The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - MODS & TWEAKS

silvagti · 25 Jun 2013 at 11:48

Dave said:
Saw the Skyrim legendary edition is only £20 now. I don't have any of the DLCs but would like them for completeness - is it worth just picking up the legendary edition as the price is the same (or a little less!) than picking up Hearthfire, Dawnguard and Dragonborn separately. I have the DVD version of Skyrim that I bought when it first came out.

Are mods etc. are all OK for the legendary edition as long as they are compatible with all the DLCs? I presume that I'd need to uninstall Skyrim and remove it from my Steam list before installing the legendary edition - this is no problem as I'm putting together a new PC at the moment so will just need to remove from the Steam list.

I'm wondering the same thing of whether to buy the legendary edition rather than the DLC separately? Will buying it just upgrade my current copy of Skyrim with the additional DLC leaving my save games intact? If it appears as a separate add-on I might just hold fire and see if the DLC is reduced in price at some point now the legendary edition is out.

Posh · 25 Jun 2013 at 12:04

is there any guides to editing the skyrim ini files?

Amraam · 25 Jun 2013 at 12:05

Posh said:
is there any guides to editing the skyrim ini files?

Take a look at DoNotArgue if it's still going, and skyrim tweak guides is very good too.

Cheers for the driver advice, I'll give it a go.

Mr Krugga · 25 Jun 2013 at 13:20

Posh said:
is there any guides to editing the skyrim ini files?

Most of the tweaks don't do any good. I'd advise against using tweaks that you don't fully understand.

Is there anything in particular you're looking for?

EDIT: Apparently the GeForce 314.22 driver has the sun glare issue fixed as well.

Posh · 25 Jun 2013 at 14:24

just historically you can get some really nice effects and changes out of the ini files such as increasing draw distances and shadows etc.

the default ugridstoload looks really nasty

Amraam · 25 Jun 2013 at 14:47

Posh said:
just historically you can get some really nice effects and changes out of the ini files such as increasing draw distances and shadows etc.

the default ugridstoload looks really nasty

Don't take this as an insult, but if you're asking how to edit .ini files, you really don't want to change the gridstoload as that is one easy way to ruin your save files.

Thanks Mr Krugga I'll try those drivers. I'm using the latest WHQL on my GTX670 but I hear a lot of criticism of those. I hadn't noticed any issue myself, but maybe I can blame these drivers for this sun glare issue!

Posh · 25 Jun 2013 at 14:55

I know what i''m doing, just don't like to fiddle with things without having a bit of a "refresher".

johnny cass · 25 Jun 2013 at 17:16

Don't change the ugrids it breaks the game 20 hours down the line.

Mr Krugga · 25 Jun 2013 at 17:53

Higher uGrids levels eventually lead to unstable gameplay, uGrid=9 and above sooner than uGrid=7, but even that will cause you problems in the future, especially if you heavily mod the game.

Skyrim's Creation Engine is really not designed to handle more cells and funny things happen when you start tweaking different settings.

I can only recommend a few tweaks that don't affect the gameplay in a significant way, since a lot of them break more than fix. You can find a lot of feedback on STEP, Nexus and Beth forums.

Posh · 26 Jun 2013 at 09:14

I do wonder then how so many people get the game's lod in the distance looking so good then.

I mean, up close the game looks stunning for me, but for example on top a hill looking down at whiterun..............the lod looks horrific and im using the mods that are meant to improve it.

Darujhistan · 26 Jun 2013 at 09:23

Does anyone know how to fix the 'shimmering' effect with mods and an ENB installed?

Just bought a new 2TB HDD for STEAM after running out of space and uninstalling most of my games and I will be playing this again very soon.

Thanks in advance.

Posh · 26 Jun 2013 at 12:28

is there any preferred method for installing mods?

like a routine of which mods you install before others etc

Pighardia · 26 Jun 2013 at 12:31

Posh said:
is there any preferred method for installing mods?

like a routine of which mods you install before others etc

It only really matters for texture mods that overwrite each other. STEP will help you there, otherwise I would install the biggest(that encompasses the most) texture mod first, then textures for specific things over them.

For game play mods etc, it doesn't matter except for patches for mods.

Posh · 26 Jun 2013 at 12:52

oh wow that step thing is exactly what im after.......thanks!

Mr Krugga · 26 Jun 2013 at 13:37

Posh said:
I do wonder then how so many people get the game's lod in the distance looking so good then.

I mean, up close the game looks stunning for me, but for example on top a hill looking down at whiterun..............the lod looks horrific and im using the mods that are meant to improve it.

They might well be playing with higher uGrids, or just increase them for the screenshots (more than likely). You can try increasing them, but with a number of mods, your game is bound to be unstable. There's an evident problem with Skyrim when it crashes around 3.1 GB RAM usage. Higher uGrids will only elevate it.

Posh said:
is there any preferred method for installing mods?

like a routine of which mods you install before others etc

Yes, there's always a preferred method for installing mods. But it really depends on the type of mods and what you're trying to achieve (and how much you care about stability and compatibility).

Personally, I prefer to keep most of my mods in loose files in the Data folder, rather than packed in BSAs, since it's easier to manage the conflicts for textures/meshes/sounds in Wrye Smash.

A lot of mods have internal conflicts in their ESPs and load order will determine which mod overwrites the other's records, meaning that sometimes one of your mods simply won't work when the other is installed. These can be resolved by either modifying your load order, installing compatibility patches or modifying the plugins yourself to get rid of the conflicts.

Using the right mod manager is crucial. Unfortunately, NMM just doesn't offer the same flexibility and control over your mods that other managers do, and Steam Workshop is simply horrible in almost every way.

Amraam · 26 Jun 2013 at 16:16

Mr Krugga said:
They might well be playing with higher uGrids, or just increase them for the screenshots (more than likely). You can try increasing them, but with a number of mods, your game is bound to be unstable. There's an evident problem with Skyrim when it crashes around 3.1 GB RAM usage. Higher uGrids will only elevate it.

Yes, there's always a preferred method for installing mods. But it really depends on the type of mods and what you're trying to achieve (and how much you care about stability and compatibility).

Personally, I prefer to keep most of my mods in loose files in the Data folder, rather than packed in BSAs, since it's easier to manage the conflicts for textures/meshes/sounds in Wrye Smash.

A lot of mods have internal conflicts in their ESPs and load order will determine which mod overwrites the other's records, meaning that sometimes one of your mods simply won't work when the other is installed. These can be resolved by either modifying your load order, installing compatibility patches or modifying the plugins yourself to get rid of the conflicts.

Using the right mod manager is crucial. Unfortunately, NMM just doesn't offer the same flexibility and control over your mods that other managers do, and Steam Workshop is simply horrible in almost every way.

Yeah it took me a while to get used to it, but Wrye bash and BOSS is great.

Omaeka · 26 Jun 2013 at 16:44

Dave said:
I was under the impression that it installs on steam under it's own name with all the DLC, but I can't use the DLC in the legendary edition to upgrade my current retail DVD. Waiting for the summer sales as it currently costs more to buy all the DLC than it does to just get the legendary edition!

Nah, it just adds the parts you're missing to your account, so if like me you have them all except Dragonborn, buying the Legendary edition will just add Dragonborn to your Skyrim, not giving you a brand new game under a different name.

Voltage · 26 Jun 2013 at 17:21

ok Ive also come back to Skyrim lately.

ive got hold of wyrebash and so far I have installed the skyui, the skyrim textures dlc mod.

now I have downloaded literally every mod listed on STEP guide that the dude above posted, but I just cant find in the guide the definite best routine to install all these mods.

For example I have loads of texture mods like 4k textures, realism mod, lod textures etc etc

oh, also did a backup of my default skyrim without any mods so I have something to fall back on

agnes · 26 Jun 2013 at 18:11

Any ideas why the d3d9.dll file would cause my game to crash to desktop when launching? It's the 0119 version. Trying to get climates of tamriel and project enb to work.

Amraam · 26 Jun 2013 at 18:13

agnes said:
Any ideas why the d3d9.dll file would cause my game to crash to desktop when launching? It's the 0119 version. Trying to get climates of tamriel and project enb to work.

I will bet a testicle that you're running MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision or some overlay FPS/temp monitor. They don't work and crash the game when using the d3d9.dll.

Voltage said:
ok Ive also come back to Skyrim lately.

ive got hold of wyrebash and so far I have installed the skyui, the skyrim textures dlc mod.

now I have downloaded literally every mod listed on STEP guide that the dude above posted, but I just cant find in the guide the definite best routine to install all these mods.

For example I have loads of texture mods like 4k textures, realism mod, lod textures etc etc

oh, also did a backup of my default skyrim without any mods so I have something to fall back on

Yup everyone that you want at least. Follow it to the letter when it says what compatibility patches to use etc.