JudgmentJay

So after doing more research, I've come across a few forum posts that claim the VRAM and system RAM both count toward Skyrim's 4GB RAM allocation limit? That seems... terrible. Doesn't that mean that the higher VRAM your card has the more likely it is the game will crash (assuming you're using that VRAM)? That would suck if my new 4GB cards had a negative impact on my game...

I'm surprised we don't have a thread for this. After seeing LeetMiniWheat mention Immersive Armors in the MOD-TESTING List thread, I wanted to provide my input. I can't imagine many people don't know about this mod as it's extremely popular, but in case you don't, all it does is add really awesome-looking armor to the leveled lists (Can also be crafted). The mod also adds some of the sets to NPCs. I really like it when coupled with Immersive Armors for NPCs, which (obviously) just adds the armors to some of the more important NPCs. It's nice seeing a larger variety of lore-friendly armors throughout Skyrim. It just makes sense to me for powerful NPCs to be wearing unique armor. The only thing I could see being an issue is that some of the armors feel slightly too powerful, but maybe that's just because I never do enchanting in my playthroughs.

+1 for beta!

Not sure what you mean by this.

I just ran into this myself... not even using higher uGrids. It really annoys me that gigantic limiting flaws like this exist in a game released in 2011. 2GB of ram is nothing... PS: I couldn't find where the Wiki mentions this particular issue... little help? EDIT: I'd forgotten that turned AA up to 4x from 2x in addition to switching all my texture mods to maximum resolution (was using lite versions of landscape and clutter on the big 3 texture packs). Switching it back to 2x enabled the save to load fine. Sooo I'm guessing (hoping) VRAM limitation? I'm still using my 2GB GTX680s, but I've got 4GB cards in the mail.

Yeah it happens on a fresh, new game as well. Seems to pop up whenever I fast travel.

Are FXCameraAttachScript errors normal for Vanilla Skyrim? Been getting some of these and tried to narrow it down only to discover that they still occur with a completely vanilla install with default .inis.

I read that dramafest last night... pretty silly. It's disappointing that MDS won't be updated to work with RCRN. Hopefully someone will step up and make a similar mod.

Yeah it's a separate patch.

Discussion thread: Whiterun Trellis Redesigned by Toby S Wiki Link Not sure if this is worthy of STEP, but I just tried out Whiterun Trellis Redesigned and HQ, a small texture mod that replaces the trellis in Whiterun. In my opinion it's a big improvement aesthetically. I think the vanilla trellis feels a bit out of place. Post-STEP: Whiterun Trellis Redesigned and HQ:

Bumping this. I found CoverKhajiits a few days ago and finally tried it out. I was going to make a post, but I found this thread. I think it's a pretty big improvement... Post-STEP: CoverKhajiits:

I like how it went from "We haven't even announced it on your platform and we have 0 information for you" to released in like 3 days.

I too prefer the Tobes Highres Textures in the new SMIM patch, but I only compared it to the SMIM default textures. Meant to compare it to all 3 during my install but I forgot.

I'm not too sure about that. My FPS is considerably lower when I run with 1 card instead of Tri-SLI. Of course that's at 2560x1600 with 100+ high-resolution texture mods, all the visual improvement .ini tweaks except for uGrids, and dozens of visual enhancement mods. I doubt it'd matter with vanilla. SLI water bug is annoying though. I don't mind not having HDR... in fact if I had it I'd probably look for a way to turn it off as I find it more distracting than immersive.

Yeah there are things I like about both. The walls/floors are more "interesting" with BDR, but is it enough to make up for the lower resolution/dirtiness? Look at the far right and left sides in shot #1. That's pretty gross-looking.

I started with a fresh, modless Skyrim install tonight and started the STEP process. I installed everything up to Better Dwemer Ruins v4 then did a number of comparison shots to see the difference between having it installed and not. Here are the results (2560x1600): Shot 1 (Installed) Shot 1 (Not installed) Shot 2 (Installed) Shot 2 (Not installed) Shot 3 (Installed) Shot 3 (Not installed) Shot 4 (Installed) Shot 4 (Not installed) Shot 5 (Installed) Shot 5 (Not installed) Shot 6 (Installed) Shot 6 (Not installed) Shot 7 (Installed) Shot 7 (Not installed) Shot 8 (Installed) Shot 8 (Not installed) In my opinion the textures look better overall without Better Dwemer Ruins installed. The BDR textures are very noticeably low resolution in some shots, and they just feel too... busy when viewed as a whole. That said, I did an install where I selected 'No to all' when prompted to overwrite, and the result was good. The only textures that seem to be touched were the Dwemer actors and clutter. Examples: Shot 9 (Installed) Shot 9 (Not installed) Shot 10 (Installed) Shot 10 (Not installed) I'm not sure what the clutter pack affects, but it's already covered by Skyrim HD so my guess is it's unnecessary.

Any immediately apparent mod conflicts?

I was just looking at this myself. I was thinking that the Dwemer textures from the big texture packs are probably superior due to the fact that these are just vanilla textures with filters, but there are things covered in this mod that I don't think are covered elsewhere... particularly when it comes to Falmer stuff. Maybe activating and selecting 'No to all' when prompted to overwrite is something we should test.

I've run my timescale at 5 for a pretty long time with no issues, but your mileage may vary.

I was wondering how this would affect primary needs-type mods. I checked Frostfall and it's compatible with adjusted timescales because it runs on its own timer, but I could see it messing with others.

If I understood any of that I'd be all over it.

For the textures yeah, but you can still use the meshes from Better Rocks and Mountains. It just relieves some of the more stretched-looking textures. I'm using it in conjunction with AOF Detailed Mountains and there is a noticeable if not subtle improvement in some areas.

Ah nice. Why was it removed?

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17609 This mod sets out to fix inaccurate light sources. I tried it out and while it does exactly what it says it does, I'm not entirely sold on it yet. It certainly makes lighting more accurate, but I feel that it makes places a bit less atmospheric. You can see what I'm talking about in the Markath before/after images on the mod page. I think that's probably an extreme example, but it definitely felt brighter as I was walking around Markath/Whiterun. I'm assuming that Bethesda went around and dimmed/brightened/moved light sources away from where they should be coming from in order to create a more atmospheric environment, so this mod might do more harm than good. Needs more testing!

Discussion thread: Better Rocks & Mountains by Four Leaf Clover Wiki Link I ran across this mod earlier today. It basically just tweaks the meshes in order to reduce texture stretching on rocks/mountains. I took a few screenshots of random rocks with/without the mod, and while it's subtle and you probably wouldn't notice it unless you made side-by-side comparions, there's a definite change for the better with the mod on. It also comes with a texture pack, but there is a mesh only download so you can use it with whatever texture pack you want.