What types of files have to actually be ported?

[InDarkestNight]

I know this is an old question, but I've been questioning what I know lately due to conflicting information on what exactly has to be ported.

 

From my understanding in the past, the only things that DON'T have to be ported as textures and scripts that DON'T require skse. I have confirmed that these files do work in both versions without issue, but then again meshes also display in both games even if they're for the wrong version.

 

Some time ago Mihail claimed its not ALWAYS necessary to port meshes. I tried to find information confirming or denying this, but the post just got deleted (this was on a mod page mind you, so the person who made the mod probably deleted the post). I've also seen claims lately that textures DO have to be ported sometime. This is really problematic for me, because I've just been putting all my retextures in the same folder rather than in the seperate LE and SE folders. If this is true, I have no way of knowing which version of the game each re-texture mod is for. I've also seen claims that all scripts DO have to be ported require they skse or not. I've also heard that LE can't handle 4k textures due to it causing an overflow error. If this is true, then how can there be mods that are openly higher than 2k and people are still downloading and praising them?

 

What is the stinking truth here? I hardly trust any mod anymore honestly. I'm starting to suspect the main reason mods tend to add instability to the game is because they're not being properly ported. I have no way to confirm if a mesh is safe to use or not. I did do the checks recommended in nifskope the one time I tried to backport a mesh myself. I still got relentless crashes as long as that mesh was installed, regardless of whether it was present or not. They magically disappeared when I removed the mod. I have no way to verify myself whether a mod is safe or not. I've also been having an issue with my Relic Hunter load order where the game becomes increasingly unstable as I progress, eventually rendering me unable to continue. I've removed every mod that required for the challenge, and this still happens. Wtf am I supposed to do? I have no way to confirm if the load order is stable or not UNTIL I'M LEVEL 20. How can I ever diagnose which mod is causing the issue when it takes me so much time and investment to confirm a crash? I actually got sick of playing the beginning of the game over and again. I actually quit playing the game for weeks, but have now comeback to it simply because I have nothing else to play. All my other games have been force updated into something I never would've bought.

 

Fml...

[IsharaMeradin]

I use Cathedral Assets Optimizer and let it handle any necessary conversion of textures and meshes. Sometimes nothing needs to be done. The tool can even build a new BSA file if desired.

 

As far as Papyrus scripts, these can be copied over and used as-is from LE to SE. The issue to be concerned with is if the script directly references a Form ID # and the mod that that ID originated from has be compressed into a light plugin (false flagged or ESL). In a case like that, the ID# would need to be changed and the script re-compiled. Both Bethesda and SKSE kept all the LE functions for compatibility. They just added new stuff for SE specifically.

 

Where you have heard about porting for SKSE is in reference to the DLL plugins that SKSE loads. These would need to be updated and are not something that most users would know how to do. If the author or authorized individual has not ported such an SKSE DLL plugin to work with SE, it should not be used for SE.

 

I still get the occasional crash or frozen screen but it can usually be avoided. Save often and fully exit the game occasionally. If after reaching a certain point, you find that you start crashing after X amount of time, save and fully exit before reaching that amount of time. Some telltale signs: landscape that does not switch from LOD to normal; wildlife spawning in the sky and falling down; textures not loading in that have loaded before; etc...

 

A good read for information on porting can be found here: https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/4633-skyrim-se-porting-a-mod-from-le-to-sse/

[InDarkestNight]

When I played SE, I did have a problem where my game would start crashing every few seconds if my computer had been turned on for more than about 4 hours. Simply exiting the game didn't fix this, and this happened regardless of what I did with my system. It was purely based on how long the system was turned on. I had to completely restart my entire computer to fix the issue, which was obviously quite annoying. And no, I didn't get any warnings about this. The only times I've experienced the things you describe was when I had Brotherhood of Old installed, but that just caused animals to spawn in the sky. The problem with stuff not loading in has only occurred when I used console commands to give myself superspeed so I could stress-test my system. I've never had a crash or freeze that came with any sort of warning; I was just simply playing the game, not a damned thing going wrong, then all of a sudden I'm not. I did noticed a pattern for a while (back in se) where I would crash seconds after combat ended. Never when I was walking around, never before or in the middle of combat, only right after it ended. Obviously, this was immensely annoying. I also had a 100% guaranteed crash in dragonsreach which wouldn't go away even if I removed all mod files and re-installed the entire game several times. Its part of the reason why I quit SE; I just found I had too many quest mods that I outright could not start because I could never enter dragonsreach for any reason. LE doesn't have this problem, it doesn't freeze every few f*#@ing seconds, and it doesn't care how long my computer's been turned on. Don't ask me why LE is far more stable on my system than SE is, but that's the way it is.

 

Besides, lets be real here, SE is outright not playable anymore with the stupid cc garbage they force-installed into. I never wanted the things, I never even felt inclined to install mods that did the same damned thing as half of them, they're stupid broken and I would never want them in my game, but now if you play SE you have no choice but to use that utterly worthless garbage that's so f*#@ing terrible THEY HAD TO RAM IT DOWN PEOPLE'S THROATS JUST TO GET PEOPLE TO PLAY THEM. SE is dead to me and can never be revived. Why everyone is still even bothering to mod it is beyond me. Bethesda conducted by far their most devastating attack on modding, but people still try to mod the thing, even though I'm sure they're still trying to put a stop to modding (I know for a time they were in a back and forth with the modding community who were releasing mods to disable all the stupid garbage they force-installed onto everyone's systems). That's how you kill games btw, in fact its why all the other games I own are dead to me too. I literally can't even play most of them anymore because of the content they add, fun times. f*#@ bethesda. Who the hell in their right mind would buy another product from them after the utterly vicious war they've been waging against their fans who simply want to express themselves and/or play the game the way they want? I genuinely hope that when they release es6, its a massive flop and the company goes under as a consequence. Maybe then we'll finally be free of them and can mod our games in f*#@ing peace. Of course, the damage is done already, so maybe skyrim is dead either way. I've heard LE doesn't work on windows 11. If that's true and the day comes I have to replace my computer, then I'll never be able to play skyrim again. Honestly, I may just go and buy a laptop. Why bother with a full blown computer when you have no games to play? Seriously?