This mod is the release of a mod developed by me initially for the Legendary Edition, now available here also for the Special Edition and Anniversary Edition versions of Skyrim. The .esp is converted to Form 44 format, and all the .NIFs (meshes) and .DDSs (textures) are optimized in the correct ways to run in both SE and AE, requiring absolutely no further work on your part.
When possible, my releases to SE and AE are flagged as .ESLs, which means they don't take up an .ESP slot in the users load order. However, this is not always possible. Below, you can check the three possible scenarios and check which scenario applies to this specific release. Since the other two will be crossed out, and the correct one will be marked in yellow:
The mod is flagged as .ESL, so it won't take up space in your load order, and yet it will be read and executed perfectly by your game;
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, because it has FaceGen data on it, so if it was flagged, whoever is not using the last official updates for SE or AE, including most pirated Skyrim users, will have the NPCs added by this mod having the gray face bug. However, if you have the latest update installed, you can flag this mod as an .ESL using SSEEdit, at your own risk, but generally with no problems;
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, as it requires the use of .SEQ files. In all the tests I did, even regenerating the .SEQ files after flagging the .ESPs as .ESLs, the dialogues stopped working. So, to maintain the integrity of dialogues and even quests added by my mods with .SEQ files, you should not attempt to flag this file under any circumstances, and you should use it in the exact way I made it available for download.
One last comment: there is a common misconception that all LE meshes need to go through NifOptimizer in order to be used in SE or AE, with the most varied arguments defending this, and a few absurdities about what would happen if it wasn't done. This is just another one of the myths that this community believes without any basis, and that it spreads only because it saw many people repeating the same thing. DO NOT OPTIMIZE meshes, neither mine nor any from other mod's. Most meshes are ready to run directly from LE to SE. NifOptimizer should only be used in cases where they DO NOT WORK DIRECTLY WITHOUT BEING OPTIMIZED. Using NifOptimizer indiscriminately without need, and without knowing how to do it correctly, leads to terrible consequences, being able to damage UV's, Normal Maps, the very 3d structure of the models, and much more, in short, causing more problems than the possible problems you could have with 1 in every 100 meshes needing to be optimized, something you would later do manually and individually when proven necessary. JUST DON'T PASS MESHES THROUGH THE NIF OPTIMIZER EXCEPT IF THEY JUST DON'T WORK IN THE SPECIAL EDITION OR ANNIVERSARY EDITION AFTER YOU TESTED THEM YOURSELF FIRST.
It's a fact that yes NifOptimizer can solve problems in problematic Nifs, but in this case, and if these Nifs are mine, just contact me and I'll solve the problem for you. If you have really in-depth knowledge of how to correct any negative consequences of using the program on the problematic mesh, that's ok, do it, but if not, just contact me and I'll solve it, since the nif having the problem would be caused by a little oversight of mine while I was producing it, so would be my responsability to fix the problem as well.Unfortunately, because the use of NifOptimizer was recommended in many tutorials as a possible step, a lot of people took it as mandatory, and many fools started to use it as gospel and to convince others, but remember, it's not because it's on the internet that is real. There is absolutely NO such thing as an "old nif format". NiTriShape works perfectly in SE and AE, it is NOT necessary in any way to convert the .nifs to BSTriShape format for them to run smoothly in game, and this messy conversion can even lead you to severe ingame problems. Unfortunately, 3 or 4 paranoids managed to create a legion of players who live in constant panic of corrupting their games, and in an attempt to avoid it, they end up diving into a corruption many times greater, created by themselves, unnecessarily.But don't just take my word for it based on my years of experience and dedication to this activity, listen to Arcane University's own words about it, possibly the best center of studies on modding for The Elder Scrolls available on the internet: (image extracted from the link: https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:NIF_Data_Format)
Play more, have more fun, and let the authors be responsible for the technical condition and functionality of the mods they release. And if you don't trust them enough to use mods without trying to fix what often doesn't need to be fixed, just stop using those mods.
Take care, and if you have any doubts, look for me on my Discord server, Mihail
Too powerfull for vanilla game short range characters. High lvls eg. 50 and enchanting lvl 100 required to fight. Overkill while not using glitches to lvl up. Highly overkilled, unplayable. I do not lvl up enchanting at all because it renders all unique items in game usless and i can not even stay near the collosus.
Centurion masters are too easy when they aim companion then you jump to unkilable monster. I would like to see 50% stronger centurion masters/better abilities for them.
Your modes are mostly excellent and I am thankfull for them.
they are optional bosses, friend, planned to be the magnum opus of dwarven automatons like on eso where they are even stronger. you dont need to fight or kill them to progress in the game, all are optional and on optional areas, except the smallest and weakest version, the Scroll Keeper, that you find when on blackreach going after the elder scrolls, and even that one fight is avoidable. also, i can fight them in melee in high lvls with zero enchantments, i do it all the time, it is a fight not made for low lvl characters, but if i find one at such lvl, i do the smart thing i would do in real life and i run, to return later when i am capable of destroying it. perhaps you have mods affecting combat or even worst, you may be playing on Legendary, and i recomend you to play on Master, since Legendary is an artificial difficulty where nothing makes sense regarding damage input. if it's none of those, it may be a skill issue on your part, but all can be fixed with practice.
thanks for all of your work over the years for the skyrim community.
I have a question about two of your mods, one beeing this one. I tested them by spawning them in or using the summon spell, but two creatures have a strange mesh issue. The dwarven colossus has grey kneepads and a grey part at the shoulders. The crow-of-wraith has the same issue with the spell crow meshes. I only encounter this in skyrim VR. Do you have any idea what may cause this?
In any case thanks for your help.
Edit: I tinkered with the colossus mesh in nifskope. I removed the antisotrophic lightning flag and now the parts show normally in VR. Haven't found something like that in the wraith-of-crows mod.
thanks for your kind words, friend. i was going to ask you if you are playing in VR, because this kind of stuff apparently can happen there, is a problem of VR not being able to render certain textures. check on my dwarven automatons pack page the comment section for the discussion some users were having about the solution for that VR bug, friend.
thanks for replying. i didn't find anything in the comment section of your other mod, but as mentioned in my edit i found a way to alter the mesh to work correct in VR. Now i only have to get the spell ravens of wraith-of-crows working
Skyrim was missing larger-than-life enemies that outsized the player. Dodging between the colossus' attacks, and knowing that bad timing would mean game over, made this fight exhilarating. Add in the way it enters the field; it's an extremely cinematic fight. Thank you.
Does anyone else have an issue where the kneepads on the Colossus are flat grey textures? Was super bummed to find out that this is the only Mihail mod I've downloaded where this is a problem -especially when it would otherwise be the best looking one :(
I did notice that there were two .TGA files under \Textures\Actors\Character\FaceGenData\FaceTint\mihailesocenturion.esp, which is a format that can't be read by SSE... Not sure if that's what's causing this though
You probably got an inssue while donwloading or intalling the mod, friend. Donwload it again and tell me if worked. Tested here and its working fine. The files inside "actors" folder that you mentioned are just leftovers, they do not affect the mod. They are generated automatically when updating a LE mod to SE/AE format, when you have no actual FaceGen files on the mod. I allways delete them, since they are useless, but in this case i did not.
Hey Mihail, thanks for the response! I'm honored :,)
Unfortunately the problem still persists for me, and I can confirm, there's no conflicts with file overrides or with the ESP in xEdit... The only thing I can think of is that I'm on Skyrim VR, which is known to have issues with some meshes that work fine in SE/AE. I have no idea how that stuff works, all I know is that I've had to install VR-specific Mouth-Textures to fix the same flat-grey texture in some NPC Overhaul's (Such as Tragedian's here: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/61669)
while i wait (he is probably sleeping right now) lets try my wild guess. i know VR is problematic with 4k textures, and all colossus is 4k, so lets try a 2k version of the knees, gimme a moment.
Would downsizing with Cathedral Assets Optimizer work for the 2K texture? If so, I already tried that. Also tried optimizing the meshes too, no luck :(
I don't want to take up much more of your time, since I know catering to the small number of VR players can be a b*tch. I'll try to do some research after work to figure out what causes the texture incompatibilities with SSE and VR, then see if I can fix it myself. If I fix it, I'll let you know and maybe we can add the patch as an optional download.
Thanks again for your help and responding to this! I really do appreciate it.
Are you using the unofficial patch? That causes a weird bug in vr with Dwarven stuff. AshAuryn made a fix for the Ballista https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/18722. You only need the nif to fix that grey texture, you can hid the textures it comes with and use better ones. I'd bet our issue in VR stems from that bug. That's as far as I could get in chasing down a possible culprit, since this loads fine in SSE.
We got pretty lucky though that this small texture glitch is the only issue with Mihail's mods in VR. I couldn't imagine ever playing Skyrim without these. They add so much to the experience.
Unfortunately not, its still broken for me in VR. Its a unique problem that I can't wrap my head around, but it's likely very similar to the Dwarven Ballista texture issue mentioned by apostkhan.
I'm imagining it could also have a similarity to the problems with other textures in VR that have glowmaps and certain shaders when they didn't in vanilla ie the missing eye issue for Pandorables Dawnguard Vampires, if I knew exactly what the VR Dwarven ballista patch did to fix that issue with USSEP I'd try and make a colossus fix based on it myself
Potentially could remove the branches from the nif containing the dwarven ballista base so wouldn't have grey but would lose the knee pads and lower pauldron parts as a tradeoff, other alternative is if Mihail built a 'vr friendly version' replacing those bits with different parts but that's probably a lot of work to ask for a handful of users with an issue really not caused by this mod but VR compatibility (if I was more knowledgeable I'd take a go at making those changes myself, but I'm still very new to modding)
Vanilla Texture Paths for Mihail's Dwarven Automatons Pack ^ I can confirm this doesn't fix it for me. However, I DID learn that the Dwarven Magetta in the same mod pack has the same issue in VR. In my game its got the same flat, grey texture for the claws and most of the head. Just something about the VR version of the game I guess :(
85 comments
The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, because it has FaceGen data on it, so if it was flagged, whoever is not using the last official updates for SE or AE, including most pirated Skyrim users, will have the NPCs added by this mod having the gray face bug. However, if you have the latest update installed, you can flag this mod as an .ESL using SSEEdit, at your own risk, but generally with no problems;The mod is not flagged as .ESL, just like a normal .ESP, as it requires the use of .SEQ files. In all the tests I did, even regenerating the .SEQ files after flagging the .ESPs as .ESLs, the dialogues stopped working. So, to maintain the integrity of dialogues and even quests added by my mods with .SEQ files, you should not attempt to flag this file under any circumstances, and you should use it in the exact way I made it available for download.JUST DON'T PASS MESHES THROUGH THE NIF OPTIMIZER EXCEPT IF THEY JUST DON'T WORK IN THE SPECIAL EDITION OR ANNIVERSARY EDITION AFTER YOU TESTED THEM YOURSELF FIRST.
It's a fact that yes NifOptimizer can solve problems in problematic Nifs, but in this case, and if these Nifs are mine, just contact me and I'll solve the problem for you. If you have really in-depth knowledge of how to correct any negative consequences of using the program on the problematic mesh, that's ok, do it, but if not, just contact me and I'll solve it, since the nif having the problem would be caused by a little oversight of mine while I was producing it, so would be my responsability to fix the problem as well.Unfortunately, because the use of NifOptimizer was recommended in many tutorials as a possible step, a lot of people took it as mandatory, and many fools started to use it as gospel and to convince others, but remember, it's not because it's on the internet that is real. There is absolutely NO such thing as an "old nif format". NiTriShape works perfectly in SE and AE, it is NOT necessary in any way to convert the .nifs to BSTriShape format for them to run smoothly in game, and this messy conversion can even lead you to severe ingame problems. Unfortunately, 3 or 4 paranoids managed to create a legion of players who live in constant panic of corrupting their games, and in an attempt to avoid it, they end up diving into a corruption many times greater, created by themselves, unnecessarily.But don't just take my word for it based on my years of experience and dedication to this activity, listen to Arcane University's own words about it, possibly the best center of studies on modding for The Elder Scrolls available on the internet: (image extracted from the link: https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:NIF_Data_Format)
Play more, have more fun, and let the authors be responsible for the technical condition and functionality of the mods they release. And if you don't trust them enough to use mods without trying to fix what often doesn't need to be fixed, just stop using those mods.
Take care, and if you have any doubts,
look for me on my Discord server,
Mihail
Centurion masters are too easy when they aim companion then you jump to unkilable monster. I would like to see 50% stronger centurion masters/better abilities for them.
Your modes are mostly excellent and I am thankfull for them.
you dont need to fight or kill them to progress in the game, all are optional and on optional areas, except the smallest and weakest version, the Scroll Keeper, that you find when on blackreach going after the elder scrolls, and even that one fight is avoidable.
also, i can fight them in melee in high lvls with zero enchantments, i do it all the time, it is a fight not made for low lvl characters, but if i find one at such lvl, i do the smart thing i would do in real life and i run, to return later when i am capable of destroying it.
perhaps you have mods affecting combat or even worst, you may be playing on Legendary, and i recomend you to play on Master, since Legendary is an artificial difficulty where nothing makes sense regarding damage input.
if it's none of those, it may be a skill issue on your part, but all can be fixed with practice.
have fun with them
mihail
thanks for all of your work over the years for the skyrim community.
I have a question about two of your mods, one beeing this one. I tested them by spawning them in or using the summon spell, but two creatures have a strange mesh issue. The dwarven colossus has grey kneepads and a grey part at the shoulders. The crow-of-wraith has the same issue with the spell crow meshes. I only encounter this in skyrim VR. Do you have any idea what may cause this?
In any case thanks for your help.
Edit: I tinkered with the colossus mesh in nifskope. I removed the antisotrophic lightning flag and now the parts show normally in VR. Haven't found something like that in the wraith-of-crows mod.
i was going to ask you if you are playing in VR, because this kind of stuff apparently can happen there, is a problem of VR not being able to render certain textures.
check on my dwarven automatons pack page the comment section for the discussion some users were having about the solution for that VR bug, friend.
i didn't find anything in the comment section of your other mod, but as mentioned in my edit i found a way to alter the mesh to work correct in VR. Now i only have to get the spell ravens of wraith-of-crows working
Donwload it again and tell me if worked.
Tested here and its working fine.
The files inside "actors" folder that you mentioned are just leftovers, they do not affect the mod. They are generated automatically when updating a LE mod to SE/AE format, when you have no actual FaceGen files on the mod. I allways delete them, since they are useless, but in this case i did not.
Unfortunately the problem still persists for me, and I can confirm, there's no conflicts with file overrides or with the ESP in xEdit... The only thing I can think of is that I'm on Skyrim VR, which is known to have issues with some meshes that work fine in SE/AE. I have no idea how that stuff works, all I know is that I've had to install VR-specific Mouth-Textures to fix the same flat-grey texture in some NPC Overhaul's (Such as Tragedian's here: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/61669)
Do you know which .nif is responsible for the plates on the Colossus's knees? I've uploaded an image here for reference: https://imgur.com/a/Su1dm6N
i know VR is problematic with 4k textures, and all colossus is 4k, so lets try a 2k version of the knees, gimme a moment.
overwrite the files when asked.
I don't want to take up much more of your time, since I know catering to the small number of VR players can be a b*tch. I'll try to do some research after work to figure out what causes the texture incompatibilities with SSE and VR, then see if I can fix it myself. If I fix it, I'll let you know and maybe we can add the patch as an optional download.
Thanks again for your help and responding to this! I really do appreciate it.
when my moderator answers me, and if he knows a solution, i will let you know.
We got pretty lucky though that this small texture glitch is the only issue with Mihail's mods in VR. I couldn't imagine ever playing Skyrim without these. They add so much to the experience.
^ I can confirm this doesn't fix it for me. However, I DID learn that the Dwarven Magetta in the same mod pack has the same issue in VR. In my game its got the same flat, grey texture for the claws and most of the head. Just something about the VR version of the game I guess :(