Manual cleaning of Dawnguard.esm

[valvangur]

Following the STEP guide, I quick-auto-cleaned Dawnguard.esm twice, but when I attempted the manual cleaning I couldn't 'Apply Filter for Cleaning' per instructions in the AFKMods guide. (I'm using TES5Edit v4.0.2) Can I safely edit the records without applying the filter, or should I just skip manually cleaning Dawnguard.esm?

 

Also the link to AFKMods guide has changed:

https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/4110-manual-cleaning-skyrim-and-skyrim-se-master-files/

[Mercury71]

I just did this as Lexys guide here say:

 

Open SSEEdit and load only Dawnguard.esm
Once loaded Left click and open CELL > Block 5 > Sub-Block 3 > select 00016BCF. Scroll down the view window on the right to find XEZN subrecord referring to RiftenRatwayZone [ECZN:0009FBB9]. Right click and select Remove.
Next Left click and open CELL > Block 2 > Sub-Block 1 > select 0001FA4C. Right click and select Remove.
Last Left click and open CELL > Block 8 > Sub-Block 1. Right click and select Remove.
Click the [X] in the upper right hand corner, uncheck "Backup plugins", and click [OK].

[Greg]

See the instructions at https://wiki.step-project.com/TES5Edit#Recommendations for configuring the latest version of TES5Edit (or SSEEdit) to quickly clean plugins.

[valvangur]

Thanks!

[mooit]

Hi,

Don't mean to bump an old post, but I wanted to know for SSE 1.6.640.0 if these manual cleaning steps still applied?

 

Open SSEEdit and load only Dawnguard.esm
Once loaded Left click and open CELL > Block 5 > Sub-Block 3 > select 00016BCF. Scroll down the view window on the right to find XEZN subrecord referring to RiftenRatwayZone [ECZN:0009FBB9]. Right click and select Remove.
Next Left click and open CELL > Block 2 > Sub-Block 1 > select 0001FA4C. Right click and select Remove.
Last Left click and open CELL > Block 8 > Sub-Block 1. Right click and select Remove.
Click the [X] in the upper right hand corner, uncheck "Backup plugins", and click [OK].

 

THANKS

Edited May 27, 2023 by mooit

[Mousetick]

  On 5/27/2023 at 1:28 AM, mooit said:

Don't mean to bump an old post, but I wanted to know for SSE 1.6.640.0 if these manual cleaning steps still applied?

Expand  

Completely useless. You may want to do the first CELL if you don't use USSEP. The game won't crash or burn without the "fix".

Instead of digging up an old post containing outdated information borrowed from another guide, why not follow the nice up to date guide from this fine site?

Link: STEP SkyrimSE Guide 2.2.0 > Cleaning Vanilla Master Plugins

[DoubleYou]

To add to what Mousetick has said, we used to have those instructions mirrored here, but then through some discussion on the xEdit server, we removed them as not necessary and potentially harmful (although we have never observed any issues over many years).

[mooit]

  On 5/27/2023 at 2:16 AM, Mousetick said:

Completely useless. You may want to do the first CELL if you don't use USSEP. The game won't crash or burn without the "fix".

Instead of digging up an old post containing outdated information borrowed from another guide, why not follow the nice up to date guide from this fine site?

Link: STEP SkyrimSE Guide 2.2.0 > Cleaning Vanilla Master Plugins

Expand  

Because LOOT still links to the cleaning with section 7.6 still referring to a part of this.

https://tes5edit.github.io/docs/7-mod-cleaning-and-error-checking.html#ThreeEasyStepstocleanMods

And the other reason I asked, because in the past, when other topics were being discussed, updates/changes were listed on the forum, that were not listed on the Wiki, and I was told, that the Wiki might not always have the most updated info at the time.

So I'll just clean Dawnguard.esp as normal and leave all this out then.

THANKS

P.S. Someone might want to make reference to the link in LOOT not to follow that.

Edited May 27, 2023 by mooit

[Mousetick]

Not to mention mods that edit CELL 00016BCF (or its contents) and used Skyrim.esm or Dawnguard.esm as the master: they re-introduce the change that manual cleaning (or USSEP) is supposed to remove. I have 4 such mods in my load order. This manual cleaning is futile.

[Mousetick]

  On 5/27/2023 at 5:17 AM, mooit said:

Because LOOT still links to the cleaing with section 7.6 still referring to this.

https://tes5edit.github.io/docs/7-mod-cleaning-and-error-checking.html#ThreeEasyStepstocleanMods

P.S. Someone might want to make reference to the link in LOOT not to follow this.

Expand  

I'm not following. The '3 easy steps' describe how to use QuickAutoClean. The STEP Guide instructs to use QuickAutoClean. LOOT links to xEdit's 3 easy steps. Where do you see a discrepancy or inconsistency in the instructions?

Section 7.6 of xEdit's documentation is not part of the 3 easy steps. The 3 easy steps are confined to section 7.3, they don't extend beyond that section.

The manual cleaning described in section 7.6 is for CELL 00016BCF (Ragged Flagon in Riften's Ratways), which is corrected by USSEP and may be reverted by other mods in the load order, as I mentioned previously. In the end it does not matter: Encounter Zones are used to set the min/max levels of generic enemies automatically scaled by the game based on the player's level. There are no generic scaled enemies in the Ragged Flagon, so the Encounter Zone setting has basically no effect.

Section 7.6 of xEdit's documentation refers to https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/4110-manual-cleaning-skyrim-and-skyrim-se-master-files/ from which this 'Dawnguard manual cleaning' stuff originates. On that page you'll see the recommendation is based on the input of 1 person (from the USSEP team), which is then taken as gospel.

The large majority of players don't use mods, not even USSEP, and don't clean masters automatically or manually, particularly console players. Yet I'm not aware of gameplay or stability issues due to the Encounter Zone in the Ragged Flagon for those players. In other words: if it's not broken, there's no need to fix it.

The 2 other CELLs are test and/or internal holding cells that are unreachable by the player in the game, and may not even be used in-game (I haven't bothered to check).

  On 5/27/2023 at 5:17 AM, mooit said:

So I'll just clean Dawnguard.esp as normal and leave all this out then.

Expand  

Yep. QuickAutoClean

[mooit]

I meant, in case someone just browses through the STEP instructions, and doesn't do them at that moment, but then later loads LOOT and sees and follows that. I was only trying to explain that it might be good idea to put on the STEP page to disregard what is mentioned on the LOOT page.

Edited May 29, 2023 by mooit

[Mousetick]

  On 5/29/2023 at 6:27 AM, mooit said:

but then later loads LOOT and sees and follows that.

Expand  

Follows what?

  On 5/29/2023 at 6:27 AM, mooit said:

disregard what is mentioned on the LOOT page.

Expand  

I don't know what LOOT page you're referring to.

The xEdit instructions linked to by LOOT say (emphasis added):

  Quote

Three Easy Steps to clean Mods

1. Run the QuickAutoClean Executable

2. Choose the file to clean

• After choosing the file to clean xEdit will perform all the required cleaning needed automatically.
• If used with Skyrim LE or Skyrim SE this includes any special cleaning requirements for Dawnguard.

3. Close xEdit to save the cleaned file.

Expand  

What exactly is the problem?

If someone reads the STEP Guide and skips the cleaning, it's a good thing that LOOT reminds them about cleaning.

If you choose to do things out of order or to follow other instructions, that's on you.