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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Mod Discussion and News [Creation Kit released]

Karak

Member
I can't decide which version of Wars in Skyrim to use. Normal Mode is a bit lore-breaking...there are too many random hostile NPCs out there. This can be fun but it doesn't really make sense...how do couriers and other citizens manage to get around if I encounter two trolls, a vampire and an atronach on my way from one city to another?

I was hoping it would add a lot more life to the world but only have so much if it be hostile. Has anyone tried the Rainbow mode? What about the Wild Age mode? Are most of the animals docile or hostile?

The easiest version of that mod barely changes anything. Just adds some danger to the world. Can't remember the name of the mode though.
I would expect other mods to come along and supplant most of these fairly soon.
 

Karak

Member

MacAttack

Member
Damn First ENB I have seen that looks...right. The armor is amazing. How are the nights? Too dark? What about bright sunlit days?

These are important questions that demand answers! please?

Never been inclined to use ENB or FXAA but this one has piqued my interest for sure.
 
Cheers might give it a go. :)

Great thing about Jasmin's profile, especially her latest one's is that there is 4 x 4 profile choices to choose from so you can keep trying the different settings she gives until you get it just right.

I spent yesterday figuring out out Blender and Nifscope, and I now know how to edit and create meshes and import them into Skyrim.

This is the result of my first days work - my first custom set of armor for myself, built by me :D

See how this armor had the spikes on the back? Well... yeah, I could see that I was never going to use it if it had those because they're just way too over the top for my taste, but it seemed almost perfectly what I wanted (almost) otherwise. I LOVE the ebony armor but the shoulders are the worst, and shoulders are one of the most important things in a set of armor in my opinion. So I've decided to do a complete re-design of this armor myself and that's going to be my first mod. It's going to be ebony style and I'm going to continue to change it bit by bit until it's absolutely perfect for me.

I actually had to change the diffuse, colour and specular texture maps for the ebony gauntlets and gloves in order to fit with this armor because they are different colors and it looked jarring, however I like the Ebony parts better they looked to my tastes. That took ages, but the thing that took the longest (even though it turned out to be quite easy to do) was figuring out how to edit the mesh.

So here you have it:

Original
untitled-18pyml.png


Start:
jD9F0FHbw2Gsf.jpg


50% Done Finish (Goodbye Spikes!):





This is the first time I've ever really delved into modding, and after getting all the tools and starting to check things out, it's INCREDIBLE how much we trust that people are doing the right thing and know what they're doing. Now that I've really started to cook down into the deep dark recesses of modding and looking into the actual inside of things it's no wonder some mods cause performance problems because a lot of mods are done by people who have absolutely no idea what they are doing (like me, but probably even worse) and they structure things all wrong.

I've been going through and checking some of the graphics mods that I've been using and some files are not optimised, the files are too large, some of the ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION texture packs are just 4096 at DX5 compression textures with no consideration about whether they NEED to be like that... like are you EVER going to see 4096 pixels on the screen? No... you're not, because you're playing at 1920x1080, now - ground textures, yes I can understand because the ground textures stretch on for miles but even so. There have been files with missing Mip-Maps so the game just uses the full texture all the way through which just CHUNKS out performance and makes it impossible for the game not to memory over run.

It's going to take a very long time but I'm going to go through my game myself and edit all the files that I feel need to be fixed up to ensure they're working properly.

I also think it's possible to compile .esp's using the Creation Kit, once you open on .esp file you can import another one's content into it thus combining the two - for static things like Armors and Weapons (which I have quite a few of clogging up my load list) I REALLY REALLY want to get into one .esp so I'm probably going to learn how to do that as well.

This has been an extremely enlightening exercise for me, I've learned how to tune all the settings in ENB myself so now I'm almost completely versed in that (where as about two months ago I was doing more worse than good I think I understand everything now to the point that when I change something I do better than worse).

Game designing must be tedious, because in order to get stuff right you have to make changes to your stuff, then load the game and see how it looks and if it doesn't look right, then come out and try again, load, rinse repeat - I'm sure I'm still not doing things right, and this was my first day at it (so like my first day at ENB those two or so months ago when I first tried it) I'm sure in two months time I'll be looking back on myself thinking, wow - what a noob.

Edit - Guys, Jasmin's needs a little bit of tuning to get just right, personally I think it's not quite perfect and the way I've got it now is what I believe to be "PERFECT".

I think I'm at the point where I'm not going to make any more changes for the time being, and I only really tuned like 10 values and the colour palette, so I can't really say that I've done that much so I don't know whether it's fair for me to upload it on the Nexus or not?
 

JoeBoy101

Member
How does this run? My rig isn't beefy and the giotech ENB slowed it pretty badly, I would love it to look like that indoors at least.

Eh, took 15 FPS off mine. And, TBH, Jasmin's has some really weird coloring in it. For example, the main girl in the Companions (Aela or something like that) her hair goes from reddish brown to reddish grey/white. Everything is just very overbright and saturated.

I had a decent mix of ENB settings where I skipped the post-processing (used in the in-game) and used ENB to modify the specular settings (make the metal look more metal), making the sky look better, and to bring out some of the color. Looked great, but still, 15 FPS hit. I'd rather keep it silky 60 smooth.
 

MacAttack

Member
Raptor can you share that armor? I was thinking the same as you about the original, its a sick set but the spikes kill it.

Nice work for your first mod.
 
Raptor can you share that armor? I was thinking the same as you about the original, its a sick set but the spikes kill it.

Nice work for your first mod.

I'll have to get permission from the author first I think... unless you ad me to Steam?

Eh, took 15 FPS off mine. And, TBH, Jasmin's has some really weird coloring in it. For example, the main girl in the Companions (Aela or something like that) her hair goes from reddish brown to reddish grey/white. Everything is just very overbright and saturated.

I had a decent mix of ENB settings where I skipped the post-processing (used in the in-game) and used ENB to modify the specular settings (make the metal look more metal), making the sky look better, and to bring out some of the color. Looked great, but still, 15 FPS hit. I'd rather keep it silky 60 smooth.

The reason that happens is because the specularity value is very high - I suggest putting it back down to either 3 or 4. I'll give you an example of my game with and without Jasmin ENB... hold up.

Everyone has to remember, that ENB settings ALWAYS need to be tuned for your setup, also, it's a more advanced way of the engine working and it makes use of all types of Post Processing Effects, so the rason Aela's hair goes like that is because the Normal Map / Specular Map for her hair is either missing or wrong. If you look at the first screenshot for my armor edit post you can see what I mean there.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of creation and frustration:) I have been doing it since Morrowind and I can tell you, at times you feel like you have learned NOTHING! But keep at it. And modding your own game is ultra fun:)

I know! Now my game can be UNIQUE to myself and it's largely the reason I like modding int he first place... because it's MY game now.

It's fun. I'm working on a shield to go with this kit at the moment... I think you shall all quite like it... I hope :)

On that note, any 7900 owners out there? 12.2 drivers just came out
3AQmK.gif
3AQmK.gif
3AQmK.gif
 
Oh man... there's some really cool shit starting to happen thanks to the CK. Monsters, Animals, Creatures, BUGS are all starting to become Various thanks to the Variety Mods being able to implement all of their various versions in the game AT THE SAME TIME.

Now... 101 Bugs has the same thing as the others and the bugs are all in the game at the same time.

Awesome

101 Bugs Updated



Guys - if you're starting to get 'up there' with mods... and even if you aren't, and you have a mixture of Nexus Mods, Workshop mods etc, I suggest your read the following link that discusses load order:

[!IMPORTANT] BSAs and You

Found another awesome one... ipHUD - allows you to customise the hud to your liking... this is awesome, make everything smaller, change the position of everything... stack the health, stamina and magicka in the bottom left etc
 

ScRYeD

Member
More Killmoves for all Weapon types - 1HN 2HN DW by sulezraz

Gonna download it and test it out, only doin that because of this hilarious video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9nZDyAn8Y8

Hide Bow and Quiver - Aesthetics for Skyrim by DarkenDE

Tested this out it's ok. It's a permanent removal of the bow and quiver from your character. Anyone know of any other mods that do something like this, like only equip arrows when you have a bow equipped.
It's also packed wrong for NMM don't know about the other mod orginizers, instead of having seperate files on the download page he has packed all three in one zip.

Lanterns on the Roads by Svabbarjack also gonna be trying out this one too.

Found another awesome one... ipHUD - allows you to customise the hud to your liking... this is awesome, make everything smaller, change the position of everything... stack the health, stamina and magicka in the bottom left etc

do you need SKSE/Script dragon?
 
Hey ColonialRaptor I love it how you keep posting all these great mods to try out.

Theres just so many on skyrimnexus.

Have you got a master list anywhere of all your suggestions so far?
 

Darkdeus

Member
Damn First ENB I have seen that looks...right. The armor is amazing. How are the nights? Too dark? What about bright sunlit days?

It looks okay outside. Bright days look fine to me but the night's don't look very good. It's not to dark but the stars, galaxies, and aurora's have too much contrast and look all messed up.
 

Tattooth

Member
I just installed that new Jasmin ENB and it looks like this:


I'm guessing that isn't normal, considering what screenshots have been posted in this thread

Also, Nvidia inspector isn't working for any type of anti aliasing, not sure what that is about.
 

Karak

Member
More Killmoves for all Weapon types - 1HN 2HN DW by sulezraz

Gonna download it and test it out, only doin that because of this hilarious video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9nZDyAn8Y8

I actually thought it was awesome. I don't use it but it is hilarious at times. I use killmove + as its more inline with a true mod to improve versus something that "over the top" :)

I am using
Killmove +
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9063

Killmove Finishers- Class Dependant Kill moves
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9329

And its pretty damn sweet as well but still has some work to be complete.
 

Exuro

Member
So is jasmins enb suppose to make your weapons blurry? Can't find any good dof mods that add light tinge of it in the distance. Everything I've tried either doesn't work or is stupid blurry.
 

Karak

Member
Looks like Shenk Thievery Overhaul got an update. Love what they have done so far with the hidden entrances to buildings and such.
Linky
 

S0N0S

Member
I just installed that new Jasmin ENB and it looks like this:


I'm guessing that isn't normal, considering what screenshots have been posted in this thread

Also, Nvidia inspector isn't working for any type of anti aliasing, not sure what that is about.

Did you follow Jasmin's installation instructions?
 

ScRYeD

Member
I know many may not like this mod but I am in love with these kinds of things.

Fishing in Skyrim
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10190

Currently you can catch fish and junk items as well(sort of an inside joke) Later spots are planned as well as tiered fishing spots and an animation for the pole.



Not a fan of the many poles he has set up but that is temporary to make it look like a well used spot.

Sign me up.....fun times ahead.
WiP Realistic Lighting Dungeon Settings said:
 
Here's my shots, using Cinematic Lighting ENB by HD6, darker nights version. Still my favorite ENB out of the box, easily. The darkness in the nights in Markath may be a little exaggerated on your screens, on my calibrated TV there's a lot of detail in the shadows. Haven't looked at the non darker nights version, but this was by far the best nights have seen from an ENB. The days may be a little bloomy for some, as well.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4142







 
Great shots!!! I experimented with Cinematic for a while. but I feel it changes the look of the game too much... great for screenshots though.. it really does look amazing.

So guys, I finished my shield. After all day yesterday working on it I finally did it. It took a lot of work, and I really spent a LOT of time working and fucking around on it... and frankly, I'm not very happy with it, but I'm giving up on it for now.

It seems the shield Mesh that I'm using using a 2D Texture format so I can't use layer textures (like Normal Maps and Luminance Maps) on this shield, therefore I can't get it to look the way I want which is just annoying because it looks too flat :/

In terms of the detail I reckon it's a pretty good job. The idea behind it is "Dovahkiin Shield".

ifm6Pj6AorqFs.jpg

ibxsj5HWVI4ZF9.jpg

iqNRoHYLvk4Pv.jpg


One of my proud parts is the inside of the shield. If you look carefully you can see the dragon text that is the special text that Bethesda had at their Dragon Wall at E3. I don't think I like the dragon symbol though so I'm thinking of perhaps changing it to the default Skyrim symbol (but I feel that might be too cliche), so I'm wondering if the greyboards have a sigil or what other icon I could use. I also wanted to make the shield look more metal but as I said I couldn't get the other texture layers to work even though the .nif file points to them :/



And People... there has been a lot of discussion about ENB, Jasmin's ENB and getting it just right. I can feel your displeasure at not just being able to plug and play it. Here is a good guide that will help you figure out and understand what all the settings mean and what to do - GUIDE

I think I might put up my config as it's gotten to the point where it's starting to get pretty different from Jasmin's now.
 
Here's my shots, using Cinematic Lighting ENB by HD6, darker nights version. Still my favorite ENB out of the box, easily. The darkness in the nights in Markath may be a little exaggerated on your screens, on my calibrated TV there's a lot of detail in the shadows. Haven't looked at the non darker nights version, but this was by far the best nights have seen from an ENB. The days may be a little bloomy for some, as well.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4142

Good god, those shots are incredible. Kinda makes me wish I splashed out on a nicer card than the 560 TI.
 
Great shots!!! I experimented with Cinematic for a while. but I feel it changes the look of the game too much... great for screenshots though.. it really does look amazing.

Well I do think vanilla looks pretty terrible, especially as a photographer, so the more change the better. Anything to get it as far away from the desauturated/flat/monochromatic blah that is Vanilla. Cinematic provides so many breathtaking views moment to moment. Also glad to be getting much better SSAO performance with the 12.2 ati preview driver. Will try to post some more of my favorite views, provided the weather obliges :p
 
Here is an interesting mod for those of us that don't quite trust Wars in Skyrim or anything else that really goes and modifies the 'core' of the game just yet...

Skyrim Occupation - I'm going to try this out today, but I've been giving it a bit of a go and mostly it seems to be working just fine. All it does it increase the number of enemies that are already on the default game's patrols, so instead of 3 imperials taking 1 stormcloak prisoner it will be six or nine taking two or three. Just a way to make the game world feel more 'full'. I like it.


Well I do think vanilla looks pretty terrible, especially as a photographer, so the more change the better. Anything to get it as far away from the desauturated/flat/monochromatic blah that is Vanilla. Cinematic provides so many breathtaking views moment to moment. Also glad to be getting much better SSAO performance with the 12.2 ati preview driver. Will try to post some more of my favorite views, provided the weather obliges :p

Yeah, 12.2 drivers are insanely good on my 7970s, I've cranked up my AA to 16xEQ... I love AA :D
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Here's my shots, using Cinematic Lighting ENB by HD6, darker nights version. Still my favorite ENB out of the box, easily. The darkness in the nights in Markath may be a little exaggerated on your screens, on my calibrated TV there's a lot of detail in the shadows. Haven't looked at the non darker nights version, but this was by far the best nights have seen from an ENB. The days may be a little bloomy for some, as well.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4142

HOLY FUCK
Looks amazing. Any of those mods good for playing in or are they just for screenshots?
 
I spent yesterday figuring out out Blender and Nifscope, and I now know how to edit and create meshes and import them into Skyrim.

Did you just follow the Blender tutorial that's downloadable on The Nexus or did you have any other learning resources you were using? Got a few custom meshes made with Blender that I'd like to use but reading about all those detours necessary to get models exported turned me a bit off.
So, how long does it take you on average to export a completed mesh to Skyrim, if I may ask?
 
I'm thinking about transferring over to NMM from MO, or perhaps considering the use of Wyre Bash... I want to make my game more stable and I'm willing to work for it...

Any suggestions people? What do ya'll think is the best idea? Ideally I want to merge mods, but I don't know how to do that... yet. TESSnip is apparently able to merge mods, and so is WyreBash but I really don't understand WyreBash at all and whenever I use it, it seems to just fuck things up for me :/


This is a nice retex of the Glass Armor - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10235
 

NameGenerated

Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
Does anyone know why my game's performance starts to deteriorate the more I play in 1 session? It starts out great 40+ or whatever , everywhere in the world. Eventually it gets to the teens in fps or lower and I have to reboot to make in playable again. It only happens in Skyrim or in Cities, never in any dungeons or buildings. Really annoying. I have 15 mods installed via Steam, I don't think any are over 1mb + the HD texture pack. I don't understand why it's playable at the start then just dies the more I load into and out of places, if that's what is causing it. Shouldn't it just be always playable or always crappy?
 
How do I disable SSAO with the ENB config that 'StopMaking Sense' provided. It's like a slideshow...

Edit: Found it, just testing it out now.

Do you have the 12.2 preview ati drivers? Have you updated your drivers at all since installing bootcamp? SSAO was similarly horrible sub 1 fps for me as well until the last few ati drivers.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst122Previewdriver.aspx

But the ENB profile should look really good sans SSAO, too.
 

SnowTeeth

Banned
Hey guys. Does anyone remember what the hi-res skill tree mod is called? I've searched but am having no luck locating it in the nexus or on GAF
 

ScRYeD

Member
Real Wildlife - keep an eye on this, it's planning on extending the number of different types of animals running around the world by 'hundreds', so that there aren't just one single type of each animal in the world. A very good idea.

Real Wildlife's been out for a little while now, Skyrim is a hell of a lot livelier now. The only thing i don't like so far is that there are dragons who just fly around alot and do nothing, hopefully this is a bug and some dragons do attack.

Hey guys. Does anyone remember what the hi-res skill tree mod is called? I've searched but am having no luck locating it in the nexus or on GAF

Flora Overhaul by Vurt is the one i use just type in tree in the search at nexus and you'll find lots more.
 
Do you have the 12.2 preview ati drivers? Have you updated your drivers at all since installing bootcamp? SSAO was similarly horrible sub 1 fps for me as well until the last few ati drivers.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst122Previewdriver.aspx

But the ENB profile should look really good sans SSAO, too.

I have the 12.1 drivers. I turned off SSAO and it was running really well. I'm not sure I like the look though...something about it just seems off... I might get those new drivers and see if having SSAO on makes it more to my liking.
 

MacAttack

Member
Does anyone know why my game's performance starts to deteriorate the more I play in 1 session? It starts out great 40+ or whatever , everywhere in the world. Eventually it gets to the teens in fps or lower and I have to reboot to make in playable again. It only happens in Skyrim or in Cities, never in any dungeons or buildings. Really annoying. I have 15 mods installed via Steam, I don't think any are over 1mb + the HD texture pack. I don't understand why it's playable at the start then just dies the more I load into and out of places, if that's what is causing it. Shouldn't it just be always playable or always crappy?

I get this too. Sounds like you have a 1GB card like I do. I'm running some big texture mods (Beth 1+2, Vurts, isoku's stuff, and various armor and weapons mods). Its the lack of VRAM and even though performance is great for an hour or two it will occasionally get glitchy. I can just quit out and reload to get the performance back.

Even without any mods in Markath the VRAM hovers around 900MB used. That can easily push the limit of the card if you had even a couple big texture mods.
 

SnowTeeth

Banned
Flora Overhaul by Vurt is the one i use just type in tree in the search at nexus and you'll find lots more.

Thanks for that, but I was actually referring to the perks/level-up menu. I remember there being a hi-res mod with a few other bells and whistles included. Looked much prettier but added nothing function wise.

Wouldn't have the faintest idea what it's called. I did a search on nexus and google but luck is not on my side.
 
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