Game stuck as background task after accidentally going over plugin limit.

[AsaHerring]

Date: August 18th, 2021.

SKSE version: 2.0.19
Game version: 1.5.97 (Steam)

Vortex version: 1.4.15 Stable

.NET Framework version: 4.8

Nvidia Graphics driver: 471.68

Load order txt attached.

Using newest versions of all mods.

 

It's been a few years since I played modded Skyrim, so it's all on a new drive from the past and everything is freshly installed as of 5 days ago. I've modded a lot in the past, so I knew how to do everything and knew what I wanted. Spent a couple days modding and testing making sure everything I saw was working properly.
The previous day I was modifying the controlmap.txt config since I'm doing a 3rd person, controller playthrough, using modern animation mods. I would add a couple mods here and there during testing. That night before bed, I changed from "The Grass Your Mother Warned About" to "Veydosebrom", re ran TexGen and DynDOLOD for a final time before I started a new game since I was done testing. Ran the game, everything was good. Went to bed. I do leave my PC on overnight so I never turned it off.
This morning before playing, I remembered I noticed some issues with campfire and ember textures, so I installed Embers XD & HD, and Smoking Torches and Candles. I must have been around 252 active plugins before I installed these, and after I did install them I went over 255. I think it hit 257. I didn't noticed this at the time though. These were the final mods for a new playthrough so I wasn't thinking about the plugin limit.

I launch the SKSE launcher like normal, it never loads, and I notice the game is stuck as a background task.

I've had this happen in the past, so I started trouble shooting. Noticed I had gone over 255 plugins, so I removed the Ember and Torch mods as well as Zim's Immersive Artifacts which had around 20 Active plugins since I didn't combine them. Super optional mod for me, so I just uninstalled it. I'm now at 230 Active plugins.
I launch the game again and it still is stuck as a background task.
Launching it through the SKSE launcher, Vortex, and the normal game launcher all do the same thing.
No amount of googling has helped me find an answer. Everything I can find is form 4 or 5 years ago or from mod shaming Oldrim forum posts.
So, I'm stumped. I'm not against a fresh install of the game and mods, but I just don't want to spend a couple hours setting up mod rules again and I'm not sure if that will fix it.

[anjenthedog]

Ok.... so you're over the limits....hmmm. How about uninstalling a few of the last ones you installed so you fall back below the limit? (in reverse order of installation so you don't scrw up your save files)

 

Or alternatively, (if possible) ESLifying some of the 257 that are current?

 

In Vortex for instance, it's really easy to do.

1. open the plugins tab
2. open the dropdown in the "flags" column
3. select "could be light"
4. presuming the results aren't empty, those plugins shown can be "ESLified (lightened in vortex parlance)
5. double click the Name entry for one of the plugins to open the right side menu
6. scroll down in its options and look for the "Light" Entry
7. click the "mark Light" button
8. repeat for any other entries marked "could be light"
9. once you're done, go back to the flags header and click the little blue X to remove the filter.

For MO2? not sure, but others can show you how in that manager.

[AsaHerring]

Ok.... so you're over the limits....hmmm. How about uninstalling a few of the last ones you installed so you fall back below the limit? (in reverse order of installation so you don't scrw up your save files)

 

Yeah I had already done that as soon as I noticed I was over.

"Noticed I had gone over 255 plugins, so I removed the Ember and Torch mods as well as Zim's Immersive Artifacts which had around 20 Active plugins since I didn't combine them. Super optional mod for me, so I just uninstalled it. I'm now at 230 Active plugins."

 

I've only been testing, and the save I've been playing on was just for testing. I'm not worried about losing it since I was going to start a new game anyway.

My issues is that even after removing mods with plugins, being quite a bit under the limit now, I'm still not able to launch the game.

I have no load or missing masters errors.

 

Also, I think the game version I listed above is incorrect, was looking at the wrong thing when I typed it. I have the newest version from Steam.

Edited August 18, 2021 by AsaHerring

[anjenthedog]

Ok. first off, what I'm writing below is in no way meant as a castigation or similar. I'm just observing what many of us have had to go through when we have done certain things that it *sounds like you might have done. It's been a while since I've had to experience your situation, but I've been there. Several times. I've probably done every wrong thing at some point, aside from fiddling with meshes in nifskope or using Outfit studio and breaking things with my naivete

So....these are my observations. They are by no means law. they're just what I've had to do.

 

If you're under the max number of "active plugins", and IFF at one time you had stable play, then, like many of us who've "been there" ourselves, you may have to start uninstalling mods ***criticallly....in reverse order of installation from the last one installed backwards*** until you find a previous save that works (ie, that does not have baked in data from whichever mod is causing the issues) and then start the process over without installing multiple mods (ie bulk installation) that confuse things (ie install only one mod at a time, then verify stable game play for a bit , maybe a half hour or hour of play before installing the next... with each *successful installation, create a new save. use that save to test the next installation. This way you're building a stable foundation. Once it crashes, you know which mod was the bad guy. Uninstall it, load the previous save, and continue, or if otherwise done, play.

 

- doing the uninstallations in reverse order of installation is very important (IMO), because we want to peel off the mods like an onion skin, last installed, first uninstalled, to reduce the number of backsteps in save files we'll have to do in order to open one successfully. (AND have stable play) , since mod data is baked into saves, and since sometimes, pulling a mod can result in distorted ref ids (regardless of any Skyrim housekeeping that seeks to re-jigger ids)

 

If those two mods you indicated you uninstalled were from the "middle" of that group of mods you recently installed without checking and validating game integrity, then I'd be inclined to uninstall all the ones that were installed after them, then hunt for a save file made prior to installation of the two mods you noted.

 

If you've simply built up a game by installing mod after mod after mod without verifying the game opens, the game doesn't crash quickly. and is at least stable for a half hour or hour at a time, I'm not sure what to say without being draconian, but I've seen other say it so, I'll cop out and and blame others and say "someone else said that under those conditions, you're best off starting from scratch"

 

skse64 is at 2.0.19 - some of us, due to other mods we have installed, are limited to 2.0.17 fyi. Some older mods were never re-written to allow 2.0.19 as a valid SKSE64 version. (I'm one of them).

 

the game itself, unless it's been update without my knowledge, is at v 1.5.97

 

hope this doesn't come off as gobbledygook or condescending, and that it contains some info you can use to solve your issue.

 

good luck

[AsaHerring]

hope this doesn't come off as gobbledygook or condescending, and that it contains some info you can use to solve your issue.

 

No, absolutely it doesn't. Thank you for your willing attitude to help.

 

Luckily, for my sanity's sake, I found the culprit.

Wasn't mod related at all. Because of that, it took me 20 hours to find the issue. LMAO

I made probably a dozen different installs and Vortex profiles all for something completely unrelated.

It happened at the perfect time too. Right as I hit the mod limit, so that completely had my attention.

 

Apparently you cannot put Spaces in the controller config, or else, your game will be stuck as a background process and never launch.

The reason I put Spaces in the controller config stems from a habit I have when I'm self documenting things in text editors. Sometimes Tab doesn't line things up perfectly with the upper or lower lines so I just add a couple Spaces.

 

 

This is what I made my config look like so the lines would all line up vertically. Because of this, my game would not launch.

 

 

 

This is what the same edit has to look like so the game can launch.

 

Wasn't all bad though. I did learn how to created merged patches with zEdit and I've halved my plugin amount.