FG's Modlists
Home FAQs News & Articles Get Wabbajack Merch
Discord YouTube Patreon

Step 1: Preparations

Version 5.0.0.1

Before You Begin

Before you get started installing or playing Living Skyrim, it’s important to note a few things:

Info

Info boxes provide additional information that you should be aware of.

Caution

Important notices warn you when you should pay extra attention.

Warning

Warnings alert you of vital steps that cannot be ignored. Ignore the warnings at your own risk.

  • During installation, you should read the Important Mods page to see all the changes the modlist makes to Skyrim.
  • Autosaves are disabled in Living Skyrim. Make the quick save button (F5 key by default) your best friend. Additionally, save before entering loading screens. If you want to save after a loading screen, wait at least 30 seconds first. Do not save during combat.
  • Characters in Living Skyrim are never nude and cannot be made nude.
  • Living Skyrim runs in exclusive fullscreen mode. Changing it to borderless or other options is not recommended.
  • WIP

Videos

  • WIP

Hardware Requirements

FG's Specs
CPU Ryzen 9 3900X
GPU RTX 3080 10GB
RAM 32GB
Storage 2TB NVMe

‍

Above you'll find the specifications for the computer that the modlist was built on, which is ForgottenGlory's personal desktop computer. The list runs acceptably to ForgottenGlory on that hardware. Why don't we have recommended hardware listed? Mostly, it's for our own collective sanity. If we listed recommended hardware and estimated performance and then someone comes in and gets a different experience, then to them, what we've advertised isn't what they experienced. The simple truth of the matter is that everyone's performance and expectations for performance are different, and we simply can't account for all possibilities. To one person, 50FPS might be perfectly acceptable while to another it's completely unacceptable.

Ultimately, you'll have to try the list and see if the performance meets your expectations. If it doesn't, you'll need to make your own tweaks and experiment to figure out what works best on your specific hardware and software configuration.

Software Requirements

Skyrim: Special Edition

ForgottenGlory's modlists all require an up-to-date, English version of Skyrim: Special Edition on Steam in order to be installed. The fastest way to do this is to verify your installation through Steam.

If you have purchased Skyrim: Anniversary Edition or purchased the paid DLC for Anniversary Edition, the list can still be installed. However, none of the Creation Club content will be used while playing the list.

All downgrading of files is handled by Wabbajack, you do not need to manually downgrade anything.

Pagefile Configuration

Bigger Skyrim modlists need a lot of memory, and when there is not enough available it may fail allocating more. To fix this, you'll want to have a bigger pagefile.

A pagefile is a file on your disk Windows will use when there is not enough RAM available.

Never disable the pagefile - this may lead to various issues on your system, including Skyrim crashes.

If you've never touched the pagefile, or you're experiencing memory-related issues, try performing the following steps:

  1. Press Windows + R on your keyboard and enter sysdm.cpl ,3
  2. Under the Performance section, press Settings
  3. Go to the Advanced tab at the top, and at the Virtual Memory section press Change...
  4. Disable Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
  5. Set a custom size for your fastest drive (ideally, the drive you will install the list to) and increase the initial and maximum size to be at least 20GB (20,000 MB).
  6. Restart your computer to make sure the changes have taken effect.

If you have more than one drive, try enabling it for at least one more drive as a backup (make sure it has a decent bit of free space, like 15GB). Set the size to System managed size .

Microsoft Visual C++

Microsoft Visual C++ is required by Mod Organizer and related programs, including the modlist. Download and install it from here: Microsoft Visual C++ x64

Microsoft .NET Runtime

Microsoft .NET Runtime is also required by Mod Organizer and some tools used by the modlist. Download and install .NET v5.0 for BOTH Console Apps x64 AND Desktop Apps x64 from here: .NET Runtime

Nexus Premium (Optional)

Nexus Premium is not required to download or install the list, but it does allow Wabbajack to automatically download mods from Nexus. It is strongly encouraged that you have Nexus Premium when installing the list. You can login to Nexus through Wabbajack in the Settings menu.

Skyrim Setup

The following steps will generate the files and folders needed for the list to install properly.

  1. Select The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition within your Steam Library, and update it if necessary.
  2. Click “Play”.
  3. The Skyrim launcher will offer to auto-detect your settings. When this happens, click “OK” and then click “OK” again.
  4. Click “Exit” to exit the Skyrim launcher.
Warning

Make sure Skyrim: Special Edition is the latest version (1.6.1170) in Steam. If you’ve manually downgraded the game or haven’t updated yet, use Steam’s “Verify Game Files” feature to update the game.

Caution

Make sure Skyrim’s language is set to English. (Right-click on Skyrim in Steam > Properties)

The Steam menu for its overlay and the Language menu.

Wabbajack Preparations

We’ll now setup the folders needed for the installation to proceed smoothly.

  1. Create two empty folders: “Wabbajack” and “Living Skyrim" at the root of the drive you'd like to install the list to.

The two folders in the root of example drive F:

Warning

You CANNOT place the Wabbajack or Living Skyrim folders inside:

  • Program Files or Program Files (x86), or their subfolders;
  • the Users folder, or its subfolders;
  • the Steam folder, or its subfolders;
  • the Skyrim Special Edition folder, or its subfolders;
  • the Desktop folder, or its subfolders;
  • the Documents folder, or its subfolders;
  • any folders with non-English characters;
  • any cloud storage folders (e.g. Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.);
  • inside one another (e.g. [install drive]\Wabbajack\Living Skyrim.)
  1. Download the latest Wabbajack from their website: Wabbajack.
  2. Put the Wabbajack.exe in the “Wabbajack” folder.

Wabbajack.exe in its folder.
‍

Logging into Nexus

Next you will need to log into Nexus in order to be able to download and install the list.

Start by opening Wabbajack by double clicking the "Wabbajack.exe".

The settings icon and the nexus log in button.

  1. Once you're on the main page, click the cogwheel in the bottom left which will take you to the settings page.
  2. Once there, click the button next to "Nexus Mods" where it says "Log in". It will take you to the Nexus log in screen.

Once you're done and logged in you can exit this page and go back to the main menu by clicking the "Home" icon in the top left.