Aiyen

Okay about the shimmermist cave problem... sadly it seems to be a vanilla game problem! Here is a screenshot from vanilla with only the cleaned .esm´s, no ENB. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jfdjdhojb5nav7/ScreenShot2.jpg Can anyone else verify this ? Just type "coc shimmermistcave01" in the main menu and you will be taken to the cave entrance, there should be similar blue spreckles on top of the cave all around. Been trying to mess around some more in the CK... but the problem is not there and as far as I can tell all the texture and mesh assignments are sound... I have also tested out a few other caves none have the issue. Edit: Okay found out the reason... it is meant to be that way O_o Apparently it is supposed to imitate that there are some glowing rocks or whatever.. sadly they have just done an extremely bad job in the quality department....

Hmm yes I also got that... it is a sort of alpha texture that is on top of the cave texture... .will have to check the CK to identify exactly which it is. Good catch! Edit/update: Hmmm it does not do it inside the CK. And I have verified that the problem is also preset without any ENB... strange. But then again my knowledge about this sort of issue is very limited still! Thought it was the moss, but nope if I crank up the ambient lighting via ENB I can see the moss on the walls, but these speckles are everywhere in that cave. Hope someone else will have some nice input by tomorrow!

I think most of this is the long term intention. But Neo also has to live life, and perhaps eventually actually also play the game :P Between the STEP guide and SR and these forums... most detailed information can be found with just a bit of searching. I doubt it will ever be possible to do SR and get playing within a few hours... there are just too many small details. I know it took me at least 2 days to get it started the first time. Granted that was also with all the downloading. The only way it would be possible is if it was possible to do an installer script that would simply put all the mods into MO in the correct order so you only have to run the skyproc patchers and bashed patch + fnis and you are good to go. Then there would also need to be a detailed guide on what to optimize to reduce memory usage without affecting quality too much.

Just get the 1k version of SRO... if your game still CTD after then you almost certainly do not have a memory related issue. It is the single most memory hungry mod on the entire list followed closely by AV packages... which is really memory intensive because you force the game to load in many more textures then it normally would. But yes this is not for this thread! If you want more info just throw me a PM and I will help as best I can!

I first started with STEP and while it was a good baseline, then I personally did not agree on the super strict Vanilla mandate. Some things in vanilla are just broken, and I agree with almost all of Neo´s choices so far on what to build on top of STEP to remedy that. Also his choices are compatible with all the mods I use that are not on the list which just makes it better! But STEP is an awesome project and Neo´s works really does deserve praise for years to come! Also now that Bethesda have finally said that no more DLC will come out then most mods will hopefully update to full Dragonborn compabitility, and get closer to a final state! Then it would also become easier to create automatic STEP installer scripts! Which is the logical next step when you do not have mods undergoing massive changes every few months.

non-related: There is actually an ENB shader that converts the game to 8-bit visuals... really hilarious :P As for the issue at hand. Then I doubt they will change anything since the pure vanilla is made so it stays well below the RAM limit. If you want to to go above you have to create some weird "summon every different object in the game" at one location to force the game to load all textures at once. Every texture only needs to be loaded in once after all. But these stress tests of the engine are something they most likely already have done themselves. But I hope they make another batch of memory optimizations in the future! Properly in relation to their work on the next engine.

Yes you will get all of the FX as well if you enable them. They are all separate from the color correction codes (Or have their own in the case of Bloom). Also saying that the main difference is the shadows is a bit of an understatement. Then it is just because you have not activated any other features. Brightness etc. are part of the color correction so they would obviously be the same as vanilla, since they are forced to have those values.Â

Kinda amusing... I think I told a while back that if the STEP program ever should pick an ENB preset to call their official, their mandate would only allow this. It should not affect Occlusion Culling in any way since that is something the game engine does, while ENB is a post process that alters stuff after rendering etc have taken place. I use both ENB and Skyrim Project Optimization and have noticed nothing, other then a slight FPS increase in certain areas. The main difference between this and ANY other ENB is that this is only pure vanilla color correction, with the superior shadows of ENB. The performance drop will be the same as other ENBs with the same settings. The color correction does not really cause any noticeable performance drops in themselves. It is the SSAO and detailed shadows, DoF, Rain, SMAA etc that cause extra calculations. The only reason to use this is if you like vanilla color correction but want to sacrifice hardware AA and AO for the ENB variants.

Half size the normal maps of the foundation packs, except WATER... Also a few other mods that deal with outdoor textures, like the mushroom mod... It does not pay to have a 2k normal map on them and they are everywhere in the wilds! Just make sure to save the original normal maps before you overwrite them with the half-sized ones in case you get something that looks really silly. For more info just search this thread and a few of the other forums.

The main issue is that most mod authors do not really copy in the values from the DLC or unofficial patches, but instead from the vanilla game only. This provides issues for those who does have everything. But most of the time it is minor things like typing errors, wrong armor types, or sounds playing when they are not supposed too etc. The more mods you install the more unstable the game becomes because of the game engine having to deal with more options. So by making sure that most things are streamlined one makes sure the game is a bit more stable in the long run, since it does not have to spend time with small internal conflicts.

Brigthy: The bear was just for testing... if you use Skyrim Unleashed then the first many levels will offer fights that take longer... In this instance then the only reason it took so long was because I had to bait it very carefully and could only get 1 shots of every now and again ... If I had been able to shoot at it all the time then it would have taken less then 1 min. Wild life has got a huge increase in hp etc. however most animals will not attack you on sight to balance it off. This is the charm of that mod... Sadly it does not keep it interesting after lvl 20-30 then you start to have a vanilla game again which I personally detest. Also if you use the unleveled items you can be lucky and find stahlrim items early which kinda just break all balance early in the game. And hence ruin the strong point of the entire mod. I also prefer SkyRe´s stealth since it is based on another dedicated stealth mod that comes included... one of the best around really. However even that can do the "20-30m backs turned detection" sometimes. It is just the way the scripts work sadly. One thing about lights is if you are using an ENB and have it reduce or increase point lighting values. The game does not register these changes since they are purely cosmetic. So you can technically stand in pure light and not be detected, or the other way around.

The problem between DUEL and SkyRe is not in the combat, but in the changes to stealth... they might not be entirely compatible, since skyRe also changes how stealth works in some of the same ways that DUEL does, but with different settings. In fact you can use the SkyRe combat along with DUEL... however it is really not balanced, due to the debuffs that SkyRe introduce. Iroha: What you describe can also be done without DUEL... it is just a matter of exploiting the terrain. The AI has a fixed amount of path finding, which is engine specific. No mod should be able to alter that as far as I understand it. In general it comes down to the fact that the AI does not have a good jump mechanic at all.. hence if you stand on a rock that you can only jump up on then it is more then likely that the AI will never be able to get up to you, and you can just stand there laughing. However with DUEL it is more likely that they will try to take cover if you are shooting at them and wait until you change to a position they can get too. When I tested Skyrim Unleashed I had a battle with a bear that took 15 mins of baiting because it would keep running back to hide when I got up where it could not reach me. I was lvl 1 so it would one swipe me if it got close! The DUEL AI shines when you got a group of NPC´s and they try to flank you, and open up so their archers can get clear lines of sight. The SkyRe AI basically just makes the NPC´s attack/block more often which makes it more difficult due to the debuffs if you also have the combat module. Also another thing.. there is a mod for DUEL that is called Perks for DUEL which alters the archery perks so archery is not OP. It makes it almost impossible for "one shot crit kills" later in the game... Many people found it annoying that Falmer archers could do that when using ASIS and DUEL... since then they get the perks as well.

With the latest memory optimizations in 1.9 I doubt they would do much more until the next, if any major patch. On my Skyrim revisited setup then in the areas I could produce 3.2Gb RAM usage I in general had a drop by about 200-300Mb... Mainly because the game got better at unloading stuff not required to render the cells currently active. Before I could go up to this point, quit to menu and reload the game and the RAM usage would have dropped because all non-required entries had been cleared. In general I do not have any memory CTD issues atm. after a decent amount of texture optimizations, normal half sizes etc. Most of the ini tweaks I have tried have either made more problems or just not had any visible impact. The only ones I have found to really help reduce memory load is to reduce draw distances.... but that was also to be expected. More could most likely still be done... one has only to enable freefly camera and go up high enough too see how much stuff that is not visible that is still rendered behind mountains etc. But most of this will most likely require Bethesda to do further optimizations to the game engine.

I am refering to SkyRe with crafting and thief perks. As for magic... in my experience I always get to use a few spells in all my playthoughs so it cannot hurt. As for enemies.. since I use higher level enemies then npc mages scale to my level. With empowered magic that means that their damage output also scales since damage scale with skill level. I use ASIS to make sure that the npc mages actually get the spells and perks. If I did not use it then NPC mages would just have the the same flat amount of damage at higher levels... but would be able to cast more. When I tested it the last time then mages actually run out of mana rather quickly.. but if they hit you it also hurts! Well hurt more then normal! Also I have made it so that mages also get the ability to stagger you with destruction spells like you can do with them! But I have only done this because of the changes empowered magic makes to the stagger perk, so it only happens when the target is at low hp... or if it is a master level spell then it happens more often. Which is fair and adds to immersion... In general I like what I have done with magic combat now.. and mages are more of a support role in groups of npc.. since they do not get the ability to just spam spells and run away all day, because they will run out of mana rather quickly. Next stop is to try out magic duel reborn and see if it still produces the myriad of bugs and CTD´s that its predecessor did. So far I am waiting for it to get updated one or two more times so most of the horrible bugs are fixed (I do not know if there are any... but I am sure something will pop out due to the amount of issues I had with the other).

Duel just has a better AI then both ASIS and SkyRE... it also is based on a few scripts as I understand it... while the others are just altering how often the AI attacks and blocks etc. In general Duel is trying to make life harder for sneaky types, since the AI is actually quite decent in locating sneaky types... Also the combat is fairly well balanced for fighter types! I personally supplement with ACE combat module to make combat a bit more interesting for both sneaky types, and front line fighters. (Tripping enemies when striking from behind is just fun!) To top off the difficulty I use immersive potions... so you can only use one potion effect at a time! Also in DUEL archers are not nearly as deadly as in SkyRE... at least it is easier to control the damage output via the ingame difficulty settings. The only thing I "miss" from SkyRE are some of the perk overhauls... I personally find the vanilla combat and magic ones decent... I do not need 10 various weapon types etc etc, since at the end of the day all melee combat is exactly the same. And I am satisfied with Empowered Magics changes to the vanilla perks to balance magic off. I do however like his thief and crafting perk systems, since the vanilla are either OP or just a bit boring.

Speaking of armor and items Using this atm for imperial armor. Does look really nice, and fits nicely with cabal´s armors. Needs to be loaded before since there are some weapon textures where cabal´s look a bit nicer.

There is also the new skyproc patcher for various textures and bodies for NPC´s out now. Might be interesting down the line. Just the texture part is very interresting if it is not possible to get the other .nif types working.Â

Been playing with it since beta now... no issues with the mod other then what have been covered here already.

As you say then giant spiders would not make small detail webs... However spiders are not born in singles in eggs... rather in the thousands... really creepy if you have ever seen it happen! (Had it happen while I was driving my bike as a kid... spiders EVERYWHERE!) Now these would at once go about and make webs and hunt etc etc. so it is not unrealistic that there are fine detail webs near giant spiders...

Nope, but then again I also have a popup asking if I want to allow it to download every time for security reasons. Try to clear all cookies etc. that should prevent any sort of automatic anything. Here I also assume that you use external browser when you navigate and not the built in one.

Just look at the comparison screenshots and pick one. Depending on ENB and whatnot they will look different. There is no MUST have for any one setup. It is really personal preference. If you do not pick one then you just get the really red default one which can also look nice at times...

They where not in the v.1.0 package. There they are done by All in one face. I just reverted to that version since the v.1.1 have some _msn racials I do not like compared to all in one face´s. Also I get some really nasty neck seam issues that I do not have in v.1.0

Guess that amounts to today's good deed.... amazing what reading random STEP forums late in the night will amount too! :) As for the sounds in CoT... went to solitude and heard them out. They are there during the day, and might be a bit too loud.. but I still like them.. sounds like people having fun behind some windows and children are playing just around the corner. But they go away doing the night so not really immersion breaking.

If it was me I would just make the harsh decision and take up the optimum slots and say... decide.. this mod or that. If I had to chose I would pick bandolier. I do not use it anymore because I do not like that it fills up the leather rack with options that are basically almost all identical.. and it causes CTD´s for me when there are too many things in that list and I scroll with my mouse wheel. (I like the way cloaks have done it with requiring a book etc. instead.) Also SR does not really cater to that mod... since we have no weight overhaul mod.. so it is still possible to use all other vanilla carry increases with ease. And we also have the backpacks which are nice and more immersive anyways imo. (50 carry capacity in a backpack, but 100 in a belt... comeon) Guess daggers could go to one of those spots without looking too odd.. and then a weapon could go to where the daggers are now etc etc. It opens up alot of options! The only plus is the cosmetic changes...

No problems in solitude on my setup. Can walk in and out of castle dour with no problems, also the city with no problems. So you must have some problems with your install. :(