mikegray

I'm looking at some compatibility issues with Purity - one of the mods I bought - so I've been reading the comment section there (and asking a few questions myself.) My impression is that a lot of Laast's customers don't have a clue what they are doing. And that concerns me. If this were Nexus, there would be a community of old hands there to pitch in. Yeah, some of them would be snarky, but the newbies would end up getting the information they need. In this new world ... well ... maybe not so much. Cause, it's like ... the dev's job to solve everyone's problems? And once they start busting their savegames with ill-advised mod combos and come back to scream at him about it ... well, I don't think the dev's situation is going to be much fun at all.

Hey guys! Until now, I've simply ignored Steam: No chatting, no participation in forums, workshops and stuff - even when I buy games, I usually purchase codes from a discounter and just paste them in. Basically, Steam is just this thing that takes up unnecessary space in my system tray. OTOH, since I'm more than happy for modders to earn a buck, and since I saw two mods I actually want - Purity & the new version of W&C - I decided to sign up, buy a couple mods and see how it goes. Perhaps my observations could be of interest: 1) As it turned out, you can't just "buy" mods. First I had to create a steam wallet and load it with money in 5 EUR increments, THEN I got to use my wallet to buy stuff - and stuff that is NOT priced to fit those increments. Weird: Even though I put in my "willing to pay" numbers for the two mods so that I'd come out at just under 5 EUR, Steam did some kind of special math that came out at something like 5.02 EUR. Wut? (I mean, I do kinda suck at arithmetic, but I actually used a pocket calculator to be sure?!) So I couldn't buy the second mod until I'd added an extra 5 EUR to my wallet. Result: Besides their 30% cut on the mods I bought, Steam (currently) has a 99% "wallet bonus." Obviously, I can still use my wallet to buy other mods, and maybe games too (?), but I HATE this kind of stuff. If I'm going to buy something, just let me pay for it already! 2) RE: Steam mod pages. MAN, do I love Nexus! I take back every bad thing I've ever said about them. Maybe it's just that I don't know my way around Steam yet, but the Steam mod pages themselves DO NOT seem to be designed in a manner friendly to people who intend to be intelligent about the way they use mods. And it seems like I might just possibly want that if I'm freaking paying for them?! 3) Using the Steam mod subscription service with MO = masochism. I have a thread going in the MO section of STEP where I've asked if there's any chance of getting MO linked to Steam - but currently, it's just a pain. It honestly (sic) makes more more sense to pay for the mod on Steam, then unsubscribe without downloading and get the mod off a torrent. 4) I'm happy to pay modders for their work, and I even accept Dan Hill's argument that the 25% arrangement with Bethesda and Steam is actually fair. BUT if I'm going to get involved in this, Steam's got to actually earn their cut. I don't want to go back to that place. 5) So far, the mods themselves look good. Testing still in progress, but it looks like nice work.

Yeah, that's kind of clear for now. BTW, I went ahead and bought two mod updates - the new W&C and Purity - and the process worked just fine. OTOH, the process is also about as user-friendly as a municipal election in North Korea.

Well, that's something, I guess. Valve seems to be building their ship as they sail it through a hurricane, but maybe we will all eventually end up in a good place. And thanks for the tutorial, CJ2311 - even if it sounds like an obscenely annoying process. So ... COULD MO at least *potentially* get something better happening in terms of downloading and installation?

Like it or not, Steam exclusive mods is something we're going to be have to deal with in the future. Fine by me, I'm honestly delighted to pay talented, highly professional modders for their work. Honest pay for honest work. Unless Nexus finds some way of hosting the new for-pay mods (I'd be fine with that too), Steam is going to be the only game in town. So ... is there any way to integrate MO with Steam well enough to duplicate the way it integrates with Nexus? In particular, I'd really miss version tracking. Even during times when I'm not playing Skyrim, I'll fire up MO a couple times a week just to hit the update button and see if any of my favorite mods have made important progress.

Say - Is there any chance that some sort of reaction between Wet & Cold and the very latest version of imp helmets leads to Wet & Cold sometimes (but not always!) making NPCs go bald when they're supposed to get hoods? (Although: The NPCs in question were NOT wearing full face helmets. In fact, they were bare headed.)

Have any of you people run into a bug where certain NPC head-coverings are invisible, leaving the NPCs in question bald?

Deviating from the OP a little here, but how about this test? https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1277531-28-step-stress-test/ It seems more reasonable to me - though I suppose it's closely related to stuff the SoT mod throws into the mix. I've never had trouble doing that quest in the past - but I've never done it with SoT running ... But this test DOES illustrate that you need various kinds of stress tests to reveal various kinds of weaknesses.

Heya Minos! About bios flashing 290s to 290x's: It's a fairly common thing with Radeons that certain 2nd tier cards (like a 290) - typically reference card released early in the production cycle - can be successfully bios-flashed to be indistinguishable from a card one step higher up the hierarchy (like a 290x). I bought mine early on from a vendor known to have a high rate of success with card-flashing and got lucky. For more information check out this thread: https://www.overclock.net/t/1443242/the-r9-290-290x-unlock-thread

Heya! I have a bios-flashed 290x (originally a 290) with water-cooling and a heavy OC - and I'd say those numbers are in the right ballpark. That particular spot - i.e., when you do a coc to Riverwood, then enter into the village - is well known for poor fps. Once you're actually past the gate, fps should pick up again. I even get better fps when I turn around and walk back through in the opposite direction. I wouldn't let those particular numbers disturb you too much

I've had a much better experience with the freeware program "File Explorer" than with FreeCommander XE (which was unstable on my machine).

Thanks a million, hishtup! MO really is an amazing piece of work. Every time I think I know everything about it, I run into a new surprise like that. Question: If I want to ddsopt stuff in, say, Skyrim Immersive Creatures, what is the best practice? I'm thinking the following: 1) Extract the material into the SIC directory. 2) Archive original .bsa. 3) Run ddsopt on contents. 4) Play Skyrim. Or should I do it differently?

I'm planning on re-optimzing all the mods in my load order. Though I have a powerful system (i5 + r9 290x + 16g + ssd), it's difficult to get a stable combination of STEP AND a generous selection of demanding gameplay/content mods. (Including: PerMa, OBIS, Sands of Time, Creature of Skrim, Frostfall, Helgen Reborn.) I'm also usign a beautiful ENB Preset (Vividian) that ahs some textures that might stand a little more compression. SO: my goal is to go back to my original backups and reduce EVERYTHING to 1k with .5k normals and see how the game runs then. One probelm: At some point I let MO to start installing mods without unpacking BSAs. Can you guys give me a little insight on how to handle these mods? I mean, do I need to use BSAopt to manually unpack all of them - and then re-pack after I'm done - or is there some easier way of doing it?

Hey guys! It started when I wanted to update an ENB using ENB Changer - and remembered that I had added some extra SMAA stuff to the Skyrim root folder that I was going to have to locate and remove manually. One thing lead to another, and I ended up realizing just how much miscellaneous crap has built up in my \Skyrim folders - all notwithstanding MO. I eventually trashed the whole folder and copied in my backup vanilla installation from the NAS. But there's got to be a better way of doing this - and it seems like that Link Shell Extension stuff ought to be a viable alternative. What I'd like to do is have two folders: \Skyrim\etc. and \Skyrim Extra Stuff\etc. But then I'd like Windows to see the contents of "\Skyrim Extra Stuff\etc." as being present in "\Skyrim\etc." Then I could install ENBs or new versions of SKSE to the "Skyrim Extra Stuff" directory. And if I want to get rid of them, I delete everything in "Skyrim Extra Stuff" and it all just magically disappears from "\Skyrim\." (And of course, it would be even cooler to have Windows also redirect any new files written to "\Skyrim\" to "\Skyrim Extra Stuff\." But maybe that's asking too much.) Anyway, after downloading and installing Link Shell Extension, I've realized that the tool is more complicated than I thought (what the heck is a "DeLorean Mirror"??) - and just a little dangerous too! So ... could anyone walk me through this?

Hmm. From everything I've heard, that Boris is quite the character! I don't mind "issues" per se - I hang out in modding forums because I like tinkering with stuff. But I'd hate to end up realizing that I've bought a card I can't use. Thing is, Skyrim with ENB is the only game I need any more more horse-power for - I've never played any other game that wasn't butter-smooth with what is, already, a very powerful card. (Heck - it's the only game I even overclock for ... )

Say - I'm currently running Vividian ENB, latest version (6.02) on a Dell 2711 (1440p) through a single r9 290x (oringinally 290, bios flashed to 290x) - and I've just seen a very interesting offer on a second 290x. Crossfire sure sounds enticing - but I've also seen a LOT of conflicting information about ENBs and CF. Right now, I'm using the Vividian performance version (vivid, not vanilla) with water effects and simple DoF activated, and I'm getting 40-60 fps. Not bad at all - but it would be nice to maybe turn up the ENB quality and get a solid 60fps everywhere. So ... What's the state-of-the-art these days? - Do the various hacks actually work? - In particular, DoF: Is DoF and Crossfire a no-fly zone or have folks actually figured out how to get it running? - What do I have to give up for them to work? (For example, I use RadeoPro for triple buffering for muc smoother play and I really appreciate borderless windowed fullscreen - is this stuff going to get borked?) Anything else I should consider?

With all the darker night stuff I've got hanging about my mod list, traveling at night isn't terribly practical - I recently spent about 10 minutes trying to find my way out of Riverwood at 8pm, then another 5 trying to find a door - any door - to get back inside. And I had me a torch, too. And a wearable lantern. The upshot is that I must have the sleepiest Dragonborn in the history of Tamriel. He turns in at 7pm, has his little meal and his happy tipple and turns in for a beauty sleep till the sun goes up at 6am. So ... I was thinking: Isn't there a mod that shortens the nights when it's summer-like? And evens the up a bit when it isn't quite winter? I mean, I know we're in the North and all, but it isn't ALWAYS winter up there. So, are there an mods for that? Or does the game do that automatically?

Cool - and thanks! Would it be worth developing and maintaining a STEP Parallax pack that would supplement, and in some cases replace, a STEP base? Also: What's the situation with Vivid landscapes? I understand that they overlap considerably with the aMidianBorn stuff, and that STEP generally sticks with aMidianBorn. So ... if I'm looking for more parallax fun, do I need to kind of choose between the two?

Heya! Now that I'm back playing Skyrim again, I've made a conscious choice for ENB - and in the process, I've started paying attention to parallax. The problem is, I don't really understand what it is, what it's good for and whether (and how) I should be trying to get some. I mean, I understand that parallax stuff (a) makes things look more 3d, (b) requires ENB and © is often mentioned in the context of landscape overhauls. But I'm not at all sure about things like: - What is it exactly, and how does it do what it does? - What does it cost in terms of VRAM and FPS? - What other pros and cons should I know about? - Who does it good and who doesn't? - Can I add it to a STEP installation? BTW, I made an honest attempt at searching for a pre-existing guide or overview thread. Still: If I missed it, please feel free to burn my dumb azz. (And maybe throw me a link, so I can get to reading!)

Thanks, DoubleYou! As it turns out, I had two different, 32-bit versions of java installed on my PC. All my links above went to v.7, but EITHER the Proccer wanted v.8 OR ELSE a necessary change to an environmental variable was only applying to v.8. In any case, after uninstalling java v.7. and changing the links above to the correct directory, everything was fine. For future reference, here are the steps that gave SkyProccer the extra ram it needed to run PerMa under Windows 8.1: First, change a System variable (instructions from a post on Tomshardware): Open the Control Panel.Go to System.Go to Advanced Systems Properties, then Environment Variables.In System Variables, click Add:New Variable Name: _JAVA_OPTIONSNew Variable Value: -Xmx512 Then create a a run executable entry in Mod Organizer as follows (drives and directories will obviously be different for everyone - I've left mine in!) Title: PaMa - Expanded RAM Binary: C:Program Files (x86)Javajre1.8.0_20binjavaw.exe Start in: E:Skyrim UtilitiesMod OrganizermodsPerkusMaximusSkyProc PatchersT3nd0_PatchusMaximus Arguments: -Xmx1024m -jar "E:Skyrim UtilitiesMod OrganizermodsPerkusMaximusSkyProc PatchersT3nd0_PatchusMaximusPatchusMaximus.jar" "-NOSTREAM"

I'm beta testing Patcher Maximus, the proccer behind the followup mod to SkyRe ("Perkus Maximus"). The thing is VERY ambitious and, if run normally on a large plugin list, takes a very long time (say, 20 minutes) and often runs into memory errors. The author has provided a .bat file that should free up more RAM with the following line: javaw.exe -Xmx1024m -jar "PatchusMaximus.jar" "-NOSTREAM" However, when run inside of MO, it fails to construct the virtual folder system. As an alternative, I tried to create a link to an executable with the following settings: Binary: C:Program Files (x86)Javajre7binjavaw.exe Start in: E:Skyrim UtilitiesMod OrganizermodsPerkusMaximusSkyProc PatchersT3nd0_PatchusMaximus Arguments: -Xmx1024m -jar "E:Skyrim UtilitiesMod OrganizermodsPerkusMaximusSkyProc PatchersT3nd0_PatchusMaximusPatchusMaximus.jar" "-NOSTREAM" However, this gets tangled up, too - java returns the error above: "Error: Could not create the Java virtual machine." Can anyone help me figure out the problem?

The idea - at the time - was that the Helgen sequence functions differently from the rest of the game, in particular involving special scripts that could conflict with otherwise stable mods and cause various problems, including long-term savegame corruption. Made a lot of sense at the time - a time before the advent of StableUgrids, ENBBoost, the Sheson memory patch and Flexcreator's save cleaner, when there really wasn't much you could do but wonder how long you had to play before the save turned into spaghetti ... BTW, I can't remember where I picked up that information.

A general comment or two isn't exactly the same as providing "a guide to installing every mod in the universe." Now, if mods authors typically gave a recommendation of the sort, there wouldn't be any point in doubling information that is already common knowledge; however, this is actually rare. Moreover, in certain forums, at certain points in time, installing all mods after Helgen really was held to be best practice for modding. Which is why I started the thread in the first place ... People follow STEP because they're looking for someone to walk them through the process of going from a raw installation to a stable, modded game. This information would be helpful.

Thanks man!! About Hialgo and all: I guess I have a hangup about FPS. It really bugs me when the play isn't responsive - particularly after taking some time off to play a few other games (like Witcher 2) that have a more responsive feel. Playing Witcher 2 felt like driving a Ferrari. At 60 FPS, Skyrim felt like a decent family sedan; at 30 it feels like a dump truck! (Also, somewhere around the low 40s, the game starts to have a little bit of a "flickery" thing, that bugs me.) Anyway, on ENB: If I traipse around that Morthal swamp with no ENB, I hardly drop below 55 FPS. Sinking all the way down to 30 seems like too much of a sacrifice. Quick question about shadows - does that go for iShadowMapResolution, too? It's currently set to 4096. Anyway, I'll definitely keep trying stuff - I just had a look at your presets, and I'll definitely give them a whirl. (Two side questions: A. Does the water mod matter much? I notice that your Vividian ENB is tuned for Pure Water; I'm working with Realistic Water 2. B. What's the lowdown on ELE? I currently have ELFX only, but I'm willing to try it out.)

Yup. That's what they said! But, I think it would be a good idea to include this, specifically, in the STEP guide.