Maintaining this busy thread is no longer necessary ...
... now that STEP has an entirely new forum broken out into many focused topics for faster and more complete answers from a large pool of knowledgeable users and staff. The STEP Wiki is the new location of the STEP Guide and home to several other useful guides and an evolving mod-testing platform.
Stop by and join us. There are convenient links from the STEP sites right back here to the Nexus.
STEP is looking for Beta Testers for v3.0 of the Extended Guide. For more information, see the topic here: http://forum.step-project.com/topic/13399-step-extended-v3-seeking-beta-testers/
The site still needs fixing or something. Even the link you provided brings up a download named "showthread.php" instead of bringing me to the actual site. Same idea goes for the forums in general
It should be working for most people, although it might take some time for everybody's DNS to resolve correctly (or some other such technical nonsense).
Again, sorry for the inconvenience. The new host will give us much more room to grow for the forseeable future so this wont happen again. Thank you guys for all the support.
Aprrently not, I thought it was but I guess that was just our previous host's bandwidth limit resetting for the month. It hopefully shouldn't be much longer.
What do you do if you forget to install a mod near the beginning of step and are using wrye bash? Do I just install the mod, move it to the place in the install order that I want, then do anneal all? And it will perform the correct overwrites?
Farlo- many thanks for your very detailed reply. I'll take my future posts to the STEP forums, but for the purposes of closing up this thread, I am assuming that I should do a complete uninstall and then reinstall of Skyrim since I had begun STEP using the v2.20a guide.It's not that much of a hassle to uninstall, given that I didn't get very far.Do you agree?
I'd say so, although you might not need to uninstall Skyrim itself as long as your installation folder is relatively clean, which it should be since you're using MO. Make sure you keep the bigger overhauls such as Skyrim HD and Serious HD as we still use those so that you don't have to re-download them.
Returned to Skyrim and to STEP and was able to grab v2.20a PDF the other day. I just began the STEP process from scratch with a new Skyrim install (installed Steam to C: drive and not to Program Files x86). I've gone through steps 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E. I have the following questions thus far. (Apologies if any of these questions are better suited for the mod or app specific forum, i.e. BOSS).
The v2.2.0a guide is very out of date, I highly suggest you stop and wait for the Wiki to come back up (a day or so) and use the new v2.2.1 guide, not only is it much better but also fixes a lot of bugs that v2.2.0a had with Skyrim v1.8.
1.C.2 & .3: BOSS-related #1 I installed BOSS and BUM. I ran BOSS and in the summary see BOSS reporting 2 unrecognized plugins. Both unrecognized plugins are Skyrim.esm. Is there any action for me to take here, or is this okay as is?
#2 In the recognized plugins, I notice that Update, Dawngaurd, and Dragonborn esm files contain what BOSS refers to as "Dirty edits" I read the cleaning guide at the link BOSS provides but am still unsure what I need to do/how to clean them, assuming that I indeed need to do so. Here's the specific BOSS text:
"Update.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 73 ITM, 1 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
Dawnguard.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here. Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
Dragonborn.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here."
Click the link to the cleaning guide and follow its directions, they should be fairly detailed and newbie-friendly. Any mod that's reported as being dirty should be cleaned, it helps to prevent incompatibilities and rogue errors with the mods.
1.C.4 Mod Managers:
Am I okay with using Mod Organizer and not using or isntalling Wrye Bash? MO seems easier to use, and offers mod management. Just wondering if WB will be required for any STEP steps.
You can use Mod Organizer on its own, at least for now. Eventually you may need to install WB as well, but only for the purposes of Bashed Patches. I'll also note that WB provides mod management as well, they essentially do the same job (except Bashed Patches).
1.C.5 SKSE:
From the STEP 2.20a guide: "NOTE: It may be necessary to create a new directory called SKSE in skyrim\Data and an additional subdirectory in SKSE called plugins (skyrim\Data\skse\plugins is where all SKSE plugins must be installed)."
I installed SKSE by copying the two .dll files (SKSE1_8_151 and the Steam Loader) and the SKSE_Loader.exe file from SKSE into the Skyrim directory. I then copied the Data folder from SKSE into the Skyrim directory, so that all the files copied.
My question: Is what I have done correct, and do I need to create a SKSE directory and Plugins subdirectory as STEP suggests? The "It may be necessary" wording leaves me uncertain of the necessity of this.
All the mods with SKSE plugins should have this folder structure already, so as long as you installed SKSE according to its readme then you should be fine.
1.E.1 NVIDIA Users
The STEP site is down right now, but at the time I noticed that several of the settings suggested by STEP either differed from the NVIDIA Inspector Guide or were a bit odd. For example:
#1 Having SLI compatibility bits (DX1x) set to 0x080116F5 (Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter) but having SLI Compatability bits sets to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V). Shouldn't both be set to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V)?
#2 Basic question- since I run 2 680GTX 4GB cards in SLI, it's not necessary to make the recommended settings twice, on a card-by-card basis, is it? I didn't think so, but wanted to ask to make sure. My understanding is that the settings are made for the game profile, and apply to however many video cards one is running.
As I mentioned above, the v2.2.0a guide is severaly out of date, especially in this department. I'd leave this alone until you can get to the v2.2.1 guide and use it's advice.
Reminder- Essential Guides:
#1 Does STEP suggest following the Skyrim Tweaking Guide BEFORE continuing with the STEP install? I wonder if any of the tweaks might conflict with any STEP tweaks and/or any future tweaks made by mods (i.e., the mods would undo whatever tweaks made based on the Tweaking Guide).
#2 Are there any tweaks in the Skyrim Tweaking Guide that are basically "must do" tweaks?
I don't think that guide is suggested in v2.2.1, and those are less essential INI tweaks anyways, some of which don't really have an impact. I also somewhat doubt it's been updated for the new Skyrim version, so proceed at your own risk on that one and be prepared to refresh your INIs.
Finally, I did begin step 2A Fixes, using Mod Organizer.
#1 Does it matter if I choose Download with Manager (which presumably means the Nexus Mod Manager, and not Mod Organizer) or Download Manually? I am referring to downloading mods using MO when viewing the Skyrim Nexus site within MO.
#2 I navigated to Skyrim Nexus within Mod Organizer, and installed 1st Person Armor Fix. I encountered "No game data on top level" for Linwe Armor First Person Fix. I read up on this on the Mod Organizer site, under the Manual Install section (I am assuming that I am doing an automatic install here): "If it has a red "No game data on top level" at bottom left then you need to expand the file structure and then right-click and choose "set data directory" on what should be the skyrim/data directory"
I don't see how I can expand the file structure within MO. What are the steps I must follow to install mods in MO to avoid this error?
I haven't proceeded any further with the STEP process, and won't until I figure out these questions.
You should click "Download Manually" for everything, you don't want anything going through NMM if you're using MO.
The Mod Organizer folder assumes the mod folder that it creates acts as a "virtual" Data folder. When you're installing the mod, you should be able to click "Custom" or "Advanced" or something along those lines (it's been a while) and then you'll see the mod's folder structure. What you want to do is right click the folder directly above the "textures", "meshes", etc. and set that folder as the data directory.
That looks like a problem with Skyrim Flora Overhaul, assuming you're only using STEP anyways. Does that still happen when it's disabled/uninstalled? If so, try re-installing it.
Would it be possible to post the wrye bash guide? Thank you so much for the wonderful work.
I would like to look at the ENB guide too. Could someone point me to a substitute for now?
You guys can get to any page by Googling for it and finding the "Cached" link under the main link. At the moment Instant Preview doesn't seem to be working for me so I can't see the "Cached" link, but I'll try again.
I can't get the cached links either. but I will wait until the server transfer is complete. Your site is very well organized, the best, considering the amount of time I spent modding Oblivion, I will endorse and contribute to your site. Good Job . Thanks again!
Weird that the cached view isn't working for you. I should have known to grab a copy of the guide, then I could have at least hosted it on Dropbox for the day. Hopefully this downtime won't happen again, but if it does I'll remember to
Returned to Skyrim and to STEP and was able to grab v2.20a PDF the other day. I just began the STEP process from scratch with a new Skyrim install (installed Steam to C: drive and not to Program Files x86). I've gone through steps 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E. I have the following questions thus far. (Apologies if any of these questions are better suited for the mod or app specific forum, i.e. BOSS).
1.C.2 & .3: BOSS-related #1 I installed BOSS and BUM. I ran BOSS and in the summary see BOSS reporting 2 unrecognized plugins. Both unrecognized plugins are Skyrim.esm. Is there any action for me to take here, or is this okay as is?
#2 In the recognized plugins, I notice that Update, Dawngaurd, and Dragonborn esm files contain what BOSS refers to as "Dirty edits" I read the cleaning guide at the link BOSS provides but am still unsure what I need to do/how to clean them, assuming that I indeed need to do so. Here's the specific BOSS text:
"Update.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 73 ITM, 1 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
Dawnguard.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here. Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
Dragonborn.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here."
1.C.4 Mod Managers:
Am I okay with using Mod Organizer and not using or isntalling Wrye Bash? MO seems easier to use, and offers mod management. Just wondering if WB will be required for any STEP steps.
1.C.5 SKSE:
From the STEP 2.20a guide: "NOTE: It may be necessary to create a new directory called SKSE in skyrim\Data and an additional subdirectory in SKSE called plugins (skyrim\Data\skse\plugins is where all SKSE plugins must be installed)."
I installed SKSE by copying the two .dll files (SKSE1_8_151 and the Steam Loader) and the SKSE_Loader.exe file from SKSE into the Skyrim directory. I then copied the Data folder from SKSE into the Skyrim directory, so that all the files copied.
My question: Is what I have done correct, and do I need to create a SKSE directory and Plugins subdirectory as STEP suggests? The "It may be necessary" wording leaves me uncertain of the necessity of this.
1.E.1 NVIDIA Users
The STEP site is down right now, but at the time I noticed that several of the settings suggested by STEP either differed from the NVIDIA Inspector Guide or were a bit odd. For example:
#1 Having SLI compatibility bits (DX1x) set to 0x080116F5 (Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter) but having SLI Compatability bits sets to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V). Shouldn't both be set to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V)?
#2 Basic question- since I run 2 680GTX 4GB cards in SLI, it's not necessary to make the recommended settings twice, on a card-by-card basis, is it? I didn't think so, but wanted to ask to make sure. My understanding is that the settings are made for the game profile, and apply to however many video cards one is running.
Reminder- Essential Guides:
#1 Does STEP suggest following the Skyrim Tweaking Guide BEFORE continuing with the STEP install? I wonder if any of the tweaks might conflict with any STEP tweaks and/or any future tweaks made by mods (i.e., the mods would undo whatever tweaks made based on the Tweaking Guide).
#2 Are there any tweaks in the Skyrim Tweaking Guide that are basically "must do" tweaks?
Finally, I did begin step 2A Fixes, using Mod Organizer.
#1 Does it matter if I choose Download with Manager (which presumably means the Nexus Mod Manager, and not Mod Organizer) or Download Manually? I am referring to downloading mods using MO when viewing the Skyrim Nexus site within MO.
#2 I navigated to Skyrim Nexus within Mod Organizer, and installed 1st Person Armor Fix. I encountered "No game data on top level" for Linwe Armor First Person Fix. I read up on this on the Mod Organizer site, under the Manual Install section (I am assuming that I am doing an automatic install here): "If it has a red "No game data on top level" at bottom left then you need to expand the file structure and then right-click and choose "set data directory" on what should be the skyrim/data directory"
I don't see how I can expand the file structure within MO. What are the steps I must follow to install mods in MO to avoid this error?
I haven't proceeded any further with the STEP process, and won't until I figure out these questions.
Okay, that's it so far for my questions. Many thanks for any suggestions folks have, apologies if any of these are newbie questions or guilty of RTFM syndrome. I've done STEP before about a year and a half ago, so hopefully the process will seem familar soon enough.
Best regards!
Pepper
PS- The following waterreflection settings were not originally in my SkyrimPrefs INI. I added them:
MO will work fine for you. At some point, you may need to install Wrye Bash to get certain functionality --accessible through MO I hear. A boon but not a necessity at this point.
There is no need to create SKSE/plugins/ unless you want to use the INI functionality. Your install is complete, and other mods will create that folder structure anyway.
Just follow the STEP wiki guide completely and nothing else (i.e., don't mess with settings that the guide does not explicitly mention until you have finished a stable and decently-performing Baseline setup (as explained in the guide)
Give Feedback
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Comments locked
The author has locked this comment topic for the time beingThe Step website is UP
Maintaining this busy thread is no longer necessary ...
The STEP Wiki is the new location of the STEP Guide and home to several
other useful guides and an evolving mod-testing platform.
S.T.E.P.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.1
Again, sorry for the inconvenience. The new host will give us much more room to grow for the forseeable future so this wont happen again. Thank you guys for all the support.
I got files to download instead of webpages opened, when I try to enter on the wiki or the forums
But Neovalen's SR works x)
http://wiki.step-project.com/User:Neovalen/Skyrim_Revisited
What do you do if you forget to install a mod near the beginning of step and are using wrye bash? Do I just install the mod, move it to the place in the install order that I want, then do anneal all? And it will perform the correct overwrites?
The v2.2.0a guide is very out of date, I highly suggest you stop and wait for the Wiki to come back up (a day or so) and use the new v2.2.1 guide, not only is it much better but also fixes a lot of bugs that v2.2.0a had with Skyrim v1.8.
Click the link to the cleaning guide and follow its directions, they should be fairly detailed and newbie-friendly. Any mod that's reported as being dirty should be cleaned, it helps to prevent incompatibilities and rogue errors with the mods.
You can use Mod Organizer on its own, at least for now. Eventually you may need to install WB as well, but only for the purposes of Bashed Patches. I'll also note that WB provides mod management as well, they essentially do the same job (except Bashed Patches).
All the mods with SKSE plugins should have this folder structure already, so as long as you installed SKSE according to its readme then you should be fine.
As I mentioned above, the v2.2.0a guide is severaly out of date, especially in this department. I'd leave this alone until you can get to the v2.2.1 guide and use it's advice.
I don't think that guide is suggested in v2.2.1, and those are less essential INI tweaks anyways, some of which don't really have an impact. I also somewhat doubt it's been updated for the new Skyrim version, so proceed at your own risk on that one and be prepared to refresh your INIs.
You should click "Download Manually" for everything, you don't want anything going through NMM if you're using MO.
The Mod Organizer folder assumes the mod folder that it creates acts as a "virtual" Data folder. When you're installing the mod, you should be able to click "Custom" or "Advanced" or something along those lines (it's been a while) and then you'll see the mod's folder structure. What you want to do is right click the folder directly above the "textures", "meshes", etc. and set that folder as the data directory.
http://i.imgur.com/kiC48Ol.jpg
You guys can get to any page by Googling for it and finding the "Cached" link under the main link. At the moment Instant Preview doesn't seem to be working for me so I can't see the "Cached" link, but I'll try again.
Thanks for the patience.
Returned to Skyrim and to STEP and was able to grab v2.20a PDF the other day. I just began the STEP process from scratch with a new Skyrim install (installed Steam to C: drive and not to Program Files x86). I've gone through steps 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E. I have the following questions thus far. (Apologies if any of these questions are better suited for the mod or app specific forum, i.e. BOSS).
1.C.2 & .3:
BOSS-related
#1 I installed BOSS and BUM. I ran BOSS and in the summary see BOSS reporting 2 unrecognized plugins. Both unrecognized plugins are Skyrim.esm. Is there any action for me to take here, or is this okay as is?
#2 In the recognized plugins, I notice that Update, Dawngaurd, and Dragonborn esm files contain what BOSS refers to as "Dirty edits"
I read the cleaning guide at the link BOSS provides but am still unsure what I need to do/how to clean them, assuming that I indeed need to do so. Here's the specific BOSS text:
"Update.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 73 ITM, 1 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
Dawnguard.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 607 ITM, 82 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here.
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
Dragonborn.esm Active
Contains dirty edits: 57 ITM, 8 UDR records with 3.0.28. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. A cleaning guide is available here."
1.C.4 Mod Managers:
Am I okay with using Mod Organizer and not using or isntalling Wrye Bash? MO seems easier to use, and offers mod management. Just wondering if WB will be required for any STEP steps.
1.C.5 SKSE:
From the STEP 2.20a guide:
"NOTE: It may be necessary to create a new directory called SKSE in skyrim\Data and an additional subdirectory in SKSE called plugins (skyrim\Data\skse\plugins is where all SKSE plugins must be installed)."
I installed SKSE by copying the two .dll files (SKSE1_8_151 and the Steam Loader) and the SKSE_Loader.exe file from SKSE into the Skyrim directory. I then copied the Data folder from SKSE into the Skyrim directory, so that all the files copied.
My question: Is what I have done correct, and do I need to create a SKSE directory and Plugins subdirectory as STEP suggests? The "It may be necessary" wording leaves me uncertain of the necessity of this.
1.E.1 NVIDIA Users
The STEP site is down right now, but at the time I noticed that several of the settings suggested by STEP either differed from the NVIDIA Inspector Guide or were a bit odd. For example:
#1 Having SLI compatibility bits (DX1x) set to 0x080116F5 (Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter) but having SLI Compatability bits sets to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V). Shouldn't both be set to 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V)?
#2 Basic question- since I run 2 680GTX 4GB cards in SLI, it's not necessary to make the recommended settings twice, on a card-by-card basis, is it? I didn't think so, but wanted to ask to make sure. My understanding is that the settings are made for the game profile, and apply to however many video cards one is running.
Reminder- Essential Guides:
#1 Does STEP suggest following the Skyrim Tweaking Guide BEFORE continuing with the STEP install? I wonder if any of the tweaks might conflict with any STEP tweaks and/or any future tweaks made by mods (i.e., the mods would undo whatever tweaks made based on the Tweaking Guide).
#2 Are there any tweaks in the Skyrim Tweaking Guide that are basically "must do" tweaks?
Finally, I did begin step 2A Fixes, using Mod Organizer.
#1 Does it matter if I choose Download with Manager (which presumably means the Nexus Mod Manager, and not Mod Organizer) or Download Manually? I am referring to downloading mods using MO when viewing the Skyrim Nexus site within MO.
#2 I navigated to Skyrim Nexus within Mod Organizer, and installed 1st Person Armor Fix. I encountered "No game data on top level" for Linwe Armor First Person Fix. I read up on this on the Mod Organizer site, under the Manual Install section (I am assuming that I am doing an automatic install here):
"If it has a red "No game data on top level" at bottom left then you need to expand the file structure and then right-click and choose "set data directory" on what should be the skyrim/data directory"
I don't see how I can expand the file structure within MO. What are the steps I must follow to install mods in MO to avoid this error?
I haven't proceeded any further with the STEP process, and won't until I figure out these questions.
Okay, that's it so far for my questions. Many thanks for any suggestions folks have, apologies if any of these are newbie questions or guilty of RTFM syndrome. I've done STEP before about a year and a half ago, so hopefully the process will seem familar soon enough.
Best regards!
Pepper
PS- The following waterreflection settings were not originally in my SkyrimPrefs INI. I added them:
iWaterReflectHeight=1024 iWaterReflectWidth=1024
Did others also have to add them?
MO will work fine for you. At some point, you may need to install Wrye Bash to get certain functionality --accessible through MO I hear. A boon but not a necessity at this point.
There is no need to create SKSE/plugins/ unless you want to use the INI functionality. Your install is complete, and other mods will create that folder structure anyway.
Just follow the STEP wiki guide completely and nothing else (i.e., don't mess with settings that the guide does not explicitly mention until you have finished a stable and decently-performing Baseline setup (as explained in the guide)
I use AMD