Frequently Asked Questions

11 September 2023, 11:02  |  Posted by Eddoursul  |  2221 views
How to contribute to Enderal SE?
Everything related to development of Enderal SE happens on this Discord. The mod is 100% open source, you can find its git repository here. Our Discord has a specialized channel #git, where you can track updates in real time.
Why was the Steam version discontinued?
For multiple reasons, the most significant of them are:

- Broken feedback loop. I release patches, but all the feedback and bug reports end up elsewhere, rarely reaching me. A mod cannot be developed in a vacuum. If you wondered, why an issue stays unfixed, it's probably because I never knew it exists.

- Poor awareness of how the mod is maintained and developed led to unrealized contributions from other modders. Why contribute to a mod, when a whole studio is working on it? Well, it does not. By 2.0.10, development of Enderal SE became fully dependent on my mood and motivation.

- Constant stream of issues, not related to Enderal, and caused by Windows, Skyrim, Steam, SkyUI, SSE Display Tweaks, or SureAI's launcher. None of those are parts of the Enderal world we maintain. We never worked on these third-party components, and cannot help you with them.

- Requirement to maintain backward compatibility with older saves limits our room for manoeuvre to improve and develop Enderal.

To avoid stopping the development of Enderal SE altogether, I moved it back to the mod-only model, like it was from the beginning. I closed most pressing issues and released 2.0.12 as the last version, intended for publishing on Steam. UPD: By now, the 2.0 branch accumulated several recommended updates, you can find details here.

Why is it not on Nexus Mods? They require the perpetual distribution right to all uploaded mods, passing it down the line to all collections. I neither am willing, nor have the right to grant it to them.
Can I copy my LE savegames to Enderal SE?
No, this ship has sailed long time ago. Start a new game.
Game freezes or crashes when using a workbench.
You should not have used a savegame from Enderal LE. Start a new game.
Can I play Enderal in VR?
Yes. See Enderal VR, maintained by sasa2727, and follow the #vr channel on our Discord server for instructions.
Can I use Enderal LE mods?
Enderal LE mods must be converted before using. The process is similar to porting mods from Skyrim LE to SE. Required reading:

Additionally, the following data must be forwarded from Enderal SE ESM files with xEdit:
  • Worldspace (WRLD) records. The paper map will not work correctly without this step.
  • Cell Editor IDs must not contain underscores, breaking save grouping in the main menu. Changed Editor IDs must be forwarded as well.

At this point, all scripted mods, made for Enderal LE, are considered out of date and incompatible. Their scripts must be compared and updated before using.
The map is broken.
If it looks like this, you are using an unconverted mod for Enderal LE:


See the previous question.
As of 2.0.12, Enderal SE tells you which mod breaks the map. If you don’t see the message, your Enderal is out of date.

If it got broken after you generated LOD, you might overwrite the file meshes\terrain\Vyn\vyn.32.-5.9.btr containing the paper map – always back it up before LOD generation. Revalidate your files in order to restore it.
Can't make a save in some locations.
Skyrim Special Edition introduced a new start menu, separating savegames for different characters. For this feature to work correctly, cells must not have underscores in their Editor IDs.

Enderal SE has all relevant records updated, but some old mods, made for LE, may revert these changes and break save grouping. Either remove the culprits (never do this mid-game), or fix Editor IDs in them. In the meantime, all saves should be visible through “Show All Saves”.
Can I use my favorite Skyrim mods?
Short answer: Always assume a Skyrim mod is incompatible until proven otherwise.

Long answer: Enderal uses heavily modified Skyrim.esm, incompatible with Skyrim. This makes all mods, relying on removed entries, incompatible with Enderal. Even if the entries still were there, the mods would still be useless, because they do not affect Enderal content. Some SSE mods are compatible.

To determine if an ESP plugin is compatible with Enderal, run xEdit and check the ESP for errors (literally, right click on the plugin -> Check for errors). If it reports about missing entries, the mod is incompatible.

If the plugin has a Cell and/or Worldspace node, delete them and check for errors again. If there are none, go manually through all records in the plugin and see if they are shown properly in xEdit. If you suddenly see one or more of them only in Skyrim.esm and plugin’s column is completely empty, you got a FormID collision, do not even try to use this mod without fixing it.

While technically an ESP without any errors may be compatible, you must answer other questions, too. Was this mod converted properly to SE? Does it affect Enderal content? Does it fit? Does it interfere with Enderal mechanics?

Using custom LOD, make sure it does not override the file meshes\terrain\Vyn\vyn.32.-5.9.btr, containing the map.

As of 2.0.12, Enderal automatically detects some types of incompatible mods and shows warnings on game start.
Floor and walls are missing in Emporium, Riverville Mayor's house, etc.
You are using incompatible mesh replacers. Currently known mods causing this:
  • Static Mesh Improvement Mod – SMIM
  • Particle Patch for ENB

As of 2.0.12, Enderal SE automatically detects and warns about mods, causing this issue.
Music does not play.
There are four known sources of issues with music in Enderal SE.

If music worked fine at first, but disappeared at some point mid-game, you have encountered an engine Skyrim issue with non-firing OnTriggerLeave. It is fixable, just very hard to pinpoint and report. As a workaround, download this file, copy it to the root directory of your game, where SkyrimSE.exe is, and run in console bat silence. Music overrides are save-baked per region, so you may need to re-run it after moving to affected locations. We are working on rewriting the logic of affected quests.

Issues, originating in the Skyrim engine:

  • Make sure you have DirectX Redist installed. You can download the full package here. This issue is usually encountered on newly installed operating systems.
  • Music may disappear due to an obscure vanilla Skyrim bug, appearing when installed on a non-system drive. Supposedly, it is linked to presence of the Master Boot Record on game’s drive (see this gist). The easiest solution is to move Enderal SE installation (or Skyrim SE for the mod version) to the system drive.
  • Sometimes, the issue is caused by a drive with a sector size other than 512. Ian Patterson posted a fix here Sound Fix for Large Sector Drives.
Does LOOT work with Enderal SE?
No, LOOT does not work with Enderal SE like you expect it to. It reorders plugins using masterlists, maintained by volunteers. Enderal's masterlist is unmaintained and is almost empty, LOOT does not utilize Skyrim masterlists in Enderal mode, and LOOT does not parse plugin structures to determine their intended load order. All this makes resulting load orders basically randomized. This applies to built-in sorting in Vortex as well, since it’s based on LOOT.
Characters are T-posing or do not perform certain animations after using FNIS or Nemesis.
Make sure you downloaded the Behaviors Pack from the file section and reordered your mods accordingly.
There is a known issue with Nemesis, custom paired animations stop working, while FNIS works as intended. If you know a solution to this, do let us know.
I have crashes!
As of 2.0.10, we have resolved all confirmed crashes in Enderal SE.
This does not mean it never crashes, but it does mean that your issue is most likely not caused by Enderal.

  • Verify your files, both Steam and torrents have this feature.
  • Check if your hardware is not overheating.
  • Check if you mods are compatible with Enderal.
  • Check if your mods are not outdated.
  • Remember to never remove mods mid-game.
  • Some crashes may be caused by moved persistent references, install Save Unbaker.

If you find a crash to be consistent in an unmodded setup, join our Discord and post the following:
  • a savegame, made very close to the event,
  • a crash log, generated by .NET Script Framework and located by default in Data\NetScriptFramework\Crash,
  • actions, preceding the crash.