Game crash from a 'bad mesh' when there is no mesh?

[InDarkestNight]

Been getting random freezes while walking around in the overworld. The strange thing is this never happens when I'm in an interior cell (including a walled city), or in combat. It litearlly only happens when I'm walking down the road and not a damned thing is happening.

 

Just now, something new came up. My game crashed and for the first time EVER I got a message telling me what went wrong. It had this message on it:

 

Game has crashed while reading binary data stream! This could indicate a corrupt NIF file. Here are the last opened files starting from most recent:

 

It then listed a bunch of files, but the strange thing is NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS A MESH. It just lists a bunch of texture and a few sound files:

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\clothes\bandit\banditf_n.dds" 0.062000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\clothes\bandit\banditf.dds" 0.093000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\armor\hide\f\cuirasslight.dds" 0.187000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\clothes\bandit\bandithatf_n.dds" 0.218000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\clothes\bandit\bandithatf.dds" 0.250000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\SOUND\FX\fst\stonesolid\run\light\r\fst_stone_light_run_07.wav" 0.250000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\SOUND\FX\fst\stonesolid\run\heavy\r\fst_stone_heavy_run_08.wav" 0.250000 seconds ago.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\DATA\TEXTURES\Actors\character\eyes\eyeblue.dds" 0.328000 seconds ago.

 

Checking these, they are all from mods I've used for literal years: Total Character Makeover, Better Bethesda Performance Textures, and Rustic Clothing. The sound files all came from Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2.

 

Either way, I shouldn't have any bad meshes; I'm not running any mods that didn't originate in LE, and the only mesh replacer I'm using is SMIM.

 

I'm getting really sick of the instability of my game. At this rate I'm tempted to just give up on Skyrim forever. The game's too old to be stable, SE is unmoddable and even more unstable on my system for some reason, and honestly I'm just beyond sick of narrowing down one issue, restarting my entire game, only to find another issue. I've litearlly just been playing characters up to about level 10 for over a year now, doing the same beginning quests over and over again. I seriously feel like I've been spending more time making characters than actually playing them.

 

What could've gone wrong? The error message makes NO sense, and what's with these random freezes in the overworld that have no cause? I've been tempted to remedy this by just fast traveling everywhere rather than walking, but after this I sorta doubt that would help. My game seems to just become more and more unstable by the hour.

Edited March 4, 2023 by InDarkestNight