Vulon

This sounds like what you're looking for.

I'd avoid using Sounds of Skyrim if I were you. It's rumored to wreak havoc on save games. I'm currently using the sound propagation overhaul mod, but unfortunately, the author of that mod's made the file hidden from the public for the time being. With your new PC specs, definitely go for an ENB. Probably the best looking ENB out there, imo, is the Unreal Cinema ENB. Though it's a bit too dark at times, especially in interiors. Still, it looks really nice. And here's the space where I was planning to include screenshots of aforementioned ENB, but apparently "that image extension is not allowed". Guess the nexus doesn't approve of .jpgs. Anyway, if you'd like to see 'em, I just uploaded them to my account, so they're there for the viewing. It's all a matter of preference, though. I'm pretty indecisive when it comes to ENBs so I cycle through 'em a lot. And if you plan on using Climates of Tamriel, make sure you have a compatible ENB, like Project ENB (which comes with tons of presets to choose from) or RealVision. Mods that add NPCs for immersion -- Interesting NPCs Inconsequential NPCs Other mods of interest -- Varied Guards and Stormcloaks The Joy of Perspective (Adds a skeleton for first person so the character can look down and see themselves -- it's pretty cool, though it's a bit buggy and many of the first person animations suffer as a result) Fhaarkas Font Mod There's a ton more out there, but for the most part, I'm blanking right now. If you don't mind spending a bit more time in the process of getting it to work, look into Skyproc Patcher mods, such as Everybody's Different, which allows you to set up folders containing different skin textures which can be randomly allocated to NPCs. Automatic Variants is pretty cool, too. One concept I really like is that of the Realistic Body System mod, which gives NPCs random body shapes. From what I've seen, though, I don't like the execution, and as far as I know, it's for females only. Not sure. Anyway, yeah, hope that gives you some ideas. Edit - Forgot to mention, SMCO is great for if you plan on downloading lots of HD retextures. It's an automated tool that reduces texture size without any truly noticeable decrease in quality. Rogue Script Remover is also quite useful, though I'm not sure if it's been made redundant with the newest release of SKSE.

Sure thing. Speaking voice - https://soundcloud.com/vulon/speaking-voice-sample Sample video -

Interesting NPCs, definitely! Probably my #1 favorite mod. :D Also, keep an eye out for Chesko's upcoming complex follower mod, Arissa the wandering rogue. I was fortunate enough to contribute some lines of my own to the mod and work with the voice actress who plays Arissa. She's a professional, and really knows what she's doing. :)

Interesting NPCs is hands down my #1 must-have mod for every playthrough of Skyrim. It adds tons of fully-voiced, truly unique new characters to the game, and they all blend in seamlessly. Really adds a lot to the experience. I've recently been involved with doing some voiceovers for a similar mod, Inconsequential NPCs, which similarly adds a number of new NPCs to the game. This mod differs from Inconsequential NPCs in that the characters added either don't really care about the Dragonborn or interact with him, and aren't even named. They range from foreign envoys to carriage guards, 'urchins' (children who pickpocket), etcetera. It's another mod that adds a lot to the experience of the game, imo. :) Some others to look into include Climates of Tamriel, BLEED (dynamic blood mod), varied guards and stormcloaks, Ethereal Elven Overhaul, all the unofficial patches for Skyrim and the DLC, Dead Body Collision fix, Footprints, Wet and Cold, Frostfall, SkyUI, WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux, SkyAI...those are all great mods for starting out. :D

Yikes, that's pricey. Here's my setup -- AT2020 USB Cardioid Condenser Microphone, by audio-technica, Nady MPF-6 6 Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter, and the On-Stage Stands MS7701 Tripod Boom Microphone Stand. It'll only cost you around $150 for all three items.

Thank you, Ripple! ^^ Just let me know if you need me again sometime down the road, and I'll be happy to help.

Here's some footage of two characters I recently voiced. :smile: http://youtu.be/iAzKc43_YVg http://youtu.be/07f-_wKrpMA

Put together a demo reel the other day, using both new and old material. All voices and music by me. Apologies in advance for the gum-smacking sounds...I drink a lot of milk, and I just recently discovered that dairy and recording voice-overs do not go hand in hand. >.< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u9ou8NmRSY&feature=share&list=UUru-mrkivZ5s4CSfqXpj6xQ

Thaaat is a lot of mods, friend. I didn't read through everything you posted, so forgive me if I go over something you've already tried. To free up vram, I'd suggest using a convenient tool called SMCO to reduce texture size without losing quality. It made my game a lot more stable. I'd also suggest giving Rogue Script Remover a shot in the interest of general stability. I was having issues with infinite loading a couple weeks back, which, in the past, has been indicative of a corrupt save for me. I was pretty peeved, considering I had just recently reinstalled, but I downloaded the rogue script remover and it seems to have solved most, if not all, of my problems. The only issue I've experienced in the last week was last night, when I tried using a coc command to transport myself to Solstheim immediately after starting a new game. Got stuck in a loading screen, but that one was my fault. I figured it wouldn't work anyway.

All the parts you listed are better than my current rig by a considerable margin, and I run Skyrim at an average of 40+ frames in most outdoor locations, 60 frames or just below indoors, and around 30-40 frames while running a pretty good ENB (currently using RealVision). I'm also currently using the Skyrim Ultra HD texture pack combined with Skyrim HD and another pack which retextures smaller items. I use a tool called SMCO to reduce texture size with almost no visible dip in quality, and a tool called Skyrim Config to tweak a bunch of other options for performance. I would highly recommend turning anti-aliasing to 0 and just turn on FXAA instead. For me, at least, the performance difference is pretty big, and the difference in quality is hardly noticeable. I also have shadow resolution set to 1024x1024; Skyrim's shadows look pretty terrible regardless of settings, so in my opinion, it's not really worth having it any higher than necessary. Point is, you can squeeze more performance out of Skyrim with the right tools and approach.

Here's a list of some of my favorite mods -- Interesting NPCs (Probably my favorite mod of all. It really breathes life into Skyrim, adding tons of fully-voiced NPCs who are actually unique and have truly interesting backstories.) Frostfall Wet and Cold Footprints BLEED Skyrim Ultra HD Texture Pack (I currently have this combined with Skyrim HD and another texture pack) Varied Guards and Stormcloaks Ethereal Elven Overhaul Mature Skin Texture and Body (if you use the UNP, CBBE, or ADEC body type for females) MacKom's Real Skin for Men Lore Based Loading Screens I have a ton of mods I really like, but those are some of my absolute favorites. There are also some really useful tools to help optimize Skyrim, such as SMCO, which resizes textures without any truly noticeable difference in quality. My computer's not the greatest rig out there, but because of this tool, I'm able to run Skyrim with very high quality textures at a very solid frame-rate. SMCO's really easy to use; almost the entire process is automated. Another tool I've just recently discovered is the Rogue Script Remover. As many of us know, adding lots of mods can result in many issues of all sorts, the most common of which is a CTD, or crash to desktop. I downloaded this tool about a week ago and haven't experienced a single crash since. It's a godsend. There's BOSS, a tool which will automatically sort your load order to the most stable order known. Very useful. There's a bunch of other great tools and mods to enhance your Skyrim experience, but those are, in my opinion, some of the most essential. :)

Just the other day, I decided to start up yet another new character in Skyrim; a female dunmer, homeless and alone in a harsh, unforgiving climate. Using the random alternate start mod, frostfall, the winter edition of CoT, Interesting NPCs, and a number of other mods to boost immersion, I began an entirely new sort of journey. I had no lofty ambitions to speak of, no desire to seek out adventure, no great destiny in the waiting. I simply wanted to survive. After creating my character, the screen flashed to white, and I found myself just outside of Rorikstead. It was evening. The sky was a dark hue of gray, and light snowfall further blanketed the simple town with the furnishings of winter. I immediately sought out and rushed to the nearest fire and warmed my hands, before making my way to the Frostfruit inn and spending what little coin I had on food and drink. I met an interesting young woman named Sonja who confided in me as I sat and drank my wine. She believed herself to be cursed, and had convinced herself that to leave the inn would spell certain death. I listened to her paranoid tales as I sipped the warm alcohol, and before I knew it, I had downed two bottles of wine. Left with only one septim (and a wine-induced buzz), I couldn't rest at the inn, so, anxious at the prospect of venturing into the cold, I made my way back outside and left Rorisktead, armed with naught but a flaming torch and the rags on my back. Dredging through the snow for a couple minutes, ice coating my clothes and skin, I broke into a light run, hoping to warm myself as I sought shelter. Struggling to keep my footing as I ran up a snow-covered hill, the sound of a wolf's howling sent me into a desperate sprint that merely brought me face to face with at least five rabid Skeevers. Panicked, still clinging to my torch in one hand, I began to wail on the over-sized vermin, ending the rats with nothing but my fist. As soon as the skeevers lay dead, I noticed, for the first time, the shabby-looking hut before my eyes. Hearing another howl, closer this time, I ran into the hut in a moment of utter fear, only to find my senses overwhelmed by the scent that obviously must have belonged to the corpse of a Nord splayed stiffly across a bed. Disgusted, I didn't even realize another individual occupied the hut until his voice snapped me out of my morbid fixation. He introduced the corpse as Lund, and, after a few moments of awkward conversation with the rather casual, congested sounding man, I realized this man must be like me - alone, cast off, and fighting just to survive. He admitted to keeping the corpse around just so the pungent smell fended off bandits and the like. The scent of decay didn't bother him, as it turned out...he had no sense of smell. I, however, wasn't so fortunate. The corpse-stink was starting to get to me, and what little I had in my stomach churned with every passing moment. The man didn't seem to care when, in a dazed state of urgency, I stumbled across the room and sifted through Lund's material possessions, taking leftover meat, wine, and even coming across a few septims. I then took my leave, awkwardly venturing back out into the biting cold of night and, after a moment of composing myself, I resumed my light jog, determined to find a place I could rest my laurels. The notion of returning to the inn was tempting, but, thinking back to Sonja, I decided against it. So I continued my trek across the frigid landscape, and for a while, there was nothing but myself, the snow, and the soft whirring of the wind. I paused to admire the aurora now spread across the sky -- something I had never witnessed in Morrowind -- when a heart-stopping roar sent my feet into motion before I even knew what had happened. My mind screamed not to look back as I ran with all the spirit I could muster, but my eyes darted back nonetheless. Hot on my petite dunmer tail was a massive, vicious saber cat. I had no time to think or feel, only to run. I tripped and lost my footing as I desperately ran down a hill overlooking a river, injuring myself, but I couldn't stop. I jumped into the water and swam with every ounce of will left in my practically frozen body, pushing past the numbness freezing me to my core as the current fought against my efforts. I made it to the other side, and, not stopping for a moment, I continued to run. I ran and ran, trees and snow and rocks all blurring into one, but a single detail grew crystalline clear in the fog of white, green, and gray - I was approaching a road! Clinging to the sudden hope of making my way down this road and finding some sort of refuge from the raging beast, I continued running, but stopped and turned as I heard the sound of grunting and steel and roaring. There was a lone traveler on the road, a man, who had stopped and was currently locked in a battle with the relentless creature, slashing at it as it swiped at him ferociously. For a moment, I felt my heart leap into my throat at the prospect of being rescued...only to find that hope suddenly and irrevocably shattered as the massive feline tore into the man, who crumpled into a heap in the snow. The cat turned and faced me, eyes shining with predatory instinct, and I turned and ran. Again. And I kept running. I ran for some time before I realized something...I could no longer hear the beast behind me. Legs shaking, panting, I crept behind a rock, crouched, and dared to peek out...only to find myself staring into empty terrain. I had escaped death. Too numb from cold and exhausted to feel any profound sense of euphoria brought about by not dying, I wearily continued my trek up the road until spotting an open shack. Extremely convenient. Not even thinking, I made my way up into the abode and immediately collapsed onto the bed, falling into a deep sleep. Some nine hours later, the sensation of freezing suddenly woke me from my slumber. I rose from the sheets and found myself incredibly startled to find a Nord hunter calmly reading at the chair near the bed. He began to speak to me, and seemed nice enough (especially considering I had taken a prolonged nap in what I assumed to be his bed without any permission), but my mind was too frazzled from everything that had happened to reciprocate his attempt at small talk. I stumbled back out into the snow, stumbling past another hunter, and continued on. I walked, teeth chattering, a plummeting sensation wracking my core as I suddenly felt very alone, vulnerable, weak, and foolish. Why didn't I just go back to the inn...? There was no point in turning back to the hunter's shack. It was entirely open, and aside from the sheets on the bed, offered no resistance to the cold. I wasn't a Nord. I wasn't built for this province. To journey back to Lund's hut wasn't an option. I had come too far. My eyesight was beginning to fail as the wind picked up. I was forced to look down, a small smile forming on my face as I caught sight of a tiny fox running along the snow. And then I saw it out of the corner of my eye, rising from between two trees near the edge of my vision. A bear. It let loose a roar that hit me like a punch to the gut. It ran my way, and I turned and began to run, my legs quivering from the strain. I ran, weakly, praying to Azura frantically that this would not be the end for me. Azura cared for her followers, after all. Perhaps it was one of the other Daedric princes, then, that heard my prayer. Because at that precise moment, I lost my footing, fell from far higher up than I expected, and felt nothing but confusion and, as my head slammed into rocky cliffside, saw nothing but black. --------------------------------------------------------- That was the entirety of this poor girl's journey. It lasted for roughly an hour of gameplay, give or take. I won't be continuing her saga -- that's how she died, after all. Reloading a previous save kinda defeats the purpose of her adventure, in my opinion, as brief as it was. :P My goal was to play Skyrim in a way I hadn't played it before. I really put myself in the shoes of this character. I legitimately felt anxious as beasts closed in on my defenseless avatar, and I was actually surprised when she died. The whole point of this topic, which I have thus far done a remarkably excellent job of avoiding altogether, is this - I'd like to hear from others who have deigned to play the game in an unconventional manner or really invested time and energy into making their experience as immersive as they possibly could. I believe one of the greatest aspects of TES is the opportunity to explore different types of individuals. Sure, we've all experienced the game as the Dragonborn...but there's something just as thrilling in playing the game as a beggar just trying to make ends meet. Well, maybe not in any conventional sense, but...you know. It's often the smallest discoveries in Skyrim that feel the most profound, after all. Little details or random happenings that have the most impact.

Put together a brief demo reel yesterday comprised solely of lines I've recorded for Skyrim mods. :) Skyrim Demo Reel

I'd be happy to help with voice acting. I don't have a demo reel up just yet, but here are some samples of dialogue I've recorded recently for a mod - https://soundcloud.com/vulon

Nice reel, finalCrystine! ^^ Just started up a Soundcloud account to upload some bits of voice-acting. I'll go ahead and post the link here. I don't have a reel up yet, but I figured this would do in the meantime. :D https://soundcloud.com/vulon

Thanks! :) I already submitted some voice work for morrowind1979's mod, so I have some material for a reel right there. I'll work on some additional content and put it together as soon as I can. :D

Hey! I'd love to get into the Skyrim voice acting scene. I've wanted to contribute for months now, but I'd stupidly lost the cable to my mic. I finally got around to acquiring a replacement cable, so I'm ready to try my hand at some VA work for Skyrim. :biggrin: I don't currently have a demo reel, but I'll be working on throwing one together at my earliest convenience. I do have a fair amount of experience, though. I've provided voices for an abridged series of Final Fantasy X that enjoyed some popularity on YouTube, worked on a number of DragonBall Z parodies, and contributed to a few fandubs and promotional type material. While I consider my voice versatile, I specialize in playing gruff, manly characters and villains. My microphone is high-quality, and I use a pop filter to almost completely eliminate hissing and popping. In addition, and on a bit of an unrelated note, I'm a freelance writer, so if you'd like any help in fine-tuning dialogue I'd be happy to offer my assistance. :smile: Edit - New soundcloud account for voiceacting! I'll be uploading some of my lines there until I have more material for a proper demo reel. :) Link - https://soundcloud.com/vulon

Got it. Thanks! I just checked, and there's no Archive.exe in my main directory. And I'm currently experiencing a weird issue when I try to load up the Creation Kit, and I'm too lazy to bother with figuring it out at the moment, but I'll certainly keep this info in mind for later use. :D

I downloaded a rather simple mod today that merely added an animation and sound effect. However, the effect was really grating to my ears and low-quality, so I figured I could slap together a more aurally pleasing effect and simply replace the old one. It should be noted that I have 0% experience in modding, so I really don't know what I'm doing outside of a basic understanding of Skyrim's file structure. After putting the sound effect together, I extracted the mod's BSA to a temporary directory on my desktop and replaced the sound effect in the sound fx folder with the one I had just made. I decided maybe that was good enough, and put the loose files into their corresponding positions in my Data folder, then dragged the ESP back in there as well. I booted up Skyrim, and while the sound effect played when I pressed the hot key that was supposed to initiate the animation, the animation didn't play. So I decided to try again and go about it differently. I removed the loose files from my data folder and decided to open up OBMM. I selected the folder that contained all the loose files and quickly packed them into a solitary BSA. Threw it back into the data folder - no dice, again. Same result. Sound effect was there, but the animation wasn't. Do I have to throw the ESP into the mix when I re-pack the files? I figured it wouldn't make a difference, since I only adjusted the sound effect, but considering I have no knowledge regarding any of this, I could very well be wrong. @_@ This is the mod I'm trying to alter, just to clarify. xD

Just to clarify, I messed up and gave you the wrong Skyrim.ini to modify. You modify the one located your 'My Documents/My Games/Skyrim' folder by the name of Skyrim.ini. My mistake. And I have no idea what that means - I'm no expert in Papyrus logging, by any means, I just use it to check up on issues. You might want to check to see if the values for Papyrus logging are all set to the correct value ('1') under your [Papyrus] subsection in the correct Skyrim.ini, if you haven't yet done so.

I can't say I experience the same issue with my set-up. Or, more aptly, with the default volume being as low as it is for me in-game without loudness equalization, I don't have a clear frame of reference to base that off of. Oddly enough, loudness equalization doesn't seem to make a difference whatsoever in how my speakers sound outside of Skyrim. Conversely, if I switch the Equalizer option off, my speakers sound quite tinny and pathetic in general.

Quite true. Although I got tired of NPCs dying when dragons attacked, so I downloaded a mod to make them run indoors in the event of a dragon attack. Otherwise they'd just be stupid, try to fight the dragon, and die. @_@

Ha, nice! And you can always download a killable children mod, mwahaha. :D

Haha, you are a better man than I, good sir. :D Another really jerkish thing I did once : This was back when I was still playing on the ps3, before I upgraded my PC and got Skyrim for it. I think it was Braith in whiterun who I found particularly aggravating one day, so I decided to kill her mother. Then, next time she ran past me, she was all like "I HATE YOU! You're mean!" so I was like, "lulz" and decided to kill her dad, too. Then I decided that was too much and reloaded to before I killed her dad...but I decided not to load prior to when I killed her mom, so for the next couple hundred hours of gameplay, every time Braith ran by me, she'd yell at me. In retrospect, perhaps I was a bit harsh. xD