pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[thaiusmle]

CJ or others

Do I need to install ETaC ELFX patch if I use ELFX + ELE without ELFX-exteriors? Thanks.

Edited April 29, 2014 by thaiusmle

[phryxolydian]

1. ELFX-Exteriors is not supported by the guide, because it does so many edits to the world that assume nothing will ever be modded. By design, the exterior modules of both RLO and ELFX are incompatible with most city mods. Except it's even worse in the case of ELFX.2. That's weird, because Dawn of Riften isn't performance hungry (at least not that I can see), try using the non-DLC version of it, maybe? Seeing as how it has less clutter, it could help.3. I hope this screenshot is clear enough: https://i.imgur.com/PLkfmIG.png

Thanks CJ, it was clear and easy enough 

I'll give DoR another go then, I really liked the whole concept from the screenshots. You don't think it was because of the Smelters conflict, maybe? 

Is the Dayspring Canyon map marker showing incorrectly on your version as well? And, abusing of your kindness could you maybe PM me with instructions for removing that edit from ELFX iexteriors? There are just a handful of worldspace edits conflicting between these mods but I don't want to mess it up. I would remove ELFX exteriors but with 200 hours of gameplay, surely it's not a good idea. Perhaps I can just sort UBG after ELFX exteriors..hmm..

[keithinhanoi]

1. ELFX-Exteriors is not supported by the guide, because it does so many edits to the world that assume nothing will ever be modded. By design, the exterior modules of both RLO and ELFX are incompatible with most city mods. Except it's even worse in the case of ELFX.

2. That's weird, because Dawn of Riften isn't performance hungry (at least not that I can see), try using the non-DLC version of it, maybe? Seeing as how it has less clutter, it could help.

 

1. CJ is right. I've spent a lot of time looking at what ELFX Exteriors does, and it is not going to play well with ETaC and/or any of the Dawn of... mods. The reason is because ELFX adds / edits lights just like those other mods do. This leads to duplicated or "floating" lights. Beyond looking just wrong, you get some areas that are "over-lit" by having too many light sources. Add to this, if there are too many shadow-casting light sources, then Skyrim's rendering engine starts to glitch out because it can't hande more than four local to your character.

 

Then, if you're using Lanterns of Skyrim, and have the towns & village lights option turned on, you will see the same things there. Sometimes ELFX and the other mod both place a lantern on the same barrel or surface!

 

Finally, I noticed that ELFX Exteriors does some interesting changes to campfire lights that does not at all work with RCRN, my weather mod of choice, and I expect it would be the same with other weather mods like CoT. ELFX Exteriors actually sets up two light sources at campfires, and in my game, they become blindingly bright ball of light areas with everything nearby blown-out to full brightness, and all detail is lost.

 

Because of all of this, since I want to use most of the mods in the REGS Guide, I've removed ELFX Exteriors from my load order.

 

2. Even with my pitifully underpowered ATI 5800 HD Mobile, I don't see a major performance impact from DoR. Maybe there's some connection to what CPU you have? I've got a quad-core i7, so maybe that's why it works.

 

@phryxolydian: what are the specs of your rig? (You should probably add that to a STEP user signature line)

 

And, abusing of your kindness could you maybe PM me with instructions for removing that edit from ELFX iexteriors? There are just a handful of worldspace edits conflicting between these mods but I don't want to mess it up. I would remove ELFX exteriors but with 200 hours of gameplay, surely it's not a good idea. Perhaps I can just sort UBG after ELFX exteriors..hmm..

 

I'd suggest getting rid of ELFX Exteriors if you're trying to use ETaC and/or DoR.

 

If you're worried about disabling it in the middle of your game, what you need to do is make sure any havoc-affected objects placed by ELFX Exteriors have been reset to their original location.

 

This happens automatically when the game's cells are reset for respawning. Normally people talk about waiting or sleeping for 10 days, but this isn't actually necessary.

 

I have Skyrim Immersive Creatures which has a built in method for resetting cells, but you can accomplish it quite easily with a couple console commands, following these steps:

• Go to a "quiet" interior cell, such as a small shop or, preferably, a player-bought home.
• Open the console and type:

  setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 1

• Exit the console, and then press 'T' to use Skyrim's wait feature, and wait for just one hour.
• Open the console again, and type:

  setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 240

• Close console, and save your game right there.
• Quit Skyrim, disable/remove ELFX Exteriors.esp
• Open Skyrim, load last save, and click 'yes' when it complains about the missing plugin
• When the game loads up, save again
• Continue playing and enjoying your game

Note that the two console commands 1) reduces the cell reset time to 1 hour, and then 2) sets it back to the default 10 days for all cells that allow a reset and are not designated as a "Dungeon" space.

 

A different command is needed for "Dungeon" cells, but I don't believe any of those are affected by ELFX Exteriors. If you want to be on the safe side, for step #2 you can also type setgs iHoursToRespawnCellCleared 1 and for step #4 also type setgs iHoursToRespawnCellCleared 720 (to return Dungeon cell reset cycle time to 30 days).

 

This cell reset information comes directly from Lifestorock's Skyrim Immersive Creatures information website.

[phryxolydian]

Cheers keith!   You know what, I'll do that. I'll also have to rebuild my patch for Sounds of Skyrim but that shouldn't be a problem. I use CoT and I haven't seen any overlit campfires so far, I think I'll finally give RCRN a try for my next LP. I've been using ELFX and it's modules for aaages now but I do want to use REGS and I haven't checked but I'm also thinking it probably conflicts with HHO and probably BCE. 

 

My system specs are: i3 2120 CPU  @3.30 GHz; 4GB RAM; ASUS 210 Silent 1GB DDR3; Win 7 HP x64. I'd thought of making a thread about what I should upgrade first but I really don't have any money to spend on upgrading right now so I'll just have to live with it for now and avoid torturing myself ::. My game does suffer from low FPS, sometimes quite badly, but I'm not going back to playing unmodded to get better performance!

[keithinhanoi]

Wow, a $35 video card with 1GB of VRAM.

 

I have to assume it's probably even more underpowered than my card, and a quick scan through some review tells me it's not really a viable choice for Skyrim in general, let alone a modded Skyrim. So when you get some $$ then that's the place to start with an upgrade - though I'm no PC builder, so by all means start a thread to collect advice - just be clear about the budget.

 

As for using RCRN - yes, it can be installed and used in Mod Organizer (I typed up a full guide on how to do it on the RCRN Forums, based on a very helpful post by another STEP member here, DoubleYou.) However, if you are using anything beyond the core EnhancedLightsandFX.esp plugin, then there are a lot of "conflicts" which will need to be patched - especially if you want to try to use ELFXEnhancer. This is because RCRN is really a weather & lighting mod, which affects the look and lighting of so many locations in the game. So, be warned.

 

About the cell reset - just remember that it will also reset all NPC spawn points, so it may feel a little more "populated" with encounters for a while after running through those steps I suggested.

[phryxolydian]

Yeah, I know it's not a good card but I didn't know about STEP when I bought it and I don't know much about computers rigs and specs in general so I just bought what was available and, as I don't live in the US, it wasn't $35, more like $57. I'll worry about it when I can but I wonder if a gtx 400 and up can be handled by my motherboard and CPU, again I'm clueless about these things.

 

I am not completely sure it worked as intended, keith. Recently killed wolves' corpses were still there when I got out from Lakeview Manor. I take it this only resets them and doesn't clean cells?

[DVersion]

Is there a way to get the patch package to load up with nmm?

[keithinhanoi]

 

I am not completely sure it worked as intended, keith. Recently killed wolves' corpses were still there when I got out from Lakeview Manor. I take it this only resets them and doesn't clean cells?

 

As far as I know, corpse cleanup is handled separately. In the Skyrim Immersive Creatures MCM menu there's a separate option to set the time until corpses are cleaned up (default = 24 hours.)

 

However, on the Skyrim Immersive Creatures information website page explaining what cell respawning does, he does say that dead bodies are removed, in addition to havoked items and items left behind being cleaned up as well.

 

Looking at the UESP (Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages) entry about Respawning in Skyrim, it doesn't mention corpse cleanup as something which happens when the cells are reset.

 

So, I'm not sure if seeing recently the corpses of recently killed NPCs / creatures is something to worry about.

 

Interestingly, I do notice mention on UESP's page on Skyrim's console commands about needing to use the purge cell buffer command (pcb in console) after using the resetinterior <cellid> command, to ensure Skyrim's buffer of the last cell you were in is also cleared out. I don't know if this also applies to the case of resetting non-Dungeon cells (and acutally I was a bit off there - it's cells marked as "cleared" which take 30 days to reset.)

 

So, I suppose to be extra extra super safe, you could also type pcb in the console just after step #4 and before saving the game in step #5.

 

Keep in mind this is all just being overly cautious - if you did happen to move any havok-able items placed by ELFX Exteriors, I'm not entirely sure that disabling the plugin would lead to problems, because the cells do get reset after 10 in-game days of not visiting them anyhow.

[Astakos]

Quite an informative post Keithinhanoi (as always)! 

 

Thank you very much!

[CJ2311]

Thanks CJ, it was clear and easy enough  :;):I'll give DoR another go then, I really liked the whole concept from the screenshots. You don't think it was because of the Smelters conflict, maybe?

I don't really think that would cause a problem. However if I remember correctly, Dawn of Riften adds a smelter there, so the smelters mod would be kind of redundant. :P 

Is the Dayspring Canyon map marker showing incorrectly on your version as well?

Nope, it actually is showing at the correct location, thanks to the mod fixing said location on the map. (Note that I'm not using Warbug's 3D map either, I don't know if that would affect anything)@keith: Thanks for all that info, the cell reset will surely come in handy, I didn't know it was doable with the console and always relied on SIC to do it. D:@phryxolydian: If you're going to buy another GPU, I really would recommend AMD over nVidia to save money without sacrificing performance when it comes to gaming. At any rate, consult a lot of reviews and consider asking for advice on this subreddit or somewhere else before deciding, they can help you figure out if the rest of your rig would work with newer GPUs, as well.As for "patching ELFX", I'd recommend removing the exteriors plugin altogether as keith said. Not much else to add on the matter, I don't think I could add anything useful to his post...@DVersion: Just open NMM and add the installer manually, it should be enough.

[thaiusmle]

CJ - If I use only ELFX without ELFX-exteriors, do I need to use ETaC ELFX patch? Thanks for a great pack.

[CJ2311]

CJ - If I use only ELFX without ELFX-exteriors, do I need to use ETaC ELFX patch? Thanks for a great pack.

Yeah there's an ETaC patch for ELFX-Interiors and you need it if you don't want to end up with a ton of floating lights.

[phryxolydian]

I don't really think that would cause a problem. However if I remember correctly, Dawn of Riften adds a smelter there, so the smelters mod would be kind of redundant. :P

 

I know it makes it redundant! That's why I was asking if it would be better to uninstall and install the Solitude ONLY version from Smelters, or would it be safer to just load DoR after Smelters to just let it overwrite it.

 

Nope, it actually is showing at the correct location, thanks to the mod fixing said location on the map. (Note that I'm not using Warbug's 3D map either, I don't know if that would affect anything)

 

Is it? Perhaps I've messed it up but here is how it's showing on my map. Shouldn't Dayspring Canyon be more like where I drew the circle?

 

If you're going to buy another GPU, I really would recommend AMD over nVidia to save money without sacrificing performance when it comes to gaming. At any rate, consult a lot of reviews and consider asking for advice on this subreddit or somewhere else before deciding, they can help you figure out if the rest of your rig would work with newer GPUs, as well.

As for "patching ELFX", I'd recommend removing the exteriors plugin altogether as keith said. Not much else to add on the matter, I don't think I could add anything useful to his post...

 

You are very kind CJ and I appreciate it. I'll definitely take your advice into consideration and when I have the money to do it, I'll read up reviews and ask around but really, if I go reading reviews about cards I can't afford right now, I'll only torture myself..

 

I've removed ELFX Exteriors for good as per keith's instructions. Thanks keith! All that info should come in handy someday for sho.

[phryxolydian]

Came across this on my first visit to Markarth on an almost 200 hour playthrough. Has there really been a lot of changes to the city? The BCE does give it some nice additions but I'm not sure if there was any major changes from ETaC.. probably 'cause there's not a whole lot of room for additions, huh?

[vidalia]

AFAIK ETAC does not make any edits to the cities. Where is this happening - inside the Markarth city worldspace or in the exteriors?