TES V: Skyrim Special Edition (SSE) installs as a new game in Steam for those with all DLCs (Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn). This updated game is 64-bit and includes improved weather, atmospheric effects, water shaders, dynamic depth of field (DoF), and bunches more flora. And finally, rain doesn’t pass through the roof (graphics settings option)! The improvements are nice, and leave me less inclined to add ENB. Lighting still needs attention, though. Besides management of mods through bethesda.net, the interface includes character management meaning each character gets its own series of saves. It’s also organized into modded and un-modded game saves. It’s nice for switching characters without restarting the game or manually managing folders, but the save files are coded making it more difficult to know which belongs to what character outside of the game.

I’m also excited that waterfalls now appear animated from farther distances! Fewer ugly frozen falls! Even though SE isn’t about fixing bugs (wolf howl still missing), Shrine of Azura is visible from Sarthal, which in original game required LoD fix.

This week Microsoft announced the Surface Studio desktop with multi-touch screen, and Apple introduced the latest MacBook Pro with new “Touch Bar” and fingerprint ID. It seems Apple remains content to gradually iterate devices and focus on thinner and lighter, and Microsoft has been getting into the try-new-things and polish-old-ideas phase. I’d say Microsoft wins the cool-tech award for 2016.

MS Surface Studio

Remember that Surface Table from several years ago? This desktop features a touch screen that folds down into table mode for working with a Surface Pen for creating art, drafting, handwriting, anything that benefits from hands-on input and manipulation. Go read what the Penny Arcade artist, Gabe, has to say about working with the Surface Pro. When asked to compare with another device, Gabe said, “drawing on the Cintiq now felt like drawing on a piece of dirty plexiglass hovering over a CRT monitor from 1997.”

The Surface Studio includes mini DisplayPort, SD card slot, Surface Pen, Surface Mouse, and Surface Keyboard. The 28-inch display uses a “Zero Gravity Hinge” to easy repositioning. If nothing else, it looks cool.

image from microsoft.com

MacBook Pro 2016

Today Apple showed off the updated MacBook Pro for 2016. As always, thinner and lighter. The new “Touch Bar” is a touch-screen row of function keys that remap per application. To see normal function keys, hold down the Fn key. Making room for smaller, thinner, and a super big trackpad, the keyboard size has suffered. Together without tactile function keys, more engineers and developers may likely choose to carry around an external keyboard.

And don’t forget the dongles. Say goodbye to the SD card slot and MagSafe, and make room for pure USB-C. I always prefered using SD cards over USB sticks due to thinness. Wasn’t MagSafe a big selling feature? The power cord popping out saved my old MacBook at least once.

Check out Ars Technica first hands-on impression of the new MacBook Pro.

Texture artist and outfit mod creator, Lind’s Realm, released a new female clothing attire for Skyrim, “Lind’s Marksmage Garb” for UNP body. A refreshing change from the usual robes and dresses, this outfit features trousers with camisole and belt. No armor, so it’s perfect for a mage. The outfit is modular; top, bottoms, and armlet are separate inventory items. Nice for potential mix-and-match, or for going without the long-sleeve armlet glove. I like the look, and I use CBBE body mesh, so I decided to convert the meshes using BodySlide - Outfit Studio. Let’s go over how to convert an armor/outfit for use with other body types.

Lind’s Marksmage Garb converted from UNP to CBBE in action.

Converting outfits to other body types is fairly easy with a bit of practice. Follow tutorial steps closely. Keep a backup copy of original mesh files to restart, and feel free to experiment.

In this example I’m converting a modular outfit for UNP, (“Lind’s Marksmage Garb”), to CBBE. This outfit also comes with a scarf, which doesn’t need converting since it’s one-size-fits-all like a cloak. We do need to convert the armlet/glove. Having the armbands a distinct inventory item, instead of part of the top, would make the conversion easier, but we have choices on dealing with them. I’m working with the CBBE body reference (works for Slim or Curvy) and adding the bones for BBP (HDT) later, but you may work with any body or outfit type. One thing to remember about modularity is once we’re done converting to only include one reference body for the resulting meshes, the camisole top.

Since there are several great tutorials, I’ll refer to one guide set and share clarifications, tips, and examples specific to “Marksmage Garb” and UNP-to-CBBE conversion.

• Cycle: 165 miles
• Run: 44 miles

Goal: 300 miles on the bike.

Let’s say we’ve created a custom NPC for TES V: Skyrim, or we just want to add some story backgrounds to existing characters. “OSA - Skyrim Ascendancy Engine” framework by CEO provides a means to view character profiles, create personas, employ animations, set character expressions, and more. Potentially this framework adds more interactive storytelling and personality to Skryim, which could extend replay value as we wait several more years for the next The Elder Scrolls chapter. A player could add profiles to followers for personal use such as role-playing value or to simply keep track of preferred armor and weapons, or follower-mod creators can add more background for players using OSA. It’s simple to provide extended information using the OSA framework as we’ll do in this exercise.

First, we need OSA installed. Take some time to look over the description page to get an idea of what OSA is about and how to interact with it in game. If using “FrostFall” by Chesko, include the Frostfall patch. Also check if “PapyrusUtil” has a more recent version. After installing OSA, remember to run FNIS generator and after each time adding an OSA animated module. Additional modules add gameplay functionality, but all we need is the OSA framework to access character profiles.

Go ahead and try OSA out to see how it works. Aproach a non-player character (NPC), and press numpad-plus key to reveal a menu including character persona, configuration, and equipment assignments. Use numpad-8 to move up the menu, numpad-5 to move down, and numpad-7 to select. The persona is empty, which we won’t cover here. The lack of a profile is the subject of our task. The OSA file downloads includes an optional example of a character profile for Camilla Valerius (of Riverwoood). Grab that to use as a working example to modify.

Copy Camilla’s profile as a template

Update for OSA v1.09+: profile files moved from meshes to \Data\OSA\Persona\ folder.

The file we need is profile.xml which goes in a folder based on the character. In the Camilla example, we find the file located in (v1.09+) \Data\OSA\Persona\npc\Skyrim\01347B (v.108B - \Data\meshes\OSP\npc\Skyrim\01347B) folder. Profiles for default NPCs go under this Skyrim folder, and a profile for a custom NPC goes under a folder name matching the esp-file without the “.esp” extension. 01347B is the last 6 characters of Camilla’s identifier. Look up identifiers using the console help command, or on The Elder Scrolls Wiki for default NPCs such as Camilla’s page where you’ll find her ID listed as Base ID.

I’ve picked a custom follower NPC, “Selene Kate” by Kasprutz and Hello Santa, as an example. Using the console command, “help selene” I find her NPC ID to be 19000D62. The plugin is, Kate.esp so the XML file needs to go in (v.109+) \Data\OSA\Persona\npc\Kate\000D62\profile.xml (v.108B - \Data\meshes\OSP\npc\Kate\000D62\profile.xml). Copy Camilla’s example file to this folder and begin editing. Use Notepad++ or XML editor of choice, preferably with syntax coloring. My assumption is reader familiarity with XML, but if not, I’ll go over my edits to turn Camilla’s profile example into Kate’s profile. Keep in mind that breaking XML formatting will cause the game to freeze when using OSA to interact with a character. (Those greater-than and less-than signs are important reserved characters and can’t be used inside other text.) So, if the game freezes, check for errors in the XML file.