Heliadhel

I wold love to know the answer to this too. Vanilla snow on rocks is so 'flat' it actually makes the rock where the snow is on it look perfectly flat, which it shouldnt as its on a bumpy rocky surface. Also is perfectly white - which snow isnt. Better Dynamic snow - which I read fixes the snow on rocks, seems to do wonders for snow on flat stone floor and bridges etc but seems to do little to improve the 'flat perfectly white snow on rocks' effect. Im bumping this in the vain hope someone knows of a mod which fixes this really obviously flawed area of the vanilla game? Maybee its too difficult to fix when it comes to creating a mod. I have no idea! thanks Matt

Simulated: im in the same boat. This find sounds pretty amazing and its well worth reading the 12 pages of techno-speak over on the STEP forum (link above in another post) to get a sense of whats going on and how to use it....however im lost to be honest as its all above my modding head and i will wait for the 'big boys' to package it up and make it more consumer friendly. From what im reading this is big news.. There are people over there running 15 and 17 UGrids to load stably (slow FPS but stably which is utterly unheard of) with this trick. Matt

Ok - tried OOzyGorrila's suggestion (1st one on the list) and that was it. THANKYOU! In my 'Skyrim Settings' you know - the steam front end - Anisotropic filtering was set to off, despite it being set to high quality in my Nvidia Inspector. Stupid me thought that Nvidia inspector would over rode skyrim?? So what gives with that? How do settings in Nvidia inspector interact with the Skyrim front end settings? the reason i didnt notice this is becasue I have had SKSE installed from my modding get go and launch through that skipping the steam front end entirely! Anyhow went from blurred to amazing in one switch up from off to 16x. My rig is fine so no performance loss at all. Thanks so much....i will now fiddle with DOF off and on to see if I can even determine if there is a difference....! My thanks Matt

Hi folks, Difficult one to describe - hopefully the screen shots will explain more than a thousand words. The only mods which are running are compatibility patches and Skyrim HD textures (Lite 2k versions). I have 2Gb of Vram which isnt even close to being used up and 8GB of system ram which Skyrim Performance Monitor is showing as only using up 1.6Gb of RAM so nowhere near the 3.1Gb limit. Please note my skyrim.ini and my skyrimprefs.ini are completely vanilla and generated by the game (this is a completely clean Skyrim install) and Skyrim itself set everything to Ultra as I have a reasonable rig. So to the (perceived?) issue: In the first pic you can see that where the mudcrab is laying the grass textures look really blurry and awful. This is about 0.5 seconds walk from where im standing. The grass texture under my feet is crisp whilst the grass over by the mud crab is a greenish brown blurry mess http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/heliadhel/Skyrim%20Test%20Photos/2014-01-12_00004_zpsa498b3c5.jpg In the 2nd pic i am about 1 meter from a road....its blurry as hell. http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/heliadhel/Skyrim%20Test%20Photos/2014-01-12_00005_zps0be4b6e2.jpg If I stand on the green leaves in the pic above , you can see in the 3rd pic (below) that half the road is now resolved crisply whilst the other half still looks pretty terrible. Am I doing something wrong? http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/heliadhel/Skyrim%20Test%20Photos/2014-01-12_00006_zpscdb2c9b8.jpg Can i fix this with ini tweaks which extens the detailed view just a few more meters?? Im finding this to be almost gamebreaking and was hoping for so much more with the HD 2k textures mod :sad: I suspect this isnt the mods fault at all but game engine making the stark difference between a 2k texture and the blurred 'you arent there yet so you dont need to see it properly' areas very distinct. Help GREATLY appreciated. Im in game now and happy to tweak as suggested. Thanks Matt

So ive been getting my noob modding act together and I am now messing with texture mods. To date all I have is: SKSE, SkyUI DLC Hi Res packs All unnoficial patches Unofficial texture fix / patch Pure Waters. now I noticed the hell out of rivers and lakes when I installed pure waters (I also messed with WATER too and that also looked great). So, encouraged, I D/L all of the Skyrim HD 2k texture packs and installed them Im in Riverwood checking out the differences having lloked at all the screenies and indeed Gophers 'swiping' reveal shots between DLC hi res and Skyrim HD 2k. But im seeing barely any difference. I D/L Lite and Full and swapped them out with NMM....no change there (but honestly didnt expect to be able to see much diff between 2k and 4k) Im running a GTX 670, quad core 2500k, 8Gb ram....a nice system that makes BF4 smooth as butter So....i even went to the length of taking screen shots in certain areas and then uninstalling the mod and taking the same screen shots. when I look at the screen shots I can tell that the textures have been replaced, the paths looks quite different....but the changes in Riverwood are very subtle. I was expecting BAM....and got oh. Have i lost the plot? Am I doing something wrong? Am I just hard to please after playing games like BF4 and Crysis 3? Help? Matt

TehKaoZ, That was a really helpful precis of what Wyre Bash can do - and now I can see its utility through your eyes (experienced) rather than mine (misunderstood and scared of messing things up) I will D/L it and start having a fiddle with it at a cursory level. Just knowing what mods are in my saves is actuallt very useful for me at this very stage where im now pulling texture replacers in and out to see which effects i prefer for water and the like. Cheers P.S - I know Im going about everything all wrong - and its only a matter of time until I sear the eyebrows off some poor modmaker with my NoobWrath - but is it also about right that the users of the mods actually spend 90% of their free time modding Skyrim and only 10% of it playing Skyrim? This feels like we have reverted to the 70's and simply replaced muscle cars with Skyrim and all we do it tinker with the 'big end' and the 'compression ratios' and polish it but dont dare drive it anywhere... Matt

I think you will be fine with that spec but you can bring any rig to its knees with overzelous modding choices I suppose. Check out this thread below which I started as it may answer your question in more detail and others you have yet to ask... http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1300933-overwhelmed-ny-nexus-mods-willing-to-learn-seeks-guidance/ Matt

Ok - quick update Ive now: 1) D/L Skyrim Performance Monitor to check how my vanilla install looks from a VRAM, RAM and FPS perspective. Having a 'skyrim stopped working' when I exit the game with this running and speaking to the mod author about it. Apparently its a rare event that im getting reproducably so hes interested in knowing more about my system. Aside from that it works great. 2) D/L TESVEdit - watched vids about it and have now cleaned all my masters that should be cleaned. 3) D/L SKSE and got it working and tested in game with GetSKSEVersion in the console 4) D/L all of the Unofficial patches (i have all the DLC) and also D/L the Unofficial Fix for the Skyrim DLC textures 5) D/L my first mod - Better Quality Skyrim Map (IcePenguin's) and got it running fine. 5) D/L BOSS and used it to sort my load order after the above D/L's 6) Followed some more of STEP and created a profile setup in NVidia Inspector which have various changes to run it better Still to D/L Wyre Bash and am still scared of it. No Im going to do some UI stuff first. Matt

I know nothing....but isnt that the job of programmes like Wyre Bash? I will hush though because I dont even know how to use Wyre Bash

Lord Garon Please dont think you in any way put me off modding (i can only speak for myself) - i was just curious about how far (long I guess) you take you practice run whilst assembling all the mods you want before calling it quits and playing to have fun. I think I am going to add the mod that allows you to make alternate starts....i literally cannot go through the Helgen Dragon scheme one more time! Once Im 'somewhere' where I can see outdoors and indoors and dungeons with reasonable ease I will put all my mods together and try for stability. then ill go play. My only dissapointment so far has been with a completely vanilla install, and only 1 save - i loaded it to test out Skyrim Performance Monitor (by Sir Garnon - not you is it??) and whilst the monitor worked fine in game the game 'stops working' the moment i click on quit to desktop. this does not seem to have a detrimental effect as ive already left the game so to speak. If i dont run the SPM programme then when i quit it quits normally. Any thoughts? Ill go read the site and see if anyone else has this issue. Cheers Matt

Again - thank you to everyone who has replied to this thread. I AM reading everything everyone is posting and I guess if anyone out there is interested I have now done (i prefer to use the word achieved as i feel like im in a mini battle vs Skyrim itself in R/L with you lot helping massively from the wings): 1) Completely Deleted all traces of my old Skyrim Install and Savegames (im a purist I guess). I followed the following process from a nexus forum user: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/906390-cleaning-skyrim-for-fresh-install/ 2) Followed STEP somewhat here and then Re-Downloaded SKyrim (I have all DLC so this was like 13Gb!) BUT BUT Steam now has an open Beta and thank goodness the new functionality allows you to create alternative Steam Folders. With this joyous knowledge I have now installed Skyrim into a bespoke folder on my SSD (speeeeed) and it worked like a charm. The rest of my Steam games still reside on my vast 3Tb HDD which is elsewhere but slower than SSD obviously. 3) Once I finished the install I zipped up my entire vanilla install on the SSD and dropeed it as an archived copy onto my large D drive. I launched the game, configured the basic video settings etc and played pure vanilla to the point where you choose stormcloaks or empire, (chose stormcloaks and went in the tower and saved) I then also zipped up my folder containing the .INI and also the folder in Appdata/Local etc. 4) D/L and installed NMM and got it working with my new SSD location etc Im about to: D/L Skyrim Performance Monitor to check how my vanilla install looks from a VRAM, RAM and FPS perspective. D/L TESVEdit so i can clean the masters as per Gophers Vids (i guess i also use this to clean mods too unless they specifically say they use dirty edits (see Ive been reading/listening!)) D/L Wyre Bash though I am utterly frightened of this programme for some reason D/L BOSS D/L SKSE and get that working Then Im going to put some utterly essentials into my game: Unofficial Patches SkyUI And then get my head around what next.... Hopefully all the awesome replies Ive had from you guys to date and my little updates with what ive done and why as I progress will help any other noobs who happen to come along over the next few weeks. Point em to this thread lol and save yourselves a lot of typing :) Matt

Um...quick but probably silly question: I was just about to delete all of my old Skyrim for a clean install and something someone said earlier made me think. It was Lord Garon who said: "Think of your game as "practice" till you get most of the mods you want sorted out. Then start a new game as your REAL playthrough" Some of the mods I want to install affect mid and end level game play (thinking of SkyRe or Requiem for example). So if my modding time is practice - without actually playing through to the end how can i tell if such mods are stable alongside whatever else mods i may install until i get to 'end game;.' - and if ive got there its not really 'practice' anymore as I will have spent about 200 hours (again! as Ive already done a vanilla playthrough to lvl 37) Have I missed something? Matt

Guys thank you so much for all of your replies. Ive now watched all of Gophers vids from his Skyrim Mod reviews series and am working through the 'how to mod' series. I note he dosnt seem to cover TSVEdit (i may have mis typed that) and indeed Wyre Bash. But when Im ready i will read up on both before starting to mod. The reference to STEP was super handy and am now about to create me a vanilla install on my SSD and an archived backup before kisking this all off. Wish me luck Matt

Folks, My heartfelt thanks for the replies. Ive now started some focused reading. Some of the responses were at the level of detail I was really hoping for and i thank you for taking the time to do so. Im certain topics like this happen on a regular basis and I cannot tell you how helpful those combined replies will be to me in determining what i "MUST DO" from "NEED" and "NICE TO HAVE" Im encouraged folks are running 200+ mods on Laptops. Im running BattleField 4 in pretty much highest res and getting very smooth gameplay so perhaps my PC wont collapse under the strain of mods. But your replies did generate a few more questions: 1) What is Wyre Bash? Going to the Nexux page it does not really tell you what its actually for? Is this a mod? They seem to need help writing it and that worries me a bit. Do I need to use this? and if so under what circumstances? 2) What is an ENB? Someone mentioned they have a huge FPS hit - is this a concern for my rig or does it nail everyones PC into a slideshow? I note some people seem to avoid ENB's and just achieve the same goal other ways. If so - why do people use ENB's? 3) No-one answered my question about a clean Skyrim install. Should I bother or just start modding my current skyrim install and do a new start? Many thanks Matt

Hi folks, Supershort background: Bought and played Skyrim on release. Got to lvl 37 before other games lured me away - but i LOVED what I played. Sad i didnt play more to be honest. I can remember the high res texture pack being released - very exciting. So since then I havent played Skyrim at all. So having played for at least 80 hours or something in Vanilla Skyring I got given Dawnguard for Christmas from a friend and i saw some of the amazing things Skyrim mods can do and Im stupidly exited to mod my game. My PC spec is a quad core Interl 2500k overclocked to 4.2 GHz (super stable) and a Nvidia GTX 670 with 2 Gb vid ram. 8Gb system ram. Im running Dell monitors 1920x1200. Given my playing break I am more than happy to abandon my saves and start from a clean install of Skyrim (although given i have no mods i guess it is clean right?). Certainly willing to play 'from beginning' whatever that may be. Questions: 1) Given my spec - will the super whizzy mods grind my PC down into a flickering slideshow or am I going to be OK with some care? 2) Ive been following the youtube series by Gopher http://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids?feature=watch Its slow, but steady and Im self helping about NMM, install directories, whats happening behind scenes etc. Do you have any 'must watch' favorites or resources I should visit for learning the ropes? 3) Im utterly overwhelmed by the number of mods available. How do you decide which mods to try? Are there 'must have' mods I would be foolish not to even look at? Im a bit odd in so far as I would like to mod the game then play it rather than play a bit mod a bit play more mod more and lose the impact of mods in slow incremental changes.....but that may be a foolhardy approach. Thoughts? Things I know I would like to change but not sure of best approach - advice please Skyrim was too easy. I played a sneaky mage / archer. By mid level i was one shotting everything (or so it felt). I want areas where if I go there I will just die as the bad guys are just too tough. I want to NEED to level to go places - how can I make Skyrim more challenging from a combat and danger perspective? Skyrim characters were great - at first - but more variety - better dialogue would immerse me more. Any mods for this? Combat overhauls or difficulty overhauls or something? Dragons were....not scary. After my first they were actually some of the easier fights. THIS SHOULD NOT BE! Help me be scared of Dragons. Ok - ill admit it. Ive seen the sexy mods. Whilst I dont want Penthouse pets walking around Skyrim Im not adverse to some nice looking gals and a main character whos rear end is appealing to view...any suggestion which dont take things over the top? Ive heard of ENBB or something like that. I want to make the world as beautiful as my rig will allow but I still want 40-60 FPS. So basically I want the moon on a stick. Short of that....I can tinker obviously to balance texture overhauls, lighting overhauls etc with FPS but what are the good quality ones? I dont want to install ten mods that changes textures in just one village when there is an overhaul that does the whole game! Thats it. So many questions but I thank you all (whomever you may turn out to be) in advance for any help you may throw in the direction of an overwhelmed noob! Cheers Matt