Is it worth it to wait for the mods from regular skyrim to get ported over?

[Akulakha]

I've been a bit worried from some of the posts I've read from regular skyrim that some mod author's don't want to go through the effort of converting and porting their mods over as well as some of the people claiming that mods from regular skyrim "actually work" and I have a few questions I hope someone can answer for me in regards to this. I've been trying to discern for a while now if some of the 32 bit mods "really do" work on skyrim special edition or is that just bogus due to some 'unforeseen' variable in their game that the 32-bit mod ends up corrupting their save or causes their game to crash? The main reason I'm asking is because why do people express so much concern about downloading mods from 32-bit skyrim and putting them onto skyrim special edition if some of them work already? I know a lot of people are waiting for skse to get done before they port their famous 32-bit mods over but I can't help but wonder if there is a way to convert a 32-bit mod to make it work for a 64-bit skyrim for some mods already?

 

Is this the reason why some people are actually sticking around with 32-bit instead of 64-bit and why some authors haven't ported their mods over yet? I know that it's a possibility that havoc's physic's engine won't get ported over last I checked, which was a few months ago. I apologize if I sound like I'm behind on what's been going on in the mod community. Having a full time job and going to college leaves me little time to check up on what's been going on.

[nightscrawl]

The main reason I'm asking is because why do people express so much concern about downloading mods from 32-bit skyrim and putting them onto skyrim special edition if some of them work already?

 

 

To be perfectly honest, that is because the vast majority of users are ignorant as to the way mods work. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since, for the most part, they don't have to know. But problems arise when there are conflicts and users end up blaming a mod for some issue that in fact has nothing at all to do with said issue.

 

To your other questions, mod authors (MA) will all have different reasons for not porting their mods over to SSE. Some MA will simply have dropped out of Skyrim modding long ago (original Skyrim was released in 2011). Some Skyrim MA are now into Fallout 4 and just have no interest in Skyrim at this time. Some MA have stopped all activity on the Nexus. Some may have real life commitments and can no longer devote any free time to modding. Some MA, even those who are still around, don't want to port their mods because they are happy continuing to play Legendary Edition and have no interest in Special Edition.

 

Until recently, many MA were waiting for SKSE64 to be available. Right now, it's still in the alpha state, which means it is to be used for testing purposes only and is not suitable for wide release for the general public. "General public" in this case means the vast majority of users I mentioned previously that have no idea how mods actually work. Some MA might be waiting for SKSE to enter beta, or for a full release, before porting their mods.

 

 

To your issue with porting over mods.

 

For the most part, mods that are straight texture replacements DO work. You can just copy those over, or use the green + button in NMM to install manually. The example I like to use for textures is RUSTIC Clothing, which was simply copied over to the SSE Nexus for convenience of users; the files are exactly the same -- the MA doesn't have SSE.

 

The main textures that do NOT work are those for landscape textures, which need additional work, otherwise you end up with "shiny" dirt and such. These won't break your game, but it won't look right to have shiny dirt. This is why a texture overhaul mod like Noble Skyrim has an SSE version. The only ones that have been altered are those for the landscapes.

 

Mods with meshes (.nif) need to be converted, which you can do yourself by using SSE NIF Optimizer.

 

For the most part, mods with an esp DO work. All that is needed to port these mods over is to load it in the 64-bit Creation Kit and resave it. That's all.

 

Some mods that require SKSE also work (after resaving in the CK as mentioned) if you have SKSE64 alpha installed. But as I said, you are taking a chance that there will be issues.

 

If there is some mod that is packed into a bsa, that needs to be unpacked because Skyrim bsas do not work with SSE. After unpacking, you would need to ensure that any meshes and such are converted, then you can repack.

 

Most of the current ported mods were done as I've stated, by opening the mod up in the CK and resaving it and doing other conversions. The MA did not redo the entire mod from scratch just for SSE. This method is perfectly fine.

 

Most users can port a mod on their own, for their own use, as long as they have the knowledge.

 

You are correct in that you should not be shoving old Skyrim esps into SSE willy-nilly. While they might work and be functional, not doing that extra step of resaving in the 64-bit CK can cause a crash somewhere down the line.

 

 

If you're referring to HDT Physics, I have no idea why the author doesn't want to port it over. It may be that he just doesn't want to bother, or is waiting for further updates to SKSE64. The comments (a September comment) on the mod suggest that SKSE64 is not currently capable of loading the .dll. I don't know how accurate that is right now as I have no real interest in SKSE for my own Skyrim, nor do I use HDT.

 

 

For any mods that you're interested in, it's worthwhile to look in the comments to see if it works in SSE. Otherwise, you can make a forum post asking how to port something for yourself. Don't bother asking people to port things for you, as the author's permission is required (unless you want to obtain that permission in advance of asking).

Edited November 5, 2017 by nightscrawl

[Akulakha]

Thanks for the reply nightscrawl. :)