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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Mod Discussion and News [Creation Kit released]
- Thread starter LiquidMetal14
- Start date
ehretreue.m.h
Banned
I'm in the market for a new computer over the next couple of months, and while I'm probably going to go laptop for convenience, what would y'all recommend with a price range of ~$800?
Is such a thing even possible?
Is such a thing even possible?
You will not get a good gaming laptop for anywhere near that price. Coming from someone who had a gaming laptop for four years, I would highly suggest the thin laptop/good gaming PC combo. I'd also suggest building your own, its really not that hard, and it will save you a ton of money. These people will help you: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1094682
That thread and the people in there have helped me build 4 different PCs, and that was before I knew anything about building PCs.
NormalFish
Banned
Btw gecko I'm using for oblivion textures in my current pack, and they're really fantastic. Good work.
I've used them before, but still
Mad Season
Banned
does a mod exist where when in combat and you hover over an enemy, it will highlight the enemy?
Giant Panda
Member
Mod newb here. I just installed the Nexus Mod Manager, got the Skyrim script extender from steam, and now I'm trying to download SkyUI from Nexus but whenever I click on the "Download (NMM)" link nothing happens. Can anyone help me?
I'm trying to follow the instructions from this PC Gamer article: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/
I'm trying to follow the instructions from this PC Gamer article: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/
Pakoe
Member
Have you logged in with NMM?
Giant Panda
Member
Giant Panda
Member
Sorry if these are stupid, but some more mod newbie questions:
So now I've started playing around with some of the more popular mods for the first time. I'm liking Frostfall quite a bit so far, but I have one major complaint. It seems wetness is unchanged by getting in water as long as you don't swim (such as walking through shallow rivers), or by standing underneath waterfalls and such. Is this just a problem with Frostfall, or is this something one of the water mods would fix?
And speaking of water mods, how am I supposed to choose? I've seen Pure Water, W.A.T.E.R., and Realistic Water 2 on Nexus so far from my browsing. Do I need to be worried about compatibility with Climates of Tamriel?
Is Sounds of Skyrim considered the best sound mod? It looks good but it says a patch is needed to work with Climates of Tamriel. How does that work?
What are ENBs? They seem to be lighting settings but I'm not sure.
So now I've started playing around with some of the more popular mods for the first time. I'm liking Frostfall quite a bit so far, but I have one major complaint. It seems wetness is unchanged by getting in water as long as you don't swim (such as walking through shallow rivers), or by standing underneath waterfalls and such. Is this just a problem with Frostfall, or is this something one of the water mods would fix?
And speaking of water mods, how am I supposed to choose? I've seen Pure Water, W.A.T.E.R., and Realistic Water 2 on Nexus so far from my browsing. Do I need to be worried about compatibility with Climates of Tamriel?
Is Sounds of Skyrim considered the best sound mod? It looks good but it says a patch is needed to work with Climates of Tamriel. How does that work?
What are ENBs? They seem to be lighting settings but I'm not sure.
Always read the compatibility sections on the mod description pages. Usually the most popular mods are listed if they are relevant to the mod itself. If CoT isn't mentioned, then it's probably fine.
Sounds of Skyrim is a series of ambient sound mods that adds a bunch of random background sounds to different locations. Honestly, I don't like SoS that much. There is a huge disparity in quality between all the different sounds that just seem to have been swiped from all over the web, and I often hear annoying things like fuzzy distortion artifacts and the likes. And it has that other stereotypical problem with hobbyist audio mods like adding the sound of a huge crowd to taverns, when in the actual game there's just 5 or 6 NPCs occupying the the space. But the biggest problem is that it seems to add a lot of this stuff via scripting, which is very wasteful with how resource-hogging the game's scripting language is. If you have too many script-heavy mods installed you'll exceed your script "ceiling" which results in lag, instability and ultimately crashes. Honestly, I think SoS is mostly at the top list due to sheer information cascade, since it was one of the very first big sound mods available.
I have my own sound mod for the game. It doesn't really touch ambient or weather sounds (though I might consider it in the future, for interior ambience at least), but what it does do far exceeds anything else in scope. In fact I started working on a big update for it this month. Just today I added new, separate and more appropriate sounds for unique weapons like forsworn swords or bound weapons. And earlier this week I created a new alternate set of heavy armor foley as well as overhauled and expanded the draugr and flame atronach sound sets.
ENB is an external graphics overlay. Usually these things allow for things like glorified color correction and saturation/contrast changes and such for just about any PC game, but ENB is also coded to interface with Skyrim on a deeper level so it can apply more advanced enhancements like a new water shader, better subsurface scattering, god rays, higher quality depth of field effects, etc. It also optimizes the video memory usage of Skyrim so you get significantly more headroom there, which is great for both performance and stability.
Giant Panda
Member
Thanks for the feedback. I downloaded Immersive Sounds and Audio Overhaul and will try those out.
So is an ENB something you can use in addition Enhanced Lights and FX or Realistic Lighting Overhual?
Yes.
Hands of Stone
Member
What are some settings I can tweak to get better performance l?
timetokill
Banned
The basics are: turning down resolution, shadows, AA, texture resolution/quality, etc. will boost your performance.
How much of a boost are you trying to get?
Skyrim Mods: Dodge - Attack - Commit
It seems there are plenty of smaller specialized combat mods around which you can combine to make the combat weightier and have more depth. Attack commitment is defnitely one of those subtle things you don't think about which drastically changes how the gameplay feels.
It seems there are plenty of smaller specialized combat mods around which you can combine to make the combat weightier and have more depth. Attack commitment is defnitely one of those subtle things you don't think about which drastically changes how the gameplay feels.
Giant Panda
Member
Does DynDOLOD give much of a performance hit? I'm starting to see frame drops below 60 already so I'm trying to be careful about what I install.
timetokill
Banned
It depends which setting you use. It has a Low - Medium - High kind of thing, and it comes with pictures to show you how much is going to change. I used to do High and it was costing me too many frames (about 5-10 depending) so I go with Medium now. Only takes like 3-5 but the visual change is enormous.
Giant Panda
Member
I think I've run into an issue with my mods. Bloodlet Throne seems unnaturally dark for some reason, but I haven't run into this issue in any other caves or dungeons.
Those torches are barely giving off any light. Is this an ELFX issue?
Pancakes
hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
So DansGaming has started modding Skyrim again in preparation for his playthrough. That got me itching for another run through Skyrim since I never finished the DLC and gave up after a lot of unstable crashes.
I have a good idea about what graphics and texture mods to use however, I'm thinking I want to heavily change up the gameplay this time around. Namely, I want to use Frostfall and some of these enhanced combat mods I've been seeing on the Nexus. What gameplay/quest mods do you guys like?
I have a good idea about what graphics and texture mods to use however, I'm thinking I want to heavily change up the gameplay this time around. Namely, I want to use Frostfall and some of these enhanced combat mods I've been seeing on the Nexus. What gameplay/quest mods do you guys like?
For quest content I use:
Molag Bal's Inferno
Wyrmstooth
Spectraverse
The Forgotten City
Artifacts of Boethiah
Darkend
Helgen Reborn
I am playing Skyrim with a 360 PC controller right now. Haven't even touched a gamepad for years at this point. Main problem is how the menu navigation becomes much worse and slows everything down so much (I've never bought the argument that it was "made for consoles". The UI design is just plain bad period). Looking around for any gamepad mods to help me out with that. I found this one but I dunno if there are any newer or better ones out there. Especially something that would synergize better with the newer versions of SkyUI and its revised favorites menu.
Giant Panda
Member
I tried installing RealVision ENB but it reduced my framerate by at least 20 fps. I was getting almost solid 60 and then I was hovering between 35-40. Do all ENBs hit performance this hard? I would rather stay at 60 than have an ENB.
Pancakes
hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
I had Duel for a while but I noticed that the mod made enemies way too prone to being staggered. I could lock down much higher level enemies in a stunlock state using an iron sword at level 1. I switched it out for Combat Evolved, and also using a mixture of the more specialized combat mods featured in that Brodual video linked a few posts back.
timetokill
Banned
They don't all hit that hard. It depends on the ENB and what effects are enabled. A lot of them have "Performance" versions with the heavier effects turned off. If they don't, usually you can see in the readme/documentation for the ENB which effects to turn off in the ini files to save performance.
I usually see about 8-10 fps loss if I use ENB.
Another thing to consider is installing an ENB and playing without it turned on except when you want to take a screenshot or something. Shift+F12 (iirc) is the shortcut to turn ENB effects on and off. So you can use something intensive for beauty shots but then turn it off when you want to play.
Pancakes
hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
Yea the creator has abandoned both mods IIRC but they're usually soo good. Taking a look at Ordinator now and the perk trees seem pretty neat as well. Might try it out for a couple hours.
Giant Panda
Member
I'm playing on a 360 controller too and I've also found the options wanting. I wish waiting could be made an option from the inventory or journal menu, so that the inventory button could be moved to back, which frees up B. I also wish SkyUI didn't use both D-pad Up and D-pad Down for it's favorites menu, I only ever use Up and this would free Down for use as a hotkey for another mod.
Is something like that even possible through modding?
Hey, is there any way to downgrade to a previous version of Nexus? I just upgraded it when it prompted me, which was a huge mistake, since it tells me I need a new version .NET Framework, and when I go to download that, it says that my operating system is not supported (it's Windows 7, but I never download updates, since bad updates have destroyed my hard drive in the past...it's a long story). I'll probably be upgraded to Windows 10 whenever I get around to installing the SSD I ordered ages ago, but until then, is there any place or way to go back to a previous version of Nexus?
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
Anyone know of some reskins of the Shrouded armor? Currently using http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12015/?
Giant Panda
Member
Man, I must not be doing ENBs right because I'm still astounded that I can't run Skyrim on medium enb settings with GTX 970 without the framerate going to shit. Are decent ENB settings meant for the 5% of users that would have better graphics cards than that? I've only been able to get good fps when I use the lowest performance options, but this still drops my fps below 60 which causes annoying stutter.
Pancakes
hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
You should be getting around 30-60 FPS with a 970 with any ENB really. Make sure the ini settings are set properly you and typed out the proper amount of VRAM. Worst comes to to worst just enable the unsafememoryhack for instant 60fps.
ENB is not exactly super-optimized and it's going to behave inconsistently with a variety of hardware setups. I have some weird persistent issues myself in that whenever I have an ENB active (it doesn't even matter if it's non-graphical with just the ENBoost active), the game will get progressively choppier over time (not as in the framerate itself dropping, but rather stuff like camera and mouse movement becomes choppier, and strangely it seems to be aggravated even further if I stare down at the ground while moving), and it only resets if I restart my computer.
I also have a 970 and I experienced framerate drops to the single digits using TrueVision ENB. I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread. The problem went away when I switched to Grim & Somber ENB, which is odd considering the latter is overall more performance-heavy.
I also have a 970 and I experienced framerate drops to the single digits using TrueVision ENB. I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread. The problem went away when I switched to Grim & Somber ENB, which is odd considering the latter is overall more performance-heavy.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Been playing some of the larger quest mods, and man, the quality of these are insane. I remember years ago, voice acting was shoddy but passable, and the quests were often small, one shot things.
Now stuff has professional actors, huge maps to explore and complex, new mechanics.
Recently got through the Forgotten City, and honestly, it feels like a full on expansion pack. It's incredibly high quality and very fun with the unique time mechanic.
Now I'm working through Falskaar and it's a huge DLC sized map with loads of quests and an interesting main story.
Now stuff has professional actors, huge maps to explore and complex, new mechanics.
Recently got through the Forgotten City, and honestly, it feels like a full on expansion pack. It's incredibly high quality and very fun with the unique time mechanic.
Now I'm working through Falskaar and it's a huge DLC sized map with loads of quests and an interesting main story.
fun bit of Trivia : the guy who made Falskaar got a job at Bungie because of this mod at age 19 .
I'm ready for Profile downloading, Nexus.
Let me just click on a recommended user's submitted list and let NMM download the whole load order - including compatibility patches.
When is this coming?
Its supposed to be the big, truly unique nearly-dummy-proof tool that will differentiate Nexus Mod Manager from Mod Organizer....but still no news.
(I dream of getting back into Skyrim, but rejiggering my load order stops me from moving forward.)
Let me just click on a recommended user's submitted list and let NMM download the whole load order - including compatibility patches.
When is this coming?
Its supposed to be the big, truly unique nearly-dummy-proof tool that will differentiate Nexus Mod Manager from Mod Organizer....but still no news.
(I dream of getting back into Skyrim, but rejiggering my load order stops me from moving forward.)
We are hard at work on Awake which is slated for June at this point. The aim is to have production values on par with what you'd expect from an official DLC.
That sound like an intriguing feature. But I'm kind of afraid that this would result in a new dynamic where many casual users will just stop continuously browsing for new mods and trying different things. A handful of popular mod curators will essentially dictate what gets exposure.
That sound like an intriguing feature. But I'm kind of afraid that this would result in a new dynamic where many casual users will just stop continuously browsing for new mods and trying different things. A handful of popular mod curators will essentially dictate what gets exposure.
timetokill
Banned
Building a mod list feels like building a house of cards sometimes. Or maybe a Jenga tower is more apt.
Giant Panda
Member
I think I like Vividian ENB. Performance is decent and it looks nice.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
I think I finally broke Skyrim. I can't seem to find the issue though. I've cleaned it in TES5edit and still get purple textures and crashes. Anyone have any ideas?
Blue Ninja
Member
When do you get your crashes, and what textures are purple? I remember having certain cave textures turn purple and it being because some ELFX files had gotten overwritten in my install.
timetokill
Banned
Could be running out of VRAM if you have a lot of high-res texture mods installed. Usually missing textures won't cause crashes on their own.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
Varies, most common is clothing like robes and certain metals.
I have a 980 (recently upgraded) and 16 gigs ram.
Edit: I did recently switch from the 2k textures lite to full since I changed my GFX card.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
I've cut down my mod list down to ~100 and still have the crashes. It's when I'm outside and I don't get any slowdown either, I just walk a bit and it CTDs. Is there any sort of crash log or something I can look at to try to find the issue.
A few tips:
-Use loot to manage load order
-Use ENBoost and its parameters to help prevent memory related crashes
-Make sure you properly uninstall mods, they can leave scripts active in the save file