Loadorder help <3 Odd water seams and graphics not up to par?

[rocknalle]

Hey everyone,

 

First time posting. I have been modding Oldrim for years and not always been very succesful. I have a very short attention span and reading description pages after description pages tend to leave me confused, and I always forget small details, that potentially end up ruining my game.

Even with playing Skyrim for years, I have never been able to make it through the main story line because I always ruin my game with mods. It's safe to say that I am hopeless at it... and I have a hard time playing without.

 

So for the first time I'm going to stop being so stubborn and actually ask for help. I hope there's some friendly souls out there.

I'm playin Skyrim SE now as I want the better performance. My PC has really good specs, but I like to stay safe.

I want my game to look vibrant and clear on the graphics at the same time. I have succeeded this in Oldrim (with crashes obviously so I gave up), but in Skyrim SE I can't seem to achieve a nice looking game...

 

First off I have issues with water seams. I have RWT and it is loaded (with fixes) at the very bottom of my loadorder. I really can't seem to figure out why it's still there.

 

Here you can see the water seams (shows in all weater).

https://i.imgur.com/5l2NoDy.png

 

Here you can see how my characters skin looks inside with a light source. Atleast there's some detail from the skin texture showing.

https://i.imgur.com/EUuZ6Kt.png

 

Here how the skin looks outside. It has pretty much lost all texture to it and everything just looks muddy.

https://i.imgur.com/CrxYdlz.png

 

 

I can't figure out what my issue is. I have gone through my oldrim on my old pc to check for some of the different mods that could effect it or ini tweaks... but I just get confused and can't figure it out. I've tried slow adding mods one at a time... it seemed to work but I of course didn't notice when the seams started... and none of the mods I added had any effect on the characters muddy faces. The NPC's are even worse!

 

I also get random CTD at odd intervals.

 

Here's my loadorder:

 0  0     Skyrim.esm
  1  1     Update.esm
  2  2     Dawnguard.esm
  3  3     HearthFires.esm
  4  4     Dragonborn.esm
  5  5     Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
  6  6     RSkyrimChildren.esm
  7  7     ApachiiHair.esm
  8  8     ApachiiHairFemales.esm
  9  9     SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp
 10  a     SkyUI_SE.esp
 11  b     SGEyebrows.esp
 12  c     Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
 13  d     UNP Vanilla Outfits.esp
 14  e     dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
 15  f     BetterQuestObjectives.esp
 16 10     Footprints.esp
 17 11     WICO - Immersive People.esp
 18 12     RSChildren.esp
 19 13     EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
 20 14     ELFX - Exteriors.esp
 21 15     Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
 22 16     Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin SSE Version.esp
 23 17     Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods.esp
 24 18     Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
 25 19     ELFX - Weathers.esp
 26 1a     Vivid WeathersSE.esp
 27 1b     IcePenguinWorldMap.esp
 28 1c     Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
 29 1d     Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp
 30 1e     Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp
 31 1f     aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp
 32 20     AMB Glass Variants Lore.esp
 33 21     Differently Ebony.esp
 34 22     Better Dynamic Snow.esp
 35 23     Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp
 36 24     Improved Eyes Skyrim - Vamp.esp
 37 25     Improved Eyes Skyrim - Serana.esp
 38 26     CharacterMakingExtender.esp
 39 27     WICO - Immersive Character.esp
 40 28     EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp
 41 29     WICO - Immersive Dawnguard.esp
 42 2a     WICO - Wild Hunt Gears.esp
 43 2b     Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
 44 2c     Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp
 45 2d     BetterQuestObjectives-AlternateStartPatch.esp
 46 2e     RealisticWaterTwo.esp
 47 2f     RealisticWaterTwo - Watercolor.esp
 48 30     RWT Lod Fix.esp
 49 31     Riverwad.esp

I use LOOT for my loadorder. I have some reshade for SMAA since I like the look of it better.

I hope there's some kind souls out there that can help me out. I am so tired of being endlessly confused. I just wish I could have a nice looking skyrim for once + a playable game. But I guess I'm just not capable. And I've tried S.T.E.P before and Skyrim S.E.P.T.I.M, but I always seem to mess it up.

Would love to try ENB's too some time in the future. But I guess it's years away for me since I can't even get stuff like this to work.

Before I end, I would also like to say that I couldn't care less about my saves. If I had to, I'd start over again and would love some advice (since I've done this soooo many times with no luck).

I've bored you enough. Thank you for whoever will be kind enough to help me out :laugh:<3

Nat

Edited January 11, 2018 by rocknalle

[TheWilloughbian]

Try moving that last mod above RW2 in your load order. As for the skin textures, maybe try some different texture mods. I like Fair Skin Completion. https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51602

[rocknalle]

Try moving that last mod above RW2 in your load order. As for the skin textures, maybe try some different texture mods. I like Fair Skin Completion. https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51602

The last mod is a fix for water seams and it doesn't change anything no matter where it is in my loadorder. Besides, I've tried different skin textures and they all look bad with my current settings, expcept you're at a light source and zoom all the way in. That's the only time you can actually see it has some texture to it.

 

Thank you for the answer though, it's much appreciated that you took some of your time to read my long post :)

[JimmyRJump]

To be honest, I can't see anything wrong in your added screens. The seam you talk about between land and water is called the shore. The faces look quite normal, both inside and outside.

 

Have a look at Hein84's Vivid Landsapes mod. It will replace the soil with better looking textures that use even less resources than the original textures. Only textures, no esp involved.

 

Then add Veydosebrom - Grasses And Ground Cover over it. Overwrite when prompted by NMM (click "yes to mod"). Veydosebrom will hide the water seams in most areas.

 

Check Mature Skin Texture And Body and choose the one for the type of body you're using.

 

Make sure that all the mods you add to the game that have a plug-in are mods made for SSE. Those for Skyrim2011 will often not work or cause crashes and those that work in the beginning may wreak havok later in the game because of the difference between file-forms for 32-bits and 64-bits (ff43 versus ff44).

 

Also make sure that LOOT is up-to-date (because of the Masterfiles LOOT uses that are updated as mods have been checked by the LOOT devs and added to those Masterlists) and that you close NMM when running LOOT, otherwise the load order will not be changed despite LOOT saying so.

 

Be aware that ReShade and SweetFx and some such add a whole kaboodle of tweaks and ini changes to the way lighting looks and are a pain in the butt to get rid of. An enb is far easier to install as it only adds two ini files and its own enbseries folder. Don't like the enb preset? Simply do away with the folder and ini files and you're back to normal.

[rocknalle]

To be honest, I can't see anything wrong in your added screens. The seam you talk about between land and water is called the shore. The faces look quite normal, both inside and outside.

 

Have a look at Hein84's Vivid Landsapes mod. It will replace the soil with better looking textures that use even less resources than the original textures. Only textures, no esp involved.

 

Then add Veydosebrom - Grasses And Ground Cover over it. Overwrite when prompted by NMM (click "yes to mod"). Veydosebrom will hide the water seams in most areas.

 

Check Mature Skin Texture And Body and choose the one for the type of body you're using.

 

Make sure that all the mods you add to the game that have a plug-in are mods made for SSE. Those for Skyrim2011 will often not work or cause crashes and those that work in the beginning may wreak havok later in the game because of the difference between file-forms for 32-bits and 64-bits (ff43 versus ff44).

 

Also make sure that LOOT is up-to-date (because of the Masterfiles LOOT uses that are updated as mods have been checked by the LOOT devs and added to those Masterlists) and that you close NMM when running LOOT, otherwise the load order will not be changed despite LOOT saying so.

 

Be aware that ReShade and SweetFx and some such add a whole kaboodle of tweaks and ini changes to the way lighting looks and are a pain in the butt to get rid of. An enb is far easier to install as it only adds two ini files and its own enbseries folder. Don't like the enb preset? Simply do away with the folder and ini files and you're back to normal.

 

Thank you for your time!

I already do have Mature Skin :smile: I'll look in to the mods you mentioned.

I tried removing the mods I know are from oldrim, like aMidianborn. I'm fine with that and can live with other texture mods. Not sure if I still have some that are from oldrim. I'm posting my updated loadorder anyway.

I get what you mean with the water seams and I noticed its worst near Riverwood, so I can live with that.

 

My LOOT is up to date.

  0  0     Skyrim.esm
  1  1     Update.esm
  2  2     Dawnguard.esm
  3  3     HearthFires.esm
  4  4     Dragonborn.esm
  5  5     Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
  6  6     RSkyrimChildren.esm
  7  7     ApachiiHair.esm
  8  8     ApachiiHairFemales.esm
  9  9     SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp
 10  a     SkyUI_SE.esp
 11  b     SGEyebrows.esp
 12  c     Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
 13  d     UNP Vanilla Outfits.esp
 14  e     dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
 15  f     BetterQuestObjectives.esp
 16 10     Footprints.esp
 17 11     WICO - Immersive People.esp
 18 12     RSChildren.esp
 19 13     EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
 20 14     ELFX - Exteriors.esp
 21 15     Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
 22 16     Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin SSE Version.esp
 23 17     Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods.esp
 24 18     Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
 25 19     ELFX - Weathers.esp
 26 1a     Vivid WeathersSE.esp
 27 1b     IcePenguinWorldMap.esp
 28 1c     Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
 29 1d     Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp
 30 1e     Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp
 31 1f     Better Dynamic Snow.esp
 32 20     Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp
 33 21     Improved Eyes Skyrim - Vamp.esp
 34 22     Improved Eyes Skyrim - Serana.esp
 35 23     CharacterMakingExtender.esp
 36 24     WICO - Immersive Character.esp
 37 25     EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp
 38 26     WICO - Immersive Dawnguard.esp
 39 27     WICO - Wild Hunt Gears.esp
 40 28     Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
 41 29     Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp
 42 2a     BetterQuestObjectives-AlternateStartPatch.esp
 43 2b     RealisticWaterTwo.esp
 44 2c     RealisticWaterTwo - Watercolor.esp
 45 2d     RWT Lod Fix.esp
 46 2e     Riverwad.esp

However I still have the CTD after removing them. Once I fix the CTD I might look in to END some time. Can't live with the CTD.

I tried Papyrus loggin but it doesn't log anything, just random CTD with no logs.... so I have no idea what is wrong and don't know how to trace it. I haven't had any CTD in dungeons, only while running in the open world and while editing my character in ECE. Maybe that says something? I got through Bleakfalls Barrow with no problems, and I only CTD while editing my character if I take too long.

 

My CTD is just as bad if I start a new save as well. Nothing changes.

Edited January 11, 2018 by rocknalle

[rocknalle]

Okay fast update.

 

I figured out I had forgotten to remove ELFX - Weathers. It caused some of the CTD in the open world. Still not sure while I CTD in ECE while editing my character, but so far so good!

Still looking for some suggestions if anyone should have any :)

[TheWilloughbian]

I get CDT when using some of the body sliders in ECE. They work with Males fine, but with Females, the game just locks up and I have to do a hard shut down. I think it may have something to do with the TRI files. I had no problems with the first release of ECE, the crashes started after I updated everything to the latest version. I haven't played around with swapping out files to see it I can fix it.

As for RW2. Sometimes when another mod edits an area with water it will conflict and the water bugs. Usually adjusting the load order will fix it. However, I have run into a few mods where I can play with the load order all I want and nothing will change. Had that issue with this mod. https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13351 Great mod, just conflicts with RW2 at the Solitude docks. I tend to avoid mods that make big changes to exterior cells for this reason. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[JimmyRJump]

Here's two screenshots from North of Winterhold:

 

 

 

 

 

Notice I have the exact same seams and I'm also using the Realitic Water Two mod and all its patches.

 

@The Willoughbian:

 

To avoid hard shutdowns, start playing in fullscreen windowed mode so that the game can get minimised when performing alt/tab. Then simply right-click the game in the taskbar and close it.

[TheWilloughbian]

Thanks for the tip.

[rocknalle]

I actually fixed my water seams entirely. It's seamless and looks seethrough as water near the edges again now. So it wasn't just as it was supposed to look. I fixed it by reinstalling all my texture mods.

 

However I must have overwritten some texture files somehow cus I seem to have a new problem. I am missing some textures on some wooden planks, or is it the stockades? If anyone know I would love to know the name of the missing textures. I've been trying to do a little digging myself as its the only missing textures in my game that i know of, and I would hate to reinstall my entire Skyrim and start over again.

 

The missing textures in action (here in silent moons camp:

https://i.imgur.com/iwOQ1bB.png

 

I have a feeling it might be some SMIM meshes that are missing textures. Any ideas? I've tried adding some new textures manually both to mines and caves but they persist to be missing.

Edited January 11, 2018 by rocknalle