This mod has been superseded by the following


Nukem's mod works on all the non-VR versions of Skyrim Special Edition from 1.5.97 - 1.6.659. Neither that one nor this mod is necessary for 1.6.1130 and newer. 

I'm leaving this mod up for those who may be running Skyrim VR and have no other alternative. However do keep in mind that there are still many limitations to using this mod with unsupported plugin modules with Skyrim VR.


If you are running SSE game version 1.6.1130 or later you do not need this. It will not do anything for you.

What is this?
This is an SKSE plugin DLL that when used will patch the plugin header version check in memory. This has the same effective result as manually editing the plugin files to change the version to 1.70 to work with older EXEs. That is its sole purpose. There are still other potential caveats to using these plugin modules. See the next section in the description and the first sticky post in comments for more details.

This does NOT magically make SKSE DLL plugins compatible with different game versions.

What won't work with this mod
Using this mod with older game EXEs has some drawbacks

• This mod does not make plugins using the expanded FormID range work on older game EXEs. They will usually cause a CTD. One such file is the _ResourcePack.esl that comes with the 1130 update.
• Any mods/creations which include scripts that use the new Papyrus functions added with the 1130 update will malfunction. You must use the 1130 EXE for those to work. One example is kinggath_creations East Empire Expansion.
• You will not get any of the bug fix and feature improvements.
  

Why does this exist?
On Dec 5, 2023 Bethesda released an update to the game and Creation Kit which brought version 1.6.1130 and with it 2 major notes of change.

• The HEDR version internally set on plugin module files was increased to 1.71 from the long standing previous 1.70.
• The supported FormID range for ESL flagged files was increased from the previous 2048 records to 4095.
  

Because of how the game handles the lower range FormIDs below 0x800 the game EXE needs to know how to identify which files are supposed to use the larger range with new behavior. Thus the change to the HEDR version. Due to this if you try to load a plugin module with a 1.71 HEDR on an older game EXE it will be ignored. In some cases this may also cause a CTD. Additionally the Creation Kit update saves all plugins with the new 1.71 version value. So many mods published after this release date will have the newer version number.

The game EXE will check the version header during the main menu load and if it is too high it skips loading the plugin. Using this mod comes with a risk if you are using a game EXE that does not actually know how to handle the plugin due to the lower range FormIDs odd things may happen. See the first sticky post in comments for more details.

VR Support
Like the Fallout 4 counterpart to this mod, VR should be supported as is.

Special Notes
If you're using the updated game files with an older EXE then you must delete the _ResourcePack.esl or bad things will happen when loading and using this mod. That new resource pack uses the extended FormID range which will cause old game EXEs to behave badly, using causing a CTD. See the sticky post. Additionally you will need to check your plugin modules to see if any of them use the lower FormID range 001-7FF. Typically this will only be a concern for mods that are ESL flagged as if they are not flagged, renumbering/compacting the IDs isn't usually done.