pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[redirishlord]

I wasn't suggesting any work for you CJ, I was saying her last post on her I&T page mentioned she had an upcoming update, which since it hasn't arrived yet I though it might include compatibility for those other mods (fingers crossed).

[CJ2311]

What I meant is that since she last connected on the nexus/steam in June, it would be a safe bet to assume she stopped modding altogether. She did tell me she was going on vacation last time we spoke, but that was supposed to take 2 weeks only, after which she'd come back and update the mod.

[redirishlord]

I see, makes sense to drop and let ETaC cover such. I'm anxious for the ETaC v13 patches to be released, so I can upgrade from v12. Thanks for tweaking REGS Cities to a Solitude / Windhelm treatment.

[keithinhanoi]

Making comparison Solitude scene comparison shots between vanilla-JK's-Dawn of... is proving to be more difficult than I expected.

 

Because JK's / Dawn of... move some vanilla objects, if I load a previous save game to retain the camera position, some objects are persistent from that save. In other words, the objects don't get moved when I disable one mod from my load order, and enable another, and some areas, particularly the market area, get screwed up.

 

Do any of you have tricks for this, without having to exit and re-enter the cell?

[redirishlord]

Starting with an existing profile, with a save outside of Solitude, could you then create copies of that profile (with Dawn of, with JK's, with both) to avoid having to add/remove the mods.

As far as camera position, perhaps use landmarks for your position (a sewer entrance, or back to a particular merchant stall, etc) and parts of unchanged vanilla landscape/architecture for your crosshair.

Obviously I'm no screen-archer.

[Teabag86]

Inns and Taverns has to go... Unless we cut out the overlapping places. But with ETaC already adding more inns to some towns, I think Inns and Taverns is not a necessity anymore.

I'd really like to keep a modified version of I&T if possible. Running with FF, RND and now Living Takes Time they have been literally a lifesaver on numerous occassions. Hopefully Mena will come back and allow a REGS version to be released.

[phazer11]

I tell you what. JK's mods seem to be on a mission to kill FPS, I can't imagine combining them with the Dawn of mods.

[redirishlord]

I tell you what. JK's mods seem to be on a mission to kill FPS, I can't imagine combining them with the Dawn of mods.

The Whiterun compatible combo seems fine, haven't had a chance to check out the other cities yet, looking forward to Windhelm.

[Teabag86]

The Whiterun compatible combo seems fine, haven't had a chance to check out the other cities yet, looking forward to Windhelm.

I had the chance to look at Windhelm JK/DOW combo last night. Fantastic! No issues at all. In fact JK is a real artist IMHO. His aesthetic just suits my style perfectly. His changes are subtle, significant and yet not cluttered. They look like they should be vanilla. Not an easy thing to do

[redirishlord]

I'm trying to wait until the ETaC v13 patches and/or REGS tweaking is done to launch a new game with my optimized (now fat free!) profiles, but the waiting ain't easy.

I'm toying with the idea of an AS-LAL Blackreach run to keep busy

 

instead of my brief Deep One shipwreck alternate start (Cthulhu FTW).

[CJ2311]

I tell you what. JK's mods seem to be on a mission to kill FPS, I can't imagine combining them with the Dawn of mods.

Which is why I don't plan to use any of the combos. :PEach city will have either a JK mod or a Piano one. Right now I was thinking:- JK's Whiterun- Dawn of Riften- Dawn of Markarth- JK's Windhelm (because Dawn of Windhelm is too colorful and cheerful for such a city)- JK's Solitude (also I'm a bit unsure on this one atm)Funnily enough, I won't be using any of those (except JK's whiterun) as I've decided I'd be running with Open Cities Skyrim next time I play (if that happens)

[Teabag86]

@ CJ. This is my preference entirely. Although to be fair I haven't tried Dawn of Solitude so can't make a comparison - but I very much like what JK does to the Solitude - once the forge area is sorted out.

[keithinhanoi]

Which is why I don't plan to use any of the combos. :P

Each city will have either a JK mod or a Piano one. Right now I was thinking:

- JK's Whiterun

- Dawn of Riften

- Dawn of Markarth

- JK's Windhelm (because Dawn of Windhelm is too colorful and cheerful for such a city)

- JK's Solitude (also I'm a bit unsure on this one atm)

 

Funnily enough, I won't be using any of those (except JK's whiterun) as I've decided I'd be running with Open Cities Skyrim next time I play (if that happens)

Fair enough, but would all of these will remain "modular" so that the JK's / Dawn of... overhauls can be mixed or matched to one's preference?

 

You've already explained how to created a "merged" navmesh so patches for SS4 + whatever wouldn't be too hard to create.

 

Anyhow, with Solitude, I'm holding off on a final decision of what I want to do. I see all these people and I don't know where they're supposed to be living. Without Nernie's added houses, it doesn't quite add up. But then I like JK's battlement (?) structures, and then BPT's more colorful market - which fits better with Solitude than in Windhelm.

 

One really great thing about JK's Solitude is that the Town Crier added to Solitude by Inconsequential NPCs stands right in front of one of the added stone-surrounded gardens, as seen here:

 

 

It looks like it was always meant to be that way.

[Nearox]

Fair enough, but would all of these will remain "modular" so that the JK's / Dawn of... overhauls can be mixed or matched to one's preference?

 

All of JKs and BP2 mods should be included.

 

The fact is that they are compatible ( as made by both JK and BP2) and that when combined they look good. If someone does not want to install both for a city, for either performance or personal reasons, then that is fine. As they are already compatible (just waiting for them to finish up solitude) we can simply point users to the options availabe. It'll be really simple and makes it clear for those that do want to run a 'maximized' setup, they can. And for those that want to run a more minimal setup, they can do so as well. I think REGS should at the very least offer both. 

 

I still have yet to observe those huge FPS drops that some of you seem to be having... If anything, it is ENB + SMIM Full that contributes most to that. For instance, with ENB turned off, regular Dawnstar, looking out from the jar's house, gives me 60FPS. REGS dawnstar gives me 55 FPS. This is only minimally noticeable visually, at least to me. However with ENB enabled (vidian performance) I have 39 FPS at that location with regular Dawnstarm, but it drops down to 30 FPS with REGS Dawnstar. In practice the latter is much more noticebale than the former. 

 

As mentioned earlier in this thread, and in the guide for medium systems I wrote elsewhere on STEP, I think certain ENB settings/presets and some particular SMIM meshes can cause major slowdowns when combined with REGS due to the amount of ropes/chains/fences etc. added. 

[hamgelu]

I always used both JK and BP2 mods together with SMIM full and didn't notice any FPS drop at all. 

 

That said I have a REALLY crappy computer and can't use any ENB profile.

 

Just my 2 cents. :)