TechAngel85

This is true, if we're going to be offering BCFs, then someone needs to stay on top of keeping them updated!

I started making the video. Currently it's 8:27 long, but I still have to add the rest of the texture compares and then capture and add the WATER optionals so it's going to be as long as I predicted. Unfortunately, I will not be adding any waterfall compares because in this process I discovered that PW has no textures for waterfalls; thus, they are the same as vanilla. WATER does; however, and it's textures for waterfalls is better than vanilla, though not by any leaps and bounds...it's mainly just more "foamy". That's it for today though. Must get to bed if I'm going to function for work tomorrow!

Just wanted to give you guys a quick update. RL has been very busy for me. I received a promotion at work which means increased hours (but increased pay too!) and haven't had a lot of time for this side project. With that said, I have today off and will be working on this all day. I currently have 40 saves in different locations for compares. That's a LOT of compares! I have the vanilla shots captured and will be working the rest of the day to capture the WATER and Pure Waters shots. Then if time permits, I'll move on to capturing the WATER options and the Pure Waters textures. This is going to be a massive compare so don't be surprised if the video is 10-15mins long! But Z asked for comprehensive so comprehensive is what I'm giving! :D

Not to mention, once you reach around 3GB of RAM use in Skyrim you're screwed anyway due to the RAM ceiling. There's a thread here in the Troubleshooting forum talking all about it.

Nope! I do it individually and manually! I'm hardcore like that... :pirate:

More RAM might help but I don't believe it to be necessary or that it'll cause bad stuttering. My TESV.exe has never taken up more than 2GB and if your OS is taking up 3GB there is something wrong! Windows 7 or 8 has never taken up more than around 1.8GB on my system (higher resolution might push it slightly above 2GB but nowhere close to 3GB). You should be closing all your background processes and application anyway as good gaming practice A) because you want all the resources going to your game; not being shared with your other processes and B) because you want as little room as possible for conflicts and CTDs due to other processes running. You'll more likely run into stutter from the 1GB VRAM than the 4GB system RAM. (my system never uses over 4GB RAM when gaming and I have full Baseline installed).

Simple fix guys. Instead of using "1, 2, 3...10, 11, 12", always use two digits "01, 02, 03...10, 11, 12...20, 21, 22 etc". This will keep your mods in order. What if a mod has optionals/patches/etc? Simple again. Just add letters after the numbers. Lets use Lanterns of Skyrim for our example: WRYE BASH INSTALLERS --2.G Landscapes & Environment-- G 01... G 02... G 03... ... G 14a Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main ESM for DAWNGUARD-1-3 (this is the main file to be installed first) G 14b Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - RLO (this is the preset optional for use with RLO to be installed after the main file. Notice the lettering to keep them in order.) Also, the formatting doesn't really matter as long as it sticks to "section/two digit install order number/optionals", so use whatever you like best. I format it as in the example above. I've edited the Wrye Bash tab on the wiki to be a little more clear on this.

Bash tags from BOSS can be safely ignored (i never mess with them). My suggestion would be to disable the mods from 2.J one by one, since you've narrowed it down to that section, until your CTD disappears. Then you'll know for sure which mod is causing it for you and we can better focus on the "why" and "how to fix".

First, thank you for liking STEP! Now, Baseline STEP is what you should probably install. 96% of users install and use Baseline, including most of the STEP team. Your system should run it just fine. 2% of users run Performance (consumer laptop users, etc) and the remaining 2% is running Extreme. (These percentage are all guesses by me.) What to install in Baseline? You will install all of the mods on the guide. Don't worry about the "performance/quality and balanced" options. Just follow the guide and follow the notes where provided. If notes aren't provided and that mod has different options, then the choice is up to you on what to install...meaning all options are okay. As long as your vanilla game is between 40-50 FPS, then you'll be good to go because STEP can cause up to 10 FPS loss (sometimes more, sometimes less). This is also highly dependent on your Launcher/Video Card settings, but you should be able to play on at least high settings pretty well. BCFs are used with Wrye Bash (WB) for creating friendly installers for mods that aren't WB friendly. Here is all about BCFs: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Wrye_Bash#tab=Working_With_BCFs (you should use a mod manager like WB or MO for STEP. Don't use NMM!) Updating A lot of mods included in STEP are or require the latest version of Skyrim (1.9) so you'll want to update your game before STEP installation. Bethesda announced that there will be nothing new for Skyrim so you'll be safe updating now. Adding mods isn't an issue with saves. Removing them can be, however. You'll want to follow any recommended uinstallation instructions from the author's nexus page when removing mods. Then clean your save of the removed mods by loading the save and resaving it. Simple as that!

That's what I thought. There would be no point in me running an ENB if I set that to true. I only have the minor features enabled (bloom, detailed shadows, etc). SSAO and DOF I always disable due to performance.

He might reupload it if asked nicely. Or allow someone else to do it.

Do you still get the ENB coloring when you set those to true?

Problem with that is, even with all the extras turned off you're still going to get a big performance hit with an ENB just from the rendering which still causing me to play at the lower resolution.

It's quite possible with the combination of RLO and CoT than an ENB won't even be necessary for those that don't use the advanced settings such as SSAO and DOF. I've basically used ENB just for rendering the colors to be a bit more vibrant. Without ENB I have also play at 1600x900 on my laptop; with ENB I'm limited to 1366x768.

Aha! Now you're making more sense. I hopped over to the Nexus page and found this: Suggesting that it isn't a finished product yet and will eventually be a replacement module for the original Dungeons module. And this: More evidence that it isn't finished yet. This also states it can be loaded anywhere. However, it's going to overwrite certain "module settings" depending on it's placement. My official recommendation would be to not use Dark Dungeons until it's finished as fully "replacement module" for the original Dungeons module.

I'm a little confused because here you say to load before the main files, but on nexus it says to load after any main files but before any modules you want to keep the settings from. Figured I'd try out the dark dungeons module too, and loaded it before all other RLO modules. Had a look in TES5Edit and this means that 99% of its changes are overwritten by the Dungeons file, which often just resets stuff back to vanilla values. Having a look at their forums on Nexus it seems you should indeed load it after Dungeons module if you decide to keep it, but before everything else even if BOSS doesn't sort it that way You've misread the conversation. Ath3nos was asking where to load the Darker Dungeons module not the main RLO files. Thus my response to the question was correct. You load the Darker Dungeons module (it) before the main files. This allows the edits (from the main files) to remain in place and not be overwritten (the main files overwrite the optional module).

This is a good compare though I would liked to have seen the SkyrimPrefs.INI screenshots too. One more person care to confirm using the same method?

I used this tweak in the SkyrimPrefs.INI file on lower-than-STEP settings to squeeze out more performance. Now I'm wondering if it even mattered. I'm with Z on this one, it needs to be tested in both INIs with high and low settings to measure the performance hit and to find out which file it should be in (or if it even matters which one).

I'd ad the notes myself if I had editing privileges to do so. I think its worth while to do it now. This way it will be prepared for when STEP releases its official add-on packs which will likely include CoT. My personal feelings I'd that CoT should be added back into STEP, but that's another thread.

This is a slippery slope and I would think the STEP team will get a lot of unneeded extra work on their plate if STEP needs to be checked against 'popular enough mods'. It's already more then enough work to make sure there is compatability between mods that are in STEP. Its no issue because a lot of the team uses some of these "popular" mods in their personal setups so we're already checking the compatibly as we go. ;)

I was going to but realized I still can't edit the notes.

Finally...just got updated to 2.2.5! Well, all except Dual Sheath Redux. I'm waiting to see if Neo will upload a patch or patched version from STEP to make things a bit easier for the community.

Notes need to be updated saying "NOT" to use the Dragonborn addon if you're also using CoT! These mods conflict and CoT is a popular enough mod the note won't be wasted. This is also help eliminate future troubleshooting of this in the Troubleshoot thread.

Option addon released for Dragonborn users: Dragonborn Mushrooms.