THAT question again....

[MacSuibhne]

I think I may have posted this in the wrong forum, yesterday...hoping for a better response today...

 

So...I have my rig upgraded--8GBddr3 sram, i7 870 quad core, Gigabyte Radeon 280x Windforce--3GBvram.

 

Of course, I want to add a few mods...and I have bookmarked a number of tutorials and so forth in preparation for adding mods.

 

But I'm innately conservative...I want to add mods slowly and probably not too many. I am not interested, at least at this time, in armour mods or mods that change the gameplay to give me more or less of an advantage.

 

I am interested in visual enhancements--trees, water, etc. Immersion.

 

So...what I'm looking for is a short list of mods for mod newbies that will blow my socks off but not put a strain on my system or cause CDT's and glitches. AND, which I don't have to be a wizard to install and configure. And oh, BTW, that will be compatible with Dragonborn and perhaps a few non-glitch-y mods that add quests ("I've been everywhere, man").

 

I have NNM and the Nexus Unofficial patch.

 

I know...this has probably been asked many times before but I appreciate your patience.

[Dkboy24]

For textures, I would grab everything that CaBal120 does (Just search by author on the Nexus). His work is simply amazing! I would also grab SMIM (Static Mesh Improvement Mod) which for me is essential. Both of which are extremely simple to install (Just install with NMM and you're good to go). Also, check out Aron's work as well. I'm using "Vivid Landscapes - Rocking Stones and Mountains Two" which makes rocks looks awesome!

 

My personal favorite for water is Isoku's " Realistic Water Two" which adds beautiful waters and ambient sounds (I'm a huge fan of his other mods as well).

 

For flora, most people are fond of "Skyrim Flora Overhaul" however I personally prefer a combination of "Lush Trees and Grass" and "Unique Grasses and Groundcovers" There is a slight .ini tweak you have to do but it is quite simple and the mods instructions are very easy to follow.

 

There are tons of snow mods out there to choose from. I don't run many snow retextures myself. I just use "SNOW" by Ramccoid along with "No Snow Under the Roof" by Prometheus. I have used "Better Dynamic Snow" in the past and enjoyed that mod as well.

 

For the sky...again tons of options. "Real Clouds" by Soolie gives amazing depth to the clouds. Currently I'm using "Dramatic Clouds" by Anarin and enjoy it. Little to no FPS drop at all. For stars I'm using "Ethereal Cosmos" (The twinkle edition) and for me that is essential.

 

For weather, if you are not planning on using an ENB most everyone uses "Climates of Tamerial" which is an amazing weather mod. If you plan to start using ENB mods you have to make sure they are compatible. I used to use CoT but uninstalled it in favor of Seasons of Skyrim ENB. But I would avoid ENB's for now if you want to keep the install simple and performance high.

 

Lastly for lighting, most folks use either Enhanced Lights and Effects (ELFX) or Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO). I personally like ELFX better and works well with CoT.

 

I would install them one at a time and play for an hour or so to test performance. I ran my game with those mods on a moderate GPU and found I still had good FPS.

 

A quick side note: You may encounter two mods trying to change the same textures. If it asks you if you want to overwrite files one mod is trying to change, don't freak out. It is just a matter of choosing which mod you prefer for that particular texture. Install it once with the overwrite, check the texture, then uninstall and reinstall and don't overwrite. That way you can see which texture you prefer.

 

The more texture mods you install the more taxing on your VRAM though. So if you encounter a lot of CTD's I would look at SMME (Skyrim Starup Memory Editor) which is a memory patch for the game and works quite well. Or you can use SKSE 1.7 which has the SMME patch built in. You just need to add some lines in your SKSE .ini (See this video for the difference and how to install:

)

 

Again these are all personal recommendations and I would implore you to try and test out others to make your own judgments. There are lots of talented modders out there and if you ask ten people this questions, you're going to get ten different answers on which mods are the best to use. Again it is all a matter of personal taste to get the type and feel of the game you are trying to capture. I hope this helps!

[MacSuibhne]

Thanks for the reply.

 

What about Loot? Do I need it?

 

In paragraph one of your reply you say "Both of which are extremely simple to install..." but before you said that you had only mentioned one mod by name SMIM. So that confused me a little??

 

Also, did I read somewhere that SMIM can cause problems?

Edited July 10, 2014 by MacSuibhne

[Dkboy24]

The CaBal120 texture mods I was referring to are as follows:

 

Solstheim landscape: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50013/?

Imperial Forts: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49710/?

Farmhouses: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49040/?

Caves and Mines: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39190/?

Whiterun: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/38491/?

Landscapes: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37865/?

 

Here is the link for SMIM: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8655/? (Install both the main file and the update file)

 

I have never had any issues with SMIM. Only issue I can think of is freezing and stuttering for lower-end rigs because of the high def textures. If you choose the "custom" installation method, you can actually select lower quality textures as one of the options. I would install the normal textures fist and if it causes performance issues I would uninstall and re-install with the lower quality textures.

 

Regarding LOOT, I would highly recommend it. You won't have any many ESP's to sort with only texture mods but still, LOOT is highly recommended for sorting your load order. When you get to where I am with 180+ plugins LOOT becomes essential for a stable game. For starters just run it and it will automatically sort your load order.

[MacSuibhne]

Thank you, again.

 

One other question...what about...I hope I get the name right...HD 2K Textures?

[Dkboy24]

Yes that is a good one as well. What I like about Skyrim HD2K is that it is modular. Since I use CaBal120's textures mods for landscape and Whiterun and such, I am only running the dungeon textures from that mod. I would get the others installed first and see how you like your game. Then you can add each HD2K texture as you wish. Here is the link for that mod:

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/?

[MacSuibhne]

I suppose some people take to this like fish take to water. But for me, at least, it's so very hard to know exactly where to begin and what sequence to go from there. I have already installed NMM and the Unofficial patch. I suppose the next step is to install Loot. And then SMIM. And then, slowly,one at a time, any mod I want , running look after each installation.

 

Does that sound like a good plan?

 

I like all your recommendations but don't know why a person would choose the CaBal120 mods as opposed to Skyrim HD2K. From what you say they are compatible with each other but what good does it do...other than burden your vram...to run both or even bits and pieces of both? I'm looking for insight and advice...

 

Complicating all this is the video about TES5Edit (and here I'm probably showing what a clueless newb I am )...when do you need to install and use that? Does it, or is there another mod/download that can, correct bad saves or files in the Vanilla game? I have about four quests that I cannot complete and am wondering if this is something that has been or can be addressed?

[Dkboy24]

Well SUM is only if you are using the Skyrim Redone mod and it's sole purpose it to make other weapon and armor mods compatible. If you are not using Skyrim Redone, you don't need to worry about SUM.

 

Do you have all three DLC's? (Hearthfire, Dawnguard, and Dragonborn?) If not, I would HIGHLY recommend you purchase all DLC. Most mods will require some if not all DLC and without them you will be limited to what you can install. Plus...they are just amazing content!

 

For TES5Edit, I've only used it to clean my master files (Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm, Dragonborn.esm, and Hearthfire.esm) to clean dirty edits from those file to prevent instability. Just followed this video to the letter as Gopher explained it extremely well:

 

If you haven't seen his beginning mod tutorials yet, I highly recommend watching through his entire series. Even if you are not using all the mods he recommends, it gives you a really good solid footing to understand the modding world:

 

I, like you, did not understand modding at all when I first started. Everything seemed so confusing and I was super paranoid of harming my game. You just have to work at it slowly and move at your own pace. Make sure you read the mod pages in depth and follow all install instructions. Also the comment section on the mod pages will help you troubleshoot any issues you may experience with a mod. Click "Posts" on a mod page and then click "View Forum Thread" in the upper right hand right above the comments section. From there you can search that particular thread for any issues you may have.

 

But before you do anything at all, watch the Gopher series in it's entirety as I feel you will really benefit from it.

[MacSuibhne]

What is SUM?

 

I've seen a few of Gopher's videos...they're very good. I want...and am determined...to watch them. In the past...not yet being ready to install mods because of the weakness of my rig...i have not watched them closely--it sometimes seems you can get more time into watching videos (Gopher's included) than you've got in playing the game.

 

I watched the TES5Edit video and while not understanding a lot of it (no context) I suspected I'd have to come back to it.

 

I don't have the DLC's yet...I've only got one playthrough on the vanilla game (@300 hours)...might not get Heathfire or DawnGuard. Vampires and cannibalism aren't my cuppa and I don't need another house--I've already got stuff scattered between the Mage's College, Riften, Breezehome and Kodlak's old quarters. I even refused to become a thane in Ulfric's court despite the nasty comments of his courtiers. I do want Dragonborn and I was looking at some of the mods that add quests and/or new lands--like Falskaar.

 

So...not right this minute but maybe this weekend...I'll sit down and start watching videos and reading tutorials. What we go through for Skyrim...maybe there's a mod to erect a statue of the Dragonborn in some city to commemorate his sacrifices.

Edited July 11, 2014 by MacSuibhne

[Dkboy24]

I wouldn't worry about SUM at all. This is a tool only to be used with one mode called "Skyrim Redone." And for you right now I would avoid installing that mod.

 

I would focus more on your textures and getting the game to look how you want it to look.

 

Good luck to you! Let me know if you need any more help :)