Modding Beginner's Guide at Skyrim Nexus - Mods and Community

8/10/2019 Modding Beginner's Guide at Skyrim Nexus - Mods and Community

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Modding Beginners GuideWelcome to Nexus! This g uide will help setup your game for modding.

It will give a basic understanding of the tools, mods, and settings needed to have a stable modded game.Sorry that it's so long. I'm trying to make you an expert )

Info below is courtesy of Gopher, Boris Vorontsov, Sheson, and The STEP Project.

1. Make Your Game Bethesda VanillaModding is very tempermental and you'll want to start off with a clean game.

Mixing Steam Workshop and Nexus mods is a bad idea.

1. Unsubscribe from all of your Steam Workshop mods.2. Go to Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim.3. Delete all of the files and folders EXCEPT:

Data (folder)DirectX10 ( folder)DotNetFX (folder)Skyrim (folder)

VCRedist (folder)atimgpud.dll

binkw32.dllhigh.iniinstallscript.vdflow.inimedium.inireadme.txtSkyrim_default.iniSkyrimLauncher.exe

Modding Beginner's Guideby tony971Skyrim Modders resources and tutorials

Added:11/08/2014 12:52AMUpdated:02/10/2014 10:23PM

DOWNLOAD (NMM) DOWNLOAD (MANUAL) TRACK ENDORSE VOTE DONATE
http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-1-1407689092.jpghttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=82http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-1-1407689092.jpghttp://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-2-1407689093.jpghttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=82http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-2-1407689093.jpghttp://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-3-1407689093.jpghttp://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-3-1407689093.jpghttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-1-1407689092.jpghttp://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-2-1407689093.jpghttp://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-3-1407689093.jpghttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/38219/?http://enbdev.com/contact_en.htmhttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/videos/view/http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-2-1407689093.jpghttp://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaging&section=send&do=form&fromMemberID=8175406http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-3-1407689093.jpghttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/categories/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/56894/?http://enbdev.com/contact_en.htmhttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/donate/?id=8175406http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/408-skyrim/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/addimage/?id=56894http://www.nexusmods.com/gameshttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/3155782/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/http://-/?-http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=82http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/view/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/38219/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/56894/?http://wiki.tesnexus.com/http://wiki.step-project.com/Main_Pagehttp://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaginghttp://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?app=ipchathttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/8175406http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/searchresults/http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/56894-1-1407689092.jpg


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steam_api.dllTESV.exe

VeryHigh.i ni

4. O pen the Skyrim/Data folder.5. Delete all of the files and folders EXCEPT:

You may not have all of these. Tha t is okay.

Interface (folder)Strings (folder)

Video (folder)Dawnguard.bsaDawnguard.esmDragonborn.bsa

Dragonborn.esmHearthFires.bsaHearthFires.esmHighResTexturePack01.bsaHighResTexturePack01.espHighResTexturePack02.bsaHighResTexturePack02.espHighResTexturePack03.bsaHighResTexturePack03.espSkyrim - Animations.bsaSkyrim - Interface.bsaSkyrim - Meshes.bsaSkyrim - Misc.bsaSkyrim - Shaders.bsaSkyrim - Sounds.bsaSkyrim - Textures.bsaSkyrim - Voices.bsa

Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsaSkyrim.esmUpdate.bsaUpdate.esm

6. O pen the Da ta/Interface folder.7. Delete everything EXCEPT Transl ate_[your lang uage].txt.8. Open the Data/Strings folder.9. Delete everything EXCEPT:

Skyrim_[your lang uage].DLSTRINGSSkyrim_[your lang uage].ILSTRINGSSkyrim_[your lang uage].STRINGSUpdate_[your lan guage].DLSTRINGSUpdate_[your la nguage].ILSTRINGSUpdate_[your la nguage].STRINGS

10. Open the Data/Video folder.

11. Delete everything EXCEPT BGS_Logo.bik.12. Go to Documents/My Games/Skyrim.13. Delete Everything .This will delete your saves. If you want to keep them, don't delete your Saves folder. Just know that modded saves are unstable when you remove mods from yourmod list the way we just did.14. Right click on Skyrim in Steam and select "Properties."15. Under the "Local Files" tab, select "Verify Integrity of Game Cache..."

You now ha ve a perfectly vanilla game.

2. Move Steam Out Of Program Files.There's gonna be a whole bunch of permission issues if you leave it there and start modding.

(Yes, even if you run as administrator.)In order to fix this, we're going to take Steam, and move it somewhere else.

1. Exit completely out of Steam by right clicking on it in the task bar and selecting "Exit Steam."2. Go to C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/.3. Delete everything except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe.4. Create a new folder somewhere like C:/Games/Steam/ or D:/Games/Steam/.5. Copy the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe file to the new directory.

6. Delete the originals and launch Steam.exe. You will need to verify your account again.7. Verify the integrity of game cache for all of your installed games.

You have now s uccessfully moved your Steam installation.


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3. Make Your Game Modding VanillaAlthough Bethesda al low their ga mes to be modded, they don't clean their files to do so.

I guess that's our job. This is known as "cleaning your masters."

1. Now would be a good time to make a folder for your modding tools. I'm using C:/Games/Modding Tools/.2. Download and install TES5Editto your Modding Tools folder.3. Start Skyrim via Steam and exit after your graphics settings have been determined.4. Run TES5Edit and ONLY check Update.esm.Skyrim.esm will load with Update.esm this is fine. Only clean Update.esm.5. When it finishes loading, right click Update.esm and select "Apply Filter for Cleaning."

6. Right click again and select "Remove 'Identical to Master' Records." (Yes, you're sure.)7. Right click again and select "Undelete and Disable References."8. Close TES5Edit and save. (No, I didn't mess up the order on that. The save dialog pops up when you hit the close button.)9. Repeat steps 4-8 for Dawnguard.esm, Dragonborn.esm, and HearthFires.esm if you have them. ONE AT A TIME BECAUSE THEY SAY SO.Dawnguard.esm will need to be cleaned twice

You now ha ve a clean game to start modding w ith.

4. Make A Clean SaveThe opening scene of Skyrim is the biggest script mess in the whole game.

If you try to play it on a heavily modded game, you're likely to see bugs.When you finish with this section, you wil l ha ve everything prepared to start adding mods to your game.

1. Download and install LOOTto your Modding Tools folder.LOOT 0.6 requires Internet Explorer 11in order to generate its reports. This requirement will go away once LOOT 0.7 is released.2. Run LOOT for Skyrim and select "Sort Plugins" followed by "Apply" when it finishes.3. In the "Details" tab of your report, you'll see the different plugins you have running. There should not be any notes to clean your files with TES5Edit because

you've just done so.4. Start Skyrim via Steam and select "Data Files."5. De-activate the HighResTexturePack .esp files (if you have the Hi Res DLC) and start a new game.6. Play until you complete the quest "Unbound" and save the game.7. Exit the ga me and go to Documents/My Games/Skyrim/Saves/.8. Rename your save file to "Clean Save.ess"9. Start Skyrim via Steam again and turn the HighResTexturePack .esp files back on (if you have them).10. Make a backup of your Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim and Documents/My Games/Skyrim folders.These are the backups to your perfectly working, vanilla game and save. When all else fails and you've broken Skyrim, these will be waiting for you. Think of these

backups as your happy place. You wil l start every new ga me from your Clean Save. If you wan t your character to look differently or have a different name, we'll talkabout some mods for tha t later. Remember, Clean Save a nd vanilla backup = happy place.

5. Actually Start ModdingNow that we've got a nice clean game and save to start from, let's start modding.

In order to set ourselves up to cause the least amount of damage, we'll be using Mod Organizer.

Let's take a second to talk about the way that Skyrim works. We're not going to be talking code, don't worry. These are just basic things that you should know ifyou're going to be using mods.

The Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim folder (also kn own a s your main Skyrim directory) contains your executable files. The files in this folder are MAJORgame changing files. They'll effect the way that Skyrim launches. Mod managers won't even consider handling things that go here because, just like any otherexecutable, they have the abil ity to contain viruses or mess with your computer. If a mod says to put things into this directory, you MUST be wary of the source.
http://loot.github.io/http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie-11-worldwide-languageshttp://store.steampowered.com/app/202485/http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit#Loading_Plugins_Correctlyhttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859/?


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Most mods will install to the "Data" folder within the main Skyrim directory. Things in this folder can affect your game, but don't have much real power outside ofthat. This is where you'll find the contents of your game. You'll find the scripts, audio, textures, ... you get it. It's all in the Data folder. Three types of files that

you'll find in thi s folder are ESM, ESP, and BSA files. ESM and ESP files (als o known as plugins ) are your game chang ing files. Th ey hold the content that willchange the way the game works. BSA files are basically the Bethesda .zip file. They're zipped up files of textures, meshes, sounds, or anything else that the ESP orESM files wants to load into the game. A BSA file cannot be loaded into the game unless an ESP or ESM file (plugin) tells Skyrim to load it.

Not every mod has a plugin, though. Some just have folders of textures, scripts, or anything else that it wants loaded. These are known as loose files. Unlike BSAfiles, loose files can be loaded into the game without a plugin telling them to. For instance, Skyrim - Textures.bsa contains all of your vanilla textures. If you installa texture replacer for iron swords, it'll probably just have a folder containing the iron sword texture. If the folder is put in the right place with the right file name,Skyrim will know to load it. The iron sword texture from that mod will be loaded instead of the iron sword texture from Skyrim - Textures.bsa. Loose files will

ALWAYS g et loaded over top of BSA files.

Now let's talk about how we're going to manage these files. Mod Organizer is the cleanest, most versatile way of handling mods. We'll refer to it as MO from nowon. When you install mods with MO, the mods don't actually install into your Data folder. MO makes a pseudo Data folder for that mod. This pseudo Data folder

only contains the contents of that mod. Every mod installed via MO has their own folder like this. You tell MO which mods to load, and it loads up those pseudoData folders along with the real one. As far as Skyrim is concerned, all of the mods are in the real Data folder. The advantage of this is that in order to uninstall amod, you just have to tell MO not to load it. That pseudo Data folder simply won't be loaded. Your real Data folder will remain clean forever.

Another advantage of MO is tha t you can set it to automatically extract all BSA files into their loose folders. Th is wa y, you can s ee each individual file that yourmods are overwriting. You can even see when two mods are trying to overwrite the same file. This gives you complete control of which mod "wins." If two mods aretrying to replace the iron dagger texture, you get to pick which one gets loaded. Just tell MO to load your favorite one last.

MO does have some disadvantages, though. Since your mods aren't actually in the Data folder, your tools won't know that these mods exist unless MO tells themthat they do. You'll have to run all of your tools through MO so that MO can tell your tools that the mods are there. Also, MO uses it's own settings files. So when amod tells you to chang e something i n your skyrim.ini or skyrimprefs.ini, yours w ill be in a different place. You'll have to remember to edit the correct one.

Alright, ready to start using it? Let's begin.

1. Download and install Mod Organizerin your Modding Tools folder. Be sure to check the box for "Handle Nexus Links" during installation.2. Run MO and select your Skyrim game directory as the game to manage.3. Click on the wrench and screwdriver icon in the top toolbar.4. Under the "Nexus" tab, ch eck "Automatically Log-In to Nexus" and enter your Nexus i nfo.5. Hit the "Associate with 'Download with manager' links."6. Under the "Plugins " tab, select the "BSA Extractor" plugin a nd set enabled to true.7. Under the "Workarounds" tab, change the NMM version to 0.52.2 and hit "Back-date BSAs."8. Go to your MO install directory and run nxmhandler.exe.9. Select "Register Active" and hit OK.MO is now setup to install mods from Nexus. Now let's install your first mod. This first one is essential and gives you practice with all of your mod installationskills. It's the Skyrim Script Extender, or SKSE for short. This mod reports more game info for your mods to use. This is one of those rare mods that has files that gointo both the main Skyrim directory and Data folder. Pay attention to how we handle it.10. Download the SKSE.7z archive, NOT the installer, and extract it somewhere using 7ziporWinRAR. Inside, you will see a directory that looks like this:

Data (folder)src (folder)skse_1_9_32.dllskse_docs.txtskse_loader.exe

skse_papyrus_docs.txtskse_readme.txtskse_steam_loader.dllskse_whatsnew.txt

All of this is supposed to go into your main Skyrim directory, but remember: MO lets us keep our Data folder vanilla forever. So we'll i nstall the Data folder stuffwith MO .11. Move everything but the Data folder to Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim/.12. Go back to that Data folder that you left behind. Inside you will find a folder named "scripts."13. Right click on the scripts folder and archive it into a .7z or .rar file using 7zip or WinRAR. Name it SKSE.14. Make a folder for all of your manually downloaded mods. I'm using C:/Games/Manually Downloaded Mods.15. Move the SKSE archive that you just made into your Manually Downloaded Mods folder.16. In MO, click the top left icon in the toolbar. It looks like a CD in front of a box.17. Point it to the SKSE archive you just made and hit OK.The Data folder portion of SKSE has just been installed with MO. Let's take a look. Right click on SKSE in the left hand pane of MO and select "Open in explorer."Here you can see the pseudo Data folder that MO created for SKSE. It contains the scripts that would have gone in your real Data folder. The real Data folder stillgets to stay clean )18. Restart MO and you'll see that SKSE has become the default option for MO to run. Go ahead and click the "Run" button.

As you can see, this started your Skyrim game with SKSE. Th is is going to be the way you start Skyrim from now on.19. Click on the SKSE version number in MO to change it from the install date to the current version. The current version is 1.7.1 as of this publication.

6. Patch Your GameSkyrim is pretty awful w ith memory allocation. Luckily the modding community has i t covered.

The first patch we're going to install is "Sheson's Memory Patch." This patch makes Skyrim's memory blocks bigger. It's useful because if the memory blocksbecome full, Skyrim usually cras hes trying to make another. Th is patch is a lready integrated into SKSE we just have to activate it. To a ctivate it, we'll be using anINI file. INI files are text files full of settings. Because we're activating this patch with SKSE, you should not use SSME. It is the same patch.1. In MO, hit the globe icon in the toolbar. This will take you to Nexus and finish the process of getting your "Download with Manager" button to work.2. Download the SKSE.ini in the downloads section of this guide. Use the "Download with Manager" button.

3. It will show up in the "Downloads" tab of the right-hand panel of MO. Double click to install.4. Rename it from "Modding Beginners Guide" to "SKSE ini."Sheson's memory patch is now activated. The next patch we'll use is ENBoost. This moves your processes from RAM to VRAM because VRAM is faster. Anyprocesses that don't fit in the VRAM are executed in the RAM. This will help out with the 3.1GB RAM cap that 32 bit applications have.5. Download the latest ENBSeries.The download button is in a dumb place. First, click on the latest version number (0.264 as of Oct 2, 2014). The download button is at the very bottom of the

version pag e.6. Extract it with 7zip or WinRAR and open the "WrapperVersion" folder.7. Take the d3d9.dll, enbhost.exe, and enblocal.ini files and place them in Steam/SteamApps/common/Skyrim/.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305/?http://skse.silverlock.org/http://www.7-zip.org/http://www.rarlab.com/download.htmhttp://enbdev.com/download_mod_tesskyrim.html


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8. Open enblocal.ini with Notepad or Notepad++(preferred) an d set the followin g values:

[GLOBAL]UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=trueThis setting disables everything in ENB except ENBoost. If you decide later on that you want to use an ENB, set this to false, install your favorite preset, and headover to my Speed and Stability Guide for ENB.[MEMORY]ExpandSystemMemoryX64=trueReduceSystemMemoryUsage=trueDisableDriverMemoryManager=falseDisablePreloadToVRAM=falseEnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=falseReservedMemorySizeMb=XXX

You only NEED it to be set to 64. Users have seen better performance with it being set to 256 or 512. Only set to 512 i f you have at least a 2GB graphics card.

VideoMemorySizeMb=XXXXYou only NEED it set to (VRAM - 1 28). Us ers have seen better performance with (RAM + V RAM - 2048). 1GB=1024.EnableCompression=trueFalse if you experience stuttering.

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=falseBecause it keeps guessing wrong.[ENGINE]ForceAnisotropicFiltering=trueMaxAnisotropy=XXSet to the iMaxAn isotropy value in your skyrimprefs.ini l ocated in Mod Orga nizer/profiles/Default/.

AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=falseEnableVSync=true

VSyncSkipNumFrames=0[LIMITER]

WaitBusyRenderer=falseTrue if you experience stuttering a nd can take the FPS h it.EnableFPSLimit=true

FPSLimit=60.0

DO NO T download ENBoost from Nexus. Wh at you've just installed is a more updated version.

9. Go to Mod Orga nizer/profiles/Default.10. Open skyrimprefs.ini with Notepad or Notepad++(preferred) an d set the followin g values:

[Display]iMaxAnisotropy=1Set this to 1 AFTER you set MaxAnisotropy in enblocal.ini to this setting's original value.iPresentInterval=0

11. Go to your Nvidia Control Pan el or Catalyst Control Center and turn vsync and an isotropic filtering to "application c ontrolled" for Skyrim.Intel graphics users are al ready configured correctly by default.

You now ha ve the memory patches needed to have fun with hig h end mods.

7. Install Nexus ModsNow we're getting somewhere! We can install the mods that YOU want now.

Let's practice with the Unofficial patches. Pretty much every mod assumes that you have these installed.

1. Download the Unofficial Skyrim Patchvia MO and install.2. If you have these DLC, download the unofficial patches for Dawnguard, HearthFires, Dragonborn, and the Hi Res DLC.DO NOT install unofficial patches for DLC that you do not have installed.

Remember when I said that plugins contain info that changes the way the game works? Well, plugins can, and do conflict like the contents of the BSA files.However, the correct order of these is not a matter of user preference. They have to be in a specific order for your game to function properly. It's no longer deciding

which iron dagger texture gets loaded. It's determining wha t worldspace edit to make or whic h script to run. In order to determine the load order of our plugins,we'll be using LOOT agai n. Remember that LOOT will not know tha t these mods exist unless it's run within MO .

3. In MO, click on the green and blue gears icon in the taskbar.4. Click the "..." button next to "Binary" and point it to your LOOT.exe file.5. Change the title to LOOT and untick "Close MO when started."6. Hit "Add," then "Close."7. Take a look at the load order under the "Plugins" tab in the right-side panel of MO. This is wrong. LOOT will fix it.8. In the drop down menu of programs next to the "Run" button, you should now have a button for LOOT. Select it and hit Run.9. Click "Sort Plugins" and then "Apply" when it's finished.10. After reviewing the report, take a look at the new order of the "Plugins" tab. Everything is now in the correct order.

The left panel of MO shows the loose file load order. Whenever you see a lightning bolt with a plus or minus sign under the "Flags" column, this means that thereare mods fighting over which one gets the last overwrite on files. Take a look at the Unofficial Skyrim Patch. There is a lightning bolt under the Flags column forthis mod. To see the conflicting files, double click on the Unofficial Skyrim Patch and look at the "Conflicts" tab. You will see which files are conflicting, whichmods are "fighting," and which mod "wins." For the sake of matching the plugin load order with the loose file load order, let's rearrange the loose file order tomatch the Plugin load order. When you're done, your left panel should look like this:

SKSESKSE ini

Unofficial Skyrim PatchDawnguardUnofficial Dawnguard PatchHearthFiresUnofficial Hearthfire PatchDragonbornUnofficial Dragonborn PatchHighResTexturePack01
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23491/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25127/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50214/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/31255/?http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/31083/?


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HighResTexturePack02HighResTexturePack03Unofficial High Resolution Patch

And your Plugins tab sh ould look like this:

Skyrim.esmUpdate.esmUnofficial Skyrim Patch.espDawnguard.esmUnofficial Dawnguard Patch.espHearthFires.esmUnofficial Hearthfire Patch.espDragonborn.esm

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.espHighResTexturePack01.espHighResTexturePack02.espHighResTexturePack03.espUnofficial High Resolution Patch.esp

In the Plugins tab, next to the Hi Res DLC related things, there are broom icons. This indicates that the plugins are dummy files. Remember when I said that BSAfiles can only get loaded into the game if a plugin tells Skyrim to load them? Well dummy plugins are plugins that only exist to tell Skyrim to load their BSA file.They have no game-altering content of their own. MO can tell Skyrim to load these files instead of the dummy plugin, so we can turn the plugins off. Just makesure that the archives are checked under the "Archives" tab. This is helpful because you're only allowed to have 255 plugins for Skyrim. Any plugins that can beturned off should be turned off.

Run LOOT again. This time, let's take a look at the report. LOOT reports are a great troubleshooting tool. Take a look at "Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp" in theDetails tab. There are green tags for it (Delev, Names, Relev, Stats). These tags are for you merge info from your plugins into one giant list. This allows things likeNPCs wearing custom leveled armor. We'll implement these green tags using a Bashed Patch from Wrye Bash.

11. Download the installer version ofWrye Bashand install it to your Modding Tools folder.

12. Add Wrye Bash to the list of tools to run in MO the same way you did for LOOT.13. Run Wrye Bash via MO and find "Bashed Patch, 0.esp" at the bottom of your plugins list.14. Right click it and select "Rebuild Patch" followed by "Build Patch."15. Hit OK, activate the bashed patch, and close Wrye Bash.

Wrye Bash created our Bashed Patch, but it has made it in our "overwrite" folder. You can tell because in MO , the "Overwrite" row in our left hand panel has redlettering. There is also a warning symbol in the top right corner of MO. Clicking on it will show that there are files in your overwrite mod. Things go in ouroverwrite mod if a file gets installed any other way than you installing it with MO. We don't like things in our overwrite mod. Let's get it out of there.

16. Right click on "Overwrite" and select "Create Mod."17. Name it "Bashed Patch" and activate it in your mod list.

Your overwrite file is now empty. The bash ed patch got moved into a regular mod slot. L et's take a look a t what h appens when w e rebuild the patch. You will h aveto rebuild your Bashed Patch every time you add or remove a mod that LO OT g ives a green tag s uggestion.

18. Reopen Wrye Bash and rebuild the Bashed Patch.

Look! There's another Bashed Patch in your Overwrite mod. If you restart MO, you can also see that there is now a gray lightning bolt in the Flags column of your

Bashed Patch mod. A gray lighting bolt means that every single file of that mod is being overwritten by other mods. This makes sense because we just made a newBashed Patch. We want to use this more updated Bashed Patch instead of the one we installed earlier. Let's take care of that.

19. Right click on "Overwrite" and select "Create Mod."20. Name it "Bashed Patch" and a popup will appear that there's already a mod with that same name.21. To fix this, double click on Overwrite. You will find the updated Bashed Patch, 0.esp file. Drag it to the "Bashed Patch" mod in the left panel.22. Select "Move and Replace" in the follow ing popup.

You have successfully updated your Bashed Patch.

8. Practice Installing Your Average ModWe've been doing s ome of the most complicated stuff you'll be doing as a mod user.

Sorry about that. It was all necessary in order to have a good base to start installing mods with.Let's practice installing average, every day mods.

Let's install some mods to make it so that you can change your character's name and appearance at any time. This way, you can still use your Clean Save to startnew g ames AND have different cha racters every time.

1. Download and install RaceMenuusing the "Download with Manager" button.Notice that popup that s ays tha t SKSE is required? Aren't you glad w e install ed that first?2. Download and install ShowRaceMenu Al ternativeusing the "Download with Manager" button.3. Activate both of these mods in the left panel of MO.There are now 3 new plugins in your Plugins tab. We know that we should use LOOT to sort the order of these.4. Run LOOT via MO and sort plugins.

The LOOT report didn't give any green tag suggestions for these mods so we don't have to rebuild our Bashed Patch. The left panel of MO doesn't show any fileconflicts between these mods and anything else, so the loose file order doesn't matter. Both our plugins and loose files are in order. Let's see how the mods workin-game.

5. Run SKSE via MO to start playing.

6. Load up your Clean Save. You should have a new power named "ShowRaceMenu Alternative." Use it and select "Open race menu."You can now edit your character's race, sex, appearance, and na me. This allows you to make new characters and s till use your Clean Save to start new games.7. When you're done editing your character, save the game to a new slot. Remember, we don't want to overwrite our Clean Save.8. Open up MO again.Uh oh. It looks like there are files in Overwrite again. Let's find out what they are.9. Double click on Overwrite to see what files went in there.It looks like it's just an empty cache folder. RaceMenu must have used it while you were editing your character.10. Delete the folders i n Overwrite because they're not necessary.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20394/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29624/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1840/?


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Look at all of this progress we're making! You're able to install the mods you want, use them effectively, and manage them properly. You're already ahead of half ofNexus.

9. Practice Messing UpAs a mod user, you're going to mess up. It's kind of our thing. Let's find out how to fix it.

Alright, let's practice installi ng s omething that you shouldn't. We're doing this so that you can see wha t happens and h ow to fix it.

1. DownloadAudio Overhaul for Skyrim 2using the "Download with Manager" button.This is actually a fantastic mod. We're just going to install it incorrectly to see what happens.2. While installing, install the patch for Pure Weather.

We both know that you don't have Pure Weather, but install the patch anywa y.3. Activate Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2 in the left panel.In your plugins tab, you'll see two new plugins. Notice that "Pureweather_AOS2 Patch.esp" has a warning flag next to it. If you hover your mouse over the warningflag, you'll see "Missing Masters: Pureweather.esp." This is warning you that "Pureweather_AOS2 Patch.esp" needs "Pureweather.esp" to function. You don't havePure Weather so you don't have Pureweather.esp. Let's pretend that we missed this warning. The next step after installing a new mod is to use LOOT. Let's dothat.4. Run LOOT via MO and sort plugins.5. Look at "Pureweather_AOS2 Patch.esp" in the LOOT report.Once again, you'll get a warning "Error: This plugin requires 'Pureweather.esp' to be installed, but it is missing." But once again, we'll ignore it. We don't have anygreen tag suggestions so we don't need to rebuild our Bashed Patch. We're ready to play.6. Run SKSE via MO to start your game.Look at that. It crashed right after the logo. I guess we should have listened when it said we needed "Pureweather.esp." So now let's fix it. We can either run the

AOS2 ins taller agai n, unch eck the patch plugin from the Plugins tab, or ins tall Pure Weather. It's really your choice. L et's keep AOS2 installed for the next

demonstration. Just don't keep the patch without having Pure Weather.7. Fix it.

10. Practice Picking A Loose File OrderSo far, we haven't had to mess with our loose file load order that much.The three mods that we've installed don't have any loose file conflicts.

Let's get one that does.

1. Download and install Immersive Sounds - Compendiumusing the "Download with Manager" button.2. Don't forget to install the Audio Overhaul for Skyrim patch during install.3. Make sure that both Immersive Sounds and AO S are activated in your left panel.

With both mods active, you'll s ee lightning bolts appear in the "Flag s" column for these two mods. Let's find out which files are conflic ting.4. Double click on Immersive Sounds - Compendium.Under the "Conflicts" tab, you'll see that Immersive Sounds is overwriting two of AOS's files. We have to decide whether to have Immersive Sounds or AOS "win."5. Look at the compatibility section of the Immersive Sounds Nexus page.

As i t turns out, Immersive Sounds has been made with AOS in mind. The author says to just have Immersive Sounds overwrite AOS. Therefore, w e should leaveImmersive Sounds lower on the left panel of MO than AOS. If we wanted AOS to overwrite Immersive Sounds, we would drag Immersive Sounds higher than AOSin the left panel.6. Sort your plugins with LOOT to keep your plugin load order up to date.

11. Practice Installing Mods With Incorrect File Trees And Dirty EditsAs you know, MO creates pseudo Data folders for all of your mods.

But what if a mod is uploaded with an incorrect file tree? Let's take a look.Also, sometimes mods have dirty edits just like the mas ter files. We'll fix that too.

1. Download and install Ethereal Elven Overhaulusing the "Download with Manager" button.I love this mod. We just need to fix it up a bit.

You will get an error that says "No g ame data on top level." This Mean s that i t was uploaded to Nexus with the w rong file tree. We ha ve to fix this. In the popup,you'll see this fil e tree:

>DATA>READ ME.txt

As you can see, the DATA folder is supposed to be the Data folder used for this mod.2. Right click on the DATA folder and select "Set data directory."The message now says "Looks good" so you are ready to install.3. Finish installing and activate the mod.4. Run LOOT via MO and look at "ethereal_elven_overhaul.esp" in the Details tab of the report.

You'll see a warning that says "Warning: Contains 6 ITM records. Clean w ith TES5Edit."5. Add TES5Edit to MO the same way you did LOOT and Wrye Bash.6. Run TES5Edit via MO and clean ethereal_elven_overhaul.esp the sa me way that you did Update.esm.

12. Practice Installing Mods With Disordered MastersRemember saying tha t LOOT helps determine the right plugin order?
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54387/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43773/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24273/?


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Having the right loa d order is important. Mods that require multiple masters also need the correct load order.We're going to take a look a t a mod that has an in correct load order on its dependencies.Sorry non-Dawnguard and Dragonborn users, but you're going to have to sit this one out.

1. Download and install Enhanced Better Sorting. Be sure to check the "Ammo" module.2. Activate it and run LOOT.Everything looks normal so far, but what happens when we look in Wrye Bash?3. Run Wrye Bash via MO.The EBS - ammo.esp has an orange check box. Looking in the "Masters:" section of the right panel, you can see that it's expecting to load Dawnguard.esm andDragonborn.esm before Update.esm. We know that this is wrong. Let's fix that.4. Run TES5Edit via MO and only check EBS - Ammo.esp.

5. When it's finished loading, right click on EBS - Ammo.esp and select "Sort Masters."6. Exit TES5Edit and sa ve.EBS - Ammo.esp's expected load order will now match our actual load order.

13. Acknowledge The Downside Of MORemember that your tools will have no idea that any of your mods are installed unless MO says they are.

This extends to your mods.

1. Download and install SkyUI.You'll get a big popup warning from Skyui's i nstaller sa ying tha t the SKSE scripts are missi ng. We know tha t they're not missin g. Th ey're just not in the real Datafolder.

2. Ignore the warning and install anyway.3. Activate and run LOOT.What? You expected more?

14. Optimize Your TexturesConverting your textures to more efficient formats is a great free source of FPS.

This portion of the guide is coming almost directly from the STEP project. Go thank them when you get the chance.Yes, I know about Optimizer Textures and SMCO. No, I wi ll not be discussi ng them.

This section TAKES TIME and is COMPLETELY SKIPPABLE.However, My Skyrim folder shrank 2.69 GBfrom optimizing the vanilla textures and compressing their BSAs alone.

None of the tools in this section need to be run through MO. We're changing the files in their real directories. We don't have to trick the tools into thinking they're

in the Data folder.1. I've made optimized versions of the vanill a textures for you. You can download them here.2. Download all of the full or lite modules of Skyrim HD - 2K Texturesusing the "Download with Manager" button.3. Instal l a ll of them and select "Merge" during the "Mod Exists" popup.4. Make a folder directory that looks like this somewhere. I chose C:/Games/:These folder names must match exa ctly.

Working>Mod Extracted>>Skyrim HD - 2K TexturesThis is where your HD2K textures wil l be placed to be optimized.

5. Right click on Skyrim HD - 2K Textures in the left panel of MO and select "Open in explorer."6. Copy the textures folder and paste it into the "Skyrim HD - 2K Textures" folder that you made in your Working directory.7. Extract these batch filesinto your "Working" folder.

Your Working folder should now contain those batch files and your "Mod Extracted" folder.6. Run "4_Mod_Sorting_Pre-optimization_2.75.bat" and c lick a ny buttons it tells you to until i t closes itself.

Yes, we do want to separate exterior textures.You will now h ave the following new folders in your Working directory:

Mod Body TexturesMod Exterior Normal MapsMod Exterior TexturesMod Normal MapsMod Ordinary Textures

These don't all necessarily have files in them. For instance, Skyrim HD - 2K Textures doesn't have any Body Textures. That folder will be empty.

7. Download and install DDSopt- pre-release - update 4 to your Modding Tools folder.8. Copy these lines of codeand replace the contents of your DDSopt.ini with them.9. Start DDSopt and cha nge the game to Skyrim in the "Game" tab.10. Hit the "Browse" button next to ".\in," point it to Working/Mod Exterior Normal Maps/, and hit "Use Folder."11. Hit the "Browse" button next to ".\out," point it to Working/Mod Optimized/, and h it "Use Folder."12. In the "Ignore" menu, untick "Copy unprocessed and i gnored files (pass through)."13. In the "Constraints" tab, change all of the file types to lossless and set both Resolution-limits to your preference.

Personally, I use these Resolution-limits:

Mod Body Textures - 2048x2048Mod Exterior Normal Maps - 1024x1024Mod Exterior Textures - 1024x1024Mod Normal Maps - 2048x2048Mod Ordinary Textures - 2048x2048
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3863/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/26558/?http://wiki.step-project.com/images/d/d1/Batch_Files_for_DDSopt_guide_v2.77.7zhttp://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls/DDSoptINIhttp://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57353/?http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/5755/?


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14. Tick "Show Recursive" in the "Browser" tab and hit "Process."15. Repeat steps 10-14 for each of these folders.16. Go to Working/Mod Optimized/Skyrim HD - 2K Textures/ and copy the textures folder.17. Paste it back into MO's Skyrim HD - 2K Textures' pseudo Data folder to replace the originals. Overwrite when asked.18. Delete the folders i n your Working directory.

You have now optimized Skyrim HD - 2K Textures. You can optimize as many mods a s you want a t a time. Just give them their own folders under "Mod Extracted."All mods that you wa nt to optimize need to have loose files. DDSopt cannot optimize BSA files.

15. Do What You Want!You now ha ve all the tools a nd understanding you need to be a success ful mod user!

Go on and download whatever mods you want. Upload screenshots of your game here. I want to see what you've done )This guide is a work in progress. Save game cleaning will be coming next.

Copyright 2014, Robin Scott. All rights reserved.

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