TechAngel85

I was going to recommend you try SkyRealism Cinematic but you've already got that downloaded if you're using Bleak. I can't think of any that will give you "muted" colors with high bloom for that "softness". The Wilds ENB would have been great, yet it's not anything close to muted colors. Not to mention, it was removed from Nexus the last time I checked. There are a TON of ENBs on Nexus that you can browse through and test if you'd like, but I've never heard of anyone "mixing" them before either. Your best bet is to just sit down for a few hours to browse and explore all the different options on Nexus until you find a handful that look like they might match what you're going for. Then test those to see if you find your perfect match! :)

So this is it! This marks the start of STEP become a more in-depth and advanced guide like Skyrim Revisited!

Also, be careful when optimizing mod files. Many are already optimized by their authors and running DDSopt on these can cause issues.

It's not necessary. The wording indicates that it's not by saying, "for best results". I also want to point out that note is for mods only and not default files or DLCs which is what I was referring to. Tele, let me apologize. I was referring to vanilla and DLC files only I'm my posts. Not all mods. Nitro, if you want to optimize textures you have to use DDSopt. If not, there's no reason to use it for simple extractions. BSAopt can do those and is much less complicated. I personally never extract anything and I have no issues. It's only done for small performance gains in loading files.

No where in the STEP Guide does it say to use loose over BSA or BSA over loose. The DDSopt Guide is an additional guide and is not a necessary part of the STEP process. If you extract the vanilla BSAs, then all BSAs from all DLCs/mods (if they have one) should also be extracted. If you don't extract the vanilla BSAs, then leave all DLCs/BSA intact. The advice I gave is sound as it's working on my system with no issues...you're nit picking my every word. I'll send you a PM as to not get this forum off track. Please address me directly via PM. Thank you.

This is terrible advice. Loose files will always overwrite bsa's, so mixing loose files with bsa's will mess up your install order, results in unwanted textures overwriting the wanted ones and can cause all kinds of trouble if scripts are involved. You can do a search on the forums if you want to learn more on this. It would be better to just advise people to follow the STEP guidelines. This is true, but I never said anything about mixing the two. :O_o: You're reading between the lines when there is nothing to read there. I even said, "I personally have nothing unpacked". Loose files always take president over BSA files. BSAs are simply archived directory structures. The game will first look for the loose versions, if it's not found it will use the BSA. If it is found, the BSAs are simply ignored. So yes, you shouldn't mix the two or you'll end up with oddities and potential issues. The main reason most people extract the BSAs is to gain faster loading times; however, this is not always the case as some BSAs load faster than if they were loose files. It's been discussed and documented in the forums and wiki. I was simply stating that it's not necessary to extract the BSAs and provided my solution; however, if you do...yes, extract every single last one from every single DLC and mod. I personally, find it an unnecessary step unless you're going to be testing as the gain vs the work involved is minimal. So long story short, if you're going to extract one BSA then extract them all. If not, save yourself some time and just use BSAopt and leave them all in their BSA formats as I do. Information about loose vs BSA can be found here: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=DDSopt_Optimization PS: TeleToko, I have either written or had a hand in helping write most of the "STEP guides/guidelines" that are on the wiki for users to follow. :P

Aiyen is right. You don't need to use DDSopt and OT together. If you're wanting to optimize your textures, just use DDSopt but be sure to grab the updated INI file from the wiki. Also, it isn't really necessary to unpack all your BSAs into loose files. It helps for testing purposes so you can see the conflicts in WB, but other than that the gains are minimal, in my opinion. I personally have nothing unpacked and simply use BSAopt to optimize my BSAs and call it good. Also, if you're going to be using an ENB then you need to turn AA off in the drivers and on the launcher. The best AA solution with ENB is SMAA via injector which is discussed on the ENB Guide on the wiki.

Keep in mind that the darker dungeons and interiors from RLO is not a finish product yet. All evidence points us to that addon being a complete replacement for the main dungeons ESP when it's all set and done.

Honestly, as RLO advances and becomes closer to being complete and combining it with CoT 3.1, I'm finding it less and less necessary to run any ENB whatsoever. I haven't used an ENB in several months and I'm much happier with the coloring of the game with these two mods vs the performance loss when using an ENB. I only used the ENB for the additional rendering of the colors anyway so I haven't missed any of the extra ENB features. If I had a more powerful rig, I would most likely still use an ENB. But for now, I like playing on a higher resolution which the ENB will not allow me to do.

OP updated for testers. Please review the OP if you are going to be testing this mod for STEP.

Maybe 'Birds and Flocks' is salvageable after all? In light of this, SkyBirds should be tested in both a full STEP installation: one with Roosters at Dawn removed and one with Roosters at Dawn & Birds and Flocks removed. This will tells us if Birds and Flocks is really fixed by SkyBirds.Could you update the OP in MT thread with the recommended testing methods? thanks ;) Will do after work if no one beats me to it.

The combination of these three mods, if they all play well together, should be a complete "bird overhaul" of the birds in Skyrim. We should also compare this with Sounds of Skyrim to see how the sounds play together.

Basically it's stability and script errors. I can't name any specifics atm bc I'm at work.

In light of this, SkyBirds should be tested in both a full STEP installation: one with Roosters at Dawn removed and one with Roosters at Dawn & Birds and Flocks removed. This will tells us if Birds and Flocks is really fixed by SkyBirds.

Maybe 'Birds and Flocks' is salvageable after all? In light of this, SkyBirds should be tested in both a full STEP installation: one with Roosters at Dawn removed and one with Roosters at Dawn & Birds and Flocks removed. This will tells us if Birds and Flocks is really fixed by SkyBirds.

Yeah, Birds of Skyrim is already in Section 2H. SkyBirds is designed to play beautifully with Birds of Skyrim so we can keep that and replace Birds & Flocks with SkyBirds if testing proves it's worth it. From the sounds of it, it completely worth replacing but we'll need to see what turns up in testing.

I'm going to suggest we add SkyBirds - Airborn Perching Birds to the list of testing mods to replace Birds & Flocks and Roosters at Dawn in light of it's recent update: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=857&pid=36162#pid36162 Many key community members are in support of this.

SkyBirds seems to provide the solution to removing this and still retaining the effect. I would suggest we add it to testing to see if we can eliminate this mod.

Oh, well...that needs to be fixed in that mod regardless. Haha! :P It drives me crazy!

Also, with Birds and Flocks, you have the immersion breaking ground birds that stop you dead in your tracks bc of the collision with them; this birds should not have collision. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck while running in Whiterun on a stupid bird and had to run around it.

Roosters at Dawn is already been brought up as a possible "chop" from STEP. If this mod does the same thing as Roosters at Dawn (plays the crowing sound at dawn) then I say we remove Roosters at Dawn and just use this one. Especially since that mod's stability is in question. This is definitely worth a second look.

I WILL finish this! I promise! Work has been crazy as of late so I've had very little down time. This should change over the next month or so, but I'm planning on completing this project before then! ....hopefully.

Never had any issues with the mod, but on a personal note, I wouldn't miss the mod if it's removed.

I would say either keep this one or Skyrim HD. The others are aweful.

Apparently it only works if the NPC is killed directly by the impact of your spell/enchanted weapon and NOT if they are killed by a burning/freezing/whatever effect caused by your spell/enchanted weapon. I could be wrong but if that's the case, I'd strongly suggest the mod author to fix it cause that's kinda dumb. I was using spells with God Mode enabled so I wouldn't run out of magic to test it. Meaning they would 100% die from the spell impact. Didn't test weapons.