noodles1976

Hi LL...just out of curiosity, has anyone here used the Dynamic Distant Objects LOD utility? http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59721/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D59721%26preview%3D&pUp=1 I'm considering using it to improve my LODs, as that has always been something that has stuck out to me like a swore thumb. I'm looking for pros and cons to using it, from people with experience with it.   I'm not keen to try other options at this point, such as editing uGridstoload or other LOD mods...I'm essentially 'shopping' at this point.   Any help / insight would be greatly appreciated!   N~dles

  I took a look at Air ENB and it doesn't look that dissimilar to Performance and Realistic ENB by 32cm, perhaps Air is a bit brighter and more color saturated. I tested 32cm's preset on my old system last year, and it ran pretty well. He updated the preset and now calls it Tamriel Reloaded, so you've got two options to go with, plus they both have various color palettes / settings to choose from. P&R ENB: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37978/? TR ENB: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49834/?   Personally, for gameplay I find that using older presets is better. Decent visuals, minor performance hit and the same flexibility for tuning the preset to your own liking with newer ones...just without the in-game GUI in some cases. The only difference is that a lot of the 'kitchen sink' effects that really tank frame rate aren't available. Just because you can add all the visual awesome doesn't mean you should, unless you have a system that can handle it. Take a look at Project MATSO. Don't be fooled by the screenshots, there's a ton of options to make it less eye-bleeding in terms of color saturation. I personally like the 3 Kyo variants that are optional d/ls: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25451/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D25451%26preview%3D&pUp=1   Obviously the older presets won't look as good as the newer ones, but if you're only looking to improve visual quality and play the game at an acceptable frame rate (always subjective), this might be your best option.   N~dles

Yeah, not so keen on scripts being needed for the LODs to load either...script lag, Skyrim being Skyrim and Papyrus being "sensitive" could cause CTDs or save file bloat in a worst case scenario. TES5LODGen doesn't seem to have these issues as far as I can tell in testing it out, and it essentially does the same thing...   What do you think Yatol? Am I better off using TES5LODGen in your opinion?   N~dles

Thanks for the replies everybody...really appreciate it     Thanks for the info Yatol...I was hoping that you would post in this thread I ran TES5LODGen last night and did some testing to see how my system would react and there was zero performance impact. I'm edging towards running the DynDoLOD utility, as having LODs built from my load order is just too tempting. I double checked and I don't have anything installed that is not compatible with DynDoLOD according to the main page on the Nexus, so it should be just fine to run. The only concern I have now is with what you just posted...CTDs due to script issues. Just out of curiosity, have you encountered any other CTD's with DynDoLOD?   I see you were able to fix it, so I may be referencing your post as a guide if I encounter the same trouble.   Thanks!   N~dles

  lol...you're not far off the mark TBH There are a lot of them...but I did find a few mods that looked very promising and I'm tracking them to see how they develop over the next few weeks with bug fixes and patches. The Hot Files header is rather misleading, as most of them are followers, skimpy armor or other "Pretty NPC" type mods...not slagging those mods, they involve effort and a bit of courage to release (the TES modding community is one of the most critical and demanding ones I've ever encountered, and it takes a bit of a thick skin to make your work public). But there is a ton more content that gets buried due to the sheer volume of files that get pumped out every single day...it's easy to miss those few diamonds in the rough.   N~dles

Well, I pretty much said everything I needed to in my earlier post, but I found this interesting...I thought I'd share this bit of info.   Last night while researching a mod hosted on the Nexus and contemplating if I should use it or not, I decided to hit the 'recent' files tab just to see what's come out this month so far...   30 pages of mods released, with 12 files on each page. That's 360 mods released in October...and we're only 1/2 way through the month. Not going to discuss the type or quality of these mods, suffice they cover a very broad spectrum of content. This is not even including the updates / patches of already existing files...so, yeah. The Nexus modding community is on track for possibly 720 mods released this month alone...around 23 mods per day average.   N~dles

Perhaps a specific 'type' of working girl per city location...here's my thoughts:   Riften - Rife with a criminal element, the only type of prostitute encountered there should be street walkers & pimps. Perhaps only one or two call girls would be available through Maven Black-Briar (or similar NPC)...but I think it should be more focused on street corner services. It just seems Riften is a 'rougher' neighborhood, and the ladies and how they conduct their business should reflect that.   Solitude - Posh, high-end brothel outside the city limits...with a few call girls residing inside the city to take care of the high society / nobility types. No street walkers though.   Windhelm - Don't know what fits this city best...maybe something similar to what you made for FO3, the Chryslus Bar & Grill? A strip joint with a few ladies that do work on the side...I don't think it's necessary to have every woman there turning tricks though. Should be a rough and rowdy place, where the player character might just get punched in the face by a drunk patron for just looking at them.   Anyhow...seems like you've got some pretty good ideas so far Kendo. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.   Good luck!   N~dles    

Thanks for the replies so far! Really appreciate it     So, the only negative mentioned so far is a performance hit...Do you all think it would be better to run TES5LODGen first and see what kind of impact it has on my system?   Thanks again for the insight / advice so far!   N~dles

I think it really depends on hardware and if you want to play the game with an ENB enabled or use it for screen archery.   For gameplay, I've found that the "performance" versions of these two presets look really damn good...vastly superior to other performance presets:   For bright, lush color and landscapes I like the Organic ENB preset: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/38917/? It's highly customizable with two main color style to choose from (one uses less color saturation than the other), with 3 or 4 .ini variations to increase performance. I've tested all of them and they all essentially look brilliant. The biggest bonus is that it uses ZeroKing's post process add-on for further tweaking, and it's night-vision compatible. Some old pics, haven't used this preset for a while:   As you can see, these all look pretty good...obviously I've tuned some of them up a bit, but in general they look great 'out of the box'.   Anyhow...good luck picking just one! I'd suggest trying out all the ones mentioned by folks in this thread and see which one you like best, it's the only way to find exactly what you want.   N~dles

  I agree...great work on your character HeroedeLeyenda. She has that 'sexy, but dangerous' look to her...not too cartoon-ish, not too zepplin boob-ish. Nothing wrong with those kinds of characters mind you...everybody has their own tastes. I just respect the look of more reality based body styles and face edits.   Kudos for a great looking lady.   N~dles

  Really good info yatol...thanks for posting this. What would you suggest as a fix for this type of problem of scripts causing bloated save game files...other than the obvious removal of the mods in question and running a cleaner on the save file.   N~dles

  N~dles

  Seems like the presets' author forgot to turn the effect off...usually not something that a preset gets released with activated.   The 'use original post processing' essentially disables some of the ENB's effects, and uses Skyrim's settings. As for do's and don'ts, generally speaking never use hardware AA or AF for any preset using binaries made after v.119...the newer ones have their own anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. To reduce performance hit, disabling the SSAO (screen space ambient occlusion) can improve your fps but at a loss of some depth to the image...might look a bit more flat without the extra shading. All current ENB binaries now come with the option to edit the preset while in game through a GUI opened with the SHIFT -> ENTER key combo...effects can also be completely shut off using the SHIFT -> F12 key combo...it's a good way to test out new settings you want to experiment with, and being able to save the edits while in-game is great.   Depending on the visual style you want to get out of your game, there are oodles of presets to pick from and can be customized ad nauseam even further.   Here's a couple of links that may help you explore tinkering with ENBs and customizing / stability or picking a preset...   http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB   http://www.tesgeneral.com/#!enb/c5x   ...if you're going to use ENBs I highly suggest / recommend using Mindflux's particle patch for ENB...the all-in-one version found here:   http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1499   And the biggest thing to be aware of (IMHO) is that some presets require specific lighting or weather mods for them to look correct (as in replicating the look of their screenshots for yourself). If the preset author says you need to have Climates of Tamriel or ELFX installed, you're better off using them. Of course you can choose to not do this, but it will require some minor or major editing to the preset to rebalance the lighting for the game to not look f-ugly.   Oh, and never use a mod manager to install a preset. Some preset authors have created mod manager installer friendly packages, due to complexity or customization (like Vividian ENB) but these are the exceptions...never the rule.   I'm sure there's a ton more I'm leaving out...but these are just the top things I see come up in discussions about ENBs more often than not.   Have fun!   N~dles

  Looks like he solved his issue to me   N~dles

  lol...yatol. I think you've misunderstood what I wrote. I edit texture mods to be an appropriate size for how I want my game to look and run. I said that you don't need to have textures larger than 1K in the game...I didn't say that every texture in my install is 1K     To clarify: I did not say to edit all of Tamriel Reloaded's textures...nor did I claim to have done so myself...nor did I suggest it as a possible solution to M4rth to correct his frame rate issues. I mentioned it as my own personal experience with textures, and the reason why I don't use the optimizers. The problem M4rth seemed to be having was caused by Tamriel Reloaded...he uninstalled it, and problem solved.    At any rate...whatever works for you   N~dles

  Glad you got it sorted out, happy to help. Don't give up on adding exterior mods though...there are quite a few out there that look very good without eating up a lot of VRAM. They aren't 4K with parallax hooplah and unique meshes for each blade of grass and pebble, but you'll be able to play the game at a decent fps. Just a couple that come to mind...   Anything by Gamwich...really, all his texture mods are optimized and look great in game. They vary in size from vanilla to 1K and up, just depends on the level of detail he's trying to achieve. Not all the textures are blown-up to impossible sizes though...he uses logic. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/5712421/?tb=mods&pUp=1   Grass on Steroids is a nice alternative to some of the other flora overhauls out there...can improve frame rate, believe it or not. It uses vanilla assets, just increases the density of it, so it's not adding any new meshes to your install IIRC. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33582/?   A nice city & town overhaul with a minimal footprint on performance would be JK's Skyrim...it's what I'm using now. Good textures and adds some nice immersion to otherwise bland looking towns. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/61035/?   Have fun!   N~dles

  Both Tamriel Reloaded mods would be my first guess as to why your frame rate is tanking so hard outside. I've found that, without exception, nearly every mod that adds new meshes and textures to exterior spaces eats up VRAM. With some mods it's a minimal hit, others turn your system into an amazing slide show presentation.   As a general rule for myself with regard to texture mods, I tend to downsize them with Photoshop, sharpen them up with filter or two, and drop them back into game...I don't really notice any drop in visual quality, and I use a 32 inch monitor Texture optimizers are a different story, I've never tried them...I prefer to do the work myself rather than rely on a program to do it automatically. If you don't have Photoshop, GIMP is a very good alternative and is free (just need the .dds plugin to edit & save the textures). I run my game at a comfortable 45 - 50 FPS outdoors with ENBs and 1K texture mods (size edited where needed...I don't need 1K sign post textures   ).   To be perfectly honest, you really don't need textures above 1K in resolution. Textures above that size are just too big for Skyrims' ancient game engine, eat up too much memory and generally are only good for taking screenshots...not actually playing the game IMHO.   I'd suggest uninstalling both of the Tamriel Reloaded mods and see if your performance improves before doing any editing of textures, or using any optimizers.   N~dles

Yep...contact Gopher through his YT channel, or through his website: https://www.gophersvids.com/   Sorry to be the dissenting voice here, but if you can't reach the author(s) for permission, don't release it...or at least don't release it with their assets included. Linking to the mods' required assets for d/l will always keep you in the clear. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass...but it keeps you out of trouble with modders who are more 'strict' about redistribution permission of their work. My rule of thumb is always: "Out of contact/unable to contact does not mean implied consent until notified to the contrary".   Just my opinion. Good luck with your mod!   N~dles

Depending on any additional mods you may be using that effect the player characters' health, your Health Regen rate is 0.7000 by default (Breton Race is what I checked in the Ningheim.esp, just as a quick example).   To get your followers to have the same health regen rate, open the follower .esp in the CK. Use the Filter to find the specific race details about your follower...and edit the regen rate under the 'General' tab for them. See the screenshot below...     N~dles

My thoughts....   Does the ENB preset use a SweetFX .dll as a proxy for extra effects?   A lot of SweetFX presets have a 'split screen' option in the SweetFX_settings.txt so that the user can do compare/contrast screenshots.   If this ENB preset is using SweetFX, open the settings.txt file and make sure it looks like this:   #define USE_SPLITSCREEN       0 //[0 or 1] Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.   What ENB preset are you using?   N~dles  

  I agree with the Script Scalpel advice, or use the Save Game Cleaner (which is what I use): http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52363/?   Both utilities do essentially the same thing, so it's up to you to decide which one you'd prefer using.   Depending on how much adding/removing scripted mods you've done mid-save (never a good idea), orphaned scripts will cause bloat...best to use a 'cleaner' of some kind to get rid of them. I generally check my saves every 10 - 20 hours of game play to see what's happening with scripts, file size etc...using the Reset havok function in Save Game Cleaner trims my save file size down a little bit as well.   As for your mods / load order...I didn't count exactly how many plugins you're running, but I generally try to stay under 125 (I'm currently at 83). I seem to get stability issues running anything above that. Not saying that's causing your save game bloat issues, but could be a contributing factor to stability issues in general.   N~dles

Years, tbh. Just look at Oblivion or FO3...while content isn't getting made/released every single day, there is still a steady flow of mods being created. While the quality varies, there are some modders that prefer working with specific titles and never move onto the next 'best' game. I imagine there will be a big drop off once FO4 is released, but it mostly be the tatty mod makers that migrate right away. The 'high end' modders probably won't touch it until a script extender is made or a GECK is released.   As for Skyrim, I'm sure the TES modding community will continue on as it always has...every couple of weeks or months there will be something new to test, play and enjoy. I figure it's a long away from 'death'.   N~dles

 

I'm still using v0.56.1...and I get the 'do you want to update' pop-up whenever I open it. Hell no is my answer! The trouble is, they're trying to make it too much like MO. The more they try to "fix it", the more broken it gets. Mod managers really should only do two things IMHO:   1) install / uninstall mods 2) Sort load order manually (if need be)   That's it...anything more than that leads to problems. Just look at all the troubleshooting threads for MO & NMM.   Elf Prince posted a fairly comprehensive guide for NMM v0.60, it's a good read. Maybe you can find a solution there? http://www.loverslab.com/topic/52647-nmm-060-important-infos-help-tips-tricks/   It'd be nice if older versions of NMM were archived someplace (like on the Nexus ) so people could revert back if the new versions take a dump.   N~dles   EDIT: Elf Prince has a link to v0.56.1 in the first post of that thread, you should be able to grab that and re-install NMM without buggering up your game too much more. Good luck!

  It is an awesome language...learned a little over the years, but not enough to ever feel comfortable posting or speaking it I'd probably embarrass the hell out of myself if I tried to to post on the Russian sites!   Thanks for the compliments Kshahdoo...I obsess over how my game looks, so it's cool to get positive feedback    N~dles