Vorians

I would be interested in alternative suggestions for tweaks/mods/assets which are higher resolution/poly/etc. than those in the guide, I already select the 4k textures any mod offers where the guide specifies 2k - but rather than a fork, it would be tidier to be a part of the guide, I think the original STEP guide (which I haven't looked at for years) did that for textures, offering a base-level selection and an alternate HQ version.

Very good, I shall not use Frank Horizon at all, thanks Lexy.

I found switching to the ReShade extremely disappointing; interiors are dim and dull, and outside objects emit darklight when the sun is behind them (think sun rays, but as dark shadow beams instead of sunlight). So have reinstalled ENB and Silent Horizons - switching to the Cathedral Weathers version (and will try keeping the ReShade on top of that with Vibrance and LevelsPlus shaders turned off). Using Cathedral Weathers now instead of Obsidian Weathers, am I right to think that I can use all files from Franken Horizons except enbseries\Weather\* ?

Sounds like you have not disabled any of the ESPs which were merged, hence going over the plugin limit causing LOOT to disable a load. On the Prerequisites page there is an entry to download "Merge Plugins Hide" - if you have done this, then clicking the jigsaw icon in MO2 (between the cogs icon and the tools icon) will show an option "Merge Plugins Hide" - select this option to open a new window. Select everything in this window (Ctrl+A) then right-click in the selection and choose "Disable Plugins". Click Close. All the ESPs which had been merged on the Merge page will now be hidden (moved to an "Optional" folder in each Mods folder). This will reduce your total ESP count, which will stop LOOT disabling any ESPs.

It's possible. Only reason we've been made aware of this is because of a separate tool DynDOLOD spotting the bad data, if we hadn't been using DynDOLOD everyone would have been happily using this incomplete merge. So yes, it may be that some of the other merges are doing the same thing, but the only way to tell would be to redo each merge and check the zMerge log to see what order it places the ESM/Ps during the merging process - which Lexy herself cannot do because she didn't even have the issue for some reason. If not already done so, this should be reported to the autor of zEdit so they can investigate.

After loading in xEdit, click the + symbol to left of "Bashed Patch, 0.esp" to expand and view the top-level list. You will see an entry named "Sound Descriptor". Right-click on that entry, and you can then select Remove from the context menu.

As should everyone, that's a part of your guide, to first sort the merge profile with LOOT then hand-place the ones to be merged to the bottom, in the exact order listed in your guide. But zEdit only paid attention to the load order for the files ticked for merging, it loads the masters into the load order as it reads those ticked for merging when a file ticked for merging references one, rather than checking all in advance to set the master list first.

It will do, because that's exactly what I did myself about an hour ago when investigating this. EDIT But having others confirm it is probably what you're really asking for, silly me.

Hi Lexy, please see my last post from about 40 minutes ago, I'm confident that this is a bug in zEdit (zMerge). Issue is caused by the merging of Trees and Flora Merged.esp and the issue is then passed on to the Smash Patch because the Smash Patch takes the bad data already existing in Trees and Flora Merged.esp. Updating the Master Files record in YAWTO - Aspens.esp fixes the issue, but this is just a workaround to prevent the bug being triggered in zEdit. EDIT Ah good, you've read it already :)

I believe I know where the problem is. I just redid the merge and checked the log zEdit created, which states the following at the start: Loading Skyrim.esm (1/12) Loading YAWTO - Aspens.esp (2/12) Loading Update.esm (3/12) Loading HearthFires.esm (4/12) Loading Enhanced Landscapes - Dead Marsh.esp (5/12) Loading Dawnguard.esm (6/12) Loading Enhanced Landscapes Oaks Standalone.esp (7/12) Loading fallentreebridgesSSE.esp (8/12) Loading BentPines.esp (9/12) Loading SRG Enhanced Trees Activator.esp (10/12) Loading Tree mashup.esp (11/12) Loading Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin SSE Version.esp (12/12)YAWTO - Aspens.esp is being loaded in position 2, above Update.esm making it ID range 01 during the merge. The referenced record is from Update.esm which is meant to be in range 01, and because it isn't the reference fails. And this is because YAWTO - Aspens.esp is the first to be merged in the load order and only has Skyrim.esm as a master, but later loaded ESPs have Update.esm, Hearthfires.esm, and Dawnguard.esm as masters. Adding Update.esm to the Master Files record in YAWTO - Aspens.esp and then redoing the merge, zEdit now loads YAWTO - Aspens.esp in position 3, after Update.esm - so adding Hearthfires.esm and Dawnguard.esm will place it correctly (note that Enhanced Landscapes - Dead Marsh.esp is also placed above Dawnguard.esm, as it lacks Dawnguard.esm as a master and is read by zEdit before reading an ESP that does have Dawnguard.esm as a master). As an aside, it was only necessary to add Update.esm as a master to YAWTO - Aspens.esp to fix the bad data in the merge, however allowing the merge to happen with other masters out of order may have caused other bad references which haven't been picked up because they didn't affect DynDOLOD. I would read this as a mistake by zEdit, setting the load order for masters on the fly rather than establishing all the masters first and setting a valid load order for the merge. Since some people are affected but others are not, I would recommend that Lexy add a note into the guide for the section on YAWTO - Aspens, stating that it needs editing with SSEEdit to add Update.esm to its masterlist (and to play safe, also add HearthFires.esm and Dawnguard.esm) and that this also be reported to the author of zEdit to investigate and confirm. If this is confirmed to be a mistake by zEdit which then gets fixed, then this workaround to update the masterlist can be removed.

You can manually fix this, see my earlier post.

I had also thought it may have been the zEdit update, however for me reverting to v0.6.3r3 did not help, so I just fixed the ESPs manually instead.

DynDOLOD's log tells you. Error: Can not copy KatariahExterior03 [CELL:00009276] (in Tamriel "Skyrim" [WRLD:0000003C] at -12,25) from Smash Patch.esp into DynDOLOD.esp Load order FileID [03] can not be mapped to file FileID for file "DynDOLOD.esp" The problem was with record 00009276 in Smash Patch.esp - I actually didn't read the rest of the error before figuring out the problem, but it even goes on to tell you that the issue is with load order, ref. an ID beginning 03 not being mappable. I looked at Smash Patch.esp in xEdit and immediately saw that record 00009276 had a reference to a bad record - which was repeated in every cell record which was meant to reference 01001232. Record 00009276 was edited by some other ESPs, and the only one other than the Smash Patch with bad references was "Trees and Flora Merged.esp" so that merge was the problem. Looking at the ESPs merged into "Trees and Flora Merged.esp" I saw what the reference was meant to be, and so was able to correct it in both the merge and the Smash Patch.

This is because zEdit's Merge of "Trees and Flora Merged.esp" is not completing correctly, I had the same problem. More than 100 cell records from the Verdant replacer ESP are being merged with the wrong Form ID in the XCWT - Water field. In the Verdant replacer ESP, this correctly lists 01001232, however after merging with zEdit to create "Trees and Flora Merged.esp" the data is now 03001232 which is not a recognised Form ID. Then after smashing, the Smash Patch data becomes 02001232 which again is not a recognised Form ID. DynDOLOD trips up when it reads the bad data in the Smash Patch, and aborts. This only started with the latest update to the guide, so somehow Bent Pines II appears to be the cause, yet that ESP doesn't contain these cells. Hopefully Lexy will investigate and find the cause. It can be manually fixed using xEdit, but it's a little fiddly. In "Trees and Flora Merged.esp" create a new WATR (Water) record with Form ID 03001232, then save and exit. Reopen xEdit, right-click record 03001232 and select "Change Referencing Records" - type 01001232 into the box, select all, then once done, remove the Water header which contains 03001232, save and exit. Repeat with the Smash Patch however use 02001232 when creating the WATR record. Now DynDOLOD will generate without issues.

It could be that the mod requires the compiled scripts, and if that is the case, then as provided by the mod author it is currently not working correctly.

This mod (version 9) comes with a BSA, however the BSA is not needed. It only contains three script source files, it does not contain the compiled scripts. scripts\source\qf_da08_0004a37b.psc scripts\source\qf_db01_0001ea50.psc scripts\source\qf_t01_00023b6c.psc PSC files (which aren't listed on the Mod Filetypes and Directories tab for Guide: Skyrim Installation) are uncompiled scripts, and are not read by the game.