help troubleshooting a "blocky halo" effect on torches, and other lighting issues

[ButchDiavolo]

On 12/12/2023 at 2:34 AM, Brambleshire said:

Yep. I'm running into this now with Lanterns of Skyrim and Oakwood. I'm trying to remove both just cuz I'm not a big fan. Again I'm going through some of your old posts

Hmm, not sure if going through MY old posts is a good idea. I make a lot of mistakes still when modding. You would be better off to do a forum search for anything you want to know about. There are a lot of people better informed than me. Just saying.

Both Lanterns of Skyrim and Oakwood are referenced in the STEP Conflict Resolution patch. So to be able to remove them from your mod list, you will have to deleted those references with xEdit. Which means you have to install them first.

I am sure there is an easier way, but how I do this is by starting xEdit, then select ONLY the Step conflict resolution patch to load, which will automatically also load all the plug-ins it changes. When it is done loading, select the Step patch, Oakwood and Lanterns of Skyrim, (or the mod you are trying to edit), right mouse click on the Step patch and select "Apply filter to show conflicts (selected files only). This will pop up a screen where you can check if you selected the files you wanted, then press OK. Once it has done checking, it will be easier and quicker to find the references you need to remove. Open the plugin with the original reference (i.e. Oakwood), you will see only changed references in the list in red, orange or yellow. Go through those references to find the one (or more) that are changed by the step patch. When you found one, right click on the top of column of the step patch (on the name of the plugin) and remove that column. Be sure you ONLY remove the step column! Do the same until you found all changed references by the step patch. When you are done, lastly, and importantly (I usually forget this part...), right mouse click on the step patch in the left list and select "Clean Masters". Then  close xEdit and save (with copy) the changed plug-ins when asked. That should have cleaned all references. Untick Oakwood and Lanterns of Skyrim in the left column of MO2 and you should not get a missing plugin warning and it is now safe to remove those mods. If you do still get a missing plugin warning, it means you missed a reference and have to do this again, find it and remove it.

Edited December 13, 2023 by ButchDiavolo

[Brambleshire]

On 12/13/2023 at 12:11 AM, ButchDiavolo said:

Hmm, not sure if going through MY old posts is a good idea. I make a lot of mistakes still when modding. You would be better off to do a forum search for anything you want to know about. There are a lot of people better informed than me. Just saying.

Well I found it by doing forum searches lol. Your posts just happen to come up a lot and you explain things with a bit more detail that is easier to understand than some of the others.

On 12/13/2023 at 12:11 AM, ButchDiavolo said:

Oakwood and Lanterns of Skyrim

Thank you! Thats actually much easier to understand than the explanations I have read elsewhere on this forum. Someone else was saying to scroll through "referenced by" every object in the entire mod. This is far easier, and worked great for oakwood. However, for now I decided I am keeping Lanterns of Skyrim. I've just been removing specific problematic lanterns. I view them in more informative console, and I use their IDs to find them and right click remove in xEdit. Is this a sin? Or should I be making some kind of patch?
(I've been doing this because its simple. Even after all the youtube videos ive watched and posts I've read, I cant figure out how to make patches in xEdit. Seems like every guide or explanation is drastically different from my particular situations)

[ButchDiavolo]

2 minutes ago, Brambleshire said:

Well I found it by doing forum searches lol. Your posts just happen to come up a lot and you explain things with a bit more detail that is easier to understand than some of the others.

Thank you! Thats actually much easier to understand than the explanations I have read elsewhere on this forum. Someone else was saying to scroll through "referenced by" every object in the entire mod. This is far easier, and worked great for oakwood. However, for now I decided I am keeping Lanterns of Skyrim. I've just been removing specific problematic lanterns. I view them in more informative console, and I use their IDs to find them and right click remove in xEdit. Is this a sin? Or should I be making some kind of patch?
(I've been doing this because its simple. Even after all the youtube videos ive watched and posts I've read, I cant figure out how to make patches in xEdit. Seems like every guide or explanation is drastically different from my particular situations)

When I am trying to help people sort out problems, I tend to make "wordy" explanations. When you have been modding a long time, you tend to forget the minor details that became second nature, but new modders won't know about, which can make all the difference. I am glad my post are helping you because of that.

And yes, deleting IDs in the original plug-in is considered a sin. But, I do that as well a lot of the time. In the case of LoS, it shouldn't be that much of a problem, because the mod is older and not likely to be updated any more. If mod still gets updated, you would have to go through the mod again to remove the IDs you deleted. Which is why patches are a better way, because they overwrite the references, but keeps the original mod intact.

Thinking about LoS, given that you have a (vastly) extended modlist, you should probably use another version of LoS called Lanterns of Skyrim II. The version of LoS in the STEP list is the original mod that was ported to SE. STEP uses that version because it is closer to vanilla Skyrim. The problem when you start adding mods on top of STEP is that any patches are outdated/ not maintained. LoS II is a (slightly) newer version of the original mod that changes things like adding many different kinds of lanterns. And it has a lot more patches that work with more (recent) mods (JK's Skyrim, Cutting Room Floor, USSEP, SMIM, etc).

If you want to switch over to the other version, you will first have to disable the mod in the MCM menu, if it has a disable/ uninstall function there. Wait 2 (real life) minutes, makes new save in a quiet interior place, then close the game. If it doesn't have a disable function in the MCM (I can't remember), then just close the game. Next you will have to remove the references to it in the STEP Lighting & Weather Patch, like you did for Oakwood. Once that is done and MO2 doesn't give a missing masters error, untick (don't uninstall yet) the old version. Now MO2 will most likely give some missing master errors (i.e. DynDOLOD). For now, just untick all the mods MO2 gives an error for. Load Skyrim with the last save and wait at least 2 (real life) minutes in game to let any scripts end. Then make a new safe. Now you can uninstall the old mod and install LoS II and any new patches. You will have to re-run TexGen and DynDOLOD (not xLODGEN).

Or, much easier and faster, after removing the references from the STEP patch, uninstall the old LoS (and patches for that) and install LoS II and new patches. Re-run TexGen and DynDOLOD, and start a new game.

[Brambleshire]

Yes it is extremely helpful! I'm grateful to the entire STEP team, but some folks will say everything you just said in like 2 sentences lol. 

Funny you bring up LOS 2, because I was considering switching to it for the reasons you stated. At the time, it was the STEP CR patch problem, but now (thanks to you) that I know how to separate LOS from STEP CR I actually want to hang on to it for the same reasons the STEP crew decided to keep LOS 1. LOS 2 is just ugly! The LOS 2 lanterns just don't look "skyrim-y" enough to me. I like my Skyrim rustic and weather-beaten (Solitude is the only place allowed to look clean and fancy). Since I'm so hellbent on using JK's Skyrim, COTN, TGCities in a town-by-town modular way, I ended up with a bunch of floating lanterns in my COTN/TGC towns. So i just went around xEdit right click removing. I may decide to remove LOS entirely though, since I'm pretty borderline on having it at all. I feel like it adds too many to the roads, making Skyrim feel too small and civilized. (like who is refilling and turning on and off all these lanterns everyday anyways?) I'm keeping it for now minus the floaters, but I feel like I'll have to actually start playing to get a feel for if I really like LOS or not.

That's also why I wanted to remove oakwood. I was getting terrain clipping straight through the middle of the buildings. Instead of taking the time to solve it, I decided I'd rather just not bother and remove oakwood entirely. With Riverwood nearby it feels a bit too crowded.