pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[CJ2311]

Actually, I've signed up for uni in France, so I'll be hopefully traveling there, which means no more possibility of updates to the guide as I won't be able to haul my gaming rig over there easily

[hishutup]

I'm afraid that would require getting permissions first, and I'm not in a situation to do any more CK work as I don't have access to my gaming rig anymore for a long time.

You dont need perms if you're making a patch. Just have people merge them afterward. I'd do it if I knew it hat to disable

[kuroyume87]

Hi all! I just got back to modding Skyrim (I should say I just got back to damnation!) and after installing Step (except for some script intensive and compatibility annoying mods like Enhanced Blood and Dual Sheat Redux) I proceeded to REGS, which I found to be fantastic as I remembered. I have a pretty beasty notebook, but a notebook nontheless, so I'll be installing just SOME selected mods. But I can't live without cities and villages overhaul, So I decided I should install at least JK's Skyrim (major cities only) and Enhanced Towns and villages. I have a couple of questions tho:

 

1) Is there a particular reason for selecting JK's Skyrim over Dawn of Skyrim collection (This one: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58275/?   )? Is it because Jk's is less resource taxing (no scripts), or because of compatibility issues, or just a matter of personal preference by the REGS authors? EDIT: I did a bit of searching on this thread and saw the topic has been discussed a lot. I seemed to understand the "Dawn of... " cities are gone because of performance issues, for example right at the entrance in Whiterun. But I happen to have exactly the same issues with Jk's (See point 3). Am I the only one?

 

2) What does the REGS version of Nernie's add, exactly? Do I lose REALLY much in terms of content if I skip it to give more breath to my system? I ask because...

 

3) ... Truth is I am already testing Jk's and Enhanced towns and villages plus Purity, Elfx and most of the mods and textures suggested by STEP, (ENBoost included) and I run between 40 and 60 fps pretty everywhere on the outside locations, but in some spots inside Whiterun my fps drop to 20-25 with no apparent reason (for example tight at the entrance of the city, or in a spot on the right corner of the Companions Hall, along the city walls.... even when I look at the rocks textures only. Maybe because I am in a spot where different cells are loaded simultaneously?)

I really hope to get your insight! Thanks in advance, and sorry if my English sucks or if I didn't explain myself well enough, English is not my mother tongue...

Edited June 7, 2015 by kuroyume87

[caiuscosades]

Actually, I've signed up for uni in France, so I'll be hopefully traveling there, which means no more possibility of updates to the guide as I won't be able to haul my gaming rig over there easily

Be my guest if you come to Paris :)

[caiuscosades]

1) Is there a particular reason for selecting JK's Skyrim over Dawn of Skyrim collection (This one: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58275/? )? Is it because Jk's is less resource taxing (no scripts), or because of compatibility issues, or just a matter of personal preference by the REGS authors? EDIT: I did a bit of searching on this thread and saw the topic has been discussed a lot. I seemed to understand the "Dawn of... " cities are gone because of performance issues, for example right at the entrance in Whiterun. But I happen to have exactly the same issues with Jk's (See point 3). Am I the only one ?

Hi,

 

In my experience both DoS and JK's significantly impact performance, but it is the latter which hits my framerate harder, especially in Whiterun were I sometimes drop as low as 20 fps near Skyforge (that's on a full SRLE + REGS install with Kountervibe Quality, but disabling ENB doesn't help that much...). I removed all flora from JK's Whiterun with TES5Edit but it did nothing. Currently I use Dawn of Skyrim Collection minus Dawn of Riften since I bumped into various issues with REGS and it performs better on my side - note that I now cap my framerate at 30 with nvidia's Half Refresh rate Adaptative Vsync and ifpsclamp as I value smoothness and stability over "high" framerate.

 

SKY City (Markarth), SNOW city (Windhelm) and TRUE City (Solitude) are also great city overhauls that truly expand upon vanilla cities without destroying my fps, but they lack polish in places and may conflict with some REGS mods.

 

I wish JK released a performance version of his mod but don't think he plans to do so. Dawn of Skyrim is a great alternative though, perhap's a little more optimized, and it seems the author is still working on the mod.

 

CJ, any chance REGS add back DoS compatibility and let us choose between the two ? For unless you consider JK superior in other areas, I doesn't seem so performance wise.

 

(Fyi, my rig : I7 4790K @ 4.4, GTX 980 Strix, 16 GB, SSDs)

Edited June 7, 2015 by caiuscosades

[TwilightTech]

(Fyi, my rig : I7 4790K @ 4.4, GTX 980 Strix, 16 GB, SSDs)

Holy crap, it drops your framerate that much with that hardware? That's kind of worrying...

[CJ2311]

Be my guest if you come to Paris :)

I've had my fill of Paris, I'm looking to get settled in the region of Bretagne or Normandy

 

CJ, any chance REGS add back DoS compatibility and let us choose between the two ? For unless you consider JK superior in other areas, I doesn't seem so performance wise.

The reason why I went for JK's skyrim is simply because I prefer how it looks over DoS, I might apply your suggestion however, when I've got the time (and when I figure out how to format the guide nicely to display a choice like that :P) Edited June 7, 2015 by CJ2311

[caiuscosades]

Holy crap, it drops your framerate that much with that hardware? That's kind of worrying...

No matter how powerful your rig (and I've built mine with modded Skyrim in mind), the old game engine is limited in many ways. Mods such as JK's that add lots of clutter in one cell tend to destroy your framerate even more than ENB provided you're not GPU limited. Something like TRUE City which really expands upon vanilla Solitude has a lesser impact on my fps since it focuses on adding buildings instead of overcluttering the zone. This may have to do with CPU bound shadow rendering, even though the ENB series creator disagrees. Perhap's higher CPU frequencies would alleviate the problem, but what we really need is an engine overhaul.

[caiuscosades]

I've had my fill of Paris, I'm looking to get settled in the region of Bretagne or Normandy

 

 

Gorgeous regions, I'm from the south of France but might move there too someday :)

[kuroyume87]

Hi,

 

In my experience both DoS and JK's significantly impact performance, but it is the latter which hits my framerate harder, especially in Whiterun were I sometimes drop as low as 20 fps near Skyforge (that's on a full SRLE + REGS install with Kountervibe Quality, but disabling ENB doesn't help that much...). 

 

(...)

 

SKY City (Markarth), SNOW city (Windhelm) and TRUE City (Solitude) are also great city overhauls that truly expand upon vanilla cities without destroying my fps, but they lack polish in places and may conflict with some REGS mods.

 Wow... So it's not my poor Notebook's fault after all... In a sense I feel relieved :D (Ps... I have similar framerate drops while approaching some villages like Riverwood, after installing Expanded towns and cities... Suppose this is normal as well, then).

 

On a side note... I gave a look to the city overhaul mods you suggested, and I must say I am really intrigued by SNOW city (Windhelm). It is quite extensive tho, changes even the docks (so not compatible with Better Docks I suppose... right?) and guards outfits as well. This is probably something that a good bashed patch can solve tho...

[cstarkey42]

I used JK/ETAC on my last play through and it looked gorgeous.  JK's is probably my favorite city overhaul but all of the things that make it so great makes it too demanding, in my opinion.  I've switched back to DOS for my current game and everything runs so much better while still looking great.  The lag from JK would be doable, and worth it for how great it looks, but any combat in city walls is just too choppy for me.  I'm still early in my game, however, and am already really missing all of the spiky plants that JK adds to whiterun.  On the other hand, alchemy is a little bit tougher now so I feel like I'm in a more challenging, barren world.  Still, if there was a version of JK with half the additional plants and a quarter of the additional clutter, while keeping the larger, more noticeable and defining features, I think that would be perfect.

[kuroyume87]

 note that I now cap my framerate at 30 with nvidia's Half Refresh rate Adaptative Vsync and ifpsclamp as I value smoothness and stability over "high" framerate.

 

EHM... Sorry to bother again, but I would be interested in setting something along these lines. Just to be clear... Did you sete Adaptive Vsync and max fps to 30 by Nvidia inspector? And ifpsclamp should be the .ini setting for minimum fps, right? What value did you set it to? Lastly (sorry for the dumb question, but just to be sure) If I activate Vsinc by driver, I have to disable it both in Skyrim.ini settings and ENB local.ini, right?

[caiuscosades]

@ cstarkey42 : +1

 

EHM... Sorry to bother again, but I would be interested in setting something along these lines. Just to be clear... Did you sete Adaptive Vsync and max fps to 30 by Nvidia inspector? And ifpsclamp should be the .ini setting for minimum fps, right? What value did you set it to? Lastly (sorry for the dumb question, but just to be sure) If I activate Vsinc by driver, I have to disable it both in Skyrim.ini settings and ENB local.ini, right?

That's it : Adaptative Vsync 1/2 through nvidia Inspector (that's when I play on my 60 Hz TV, when I use my 120 Hz computer screen for testing purposes I set it to 1/4), ifpsclamp=30 in the general section of Skyrim.ini,VSync disabled in both enblocal and Skyrimprefs.ini). I've tried many combinations and so far this one gives the best results imho.

 

There's a drawback however since half-refresh rate Adaptative Vsync dramatically increases loading times. Fortunately there's à fix :

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59603/?

Edited June 9, 2015 by caiuscosades

[Tomk367]

Hey guys, I'm not very confident at modding and I'm currently half way through installing REGS on top of step extended. I am checking as I go along and just got up to the part where I installed ETAC, then I try to start a new game and get ILS. Should I continue installing REGS and then make patches etc and will it fix itself or have I gone wrong somewhere along the way?

Thanks for your help guys, so excited to get it all working!

[edynacio]

Thank you CJ2311 and Nearox for putting the Explorer's Guide together for the community.

 

With STEP v2.2.9.1 Guide official release coming real soon I have a few questions.

 

1) Do you plan to update REGS to fit the new STEP configuration?

I believe that Relighting Skyrim would be incompatible with Realistic Room Rental Enhanced because it alters interior lighting. Of course using Realistic Room Rental Basic will solve the problem.

JK's Skyrim and Expanded Towns and Cities (No Inns) shouldn't be affected because Relighting Skyrim only touches interiors, it's my understanding.

 

2) How would REGS Patches be affected by STEP v2.2.9.1?

Namely "NSutR + RRR Patch", due to Realistic Room Rental and "REGS Patch - STEP Extended".

 

Again, thank you for your great work in putting REGS together.