Skyrim Special Edition and the 255 mod / esp limit - definitive answer

[Rasikko]

Without going into details or setting off other programmers here, I'm going to say to the above poster that it's not that simple. And frankly, it's not worth it at this stage in the game's life. Stick with the tools available that help circumvent the plug-in limit.

[VaultsofErowid]

I never post, and i also don't have lots of modding knowledge, but i am sick of people like Nephenee, who jump at the chance to show they know everything, and use their online identities as a protective cloak so they can be as arrogant and self important as they like without the shame in real life.

 

You could have posted what you said to this forum, as just a nice bit of informative text, then people would say 'Thanks mate!' and you could point out the info is available, by just being helpful. Is it really that stressful to you that this 'has been known for ages' and these people don't know? Some people don't know, obviously, and they find out what to know from people like you, that's how info spreads.

[Papajack55]

I don't know about any of the rest of you, but in Oldrim I'm running 347 mods, in FO3 I'm running 298 mods, in New Vegas -311, haven't tried anything like that on SE, since I'm only running 224 atm. But I do need better mods too.

[Justlookingout]

I believed this is a limited on a 32 bit old skyrim the SE ?

Edited April 6, 2018 by Justlookingout

[bill8872]

I believed this is a limited on a 32 bit old skyrim the SE ?

 

No, it is due to binary coding, and how it multiplies. A programmer can explain this a lot better than I can, but it works like this.

2x2=4x4=16x16=256. For a unknown reason to me, it just stops at 256. The total limit is 256, counting Skyrim.esm.

[Rasikko]

I never post, and i also don't have lots of modding knowledge, but i am sick of people like Nephenee, who jump at the chance to show they know everything, and use their online identities as a protective cloak so they can be as arrogant and self important as they like without the shame in real life.

 

You could have posted what you said to this forum, as just a nice bit of informative text, then people would say 'Thanks mate!' and you could point out the info is available, by just being helpful. Is it really that stressful to you that this 'has been known for ages' and these people don't know? Some people don't know, obviously, and they find out what to know from people like you, that's how info spreads.

Somehow I missed this, and not entirely sure if that also applies to me. I could give my own answer to this but I just simply wont as I know what that will prompt as I said before. And I've seen that happen anywhere that involves coding. Programmers start having know-it-all contests, and it often ain't all that prudent.

 

The hard-to-find reasonable programmers will tell you right away that no programmer can know everything and certainly are not infallible, even those 20yr vets still ask for help on things.

 

Again I say though, it's not worth getting deep into this - mod users will mod their game as much as they can get away with, through plugin-merging or whatnot. The game will do its thing when a limit is reached, and that's that.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Rasikko

[Maxsdad]

Without going into details or setting off other programmers here, I'm going to say to the above poster that it's not that simple. And frankly, it's not worth it at this stage in the game's life. Stick with the tools available that help circumvent the plug-in limit.

Your comment is rather pointless. WHO are you talking to and WHAT are you talking about? You MIGHT have a valid point, but your comment could refer to a dozen "above posters". And even your "clarification" to Vaults really clarifies nothing. When you basically say "I'm not going to get into it, but that's now how it works", you're really saying nothing of value, but in a condescending way.

[Maxsdad]

That is my question to kain and arthmoor too, why can we not use the merge utility to group similar esp for instance the JK mods for the cities of Skyrim or different weapon and armor mods like kain was saying?

 

I just feel there are too many similar mods that increase the number of plugins when in reality they should be in one larger all in on mod.

 

Also how could we change the form id to 16bit? Can SKSE 64 be used to make the change. We have so much access to Skyrim SE and Oldrim I am surprised we would not come up with some ini or script to upgrade from 8bit.

In Gamer Poet's tutorial "Merge Plugins: start to finish", he shows an example (at 14:53) of a merging file that includes 3 of JK's cities.

[OuroborosLuciferBlack]

I so wish I had of actually read this tread before wasting like 3 days with no sleep flipping through and downloading over 4000 mods... I'm a noob what can I say...

[LeddBate]

I so wish I had of actually read this tread before wasting like 3 days with no sleep flipping through and downloading over 4000 mods... I'm a noob what can I say...

 

Nothing to be embarrassed about. We were all noobs once.

 

If you haven't already done so, I'd like to suggest that you use the "POPULAR (ALL TIME)" tab on the Nexus Skyrim Special Edition page to get a feel for the mods that you should consider essential to a good Skyrim experience. Bookmark the mods that interest you and read their descriptions thoroughly when you have time. Pay special attention to the requirements sections as these will spell out which mods (if any) that are required to support the mod you're considering. For example: quite a few mods require SKSE64 to function properly. Also, watch for possible conflicts between mods. For example: Two mods that edit the same world-space. More specifically, two mods (for example) that overhaul the city of Whiterun. Trying to run both would likely result in many clipping and stability issues.

 

Finally, there's lots of advice here at the Nexus for choosing and installing mods. The S.T.E.P. guide is an example. Here's a few basics to consider if you're still getting the hang of modding:

 

1) Mod Conflicts. If your Skyrim crashes to the destop (CTD) the moment the loading screen appears, it is very likely you have a mod conflict. Add only one or two mods at a time (and test them) to avoid having to plow through dozens of mods trying to find the one that's causing your game to crash. Also, RTFM. Mod authors WILL tell you what other mods (and/or types of mods) that their mod conflicts with. But that doesn't do you any good if you don't read that info before installing. Sometimes a patch is available to prevent a ctd from happening (or to prevent the mod from conflicting in some other way, like overwriting some scenery and causing weird in-game effects like floating trees and Mammoths raining from the sky. (Yes, that happens.)

 

2) Overwrites. When NMM installs mods, it will often stop and ask you a question like: "Do you want this mod to install (whatever) over (whatever) that already exists due to (whatever)? with about eight different options. Again, many mod authors will tell you what options to choose when installing their mod. When those instructions are not present, I've found it is usually best to answer "Yes to all" or the equivalent answer offered.

 

3) Load Order. Load order is literally the order that the mods are loaded into your game. This is just as important as overwrites. A "poor" load order will cause lots of issues ranging from weird in-game effects to CTDs. You can manually alter your load order in the "Plug-In" tab of NMM, but there's a better way. Download LOOT and install it. Point it at your directory where your mods are and let LOOT sort them. Not only will LOOT give you a better load order, but it will warn you about mods that need "cleaning" of dirty edits in them. And you can do that with TES5Edit. (or SSEEDIT for SE.) It's quite simple to use. However, be warned that some mods have INTENTIONAL dirty edits. Cleaning those mods will likely break them. How to know? Simple, the mod author will warn you if his/her mod has deliberate dirty edits.

 

4 SKSE. SKSE is short for "SKyrim Script Extender." Many popular mods use really cool and helpful interfaces like MCM (Mod Control Menus.) These mods require SKSE to function. Download SKSE (or SKSE64 for Special Edition) and watch Gopher's video (linked in the description at the SKSE site) for what SKSE does exactly and how to install it. Don't worry, Gopher explains it clearly and concisely.

 

Now here's an advanced guide for troubleshooting your game. Don't try to take it in all at once. Just read it a bit at a time and apply what seems appropriate to your issue(s). If any of this guide helps you, give Darstyler a kudo. It's his guide.

Here is a list of things you may do to stabilize your game :

/// Useful informations :

• Dangerous mods list.

• CTDs troubleshooting page on Reddit very usefull informations concerning CTDs...

• Verify gamecache.

/// Load order / mods conflicts :

• Use L.O.O.T once and click on the "sort plugins buttons".

• Create a wryebash patch including leveled lists.

• Create a merged patch with Tesedit excluding leveled lists

/// Settings / memory :

• Have you installed the skse patch ? >> memory blocks log.

• Backup your ini files and delete the files. Skyrim.ini / SkyrimCustom.ini / SkyrimPrefs.ini found in C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\My Games\Skyrim then use your vanilla launcher to autodetect and use best settings for your computer.

/// Cleaning and correcting potential bugs :

• Clean your master files to eliminate potential problems.: Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page.

  Start Tes5edit, simply untick everything, (right-click/select none) and add only a tick to the esm/esp you want to check + update.esm, Tesedit knows what to do and will load all the dependencies automatically.

  - Begin with loading only Skyrim + update, ITM / UDR + save ctrl +s and close.

  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dawnguard, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.

  - Then load Skyrim + update + Hearthfire, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.

  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dragonborn, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.

• The method above can be used to clean mods. If I'm correct LOOT should tell you which plugin you should clean. You may load all your mods with Tes5edit and use the (right-click in the left pane) apply filter to show conflict losers. Wait till Tes5edit has finished. Caution : don't try to modify anything while using this filter, it's not intended for.

• In the left pane, Expand the subsections and examine conflicts. Once an entry is expanded to the bottom and selected, the right pane shows which mods modify the entry. The last one on the right is the last loaded in your load order and the conflict winner.

• Expand the following subsections, depending on where the problems occur. Cells for CTDs inside buildings, grottos, etc... and worldspace for exterior. The goal is to target mods that edit the same places and conflict. Open the bloc note and write those mods.

• Once done, close Tes5edit and open each mod with Tesedit, one by one and use the UDR cleaning procedure (Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page) to ensure all the deleted references will be transformed in disabled references = no CTDs from this point.

• If you suspect a mod in particular, using the conflict looser / winner method above, you can decide to change its load order or uninstall it.

/// Save game :

• Don't uninstall mods at mid-game, there are no clean save in Skyrim but using save script cleaner can help removing orphan scripts.

/// Meshes healer :

• Read here, this is potentially a cause of CTD that you can resolve by following the mod procedure on this page.