Cbode1

Thanks for the feedback, all. TIL DDSopt is actually lame and also probably obsolete/not worth the trouble.

I was going through the Fallout DDSopt quick-start guide when I found that the batch files necessary for texture optimization no longer exist. The intended link to the files is posted pretty prominently at the start of the guide and the language of the guide makes it seem like there's no way around using those specific files, so I was wondering if any users had any suggestions about workarounds or other download mirrors that I could/should use. Thanks a million.

Well I found something. I found a page on the steam forums where a user reported his similar issues were fixed when he ran SSME - Skyrim Startup Memory Editor. I downloaded and dropped the two necessary files in the my Skyrim folder and launched Skyrim. Upon exiting to an exterior cell, it loaded for about...two seconds longer(?) before CTD. So that's progress I guess. MemoryBlocksLog, however, does finally show my Default Heap set to 768! Joy! Doesn't fix the CTDs, but I'll take what I can get. I noted that the game loaded up to 360MB before crashing for whatever reason, so at this point I can only assume that it's probably not a memory issue, or at least not entirely. More than likely it's some texture conflict or whatever that I may have caused when I first realized something was wrong and tried reinstalling lighter versions of some of the more memory-dependent mods. So, I've decided that I'll just make a separate Skyrim install and start over, this time being a bit more mindful of what I install and how I do it. I'll keep the older install as-is in case someone has another suggestion to the culprit and might know how I can salvage my current setup. EDIT: Forgot to mention, I also tried loading Dragonsreach on a whim, since it's one of the larger interior spaces with decent amount of clutter and people, and also got an immediate CTD upon attempting to load. So that screams "mod conflict/error" to me, particularly since I'm able to load the Abandoned Prison (the starting location in Alternate Start - Live Another Life) just fine. Probably SMIM or some such, which leads me to think I'm better off scrapping this build and starting over with a bit more discretion. EDIT 2: In the process of reinstalling SKSE, as well as other mods, I think I might've found out what was causing my initial memory issues. As other posters above said, this issue is usually caused by SKSE being improperly installed, which I think was the issue in my case as well. I downloaded the pre-made .ini file of the nexus, (the one referenced in the STEP 2.10.0 guide, and while installing the archive I noticed that the STEP guide seems to suggest that the file path should be \mods\skse_1_07_03\SKSE\skse.ini, while the filepath that comes with the premade .ini is \mods\skse_1_07_03\Data\SKSE\skse.ini. My guess is that since I downloaded this pre-made .ini off the skyrim nexus, it was packaged like a standard mod, with the file contents stored within a Data folder so it could be installed through MO. My guess is this discrepancy in file paths kept SKSE from locating the custom .ini file, so it just ran on its default settings, leading to my CTDs. There was a link to an image of the appropriate file structure in the STEP 2.10.0 skse install guide that probably would've tipped me off to this on the first time around, but the link is dead. Kek. Modding sure is an adventure. FINAL EDIT: Final update for anyone interested. I tested my earlier theory regarding the skse.ini file structure through MemoryBlocksLog and it seems to have confirmed what I thought: The addition of the \Data\ folder in my SKSE installation was what was causing the .ini settings to not manifest in-game. Removing the \Data\ header resulted in the settings functioning as intended (I edited the Heap memory allocation just to verify, and the MemoryBlocksLog.log reflected those changes). So yeah. Don't install things like a dingus. EZ.

Well, I moved my MO directory to my Games folder as you suggested, but I'm still getting a CTD when loading an exterior cell. I checked the MemoryBlocksLog and it's still reporting my default heap as being set to 256mb. I checked the skse.ini file through the skse mod listing in MO, just to see if MO can find .ini file, (which it did) and it still showed my original settings of DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768. So yeah. No change. Weird.

Good to know. I'll give it a shot and give an update, thanks.

Alrighty...so I appear to be experiencing roughly the same issue as described above. I'm experiencing CTDs when trying to load an exterior cell. I'm running Skyrim LE, attempting to follow STEP 2.10.0 as closely as I am able given the guide is outdated and some referenced mods are no longer available. Given that I'm also using non-STEP mods on top of the incomplete STEP 2.10.0 build, I was expecting some issues, but I'm not sure if this problem is directly related to the mish-mashed build I have or something else. I did some testing with Memory Blocks Log, and when loading the exterior cell, the heap memory spikes to 255 before records stop, and I found that like the OP, Skyrim only recognizes 256mb of memory assigned to the Default Heap, despite having DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768 set in my SKSE.ini, so it seems pretty evident that that's what's causing the crashing. Also, while I'm not all that familliar with encoding, it doesn't appear that my SKSE.ini is encoded in a way that would cause the .ini to not be readable. I also added the -forcesteamloader argument to my MO SKSE executable, but that didn't appear to change anything. On top of that, I found a whole new layer of confusion when I checked my \Documents\My Games\Skyrim\SKSE\skse_steam_loader.log, and found that the config path line was pointing to an SKSE.ini in my \Skyrim\Data\ folder...an SKSE.ini that doesn't exist. When I edited the line to point to the correct path and ran Skyrim, I still CTD, and the config path line in skse_steam_loader.log reverts to its earlier incorrect setting despite me having saved my changes earlier. (Although I realize know that .log files probably aren't for storing configuration settings) I feel like this is related, but I don't really know enough about SKSE to tell. Is this a simple fix in some other config file I'm missing? Am I a dum-dum and missed something glaringly obvious? Is this somehow caused by one of the non-STEP mods I installed after 'finishing' the STEP 2.10.0 guide? Help? Below is a link to five screenshots showing my SKSE.ini and other relevant files, so you can see that I'm not crazy (or alternatively, that I am and also very blind/dumb). https://imgur.com/a/Xy1sbSc

Never mind, I figured it out. I think the file I had saved as mteFunctions.pas wasn't actually the right one, or that I maybe I didn't download it correctly? Anyways, I found another copy of the mteFunctions.pas in the outdated Merge Plugins xEdit Script mod on the Nexus, extracted and used that instead, and everything's working fine now.

I have a question, and I wasn't entirely sure if this is an FNVEdit problem, or a Wrye Flash problem, or not a problem at all, so here goes: I've ran into some confusion while following the guide. At section 4.6 "Merging Fixes", it explains how to merge several similar plugins together, and the final step in the process is generating bash tags for the merge through FNVEdit. I tried doing so, and found out I was missing a file called "mteFunctions.pas". Eventually I found a copy of the file on github, and tried installing it into the Edit Scripts folder in the FNVEdit install folder. Then when I tried generating the bash tags through FNVEdit, I got this error message: "Error in unit 'mteFunctions' on line 5: 'unit' expected but '<' found." I realize this is a pretty technical question, but I don't really know how to proceed at this point, besides just ignoring this step in the guide and continue not generating any bash tags ever. I'm very new to Wrye, so I don't really know if neglecting to make bash tags is manageable, or game-breaking. Did I break FNVEdit, or am I just stupid and I missed a step in the guide?