Shadriss

Thanks for this - I'll pass it on to the relevant people.

Thanks for this - I'm working on a clarity rewrite of the guide, so I'll look for this when I get to the merges. I use the shaders recommended by the guide for install. My 'monitor' is also a 65" OLED TV, and I needed to tweak it's brightness and contrast values to get it properly calibrated. Honestly, if you can't get it running smooth at 1440p, I'd suggest dropping to 1080p and sucking it up. Really, the game was not designed for that high of a resolution... it can be done, but it takes a computer beefier than others that are kind of designed with it in mind. I know this has already been answered (sorta), but I'll try to make it as clear as possible. When you setup to create a Merge on the MO2 side of the house, you need to have the mods listed, you need to have masters to the mods listed, and you need to have any masters that the masters need. This is to ensure that the files you actually need are able to 'run' correctly. Once you are in zMerge, the only files that get selected are the ones in the merge list of the guide.

There have been a few users on Lexy's Discord reporting that some of the INI changes made (Grass Fade for one, though there are reportedly others) are not actually being changed by BETHINI when they are set... many are having to go into the INI and make those changes manually. Is this something you are already aware of?

The 'normal map not found' error is common, and not unexpected. We'd need the entire log to really look hard at it. THere's no need to use the nuclear option. Not yet anyhow.

First, there's no reason to replace one with the other - they work fine together. Second, as Lexy mentioned, we are waiting for Krypt to update CCOR for SSE. I know there have been conversions done already, but they aren't Krypt. She's also indicated that when the SSE version does release, it will not have that built in support for Bandolier and Cloaks as it did in LE, so we will be saving nothing at that point anyhow. She is trying to clean up the code and make it easier to maintain, so that's just the breaks. There HAS been some talk about replacing Ars Metallica with Honed Metal, but I'm not sure where the Devs are sitting on that concept at the moment. This is very much a personal taste issue, but that said (and as other answers indicate), the setup I've seen mentioned most often is with SemiRealis with the Vibrance and LevelsPlus shaders of ReShade deactivated. It'll still take tweaking, but many on Discord have been pleased with the results. Personally, I'm using the straight ReShade, and it's working well enough for me after getting my monitor properly calibrated. That said, with Vividian ENB and Weathers nearly upon us, another shift may be coming to the guide. Lexy's kinda mercurial like that, but we love her anyway.

You may want to also check and see if you are running WIN10 1809 update, then. There has been some funkiness with the tools for those who have not forced that update... you'll likely see it especially with Wrye Bash.

That's intentional. Or, in the classic phrasing... "That's not a bug, that's a feature". With the re-leveling of the entire game that this guide has, it is felt that some idea of the difficulty of a given location was required. Remember - this ain't vanilla Skyrim where everything levels with you now. You walk into Bleak Falls Barrow as a level 4 or 5, you can expect for the Draugr to wipe the floor with you.

I'm about certain that EssArrBee is done with this guide. However, and coicidentally, someone just posted https://forum.step-project.com/topic/14077-viva-new-vegas-a-comprehensive-2019-fallout-new-vegas-modding-guide/ over there about a 2019 FNV guide that is being worked on still. You may want to consider trying it instead.

If that were the case, Black, then all users of the files would have that same issue. They do not (or, at the least, haven't reported it if they have). It is therefore reasonable to assume that the files, nifs, and textures are correctly made. That being the case, the problem must be something on Kitten's end, though for the life of me I can't think of any settings that would result in that. Personally, (and understanding this is a horrible answer) if it's only those two hairstyles, you aren't using them for your own character, and they aren't being used often (or at all) by NPCs, then I'd just ignore it. An alternative is to delete the records for those two from the ESP so they won't even be available. Really, it depends on how you want to deal with it.

Another thing to look at - do you have the RIGHT SKSE? Both the LE and the SE/VR versions of SKSE are all on the same page, right next to each other, so it may be worth figuring out if you installed the right version.

This may not be your issue, but I have seen others split-drive their installs and have access problems. It's something to look at. Otherwise, you may wish to look at a fresh and complete reinstall of xEdit (since MO2 isn't the culprit from your description of actions taken), and possibly setting it to run as an administrator. That last is kind of a nuclear option, so avoid it if you can, but if it's the only way to get it to work, then do so. Another thing that occurs to me... what OS are you running?

Pretty sure vanilla bug. As long as it's not too much of an eye-sore, I wouldn't worry overmuch about it. I still see it on occasion.

Once you do the LOOT run at the beginning of the finishing line, you should not be moving plugins at all. Everything builds on what was there before. If you moved anything at all, restart the finishing line (though you shouldn't have to re-run xLOD or DynDOLOD.) Try reinstalling the NSF mods - if it still doesn't show, re-download and reinstall. Bad downloads happen. In theory, it can be skipped... but it really shouldn't. Try running xLOD in batches... a few worlds at a time. See if that helps with the problem. The file that's being referenced is from the DynDOLOD resources... it should be present every time. Oddly, that's the exact same one I had missing a day or so ago. I re-downloaded and reinstalled the Resources file, and all was well. I'd recommend starting there.

Where are xEdit, MO2, and your other tools installed?

Truth. Skyrim:LE is a general term used for the original release of the game and the DLCs. The SE version was released a few years later, after FO4 had hit, and included a 64-bit executable and numerous graphical engine improvements... though sadly, no bug fixes to speak of.

I looked into this with a few others on the Discord server, and it appears the author has altered his versioning scheme. V 2.0 is the current and correct version, and can be used with no changes to the install instructions. We also half expect the next version to drop to 1.4, just to regress the number even further and cause mass confusion. :) (No, not really.)

Have you tried updating and reinstalling your ENB? I'm assuming so, but...

Are you running any mods that otherwise affect ENB? Subsurface scattering patches or anything? If it's only those two hairs, then obviously it is those two where the problem lies - there has to be something different in how they are made or created.

For those having this problem - another thing to check (for WIN10 users) is what version of WIN10 you are currently running. If you get your WIN10 to install to version 1809, the problem of WB locking itself out by loading itself goes away. I was having this same issue when running under version 1803, and forcing the 1809 install has solved it for me and a number of others over on Lexy's Discord. It took a number of hours to download and install, but it does fix the problem.

Not without more information on what, exactly, you believe the problem to be. Pictures, descriptions, suspicions, mods... those kinds of things would all be useful instead of a general "This sucks, please tell me how to fix it."

Ok. That is most certainly transparent hair... ... and I've never seen anything like it. My best guess is that the mod itself is causing that, but I don't know enough about modding and texture usage on meshes to say for certain. My BEST guess (heavy emphasis on guess) is that there is a setting in the mod proper (not where you could easily mess with it) that is altering the opacity of the mesh somehow. I'd take it up with the mod author on Nexus, see if they have any ides.

This has been requested numerous times, and the answer is going to be, generally, no. The reasons are these: A) LOOT is not always going to provide the exact same list from the same setup. It's odd, I know, but true - that said, the differences are minimal enough that there is no reason to compare load orders assuming you follow the pure guide. B) Most people (including Lexy) have a large number of additional mods in play as well, an so those will affect mod placement as well. No need to muddy the waters. C) The list produced by MO2 will not, to my knowledge, reflect what is and isn't activated, so that aspect of comparison isn't available anyhow. If you have questions about specific plugins, ask. We'll answer. But as much as the list changes and with how often it changes, Lexy has enough work just maintaining the guide itself without adding in extra work. As mentioned by Lexy, this was talked about on Discord a great deal - thought it had made it's way here, but obviously not. Thanks for posting the correct solution for those who bother to do forum searches. :) Did you download the LE or the SE version of 3DNPC? Make sure it is the right one... As to the Black Face Bug - that's a result of the NPC section not being fully and correctly set up. The patches expect everything to be in place, and so that facegen bug crops up as a result in this case. The '00' in this case is just a placeholder. The 05 you get is the one you should be getting. The edit remains needed, as Lexy mentioned.

Updating the Masterlist will repopulate the group lists as well. Once you have that redownloaded (do this either by attempting a sort or using the option at the top of the screen in LOOT), you can redo the group list to match the new setup.

"Transparent Hair" has about three or four different images that hit my mind. Would you please provide a picture of the issue so we can start narrowing down possibilities?

Nailed it in one. Making the kind of changes that you refer to would require reverse engineering the code base, changing it, recompiling it, and then distributing the executable for that new code base. Any one of those things is, IIRC, against the EULA. All of them together most certainly are. This is why the Unofficial Patches are all changes to the records of the game, not the engine itself. Take a look at the whole Skyrim Together thing that's happening. In recent days, it has been thought that the team might have stolen code from the SKSE team (I'm not going to get into that discussion, just using this for reference). That mod is now (reportedly) undergoing a complete code rewrite (which the team claims has NOTHING to do with the SKSE theft accusation). All of that effort and stink over a bit of code that does not provide any profit at all (in the monetary sense). Now imagine someone tries to do that with the actual EXE files from Bethesda... tell me that a take-down request/order wouldn't descend on said team like a lightning strike. It's not code theft (in the strictest form of the term), but it is altering someone else's work without their permission, which is the same theoretical situation in both instances. The CORE of the engine (as you refer to it) lies in those files that we, as a modding community, are not allowed to mess with. And thus... here we are today. Or so is my understanding. Keep in mind, this is the exact same engine that has been used since Morrowwind (yes, really), and presumably is still being used in development of new titles. This is not a case of "it's old and not actively used anymore" that is the case with abandon-ware. Therefore, the answer to your question of "who is going to take the engine to the next level" is... Bethesda itself. May God have Mercy on the Code Base. :)