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https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51188/? I haven't tested the mod whatsoever, but looking at the comparison photos on the mod page, this mod appears to be a graphical improvement that makes structures in snowy areas logically look more realistic. can a moderator erase this thread? I did a search for the mod prior to posting and didn't find anyone talking about it... now I see a message at the bottom of this editing page that says that there is another similar posting.

I'm interested in your edited lighting mix, Neovalen. I've got STEP Extended installed and I've been hunting around for a lighting solution because vanilla lighting is AWFUL. If feels so stupid to have zero stealth skill, hide in a location that is clearly visible with ambient light everywhere, make some noise, and then have a NPC walking a few feet away trying, and failing, to find me. That's the vanilla experience. ENBs are not an option for me when they drain 10-15 FPS (that's a big hellllll no, when I'm getting 50 FPS on average as is). I noticed that ELFX claims to not be compatible with STEP Extended's Lanterns of Skyrim, so apparently the ELFX Exteriors esp shouldn't be run in that situation (which is the STEP Extended situation)... Problem is, there is only one STEP Pack so far that is is apparently designed by large for modifying lighting (Weather and Lighting Pack), and that Pack is still a little broad in its instructions on how to set everything up, as it lists a number of options and doesn't really focus on one path. Case in point: it says nothing about the Lanterns of Skyrim issue. From what I remember while installing STEP mods - I thought there were a bunch of mods with installation options or optional patches catered to specific lighting mods (such as RLO or ELFX) that might be run alongside them. The Pack does not address all the modifications to STEP installation that need to be made to best include the lighting mod. Apparently, some of the mods would have to be reinstalled or have patches installed along with them in order to work properly with some of the lighting mods - a Pack installation page would be the best place to point out and describe those mods and instructions on how to do it all. So, in light of all that, I'm VERY interested in your method and your editing for integrating ELFX along with Relighting Skyrim into your Skyrim setup. Can you perhaps make a Pack to describe your process for that?

Apparently, this is being discussed over here: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=3320&page=6&highlight=ELFX I still think that there needs to be a Pack that clearly spells out what to do for correct installation. I'm going to join the conversation over there...

ELFX looks the best to me and very complete. I notice a portion of the mod is stated to be incompatible with Lanterns of Skyrim though (a STEP Extended mod). It would be great if someone could put together a non-ENB lighting pack that explains in detail how to modify both STEP Core and STEP Extended installations to properly configure an enhanced lighting mod (such as ELFX) and re-configure other STEP mods to all be compatible. I'd be willing to bet that at least one or two mods I installed already in Core or Extended STEP had lighting patches for them that make them work better with lighting mods (I think I remember seeing such options a few times.). Unfortunately, it's a TON of work to go back and try to determine which mods those are... Then there's also load order questions, TES5Edit questions, and so forth. Do you, or anyone else have any tips or pointers on how to do this efficiently? Please post links to forum discussions if you know of them. Thank you. :) EDIT: OK, there is a pack on lighting (Weather and Lighting), but it's pretty general in trying to give advice for a number of different lighting mods. The problem is that it doesn't focus on one, so it doesn't give a thorough explanation of what needs to be altered correctly to make everything work properly. Case in point - it says nothing about Lanterns of Skyrim not being compatible with the ELFX Exteriors mod, yet recommends both STEP Extended and ELFX. And what about the SMIM mesh patch? I see it talks about the SoS + ELFX patch at least.

Can anyone recommend any non-ENB lighting enhancement that is performance friendly (no FPS drops)? My FPS average about 50, dropping down to 45 at times and often running at 60. I really don't want to suffer any more drops in performance due to an ENB lighting mod. I have STEP Extended installed. Currently, STEP has a guide that gives a handful of ENB recommendations but the guide does not list any non-ENB options. I remember a while back when there were non-ENB lighting mods recommended as part of STEP. I personally feel that vanilla Skyrim looks pretty bad lighting-wise. I cringe to walk through a cave and go into stealth mode when I have zero stealth skill and be right next to some moron who can't see me when I'm in plain sight. Clearly I'm meant to be in a dark spot, but it doesn't appear that way on the computer screen. Caves appear way too bright. Quite frankly, it makes me not even want to play it looks so bad... A couple years ago I had Skyrim installed with STEP and a performance-friendly lighting mod... Another question - if I have a 2GB VRAM graphics card, do I get any performance benefit from using 1024 textures instead of 2048, even if my card can handle 2048 textures? I'm wondering if it makes sense to drop my textures down to 1024 and then use an ENB mod and suffer a similar FPS drop to my current settings. That would be a lot of work though (to redo my mod options and use lower textures...). I have a decent computer system: Intel i7 950 3.07 GHz 8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM Windows 7 64-bit AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM AMD Catalyst Control Center 14.1 Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD (w/ RAPID) Game Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (1080p)

As far as I know I have everything set up according to STEP Extended directions exactly. The only change is that I installed the SSME - Skyrim Memory Patch because it was recommended by STEP for 2 of the mods. I used 360 Walk and Run Plus - that helped with the feet clipping the cloak when moving. I also used an alternate way of hanging the quiver on the low back (plus a new bow-loading animation along with that) to get it out of the way of the backpack. I never got a backpack, so I never got to see how they look... but even with the 360 mod the cloaks still seemed like out-of-place items because they clipped with everything else still - the quiver, sheathed weapons, and certain armors. When I sheathed a greatsword, for instance, it looked like my character was impaled with it because it went through the cloak - just looked bad. I don't know why I had gotten the CTD exactly, but I only assume it was due to something Frostfall reacting to the cold temperature of the area I was in - don't really know. It was the first time I had gotten a CTD throughout any of my STEP installation tests - just assumed it had something to do with Frostfall in some way.

After playing around with the mods a little bit I realized that I don't like cloaks because they just don't work well with a lot of the other game character graphics - the clipping hurts my eyes. I also found Frostfall to work oddly. I was still testing Frostfall and trying to obtain a backpack to see how messed up that would look with back-sheathed weapons, but never got to it. I had traveled up to the bandit-overrun tower near Riverwood to test Frostfall exposure system and got a CTD in the fight with the bandits. In the end, I unfortunately find a number of elements of the survival mods to be poorly implemented (probably mainly due to Skyrim's constraints - good effort by the modders though), and I won't tolerate CTDs, so I have reverted my profile back to STEP Extended. Even though the mods do have some coolness factor to them, I can see why they are not in normal STEP. I will most likely still end up implementing the Subliminal Traps mod - as it just changes some textures to be more camouflaged. I may end up implementing Realistic Needs and Diseases, but I have to focus on reviewing it a little first - I haven't really reviewed it yet. I may even install Hunterborn or Harvesting Overhaul (from Immersive Survival Pack)... but I need to review them a little first also. My goal is to get everything I want installed first, then play the actual game (lol... I've spent so much time just installing mods and testing them...), since saved games do not seem to be able to take well to reconfigured mods like new games can.

I examined the 3 mod's pages (as well as Frostfall's) for at least an hour, if not a few, to figure out what the different patches and mod configs would do in order to make sure I selected the appropriate compatibility options. I also looked at the Survival Pack instructions, which give the 2 options you mentioned. After reviewing everything, I felt that it made sense to install the full WiC file and the patch in order to make sure that I would be able to not just craft the cloaks (or find them on NPCs due to W&C) but buy them at venders if desired. I am led to believe that it is not WiC, due to the fact that none of the cloaks I've seen so far were furs. It's probably either an issue with W&C or CoS. I'll have to spend time experimenting with different options to figure out the best combo. The idea of cloaks is kind of cool, but they aren't implemented the best way visually. In a way I'd rather not have them due to the clipping issues with armor/weapons/equipment. The main reason I installed them is because apparently they are pretty important for Frostfall to work well. I installed an alternate low back bow quiver mod and animations to go with that because I hear that backpack from Frostfall clip heavily with quivers in the normal placement, which I imagine is also going to make 2-handed weapons and staves look weird when unwielded since they go on the back also. I tried to use the command console in order to generate a crossbow to see if their quivers are included in the new placement and loading animations, but apparently the item is unknown by the game. Hopefully the only reason why is because I haven't activated the mod in-game yet, but I don't really know. Does anyone here know?

I noticed that a lot of NPCs have multiple cloaks on them - for example... In Helgen, when I start a game, a lot of the Stormcloaks will have a Stormcloak cloak and then an extra cloak in their inventory that's something like "Stormcloak Linen Cloak" or something like that. Is this due to some kind of cloak mod conflict, or do these mods do this normally?

What's confusing me now are the detailed instructions for XP32 MS mod: "The installation instructions here support using wearable items from the Wet and Cold STEP mod. Skyrim Revisited includes different installation options that support using items from a different mod (Frostfall). The two installation option sets are not compatible. In the installer: â—¾ Leave the defaults selected for the Required Files. â—¾ On the "XPMS" page, select "Back Hip Dagger". â—¾ Also install the Back Hip Dagger equip animation. Remember to run New Idles for Skyrim after installing all mods. Note: these installation options are different than (and incompatible with) the options in Skyrim Revisited." It makes it sound like Wet and Cold and Frostfall are not mutually compatible with XP32 MS, since STEP Extended is suggesting different options depending on whether Wet and Cold or Frostfall are used with it. Do you know why? There isn't enough information for me to understand based off of my own knowledge.

Here's one example - not the one I was thinking of, because the one that I was thinking of definitely was for some kind of "Frostfall" compatibility selection in a mod (think it was an Extended mod). I have been trying to rerun some of the fomod installers for Extended mods to find the one with the Frostfall option, and while doing so found this: "Disease Descriptions for Immersive Adventurer" (a STEP Extended mod) has an option for "Realistic Needs and Diseases". I "may" have found the STEP Extended mod that I was talking about referring to "Frostfall" compatibility options, because this one does have them in its installer: "XP32 Maximum Skeleton-XPMS". It has alternate selections for Frostfall quiver placement on lower back (probably due to cloak usage issues).

Nice - that's good to hear. Are there any issues with finding enough resources for survival without also installing "Hunterborn" or "Harvest Overhaul"? Also, I swear there was, at least, one mod installed with either Core or Extended (probably Extended, and it may have been "Wet and Cold") that had an option for Frostfall that wasn't selected at the time when I installed it because I was installing for Extended only at that time. Do you know which mod(s) have to be altered/reconfigured from Extended to work with the mods in your Survival Pack the best way? (it might be something to also add to the instructions, if you think it's a good idea) I would think that, if anything, player-wearable cloaks (the 2 main cloak mods associated with Frostfall - "Winter is Coming" and "Cloaks of Skyrim") would be most likely to clash with some other mod, like a mod that governs equipment placement on the back of the body, unless they go on the outside of the cloak? PS - I do use Mod Organizer - it's great. :)

Hello, I just finished installing all of STEP Core and then afterwards all of STEP Extended (except for "No Menu and Loading Smoke" mod, because I happen to like the smoke - thank you very much.. j/k lol). Planning on introducing some survival mods to this... Looking at the Packs available, there appear to be 2 survival-focused packs currently listed in STEP: "Immersive Survival" and "Survival". I like the sound of a number of the mods in these packs, specifically "Frostfall" and "Realistic Needs and Diseases". The packs themselves mention how they are compatible with STEP Core, and one (Survival) briefly mentions but not too much about Extended compatibility. But there is no mention about the specific installation changes that have to be made to the STEP Extended setup in order to incorporate the survival mods properly. In fact, I specifically remember at least one of the Extended mod installations having a "Frostfall" option (which I did not select at that time) and I don't remember which one(s) had such options (maybe Wet and Cold, not sure...). My question is, can I incorporate "Frostfall" and "Realistic Needs and Diseases" easily to an Extended setup, or are they going to break anything? And this leads to more questions: It seems like having those two mods installed make a few other mods rather important to also perhaps install. Will "Hunterborn" and/or "Harvest Overhaul" be necessary in order to harvest enough food/hide/fur required to meet legitimate survival requirements? Will "Cloaks of Skyrim" and "Winter is Coming" be necessary in order to have an appropriate selection of cloaks available to protect from exposure to various weather conditions? Are there any other important complimentary mods to "Frostfall" and "Realistic Needs and Diseases"? For STEP Core and Extended, I feel like I got all the fine-tuning details down nicely with the mod installation instructions, applications, DDSOpting, TES5Edit cleaning, Wyre Bash patching, Dual Sheath Redux patching, and FNIS patching... whew... a lot of fine tuning in the setup. Took me a couple weeks, actually... and I have two separate MO profiles set up so I could switch between Core setup and Extended setup without doing anything more than switching profiles. I'm pondering the thought of creating a third profile based directly off of my Extended profile, in which I can modify whichever mod settings/installations are necessary in order to incorporate the survival mods properly/completely for that profile. I hope it doesn't mess up the ability of the STEP: Extended Patch to work properly though... Any thoughts/ideas, drawbacks to compatibility or a normal Skyrim gameplay experience? Thanks. :) I imagine there are other people out there who will want to add these survival immersion mods to "Extended" as well, (not just Core).

I just re-installed. Didn't solve the problem. But then it did. :) . . . So I originally tried to follow the instructions provided by STEP for installation, which appeared to me to be: get the installer and then in the installer check off Skyrim and Standalone, etc... THIS IS THE PROBLEM. The installer is SH*T. The second time I did it this way, following STEP's instructions, it didn't work right and I had to use Admin Privs to load it up, and then it would proceed re-organize my MO mod list every time. The solution: F*(% the installer. Get the pure standalone. No need to get the installer in order to try to have it load the standalone. The pure standalone version of Wrye Bash was all that was needed. For one, it doesn't have to be run with admin privs every time. For another, it doesn't re-order MO's mod list. YES!!! I PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO STEP! Instead of recommending the installer. Say: "do NOT get the installer - get the "Wrye Bash 304_3 - Standalone Executable" file, or you will regret it."

First of all, let me start of by saying that I HATE HATE HATE Wrye Bash. HATE IT! &(*&%. OK... So apparently STEP now has a part that requires Wrye Bash for creating a bashed patch of a STEP installation. So I finally HAVE to install Wrye Bash in order to do this... *sigh* I do it, and it creates a bunch of new files and directories outside of its program directory (go figure... knew it would do something obnoxious like that...). I load up Mod Organizer and try to load Wrye Bash from MO. A load screen flashes by really quickly along with a second window with text, and then both disappear so fast that nothing can be read... So it doesn't load up properly. So I think, "maybe I should edit the security privileges of Wrye Bash's .exe file to give my Windows account full access to the file (even though the file was never installed in the Program Files directory)". Didn't do anything... So I think, "maybe I should start MO with admin privileges and then run Wrye Bash through it that way. Worked. OK, so I noticed my .esp files and whatnot in the proper order in Wrye Bash and followed STEP instructions for creating the bashed patch. Quit Wrye Bash (yay!...) and loaded MO back up. WTF!!! All my mods were deselected and (worse) all mods were re-arranged into alpha-numeric order. So I re-arranged one mod and then quit MO. Re-loaded... same state.  Re-loaded Wrye Bash through MO with admin privs and then quit Wrye Bash without doing anything. Loaded MO back up - that 1 out of alpha numeric order mod was put back into order. Why is Wrye Bash doing this, and how do I stop it? Why are bashed patches important, because I want to blow up my harddrive just to gain the satisfaction from knowing that I obliterated Wrye Bash. I can't stand that program...

I have a question, to anyone who is knowledgeable in the differing requirements of baseline STEP and hi-res STEP - given my aforementioned system specifications, what kind of difference in FPS would you expect to see on a rig like mine between choosing baseline versions of mods versus choosing the higher res options? I DDSOpt every mod that is listed as "Yes" in columns 1 or 2 in the DDSOpt Guide for STEP mods... and DDSOpt-process mods at 2048x2048, except those mods that are suggested for DDSOpting both low and high res versions of the mods with some of the textures at 1024 and some at 2048. I ignore 4096x4096 versions of mods, but choose 2048x2048 versions as long as STEP shows them as performance-friendly options (over the typical 1024x1024 baseline options) - the reason why is because I play at 1920x1080 res. Also to note: I don't use ENB and don't plan to unless using 1024 textures recovers enough FPS for me to make ENB worth using. I'm just thinking of substituting all or most of my 2048 mods for 1024 mods in order to regain some FPS because my average FPS at this point is 51 (which isn't bad). It's nice to have breathtaking visuals, but it's also nice to have silky-smooth motion. I'm wondering if 1024 textures is the best tradeoff or not. In order to figure that out, I'm trying to an educated someone's opinion about the kind of FPS difference I would see if I were to switch mods out for lower-res. Any suggestions?

YES!!! I solved the problem. In fact, Skyrim is now running better than it EVER did on my computer. So this is what happened: I started getting a lot of total computer shutoff type crashes. Not freezes, not CTDs, but also noticing strange lags and so forth... Things just running sluggish. So I started playing with my BIOS settings related to CPU energy saving options and so forth. I disabled the energy saving options and looked at the CPU temp in the BIOS and it was like 82°C and then the computer shutoff (while in the BIOS). Then I turned it on again 5 minutes later and went into the BIOS to view the temps. Temps quickly raised to 70°C and then the computer cut off at 72°C. I thought that temperature seemed high, but wasn't sure. I was suspicious of the PSU too. So I opened the case up with the power on and had a look at all of my fans and inspected the dust content. All fans seemed to be running smoothly and not much dust... So I cut the power and started pulling and pushing on components. And then I realized that my CPU heatsink was wobbling around. Ahhh - that's it. I had recently removed a tightly packed mounting tray across from it and must have jostled the CPU cooling array while trying to get the tray out. So, I removed the heatsink and cleaned off the stock thermal compound from the bottom of the heatsink and top of the CPU with cue tips and 70% isopropyl alcohol. Afterwards I sprayed compressed air at both surfaces. I pulled out my old and unopened tube of Tuniq TX-2 (superior thermal compound to pretty much all thermal compounds out there - read the reviews and tests) and reapplied compound to the CPU. I carefully reattached the heatsink. Now the CPU runs at 40°C idle in the BIOS with the case open and 44°C idle with the case closed. So I loaded up Skyrim with the SPM and immediately noticed the carriage ride was smooth as all f'ing sh*t! The ENTIRE time during the actual playable game was 60 FPS. When the loading screens and all are factored in the min was 29 FPS and average of the whole thing ended up being 58 FPS. Moral of the story - CPU speed and cooling are VITAL! Buy Tuniq TX-2 thermal compound for computer repairs/maintenance. Any time you lift the cooling unit (even slightly) off your CPU or GPU, you might as well just pull the whole thing off, clean it off with isopropyl, and reapply superior fresh thermal compound carefully (unless it's got a thermal pad, then don't try to replace it with thermal compound, as compound alone probably cannot fill the gap the pad can). It REALLY means a lot to have the CPU or GPU properly cooled.

I cannot figure out what the cause of this is, but after reinstalling Windows (and installing a faster SSD) due to a failing SSD I have reinstalled Skyrim and am getting incredibly horrible FPS. Note: I have also updated my BIOS firmware version and had to re-set all the settings, which I believe I set correctly. System: Intel i7 950 3.07GHz 8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM Windows 7 64-bit AMD Radeon HD 6950 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM AMD Catalyst Control Center 14.1 Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD (w/ RAPID) Game Resolution:1080p (1920 x 1080) I installed STEP up to 2C (which includes the AMD CCC tweaks, ini tweaks, and ENBoost - which should increase performance) and installed Skyrim Performance Monitor in order to possibly figure out some of the performance bottleneck(s). I ran tests from the intro screen up to the beginning of the carriage unloading roll-call (as recommended by STEP for benchmarking). Here are the report results (averages): Memory (MB): 498 MB VRAM (MB): 1,079 MB Disk I/O (MB): 5 MB CPU %: 27 % GPU %: 13 % GPU °C: 52 °C Threads: 31 FPS: 20 The FPS results are HORRID, especially compared to the FPS I used to get last Windows installation (unfortunately I didn't benchmark well back then, but I do remember, usually getting at least 50 FPS readings from FRAPS). What I don't get is that no other reading is bad... In fact, it appears to me that no other system resource is being strained, according to my system's capacities/capabilities. What could be causing the lack in FPS? I have spent all day trying to figure out this crap... If anyone could offer some useful insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

Been a while since I last visited - my SSD died on me and I had to buy a new one and also re-install Windows and everything... OK, thanks for the reply on that Kelmych. Edit: yeah, the drive that died was an OCZ SSD...

I'm no computer graphics designer or anything, so I'm not sure. But if you go and review the information in the STEP guide and the mod author's Skyrim Nexus mod page, you'll see what I'm talking about. EDIT: look under the mod description page under the section "The different Parts:" where it talks about the FULL version and LITE. Even under the "Description:" section it says "(2-4K resolution)". Additionally, this is a significant mod and one that is recommended in DDSopt guide to be run with the special Higher Res/Lower Res processing. If the LITE version is in fact 2K and not 1K, it probably changes the preference for most users to just process this mod in DDSopt the normal way and not in the split manner, since 2K is the maximum that most people want anyway (I think) and that can be found in the LITE version. I think some people writing this information got confused between the info for Serious HD and Skyrim HD mods... because in the DDSopt guide under the STEP Mod Texture Properties and then in the table under Highest Texture Resolution in Mod column Serious HD row shows the 1024 and 2048 versions as Lite and Full versions, but the Skyrim HD row under that column doesn't. On the mods' pages in the Skyrim Nexus, it's the other way around.

Skyrim HD - the Lite version is not 1024 (or 1K), as shown in the guide's baseline column. It is 2048 (2K)(that's what the Skyrim nexus mod's page says), because the full version is 4096 (4K)(according to the author).

I am currently slowly implementing the full STEP 2.2.7 with DDSopt processing as well. It's a slow process to make sure everything is done correctly. Anyway, this thread is about the regular STEP guide. So far I have run into 2 confusing mod instruction pages (I will post again as I run into more): Skill Interface - It is not clear what we are supposed to do here, as well as what the BCF links are for in the guide. Currently the mod's Skyrim Nexus file section has a main download, as well as 2 optional Dawnguard downloads. I have Dawnguard and I prefer to be werewolf, so I decided to download and install in this order: main v6, dawnguard skill interface retexture v5 (the main doesn't include dawnguard, correct?), and dawnguard werewolf interface patch. The STEP detailed instructions basically say what the Skyrim Nexus mod's page instructions say about choosing werewolf or vampire. It does not really talk about how the BCFs on the STEP page play into the installation. It doesn't even say that I was supposed to install the two Dawnguard optionals that I did download. Can someone who knows the proper way revise these instructions and either remove the BCFs if they are not part of this or explain their purpose? Not Another Colored Map Icon Mod - It has a link to detailed instuctions, but no detailed instructions. The Skyrim Nexus mod's download page has a number of options. I guessed that NACMIM - Map Only v1.6 (the current revision) file was a good selection (keeping the color off the compass) so that's what I installed. I'm guessing that there were or are plans to suggest which file we should download. What happened to the instructions? There may have been other unclear moments, but those are the two I remember. I'll post more as I notice more.

Nice - good to know that I don't have to reprocess the vanilla BSAs. :) Thanks for the info, Kelmych.

You gotta change the name of two of the DDSopt batch files... I spent over an hour pulling my hair out trying to test DDSopting non-vanilla STEP mods and not being able to even figure out how to get any extracted mods sorted until I figured out that the problem was this: Some of the "Batch_Files_for_DDSopt_guide_v2.61-beta" batch files need to be renamed. Specifically, "4_Mod_Sorting&Pre-optimization-beta.bat" and "4_Mod_Sorting&Pre-optimization.bat" These get run through the command prompt, and they do not work with the ampersand. I do not know how no one else noticed this. Has anyone else ever actually tried to optimize their STEP mods? :) Edit: Oh geez... just noticed there's a v2.62 up now that has one of those files already renamed without the ampersand... Oh man... the "2_Pre-optimization.bat" file has been updated also. Should I be re-running my vanilla BSAs through this? What changed between v2.61 and v2.62 for that file?

OK - I added a note in the introduction to DDSopt about the disk space issues with the program, and specifically while processing the vanilla BSAs. Someone with more technical data could refine my note with more precise GB amounts (I left that part blank).Â