DatsiK96

Just discovered this, not sure if anyone here has seen it or not. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69905/? What are the mod's thoughts on this specific tool? Can it be used in STEP, in future devs? Do you feel it's safe? Or does it undermine what STEP is all about in terms of load order? In theory it makes sense, it uses xEdit, finds all conflicts and just simply overwrites them based on load order. I feel like it can help when merging a mod that contains 6 plugins, you can merge all of them into 1. That would be nice. Thoughts?

That was my problem. I'm a dork. I edited MO's ini's and it worked. Thank you!

I set the scales as you said, but it didn't make a difference... I'm going to try and remove the ini's and just start over on those.. Edit: Can I use MO to manage the INI? or is it just a editor of the INI?

Yes and no. If you remove any mod, you have to know which other modes either rely or use that mod for other things. Normally if it isn't marked with a green label on the side of the mod, it can't really be removed. But there are always exceptions. I know ICFH has a lot of dependencies with other mods... and even conflicts. What I would do is using MO, download it, extract it, leave it ticked off... if it works... great... if not... Find out what dependencies it has.

Number Juan: It doesn't matter the order that you check off the mods after you extract them with MO (mod Organizer). The files are never placed physically in the location of the Skyrim directory. So you can tick them on at any time and it won't matter. What does matter is the priority number you have assigned them, you can move them up or down and they should match the order in which they show on the list in STEP. Number Duex: It's generally recommended by STEP, GEMS, and everyone else to get STEP done first, ensure stability/functionality, then do whatever you want. But some things may or may not conflict. Number Tre: Yes, any mods you add on after STEP you must include the compatibility patches for new and previous mods. Number Fur: The thing to remember about STEP is, it's there as a guide. You can deviate in any way you want. They make recommendations, you can choose to follow them or not. As such, installing other mods from different packs, is fine. Normally all packs will recommend doing the STEP Core or Extended first, then add on the packs. Something I've done in the past is completed STEP, then added on about 30 or so mods of my own liking. It worked fine. Sometimes I couldn't include, but that's the way it goes. Number Fem: Probably not. This is usually a give and take. if one mod takes priority over another, it will over write things that other mods may use/need. If this is the case, what you can normally do is use xEdit (TES5Edit/FO4Edit) and manually attempt to take out or choose which parts of the conflicts you want to keep from the ESPs. This is complicated, and not recommended if you've never done that sort of thing. I have not, so I don't do that. When it comes to things like these, I just adjust load order and or priority in MO.

I'm doing step 2.2.9.2, I finally finished all of it, followed the instructions... But I'm having an issue with the mouse. I can move it fine left and right, it's the Y axis that I can barely move. The ini files are set with the same x and y axis, so that's not the issue. Here is my setup. Here are my ini's. Skyrim Prefs Skyrim.ini I thought maybe it was the dynamic camera. but doesn't look like it. Load order has proper meta tags inserted as the guide requested, and was sorted by loot. All plugins were cleaned that mentioned cleaning in the guide. I have no other mods set up. There is a mod that I was reading needed to be activated after DOLOD, but I can't remember which one... could that be causing it? Load order: Note: I will be installing some mods outside of STEP once I get this working, I have a plugin deactivated that mentions alternate start. It isn't causing any issues at the moment. My rig: Let me know if there is anything else you need to help me trouleshoot this! I'm pretty sure it's just a simple step i'm missing.

Great job on the new update everyone! One thing I noticed was that SMIM's page was a bit... out of order and confusing. My proposal to the page: a table. With it laid out like this, you can clearly see which one you should install and which one you shouldn't. Also it offers a small level of customization for low to high end computers. I personally believe that the high poly (10k+ polycount) 3D models add way too much detail for lower end computers, Though I cannot comment onto why that is, be it, RAM, CPU, or VRAM. All I know is my friends computers have difficulty using all the high end poly meshes. Generally they have 2gbs of VRAM. And seeing as with STEP you're adding lots of high end textures, the absence of these high end meshes may not be missed on lower end computers. But, with all that said, if you have reason to believe that isn't the case, then I would suggest at least keeping the order I've used for the table; if not use the whole thing. Excel table: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/203161/STEPsmim.xlsx Thank you.

Update: STEP uses "Traps Make Noise" and it does have a script for "TrapExplosiveGas.pex" but removing the script itself does not fix the CTD. Instead, removing the entire mod itself seems to fix it... Anyone have any ideas? I'll be messing around with the mod, maybe I forgot one of the compatibility patches or something....? Edit: Reinstalled the mod, and made sure I wasn't missing anything... Still makes it crash...

So I found out more about the crash. It turns out that field is in another cave which causes the same CTD, and when I was looking around, it turns out that it's called "flammable gas". Does anyone know more about this? Like if it's a file that I can look to see if it's getting overwritten? https://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Traps#Flammable_Gas

It's sad... I have no idea how to really do any of that :x If it wasn't for me trying out the Skyrim Revisited mod last week, I wouldn't have even known a single thing of what you're talking about! Could you maybe point me in the right direction for seeing if I do have a missing mesh?

Update again: Passing through it with TCL enabled allows me to pass the field, and once I'm out on the other end of it, I'm able to turn it off and continue playing.

Here you go, hope you can give me some pointers! If you switch back and forward between the last two pictures, you'll see the distortion effect... Update: So, if I interact (and by interact I mean attack it with a spell) with the field at all, it crashes. Going in no clipping mode allows me to walk through it without any crashing. but naturally, it still crashes if I use a spell on it.

My specs. I use the latest MO, 1.0.12... And thank you, EssArrBee, for the suggestion. I removed SMIM, and I had to uncheck the extended STEP patch. I redid the Dual Sheath, FNIS, and Bash patch, but it still crashed, same spot... If no one walks near that weird diffusion field thing it works... But only when someone walks there does it crash... Any other suggestions?

So I got STEP 2.7.7 running with literally 0 problems. It runs great! No crashes, no freezes, almost EVER.... Except... One point in the game so far... There's a spot in Raven Rock mine, it has this... diffusion effect it looks like... Like heat rising on a dry arid surface. If I step anywhere near it, or my follower, or an NPC does, it crashes, every time... I'm using STEP:Extended (Baseline texture sizes with only character detail at full texture size), with a couple of my own choice of mods. I've added Alternate Start, Autosave Manager, Immersive Armors, Expanded Skyrim Presets, Ningheim Race, RaceCompatibility, ApachiiSkyHair, Windsong Skyrim Beauty Project, Better Skill and Quest Book Names, Unread Books Glow, No More Glowing Edges, Achieve That, and, Helmet Toggle - Show Hide. Anyone have the same issue or a fix? Also, STEP Patches is also installed.

Lawl, it just sucks because I was told to do SR, because I was having trouble with the core & extended guide. I did find SRLE, but it's being updated and changed almost every day, and there's no changelog to follow, so I don't want to really touch it right now... Instead I finally understood and got the extended guide working, and I went with the baseline settings.. I don't really need 4k textures anyway :P Understood the DDopting of vanilla textures and etc, it was pretty easy now and it worked flawless as opposed to my last attempt. I'm trying to work on DDsopting my Mod textures now... And that guide is extremely confusing, I'm trying to read it from top to bottom, I think it might be the way it's written :x Anyway, I'm running STEP extended now, and it's pretty chill... I'm a little disappointed they don't have the final steps finished though :( Like, it's missing the in-game setup and activation of mods, and settings to change on them... kinda like SR had... Anything I could do to help that? And maybe someone could explain a little of the DDsopt of mods a bit more to me...

I've tried similar, I've disabled all the big HD texture packages, SRO, HD2k, etc. etc. It /is/ more stable in the fact that it doesn't freeze as often (I should have probably gone with the 'lite' version of some of that stuff rather than the 4k but whatever, can always fix that) But CTDs are still very common. Also, SR has you disable all auto saving, but doesn't offer a mod to replace it... is there something that you guys use that is compatible with SR? I once used this auto saver, it was really great (used MCM)... But it too would CTD on saves at times... really weird ;x

So, a little bit of background. My Stats. (This is not overclocked, I'm usually running the CPU at 4.5gbs and ram at 2100 (which is normal stats for the RAM) but due to the CTDs I wanted to make sure it wasn't a factor) My Install: I've went with Skyrim Revisited by Neovalen... I've followed it (as best as I could) to the letter, unfortunately it is out of date, by about 6 months, so not everything applied, and not everything fit perfectly, but I did my best. My Mod List I've done the proper Bash, SUM, FNIS, and Boss steps... Here's my plugin list. I've used Skyrim Monitor and see that on average it hovers around 2.2gbs of VRAM, I'm noticing a correlation to passing over 3gbs of VRAM (my VRAM limit) and freezing. But the CTDs are pretty much random, and if I've saved just before it happened, it won't happen twice in the same place. It happens inside caves, outside in the wilderness, inside shops, inside cities. It's just anywhere... Most times I've seen is when I see someone down the road, an NPC waiting... but they are usually far away. I've had many problems with freezing, but I (this is weird) uninstalled my ATI drivers and used whatever Windows has prepackaged, and surprisingly enough, it dropped my VRAM to 2.2gbs average from 3gbs always, and the FPS increased from about 20 to a perfect 45 - 60. To be honest, this alone has made me lose faith in ATI cards in general. But that's besides the point. I'm running on stock drivers, and it's working so much better and freezes MUCH less. (since doing this I've only ran into 1 freeze) But the CTDs are still constant, and it's happening all the time.

I dunno what's going on ;x I've logged in properly, MO is running as admin, and is updated to 1.0.12 I can't download anything into MO, it handles the links, but no DL shows up. I've got Python installed, and .NET 4... followed the steps on STEP but I still don't see any server list... Any tips? am I doing something wrong?

Well I just built a new rig, with 16gbs of really fast ram, a new haswell i7 unlocked, and my GPU has 3gbs of vram. I followed the install pretty much as close as I could, and before I didn't do any of the DDsopt stuff, I didn't understand it back then, I obviously still don't xD The only thing I didn't follow was the unpacking of mod's BSAs... but it just crashed, most of the problems were related to that guard overhaul mod... I dunno if I did something else wrong but I uninstalled that mod and it was less unstable... However, I modded my ini files pretty extensively, using the nvidia guide. Thanks for the replies though guys.. :) Going to try out the revisited one wish me luck :P

Thank you for the replies! Sorry if I seemed angry before. I'll be honest, I've tried STEP 3 times now. The first time I got everything installed after a week of working on it, but the game was incredibly unstable... And I could never find out why... I feel like it might have been because I just didn't follow everything to the letter during the install, so things got weird. But I had come so far, so it's not like I could have fixed it... only options were to start all over. And that's where I ran into the DDsopt thing... to me it makes sense that it would be the reason for me getting CTDs... but I dunno. I just don't know where I'm going wrong with the installs, and now it's happening all over again with the very first step >.< so it's kind of aggravating. Maybe someone could offer some 1 on 1 help with this, like IM on skype or something? And I'll see about maybe making a pass at a different guide... I ran into the skyrim revisited thing, but I wasn't sure if it was up-to-date still. I'll give it a try as well... Thanks again~

I have to be honest. The entire STEP wiki is a complete mess. I'm not a 'modder' per say, as in I don't make mods. But I am knowledgeable when it comes to managing and installing mods, and how most of it works. With that being said. I just simply don't understand the steps within the STEP process. None of it. It's a complete mess. You can spend an entire MONTH trying to get this right, and most of that month will be spent redoing it because the instructions weren't clear, outdated, inaccurate, or just plainly doesn't work. I've done step before, but ended up (obviously) doing it wrong because I would get random CTDs every 10 or so minutes. Not fun. I'm going to talk about the very first part right now, because that's what I've been trying to understand so far. The optimizing of the textures using DDSopt. Firstly, the DDSopt page is confusing. You've got important information scattered from the quick guide, to the actual guide, and the quick guide isn't specific enough to contain all the information needed, yet the actual guide isn't easy enough to get any information out of it. So you end up going back and forward to piece together something that 'works' only to find out it's not how it works at all. One of the biggest problems is the bat files. You have multiple downloads leading to different versions of the bats. This is not good. I wasted an entire go at it using the wrong bat files because the wrong version presented itself to me first. To spare you all from a huge and long rant on everything wrong with it. I'm going to just say this. It needs to be streamlined. Get rid of tabs. Instead of having one part in one tab, and the maybe the next part in the other, it needs to be on one page, in a step by step fashion starting from the top to the bottom. And when it needs to jump to another guide, like say, repacking BSAs, link it to them in a noticeable manner. If it's in a correct step by step scheme, it shouldn't be to hard to notice that is where you need to be. Get rid of large unnecessary text. A lot on this STEP guide is a mix between important instructions and non-important background information, all the while it doesn't really explain much. This needs to be redone, important information needs to stand out more. You can't have unimportant information hidden in a large block of text. More simplified step by step instructions. You have some parts step by step, which is nice. But you've merged multiple steps all into one large step. Whats worse is, you've got explanations within steps. Steps do not require explanations. Steps should be a guide of what you do WITH the understanding. If STEP recommends it, it should be a part of the main step, and if it's important to have the choice, then it should be listed as a side option step. It needs to be easier to find where to begin. Even though it linked me to one page on the installation of skyrim, it wasn't apparent enough that this entire section of optimizing the textures was important, because it wasn't listed in the steps. It should be like a checklist, if it's needed, make it KNOWN! Have a prerequisite list, SOMETHING. With all that being said. Maybe STEP just isn't for me. I don't mind spending time on doing a large modding guide like this... But if the instructions aren't clear, it's just not worth it. If you want more specific tips and changes, I can offer. If someone wants to maybe point out where I'm getting this all wrong, let me know!