NOTE: IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING THE "FLOATING GRASS BUG" - This is NOT a problem with this mod specifically, and is instead an issue with grass textures not updating correctly. You can fix it by following these steps.
WELCOME! To my lovely little post on various things that can contribute to the perfect storm of stuff that might KILL your game. (Kill it dead.) (Splat.) aka "Most Commonly Addressed Issues for ETaC" aka "Stuff Jenna Says Entirely Too Often For Her Sanity."
NOTE: If you are looking to report a bug, please use the bug reports tab. It’s much easier for me to keep track of everything over there, what I’ve dealt with, still need to deal with, etc. THIS will be the home of common issues and fixes that are not so much bugs as miscellaneous other random problems and crap and junk and the like. -- Thanks!
Let’s get to it…
Let's start with some things you should know with regard to memory issues (Infinite Loading Screens - ILS; and/or Crash to Desktop - CTD) and how Skyrim handles them.
Beginning with - Skyrim's "Memory Cap" a/k/a the Large Address Aware Patch. I give you bben46... Essentially, when the RAM is used up, there is nowhere to put the new data. This is most often seen when you load a new area, go through a door, or autosave. As these actions temporarily take a lot more memory than you were using just before the crash. And yes, this memory ceiling can even be hit due to the textures you are using... (See "Textures" Section below.)
BUT worry not! There is help for you. (Per Arthmoor)... Also, per siuan, in re; crashes from Helgen to Riverwood (And Please Note --- This information is not limited to crashes in that specific area, and will help you if you are experiencing crashes in ANY area. Riverwood was just the area that was being discussed at the time)... HERE ARE YOUR LINKS #1: SKSE by the SKSE Team; #2: CTD and Memory Patch ENBoost by Boris Vorontsov; and, #3:uGridsToLoad by Altimor. *
* Per the folks at S.T.E.P. Stable uGridsToLoad is no longer being recommend after the release of 2.2.9.2 due to concerns regarding a potential memory corruption issue that was never fixed.
STEP does not recommend changing the uGrids setting. With Dynamic Distant Objects LOD, there should be no need.
Lastly, an update from siuan with regard to SKSE/SSME:Moving on...
As mentioned above, HD textures, ENBs, or even your default graphics settings can also soak up your memory, and quick-like. I, personally, don't recommend using any textures above 1-2k (if you're on a lower end system, stick to 1k.) Especially when you're using A LOT of them. If you have 2039482084 things now loading 4k high-res textures it's going to make Skyrim's game engine weep, and crash and set fire to your living room. AND! As a general rule, (not just in relation to this mod), try to be careful about how many textures and of what kind you install. (Meaning beyond just armor, items and a few landscapes here or there.) Try not to grab up an insane and unreasonable amount of high res LOD, grasses, rocks, mountains etc. and so on - aka things that would start to pile up in an exterior cell.
What I'm trying to say is... If you come to me and say you're game is crashing, or your FPS is tanking, and I ask what kind of textures you've got installed and it's a million different 4k texture packs... I'm going to hurt you. With my teeth. So save yourself the headache and keep your super fancy high-res texture use to a minimum lol. You'll never be able to tell the difference in-game between a 2k potato and a 4k potato anyway, you crazy crazy lunatic, you.
Also. Grass. If someone is experiencing a big FPS drop in exterior cells, one of the first things I always recommend is to drop the "Grass Loading Distance" from far to medium. Grass isn't just "stuff" it's "moving stuff" and there is A LOT OF IT. All over Skyrim. This is especially problematic if you are using high-res grass textures. I shall now direct you to a quote from siuan... Also, with regard to Grass on Steriods and SFO (Skyrim Flora Overhaul) I first give you Nazenn...BUT. I shall now also give you keithinhanoi, because...And with that I end my 23042340824 paragraph dissection of Skyrim related grass stuff. Now on to ENBs...
ENBs also put added strain on processing, so my suggestion there is just to try and tweak the settings a bit, or Skyrim's default settings if you're not using one. (i.e. set load distances to medium vs. far; set ENB graphics to medium vs. high - in a lot of cases the difference in quality is barely noticeable while the difference in performance is huge.)
Let's take a moment to talk about scripts. Beginning with script spamming, and for this I direct you to a quote from siuan... It should also be noted that the SKSE.ini tweak (ClearInvalidRegistrations=1) is good, but it only clears up a certain kind of script. See Arthmoor's responses HERE.
Let's now take a minute to talk about script-overload, beginning with scripts and NPCs...
One thing you should note - When you use a mod that affixes scripts to NPCs, (i.e. Footprints, Enhance Blood, Run For Your Lives, etc.) it affixes them to ALL NPCs, even new ones added by things like ETaC. So when you walk into a large town, like let's say Dawnstar, you get an influx of tons of scripts running on tons of NPCs and sometimes HELLO! You're magically planted back at the desktop. (Additionally, if you then add on something like Interesting NPCs, or the Immersive NPCs packs, (even MORE people, even more scripts, so on.)
Now I'm not saying you can't use all those mods together, you can, I'm just saying sometimes this makes things crashy. For more (and specific) information on this, we have Edeldios:
So a number of you folks are talking about stuttering and fps loss while using ETaC. After seeing many, many load orders, I keep seeing the same issue: SCRIPT OVERLOAD!
Now most of you are doing the right thing and your mods are compatible, and your load orders are good. The sad thing is that Bethesda has set some limits on how much Skyrim can handle. People have modded Elder scrolls games in the past, but let's face it neither Morrowind or Oblivion have had quite the level and scale of the mods for Skyrim. When Bethesda created and programmed Skyrim they didn't anticipate the creative talents of the modding community to the scale it exists today. So as a result there is only so much the game can handle without performance issues. That's even with SKSE Memory patches, ini tweeks, and ENBoost.
Sure you want to make the balloon bigger, but it's just going to burst if you keep pumping too much air into it! So here is some info about scripted mods, what they do and how you can keep your balloon from bursting.
Since we are here on the ETaC page, let's start with how scripts are going to have an effect ETaC. ETaC adds additional NPCs, and NPCs are one of the most intensive parts of Skyrim. Each time a script is added to an NPC it increases the amount of scripts your CPU and the skyrim engine needs to process. Now multiply that by the number of npc that are found in town and city locations. Push this even further by adding even more NPCs from mods, and you get the idea...
When it comes to scripted mods, for this advice there are 3 types; heavy, medium and light.
Heavy: These would be mods like SkyRe, PerMa and Requiem. These mods add scripts to each and every character as well as your character. These mods are more or less intended to be a complete combat overhaul for the vanilla game. If you use these mods, you are going to have to make a choice, either add a mod or two that is light on scripts or one that adds NPCs but not both types.
Medium: These would be mods like Sands of Time, ASIS, Frostfall and Wet & Cold. These mods add scripts to all the NPCs in the game but not nearly as many as the heavy category. You can use 2 or 3 of these together and with a light scripted mod or two and a mod or two that adds npcs, just don't go overboard.
Light: These would be mods like Dragon Combat Overhaul, Run For Your Lives and When Vampires attack. These either add a couple scripts to all NPCs or a few scripts to various sections of the game. Go nuts, they should work just fine with using several mods that add NPCs and increase spawns, but just remember the rules above.
On a side note: if you use a uGridstoload setting above the default, this will increase the area around your character that scripts are firing. Sure, it makes the game nicer to look at, but it also causes scripts to fire at a greater distance as well. This could cause game breaking issues since many times it will cause quest scripts to fire before you are in range of the characters involved.
In sum, just try and be selective about what you're installing and what it does. If you've got 10 different mods all adding NPCs to towns, and then 10 different mods all adding scripts to those NPCs, this could definitely become problematic for you.
And should your save be a hot-mess of scripty grossness...
What the hell is it? WELL. Load order is, as the name implies, the order that your mods are loading in (lol) it essentially organizes all of your conflicts by giving them a hierarchy. Any overlapping changes in a mod, will be overwritten by the mod going after it. So let’s say you have...
} Mod A } Mod B
Loaded, in that order. Let’s say they’re both trying to a move a barrel in Riverwood. Mod B’s changes would be the one you’d see in-game since Mod B is being loaded after (therefore overwriting) Mod A.
Make sense? Fantastic.
Back to it then - Things like BOSS or Loot are good (are either of these still a thing? I honestly don’t even know lol) - Great even. Particularly for people who are not well versed in the intricacies of "load order.” BUT! Sadly, sometimes human intervention is still necessary. If you've made the decision to run a thousand mods (like the rest of us) then YOU are the one responsible for policing it. AND YES! This is a giant pain in your ass. It's a giant pain my ass too. It's a giant pain in all asses everywhere... but it's important.
In sum, treat BOSS/Loot more as a guide - run it once to get all your mods into a loose order, and then go through and re-arrange.
What I personally do, along with, I’m sure, some others, and have been (somewhat) successful with so far (fingers crossed) is using a kindergarten approach to load order and trying and "group" my mods. Meaning that similar mods are all going together. (More on this shortly, but first...)
#01: Your ESM Files; #02: Bug-Fix type Mods; #03: Game Structure and/or UI Mods: #04: Character Appearance Mods (For NPCs and Self); #05: Mods that Add and/or Change Items; #06: Mods that Add and/or Change NPCs; #07: Mods that Add and/or Change Locations; #08: Mods that Add and/or Change Navmesh; #09: Texture Mods; #10: Environmental Mods (things like Climates of Tamriel, Sounds of Skyrim, etc.); #12: Mods with Gameplay Changes; Then, #13: Reproccers, AV, and Bashed Patches.
ADDITIONAL NOTES Generally speaking, all of your "fix" type mods (like HD texture pack fixes, or Unofficial patches) you want at the very tippy-top. Most other mods tend to fix things as they see them (this mod included), so you want these overwritten where necessary. Your load order is essentially just to determine which mods win out in conflicts. In the case of ETaC... well it adds a lot of "stuff" but it really doesn't make any script, quest, companion, environmental, etc. changes. So usually you'll want to load things making those sorts of changes AFTER, but things making other environment changes BEFORE. Since things going down the list are overwriting the things above it.
Some follower mods do add new locations. For example, the Arissa mod adds a new cave as part of her quest line. In cases like this, Arissa, and any follower mod that adds a new location, would be placed in your load order along with anything that adds or changes a location, and NOT with mods that add NPCs.
In a lot of cases, mods the add or change locations will also change navmesh. It's important that mods with major navmesh changes are loaded a bit lower on your list. So a mod that changes the porch outside an inn should be going before something like ETaC. It's better to have a single barrel not properly nav'd (and much easier to patch) than it would be to have all of the pathing in a town broken. (Your NPCs need it to move about in the world.)
If using it, very few mods should ever be loaded after your Bashed Patch. There are SOME exceptions, but those mods will likely tell you that upfront.
In closing... Even after following these guidelines you still need to make sure that you properly follow plugin placement rules as outlined by the mod author. So when in doubt – ASK THE MOD AUTHOR. They should know better than anybody else where their mod needs to be placed in relation to other mods to be able to function properly and with minimal conflicts.
If you are experiencing any "odd" mesh behavior specifically things either appearing, or not appearing, or showing up in a giant pile blocking doors or roads or entire buildings... Fear not! It's at least probably fixable.
The first thing I'd suggest trying is to load your save, get yourself to an interior cell (any interior cell will do, like Sleeping Giant Inn or the like.) Open the console and type "pcb". This purges cell buffers, which, as an added bonus frees up used memory occasionally resulting in increased fps, and more importantly in this case, purges cached cells. So any cells you visited in the recent past will reload completely when re-entered.
If that doesn't solve your problem, try doing a "clean mod install", the process for which will differ slightly depending on which installer you're using, and is outlined below.
IF YOU ARE -NOT- USING MOD ORGANIZER #1: Start by getting somewhere completely unedited (like Whiterun), save and exit; #2: Uninstall ETaC COMPLETELY. Double check your data folder to make sure that everything is gone. All patches, main files, meshes/textures/sounds/etc., the .bsa, the .esm. So on and so forth. #3: Load your save, go to [whatever town this is happening in], and confirm everything is gone, back to normal, right with the world. #4: Get yourself back to somewhere un-edited and create a NEW save. #5: Then uninstall any of the following: SMIM, WATER, Better Dynamic Snow, and/or ELFX. #6: Re-install ETaC (please be sure you are using the most recent version.) #7: Then re-install the following: SMIM, WATER, Better Dynamic Snow, and/or ELFX. #8: Then then then... Re-install any of the ETaC Patches you were using. #9: Load, go to [whatever town this was happening in]. Report back to me.
IF YOU ARE USING MOD ORGANIZER I give you Edeldios:And, further from Eledios:If it's STILL not working after - Let me know. And by "let me know" I mean PM me your load order along with a couple screenshots and any other relevant information. Happy to help if I can.
If you are experiencing the "light flickering effect" while using ETaC (either with or without the ELFX) --- The issue actually stems from the way Skyrim handles light sources, and by "handles" I mean "limits" in that you can only have a set number (4) lights hiting a single surface at a time. If you have more than this set number they'll toggle on and off so as to make sure that only that set number are on at a given time.
Obviously the problem is worsened when you're adding multiple mods that are adding lights, so if you've got ETaC with ELFX with LOS with Claralux with etc. etc. etc. You're going to get a lot of light flickering. Patching can reduce the number of lights, and ETaC *does* have patches for those mods, so if you're using any lighting mods, I'd suggest making sure you've also installed the patches.
NOTE: Your torch, and any NPC torches also count as light sources and there's really very little I can do about that on my end. I can't change how it handles or limits the light sources and I can't control whoall is running around with torches. I *can* try and reduce the number of exterior lights (which I have done in the new version, and will continue to do for added towns) but even if there is only ONE light if you run up with a torch and NPCs walk by with torches, you're still going to get the toggle.
With regard to exterior cells, there is also this...
For those of you having this issue in exterior cells, you can attempt a fix by adding (or adjusting) the following line in your Skyrim.ini file:As the quote explains, this will tell Skyrim to push back the distance at which it beings with all the light flickering.
SHADOW STRIPING (The entirety of this has been hijacked from STEP. You can find the original here.) One of the great things about ENBSeries is that it usually fixes shadow striping. Some users, however, will still experience this issue if they've edited their Skyrim INIs.
^ This is shadow striping.
If this is preset, adjust the iBlurDeferredShadowMask parameter in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file (MO users will have to adjust it in the INI Editor in MO). It will be set to its default from when the INI files where created by the game launcher, unless users have manually adjusted it. Turning this parameter down to a lower usually results in sharper shadow detail; however, turning it down too low can result in striping. Users can adjust this setting from 0-7. If striping occurs while ENBSeries is enabled, increase this parameter's value by one, save the change, and test the new setting in-game. Continue to repeat this process until the shadow striping is gone. Usually between 3 and 5 are the best values.
If the above is not helping or making the shadows too blurry, adjusting the fShadowDistance parameter may also help. This is the distance at which shadows are drawn from the object. Decreasing this will make these shadows less elongated and help to eliminate striping at lower iBlurDeferredShadowMask values; however, adjusting this value too long can also result in unnatural looking shadows.
If you are experiencing strange phantom banging sounds in most of your interior cells, this is not actually an issue with this mod, and is instead an issue with Skyrim's fragile-little-flower physics engine. It generally occurs when you've disabled your vsync or if you've got unnecessarily high FPS...The sounds are just a result of "the physics engine going a bit out of control" - You can read more about this here.
2. Troubleshooting (1 comment)
NOTE: IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING THE "FLOATING GRASS BUG" - This is NOT a problem with this mod specifically, and is instead an issue with grass textures not updating correctly. You can fix it by following these steps.
WELCOME! To my lovely little post on various things that can contribute to the perfect storm of stuff that might KILL your game. (Kill it dead.) (Splat.) aka "Most Commonly Addressed Issues for ETaC" aka "Stuff Jenna Says Entirely Too Often For Her Sanity."
NOTE: If you are looking to report a bug, please use the bug reports tab. It’s much easier for me to keep track of everything over there, what I’ve dealt with, still need to deal with, etc. THIS will be the home of common issues and fixes that are not so much bugs as miscellaneous other random problems and crap and junk and the like. -- Thanks!
Let’s get to it…
Let's start with some things you should know with regard to memory issues (Infinite Loading Screens - ILS; and/or Crash to Desktop - CTD) and how Skyrim handles them.
Beginning with - Skyrim's "Memory Cap" a/k/a the Large Address Aware Patch. I give you bben46... Essentially, when the RAM is used up, there is nowhere to put the new data. This is most often seen when you load a new area, go through a door, or autosave. As these actions temporarily take a lot more memory than you were using just before the crash. And yes, this memory ceiling can even be hit due to the textures you are using... (See "Textures" Section below.)
BUT worry not! There is help for you. (Per Arthmoor)... Also, per siuan, in re; crashes from Helgen to Riverwood (And Please Note --- This information is not limited to crashes in that specific area, and will help you if you are experiencing crashes in ANY area. Riverwood was just the area that was being discussed at the time)... HERE ARE YOUR LINKS
#1: SKSE by the SKSE Team;
#2: CTD and Memory Patch ENBoost by Boris Vorontsov; and,
#3:uGridsToLoad by Altimor.** Per the folks at S.T.E.P. Stable uGridsToLoad is no longer being recommend after the release of 2.2.9.2 due to concerns regarding a potential memory corruption issue that was never fixed.
STEP does not recommend changing the uGrids setting. With Dynamic Distant Objects LOD, there should be no need.
Lastly, an update from siuan with regard to SKSE/SSME:Moving on...
As mentioned above, HD textures, ENBs, or even your default graphics settings can also soak up your memory, and quick-like. I, personally, don't recommend using any textures above 1-2k (if you're on a lower end system, stick to 1k.) Especially when you're using A LOT of them. If you have 2039482084 things now loading 4k high-res textures it's going to make Skyrim's game engine weep, and crash and set fire to your living room. AND! As a general rule, (not just in relation to this mod), try to be careful about how many textures and of what kind you install. (Meaning beyond just armor, items and a few landscapes here or there.) Try not to grab up an insane and unreasonable amount of high res LOD, grasses, rocks, mountains etc. and so on - aka things that would start to pile up in an exterior cell.
What I'm trying to say is... If you come to me and say you're game is crashing, or your FPS is tanking, and I ask what kind of textures you've got installed and it's a million different 4k texture packs... I'm going to hurt you. With my teeth. So save yourself the headache and keep your super fancy high-res texture use to a minimum lol. You'll never be able to tell the difference in-game between a 2k potato and a 4k potato anyway, you crazy crazy lunatic, you.
Also. Grass. If someone is experiencing a big FPS drop in exterior cells, one of the first things I always recommend is to drop the "Grass Loading Distance" from far to medium. Grass isn't just "stuff" it's "moving stuff" and there is A LOT OF IT. All over Skyrim. This is especially problematic if you are using high-res grass textures. I shall now direct you to a quote from siuan... Also, with regard to Grass on Steriods and SFO (Skyrim Flora Overhaul) I first give you Nazenn...BUT. I shall now also give you keithinhanoi, because...And with that I end my 23042340824 paragraph dissection of Skyrim related grass stuff. Now on to ENBs...
ENBs also put added strain on processing, so my suggestion there is just to try and tweak the settings a bit, or Skyrim's default settings if you're not using one. (i.e. set load distances to medium vs. far; set ENB graphics to medium vs. high - in a lot of cases the difference in quality is barely noticeable while the difference in performance is huge.)
Let's take a moment to talk about scripts. Beginning with script spamming, and for this I direct you to a quote from siuan... It should also be noted that the SKSE.ini tweak (ClearInvalidRegistrations=1) is good, but it only clears up a certain kind of script. See Arthmoor's responses HERE.
Let's now take a minute to talk about script-overload, beginning with scripts and NPCs...
One thing you should note - When you use a mod that affixes scripts to NPCs, (i.e. Footprints, Enhance Blood, Run For Your Lives, etc.) it affixes them to ALL NPCs, even new ones added by things like ETaC. So when you walk into a large town, like let's say Dawnstar, you get an influx of tons of scripts running on tons of NPCs and sometimes HELLO! You're magically planted back at the desktop. (Additionally, if you then add on something like Interesting NPCs, or the Immersive NPCs packs, (even MORE people, even more scripts, so on.)
Now I'm not saying you can't use all those mods together, you can, I'm just saying sometimes this makes things crashy. For more (and specific) information on this, we have Edeldios:
So a number of you folks are talking about stuttering and fps loss while using ETaC. After seeing many, many load orders, I keep seeing the same issue: SCRIPT OVERLOAD!
Now most of you are doing the right thing and your mods are compatible, and your load orders are good. The sad thing is that Bethesda has set some limits on how much Skyrim can handle. People have modded Elder scrolls games in the past, but let's face it neither Morrowind or Oblivion have had quite the level and scale of the mods for Skyrim. When Bethesda created and programmed Skyrim they didn't anticipate the creative talents of the modding community to the scale it exists today. So as a result there is only so much the game can handle without performance issues. That's even with SKSE Memory patches, ini tweeks, and ENBoost.
Sure you want to make the balloon bigger, but it's just going to burst if you keep pumping too much air into it! So here is some info about scripted mods, what they do and how you can keep your balloon from bursting.
Since we are here on the ETaC page, let's start with how scripts are going to have an effect ETaC. ETaC adds additional NPCs, and NPCs are one of the most intensive parts of Skyrim. Each time a script is added to an NPC it increases the amount of scripts your CPU and the skyrim engine needs to process. Now multiply that by the number of npc that are found in town and city locations. Push this even further by adding even more NPCs from mods, and you get the idea...
When it comes to scripted mods, for this advice there are 3 types; heavy, medium and light.
Heavy: These would be mods like SkyRe, PerMa and Requiem. These mods add scripts to each and every character as well as your character. These mods are more or less intended to be a complete combat overhaul for the vanilla game. If you use these mods, you are going to have to make a choice, either add a mod or two that is light on scripts or one that adds NPCs but not both types.
Medium: These would be mods like Sands of Time, ASIS, Frostfall and Wet & Cold. These mods add scripts to all the NPCs in the game but not nearly as many as the heavy category. You can use 2 or 3 of these together and with a light scripted mod or two and a mod or two that adds npcs, just don't go overboard.
Light: These would be mods like Dragon Combat Overhaul, Run For Your Lives and When Vampires attack. These either add a couple scripts to all NPCs or a few scripts to various sections of the game. Go nuts, they should work just fine with using several mods that add NPCs and increase spawns, but just remember the rules above.
On a side note: if you use a uGridstoload setting above the default, this will increase the area around your character that scripts are firing. Sure, it makes the game nicer to look at, but it also causes scripts to fire at a greater distance as well. This could cause game breaking issues since many times it will cause quest scripts to fire before you are in range of the characters involved.
In sum, just try and be selective about what you're installing and what it does. If you've got 10 different mods all adding NPCs to towns, and then 10 different mods all adding scripts to those NPCs, this could definitely become problematic for you.
And should your save be a hot-mess of scripty grossness...
For this, I again give you siuan...Here is your link: Save Game Script Cleaner by Hadoram.
What the hell is it? WELL. Load order is, as the name implies, the order that your mods are loading in (lol) it essentially organizes all of your conflicts by giving them a hierarchy. Any overlapping changes in a mod, will be overwritten by the mod going after it. So let’s say you have...
} Mod A
} Mod B
Loaded, in that order. Let’s say they’re both trying to a move a barrel in Riverwood. Mod B’s changes would be the one you’d see in-game since Mod B is being loaded after (therefore overwriting) Mod A.
Make sense? Fantastic.
Back to it then - Things like BOSS or Loot are good (are either of these still a thing? I honestly don’t even know lol) - Great even. Particularly for people who are not well versed in the intricacies of "load order.” BUT! Sadly, sometimes human intervention is still necessary. If you've made the decision to run a thousand mods (like the rest of us) then YOU are the one responsible for policing it. AND YES! This is a giant pain in your ass. It's a giant pain my ass too. It's a giant pain in all asses everywhere... but it's important.
In sum, treat BOSS/Loot more as a guide - run it once to get all your mods into a loose order, and then go through and re-arrange.
What I personally do, along with, I’m sure, some others, and have been (somewhat) successful with so far (fingers crossed) is using a kindergarten approach to load order and trying and "group" my mods. Meaning that similar mods are all going together. (More on this shortly, but first...)
#01: Your ESM Files;
#02: Bug-Fix type Mods;
#03: Game Structure and/or UI Mods:
#04: Character Appearance Mods (For NPCs and Self);
#05: Mods that Add and/or Change Items;
#06: Mods that Add and/or Change NPCs;
#07: Mods that Add and/or Change Locations;
#08: Mods that Add and/or Change Navmesh;
#09: Texture Mods;
#10: Environmental Mods (things like Climates of Tamriel, Sounds of Skyrim, etc.);
#12: Mods with Gameplay Changes; Then,
#13: Reproccers, AV, and Bashed Patches.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Generally speaking, all of your "fix" type mods (like HD texture pack fixes, or Unofficial patches) you want at the very tippy-top. Most other mods tend to fix things as they see them (this mod included), so you want these overwritten where necessary. Your load order is essentially just to determine which mods win out in conflicts. In the case of ETaC... well it adds a lot of "stuff" but it really doesn't make any script, quest, companion, environmental, etc. changes. So usually you'll want to load things making those sorts of changes AFTER, but things making other environment changes BEFORE. Since things going down the list are overwriting the things above it.
Some follower mods do add new locations. For example, the Arissa mod adds a new cave as part of her quest line. In cases like this, Arissa, and any follower mod that adds a new location, would be placed in your load order along with anything that adds or changes a location, and NOT with mods that add NPCs.
In a lot of cases, mods the add or change locations will also change navmesh. It's important that mods with major navmesh changes are loaded a bit lower on your list. So a mod that changes the porch outside an inn should be going before something like ETaC. It's better to have a single barrel not properly nav'd (and much easier to patch) than it would be to have all of the pathing in a town broken. (Your NPCs need it to move about in the world.)
If using it, very few mods should ever be loaded after your Bashed Patch. There are SOME exceptions, but those mods will likely tell you that upfront.
In closing... Even after following these guidelines you still need to make sure that you properly follow plugin placement rules as outlined by the mod author. So when in doubt – ASK THE MOD AUTHOR. They should know better than anybody else where their mod needs to be placed in relation to other mods to be able to function properly and with minimal conflicts.
If you are experiencing any "odd" mesh behavior specifically things either appearing, or not appearing, or showing up in a giant pile blocking doors or roads or entire buildings... Fear not! It's at least probably fixable.
The first thing I'd suggest trying is to load your save, get yourself to an interior cell (any interior cell will do, like Sleeping Giant Inn or the like.) Open the console and type "pcb". This purges cell buffers, which, as an added bonus frees up used memory occasionally resulting in increased fps, and more importantly in this case, purges cached cells. So any cells you visited in the recent past will reload completely when re-entered.
If that doesn't solve your problem, try doing a "clean mod install", the process for which will differ slightly depending on which installer you're using, and is outlined below.
IF YOU ARE -NOT- USING MOD ORGANIZER
#1: Start by getting somewhere completely unedited (like Whiterun), save and exit;
#2: Uninstall ETaC COMPLETELY. Double check your data folder to make sure that everything is gone.
All patches, main files, meshes/textures/sounds/etc., the .bsa, the .esm. So on and so forth.
#3: Load your save, go to [whatever town this is happening in], and confirm everything is gone,
back to normal, right with the world.
#4: Get yourself back to somewhere un-edited and create a NEW save.
#5: Then uninstall any of the following: SMIM, WATER, Better Dynamic Snow, and/or ELFX.
#6: Re-install ETaC (please be sure you are using the most recent version.)
#7: Then re-install the following: SMIM, WATER, Better Dynamic Snow, and/or ELFX.
#8: Then then then... Re-install any of the ETaC Patches you were using.
#9: Load, go to [whatever town this was happening in]. Report back to me.
IF YOU ARE USING MOD ORGANIZER
I give you Edeldios:And, further from Eledios:If it's STILL not working after - Let me know. And by "let me know" I mean PM me your load order along with a couple screenshots and any other relevant information. Happy to help if I can.
If you are experiencing the "light flickering effect" while using ETaC (either with or without the ELFX) --- The issue actually stems from the way Skyrim handles light sources, and by "handles" I mean "limits" in that you can only have a set number (4) lights hiting a single surface at a time. If you have more than this set number they'll toggle on and off so as to make sure that only that set number are on at a given time.
Obviously the problem is worsened when you're adding multiple mods that are adding lights, so if you've got ETaC with ELFX with LOS with Claralux with etc. etc. etc. You're going to get a lot of light flickering. Patching can reduce the number of lights, and ETaC *does* have patches for those mods, so if you're using any lighting mods, I'd suggest making sure you've also installed the patches.
NOTE: Your torch, and any NPC torches also count as light sources and there's really very little I can do about that on my end. I can't change how it handles or limits the light sources and I can't control whoall is running around with torches. I *can* try and reduce the number of exterior lights (which I have done in the new version, and will continue to do for added towns) but even if there is only ONE light if you run up with a torch and NPCs walk by with torches, you're still going to get the toggle.
With regard to exterior cells, there is also this...
For those of you having this issue in exterior cells, you can attempt a fix by adding (or adjusting) the following line in your Skyrim.ini file:As the quote explains, this will tell Skyrim to push back the distance at which it beings with all the light flickering.
SHADOW STRIPING
(The entirety of this has been hijacked from STEP. You can find the original here.)
One of the great things about ENBSeries is that it usually fixes shadow striping. Some users, however, will still experience this issue if they've edited their Skyrim INIs.
^ This is shadow striping.
If this is preset, adjust the iBlurDeferredShadowMask parameter in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file (MO users will have to adjust it in the INI Editor in MO). It will be set to its default from when the INI files where created by the game launcher, unless users have manually adjusted it. Turning this parameter down to a lower usually results in sharper shadow detail; however, turning it down too low can result in striping. Users can adjust this setting from 0-7. If striping occurs while ENBSeries is enabled, increase this parameter's value by one, save the change, and test the new setting in-game. Continue to repeat this process until the shadow striping is gone. Usually between 3 and 5 are the best values.
If the above is not helping or making the shadows too blurry, adjusting the fShadowDistance parameter may also help. This is the distance at which shadows are drawn from the object. Decreasing this will make these shadows less elongated and help to eliminate striping at lower iBlurDeferredShadowMask values; however, adjusting this value too long can also result in unnatural looking shadows.
If you are experiencing strange phantom banging sounds in most of your interior cells, this is not actually an issue with this mod, and is instead an issue with Skyrim's fragile-little-flower physics engine. It generally occurs when you've disabled your vsync or if you've got unnecessarily high FPS...The sounds are just a result of "the physics engine going a bit out of control" - You can read more about this here.