Whiterun Castle invisible from outside city?

[m3dicat3d]

Did a search on forums here, and while I saw a lot of posts about invisible armour, I couldn't find any about my particular situation. As the title says, I've been having problems with Whiterun castle being invisible when viewing it from afar outside the city walls. I can easily see the lights of the windows of the castle, but the castle walls themselves are 100% transparent, giving me a great view of the sky behind them, but not the castle itself. I can still enter whiterun and whithin city walls everything is normal, it's just outside the city that this happens

 

I haven't been to any other towns to see if this happens there as well,as this is a new playthrough on a brand new machine (which I built to play a modded Skyrim on PC for specifically) and have been running a few all new playthroughs at the game's beginning as I load mods to test them out.

 

The thing is, I can't seem to figure out which mod might be cuasing this to happen, and wanted to ask here if anyone has heard of or experienced this themselves, and if there are any known solutions to this problem. My comp specs are as follows (just listing as I doubt it''s a hardware problem, but want to give the info in case)

 

i5 3570K @ 3.4 (4.2 OC) experience this with and without OC</p>
CM Hyper EVO cooler</p>
Nvidia 670 GTX 4GB FTW</p>
8 Gb Corsair RAM</p>
MSI MPower Z77 Mobo</p>
TT 750W PSU</p>
Samsung 840 Pro 128Gb SSD

 

I reinstalled Skyrim a few times now, and have been using Mod Organizer (the first time around) and then NMM for the other reinstalls, and BOSS eacc time to check load orders. This is what I have in the mod list as of now... (pasted from BOSS)

 

Skyrim.esm Active

 

Update.esm Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Contains dirty edits: 92 ITM, 3 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.

 

Dawnguard.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

 

HearthFires.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 171 ITM, 11 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.

 

Dragonborn.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.

 

ApachiiHair.esm Active

 

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 4 ITM, 0 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.

 

ETaC - RESOURCES.esm Active

 

SPIKE.esm Active

 

WinterholdDestruction.esm Active

 

HighResTexturePack01.esp Active

 

HighResTexturePack02.esp Active

 

HighResTexturePack03.esp Active

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

 

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

 

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp Active

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev}}

 

Chesko_Frostfall.esp Active

 

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp Active

 

Ars Metallica.esp Active

 

Ars Metallica - Dawnguard.esp Active

 

Ars Metallica - Hearthfire.esp Active

 

Ars Metallica - Dragonborn.esp Active

 

Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp Active

 

Convenient Horses.esp Active

 

Auto Unequip Ammo.esp Active

 

RaceMenu.esp Active

 

RaceMenuPlugin.esp Active

Note: RaceMenuPlugin is optional and provides support to alter Height, Breast, Glute and Biceps. If you experience issues with it, disable RaceMenuPlugin.esp and inform the author.

 

WetandCold.esp Active

 

SkyUI.esp Active

 

backpackfrankdema.esp Active

 

Bucklers Only.esp Active

 

Cloaks.esp Active

 

Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp Active

 

1nivWICCloaks.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev}}

 

1nivWICCloaksCRAFT.esp Active

Warning: Use only one WICCloaks esp.

 

1nivWICCloaksNoGuards.esp

Warning: Use only one WICCloaks esp.

Incompatible with: Cloaks of skyrim (even with compatibility patch). To fix this use another WICCloaks esp or uninstall cloaks of skyrim.

 

1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch.esp Active

 

1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch-No Imp.esp

Incompatible with: 1nivWICSkyCloaksPatch esp

 

hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp Active

 

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

 

Remodeled Armor.esp Active

 

Remodeled Armor - Dawnguard.esp Active

 

Dr_Bandolier.esp Active

 

SkyRe_Main.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev, Delev}}

Warning: The SkyRe has many conflicts with other mods. Please read the readme before playing with mod. This will prevent many problems.

 

Read it here.

Note: If lockpicikng is not work then try to delete 'interface\lockpickingmenu.swf'

Note: If you have a problem with aiming try to install this mod.

Note: To make aiming easier, recommend to add the following lines to Skyrim.ini:

Note: [Actor]

Note: fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

Note: [Combat]

Note: f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.64

Note: f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.64

Note: fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

Note: fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

 

SkyRe_Combat.esp Active

 

SkyRe_EncounterZones.esp Active

 

 

SkyRe_EnemyAI.esp Active

 

SkyRe_EnemyScaling.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev}}

 

SkyRe_StandingStones.esp Active

 

SkyRe_Survivalism.esp Active

 

zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer_noskirt.esp

Note: Use only one zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer esp

 

zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer_nobra.esp

Note: Use only one zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer esp

 

zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer_nounderwear.esp

Note: Use only one zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer esp

 

zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer_normal.esp Active

Note: Use only one zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer esp

 

zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer_noskirtnounderwear.esp

 

Note: Use only one zzALittleSexyApparelReplacer esp

 

Headtracking.esp Active

 

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp Active

Requires: Dawnguard Compatibility_Patch.

 

dD-Dragonborn-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp Active

 

ETaC - Villages Complete.esp Active

 

ETaC - Morthal.esp Active

 

ExpandedWinterholdRuins.esp Active

 

EnhancedLightsandFX.esp Active

 

The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition.esp Active

 

TheEyesOfBeauty.esp Active

 

EMCompViljaSkyrim.esp Active

 

EMViljaInSolstheimAddOn.esp Active

 

SkyRe_Races.esp Active

 

BloodyFacials.esp Active

 

WATER.esp Active

 

WATER Plants.esp Active

 

WATER DB Waves.esp Active

 

ReProccer.esp Active

 

I also made the .ini and prefs.ini edits according to the STEP guide, and I'm not running an ESB or SMAA, or FXAA, etc. just trying to keep it somewhat basic w/o that stuff. I've also expereinced this with and without the Hi Res Texture pack from Steam, with and without SMIM, with and without the HD Skyrim Texture packs, with and without SkyRe, with and without WATER, and with and without Enhanced Towns and Cities as well (just listing those as I've tired looking into those as possible culprits).

 

Again, if anyone has heard of this and knows what the issue might be and its resolution, I'd be quite grateful. Will continue to look into this on my own as well, just wanted to post here while I do so.

Edited April 1, 2013 by m3dicat3d

[Valkyrie]

Verify your files thru steam and check in your advanced video setting (in Skyrim) there is alot of settings for view distances that might be effecting it.

[Jaradin]

I've heard of this issue in the past. It has something to do with your files failing to decompress on command.

 

I wish I knew more than that, but I remember my friend having this exact same issue. Someone finally recommended some program which permanently decompressed all of his bsa files and that resolved the issue. Perhaps you could search for such tools? If I hear from him on the name of his thread, I'll link it.

[Valkyrie]

Just do a search for Skyrim BSA Unpacker. Very easy to use but ya better have some extra HD space :kiss:

[ripple]

I've been having problems with Whiterun castle being invisible when viewing it from afar outside the city walls. I can easily see the lights of the windows of the castle, but the castle walls themselves are 100% transparent, giving me a great view of the sky behind them, but not the castle itself. I can still enter whiterun and whithin city walls everything is normal, it's just outside the city that this happens

Classic symptom of distant LOD problem. Nothing to do with default game BSA's, and non-modders should never blanket extract the default game BSA files into loose format, because that will simply 'overwrite' all mod files intended to replace default game resources.....(or cause them to take priority over mod resources packaged in BSAs).

 

Are you using any mods that don't come with plugins....texture/mesh replacers like 'A Quality World Map', etc....?

Edited April 2, 2013 by ripple

[m3dicat3d]

Wow, I'd almost given up on this post lol, glad I checked it...

 

Here's the weird thing, I found the mod that caused this (assuming the unpacked files aren't still linked to this issue). It was actually A Quality World Map with roads. I was installing the classic map, and by sheer luck, happened to load the game to test after installing that mod, and sure enough, the castle disappeared with only the lighted windows to see. So I disabled the mod, checked again, and the castle was back. Did this a few times to be sure, and the castle vanished each and every time I used the classic map version. When I tried it with the defualt map version, everything was fine, it was just the classic map version that bought about the bug.

 

I should look into the bsa unpacker though, that was a feature I liked about MO and I miss it.

 

Thanks again for replying (now if I could only figure out what's wrong with my cursor in archery horse mounted combat...sigh... will post a seperate topic for that though :) )

[ripple]

No Problem. You won't need a BSA unpacker if you are using MO since it's bundled with one. But unpacking BSA into loose files using MO is different than if you were installing manually or using NMM, because MO doesn't install mod resources directly into the game data folder.

Jaradin's friend probably 'fixed' the distant LOD issue by unpacking default game BSA's because s/he was using NMM, so the base game distant LOD files were unpacked and overwritten the mod files that were causing the problem. But this isn't really a 'fix' and is more likely to cause more issues (and for people who use MO, it would not have fix the distant LOD issue at all because MO handles mods different).

Edited April 3, 2013 by ripple

[m3dicat3d]

Who knows, I may end up giving MO another run again (but hopefully NOT for a while as I'd like to actually PLAY my game vs. troubleshooting mod conflicts, I know, call me crazy!)

 

Again, thanks for the input, it is ALWAYS much appreciated :)

[galagast]

Awesome! Thanks m3dicat3d for finding the fix!

[222blue222]

Thanks This worked for me!