James_Richards

OK, so when you run the GoG installer (and this is the base game) WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" is what is called the prefix, the location you want everything about this game to be installed to. When int he installer popup, it asks you where you want it installed. If you put in "C:\Skyrim", then the resulting game will be at (again, no changes outside of what I have here, your location might change) "/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c" in the drive_C folder will be the executables, dll and Data folder you would normally have on Windows. Basically; ""/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c"" is effectively "C:\" "/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine" is the downloaded wine-ge folder form Glorious Eggrolls' github repository. This is a modified version of wine that includes the tweaks Proton Wine from Valve with GE's tweaks. It should be used for games that are not installed form Steam. "/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" This is the GoG installer part Technically, you could usse just straight wine "/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine" = wine (would look like this: )WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" but I have not experimented with it as the GE binary has given me success in even installing old Windows 95/98 games off CDROM better than straight-up wine. Skyrim should run just fine as is without further tweaks, I need to make a change, when creating the System32 folders for DXVK, they should be nested. I'll update the original post /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Windows/System32 Dump the dll's from DXVK into here, then follow the winecfg notes, which are from the DXVK github page anyway under the manual install instructions.

The purpose of this is to complete the first part of the guide, the System Setup Guide. I am using Arch Linux, installed and updated as of 04/10/2024, using the Arch wiki with very little deviation to start with. My desktop environment is KDE Plasma, this means sound system is pipewire and qt6 the windowing agent. Most of this will probably not matter in the end, just something to keep in mind if you use a different distro, kernel and environment, something to keep in mind qas you follow along, but what is the most important part of this is WINE. That should be universal enough. I am also going to walk through setting up Skyrim to work without Lutris. so, a lot of manual command line stuff here. I will also get to a point that MO2 is working and ENB support. the rest is up to you, dear reader. So, a couple extra notes, I have fully migrated to systemd for boot and system service handling. I am on Wayland, 6.13 linux Zen kernel (I use virtualization programs, Zen has patches to make things easier as a lot of the dkms extensions are patched in. If you think any other info is needed, I'll share more of my setup as the plethora of setups out there might affect your success in following what I have outlined here. System Setup Guide (SSG) Have Linux installed Install WINE and dependencies (sttaging or not, doesn't matter, rezlly, I don't use it) Install winetricks and dependencies Download wine-ge (8.26) as of writing this Direct landing page on github https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/wine-ge-custom/releases/tag/GE-Proton8-26 File: "wine-lutris-GE-Proton8-26-x86_64.tar.xz" unarchive to a place. I suggest in the home directory. For me, it would be: /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/ /home/jrich82/ will definitely be different for you. "jrich82" is my user folder. You may or may not have depending on how you installed Linux. (I also renamed the wine-ge folder to something a little shorter and memorable, keeping the version number in case) Since I have Skyrim AE on GoG, I downloaded all the installer files from the site.and put them at "/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/" (your download folder may be different, just make a note of it.) As of writing, I have yet to get the latest version of GoG galaxy to work properly, so manually downloading the files will be your better bet. Might take a moment, but this guide is trying to do as much as possible thorugh terminal and manual intervention anyway. Much more of a reward feeling when you have everything working Assuming you have nothing downloaded or installed before. You should have: The game: setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(70738).exe setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-1.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-2.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-3.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-4.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-5.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-6.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-7.bin setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).bin AE DLC: setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738)-1.bin Skyrim Anniversary Edition from GoG install: Syntax is important. Keep in mind the (), "" and _ Also, capitalization, unlike Windows is imperative as the folder Skyrim is different from the folder skyrim. Also, if you miss the double quotes, it will error as "(" is the a start of an escape sequence for Linux I will also be using direct folder paths. Adjust for your install. Base game: WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" command line break-down: WINEPREFIX is the prefix fodler for the game, keeping it separate form any other ewine prefix you might have. I find this better as things can stay separated and hcnages specifically for Skyrim can happen without messing with what you alreayd have setup. This is then followed by the wine executable from GloriousEggroll "/home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine" Again, your path might be different, depending on where you extracted the archive downloaded from github. It should point ot he "wine" executable int he bin folder for it. If you should need the prefix to work as 32-bit (these commands should work with just about any windows installer/executable) add "WINEARCH=win32" example: "WINEPREFIX=~/Games/some-random-game WINEARCH=win32" I won't be using the WINEARCH= argument here as I think it should default to win64 behavior by default. Then the executable for Skyrim AE downloaded from GoG. "/home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_special_edition_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" TLDR; prefix wine executable I changed one thing dduring the install, I changed the install location from C:\GOG Games\Skyrim Anniversary Edition to C:\Skyrim Anniversary DLC upgrade install: WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/SkyrimAE/"setup_the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_anniversary_upgrade_0.1.3905696_(64bit)_(70738).exe" First run, Vanilla Skyrim AE! So far so good? Located at /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim some files and folders. We want to pay attention to everything under "drive_c" This is basically your "C:" drive. For now, I am going to run Skyrim through the Skyrim launcher: WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim/"SkyrimSELauncher.exe" NOTE remember the location where you told the GoG insaller to point to: "C:\" = is "drive_c/Skyrim" for me. So, the final path is /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim/"SkyrimSELauncher.exe side-quest! For me, I had some odd graphical glitching, so I thought I would fix that before moving on. I decided DXVK dll integration would work. So I downloaded the latest release https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v2.4.1 Inside "dxvk-2.4.1.tar.gz", is an x64 folder. copy these dlls to /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/windows/system32 (create folders "windows" and "system32" if you don't have them) keep them nested WIndows/System32 This is how it looks on my system using the same commands, your location might varry if you change some things to suite your folder organization you want to practice. /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Windows/System32 now, we need to override the "native" libraries: WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" winecfg on the "Libraries" tab, in the drop down for "New override for library": I entered "d3d10core.dll" and clicked "add" I also did this for "d3d9.dll" "d3d11.dll" and "dxgi.dll" then clicked OK. and tried running again. graphical glitches gone! Some folders to keep in mind: Again, these might be different on your install, especially anything "jrich82", should be your username. /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Skyrim (the main game folder) /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/users/jrich82/Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition GOG (this folder will have your ini and save files.) Mod Organizer 2 install Now, we will install MO2 and make sure that works. WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Downloads/"Mod.Organizer-2.5.2.exe" The installer wants to put it at "C:\Modding\MO2" I think this is fine I just left everything at recommended install It will throw up a couple errors, just "Ignore" them and let the installer finish. Uncheck Launch Mod Organizer. MO2 should now be at /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/MO2/ Try running it and see what happens. WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/MO2/"ModOrganizer.exe" You should be greeted with the New Instance dialog. set up as the guide suggests, or whatever you already know how to use if you have used it before. I like portable, so I chose that, ensured it saw where Skyrim was installed and clicke don GoG (not Steam or Epic) I also connected to my nexus account through my API key. Once the initial setup was done and default profile available, I tested running the game through MO2, and again; success. Everything is working so far. BethINI I created a folder BethINI under the Modding folder: /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/BethINI/ WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/BethINI/"BethINI.exe" It ran, just couldn't find the launcher and INI. easy enough to resolve, just point to it in the dialog box that pops up. LOOT Installing LOOT was pretty simple, but the executable wouldn't run. I just downloaded the 7z and created a folder for it /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/LOOT/ WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/LOOT/"LOOT.exe" Ran fine. Updated the master list and sorted the plugins xEdit I just downloaded the 7z and created a folder for it /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/TES5Edit/ WINEPREFIX="/home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim" /home/jrich82/wine-ge_8-26/bin/wine /home/jrich82/Games/Skyrim/drive_c/Modding/TES5Edit/"TES5Edit.exe" While it runs, it could not see the registry key for Skyrim. You can add in the line arguments manually specifying the data, ini and plugins.txt file -D:"C:\Skyrim\Data" -I:"C:\Users\jrich82\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\Skyrim.ini" -P:"C:\Users\jrich82\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt" (again, pay attention to your path, they most likely do NOT match mine) xLODGen Follow the guides instructions. Same with TE5Edit, xLODGen is based off it, you need to add the same argument -D:"C:\Skyrim\Data" -I:"C:\Users\jrich82\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\Skyrim.ini" -P:"C:\Users\jrich82\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\plugins.txt" You should now be ready to follow the rest of the STEP guide. Just remember whatever path to certain folders you used and you should be fine. Beyond that, the rest of the guide can be followed I gather. The most important parts work; SKSE64 reports the proper version and some extended commands do their thing. ENB series 502 with STEP's ENB downloads (all three) work. It took about 5 hours, counting the downloads, and the bulk of the time was spent finding fixes for things that didn't work "out of the box" and needed to be tested multiple times before I was confident they can be replicated. Again, this guide is just for setup. I am not really planning on rebuilding STEP, but every step should work properly. If I missed anything, let me know! I will try to also answer questions to the best of my ability if something doesn't go right. When you get into the tool setup stage of the guide, just append the STEP guide's arguments to these and you should be good to go.

It took some time, but the non-Steam WINE-ge GoG focused guide is HERE

One last note. I was able to generate a new grass cache. AND IT WORKED! I took the 2.2.0 list, copied into a new profile "grassGen" disabled all mods except for (downgrading versions as needed): Anniversary content that adds/changes worldspace. Extenders: none Resources: All but MCM Helper Foundation: kept Skyrim Landscape and water fixes, USSEP, Cathedral - plants, Far Object LOD improvement Project, Skyrim Realistic Overhaul, Majestic Mountains, Majestic Mountains Double-sided patch, Cathedral Landscapes, Mesh Patch for various mods. Animation and Physics: all Models and Textures: all but Blended Roads, Realistic Water Two, Majestic Mountains - More Accurate Collision, Majestic Mountains - More Accurate Collision AME Patch and Vivid Landscapes - Tundra Moss Revised Sounds and Music: all Character Appearance: all Fixes: all Gameplay General: all Gameplay-AI and Combat: all Gameplay-Economy: all Gameplay-Immersion: all Gameplay-Quests: Alternate Start Gameplay-Skills and Perks: all Interface: none Locations: none Lighting and weather: all Utilities: all Patches: all but Majestic Mountains Creation Club Landscape Patch, Smooth Shores - Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods, Smooth Shores - Tundra Homestead, Smooth Shores - Worldspace Transition Tweaks, Smooth Shores - Snowy Landscapes for Snowy Regions, Smooth Shores - USSEP, Unofficial Skyrim Creation Club Content Patch (custom version with stripped out AE content I don't use) and a customer patch that ensures Elysium Estate changes to the landscape in the area are LAST to load. I made a few batch files that automatically rename/move/copy files around to turn my Skyrim 1.6.640 to/from 1.5.97 and turn ENB off/on. I then put Skyrim back to 1.6.640, enabled ENB, made a mod out of my grass cache, disabled the STEP - Grass patch, removed my Elysium Estate patch, generated my LOD's and fired it up. Game loaded with no problems, went outside with no problems and started running around. All LOD object load fine, a little pop-in here and there, but nothing too noticeable and best of all, no more floating grass around Elysium Estate. Running the grass cache script from the Grass LOD Guide didn't take as long as before. Through 1) being natively on Windows and 2) stripping down the mod list. If I need to regen my cache, I'll revisit the loaded mods and check if I can remove more that doesn't change the worldspace and maybe improve the time even more, but it took me about an hour and half the way things are. One thing I noticed, Skyrim actually only crashed once on me this time around. The LOD generation from the main guide also didn't take as long as before. Being on Windows natively surely helps. Which is sad. But we'll see how Proton comes along when I get to building a new computer in the future. Until then, having fun. And getting annoyed as I got used to Linux already. I keep opening command prompt and entering bash commands. XD

Noice. Helpful edits. Well, I broke down and decided to wipe my hard drive and install Windows 10. Until I have a better machine, I think the fighting chance to enjoy games is to use Windows, remove unnecessary junk and apply some still useful hacks to improve performance for gaming. Once I have a better machine, I'll most likely go back to Linux. Once I am done, I'll do the grass caching again and see what happens. Again, Thank you all for the help. It has been invaluable and will be helpful in the future. Maybe we'll have a new version of Proton or further improvements to gaming on Linux and tools.

Yeah, I am almost done going through every single mod, reading their STEP instructions and the info on the mod page to make sure it will work with 2.2.0 STEP. I am also using the previously linked list to help find any of the DLL/SKSE mods that have a lower version requirement if they aren't NG, transfer to NTFS drive and boot up the windows VM and let it do its thing. Like I said, I think I know where I went wrong. I replicated the 2.0.0 load order and disabled too many mods. This new setup should do the trick. Once I build my new computer, I am sure I will benefit from better processing speeds. I got the intel i5-6600k due to it being the processor with the highest IPC at the time. Should have just waited a little longer and got the AM4 released at the time. I would have just had to flash my BIOS and upgrade the CPU. Intel's next "tick" after the 6000's put it on a new socket. The open AMD drivers are great, but again, going through Proton, things might slow down a bit even on a newer computer. The virtual machine setup with Windows 10, sadly, cannot use passthrough so I am stuck with whatever drivers come with Virtualbox, VMWare or VirtIO/QEMU/KVM. I THINK I found a guide that will let me install Windows 10 to a USB. When I go back to read it, I'll just install Windows off it and just deal with rebooting when I need the Windows environment in the future. Or just break down and have a dualboot environment with the new computer. The whole point in not dual-booting to begin with was having to be forced to work with Linux and learn how to set something up or fix something broken, learn the filesystem and how the kernel does its thing. I really want a couple new certs to better my hiring prospects.

Yeah, I kinda thought I did something wrong when the literature kept saying "...this is going to be 2GB large!" or I even saw a warning about 3GB. STEP Grass patch is only 847 MB, my grass cache is 870 and none of the grass mods downloaded topped 100. I thought I did something wrong at first, but thought since it matched the size of the STEP patch, I went with it anyway. Still generating DynDOLOD at the tail end of STEP 2.2.0. Currently 4.5 hours running. But I put that up to the aged CPU I have. So, whatever I did I'll be able to see within an hour if past generation times are to go by. I am beginning to wonder if some of these tools are really optimized for multi-core processing. Oh well. I am not complaining to much. I got the offer letter for my job, now I just wait for background checks for security clearance to complete and I'll be making money. EDIT And that didn't work. Still getting floating grass around the estate. I think I know what I did wrong. I removed too many mods modifying the landscape when I generated my grass cache. Well. I am not under a time crunch. So. I'll do it again.

Mmmmm Tasty knowledges. There are some moments where I prefer things to be explained to me on a basic level. I have been modding Skyrim for a while, got my feet wet with modding Oblivion once upon a time ago. Or have someone tell me how they did it over reading a guide. Often, a bit more info not present in the guide helps. I am guessing to keep the guides separated, in case STEP goes in a different direction, or through broader testing find something not working as intended. Someone might work out a way to do things differently with LOD, grass and textures and such. STEP has, in the past, done things differently than a mod author suggested to appeal to a broader user group. Case in point, I am willing to bet the majority of users who are installing and using step have more up to date CPUs and/or beefier GPUs than what I have. My whole plan was to follow an update cycle, but since I put this system together, Intel and board manufacturers raised prices, life in general started costing more and I couldn't justify buying a new socket platform all of a sudden. If I had stuck with AMD, I would have had a more fighting chance as they keep their sockets longer. I shouldn't have switched. I also wasn't planning on a lot of other things. Or try to make the guide as easy as possible to implemented through "cookie cutter" explanations so as to allow the newer modders or less adept to follow the guide and have a pleasant experience. I remember the first time I used STEP years ago. It felt daunting at first, but following it to a "T" I managed to have great modded experience, read some more and started understanding enough to make tweaks to make it my own and even more enjoyable.

I am using the SE 2.2.0 guide. and it looks like I have done well in getting it to work with 1.5.97. I played for about 30 minutes before getting to trying to generate the grass cache.

Since STEP for Skyrim (Oldrim), I realized I have been skimming too much of the mod instructions and the guide. I know it is bad practice. After a couple versions of the guide, I just started assuming too many things. I have been going back and re-reading every sentence. So. I think the actual modding aspect will get better. The technical aspect going through Proton might still be a problem, but so far, I have found resolutions for all the tools. I am generating DynDOLOD now and will be able to test if there is still floating grasses around Elysium Estate or not. If I did everything right, there shouldn't be. I thank you all for the patience.

Unless it is assumed that I should be renaming something, the guide states: ================================================================ Naming convention Grass cache files are named like this: <worldspace>x<x cell coordinates padded to 4 characters with 0>y<y cell coordinates padded to 4 characters with 0>.gid. So if a grass cache file is named tamrielx-047y0038.gid, that means it applies to Tamriel <-47, 38>. No Grass In Objects renames the file extension to .cgid in order to bypass the erroneous grass cache files in Skyrim - Misc.bsa. ================================================================ This is the only mention of an extension and originally had me thinking it should stay as cgid to "in order to bypass the erroneous grass cache files in Skyrim - Misc.bsa.", which I thought was what we wanted to do. Since I was unsure, I asked. Thank you for the heads up! Integrating it all now.

I managed to get the cache done. I turned off every mod except Elysium Estate and any of the locations changed by mods form STEP. I noticed the grass files are *.cgid. The STEP grass patch has in the BSA *.gid files. I take it the cache i have now supersedes this patch and it should be disabled compete;y? I should also adjust the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini line "GrassGID=gid" back to cgid since that is the extension/format of the files I now have?

Well, it is currently running again. I need to get to sleep anyway for phone interview in the morning. I setup QEMU a little differently this time, and some of the optimizations I found will hopefully help, along with proper BSA. The only driver issues at this point will be virtio graphics for virtual machine through QEMU. I decided to give that a shot as I can almost run QEMU as a close to a type 1 hypervisor. CPU gets passed right on through, but like VMWare and VirtualBox, QEMU still hasn't gotten to GPU passthrough. If I could run Windows 10 as a live OS, I would do that. But Microsoft sucks. If I reeeeeally want this over some of the graphical loss with not using the grass cache for STEP 2.2.0, I found an M.2 drive with Windows 10 on it. I can swap it out, but that means taking apart a mini-ITX computer, the SSD slot is on the underside of the board and my case doesn't have a removable backplane, it is one of those Silverstone HTPC cases.

Good to know about the BSA. I think I switched it with the AE versions. I'll give it another go. I THINK I have the right config option. Will double check that as well. Thank you! This helps a lot.

Linux stayed up. I rarely get crashes, even when trying to break something. The Windows VM I eventually setup as Mod Organizer, through Proton, really didn't like rerunning a vfs every time Skyrim crashed. I got better results in the VM, Skyrim restarted without issues as expected, so I thought it was good to go. After I took a quick nap, I checked on it, things still seemed to be moving along, then Skyrim crashed, MO closed. I didn't reallyf eel like starting all over after tying my computer up for 10 hours. I gave the VM all of my cores when it came time to start pre-caching. 4 cores may not be enough, especially 8 year old ones XD I'll start it up again and see what happens.