses files in several folders. With several profiles you can switch profiles when you find problems to see which profiles have the problem.

The guide does not currently include bash tag recommendations. LOOT's list of bash tags is incomplete, and they are not directly added to mods. I've been working on such a list but it isn't complete, and other users haven't provided any recommendations. The guide does describe using the Generate Bash Tags script, and the options for adding bash tags for individual mods. If there is interest I can add a page for the bash tags and put in a few that I have already examined; other users could of course also add bash tag recommendations. Bash tags for the FO3 weapons can be difficult to determine since it isn't possible to select a set of bash tags that always does the right thing. The Wasteland Patch Collection patches are loaded after the bashed patch and take care of some the problems with object overwrites for weapons, but only if you are using the same weapon mods as were assumed by the Wasteland Patch Collection.

I don't use Nifskope much, and I don't know of any way to automate changes across different models when using Nifskcope. Perhaps someone who uses it regularly might have an answer.

They are referenced in the Quick Start guide. Look at section 1.2.

Using DDSopt on the vanilla Skyrim files provides better stability and quality even if the texture sizes aren't reduced, and reduced VRAm use if landscape textures are reduced in size. This can be done using one of the available already optimized replacements for the vanilla files or it can be done as described in the DDSopt Quick Start guide. Obviously using one of the existing optimized files is simpler. Using DDSopt to reduce mod texture size is primarily useful if the game regularly hits the VRAM limits with the GPU. Skyrim Performance Monitor or GPU-Z can be used to help determine whether this is happening. You didn't mention how much VRAM is available on the graphics card so I assume there is at least 4 Gb of VRAM; if there is less then optimization and/or careful selection of texture sizes is needed.

One of the reasons for using Mod Organizer in the guide was to simplify troubleshooting and updates. With WB these are both harder. Exclamation points mean there are missing meshes. Go up to the exclamation point, activate the console with ~, and click at the bottom of the exclamation point. You should see the FormID for the missing mesh (sometimes this doesn't work very well by the way for small objects). The first two characters are the mod identifier and the last six are the object identifier. The mod identifier for the object indicates the mod that provided the item model, and the complete FormID should allow viweing the object record and determining the name of the missing mesh file. You can then look to see which mod provides this and hopefully determine what is missing. WB provides some indications of which textures and meshes from a mod were overwritten. If you're having problems initially leaving out ENB is probably a good idea. Make sure the other extender mod INI files are correct. the fINIp INI files along with the INI tweaks generally work well. It would be best to use these since there are errors in some of the older recommended INI files. The problems with the map suggest that the map mod didn't get installed correctly. You might want to at least initially try the simpler map mod mentioned in the guide and install the higher resolution mod later once things are working correctly.

There isn't much in the Companions section. Let me know if it seems reasonable and it can be added to the guide.

Those images were on Copy.com and this service is no longer available. We'll need to put them at an alternate site.

I have been using Mator's Merge Plugins for a while and I haven't yet found situations for my mod profiles when Mator's procedures weren't adequate. Certainly the choice of resources included in the merged plugin can be done manually as you suggest and there could be situations when this could be necessary. Personally I use the full version of LOOT. BSA Extraction is needed at times, and it is often more convenient to do it with MO. It's needed when merging some mods such as the selected towns/villages when using the modular version of Expanded Towns and Cities. Eliminating a few of the towns/villages allows it to be compatible with Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul. The BSA Extraction can be done manually. of course, but using Mod Organizer works for the mods I have been merging.For mods with BSAs it is needed when selectively hiding a few of the resources with MO; this is sometimes necessary when providing compatibility among groups of mods.I agree if you have some fairly complex merges your approach seems better.

The guide will be revised to add a note about this since it isn't obvious and isn't discussed on the Nexus page for the mod. As mentioned in the previous post, the capabilities that were originally in separate optional plugins are now available for configuration using the Pipboy menu for MMM (look under Apparel) provided by the Master Menu plugin which is part of the Paradox Ignition Merged MMM plugin used by the guide. The separate plugins aren't needed. The Tougher Traders plugin capability isn't available in the Pipboy MMM menu, but the UF3P - Exotic Caravans mod in the guide has even more extensive protection for the traders, so the MMM Tougher Traders plugin is no longer needed.

A similar question was asked recently in the Support forum for the guide, so I provided an answer to your question in this thread. Generally the Feedback thread is for questions about the contents of the guide such as mistakes and possible additions or changes while questions about particular mods is best done in the Support forum threads. These are usually shorter, and it is easier to find answers about particular mods by browsing the support threads.

Some of the items that CACO can use as food (e.g., wolf liver) are shown under ingredients. Does CACO add these to the iNeed food list? I get the iNeed message when the food item is an ingredient. I'm not using the EatingSleepingDrinking mod by the way. I'm using CACO 1.2 and I don't see any option in the MCM under Compatibility to add CACO items to iNeed lists. Did I miss something in the installation?

That folder holds the LOOT settings data and the LOOT lists for all the games using LOOT

I have never used or tested any of the optional MMM Alternative Configuration plugins in the RC61 file. I'd suggest looking at them in FO3Edit along with the rest of the mods you use since I expect there may be conflicts with mods like FWE at least for leveling and scaling changes. While the main MMM plugin has been regularly updated, those plugins predate the most recent update to FWE. One of the most difficult aspects of mod guides is game balance, especially since users want different levels of difficulty and AI intelligence. This is preferably done without simply adding damage and armor advantages to NPCs (which is all the game's difficulty setting changes) since this makes the game unrealistic (e.g., a weapon should ideally cause the same damage whether used by the player or an NPC). Without looking in some detail as these plugins I don't know how they affect balance. Certainly MMM itself (the main plugin) is one of the best across Bethesda games at increasing difficulty by improving NPC AI vs. using Player/NPC weapon/armor/stat imbalance.

Have you used the spINI application to provide a base set of Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini, and then added the Skyrim ini tweaks in the STEP guide? These can sometimes help reduce problems including ILS. I have several Mod Organizer profiles with different numbers of mods included. At some places like leaving Solitude and leaving the Nightcaller Temple I have found that I get ILS with the profile with the most mods while there is no ILS with the profile that has the fewest (the base set of STEP Extended mods). Users including me have posted that increasing the "DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768" parameter in SKSE.ini to a value larger that 768 may help reduce the occurrences of ILS (it has for me). Note that at least for me increasing this value increases random CTDs in the game, so I try to not increase it too much. There are also some discussions in posts about the ILS effects of a few of the INI parameters.

A version of this mod compatible with other mods in the STEP Extended list is included in the STEP Extended patch. The installation guidance also includes information for those who use additional mods like Realistic Needs and Diseases or those using the STEP Core patch. The STEP Extended patch is necessary for those using the STEP Extended mods.

I don't remember seeing this, but I don't think I've loaded a companion with a lot of weight. I'll try doing what you mentioned the next time I have the game open.

The SR:LE instructions are fine as they are written on the referenced page since they use the DDSopt GUI to select texture types (color maps) and then unselect some other texture types (normal maps, model space normal maps) before running the first pass of optimization, and then selecting only the normal maps and model space normal maps on the second pass. On each pass all of the available textures are optimized. The DDSopt Quick Start guide avoids using the DDSopt GUI because of the GUI selection errors that many users reported when the GUI is used.; when this happens a user needs to start all over again. The question was why is the pass through option disabled in the approach used in the guide, and it is because the multi-pass approach used there avoids using the DDSopt GUI for selection, and when this approach is used the passthrough needs to be disabled. The only SR:LE error about DDSopt, and it is not on this page, is the pointer to the DDSopt guide. Both the SR:LE and the DDSopt guide approach work fine; a user can select whichever approach they prefer. When optimizing textures from mods the DDSopt guide approach also uses different processing parameters for uncompressed textures and some of the facial and body textures (and landscae textures if desired) to preserve their quality. Only a few mods provide uncompressed textures; this is however becoming more common as mod authors create better quality textures.

For the second question, check mod order is a useful feature in MO, but it's just a warning. Recommended installation order depends on a number of factors and this is only one of the factors. All the guides on the STEP site have taken this and other factors (e.g., which mod has the best textures) into account when determining the proper installation order, so for these guides the warning can safely be ignored if the feature is enabled. Neo recommends disabling it, and for his guide (and other STEP guides when recommended) it is safe to do this.

z929669 reorganized the DDSopt guide a while ago and the link you showed from SR:LE is outdated (it should use this link). It currently points to the main DDSopt guide, not the Quick Start guide. It looks like you found the Quick Start guide anyway. Currently the SR:LE guide points to the optimized vanilla textures from this mod on Nexus so users don't need to run DDSopt themself to optimize the vanilla textures. You can still do the optimization yourself if you prefer; the main advantage of this would be if you wanted more control over how the textures are optimized. In addition to optimizing the vanilla textures, the QuickStart guide also provides a description of optimizing textures from mods and tools that some users find useful when doing the optimization. The process in the DDSopt QuickStart guide uses different processing parameters for different texture types (selective optimization). Since it uses multiple passes the "Copy unprocessed and ignored files (passthrough)" box is unchecked so textures that are optimized in a different pass aren't copied to the output before they are optimized. The previous SR:LE instructions for optimization did the optimization in a single pass so it didn't need to uncheck this box.

The script works for Skyrim as well as Fallout games; it was developed for Skyrim. It adds all tags the plugin supports. I don't know of any automatic way to determine which tags are appropriate; a manual TES5Edit review with all plugins active is needed to determine which tags should not be used. I've used it a lot for Fallout plugins, and I have only had to remove a few tags that it added.