TechAngel85

:facepalm: BHB has an XCE version available so you should be using that and not the vanilla BHB when combined with XCE. The XCE version also works with WSCO. Sooo....hopefully you don't have to redo all your compares... As far as textures, you are correct. They are going to have to be XCE compatible to be able to work with the FemFeet that is integrated into both XCE and WSCO. That is why I've been in contact with some of the skin texture authors. STEP has already been give permission to do as we please with SG Textures. I'm talking to the author of Mature Skin; however, it's been days between replies so it's been a waiting game. I also noticed that the author has given credit and thanks to Better Males; therefore, WSCO might be a total replacer for us. We'll have to do and male comparisons once we have the females worked out.

Thank you both for looking into this for us. I'm of the same option on these ESP files and am still waiting for the author's reply. I think a lot of what the author changes were simply personal choices; however, my compare will show if they NPC changes are actual improvements or simply style changes. On another note, I finally heard back from the author of Mature Skin. There's not a yes or no in making any vanilla / XCE compatible version yet; however, in my opinion I make a very good case for that author to make them. I don't know why so many of these authors are ignoring vanilla Skyrim. Not everyone uses CBBE or UNP mods.

Those are good suggestions for those that are having big frame rate drops with this mod. I only do when a ruins is in the picture but it's not enough to negatively affect my gameplay.

I'll be taking comparison shots soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Serana can be fixed with a patch and anything else that was undesirable. Just reversing it back shouldn't be an issue. I would like to ask to author the reason for the change though. Edit: Sent a message asking about the reasons for the changes, asking for a version without the changes to Serana and asking for permission to integrate the ESPs if we decided to go with Windsong.

Shadow Play is the best option here I think unless the user needs to edit. Shadow Play's encoding is pretty much ready for upload as is. The others will most likely work for this as well; however, Shadow Play is pretty much following YouTube's recommendations for videos as is without the need to re-encode it. Off topic... Be envious! I have all the super expensive programs for this stuff from my college days (adobe photoshop, abode premiere pro, windows 8, etc). Free software and college go hand in hand!

Sounds good. I put together a list of edited NPCs that will need to be compared: Sybille StentorMjoll the LionessHertEolaBorgakh the Steel HeartKarliahBabetteAranea lenithIlliaUthgerd the UnbrokenJordis the Sword-Maiden (Solitude Housecarl)Iona (Riften Housecarl)JenassaSeranaArch-Curate VyrthurKnight-Paladin Gelebor

It's relevant to a point as the user asked what is the best way to capture video so he could post a video of his issue. The last 3 posts and this one isn't so much.

Nope... according to requirements it works on all 600 and 700 series desktop cards and some mobiles

I didn't know that. Looked into it.... It's called Shadow Play. Looks interesting! Works on 600 and 700 card series: https://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/system-requirements Some FAQs I might have to test it out and compare it to FRAPS.

FRAPS is good for this, but the free version is limited I think. I do enough shots and captures that I just ended up paying for it. Dxtory is another one that is free I think (correction...it's both free and paid as well). Bandicam is the third one I can think of. It's both paid and free (free has watermark and time limit similar to FRAPS). Those are the major ones used. I've only ever used FRAPS so it's the only one I can say works well.

I'm a complete novice with TES5Edit but I did open up the NPC ESP. It seems to simply be altering some NPCs appearances (eye color, facial feature shapes, etc); however, it does make at least one larger change. It changes Serana from Nord to Imperial as well as altering some of her skill levels (some it increases/some it decreases). I'm unsure if these would be desirable changes. The NPC appearance may have be altered to smooth out features, make them work with alterations from the mod, etc. Most of Serana's changes seem to be preference unless the Lore behind her character support these changes. The main ESP seems to be mostly as I predicted, preset changes. It does; however, include some custom paths for meshes and textures from what I can tell. This is most likely how the author has provided a better textural separation of some of the races (elf races it would seem). To keep these we'd need to keep this ESP. From my estimation, we can disable the NPC ESP but should keep the main ESP. I've sent PMs out to some more qualified users here on the forums to investigate though. So I'll await their replies. EDIT: Upon looking at it further...I would suspect the desireable changes could be merged into the STEP Patches and the ESPs deactivated; however, if someone were to want to use a different body overhaul (such as UNP or CBBE) merging these into the Patches might have adverse affects for those installs. I will lean to SRB for comment on that. If they can't be merged, it looks as though it would be easy to make a patch or our own ESP (with permission from the author of course) to exclude/reverse any of the undesirable changes.

My quick and dirty testing last night was on a new game with STEP:Extended install. (Note that no mods conflict which would overwrite this mod in STEP) I've not read all of the posts because I don't feel like reading a novel at this time. Therefore, I'm not sure if your issue is the NPCs are still fighting or if they're just not running to the specified places. In my testing (several locations), the NPCs (besides guards) did not fight. They ran from the dragon; however, they just didn't run into homes or the inn. Only one or two ever ran indoors. Sooo... did the mod work perfectly? No. Did the mod still do it's main function as Kuldebar says? Yes.

I was going to post over on the discussion thread, but I see you have that handled. The NPC ESP obviously includes the changes for NPCs; however, what changes is the question. Texture replacements will also affect the NPCs and those are provided via the BSA/loose files (if extracted)...so I'm assuming the author made some additional changes that required an ESP. I'll be interested to know as well. I'm not 100% certain here either, but the other ESP I suspect changes the character selection presets (I didn't see those in the file structure so I assumed the ESP provided them).

I did some quick and dirty testing. This doesn't seem to be working as expected (at least not 100%). The NPCs are running and only guards are fighting; however, the NPCs are not running into their homes or to the Inns as they should. They're just running away from the dragons aimlessly. I had one attempt to run into the Inn but then turned around and ran another direction before entering.

Something to consider: This may be scripted to only work in areas that actually have dragons. Can't be 100% certain either way without actually looking at the script, but the "attack location" comments in the desctiption seems to support this. Meaning forcing a spawn in an area that wouldn't be getting dragons might not work. Forcing a spawn is never a good way to test anyway. Best way to is actually play an area where a dragon located to see if the NPCs run. The only two I can think of off the top of my head near a village is the Blades quest that you get a little bit after being summoned by the Greybeards (won't go into detail to avoid spoilers) and the one in Falkreath.

@Z, Before you dive too far into CBBE, I have something else you should check out. The body is 100% vanilla compatible from what I can tell. There is no change in the body when equipping armors. Mod: Windsong Skyrim Character Overhaul (the author of SG Textures pointed me to it)Version: WSCO Occidental Vanilla Body v1 Install for Female Only in the installer. Once installed, go to the file tree in MO and hide the Textures/Actors/Character/eyes and the Textures/Actors/Character/hair folders so they are not overwriting the STEP mods. For the BHB mod use the XCE compatible version. I think you'll be impressed with how vanilla friendly this is without all the need for BodySlide and hard work.

Moved to Support Forum.

I've tested out Mature Skin for CBBE and it is working well without any seems (just from a quick look). I think the ultimate goal should be to have a mod that can be installed and played without the need for any in-game or third party tool alterations (much like Better Males). For that reason, I didn't even install BodySlide or TexBlend (or whatever those tools that come with CBBE are). That has also been my goal in the compilation I tossed together as well. Simply install and you're good to go. CBBE does seem to be working without the use of these tools. There is just a slight body change from equipping armors; however, that is going to be there no matter what unless the vanilla armors are altered as well. Even if you get close with BodySlide it's still not going to be perfect and some change will be noticeable. I'll toss together those compares later today after my workout. I'll be deleting the compares in the OP if no one as any objections as they are no longer of any relevance since we've found out that none of them work with vanilla. EDIT: For those of you that need it... To view textures up close: Open console (~) Type: tfc Hit Enter Type: sucsm 2 Hit Enter Close console (~)You'll now be able to fly around slowly to look at the textures on the body. EDIT2: There is some slight stretching on the abs and biceps with the Mature Skin/BHB combo. Mature Skin simply doesn't like to work with anything but the bases it was designed for. The author is MIA too. Sad day... :: I'm not sure if the stretching is a texture or normal map issue or I'd contact the BHB author to see if it can be worked out.

That has been the problem and as you can see there is a body mass change when the armor is equipped. The lighting effect on the skin also changes when the armor is equipped. Adding in the normals from Battle Harded Body will go a long way in fixing some of that body shape. I will test out CBBE later today for myself and see how this is working (or not working) compared to the compilation I've tossed together so far (which is only lacking a proper skin atm). EDIT: Just did a quick test. The Vanilla Body option of CBBE does seem to be working. (there is only a very slight difference in the body from being equipped with armor and not being equipped...barely noticeable) The trick is going to be finding a skin texture that works because the default skin is terrible that comes with CBBE. It's way to perfect and smooth. I'll take some compares later between this CBBE option and of the vanilla compilation I put together in a bit. The vanilla compilation might be better down the road for better pack compatibility though. We shall see.

I completely skipped DA2 because I heard too many bad things about it. I actually never completed the story from Origins either. I loved the game; however, always ended up stop playing it and never returning as I would find myself too busy or into something else. I do that a lot...play a game til I'm tired of it, switch to something else and may or may not return to the first game that I never finished. lol EDIT: On that same note, I'll not be finishing Mass Effect (never have either.) I was doing well, but since I switched to Windows 8, my old saves do not work properly. Therefore, I'll most likely abandon it and move on to Mass Effect 2 rather than starting over.

Here is some gameplay from a gaming event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80frogBXfNY

STEP now requires all DLCs as a requirement which started with the 2.2.7 (or perhaps the 2.2.8...can't remember) release. We've stopped catering to users that only have one or two DLCs (or none at all). This was necessary for us to move forward with STEP. Soo....I doubt it'll mean too much editing to the patches for SRB.

I was kinda thinking the same thing as Aiyen. There's not a lot of difference between those two GPUs. I wouldn't expect to see much of a real-world difference when comparing the two; especially on an older game.

A GTX 440 isn't a very powerful GPU so don't expect gold. You'll have to make some realistic decisions when modding. I'd say you probably shouldn't be playing at anything over 1600x900 for resolution. With ENB, that will be even lower. My old GTX 460M could run ENBs with a full STEP install but only at 1366x768 and not without some lag. Taking the ENB out allowed me to play at 1600x900 and a bit smoother (still had microshuttering occasionally). ENBoost is recommended over a full ENB for your specs. The only way to figure out what is causing your issue is do as I recommended. It's basic troubleshooting when modding and if you mod a lot, you'll be troubleshooting a lot.