Are there no up-to-date sound mods anymore?

[KaiserDeathIV]

I am about to play Skyrim (again) and I found out that all the big sound mods are outdated. Sounds of Skyrim, Audio Overhaul, Immersive Combat sounds... And I do not like Immersive Sounds.

 

Sooooo.... Do I really have to play with vanilla sounds then?

[Surilindur]

What do you mean by outdated?

 

Edit: As in, last I checked, Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2 and Immersive Sounds Compendium both had no large bugs, and I have not heard of any small bugs, either. Both were recently updated, AOS 2 in August 2015 and IS Compendium in April 2016. So I do not understand how hey would be "outdated"... Maybe the search feature could help you? Or the categories, there is a whole category for sounds. And if you do not find anything that suits you, you can make your own sounds and add them to the game. It might actually turn out to be a nice hobby if you give it a try: if a mod does not exist, it is always possible to make one oneself. :thumbsup:

Edited July 13, 2016 by Contrathetix

[KaiserDeathIV]

What do you mean by outdated?

 

Edit: As in, last I checked, Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2 and Immersive Sounds Compendium both had no large bugs, and I have not heard of any small bugs, either. Both were recently updated, AOS 2 in August 2015 and IS Compendium in April 2016. So I do not understand how hey would be "outdated"... Maybe the search feature could help you? Or the categories, there is a whole category for sounds. And if you do not find anything that suits you, you can make your own sounds and add them to the game. It might actually turn out to be a nice hobby if you give it a try: if a mod does not exist, it is always possible to make one oneself. :thumbsup:

Hm, from what I read in the comment sections they had pretty big bugs, like CTDs etc. Also, that some of the patches are in dire need of updating, like ELFX, and I am using ELFX.

 

Im just gonna give it a try then.

[Surilindur]

You can check the patches yourself in, for example, TES5Edit, to see what changes might be required. Some of the Audio Overhaul patches are not even necessary if you set your load order correctly - and this is something you only see in TES5Edit. So you can use that one to determine which patches you actually need, adjust your load order to reduce the amount of patches needed, and then see if the still-necessary patches need updating. Updating a patch might be a bit tricky, but you might be able to see something by loading AOS 2, the conflicting mod and the old patch in TES5Edit and comparing what the conflicts are and how the patch has them covered.

 

I use AOS 2 and Immersive Sounds Compendium myself, and I have not noticed them causing any crashes. Comments sections are great, it helps you get an overall idea of how the mod is doing, but unfortunately there are also uninformed people commenting there. For example the SkyUI comments section receives the occasional "too bad can't use, cause CTD", "magic menu crashes with this" and all that, when in reality, the problem exists between the keyboard and the chair, or in another mod that has issues.

 

If you know what you are doing, and have a truly stable mod setup and all that, with no unnecessary harmful tweaks (like Papyrus ini section tweaks and other stuff), you could use ENBoost, together with Crash Fixes (and also Bug Fixes while you are at it - it includes the lipsync fix, too). ENBoost and Crash Fixes have helped me get rid of almost all crashing (I dare not say "all"), as it was still a sort of an issue, even with a very stable and modest mod setup.

 

If you use Crash Fixes, you should use the OS memory allocator feature from it, for which you will need the SKSE Plugin Preloader linked in the description. When you use the OS allocators feature, you can disable the SKSE memory patch (or SSME if you use it) and uninstall SafetyLoad, because those are then obsolete. If you use Stable uGridsToLoad mod, uninstall it if you do not need it for some odd reason - uGridsToLoad should be kept at 5, because raising it can cause all sorts of issues. See the Crash Fixes description page for more info and all the details.

 

Oh well. Before I get completely sidetracked, you could try the mods yourself. As I mentioned, people seem to comment on mods that actually work without issues (like SkyUI), saying they cause crashes, when the issue is elsewhere. Installing mods takes time, patience and getting to know how things (overall) work, and apparently not all have quite figured out how installing mods works - the byproduct of which can be seen in the comments sections.

 

Of course it is possible that a mod causes crashes, but it is also possible that the issue is no within the mod itself, and that the user has just had some difficulties getting the game and the mod setup working. Keeping the amount of added content modest, and using ENBoost and Crash Fixes usually helps one get quite far.

 

Hopefully that helps a little. Happy modding. :thumbsup:

 

Edit: Typo extermination...

 

Edit 2: Also thank you for mentioning the ELFX path thing. When I have the time, I can check it, since I also use ELFX myself, too. But I do not use the weather module from it, I use Purity for weather, and if I remember correctly (currently on my laptop, no gaming here), setting the load order correctly might have been enough, and the patch for AOS2 + Purity might not have been necessary. But that is just my memory, and it has proven to be somewhat unreliable ocasionally. I cannot remember what the ELFX patch was about at all, for some reason, so I need to check that, hopefully tomorrow.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Contrathetix

[KaiserDeathIV]

You can check the patches yourself in, for example, TES5Edit, to see what changes might be required. Some of the Audio Overhaul patches are not even necessary if you set your load order correctly - and this is something you only see in TES5Edit. So you can use that one to determine which patches you actually need, adjust your load order to reduce the amount of patches needed, and then see if the still-necessary patches need updating. Updating a patch might be a bit tricky, but you might be able to see something by loading AOS 2, the conflicting mod and the old patch in TES5Edit and comparing what the conflicts are and how the patch has them covered.

 

I use AOS 2 and Immersive Sounds Compendium myself, and I have not noticed them causing any crashes. Comments sections are great, it helps you get an overall idea of how the mod is doing, but unfortunately there are also uninformed people commenting there. For example the SkyUI comments section receives the occasional "too bad can't use, cause CTD", "magic menu crashes with this" and all that, when in reality, the problem exists between the keyboard and the chair, or in another mod that has issues.

 

If you know what you are doing, and have a truly stable mod setup and all that, with no unnecessary harmful tweaks (like Papyrus ini section tweaks and other stuff), you could use ENBoost, together with Crash Fixes (and also Bug Fixes while you are at it - it includes the lipsync fix, too). ENBoost and Crash Fixes have helped me get rid of almost all crashing (I dare not say "all"), as it was still a sort of an issue, even with a very stable and modest mod setup.

 

If you use Crash Fixes, you should use the OS memory allocator feature from it, for which you will need the SKSE Plugin Preloader linked in the description. When you use the OS allocators feature, you can disable the SKSE memory patch (or SSME if you use it) and uninstall SafetyLoad, because those are then obsolete. If you use Stable uGridsToLoad mod, uninstall it if you do not need it for some odd reason - uGridsToLoad should be kept at 5, because raising it can cause all sorts of issues. See the Crash Fixes description page for more info and all the details.

 

Oh well. Before I get completely sidetracked, you could try the mods yourself. As I mentioned, people seem to comment on mods that actually work without issues (like SkyUI), saying they cause crashes, when the issue is elsewhere. Installing mods takes time, patience and getting to know how things (overall) work, and apparently not all have quite figured out how installing mods works - the byproduct of which can be seen in the comments sections.

 

Of course it is possible that a mod causes crashes, but it is also possible that the issue is no within the mod itself, and that the user has just had some difficulties getting the game and the mod setup working. Keeping the amount of added content modest, and using ENBoost and Crash Fixes usually helps one get quite far.

 

Hopefully that helps a little. Happy modding. :thumbsup:

 

Edit: Typo extermination...

 

Edit 2: Also thank you for mentioning the ELFX path thing. When I have the time, I can check it, since I also use ELFX myself, too. But I do not use the weather module from it, I use Purity for weather, and if I remember correctly (currently on my laptop, no gaming here), setting the load order correctly might have been enough, and the patch for AOS2 + Purity might not have been necessary. But that is just my memory, and it has proven to be somewhat unreliable ocasionally. I cannot remember what the ELFX patch was about at all, for some reason, so I need to check that, hopefully tomorrow.

Yeah, sad things is I have absolutely no idea how to use TES5Edit and not really the time to learn it :D

 

But thanks for the Crash and Bug Fixes, I didnt know these exist until now!

 

I myself use ELFX and Purity, funny :D

 

I actually havent installed any mods yet. It took me 2 days to find all the 110! mods and download them for my new Skyrim Run after 2 years. I just hope everything is gonna be stable :D

[Surilindur]

Ah. Well. Okay. No problem. I did not have the time to do anything game-related yesterday, I had to update Windows and my graphics drivers, and do some general cleanup and defragment the HDDs. Maybe I will have the time today to check the ELFX patch. Odd. Somehow I cannot remember anything about that patch... as usual. :confused:

 

When installing mods, you should do it a few mods at a time, and testing before adding more. The first ones to be installed should be SKSE, SkyUI, USLEEP and Alternate Start - Live Another Life. Those mods are guaranteed to work together, and having them installed should make it easier for you to start adding other mods and testing to see if everything works. Just in case you did not remember where to start. Adding in a whole bunch of mods at once usually either works out of the box or results in a mess that is a nightmare to troubleshoot.

 

ELFX and Purity are a great combination. :thumbsup:

[Surilindur]

Finally on my gaming PC! How is the AOS 2 + ELFX patch named? Could you check it? The only ELFX patches for AOS 2 - the ones I found - were for the ELFX weathers module. If you already have Purity, you probably should not be using the ELFX weather module.

 

Or is there an AOS 2 + ELFX patch for something other than the weather module of ELFX?

Edited July 15, 2016 by Contrathetix