ACCEPTED Smooth Shores (by amorphis88)

[TechAngel85]

Discussion topic:

Smooth Shores by amorphis88

Wiki Link

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[Kattmandu]

This might not be compatible with Skyrim Landscape and Water Fixes.

[TechAngel85]

I advocate that we reevaluate this mod.

Testing in the development version has revealed a lot of issues of unresolved conflicts with it. Most authors aren't bothering with patching it because it commits a modding "taboo" of large/widespread landscape rescaping. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with doing as such, as long as patches are being provided. There the issue lays...authors aren't patching for it. The result is a lot of landscape holes along the shorelines. However, this is mainly with Landscape and Water Fixes, which could be reevaluated along with this to determine which mod is best for the Guide.

Personally, I love what this mod provides, which smooths out all the blocky, jagged the devs left in the landscape along the shores. This provides a much better shoreline/water transition. However, it's interaction with SLaWF breaks the landscape.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, TechAngel85 said:

I advocate that we reevaluate this mod.

Testing in the development version has revealed a lot of issues of unresolved conflicts with it. Most authors aren't bothering with patching it because it commits a modding "taboo" of large/widespread landscape rescaping. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with doing as such, as long as patches are being provided. There the issue lays...authors aren't patching for it. The result is a lot of landscape holes along the shorelines. However, this is mainly with Landscape and Water Fixes, which could be reevaluated along with this to determine which mod is best for the Guide.

Personally, I love what this mod provides, which smooths out all the blocky, jagged the devs left in the landscape along the shores. This provides a much better shoreline/water transition. However, it's interaction with SLaWF breaks the landscape.

Where to look for these 'holes'? All over or in certain areas? Does it edit river shorelines too? I hadn't noticed anything, but I also haven't been looking at shorelines.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that the author is tackling river shorelines, too. Looks like it's a WIP, so if it gets finished, that would be a plus. People usually quit these big projects before completing. This may be why nobody is patching for it ... yet. I can imagine that it will conflict with many mods though. LSaWF addresses a ton of issues that this mod will likely never touch, so it would seem that they should be patched.

Curious why this is in Locations rather than Fixes

[TechAngel85]

30 minutes ago, z929669 said:

Where to look for these 'holes'? All over or in certain areas? Does it edit river shorelines too? I hadn't noticed anything, but I also haven't been looking at shorelines.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that the author is tackling river shorelines, too. Looks like it's a WIP, so if it gets finished, that would be a plus. People usually quit these big projects before completing. This may be why nobody is patching for it ... yet. I can imagine that it will conflict with many mods though. LSaWF addresses a ton of issues that this mod will likely never touch, so it would seem that they should be patched.

Curious why this is in Locations rather than Fixes

Yeah, they are all over the place, but you can travel the rivers to see them. Some are near Whiterun. Smooth Shores is likely abandoned. There hasn't been any updates in a long while.

Because it's not really a fix (nothing is broken). All it's making are landscape edits (all over Skyrim), which fits more with locations.

[z929669]

14 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

Yeah, they are all over the place, but you can travel the rivers to see them. Some are near Whiterun. Smooth Shores is likely abandoned. There hasn't been any updates in a long while.

Because it's not really a fix (nothing is broken). All it's making are landscape edits (all over Skyrim), which fits more with locations.

Yeah, just looked at the mod more carefully. Lots of conflicts with Realistic Water Two as well as USSEP and many others. Too bad it's abandoned. Looks to be about 75% completed. Nothing in the icy shores is fixed though. Looks like it will never be updated unless someone takes it over.

[TechAngel85]

Author was last active in June of this year on Nexus forums, so they likely lost interest. It would be a rather simple mod for anyone to get permission to continue upon it. Smoothing the landscape is simple enough to do. The CK has a tool for it.

[z929669]

If we accept this, it will need to be patched. It makes lots of changes, so needs extensive testing against current Step release

[TechAngel85]

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

If we accept this, it will need to be patched. It makes lots of changes, so needs extensive testing against current Step release

It's already in the Guide. Hence the "re"evaluation.

[TechAngel85]

It seems the issues with the landscape holes are more with Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods. At least the ones I'm seeing. Could be some of both. 

[TechAngel85]

Smooth Shores Patches

 

[HunterZ]

LOOT warns that there are 15 ITM records and suggests cleaning with xEdit.

[z929669]

2 hours ago, HunterZ said:

LOOT warns that there are 15 ITM records and suggests cleaning with xEdit.

What does LOOT show you for the CRC32? Here's mine:

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Never mind. I just checked the source. I must've cleaned my copy and neglected to mention it in the instructions. Will update.

[Mercury71]

5 hours ago, HunterZ said:

LOOT warns that there are 15 ITM records and suggests cleaning with xEdit.

Later in the guide you will get the information to clean all mods Loot flags as dirty. (see pic below)

[z929669]

12 minutes ago, Mercury71 said:

Later in the guide you will get the information to clean all mods Loot flags as dirty. (see pic below)

Yeah, I forgot about that too. Thanks for the reminder.

Now I'm wondering if I've created a situation where ALL mods that need cleaning will need special instructions (for the sake of consistency with the new SS instruction) to do so in addition to this catch-all in the guide.

If we get another inquiry on this, I'll remember to point to that section of the guide instead of creating more instructions that will inevitably become outdated.

After writing that^, I've convinced myself to UN-update the new instruction to avoid that can of worms.