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Quick question about clean installs.


abrb2011

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Hi guys. Long story made really short: I've run into some performance issues with my current mod compilation build and I have a hunch it may be some long-lost or forgotten ini changes possibly made by installed mods. I unfortunately lost my backups on a now-dead HD (RIP my 8yr old Western Digital, may she Revolve in Peace). I also want to do a few revisions on the mod compilation so I figured starting fresh and installing from the ground up would be a good idea.

To attempt to fix this I was hoping to do a "soft reset" on Skyrim SE and bring it back to semi-clean/fresh state so I can reinstall all of the mods without fully reinstalling Skyrim SE, especially I'd like to get fresh .ini files. Is this possible? The game isn't broken by any means and the ONLY issue is slight performance dips where I believe there shouldn't be.

I googled this but got a bag of mixed results and was hoping someone with more experience than myself could aid.

Edited by abrb2011
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Theoretically, you could delete everything mod-related and then let Steam "verify integrity" (or whatever it is called) and redownload the Skyrim SE files, if necessary.

 

Problem is: Are you absolutely sure you won't overlook something? If you decided to do a clean install anyway, you'd better deinstall Skyrim Se completely and manually delete the "Skyrim Special Edition" Folder and all of its remaining contents and also delete the .ini files (located in .../Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition).

 

Redownloading Skyrim SE doesn't take too long - if I remeber right, less than 2 hours. Not comparable to the "overnight downloads" you get with some other titels on Steam.

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Before uninstalling SSE you could try validating your master files, which works the same way for SSE as it does for oldrim I beleive.

 

First go to Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition, this is where Windows keeps the ini files and saves and other info about your games by default. Delete the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini files. Open your Steam folder and delete appcache, this is where Steam keeps info about your games. Do not worry as Steam will create the file again when you launch the game from Steam. After you have deleted the ini files and appcache shut down you computer for about 10 minutes to allow everything to reset. Start your computer and open Steam, verify your game files, launch SSE from the Steam launcher, this will create the files you have deleted. If you have cleaned your Update and DLC masters, which you should have if you are going to mod your game, you will have to re-clean them.

 

This is usually the first thing I do if my game starts to go a bit buggy. If this does not work I start trying more drastic measures. However it is also a way to get a semi-clean game without applying more time consuming and difficult measures.

 

You have not said if you are using MO or NMM as your mod organizer so I cannot give you any advice on starting fresh with your mods as I am not familiar enough with MO2 to give any advice for it.

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While this is designed for original Skyrim, with a few tweaks on directory structure it will work for SSE

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Make_Skyrim_Vanilla_Again

 

This would give you the clean slate you are looking for with minimal downloading during the 'verify game cache' step.

 

I am familiar with that guide, although I prefer Avrie's method myself. There are quite a few guides out there to make Skyrim vanilla again which will work for SSE with, as you say, a few tweaks. If that is what you wish to do a quick google will probably give you a few to choose from and you can just decide which you prefer to use. In the end they all basically accomplish the same thing.

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If it's not too late, running Bethini can't hurt before deciding to reinstall/refresh. I was recently turned onto Bethini and I see that it was just updated on Jan 28th so I might have to check it out again myself:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4875/?tab=files

Thanks, I am going to do this. I had already reinstalled Skyrim SE but it retained my old .ini files so I'll use Bethini to remedy this.

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