sgensemer42

Thank you very much. A good start!

Not sure where to post this, so I will start here. I would like to get into mod creation. It is really hard to find some good, concrete recommendations on what software tools you should have in your toolbox to create new mods. Creation Kit is step one, of course... I've seem Blender, Gimp, NifTools, gmax, & Photoshop mentioned. But not consistently, and not really describing what software would be useful for which aspect of mod creation. Are there suggestions here on the STEP pages I am not finding? Or is there a couple of good web sites for noobs wanting to get started? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

OK - Here's a slightly different question regarding Bash Patch: I use Mod Organizer (MO) to launch Wrye Bash. I create/rebuild Bashedpatch after shifting mods around. HOWEVER... I have a couple different profiles in MO. Bashedpatch.esp is kept in the "Overwrite" folder in MO. That is common to all profiles. How can I have a different bashedpatch.esp for each profile? There really needs to be separate files as each profile can be very different in mods loaded. Help?!

OK - Here's a slightly different question regarding Bash Patch: I use MO to launch Wrye Bash. I create/rebuild Bashpatch after shifting mods around. HOWEVER... I have a couple different profiles in MO. Bashpatch.esp is kept in the "Overwrite" folder in MO. That is common to all profiles. How can I have a different bashpatch.esp for each profile? There really needs to be separate files as each profile can be very different in mods loaded. Help?!

Oddly enough - I rebuilt my PC and reinstalled the 32-bit OS. Framerate still too low. WTF? Using the STEP configuration and running in windowed mode, I was able to gain back FPS so I'm now running 15-25 FPS most places/conditions. Wouldn't work on 64-bit. The only thing I can think of is that no matter what the Video card documentation says - it is NOT completely 64-bit compliant. So far I've installed ~60% of the STEP mods with no diserable degradation in FPS. Sweet.

In Answer to Aiyen's statement about mods - This is occurring with a totally vanilla install. NO Mods. Only vanilla Skyrim and the three DLC's and Bethesda HRDLC's. A brand new install, too. I did happen to uninstall and start again with no change... I was benchmarking my install prior to installing any mods. I had all of these DLC's in my 32-bit install as well. All: Still can't fathom why the same game would run so poorly on a 64-bit OS when it ran fine on a 32-bit OS. Any other ideas?

Yeah, I know about the memory. Baby steps. At least I've gained 1/2 GB! Where are you seeing directX 9c info in dxdiag? I don't see it on any tab, 32 or 64 bit runs...

Did that already. Only shows DirectX 11. Does not indicate if any other (older) version is present. Does not show any issue, either. Do you know of any tool that shows ALL installed versions of DirectX? I found nothing on a web search...

Not really sure... When I re-installed Steam, Skyrim showed on the list of games, ready to install. I clicked on the game and it started downloading. All you see in Steam is that the package is downloading. There is NO breakdown of what is installing. Nothing on checking pre-reqs either. Took ~12 hrs to download. Yuch. I have DirectX 11 installed courtesy of Windows and my Nvidia drivers. I doubt Steam installed 9c; but there is no way to tell. DirectX 11 "should" handle 9c games. It did when I was running a 32-bit system. I tried downloading DirectX 9c anyway, but I can't tell whether or not it actually installed. It does not show up in installed apps or any other DirectX install check I know of. Again - The ONLY change I made here is changing my Win 7 Home Premium 32-bit OS to a Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS. No hardware change. This required basically a reformat of the HD, (all handled by the Windows install routine) so all apps had to be reinstalled. Should not be ANY holdovers from the 32-bit OS.

Am using Win 7 Home Premium. All drivers "should" be 64-bit compliant. Nvuidia driver updated to current. ALL software reinstalled from scratch. Did not do Win 8 because I already had a Win 7 copy. I just changed it from 32-bit to 64-bit. AS I do not have a touchscreen, I do not see the point to Win 8... Mobo is Asus P5n-D. It is SLI capable (As is my video card.) BIOS is OK. Not sure about drivers. I will give Driver Genius a try. Thannks.

Though not strictly a STEP issue (yet), I would like an opinion from the Master Modders out there. I had Skyrim installed on a 32-bit Win 7 PC. (Asus P5N-D SLI Mobo, Intel Q9400, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 650W PS, nVidia GT 9500, all about 3 yrs old.) Decent; but not stellar. Game loaded fairly quickly. Used SKSE and HiAlgo Boost. Â Fraps clocked at 25-30 FPS during gameplay. Game ran fine; but kept having CTD issues. Decided to convert OS to 64-bit for performance improvement, and to try STEP. No hardware changes. Surprise: Installed 64-bit OS from scratch. No other changes except current drivers for all. Skyrim almost will not run. Takes about 4-5 minutes to launch. Loading screen is at 15 FPS (Before it was 35 or so). When game starts - Fraps reports 4-6 FPS. (Yes - four to six.) Exterior/Interior. Combat goes to 1-3 FPS. Game is setup per STEP 1.B to 1.E. Setting game in launcher options to Low only gains about 1 (one) FPS. NO mods installed. Just vanilla game and all DLC's. Tried about every test I could think of (CPU-Z, HD Tune, RealTempGT, GPU-Z). All report hardware is nominal. No issues I can see. Running Heaven DX11 also reports 4-6 FPS. Low or High quality. GPU-Z reports only about 100MB of VRam used. GPU load is 95-100% (I do not know what it was using on the 32-bit OS). All temps nominal. CPU load is ~35%, Ram use is ~45%. Overall, PC is running slower than before (program and OS response). I cannot believe this at all. Components are all 64-bit compliant. I am using 64-bit drivers. Has anyone else experienced this? If so - any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

How do you get the Skyrim profile to "stick" once you close the profile window in Inspector? Once I pick the Skyrim profile, then close the window, and enter the profile screen again, the default profile is loaded, not the Skyrim profile. Same for the Monitor window. If I add monitors, the next time I run the program, it is just the default monitors. Do you have to have the profile open while you play the game? IE: What is the proper procedure to follow when you want to play the game and have the proper profile loaded?

Unfortunately, that doesn't help me. For one thing - I am not a "pro" modder - so a lot of your explanation goes right over my head. I've never built a mod. Never even looked at the Creation Kit. Also the link you provided does not seem to bear any relationship to "Using Mods from Steam Workshop" and "Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebars". Or at least I cannot find that information there. Only info on DDSopt. Bottom line: Can you mix Steam Mods with Nexus mods and still build a STEP-compliant game? If so - how?

In the STEP guide, only Nexus mods are mentioned. Can subscribing to the steam versions work with the STEP process? In other words - How does/can Steam Mods work in a STEP configuration?