pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[keithinhanoi]

Just want to stop by with a couple of "reports".

 

First, I've thoroughly checked the new Dawn of Windhelm v1.2 plugin both in TES5Edit and in-game, and have found that it's completely "safe" to use that instead of CJ's v1.1 replacer plugin.

 

So Nearox / Gandy, you may want to roll that info into the next REGS update, whenever it may come.

 

The second thing is to briefly report back on Ultimate Whiterun.

 

It is really quite different from both Dawn of Whiterun and JK's Whiterun in its approach, by adding numerous new houses and structures and NPCs - including some new merchants. There's still some "rough edges", and the author stated that he's "always working on it." Whether you like it or not will just be a matter of personal preference.

 

I noticed all the videos on Ultimate Whiterun are from last year, so I decided to just do a walking "tour" and record it - which gave me a chance to try out the Nvidia ShadowPlay in-game recording software.

 

Well, the software works like a charm, and even saves it in the right format for use on Youtube. But of course at 1080p, the files are huge, and upload speeds are not the best here in Vietnam. With that in mind, I've only been able to upload the first half of my recording, which at 12 minutes was about 4GB, taking 13 hours to upload!

 

Ultimate Whiterun v1.4 Tour (part 1)

 

I apologize in advance for it being a little shaky (I prefer higher mouse sensitivity) and also for it being unedited, and long!

 

I'll post again (in a day or so) when the second half is done uploading.

[Smile44]

I've tried this mod and it does dramatically increase the size, in that it is easy to become a little lost. It does work generally and has some great design but there are numerous bugs and evidence of incomplete work e.g. doors not working or missing. My main gripe at this stage though is that it does not look lively and bustling, instead it seems relatively empty and drab. In time it may well be improved in these areas but I've gone back to DoW and JK's as they give the feel of a lively trading city. I will be tracking though.

 

Edited August 31, 2014 by Smile44

[Ganda]

@redirishlord That's SR:LE + REGS, right?

 

@keith noted, thanks :p 

 

About Ultimate Whiterun, I took a look at it, before beginning actual testing, and several issues arose immediately:

 

- Huge inconsistency - inside walls do not match outside walls.

- The only added "clutter" (the decoration of a city, what makes it look "alive") was at the entrance.

- The additions to the city seemed to be just housing.

- Massive amounts of clipping (seen even in his screenshots)

 

Taking away personal preference, that amount of clipping alone does not make it elegible for testing here. It's a great idea though and if it ever gets fixed be sure to re-suggest it for testing! :p

[darkside]

@Gandaganza

I have SRLE and REGS setup. There are a lot of mods, not on both packs in the merge list.

[Smile44]

True, but I guess you can safely merge the plugins that you do have on that list, his list incorporates STEP mods and a ton of others.

 

[obdown666]

After attempting to merge the replacer and patcher esps I get a particular navmesh error referring to: 0402AD3D which is a key:

DLC2TGGloverKey "Glover's Guild Key" [KEYM:0402AD3D]

Not sure if this is just a strange artifact of the merge or if there is an issue with the navmesh.  Either way I cant merge any of the files with the common navmesh you are using.  Not sure what is going on.

 

Also, just trying to understand how things work, since that navmesh has the same formid in almost all your replacer/patches, and is also a vanilla formid, doesn't the last one win?  It seems to vary a bit but that could just be it gets resorted for each esp.  Just wondering how this works.  It is preventing me also from merging the replacer version of immersive dg entrance with guarded border gates. 

 

And, generally speaking is it safe to merge some of your esps?  Really need the slots having added most of the REGS mods. 

Edited August 31, 2014 by obdown666

[darkside]

True, but I guess you can safely merge the plugins that you do have on that list, his list incorporates STEP mods and a ton of others.

That is true. I am done with merging. I already have enough esp slots.

[redirishlord]

@redirishlord That's SR:LE + REGS, right?

 

...

Those Master Merge lists were SR:LE + REGS + everything in the kitchen including the sink, just a proof of concept really (but successful in that they passed error check & didn't produce any additional face gen files). The important wrinkle to avoid seems to be having a master dependency in mix (if not merging it). In the two large merges I initially broke the master list of candidates in two (early in LOOT order, late in LOOT order) and then loaded the mess into TES5Edit to see where masters (like EBT, SIC) were loading and adjusted the lists accordingly - which meant only including plugins loading after those in the late group & everything else in the early, which was a bit more complicated as some items that needed grouped were quite spread out (book and cooking plugins for instances that needed their included masters, BCS & Cooking Expanded for example).

 

tl;dr

If it would be helpful I can give you a clean list or make a couple of SR:LE merge plugins and upload them to Copy for you to download and inspect. In the future it would be a list of instructions you'd post here, not completed files obviously due to permissions and such.

 

My next hurdle to cross (as I've already merged SPO/ACE/MightyMagic and the lighting and weather for Serenity enb preset) is combining ETaC's patches where possible, the same for any other suitable REGS "real estate mods", and NPC content (like RS Children, Prince & Pauper and thier patches) including dropping the face gen files into a "mod" with the merged plugin.

 

tl;dr

Still trying to cram my favorite 500 plugin files into the 255 max to load by overly aggressive (and borderline irresponsible) merging.

Edited August 31, 2014 by redirishlord

[Smile44]

ETaC's patches merge easily and well, no erors. As do Requiem's. It is probably useful to merge as many as possible so that you have as few plugins as possible, or is there no trith to the rumor that skyrim is more stable the less plugins it loads. I certainly find that to be consistent with experience.

 

[redirishlord]

My concern is going to be with errors TES5Edit finds in individual plugins and any navmesh overlaps (primarily with REGS mods, outside of WR specifically). I'll navigate that this afternoon, I just relaized I included BCS in my early merge & BCS-LL (recently updated) is looking for it.

Edited August 31, 2014 by redirishlord

[redirishlord]

BTW, has Solstheim the Lost Levels been considered for REGS?

 

"Description: Solstheim – The Lost Levels is an add-on for the Dragonborn DLC that adds 6 caves, 8 plants, 1 book and 4 quests. The content is based on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its expansion, Bloodmoon."

[Ganda]

@obdown666 Welcome to STEP! :D About navmesh conflicts, no idea, we are currently in need of a navmesh expert :p About merging files, that's what we are currently discussing so we can make a guide for users to safely merge REGS mods :p

 

@redirishlord We're more interested in REGS mods but Nearox could use some SR:LE merges :b 

 

About Solstheim the Lost Levels, silence dialogue :x It's a real shame tbh, from the comment section it seems to be a nice dungeon mod.

 

We're currently incredibly swamped with REGS and RL, so when suggesting mods if you guys could provide some insight, such as conflicts, that'd be amazing (if you know how to use TES5Edit ofc)

 

Hurray for the glorious REGS users!

[gpthree]

Just to make sure, the BSAs are being extracted when merging mods?

[phazer11]

Anyone know of any mods that edit the vanilla homes like Breezhome that have ELFX compatibility and don't conflict with any of the Whiterun overhauls? Tall order I know.

[Nearox]

I haven;t used any of them specifically, but have never seen a breezehome/player home mod with ELFX compatibility. However I believe there is an ELFX version that excludes the player homes. The same for Skyrim Project Optimization. 

 

With regards to compatibility with Whiterun overhauls: as long as the breezehome mod in question does NOT alter the exterior around it, then compatibility should be fine. If it does, then you have to check if the author also modified the navmesh. If no navmesh was modified then the only thing to check for is potential clipping issues. But I believe JK's whiterun has quite some room around Breezehome. 

 

Personally I dont like the big breezehoe overhauls Instead I'd consider trying a mod like Simply Improved Breezehome