Prepare for the Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition

[z929669]

In preparation for the forthcoming release of the Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition (SAE), Step is advising that all Skyrim Special Edition guide users (and anyone that mods SSE in general) back up their game directory: ..\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\.*

If drive space is an issue, the SKSE team recommends backup of Skyrim.exe and Update.esm.

This will prevent being 'stuck' with the update if automatic updates are enabled via Steam. No other action is needed to maintain compatibility with SKSE64 and associated mods. It may require the better part of a year for all SKSE-dependent mods to update.

• Steam & Game Maintenance
• SAE-SKSE Plugin Status

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Maintaining Two Concurrent Instances of SSE (1.5.97) and SAE (1.6.xxx)

1. Rename the 1.5.97 "Skyrim Special Edition" folder (in ..\Steam\steamapps\common), e.g. to "Skyrim Special Edition-SSE", in Windows Explorer.
2. Trigger the Skyrim AE update ("Verify integrity ... " of SSE files from the Library or on the Downloads panel in the Steam client, click the button to start the pending download).
3. Steam will download and install Skyrim 1.6.xxx from scratch in a new "Skyrim Special Edition" folder. Wait for it to complete.
4. Configure updates to only download at game launch
5. Rename this folder to "Skyrim Special Edition-SAE"

Now that there are two game folders "Skyrim Special Edition-SSE" (1.5.97) and "Skyrim Special Edition-SAE" (1.6.xxx), they can each be renamed interchangeably to "Skyrim Special Edition", and Steam will be none the wiser. This allows all tools (mod manager, DynDOLOD, LOOT, BethINI, etc.) to be used as normal against either version with folder name "Skyrim Special Edition".

We recommend creating a new MO 'instance' for the SAE version, so that mod builds can be maintained independently. Profiles can also be used as well as various hybrid configurations that are beyond scope here.

Tip: modlist.txt can be ported manually to different MO profile instances and reconciled using WinMerge. Same foes for ..\mods\ folder and content as well as game INIs. This way, it's relatively simple to maintain similar installs of both versions of the modded game.

[LittleGuy]

It doesn't hurt to be cautious, but from what I'm reading they'll just be giving Fishing, Survival Mode & Saints and Seducers to current owners and selling all other Creation Club content (Plus 26 others they haven't bothered to release yet) as the "Anniversary Edition".

I don't know much about other "Creation Club" updates, but I don't think this will be like LE to SE (Probably just some code to sell their stuff).

 

As for the "NEXT-GEN ENHANCEMENTS" that's just them unlocking some stuff for console versions I'm guessing.

[LittleGuy]

Never mind, I saw they will be updating the compiler (Kind of a dick move).

Also how do you edit posts in this site?

[Greg]

Yes, they are updating the compiler from Visual Studio 2015 to Visual Studio 2019 so the generated binaries won't be the same.

[TechAngel85]

17 hours ago, LittleGuy said:

Never mind, I saw they will be updating the compiler (Kind of a dick move).

Also how do you edit posts in this site?

Yes, Visual Studio update.

As a Watcher, you can't edit posts. This is by design so users have some time to get the feel of our community vs Nexus, which is were most are coming from. We expect all our members to have read the Citizenship Guide and abide by it. Once you hit 20 posts you'll be automatically moved into our Citizen group, which will allow you to edit your posts. The editing is specially because we don't delete or blank out our posts here like most like to do on Nexus.

[Eliian]

Nexus recommends backing up

• SkyrimSE.exe
• Data/Skyrim.esm
• Data/Update.esm
• Data/Skyrim - Interface.bsa
• Data/Skyrim - Misc.bsa
• Data/Skyrim - Patch.bsa

Just wondering if this is overkill or not compared to SKSE recommendations.

[DoubleYou]

I recommend backup of everything just to be safe. No one really knows until the update drops. 

[z929669]

I backed up my entire game dir ..\Skyrim Special Edition\.

[Mousetick]

4 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

I recommend backup of everything just to be safe. No one really knows until the update drops. 

I agree. I did backup the whole Skyrim SE directory too.

In case it helps anyone else: if you don't have an adequate backup or achiving tool on hand, or don't know how to use one, the Steam client provides a built-in function for backing up and restoring entire games.

Backup:

1. Select Game in library (e.g. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition), right-click and choose 'Properties...'

2. Select 'Local Files' tab and click 'Backup  game files...' button.

3. Follow instructions.

Restore:

1. Click 'Steam' in top menu bar, select 'Backup and Restore Programs'.

2. Select 'Restore a previous backup' button, click Next and follow instructions.

[z929669]

41 minutes ago, Mousetick said:

I agree. I did backup the whole Skyrim SE directory too.

In case it helps anyone else: if you don't have an adequate backup or achiving tool on hand, or don't know how to use one, the Steam client provides a built-in function for backing up and restoring entire games.

Backup:

1. Select Game in library (e.g. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition), right-click and choose 'Properties...'

2. Select 'Local Files' tab and click 'Backup  game files...' button.

3. Follow instructions.

Restore:

1. Click 'Steam' in top menu bar, select 'Backup and Restore Programs'.

2. Select 'Restore a previous backup' button, click Next and follow instructions.

I think this excludes all but the official game data though. I wanted to preserve my entire setup, so I just zipped up the whole thing (after deleting everything, re-downloading game data, and re-establishing CK + fixes, SSE Engine Fixes, SKSE, etc. ... nice clean backup)

[Mousetick]

14 hours ago, z929669 said:

I think this excludes all but the official game data though.

Yes I believe you're right. Having a self-contained backup with everything ready to go is best for sure. Re-adding all the standard add-ons (SKSE etc.) to a clean game restore is not too bad though in this case: there are only a few of them and they're just copy-paste - there are no unique items like customized config files to re-create.

[Eliian]

Backing it all up makes sense. Thanks all.

[Greg]

I agree that a full backup of the Skyrim Special Edition folder is the safest approach. I doubt Stem will alter or delete any custom configuration files (e.g. ENB configuration files), but these may be painful to restore from memory. Also note that if Steam uses validate files to do the update (or Bethesda changes the masters to accommodate CC content for some unknown reason), it may revert all of the cleaned masters if these are important to you.

[Mousetick]

Steam is pushing out the AE update. Here is a trick you can use to let Steam update Skyrim and get it over with, while preserving your SE installation, assuming you had configured Steam to only update when the game is launched:

1. Rename the 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder (in Steam\steamapps\common), e.g. to 'Skyrim Special Edition Hands-off', in Windows Explorer.
2. Trigger the Skyrim AE update (on the Downloads panel in the Steam client, click the button to start the pending download).
3. Steam will download and install Skyrim AE from scratch (~11.3 GB) in a new 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder. Wait for it to complete.
4. Rename the 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder to 'Skyrim Anniversary Edition' (or any other name you want) in Windows Explorer.
5. Rename the folder from step #1 (e.g. to 'Skyrim Special Edition Hands-off') back to 'Skyrim Special Edition' in Windows Explorer.

Now you still have your old Skyrim SE installation as if nothing happened. Steam will think it's up to date and won't touch it*.

(*) Until there is another Skyrim update in the future, or unless you ask to verify integrity of game files.

[z929669]

3 hours ago, Mousetick said:

Steam is pushing out the AE update. Here is a trick you can use to let Steam update Skyrim and get it over with, while preserving your SE installation, assuming you had configured Steam to only update when the game is launched:

1. Rename the 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder (in Steam\steamapps\common), e.g. to 'Skyrim Special Edition Hands-off', in Windows Explorer.
2. Trigger the Skyrim AE update (on the Downloads panel in the Steam client, click the button to start the pending download).
3. Steam will download and install Skyrim AE from scratch (~11.3 GB) in a new 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder. Wait for it to complete.
4. Rename the 'Skyrim Special Edition' folder to 'Skyrim Anniversary Edition' (or any other name you want) in Windows Explorer.
5. Rename the folder from step #1 (e.g. to 'Skyrim Special Edition Hands-off') back to 'Skyrim Special Edition' in Windows Explorer.

Now you still have your old Skyrim SE installation as if nothing happened. Steam will think it's up to date and won't touch it*.

(*) Until there is another Skyrim update in the future, or unless you ask to verify integrity of game files.

Sounds like a potentially good solution that could be handy even for those of us with a backup. I wonder if you need to let this 'rest' for a bit to test the assumption that Steam will not modify the "Skyrim Special Edition" (effectively not renamed from Steam default) folder content OR the "Skyrim Special Edition - AE" folder content (renamed from Steam default).

I really have little idea of how Steam is configured under the hood to 'help' users stay up to date, since they removed the option to NOT update.