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. UPDATE(feb/23): I recently learned a safe method of .ESLfication of .ESPs with .SEQ files, however due to the considerable work involved it is generally only justified in mods with just a few lines of dialog. If this mod is not flagged as .ESL, it is due to the number of dialogs present in it, which would make the process slow and/or unfeasible within a reasonable amount of time.
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
I don"t know to do a patch but I encountered the same problem and choose to delete the head of the whale with the Creation Kit. So now I just need to find a reason why that whale was missing its head.
Is there any way the skeletons could be loaded in from further away? DynDOLOD doesn't appear to do anything, and the pop-in can be a bit immersion-breaking in places like Dawnstar where the skeleton doesn't appear until you're at the edge of town closest to it. No problem if it can't be done, though, this is a great mod and I'm definitely going to keep using it.
Beyond LODGen and DynDOLOD, no, which is what's weird here, because I don't know what is causing this. I might try again on a new save or something and see if I still have any issues, but I don't know if that would do anything.
Edit: Didn't do anything. For the specifics of the pop-in issue I'm having, the Dawnstar bones don't pop-in until I'm at least standing next to the small boat at the edge of town that can take you to Solitude or Windhelm, and they pop back out when I go back as far as the blacksmith. The ones by Volkihar do a bit better; I can see them from Steepfall Burrow but not Fort Hraggstad (which isn't a real problem). I haven't found the other bones yet to test. I'm wondering if the bones are set as terrain and not objects, and therefore LODGen would be the solution and not DynDOLOD?
strange indeed, friend, for me on vanilla all works normal. they are static objects, answering your question, so, the same settings as architecture or mountains.
Hmm, DynDOLOD should work on it then. Not sure what's going on, but it's definitely on my end it seems. Thank you again for your great mods, and hopefully I figure this out.
Wasn't able to find a fix, but I'll soldier on with it the way it is. Regenerating occlusion at highest settings via DynDOLOD didn't change anything, nor did load order changes. Odds are I have some weird mod conflict, but I don't know what it would be. Only thing left to try would be to tweak the ini settings to load in more cells, but that seems like risky overkill for a pretty minor inconvenience.
What whale mod would you reccomend to be added due to this mod, i would like some living whales (the swimming kind) as well.
And your flying whales seem a bit odd to have landed on a beach, i think. (guess a flying whale bones mod would be a thing i guess, whale bones on the mountains)
I hope I dont be annoying or too demanding. I want to ask if you are planning an owl mod in the near future. Thats was one of the result of your contest in December 2022.
May I make a completely unsolicited suggestion for this mod? Whale bones along the cost make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why are these whales beaching? Whales usually die at sea. But this is a really good idea so why not make some abandoned Whaling stations? The North of Skyrim would most likely having a whaling industry but due to the war, would have been abandoned. That way you get to have whale bones on the coast that actually make sense. Just food for thought.
its a good idea indeed friend, perhaps in the future, but actually finding whale carcasses on coasts is pretty common in certain areas. whales frequently get stranded on shores and die there, thus leaving the carcasses, its a pretty common occurrence.
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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. UPDATE(feb/23): I recently learned a safe method of .ESLfication of .ESPs with .SEQ files, however due to the considerable work involved it is generally only justified in mods with just a few lines of dialog. If this mod is not flagged as .ESL, it is due to the number of dialogs present in it, which would make the process slow and/or unfeasible within a reasonable amount of time.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
here they never pop-up out and into existence, friend, i can see them from a distance.
Edit: Didn't do anything. For the specifics of the pop-in issue I'm having, the Dawnstar bones don't pop-in until I'm at least standing next to the small boat at the edge of town that can take you to Solitude or Windhelm, and they pop back out when I go back as far as the blacksmith. The ones by Volkihar do a bit better; I can see them from Steepfall Burrow but not Fort Hraggstad (which isn't a real problem). I haven't found the other bones yet to test. I'm wondering if the bones are set as terrain and not objects, and therefore LODGen would be the solution and not DynDOLOD?
they are static objects, answering your question, so, the same settings as architecture or mountains.
And your flying whales seem a bit odd to have landed on a beach, i think. (guess a flying whale bones mod would be a thing i guess, whale bones on the mountains)
If you are looking for one, it is here Snow Whale Bones
Shiver me timbers.
I m looking forward :)
whales frequently get stranded on shores and die there, thus leaving the carcasses, its a pretty common occurrence.