Mod Detectives Options

[Lopov]

Thanks, Grits, I downloaded Climates of Tamriel (loose files edition) and installed only those mods that I want. I also added snow to entire Skyrim, which was one of my questions that I forgot to ask earlier, so another thanks for this!

I also downloaded Inconsequential NPCs and Companions & Followers. Although I got a warning that Skyrim will CTD if loading C & F without the ApachiiHair.esm, the game loaded fine. I suspect that instead of modded hair these followers will have some sort of vanilla hair.

[Renee]

I am curious if anybody has made anything that addresses footfall sounds?

In Oblivion if the PC equips light armor shoes, footfalls make one sound. If they equip light armor boots, they make another sound, and if they equip heavy armor, it'll be a very metallic sort of sound. See what I mean? Maybe PC is different, but on Xbox, all footfalls sound the same; kinda like modern wingtips or sneakers.

[SubRosa]

I don't recall a mod for foot step sounds, but one of my foundation mods is footprints. It does what the name suggests, and adds footprints to not only the player's steps, but also all the npcs and animals.

[Renee]

Oh good, Footprints. Hah, found it? That's definitely going to be a Must-Have. I wonder if there is an Oblivion version....

EDIT: Found it! It's called Immersive Sounds -- Footsteps?. monkeyoneyes over at Beth's forums found this mod, actually.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Nov 3 2014, 11:25 PM

[Acadian]

I'm looking for a mod to eliminate the annoying barking of dog companions. There seem to be several out there. Some silence the barking but leave the animation. Some substitute a different animation for the bark/bark animation. And the more popular ones seem quite old. Given all that, I'm looking for a recommendation of what seems to work well.

[Grits]

The Nexus is down right now, but off the top of my head I’m using Unique Dogs quieter version which replaces some of the bark animations with silent ones. It works perfectly with my Ulfe mod and keeps her from constant barking as well. Of course it also gives the named dogs different appearances, which I quite like. I believe there is a silent version which supposedly replaces all of the bark animations.

There’s also a new mod that might be worth watching, again just from memory I think it’s called Stealth Dogs or something similar. It seemed to be the successor to Hush Doggie.

And finally if you decide to allow some barking, I find that Deeper Dog Bark makes it much easier on the ears.

This post has been edited by Grits: Dec 5 2014, 09:49 PM

[Acadian]

Oh, thanks, Grits! That new mod you mentioned seems the answer. I studied the old 'Hush Doggie' mod and found that it really did need an update. Users even spelled out how to do the update. This new mod 'Sneaky Canines' is exactly and simply that: Hush Doggie with the update that the original modder never added. I'm going to try that and see how it works.

Buffy fell in love with an armored husky down in Ft Dawnguard and wants to get it as a 'pet' for Superian. We'll see how it goes.

[Acadian]

Update on barking dogs. I've installed and am using the 'Sneaky Canines' mod and it is wonderful. Buffy asked one of the DG huskies to tag along to try it out. Because of that darn vanilla barking, we've never really given dogs a fair shot and will say that I find their personality/presence and animations quite endearing. This mod eliminates the barking except when the dog alerts and enters combat - then he gives a nice single bark. I think Buffy will continue to favor forest creatures that are summonable, but this is certainly a great simple mod if you like the dogs but just don't want the excessive barking.

[Renee]

never mind. Not really a mod question

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Dec 23 2014, 05:50 PM

[Renee]

I need some help with ENB. I need this mod to get WARZONES? working, and in general it seems a lot of mods require ENB. Problem is, which version should I choose?

Here is the ENB page I found. Well, one of them, anyways. Info is so confusing to navigate with this mod.

At the bottom of the page it says this....

Version 0.088 is the first version released for the game, include just bugs and performance fixes of the game.

Version 0.102 Tatsudoshi is New Year 2012 release, the same as previous versions, it use fake "ENB" video adapter to fix game bugs like transparent water and invisible fire (not actual now, but users of Radeon 2xxx/3xxx still have these issues). Not recommended, because it's very slow.

Version 0.103 Injector first version with special ENBInjector tool which allow to run mod while some incompatible software used (Afterburner, XFire, etc) or for Optimus laptops. Not recommended, because it's very slow.

Version 0.108 TrueHDR is very fast and simplified without most effects.

Version 0.119 last non deffered which completely support hardware antialiasing (msaa), but at cost of performance and quality. Latest versions support antialiasing, but some effects do not work.

Version 0.132 just a progress, requested to keep on the site for compatibility with some presets.

Version 0.168 just a progress, requested to keep on the site for compatibility with some presets.

Version 12.12.12 is performance optimized, but it's very old.

Version 13.7.13 is the last which optimized for old videocards of DirectX10 generation like GeForce
8xxx/9xxx/2xx and Radeon 2xxx/3xxx/4xxx, so each version after that developed corresponding to modern DX11 generation of videocards which have much faster arithmetics. Some effects may run slower for old cards, but faster for new. Sorry, but i can't make two versions, so after purchasing modern videocard everything changed accordingly.

Version 0.192 and newer include ENBoost patch (available for some other games too) which reduce memry usage of the game and as result fewer CTDs (crashes) and you may install much more modifications.
Version 0.226 support helper plugin which allow to use weather system and time without problems with game scripting.

Hardware antialiasing (msaa) supported in versions 0.119 and lower for all effects, all other version use deffered rendering which do not support aa. But in latest mods (starting from v0.180 if i remember, inclufing v13.7.13) you may enable antialiasing, many effects will turn off automatically then, but in general colors will be the same.

Presets are compatible with other versions of the mod with minor changes. For example 0.088-0.119 versions may use the same preset, 0.119-0.132 too, 0.132-0.168, etc.

v0.265
v0.262
v0.236
v0.221
v13.7.13
v0.168
v0.132
v121212
v0.119
v0.117 beta
v0.108 TrueHDR
v0.103 Injector
v0.102 Tatsudoshi

And as you can see, there are 13 different versions listed at the bottom of the page. So which one do I use? Any ideas? ... WARZONES does not help much, it merely says 'this mod requires ENB' but it does not say which version we're supposed to use.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Feb 17 2015, 03:38 PM

[ghastley]

My reading of the WZ installation notes is that you don't need ENB. All it's saying is that if you do have it, you'll need ENBoost to reduce its memory requirements, because WZ is also a memory hog.

Since ENB is just graphic "enhancements" - i.e. effects for the sake of effects - it doesn't make any sense that it would be a pre-requisite for a non-graphic mod.

Try it without ENB at all.

[Renee]

You're awesome ghastley. I will try this later when I get home!

[ghastley]

There's just one reason that ENB alone might help, and that 's if it moves all the video memory to 64-bit space. It can't affect whether the game itself uses memory above the 3GB limit for a 32-bit application, but it can get the video part out of the way.

If Skyrim itself now runs 64-bit, it's all moot. Since nobody's talking about 4GB patches, I'd suspect that's the case.

[Renee]

WARZONES turned out to be really buggy. I tried it without ENB, but I had all the other required stuff installed: UGrids (something like that), and of course SKSE and SkyUI. No ENB though. It really started getting buggy though, like I said. Soon as I got to an area which had a battle going on, I noticed all sorts of things...

> Elk & deer falling from the sky

> My character began floating in the air. And there was this 'swishing' sound. I've got Wet & Cold and Frostfall installed, and the 'wet' meter was beginning to get light blue. I realized my character was 'swimming', even though she was walking down a road.

> Finally saw a CTD in my game. They're as rare as 2 dollar bills, usually.

Oddly, framerates did not suffer at all. I had 60 fps the entire time all of this was going. And it sucks because it looks like a great mod, but I have no choice but to abandon it for now. Just too much work & headache. Maybe later on I'll try messing with it later. I really like the idea of random encounters most of all.

I found another mod simply called "Civil War" which introduces a few extra battles, so I'm using this for now.

[Renee]

Isn't there a mod (or more than one) that adds more shops?

Never mind. Found it. It's called Small Town Merchants?. Hehheh, finally we can sell some stuff in places which never had merchants during my console days.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Feb 21 2015, 02:20 AM