Bealdwine2

Interesting question. I would add to that - what effect would 'white space' have also? Would be interested if anyone knows.

I had this issue with an apparently hidden location in Win 7 - Solution: open Windows Explorer and click in the top text box where location is usually shown as eg. Libraries> this gets you the old style look. Type in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local and scroll down for Skyrim folder. You could add \Skyrim of course but you may want to check what else is hidden away here ;)

So true, but hey, it works so no foul :) Maybe it'll get fixed in an update sometime ;D

So update 1.4.23 threw the mod community on it's head and we are still waiting for BOSS and the mod managers to re-code. Then came 1.4.27, then came 1.5... never has Bethesda thrown such support at a game, which is great, unless it messes up your carefully modded setup every time... which it usually does :P Solution? I'm going to shamelessly plug my friends' mod/app - Skyrim Unplugged by StoppingBy4Now Run it, click the button, and although Steam can still update Skyrim will not. "But there is an option to tell Steam not to automatically update Skyrim anyway" I hear you cry. Well, yes there is, but as many find out, this setting will reset to default (=go on just slap that update on here) once you play the game! Using this mod won't allow that but it's a simple click of the other button to release the game to be updated when you've seen what bugs or problems it has introduced for others ;) The download file is an .exe which I know will put some people off, but I assure you it has been checked and used with no ill effects by several people. Put yourself back in control. You know it makes sense :D

Ok, no responces to this post so I'll only check it occasionally. Hope it might have interested a couple of readers and maybe introduced someone to the great STEP guide.

:blush: You are too kind. Most of things I have tried and tested I would never have known about if it hadn't been for the great community your guide has developed. Thank you all :cool:

As you may guess from the title I am an ardent follower of TheCompilers' STEP guide to modding Skyrim. I want to beautify my game and make it more realistic but not, at this early stage, change the game mechanics too much and STEP is ideal for suggesting mods/textures/tweaks and fixes just for that. Now, due to general poverty issues ;) I run a rather old rig - intel core2 6600 CPU @ 2.4Ghz; 4Gb RAM; nVidia 8800GT 1Gb vRAM; 1680x1050 res - but I was happily surprised to find that it ran vanilla Skyrim well and and was still playable with 'several' mods added (basically STEP 1.93.1 without major textures like Skyrim_HD but with things like Vurt's Flora [Hi-res], Lush Grass, Realistic Water Textures, and others). ...That is, right up until the Bethesda HD Texture pack DLC came out :P with that and the fix installed with my previous setup I suddenly had stutter/freeze/lag issues that could not be ignored :( As with many people I'm sure, I wanted to use the Beth textures as a base line and then mod over the top of these (using the .bsa registered in .ini method) and as this coincided with release of the STEP v2 guide I went ahead and tried - now including (lower res versions where possible) things like Skyrim_HD, Realistic Smoke and Embers, Skyrim_Realistic_Overhaul, as well as the stuff I had before using the overwrites and selection of texture mod parts suggested by TheCompiler and... stutter/freeze :wallbash: So ever since then I have been tweaking and testing to see if there really was a way that a low end rig like mine could run the totally awesome look and feel from mods that the high end i7/590 folks eat for breakfast :) Below is an indication of what I achieved - playability, 'just'. :biggrin: WARNING - after my install of the STEP v2 mods I could not load my old save games (that included STEP v1.93 modifications) and had to start NEW (no big problem for me but if there is a safe way to make a save that will reload after modding feel free to post or link below)' NOTE: Others have mentioned that they had no issues loading old save games, possibly depends what mods were running before the re-install but issues with changing ini entries might also be the cause. First I cannot recommend the STEP guide enough - it offers very sound advice and does not kill the Skyrim Lore. Secondly, I'm sorry but I don't have actual FPS figures - there is no in game FPS display that I know of and running FRAPS or similar would just add another burdon to my poor struggling CPU. But from experience I would guess I now have a mid-teens to 20s FPS on average. The main recommendation I make (and I admit this is on early stages of testing as yet) is to forget the Bethesda HD textures DLC download (2x.bsa files) and the necessary 'fix' .bsa - instead go for Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized. There are a couple of version and for my rig I chose to go for the standalone 1024 as I could avoid the original DLC altogether saving space. That one mod then becomes your baseline textures for the game which will slowly be (partially) overwritten by texture files from the STEPv2 mods. I should point out that: a). I optimized my original modded Texture file with DDSopt bafore installing the above mod and then replaced the texture folder with overwrite allowed. However using DDSopt only reduced my texture folder size from (approx) 1.6Gb tp 1.3Gb so not a great saving anyway. b). I do not use every mod recommended in the STEP guide (it is a 'guide' after all and I still have my own preferences or things I can do without for general play) - I usually include all mods he has marked as [CORE] or [CORE!], the lower res version of those marked [CORE-FPS!] but avoid things like Static Mesh Improvement Mod and such that improve small general items I will hardly notice during gameplay - some sacrifices must be made :teehee: I hope this helps with others who love Skyrim 'realistic' but have limited capabilities in their PC rig. I continue testing but I also really want to get back to simply playing the game! And now, at last, I think my setup is playable (and load times are greatly reduced/almost vanilla) :dance: Good luck to everyone else struggling to get to that playable sweet zone, I feel your pain o_O Every system is different but if you would like a more detailed run-down of the mods and settings I use, post here and I'll try to get around to it (probably next week earliest).

I agree, it's a subjective thing but note that the official pack is the original textures at higher resolution, whereas many HD mods are actually new textures at higher resolution - actually it can be more than that but let's keep this simple Which is better (you prefer) is still personal choice however ;)

Seems like a valid point, which would suggest that these textures should be installed/used as the base textures that we continue to mod over as we always have done... the only questions are how best to do this (ie. installation/load-order), and what impact they will have on fps.