pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[hishutup]

or maybe JK should stylize a set of mods for ETaC and maintain passive compatibility with all of the supported mods...

MJB is already super busy, I think that is something that we can all agree on.

[cstarkey42]

I was using a merge of all the cities minus Riften, plus Immersive Settlements Orcs and Raven Rock, plus the Real Shelter Patches for JK when it was just Whiterun and Windhelm.  The merge was easy and worked great.  I've since switched to the full JK Skyrim, JK Falkreath, JK Morthal, merged IS Orc and RR, and the merged patch available from Real Shelter.  The only restriction I have I LOOT is that they are after Verdant Grasses.  I haven't had any problems or compatability issues that I'm aware of.  He doesn't move the buildings around like ETAC does so I don't think patches are as much of a concern for most complimentary mods ( houses and such are different, of course ).  I'm not using any etac right now since I knew JK was going to release more cities and it seemed easier to add them to my current game as they come out.  Once he gets it finalized I'll pick and choose before my next playthrough.  I love what ETAC does for the towns but JK adds a lot more of the smaller details that really give each town a different character and dynamic, which I really like.  I'll add some etac towns, I'm sure, but dealing with the patches and extra esp slots for a few extra buildings in the tiny towns may not really be worth it.

 

Do you think you guys could repost the replacement esps for Raven Rock and Thalmor for those of us that aren't using etac anymore?  Thanks.

 

@teabag:  Glad to hear your keeping busy.  I'm starting to see you in all of the mod forums I lurk in.  Is JK pretty good about keeping the form ids unique?  I was going to merge Skyrim with Falkreath and Morthal but tried to squeeze in the Real Shelter patch again and it kept giving me a strange error ( not the good kind, either.  The kind that won't even let t5e proceed loading the esp when I'm trying to load it for an error check. ).  I'm guessing it was due to the Real Shelter patch but started playing BF4 instead so I haven't tried it again yet.  I'm glad to hear he's doing Dawnstar ( of course!  I can't wait for that one! ) and Winterhold and am wondering if I shouldn't just drop Winterhold ruins now or wait to see if it works together ( though I'm guessing it won't ).

[darkside]

I was using a merge of all the cities minus Riften, plus Immersive Settlements Orcs and Raven Rock, plus the Real Shelter Patches for JK when it was just Whiterun and Windhelm.  The merge was easy and worked great.  I've since switched to the full JK Skyrim, JK Falkreath, JK Morthal, merged IS Orc and RR, and the merged patch available from Real Shelter.  The only restriction I have I LOOT is that they are after Verdant Grasses.  I haven't had any problems or compatability issues that I'm aware of.  He doesn't move the buildings around like ETAC does so I don't think patches are as much of a concern for most complimentary mods ( houses and such are different, of course ).  I'm not using any etac right now since I knew JK was going to release more cities and it seemed easier to add them to my current game as they come out.  Once he gets it finalized I'll pick and choose before my next playthrough.  I love what ETAC does for the towns but JK adds a lot more of the smaller details that really give each town a different character and dynamic, which I really like.  I'll add some etac towns, I'm sure, but dealing with the patches and extra esp slots for a few extra buildings in the tiny towns may not really be worth it.

 

Do you think you guys could repost the replacement esps for Raven Rock and Thalmor for those of us that aren't using etac anymore?  Thanks.

 

@teabag:  Glad to hear your keeping busy.  I'm starting to see you in all of the mod forums I lurk in.  Is JK pretty good about keeping the form ids unique?  I was going to merge Skyrim with Falkreath and Morthal but tried to squeeze in the Real Shelter patch again and it kept giving me a strange error ( not the good kind, either.  The kind that won't even let t5e proceed loading the esp when I'm trying to load it for an error check. ).  I'm guessing it was due to the Real Shelter patch but started playing BF4 instead so I haven't tried it again yet.  I'm glad to hear he's doing Dawnstar ( of course!  I can't wait for that one! ) and Winterhold and am wondering if I shouldn't just drop Winterhold ruins now or wait to see if it works together ( though I'm guessing it won't ).

This make sense. I am running full SR:LE and full REGS.

 

I am looking at ETaC modular patches. These are some observations.

- All ETaC town has ELFX Patches // Not a real problem with JK's.

- Most ETaC town has Wet&Cold holidays patches // Does JK's need W&C patch as well? or quit using W&C holiday

 

Some more observations

- Dawnstar has Atlas, BFT, No snow, ELFX, W&C holiday patches // Does JK's need these patches?

- Morthal has BFT, No snow, ORS, ELFX, W&C holiday patches // Does JK's need these patches?

- Shors Stone has BFT, ELFX patch

- Stonehills has CRF, No snow, ELFX patches

- Whiterun Ext has CRF, ELFX patches

-Winterhold has EWDR, No snow, ELFX

 

Town with only ELFX and/or W&C holiday patches - Technically can we replace these ETaC town with JK's without additional patch???

- Darkwater crossing

- Dragon Bridge

- Falkreath

- Ivarstead

- Karthwasten

- Kynesgrove

- Riverwood

- Rorikstead

[cstarkey42]

I just double checked and not many conflicts, at all.  Since it doesn't move any buildings, WC doesn't seem to be an issue ( maybe some clipping when the decorations are out with the new awnings?  IDK, it doesn't show up in t5e. ).  The only REGS mods with a few are No snow and bobbing boats, both due to Morthal and the new models JK uses for his boats.  I think it's just a matter of preference there.  BFT has some navmesh conflicts, though they mainly seem due to bft carrying over some of the original nm while JK has new paths.  I haven't noticed anything in game but I'm going to place JK Skyrim after bft, leaf rest, Skyrim Bridges, Better Roads, pitfighter and place these after JK:  Breezehome upgraded, better town textures, elfx - exteriors, boat bobbing ( I'm happy you got me to do this, I had more navmesh conflicts than I realized due to other mods carrying over the original paths.  Of course, people will be tripping over the occasional carriage from bft but we'll see how it works.  Hopefully my game doesn't explode ).

 

Now, back to figuring out why the hell sweetfx isn't starting with far cry 3...

 

edit:  Load order:  https://pastebin.com/7ZSDiHKJ

Edited January 4, 2015 by cstarkey42

[Teabag86]

JK doesn't use unique Form IDs for his cities. He already had about 5 under his belt before I started doing the merges so it was a bit late. However all of the current and future merges are the same load order so it should make any patching easy.

Because the vanilla buildings aren't moved there doesn't seem to be much of a requirement for patching.

Any issues can usually be resolved with a couple of console disables if they are a concern for people.

As for W&C holidays I've only heard of an conflict in Riften with a clipping food table. Haven't tested myself yet.

I stopped using BFT a while ago because it felt like cheating so can't report on that.

I haven't noticed any inconsistencies with NSutR, but minor things can easily go unnoticed unless I am testing a mod.

Once all the cities are done I will probably make an ELFX patch. To be honest this hasn't been much of an issue at all, until Morthal where there is quite a bit of duplication. The patch will just remove some, maybe 10 or so, of the ELFX lights that currently clip or are duplicated across all the cities.

 

JK is undecided about Winterhold, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does cover it off to complete the set...

 

One day I'll get to play Far Cry 3 and all my other steam games when I eventually tire of Skyrim in 2020....

[Neovalen]

JK doesn't use unique Form IDs for his cities. He already had about 5 under his belt before I started doing the merges so it was a bit late. However all of the current and future merges are the same load order so it should make any patching easy.

Because the vanilla buildings aren't moved there doesn't seem to be much of a requirement for patching.

Any issues can usually be resolved with a couple of console disables if they are a concern for people.

As for W&C holidays I've only heard of an conflict in Riften with a clipping food table. Haven't tested myself yet.

I stopped using BFT a while ago because it felt like cheating so can't report on that.

I haven't noticed any inconsistencies with NSutR, but minor things can easily go unnoticed unless I am testing a mod.

Once all the cities are done I will probably make an ELFX patch. To be honest this hasn't been much of an issue at all, until Morthal where there is quite a bit of duplication. The patch will just remove some, maybe 10 or so, of the ELFX lights that currently clip or are duplicated across all the cities.

 

JK is undecided about Winterhold, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does cover it off to complete the set...

 

One day I'll get to play Far Cry 3 and all my other steam games when I eventually tire of Skyrim in 2020....

I really like the JK's mods in general from what I've tested, the only thing is the fps hit is immense, even for my beast machine. Whiterun in particular gets into the 20s when normally I'm running 60 all the time.

[phazer11]

Ok I tried doing the thing from the RS children page and at this point I'm a little tired after a grueling process of setting my mods up. However, I'm still getting the "potato" heads on some of the kids, like the Urchin Kids in Whiterun.

 

@Neovalen. The FPS hit is large but only about 20 FPS on my end. It's usually in the low to mid 40's around Dragonsreach plateau (with the brazier on the landing overlooking the courtyard) and in the residential district in Whiterun. The market area is around 50FPS. I'm guessing it's your super duper settings. Haven't tested anywhere but Whiterun yet.

[Teabag86]

@Neovalen. The FPS hit is large but only about 20 FPS on my end. It's usually in the low to mid 40's around Dragonsreach plateau (with the brazier on the landing overlooking the courtyard) and in the residential district in Whiterun. The market area is around 50FPS. I'm guessing it's your super duper settings. Haven't tested anywhere but Whiterun yet.

Whiterun has the biggest hit. I drop to around 40 looking toward the markets from the gates. Rorikstead has the next biggest FPS drop at the southern entrance where a lot of the plants and crates are added. Minor stuff compared to what they offer in return. The rest of the cities don't give me any FPS issues at all. My rig is pretty good though so YMMV.

[hishutup]

Ok I tried doing the thing from the RS children page and at this point I'm a little tired after a grueling process of setting my mods up. However, I'm still getting the "potato" heads on some of the kids, like the Urchin Kids in Whiterun.

 

I have never had the issue but here is a link from the author.

It seem like the RS children records are partially being reverted to vanilla.

[Neovalen]

Ok I tried doing the thing from the RS children page and at this point I'm a little tired after a grueling process of setting my mods up. However, I'm still getting the "potato" heads on some of the kids, like the Urchin Kids in Whiterun.

 

@Neovalen. The FPS hit is large but only about 20 FPS on my end. It's usually in the low to mid 40's around Dragonsreach plateau (with the brazier on the landing overlooking the courtyard) and in the residential district in Whiterun. The market area is around 50FPS. I'm guessing it's your super duper settings. Haven't tested anywhere but Whiterun yet.

 

Whiterun has the biggest hit. I drop to around 40 looking toward the markets from the gates. Rorikstead has the next biggest FPS drop at the southern entrance where a lot of the plants and crates are added. Minor stuff compared to what they offer in return. The rest of the cities don't give me any FPS issues at all. My rig is pretty good though so YMMV.

Alright, so did a little test. No ENB at all.

 

Whiterun gate looking at market without JK - 47 fps.

Whiterun gate looking at market with JK - 25 fps. (this is about 20 frames as stated but puts me into the 20s as I stated before)

 

Whiterun Dragonsreach looking over the city no JK - 52 fps.

Whiterun Dragonsreach looking over the city with JK - 25 fps. (ouch! 27 frames down.)

 

Mesh differences perhaps.

 

In any case, I can visibly see it chug when I walk through towns and it bugs me too much to use. It does look very nice but think it goes a little overboard in places which might cause the performance hit.

[darkside]

That was a huge FPS hit. I am using SRLE with SMIM lite without SDO. Vividian ENB performance version. My 650m SLI can handle JK whiterun - 20-45 fps. Without ENB 30-55 fps.

Worst looking at the gate from market and looking over the city from Dragonreach.

[Nearox]

Hey Nearox, I'm doing all the merges for JKs Skyrim. Once you finalise which JK cities you wish to use I can post a REGS version to simplify things. JK still has one or two towns to go. But who knows, he may still keep going. Cheers

That'd be great, thank you :)

[Nearox]

Alright, so did a little test. No ENB at all.

 

Whiterun gate looking at market without JK - 47 fps.

Whiterun gate looking at market with JK - 25 fps. (this is about 20 frames as stated but puts me into the 20s as I stated before)

 

Whiterun Dragonsreach looking over the city no JK - 52 fps.

Whiterun Dragonsreach looking over the city with JK - 25 fps. (ouch! 27 frames down.)

 

Mesh differences perhaps.

 

In any case, I can visibly see it chug when I walk through towns and it bugs me too much to use. It does look very nice but think it goes a little overboard in places which might cause the performance hit.

I think that could be mesh related indeed, even on my 6950 I only got about half the FPS drops you are getting (back in september when I was still at home at my gaming rig)... Though I trimmed down a lot of the SRLE mods, and used the light version of SMIM and performance version of Vividian.  I know in Whiterun there are a few spots where the FPS drops considerably, such as looking at the main gate, but in most other places it was manageable for me (about 30-35 fps). 

 

ETaC used to cost more FPS as well in earlier versions, but around last summer or so MJB (with the assistance of CJ I think?) optimized some of the towns (like Falkreath) by removing or relocating some of the small clutter objects/ropes etc. from the exterior enironment (and also be completely redisigning some). Maybe JK will do this too, at some point :)

[tschilpi]

I have exactly the same problem. Whiterun FPS with JK's goes down to about 10-20 FPS when overlooking the city or looking at the market, without it's 10-20 FPS more.

 

Following your guide Nearox and reducing VRAM didn't help the issue at all. Maybe my CPU is limiting me, since I have an AMD Phenom X4 955 with 3.2 ghz, but a R9 270x with 4 GB VRAM.

Probably going to have to deinstall JK's mods. Anyone knows about places similar with an Whiterun FPS drop and JK's or ETacs installed?

Edited January 4, 2015 by tschilpi

[phazer11]

Does JK's Skyrim include Whiterun Outskirts? Also what is required to remove Dawn of Riften and replace it with JK's Riften?