Systematic freeze in Whiterun

[hercules69]

Hello

Don't know if someone has experienced the same systematic freeze with a new game, each time I get in the zone where the dialogue between Amren and Safire fire up in Whiterun, I freeze as soon as they start talking, coming from any direction doesn't change anything. The music and the dialogue keep playing though and no crash log to investigate

 

I tried using a save from Nexus 100 % vanilla where all quests are done and use it with the same load order. I can walk in the area whith no freeze (since the dialogue is over in that save)

It's like it's related to the trigger of that dialogue?

I do have other freezes and it always seems to be arround NPC having a dialogue triggered (Blue Palace, Dragon's Reach ... always with a new game). Don't know if it's possible. I don't get any freezes walking outside cities.

 

Freezes, I never had them before, they're worse than CTD!!! Impossible to investigate. If somebody has a clue... I'll gladly try it, or I will tear down all my mod list (3000 MODS on this RIG: RTX 4090, I7, 64 Gb RAM, so it's not a RAM/VRAM issue I hope!) and start from zero, one MOD after the other ... again

Edited August 26, 2023 by hercules69

[7531Leonidas]

Do/can you use xEdit (SSEEdit) to find conflicts?

 

Which mod(s) that you have alter conversations/interactions/AI?

 

I would look at these mods, and find the conflicts in your (entire) LO first.

 

Depending on your mod manager, you should be able to classify them by the mod type, to help yourself check which mod(s) might be culpable.

[hercules69]

Thank you for your answer.

I started from scratch once again, one mod after the other, ordering them by type and I am now at a third of what MODs I used to have and same problem everywhere, frezzes in Whiterun, Windhelm.... but not related to dialogue; so my first analysis was wrong. Any enclosed space (city, building) can freeze but it's not systematic, sometime i can walk in windhelm and freeze entering the temple, other time I freeze entering windhelm....

As if something was building up and froze everything, some kind of overload....

This time I don't have 4 K textures everywhere, have limited parallax meshes which I also suspected, just the main mods (LotD and all dependecies, many DLC sized MODS, Cities and towns overhauls) without the hundred patches for the moment

I'm about to leave Skyrim for good, been playing since it was out with LE, never stopped and never had this type of problem. Must be my load order, surely is because not everyone has this issue.

[7531Leonidas]

Yes, freezes are frustrating. Have you also posted on the LOTD page or the DLC-sized mods, to see if there are any insights from those users?

 

The reason I suggested using xEdit to check your entire LO for conflicts, is so that you can see which things have been changed by your LO, and see if any are mismatched. I suspect that there are some interactions between NPC mods and your more extensive mods, where something that has been changed is getting left out, for some reason.

 

What mod manager are you using? MO2? I use Vortex, and have some limited experience from MO some years ago.

[hercules69]

I have not posted because I don't think it's related to those mods by themselves, it's more my load order. I use MO2 and you're right, i'm going to look into it with xEdit and try to fix everything I see. I had hope last night when I could play for a while with no freeze, but they are back tonight, so frustrating? I will look closely for NPC interraction. Thanks for your support

[hercules69]

i've narrowed it to a mesh problem. At first, I thought it was because of parallax meshes and/or textures because I froze in Whiterun at the exact same place and as Amren and Saffir started to engage in a conversation. I also suspeted an audio issue because I froze at the begining of the conversation..... but no! It was Saffir head mesh, and more precisely, her mouth! I swapped the defaut mouth in the mesh with another mouth to be sure and bang! no more freeze at the aforementionned place, only the grey face bug (which is normal since the mesh did not correspond to it's description in the plugin)

 

Since I used this head with no issue in the past, it must be because I now use mods like expressionnal face for instance, or a different mouth texture than I used to. The result is: the mix no longer works!

Took me months to narrow it to a mouth mesh (I must have others though because I also have a freeze in the Blue Palace, I will look into it). I used a Skyrim LE mod (NL4U NPC) for some NPCs (Saffir) which I ported myself to SE then transform it into HPH face, seems I did something wrong....

There might be other reason for freezes, but I hope this is it for me!

Edited October 9, 2023 by hercules69