radiusrsatti

SMIM does make stuff better, but I view it as an entry level upgrade for meshes, like USSEP for records and scripts... better than original, not quite as good as mods dedicated to certain objects... it's top of the order, overwritten by everything else, for me

console and sseedit, or more informative console as an all-in-one source of detail

the issue you're likely to have is insufficient video memory... you can get plenty of optimized or upscaled retextures, at the cost of VRAM... 4GB will be insufficient to rescale all of Skyrim to 4k, it will be a very tight bottleneck for processing... I had a 1070 with 8GB and easily capped it out, throttling my fps to 15-30. Pfuscher offers a nice collection, and there are also downscales available for his texture packs, make a selection based on what your system can likely handle... good thing about textures is they are easily replaceable and will not affect game saves. ENBs may heavily affect your performance, depending on pack you get... give the base ENB a dry run to see how it functions before trying an ENB pack, to give you a base impact comparison

Masters are only added if the plugin in question adds new records generated in that plugin. IE, if the record originates in Skyrim.esm, only Skyrim.esm is added as master, or if the record originates in KSHairs.esp, KSHairs.esp is added as master. Any changes to existing records, say in a plugin that only edits food restoration values, the edits will be forwarded to the patch, but only the originating plugin (such as Skyrim.esm) will be added as Master because no new records were added or referenced by the food plugin. Bashing is good for a cursory patch, but it only covers a few record types. If you would like to do a more comprehensive Bashing, for ALL record types, you should look into Mator Smash, which I think makes bash tags irrelevant, but will require manual editing to ensure your desired values (if multiple plugins edit same records) are forwarded correctly. IE, my setup of almost 3k mods requires 21 Smash Patches to cover every record edit in my load order (due to 255 Master limit per plugin). With a 255 master limit, and because WB only creates 1 plugin for multiple record types, Wrye Bash may not cover all conflicted plugins. To my knowledge, it does not create multiple patches.

bug reports on your version of ConsoleUtilSSE state CTDs on startup, and that plugin has removed 1.5.97 support with later updates... you should try ConsoleUtilSSE NG, built on CommonLib for all versions I might also recommend the .netscriptframework mod and its requirements, for me it's been more helpful than other crash loggers, somewhere there is even a guide for the most common error codes

sometimes, even with the correct query info (in download tab, right click and query prior to install... you must tie your nexus account into MO2 settings for access and to be able to download through MO2 so that you don't have to manually query mods from Nexus), and the correct version number on the install, if the mod page wasn't updated to match latest version, MO2 will show red version data. it's also possible that MO2 can misidentify the version on install, and label it wrong... see next item on mods that you didn't query info, weren't downloaded through MO2, or you can't remember which version you installed, you can open the meta.ini file inside the mod folder, and maybe 90% of the time the install file will be named with the version number and displayed inside. you can enable another column, Nexus ID... this column will basically just let you know if the install is tied to the Nexus server for the version matching feature to work properly... this requires the query info to work correctly, prior to install it might not apply to your current installs, but if the mod in question has multiple mods with different version numbers, like additional patches, only 1 version number will be relevant, whichever is tied to the Nexus mod page, usually the main mod, so all the patches with different versions will show outdated or not matching latest version

zip or rar 3 potential folders---- Mod Organizer 2 install directory Skyrim install directory (if you make edits to base Skyrim, such as installing SKSE mods directly instead of MO2, or ENBs or mods that require base folder installation instead of data folder) ** my setup, I keep my profile/mod directories in their own folder outside of MO2 install directory (paranoid about update deletions)... if you also do so, include this folder, otherwise, it is by default included in the MO2 install directory If you mess up/make skyrim unplayable, you can simply delete those *3 folders and replace to restore original functionality without reinstalling ANYTHING Then you can edit and test your 2.0 version at your leisure with a full backup

lol i'm slightly obsessive, I've replaced my pc twice in the last 7 years specifically to handle skyrim... the biggest issue with my setup was VRAM... GTX1070/80 taps out at 8 GB, frame rates would stutter at 10-30 at best outside whiterun due to memory overload and buffering... running a 3090 now at 24GB, last I checked was a near seamless 60fps in overworld, with highest quality settings, but I still hover about 20GB of VRAM in use... might be a waste of time and money, but it keeps me off the streets

default questions, nvidia drivers up to date? the drive you installed Skyrim to, it's not like 90+% full or anything? have you monitored task manager when running the game, see how resources are being used or overused? don't know your familiarity level with MO2, but the settings for Low/High/Ultra stored in the Skyrim INIs are self-contained in MO2, you can't use the in-game or default Documents/Skyrim settings files for changes... also recommend BethINI to generate said files and copy into MO2 are you running any mods? running base with just what you mentioned should be close to a perfect game... mod suggestion to try, SSE Engine Fixes

one of the biggest reasons I fear playing Skyrim... I'm addicted to monitoring Nexus and updating my mods, to the point I haven't actually played in a little over a year... many small updates and fixes shouldn't really affect your game, unless you've made changes to the mods themselves prior to update, or the mod author did as you mentioned, changed the plugin name, overhauled the FormIDs, re-scripted and such, it should work out ok... mod updates can, however, invalidate the patches, or make them redundant, but still necessary for the load order. Record conflicts won't usually destroy a game, and the proper values can be forwarded as required Patches "generally" only make record changes to existing form IDs from master plugins... there are some patches that add records, but those are usually for extra functionality as part of the patch... that being said, you shouldn't change between FULL or LITE versions without a new game... if the patches are built for one version, use that version... if the update makes the changes you've mentioned, the patches will need re-authored, remastered, as FormIDs will likely be different between plugins... you can attempt to do so yourself, or wait/request the mod author to update as needed... otherwise, should be removed and new game started I've created 21 FINAL patches for my load order, to incorporate all record conflicts... unless the above occurred, updates to the records that aren't in conflict won't need corrected in the FINAL patches, but if the update changes FINAL patch records, unless irrelevant to my load order, I may need to update my patches manually separately, unless patches include NEW records, those patches WILL NOT be needed in the load order with an AIO patch in place like mine, potentially saving slots and minimizing headache after generated... this only applies to initial game start, you should never change your load order mid-playthrough I don't know which mod manager you use, but in any case, you can install an update to a new directory in MO2, maybe same with Vortex, and check the mod out prior to incorporating it and invalidating your setup TLDR; major updates and changes are a no-no mid-playthrough, non-structural bugfixes and corrections should be fine if load order is unaffected

I don't recall my testing before figuring this out, but I feel like I did multiple fresh starts to test this resolution... give a new game a try

run or rerun whatever animation plugin you use, FNIS, Pandora, Nemesis, and leave generated files as overwrite... should fix it

can't be certain about the road spikes, but I'm positive that the hard water line is a record conflict... more specifically, one of you mods makes a change to a water table in one cell, and the bordering cell is changed by a different mod you'll have to get into xedit and make a patch to forward all concerning water records to be final overwrite to fix this, ensuring Realistic Water 2 wins all conflicts

I think so, but can't remember the name... feels like ages ago since I last saw it offhand, there are also two other mods that will cover most non-unique NPCs... I'd recommend Female Enemies as it's newer, but you should probly only use one of them, they seem to do the same thing... may require some patching based on your modlist https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/119730?tab=description https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/14482

Active, listed above the main window, is how many mods you have active... on the right side, the Plugins tab will show how many total plugins you have active, you can follow the priority column to determine addressing and load order