ButchDiavolo

I started a new game. I have been testing mods, so I haven't been past Whiterun for weeks...

Thanks SO much for bringing this to my attention! I ripped out everything except the meshes, re-ran FNIS (yes, FNIS... can't STAND Nemesis) and hey presto... It works as it should. AND NO Papyrus-log spam!!! *wipes a tear*

After reading Mousetick's pretty much eye-opening post (to me at least) and the comments here now, perhaps it is an idea to change the setup for XPMSSE in STEP to just install the meshes and get rid of the pretty much not-working (and not even included during STEP install) "fluff"? I have always been under the impression that the XPMSSE plugin was needed for other mods, so I always installed it as instructed by STEP. If only the meshes are needed, lets just install those and delete/hide everything else? This would also remove the need to install "fixes" and "fixes of fixes".

I never knew you could even do that! I was under the impression that the plugin was needed by other mods. I never cared for the Weapon Styles (and STEP 2.0 doesn't include them anyway). Perhaps it is an idea to just update the XPMSSE setup to disable the plugin and only keep the meshes? Thus also eliminating the "need" for the fixes (and fixes of fixes) for XPMSSE entirely.

Yeah, going full parallax is a bit of a chore. I am not even sure if it is completely possible yet. But the results can be amazing though. I just wanted to try it to see what the hubbub was about. And in my personal opinion it is... well, hubbub-able. But it deviates A LOT from a "normal" STEP 2.0.0 setup (it isn't vanilla+). Skyrim 2020 by Pfuscher changes a lot of textures for example. As I said before, if you want to try out a more parallaxed setup, you will have to first follow the STEP 2.0.0 guide to get a solid base and get that working. That should be a "no-brainer" so to speak. If your base is flawed, adding parallax versions of mods won't work. Once that works, you have to make a few simple adjustments to the enbseries.ini to enable parallax. Again, without that, parallax just won't work. Only then can you start adding mods with parallax meshes and textures. As far as STEP 2.0.0 goes, there are only 3 mods in the list that have a parallax version: Assorted mesh fixes, Embers XD and Enhanced Vanilla Trees. That is all at the moment. So if you want parallax for cities etc, you will have to add other mods, like Skyrim 2020 and Skurkbro, which breaks away (completely) from the purpose of the STEP guide. If you are interested, I can send you a list of the parallax mods I use, which gives a pretty decent (IMO) coverage of parallax in the game. Of course, the look is completely subjective. It is all a matter of personal preference. And it won't be supported by STEP. So if you run into trouble you can ask for help, but maybe people here won't be able to help. And I am by no means an expert on the matter!

Since parallax isn't a part of the STEP Mandates, using it is a personal choice. So you should only add it AFTER you made sure the STEP setup as intended works without problems. Having said that, I recently decided to try-out parallax textures and meshes in my current playthrough. Or attempted playthrough, since I keep adding things. In my experience Skyrim 2020 by Pfuscher does NOT provide parallax to all meshes/ textures. So you will find a lot of missing textures (white/ grey shimmering ones). You will have to shop around to find other parallax replacers to make sure everything is covered. Or hunt down the "offending" meshes and manually remove the parallax abilities of those meshes with nifskope. So getting a useable Parallaxed Skyrim AE will take a bit of work. Thankfully, there are a lot of parallaxed versions of major texture mods on Nexus, that are also included in STEP 2.0. You can most easily find them by clicking on the "Requirements" drop-down and looking for them in the "Mods requiring..." list. And as always with mods adding meshes and textures, you will have to decide which mods/ look takes preference. And use TexGen/ DynDOLOD 3 to get them to work together. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

I was never a fan of Not So Fast (can't remember why though), so I never installed it. At Your Own Pace seems to be easier to setup, since it allows customization. But then again, I don't remember how Not So Fast works and if it is configurable or not. At any rate, since I am starting a new play through, I will install this and see how it works for me. I will be using the Main, Misc, Collage, Dark Brotherhood and Companions versions, since Thieves Guild is dealt with by TGR. If I run into any peculiarities I will report back. EDIT: I remembered why I never used Not So Fast: the unintuitive and weird setup. AYOP seems easier to setup with the MCMs

Well, you have come to the right place then! I guess the only thing you will have to decide before starting to use the STEP-guides is which version you want to mod: Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim Anniversary Edition. If you have Skyrim SE and/or the free upgrade to AE, you should use STEP Guide SE v. 1.0.0. If you splurged the 20$ and got the full Skyrim AE version (version 1.6+ with ALL the Creation Club add ons), you should use STEP Guide AE v.2.0.0. Follow the guide, download the recommended mods and away you go in a brand new, MUCH better looking and performing Skyrim. If you have questions or run into problems, post them on the Forums to get help. And have fun.

Yes, Kryptopyr is removing the FISS versions of all their mods for some reason. But they are in the old files section.

Don't eat the yellow snow...

Just to add my 2 cents: For me personally the best combination of tree mods is (in install order): EVT Lush (+EVT Lush Parallax) Realistic Spruce & Pine Bark Textures (spruce version) Realistic Aspen Happy Little Trees Nature of the Wild Lands Nature of the Wild Lands is my personal favorite as well. But, as TechAngel already said, it isn't finished yet, so I use the other tree mods to get a more or less similar effect to NotWL outside of the regions NotWL touches. I use the Spruce Bark textures, because they look slightly better than other pine-like barks. Performance wise, I have never noticed any lags or odd behaviours, apart from a stray tree here or there, but even those are rare. My setup also doesn't cause missing textures/ meshes errors in DynDoLOD 3. As I said, this set up works for me personally and is of course entirely subjective.

Ah ok, thanks. I don't think I have any mods left now in my STEP+ list, since most of Kryptopyr's mods no longer support/ rely on FISS. Might as well get rid of it then.

I have been using this for a while (previous post on March 27th LOL) with all other settings off, so just the stay at system page option on. I have had no problems with it.

Just a question for clarification, but why is the version with FISS support preferred?

It does look good, but when deviating from Vanilla+ ... *whispers* "Mari's Flora looks better"...

Well, it hasn't happened since DoubleYou posted the tweak, so YAY! Thanks so much DoubleYou.

Firstly, make sure you have finished the STEP guide and everything works as it should. Once you are certain it does, be aware that STEP does not support added mods beyond the those in the guide, so you will have to figure out a lot by yourself. Of course people will help you (if possible) if you run into trouble. After that, you can start adding the mods you like/ want to try. Add them one or a few at a time and check to see if things still work as intended (create a test playthrough). If not, you can troubleshoot the added mods: disable the added mod(s) and check one by one if re-adding causes the problem you experience. You can check in the left pane of MO2 if the added mods overwrite already installed STEP mods. In MO2 you can see which files are conflicting in the "conflicts" tab of the overwriting mod by double clicking the mod in the left pane. You will then have to decide what takes preference and hide the option you don't want. Also you can load you FULL modlist into SSEEdit to check for conflicts. If there are any, you again have to decide which setting has preference. Yet another option is to add the mods you want and then create a Bashed Patch with Wryebash. Use SSEedit to troubleshoot the Bashed Patch, pick the changes you prefer.Then check again if everything still works as intended. The way *I* add mods is to put them into the categories STEP uses. So Extended Town and Cities would go under "Locations" and any patches for it would go under "Patches". Of course you can deviate from this, if other mods overwrite the things you find essential. In that case move them further down the list in the left pane. Personally, I created a section called "Non-STEP mods" where I put mods that I want to take preference and which are overwritten by STEP mods. But it is up to you how to handle this of course, since it is your modlist. I am just using my way of doing it as an example. And of course: LOOT is your friend! LOOT will sort the mods in the right pane so they will cause the least amount of conflicts. If you feel that a mod or patch needs to be lower, you can change the meta tag in LOOT. For example: the bashed patch should be as low as possible in the right pane (above dyndolod.esp and occlusion.esp). if it isn't, you can set the meta-tag to "Dynamic patches" and LOOT will load it as low as possible. As for LodGen, TexGen and DynDOLOD: re-run these once you have tested extensively and are satifsfied with your modlist. Otherwise you will be re-running them over and over again. Also re-run FNIS or Nemesis if you add mods that add animations. These so-called output patches should ALWAYS come last in the left pane. Once you are happy with your modlist, start a new game! Some mods add references to a saved game, so starting a new game will avoid persistent references from deleted mods etc.

Thanks! Hopefully that will stop it happening again. If not, I'll be back... (get in da choppah!)

Ah. That could very well be it then. I am indeed not using the L&W patch, because, after installing more mods on top of the STEP list, it has conflicts. Could you direct me to the wild edit in question so I can adjust it myself, please?

I am using QUI with everything turned off in the ini, except the "JournalMenu" part, for this. But I guess having a "legit" updated version would be preferable?

I don't know if it is related to the ENB. It is an (un)edumicated guess really. Perhaps it is just some other "synergy" with EVLaS and the ENB (re: the sithis shadows a while back) or something? I was basically more interested if it happened to others as well (as you more or less confirmed), and if a solution had been found for it. But indeed it is not reproducible and rare enough not to be a major issue. Besides, moving back indoors then outside again seems to fix it more often than not. I was also kinda taken aback when that didn't solve it yesterday and I had to reload a save to fix it. Guess I got scared or something.

Heyas, I use the STEP ENB (light) and which looks good and works well 99.9% of the time. But sometimes, when I move from an indoor cell into Skyrim, the graphics turn dark blue (during the day) or black (at night). What I mean is, I can barely see the surroundings and lights are slightly more visible, but the screen is mostly a uniform blue or black color? This makes it impossible to see when you are going. Most of the time this is solved by going back indoors then back out. Yesterday however, I had to reload a save (not an autosave) to get it to turn normal again, losing progress. I haven't been able to reproduce this nor does it happen very often. I am just wondering if someone else is experiencing this and what could possibly be the cause? I know next to nothing about ENBs, so I am unable to troubleshoot this myself. I also forgot to take a screenshot of it. I will add one when/if it happens again.

As I said before, (rather negatively and off-puttingly I think, sorry about that) after you finished the STEP guide and made sure that is at least working as it should, you can basically add as many mods as you like. The only issue is that there WILL be conflicts and errors. When these occur you will have to decide which mod takes precedence. Load order on the left pane is extremely important in that case. You can move around the mods in the left pane until you are happy with the results. Creating a Bashed Patch with Wrye Bash can help fix problems, but you need to know what you are doing. So if you want to go that route, read up on how Wrye bash works. I sorta-kinda made a "guide" of working with Wrye Bash would work in the other post. Just (another) word of warning: once you start adding mods on top of STEP, you run the risk of turning modding into a "hobby", instead of actually playing the game. i.e. I currently have 523 mods in total (144 ESMs+ESPs and 563 ESLs active in total). It took me about 6 months to get everything to work nicely together. Having knowledge of the likes of SSEEdit and Wrye Bash (maybe even Creation Kit) are more or less required for that. In short, you will have to think of what your want to achieve for the game. Add one (or a few) mods at a time and test if things still work. Then work on resolving conflicts and other issues. And don't go overboard or add too many similar mods. And be prepared to get frustrated

Can you tell us which files end up in your overwrite? That would narrow down where you can put them or if they are needed at all. As for XPMSE: for Step you install XPSME WITHOUT the animations. You basically just need the skeleton.

Cool! Thanks, Tech But... 18 pages of bug reports?!