Easier still if you use NMM, just click d/l with manager. If you wanna do it manually then extract it and go through the the folder system, and you'll quickly find skse.ini, just drop that into the directory Data/SKSE.
It will work on any save you load with this installed.
Can't see why on earth you wouldn't like it, unless you love CTD issues caused by orphaned scripts. but no, once you load a save with this in, it gets to work, and its changes cannot be undone. If you feel unsure then back-up your save games first.
They have released this. Its a part of skse itself, but requires you to create the file yourself. what i have done is made the file and shared it with the nexus community, mainly in order to raise awareness of this fix.
SKSE is a 3rd party extension of papyrus (scripting language used by skyrim). when a mod that uses scripts is removed it leaves a footprint in the save game files. so now papyrus is looking for these script files that no longer exist, which causes error logs in the save, which in turn causes save bloating and CTD's.
Thanks for the answers. I think it is clear to me: (I don't have backup the data folder and whatnot) just a backup of the savegames is sufficient. It is just not clear how papyrus knows that a script can be classified as orphaned and therefore superfluous.
Anyway, it seems sensible to make a backup now that I know backing up is so easy.
@ delandnightowl below: when you download mods manually, you can still use NMM to install them (whenever you want to). Suppose you have to reinstall skyrim, then you have the downloads as backup.
Papyrus, by itself, DOESN'T know if a script is orphaned or not. all it knows is that it has been told to call on these scripts from time to time. And thats what it does exactly, and in doing so will return error logs to itself that the called script couldnt be found, aka orphaned. all this info is stored within the .ess (save) file, thus causing bloat, sometimes huge. and its calls for the ones that couldnt be found that this ini deals with. if you wanna test if this really works then remove this ini and check the size of your save file. now install SoS Civilization, play for a few minutes, preferably inside a city/town (whiterun or solitude are perfect), save and quit, remove SoS Civilization. Check size of .ess file again. Now play for an hour or 2, save and quit, and check the file size again. you'll notice an increase in its size, likely by quite a percentage. reinstall this ini and play for a few hours, and you'll notice the file size dropped when you next check it.
I am testing Rogue Script Remover in another way: I have made a backup and will check what happens with the savegames. So far it has become a tiny bit bigger, from 25847 kB to 26193 kB.
Thank you so much for this. I am a major lurker but had to make my first post on here to let you know how much this is appreciated. I lost my first PC after a major glitch and could not log into the game at all without CTD. I had to go as far as to uninstall and re install the game and start over, including re-downloading the mods I wanted. Just happened to keep a backup of my original game just in case a small miracle would happen and I would be able to ever get it working. This worked like a charm. Only thing I had to do after getting the game back was put the hair back on my bald little head. Game has worked like a charm ever since. Just wish I had found this before going through the clean re install. It would have saved me hours of headaches.
I have been using this since it came out and I am convinced that it has really helped keep the stability of all the scripted mods I use really well. I wish I could endorse it again. Thank you so much for this utility.
I like this simple add in... Removing heavy script mods & slap the game a new heavy script mod with NO MORE rigorous new game... Testing this for months now, no probs on my part...
Quite contrary to what regaverse says, this mod SAVED my game. Or rather it saved my very first (and highest level) character from the pits of rogue script hell. I run quite a lot of scripted mods and sometimes scripted mods get abandoned, Bethesda updates Skyrim and all of a sudden the game doesn't work any more. Or I'll start a new character and play it for a while, trying out other mods or what not. My game is so heavily modded that my original character's save CTD'd every time I tried to play it. I'm happy to say that that character is back and I'm having so much fun playing him again.
This little gem of a mod lets me pretty much throw caution to the wind like a sailor on shore leave. I HIGHLY endorse this mod.
I logged in specifically to warn people: ALERT This kills your game - whatever its functionality to the modding developers; it is not a utility for common garden variety gamers. This killed my game - straight CTD to the desktop when selecting the Skyrim launcher. I installed and ran it because I had problems with CTD when launching from an outside location - a common issue which has fixes elsewhere. I thought scripts may be the issue. Whether that was true was overwhelmed by the fact that the game did not run AT ALL after this utility ran through the game. My guesstimate is that it correctly deleted the wrong or corrupted scripts in the game. But it does not completely remove the actual mod causing the issue. Some things you can solve yourself if you wind back the mods you have and reinstall any that are problems. Thankfully I took a record of the issues in the debug log before I ran this mod. I remembered that the debug log issues mostly relate to my install of the Climates of Tamreil mod. After uninstalling this mod, I reinstalled that mod. Problem fixed. I can run the GAME again. No thanks to this mod.
Im just wondering, you say you got a ctd when selecting the SKYRIM launcher. However this mod requires (and is a part of) SKSE so you need to use their launcher (SKSE_launcher.exe) to use it. If you are using SKSE make sure you are using the latest available for your version of the game, which needs to be updated to at least 1.8. Try this and let me know how you get on.
Do we keep this installed permanently or is it a one-time thing? And does it automatically work for all saves? Also, does this have an effect on the game other than removing rogue scripts? Because after I installed it (although this could be the fault of 2 other mods I downloaded, just a precaution) the script system whatsit in my game slowed down dramatically, causing Frostfall to shut down until it sped up :S
Just leave it where it is and it will work on ANY save you have. The slow down you experienced could possibly, though unlikely i think, be caused by this. Did you try removing the other 2 mods to see if it was still happening?
First file to the nexus (21 comments)
So, I should put this in Data/SKSE and then it will change the last save I have, or does it change all previous saves also?
If I don't like what the Rogue Script Remover does, can I undo what it has changed? (Which folders should I back up?)
Why haven't the SKSE programmers released this file?
How does the Rogue Script Remover recognize bad scripts?
It will work on any save you load with this installed.
Can't see why on earth you wouldn't like it, unless you love CTD issues caused by orphaned scripts. but no, once you load a save with this in, it gets to work, and its changes cannot be undone. If you feel unsure then back-up your save games first.
They have released this. Its a part of skse itself, but requires you to create the file yourself. what i have done is made the file and shared it with the nexus community, mainly in order to raise awareness of this fix.
SKSE is a 3rd party extension of papyrus (scripting language used by skyrim). when a mod that uses scripts is removed it leaves a footprint in the save game files. so now papyrus is looking for these script files that no longer exist, which causes error logs in the save, which in turn causes save bloating and CTD's.
Hope this answers your questions.
Happy gaming.
Anyway, it seems sensible to make a backup now that I know backing up is so easy.
@ delandnightowl below: when you download mods manually, you can still use NMM to install them (whenever you want to). Suppose you have to reinstall skyrim, then you have the downloads as backup.
I did not notice any harmfull effects.
Removing heavy script mods & slap the game a new heavy script mod with NO MORE rigorous new game...
Testing this for months now, no probs on my part...
I run quite a lot of scripted mods and sometimes scripted mods get abandoned, Bethesda updates Skyrim and all of a sudden the game doesn't work any more.
Or I'll start a new character and play it for a while, trying out other mods or what not. My game is so heavily modded that my original character's save CTD'd every time I tried to play it. I'm happy to say that that character is back and I'm having so much fun playing him again.
This little gem of a mod lets me pretty much throw caution to the wind like a sailor on shore leave. I HIGHLY endorse this mod.
This kills your game - whatever its functionality to the modding developers; it is not a utility for common garden variety gamers.
This killed my game - straight CTD to the desktop when selecting the Skyrim launcher.
I installed and ran it because I had problems with CTD when launching from an outside location - a common issue which has fixes elsewhere. I thought scripts may be the issue. Whether that was true was overwhelmed by the fact that the game did not run AT ALL after this utility ran through the game.
My guesstimate is that it correctly deleted the wrong or corrupted scripts in the game. But it does not completely remove the actual mod causing the issue. Some things you can solve yourself if you wind back the mods you have and reinstall any that are problems.
Thankfully I took a record of the issues in the debug log before I ran this mod. I remembered that the debug log issues mostly relate to my install of the Climates of Tamreil mod. After uninstalling this mod, I reinstalled that mod. Problem fixed. I can run the GAME again. No thanks to this mod.
Thanks for sharing, Cindy. This will be useful in the near future, I'm certain.