Aiyen

Spiffyman: Does it happen while you move around near the textures? In that case then it is because the parallax (_p.dds) file is not matching the normal map. What you see is the two depth effects fighting each other rather then complementing. Depending on which angle you watch the model from it will look differently all the time.. which can be quite nauseating to look at imo. The only issue you should ever have with parallax is a bit of stretching when it is meant to look like the object is going out or inwards.

Vividian already have an .esp that alters torches. Just edit that in tes5edit to your liking. It is the only way to alter them anyways. It is however not difficult at all. Edit! Damn you manga.. I am trying to help here you ninja you! Edit2: You should not alter the point lighting intensity to deal with torches. it will always upset the overall balance since torches are up in your face etc. Also there is both a radius and intensity in the .esp values... you can however only go so high before you will get blinding light up close... which you always is when you carry the torch.

The whole point of merging is to get all the content of multiple patches into one. So after you merged you just delete the other .esp.

Open Tes5edit Press enter and let it run with your entire list enabled Open SS.esp and look under weather The plugin furthest to the right (after you select one of the weathers) is the one that displays ingame. If it is not SS then that is your problem.

You should not merge the .esm at all.. that is the cause of your issues. You should only merge the .esp files leaving the .esm since it is a master file. So your list will ultimately look like CoT.esm Every single CoT.esp merged into one where you made sure it did not renumber the ID´s.

It would most likely help if you posted the actual catalyst version numbers rather then "use the windows update version" since A: it will change over time. B: one should never use any driver that windows updates tells you, always get the drivers directly from the manufacturer! As for your general questions, then yes posting them in the general support thread is fine!

Always try to play around with the ENBoost settings first. They are fickle and system dependent. Also it is not required to do it for ALL exterior mods... in most cases the usual suspects are SFO.... do not use that if you do not have a god machine of doom, the extra meshes and varity really gets ya. SDO... Forceing more stuff to be rendered in full LOD, or full detail, and using ugrids higher then 5... well then you are just asking for it. SMIM... yes the fancy ropes etc are cool n stuff, but again more complex meshes are by far more taxing then another few 2k textures. Lighting calculations on detailed meshes cost way more then a texture ever will. "Insert your favorite General landscape 2k texture mod name here" : Examples SRO, SHD, Serious HD etc. All the mods that deliever the majority of exterior textures. In general a 2Gb card should not have issues with 2k textures in most cases ... assuming that the system is not bogged down with 200 things in the background as well well. Also assuming you do not use any nutty "I want to see what ugrids 11 looks like" settings that force the game to load way way way more... in which case 2GB is no longer enough at all. So again.. first try to play with the ENBoost settings mentioned. Then try to remove improved meshes or mods that adds loads of new meshes, finally then reduce texture quality.

Last I messed around with it then the majority of mods where just textures and a few meshes. The gameplay itself is more or less solid. There are a few rebalance mods that might be worth it, but overall that is a matter of how difficult you want the game to be.

Make sure to verify if it is something that only happens with snowy and foggy.. then they are still in the same "group" of weathers. If it does not happen with a clear weather or a cloudy one then it is weather and effect specific to those. Ofc. also try to disable mist and see if it is that! ;) Try to run through 10a230 and up.. so 10a231 ... etc Then you get through every type other then snowy.

Okay the next version is in the works! If anyone have any wishes or suggestions on what to include in the next update, then I am all ears! Currently this is what I have planed to do Exterior Color rebalance. (I have found some new values that I think look superior... and will cause much better blending overall) Interior rebalance... still not entirely happy with the interiors.. not sure what it is though... but some experimentation will be done. Revisited SSS .... People have been saying that the SSS values are a tad to far in the red... so will take a look at that along with the color rebalance. IBL revisited I have a few ideas on how to overhaul this for a few weathers to make them blend better with the new color changes. High hopes, only time will tell. The next version wont be out until I have finished reinstalling skyrim again... since well my old MO installation had serious issues, and I just got sick n tired of it so purged everything and is in the process of redownloading and installing everything! That is it for now! Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I assume you have done the usual.. disable individual effects to rule out any of those? As well as doing it only on an unmodded skyrim to rule out those culprints. Ofc. also make sure to check if it is only one specific weather (prod have them all in individual files).. or a general problem. If it is a general problem then it is most likely related to the general shader changes you have made... in which case you need to find if it is a bloom problem, or an enbeffect.fx problem... or effect.txt. Also finally did you alter the Time of day settings? The default in prods file is more or less set to its current values for a reason.. that is not only aesthetic. Oh well once you have verified and tested the above I can try to help some more.. but need a bit more to go on, since it could be quite a few things... perhaps you get lucky and prod see this and will know instantly what cause it... he knows his shaders better then I do these days anyways! :)

Yes that is the only texture you need to modify. If you got some basic experience using gimp or photoshop it is not that difficult. Most often you can get away with doing only basic color overlays until you get the right look. Just make sure the dimensions match or.. you will know ;) But I guess I can try to be nice. Here is my LOD texture https://www.dropbox.com/s/680j13wtwnhu5aw/tamrieltreelod.dds?dl=0 Path: textures/terrain/tamriel And the up close textures https://www.dropbox.com/s/68jtsrfrtjxz0i8/trees.rar?dl=0 path: textures/landscape/trees And if what you use now does not work then you can get the settings at skylight ENB over at... depending on which weather mod you use. But it should work for a wide range of ENB´s... last I checked anyways...but that is almost a year ago now :S Oh yeah before I forget... those textures are only for vanilla... or basic SFO if that is still a thing.

They will all have it because the underlaying reason is that you have one set of lighting settings on one, but not the other. No amount of tweaking will ever make it 100% perfect. Most will just hide it well. If you want to get as close to 100% hiding it as possible you are going to decide on a specific set of settings (ie a specific preset) and then adjust the tree LOD texture so they match. However even then depending on how much weather variation you have there is still going to be minor differences. And as always it also depends on everything else you use. Here is one I just made today, it uses my own textures for the tree LOD, and my own preset etc. Granted I am cheating a bit since it is a foggy weather so here is a shot with no fog Again I find it really difficult to see where the transition is... if not for the fact that I know it by heart. But I can also find examples where the transition is not that perfect ofc. It all comes down to the details. Here is one showing more or less only the LOD to really far foggy LOD transition. It is still fluent, but considering the scale rather sharp still. But again you can try to slightly tweak the fog and the direct lighting values in Environment more to your liking, since those are the only ENB related values that really control the LOD. Other then that you are going to have to use mods that control the fog, or adjust the textures manually. Hope that all made sense, otherwise just let me know and I will try to be more clear!

Torrents are nice if you have a single product you want to maintain with massive updates on a semi-regular basis. Hence why just about all MMO´s and other online games use them when you download clients and updates. In that case it is a smart and good use of what would otherwise be a woefully inefficient server setup... At least that was the way it was explained to me the last time I had an expert in network infrastructure explain it to me. However again.. we only maintain the guide, and to a minor extent the various patches which can throw some people off trying out STEP. All of the how to get the files is entirely in the hands of the Nexus, and how they want to do it. If any change is going to be made on that front you are going to have to bring technical reasons to the nexus... and most likely also have something to back it up. Just saying "use torrents because reasons" is not really going to make a major website just drop their existing infrastructure and most likely also contracts with other providers etc. There have to be at least a proof of concept and actual code or product on the table and all that jazz.

First off... when you say ENB which preset do you then specifically mean? How the game looks vary wildly depending on that alone. But if you do mean generally then it all comes down to the textures you use. If they do not match you will have inconsistencies since the LOD texture is not affected by certain lighting that the closeup trees are. Hence there can be rather large tonal differences. In your shot however it looks like the direct lighting have been increased way too much relative to the distance fog.. which seems to have been removed almost entirely. All of these parameters are in the ENVIRONMENT section of the ini.. or ini´s if you use a preset that utilize the weather system feature of ENB. I would love to help more, but I am going to need more info if that is to happen.

Always interesting when someone wants to go through the hassle of creating animated meshes for skyrim. The visual change is sort of nice I agree... would have to see it ingame to really get a good enough feel for it though. And like you said then it is still early in the development... a few critical changes will have to be made before I will make a full transition... them flowing LOD waterfalls are just too sexy!

Creating an installer that only handles a few popular mods inside a narrow selection is one thing.... try doing it for a SkyRE + SRLE pack is another deal entirely. The amount of possible variations and the length of that installer would be nuts! At the end of the day I can entirely understand why people just want that tailor made "press install and play" option.. but considering the amount of variations, and the amount of work involved in the process then it is hard to expect anyone to really do it without getting paid for it.... and once money starts to get involved then legal stuff gets involved, and so forth. Like I mentioned earlier then I will not be surprised to see modding being part of the future of micro transactions where you then do get the "press install and play" option etc. But for skyrim I do not see it happening.

Its funny because its true! ;)

Yeah sadly you are most likely right tech... it is a pity though. I do not recall if we actually ever discussed making a scripted installer that would check if you had all the mods, and then did all of the installation. While I can see some benefits to that approach, there is ofc. also a few drawbacks.. mainly being the amount of time we have at hand to maintain it! :s

From my point of view the torrent question becomes... what would it give me that the current system does not ? Even without a premium account I can easily download several files at once at 1-2mb/s depending on the mood of the server. Getting more then that on a torrent would again require some dedicated people or server setup. This is not even considering the premium account method of sustaining everything, which I still do not have a problem with. Also another issue with the whole packs pre created idea is that eventually the nexus would drown in a million almost identical packs with minor variations... I doubt that would actually simplify things for a lot of users. It would for example be much harder for the non savoy end user to get new mods working with an existing mod list. The best solution would by far be the ability to ask the nexus to say... download all go have a cup of tea and watch some tv.. come back and get all try hard modder.

My first impression with this mod was positive.. Since I do personally have my own textures for the wood I most likely wont use those.. but I really do love the roofs! By far the most natural and weather worn example of them I have seen yet! Really do like that look. Much better then most of the others which tend to look like the roof was made fresh last week. Still not entirely sure if I like the rocks.. but they do blend I have to admit.

Your a beast! Amazing piece of work!

Nah I did mean the next elder scrolls title.. the next fallout is most likely too close for them to do it, or at least not do it full scale, only to test the waters I would imagine. Anyways, what I imagined was more along the lines of how DoTA2 works.. if you get a visual mod approved you get part of the profits etc. I did read that more developers found that method interesting as a alternative to current micro transaction models, or at least as a supplement. By far and large most mods in most games are just alternative models and textures, and there are some really talented people out there doing it. As for the other part.. again there are so many shades of grey in how much a given type of mod you can remove before it is no longer the original. Another hassle we have had to deal with here on STEP is huge debates on how to do things.. most recently the whole BSA vs loose files debate. Before that we had an issue with the guard behavior overhaul mod.. which did a few things in a non standard way, that worked but would mess with cleaning of the mod and with a few conflicts with other mods. When you have that sort of basic disagreements on how to do things, then imagine how difficult it is to get people agree on what sort of content is acceptable to remove and which is not and still have your name on it.

Ah yes the permissions issue and torrent debate. This is as old as the STEP forums and perhaps even the nexus forums. There are plenty of arguments for and against in that, but at the end of the day then it is the policy setup by the nexus, at the request of quite a few mod developers so that is what we have to work with. Personally I think that is why nexus is actually working as well as it does... all things considered. Compared to many other modding communities I have visited and used in my time then I still like nexus the most. Quite a few people have plenty of issues with nexus´s way of doing and handling stuff like that, and quite a few large debates, and bans have been thrown into the mix over the years. And common for all of them is that at the end of the day the mods are the authors property. In relation to STEP then the issue also is if we somehow had a pack easily made into a single installer, then we would also have to keep track of permissions and what not in case the author suddenly does not want his/her work to be part of it. Just because you would see it as a good thing your work is in a pack, does not mean that everyone see it that way. Another issue is support. If a mod suddenly does not work and it is in a pack.. is it then the pack authors or the mod authors "responsibility" to provide support? There are plenty of cases where the solutions to problems means altering mods by removing parts of them etc. How much of one mod can you remove and still give credit to the original author ? When it comes to .esp only based mods this gets even more tricky. It is a tricky debate that most likely is not going to change much until the coming of the next TES title. Who knows.. bethesda might go the same way as valve and make modding into something that can be bought as DLC/cosmetic content.

What is all this "playing the game" of which you speak.... you can actually play skyrim! Guess you learn something new every day! :)