GUIDE Skyrim Installation Guide

[Kelmych]

The DLC section of the Skyrim Installation guide now includes material on how to make use of the new updated Bethesda Hi-Res Optimized mod and its options. The section on installation options has also been significantly expanded.

[Farlo]

Thanks for the updates Kelmych, they're much appreciated.

 

Before we release v2.2.1 we want the SIG to be as up-to-date as we can make it so we're not causing confusion. If a few of us can give it a good scrubbing and polishing that'd be a great help.  The only glaring error is that the Steam installation section needs to be rewritten since they now allow you to select different installation directories.

[WilliamImm]

I can go ahead and scrub the guide. In fact, I have modified the guide several times already.

[Farlo]

I can go ahead and scrub the guide. In fact' date=' I have modified the guide several times already.[/quote']

Go for it, the more eyes on the better.  Just make sure to stay in the third person whenever possible.

[stoppingby4now]

Thanks for the updates Kelmych, they're much appreciated.

 

Before we release v2.2.1 we want the SIG to be as up-to-date as we can make it so we're not causing confusion. If a few of us can give it a good scrubbing and polishing that'd be a great help.  The only glaring error is that the Steam installation section needs to be rewritten since they now allow you to select different installation directories.

 

Where is that option, I'm not seeing it anywhere.

[toshaka]

The moment you first install the game you can choose where you want to put it.

You have also options to make more libraries that way.

 

Steam > Settings > Downloads + Clouds (tab) > Steam Library Folders

 

There you can make more of those isntall folders.

[stoppingby4now]

The moment you first install the game you can choose where you want to put it.

You have also options to make more libraries that way.

 

Steam > Settings > Downloads + Clouds (tab) > Steam Library Folders

 

There you can make more of those isntall folders.

Ahha! Thanks. I completely blew through that screen and didn't pay attention. :P

 

It's good to see them finally fixing things that we had to rely on community tools for.

[mishmash]

Hey guys, I made some experimental edits to the DLC page, I would appreciate it if you had a look and tell me what you think.

 

It might look a bit savage but my aim was to make the installation guide concise. I've noticed that some information is repeated at times across the guides but I think keeping the main install guide brief will be less daunting and more straight-forward for readers and allow them to familiarise themselves to a degree with further actions they could take with help from the in depth information in the ancillary guides.

 

See where I put ACTION at the bottom of HRDLC Problems? I was thinking a graphical or textual indication, similar to "benchmark" in the new STEP 2.2.1 would make the guide easier to follow.  

 

Also, it looks to me like at least some significant parts of these two guides:

 

BSA extraction and optimization (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:BSA_Extraction_and_Optimization#tab=The_Basics) and DDSopt (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls)

address some of the same topics and I think this should be addressed as a priority. Could they be combined into one? The section I edited wrongly links to one when the pertinent information is in the other. If someone with more experience of those topics than I could look at them please.

 

The last 4 tabs of the guide do not deal with Skyrim installation but contain basic information it probably makes sense to include so in lieu of moving that information could the whole guide be renamed Skyrim Installation and General Modification Guide (or something more catchy, I don't have time to think about it now) ?

 

Cheers!

[z929669]

Thanks for your edits mishmash. I like the idea of simplifying and consolidating wherever possible. I am in favor of keeping the main guide topics centralized and side-barring ancillary material. There are many ways to do this, but I prefer creating

margins. This takes a bit more coding know-how, so if someone wants to go into the SIG and other guides and begin demarking segments that are tangential to the main points, others can take care of formatting.

 

Streamlining content is important right now.

 

@Kelmych & WilliamImm

You have made some edits out there too, so I suggest that you three team up if you want.

 

The more the better. (and please try to keep all text in the third person (i.e., avoid using 'I', 'we', 'you')

[Kelmych]

Hey guys, I made some experimental edits to the DLC page, I would appreciate it if you had a look and tell me what you think.

 

It might look a bit savage but my aim was to make the installation guide concise. I've noticed that some information is repeated at times across the guides but I think keeping the main install guide brief will be less daunting and more straight-forward for readers and allow them to familiarise themselves to a degree with further actions they could take with help from the in depth information in the ancillary guides.

 

See where I put ACTION at the bottom of HRDLC Problems? I was thinking a graphical or textual indication, similar to "benchmark" in the new STEP 2.2.1 would make the guide easier to follow.  

 

Also, it looks to me like at least some significant parts of these two guides:

 

BSA extraction and optimization (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:BSA_Extraction_and_Optimization#tab=The_Basics) and DDSopt (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls)

address some of the same topics and I think this should be addressed as a priority. Could they be combined into one? The section I edited wrongly links to one when the pertinent information is in the other. If someone with more experience of those topics than I could look at them please.

 

The last 4 tabs of the guide do not deal with Skyrim installation but contain basic information it probably makes sense to include so in lieu of moving that information could the whole guide be renamed Skyrim Installation and General Modification Guide (or something more catchy, I don't have time to think about it now) ?

 

Cheers!

I did most the recent editing on the DLC section of SIG and the DDSopt and Texture Overhauls guide and a lot of the recent additions (last two sections) to the BSA Extraction and Optimization guide.

 

It sounds like you are suggesting that we use a different format indicator of some sort to indicate decision points or specific actions to take (and sometimes these may be the same content); I'm not quite sure which of these (or both) you suggest should be highlighted in a different way. Are you suggesting an indicator that one or both of these is being covered, or that the content of the decision point and/or actions should be in a box much like a notice? If we do this here to help readers of this section of the SIG guide we might also want to do think about how this might be done in other guides and sections if it makes it easier for readers to understand.

 

The BSA Extraction and Optimization guide is general information, much like the last 4 tabs of the SIG (as you mentioned), and could be included in the SIG or moved to the DDSopt and Texture Overhauls guide since it is also somewhat related to the topics covered there. I think the The BSA Extraction and Optimization guide could be part of some larger guide, or we can have a lot of small independent guides that are referenced by a few larger guides, or some combination. At the moment there are only a few pointers that ever lead someone to this guide, so the current situation probably isn't the right one for this guide.

 

In doing these additions and edits I wanted to provided a layered approach. Texture optimization as discussed in the DDSopt and Texture Overhauls guide is fairly complicated, and not something which should be given to all STEP users as the recommended initial approach. I wanted to try to have a path for users that didn't involve using DDSopt, but yet provide some steps that lead to some improvements. Ideally the users who didn't use DDSopt the first time could come back later and do so.

 

Unfortunately there are some common steps that are used for both the path using DDSopt and the path that doesn't. There are major recent changes in the approach to dealing with the HRDLC. For this section, I concentrated on getting a useful revised set of options at the bottom of the DLC section. One problem that remained was then how to provide the right information in the rest of SIG DLC section (how much detail, how much reference to other guides, inline steps vs. reference to other sections/guides with the steps, ...) As is there could be confusion that results form the way we cross-link the guides, especially for some of the actual steps that a user would do. If we feel this isn't a problem since the steps are optional then we can leave this, but it still needs a little cleanup (e.g., use of bullets that describe the optional steps vs. everything inline)

 

It would probably be good to move the HRDLC recommendations to the bottom of page as explanation vs. having it before the options list. Some of the material in that section (and in portions of the DDSopt and Texture Overhauls guide) is a candidate for a sidebar once we have a mechanism to do so fairly easily while editing.

[z929669]

I will see about creating a "sidebar" template.

 

Template complete. Try using according to the examples.

[Farlo]

I will see about creating a "sidebar" template.

 

Template complete. Try using according to the examples.

Updated the template a bit.

[z929669]

I will see about creating a "sidebar" template.

 

Template complete. Try using according to the examples.

Updated the template a bit.

Good edit. I didn't like the right-floating heading on same sidebar, so I created a proper heading.

[Kelmych]

I'll try using this with the SIG DLC section since it is fairly short; we can then get an idea how effective it is. I'm assuming instructions would be in the body of the text with some extra explanations in the sidebar, probably on the right. If that isn't the best way to do it let me know.

[Farlo]

I'll try using this with the SIG DLC section since it is fairly short; we can then get an idea how effective it is. I'm assuming instructions would be in the body of the text with some extra explanations in the sidebar' date=' probably on the right. If that isn't the best way to do it let me know.[/quote']

That sounds perfect, keep the body of it focused on what to do with auxiliary information on the sides.