Any mod recommendations for a new user?

[RedHeadAngel]

5 minutes ago, Karna5 said:

Sexlab is terribly complicated. At risk of being offensive to people who like it, I just don't like it. I find Ostim Standalone much more user friendly, and most of the mods for it are here on Nexus Mods which also makes it more user friendly.

I was getting a headache looking at the Sexlab part of Loverslab. I'm studying to become a quantum physicist, and I can make more sense from learning about our universe on a subatomic level than I can Sexlab.

 

11 minutes ago, Karna5 said:

I'll be back in a bit with some suggestions on skin. Don't worry about what others say about your character. She's beautiful. Some people are simply too caught up in thinking everyone should follow their point of view on aesthetics.

I appreciate it. However, I like seeing what options are available. I chose Fair Skin Complexion because it looked the best out of the ones I saw. I will say that the comments they made about my character were a bit unnecessarily rude. If you don't like it, that's fine. However, you don't need to be like that.

[Karna5]

I use the following skin/hair/body mods. But please keep in mind I'm not saying these are what you should use. There are many amazing options, but I mention these just so you can include them in your deliberation. I'm also glad drsemmel above gave additional suggestions as there is no one best mod when it comes to aesthetics.

[Note: I've decided not to link to the mods directly because some of the mods are flagged adult, and this is a general audience forum]

Body:

I use the CBBE 3BA (with all its dependences and FSMP). Installation of it is kind of complicated. During the installer it will ask you if you want your physics to be SMP based or I-Forgot-The-Name-of-the-Other-Option. This is actually a fairly important decision. If you pick SMP based settings, you will get motion but not much. It will be subtle and not too bad. If you use the other option (which I use and love), then the motion is significantly greater. It's almost mesmerizing yet beautiful. Try both installations, and see which way you like most. 

For male body I use The New Gentleman.

Skin:

I use the BnP skin. Please note that there are also variations on whether you use an older version (such as 1.8 or the newer 2.0 version). You may actually want to try both. The older version has very good bony ribs option if you like that, while the newer version has very good muscular options. I like bony ribs, but that's me. Both versions also have very good veiny options.

Also there's a significant difference whether you install with default skin textures or wet. In my humble opinion, BnP's wet option is incredibly good. Sometimes I try the dry versions for a while, but I always go back to wet.

FYI, while 8k skin texture is great if you find one you like, 4k is enough as long as you like its textures. I prefer a good 4k texture I like than an 8k texture with less detail or less realism. In Fallout 4 I don't have to pick as the best skin texture is also 8k, but in Skyrim I use 4k because I like the bony, veiny, skinny look I get from it which I can't on the 8k.

Hair:

I use:

KS Hairdos SSE at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

3BA Collision Bodyslides for KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics) at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics) at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

Apachii Sky Hair SSE at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

I use all of those.

But I would very much like to emphasize there is not a best option. Just explore and use what you like, often use many of what you like, not just one

 

[RedHeadAngel]

15 minutes ago, drsemmel said:

I use tempered skins for cbbe: Tempered Skins for Females - UNP CBBE and Vanilla

Does this work for 3BA? I saw that it works for normal CBBE.

[alphafr]

6 minutes ago, RedHeadAngel said:

Does this work for 3BA? I saw that it works for normal CBBE.

3BA is a CBBE body so it should

[drsemmel]

1 minute ago, RedHeadAngel said:

Does this work for 3BA? I saw that it works for normal CBBE.

Yep, I use 3BA as well. Works great.
High Poly head was mentioned - its a good suggestion (the difference is noticeable). As an alternative (or additionally) I can recommend CotR. You can have both installed at the same time - they do not interfere with each other bc CotR is technically a separate race. There are skin patches for both.

[drsemmel]

I forgot to mention: there is one caveat to CotR : since its a separate race, its an exact copy of the vanilla races and will overwrite/get overwritten by anyrhing you have installed, that alters vanilla races. You either need to find a patch or patch it up yourself with xedit.
You would also need RaceCompatibility for Skyrim Special Edition !

[alphafr]

Here is the Google Drive version of High Poly Head I use (it only the head part, do scan for virus or malware just in case)

https://drive.usercontent.google.com/download?id=15_0njBUjHKidNnJPmLXEygzGVWsA3Zbq&export=download&authuser=0

 

Or you create an account and download from the main website (including all HQ hair/brows/beard and whatnot that come with)

 

https://vectorplexis.com/files/file/283-high-poly-head/

 

Both are the 1.4 version

Edited August 24 by alphafr

[RedHeadAngel]

8 minutes ago, drsemmel said:

I forgot to mention: there is one caveat to CotR : since its a separate race, its an exact copy of the vanilla races and will overwrite/get overwritten by anyrhing you have installed, that alters vanilla races. You either need to find a patch or patch it up yourself with xedit.
You would also need RaceCompatibility for Skyrim Special Edition !

I don't have any mods that alter vanilla races, so I don't think I'll need to worry about that. I'll check that out once I get back home. Thank you!

[AaronOfMpls]

1 hour ago, Karna5 said:

Some people are simply too caught up in thinking everyone should follow their point of view on aesthetics.

Indeed. 

And as amazing as others' screenshots are with body and skin replacers, I still like the vanilla charater appearance in my own game, because it looks like Skyrim to me.  In Oldrim the only body mods I have are very simple nude ones (probably made in 2011 or 2012) that are basically the vanilla bodies without underwear, with the otherwise-hidden parts underneath added.*  I'm still looking for something equally simple for SE, and haven't really found it yet.  (I'm likely to install SoS eventually, once my mod setup is more finalized.)

I've also never used ENB.  As yet I've kept the vanilla lighting, and my only mod to it has been Realistic Nights in LE.  (I'm still looking for a good SE equivalent.)

 

* My Oldrim game still has very little in the way of model or (especially) texture replacers, since my 230+ mod setup was meant to run on my old PC at 1920x1080 without framerate drops or hitting the 4 GB memory limit for 32-bit programs.  I still don't even have the free High Res Texture Pack DLC installed in it.

[alphafr]

2 minutes ago, AaronOfMpls said:

 

I've also never used ENB.  As yet I've kept the vanilla lighting, and my only mod to it has been Realistic Nights in LE.  (I'm still looking for a good SE equivalent.)

 

Tried https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3667 ?