Infuriating issues.

[STEVKAN___12345]

I get these ridiculous blurry loading screens during conversations and absolutely infuriating animation problems during them as well, causing characters to slide and float around and zip all over the place unnaturally,

This issue is happening with even only about 5 mods installed. It's absolutely infuriating and makes my game unplayable.
-E3 Dodge
-Clear toussian tlighting
-Killin monsters Armor-Kaer Morhen Viper replacer mod
-No dirty lens effect
-Hair LOD increase

These issues happened AGAIN after only about an hour of play with just these mods... nothing merged just installed plainly and properly.

Ho win the HELL are other people running stable games with no issues at 50 plus mods? Merge or not I should have no issue with 5 mods, I did it as a test. The only thing I can think of is maybe my save is screwed?
Regardless this is infuriating. I don't understand why this is happening at all and my game is just unplayable and boils down to. EITHER PLAY VANILLA OR NOT AT ALL.


Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[rfuzzo]

Nope. Usually this is related to mod limit. Merging the mods always helped. Are you sure you have no other mods or dlc installed (btw it’s not just texture mods, but all bundle-mods count toward the limit.)

Does it happen rightaway or after some time playing. If it happens rightaway, try removing one mod at a time and see if I t is one mod (of them all, I can only think of e3 dodge or hair lod, though I doubt it).

Save file can’t be the issue. But maybe try backing up your mods and verify the game files (no need to redownload the game).

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

Nope. Usually this is related to mod limit. Merging the mods always helped. Are you sure you have no other mods or dlc installed (btw it’s not just texture mods, but all bundle-mods count toward the limit.)

Does it happen rightaway or after some time playing. If it happens rightaway, try removing one mod at a time and see if I t is one mod (of them all, I can only think of e3 dodge or hair lod, though I doubt it).

Save file can’t be the issue. But maybe try backing up your mods and verify the game files (no need to redownload the game).

When I first began all of this, I had planned on only using MAXIMUM of about 20 or so mods, only about 7-8 of which would be texture/mesh related, others were small re balances or edits to actual game play mechanics and a couple animation mods. I started my process by testing out the texture mods for a few hours and THAT was when I first saw the issues. So at FIRST I assumed it was a texture mod related issue, salter found out that apparently this can happen with really any mods and was happening to me almost regardless. It does not happen right away, it happens after some time playing GENERALLY around an hour or so and I have found that i HEAVILY scripted scenarios like the DLC or main questlines, for example that whole conversation with IRIS afrter you get through the Von everec estate to retrieve Olgierds rose, it was damn near every time Geralt spoke it's do this, and then later on with Olgierd and Shani and Gaunter just floating around and generally ignoring animations, I suppose gaunter can be excused for it but in the case of shani it's just ridiculous.

As for the matter of having any mods I maybe do not realize I have, well I have reinstalled ENTIRELY and MANUALLY deleted the entire folder myself a few times. Happens regardless.

 

[rfuzzo]

Well, I don’t know a lot of people (me included) play with way more mods than 20 - merging always resolved the issues for me .

I think I’ve heard at some point that animation mods (like e3dodge) can cause that - so maybe try uninstalling it and play for a while (or save before a big quest event/cutscene and try it out there)

Other than that, dunno, it’s either too many mods or one specific - can’t be anything else really I think. So try Mod Merger first.

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

MODS I WANT to use just for reference:

- E3 Dodge
-Geralt HW Real Beard
-Geralt HW Real hair
-Hardcore Geralt
-Geralt on Steroids
-Lore friendly Ciri
-Glowing witcher eyes (Faint orange)
-Real A night to remember witcher eyes
-Geralt HW very white beard color
-VGX Eredin
-Aerondight Redone + Scabbard 07 addon
- Always full EXP
- All quest objectives on Map
-Friendly hud + Friendly Meditation
- BLOOD (OR) Brutal Blood
- Better Trophies
- Concept Cat Armor
-Killing Monsters armor
-Kaer Morhen armor Viper replacer set
- Geralt Cloak and hood toggle
- E3 Quen
- FCR3
-Gear Improvements last longer
-Geralt Cinematic hair
-HAir LOD increase
-Improved sign effects
-Better effects
-Indestructable items
-Jump in shallowwater
-Extended view distance
-Stamina rebalance (Half cost for signs)
-Infinite Roach Stamina

Clearly my list of desired mods has risen quite a bit, alot of these can be merged with Mod MErger, most cannot due to them editign XML's
And some of them like for example, Killing monsters armor when merged only carrie dover the mesh but keeps the kaer morhen default vannila texture, and E3 quen loses it's effects and just retains the blue glow which just looks odd
And Hardcore geralt which does alot to his face, simply doesnt work at all.

 

[rfuzzo]

E3 quen always worked for me when merged btw

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

E3 quen always worked for me when merged btw

No idea how, for me the floating signs and the streak dissapear and it's just a blue glow beneath him, I use Mod merger.

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

I also use the Witcher Mod Manager plus script merger

 

[rfuzzo]

Fcr3 and always full xp makes the game soooo easy oh god. I would never do that but okay

You can merge xmls manually btw requires a bit of learning but it’s easy once you know how

Other than that, your mod list looks perfectly normal (if a bit boring XD) so you shouldn’t run into problems i don’t think when you merge all recommended mods with mod merger

 

[rfuzzo]

Try removing e3dodge and tell if it changed anything

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

Fcr3 and always full xp makes the game soooo easy oh god. I would never do that but okay

You can merge xmls manually btw requires a bit of learning but it’s easy once you know how

Other than that, your mod list looks perfectly normal (if a bit boring XD) so you shouldn’t run into problems i don’t think when you merge all recommended mods with mod merger

Boring? I just wanted my Geralt to look cool, I hate camera mods and reshades and stuff like Enhanced edition that make the game look and play rediculous.

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

I always got the impression that FCR3 made the game more balanced

 

[rfuzzo]

Well that was just subjective obviously, and it’s not about the threads topic - sorry.. (but I think your missing quite a lot of good gameplay, not visual, mods e.g. preparations, friendly meditation etc...) always Full XP breaks the game eapacilaly with overhauls like Ghost Mode or fcr I think...

Returning to the topic at hand:

Anyways, use mod merger or delete mods to solve the blurriness

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

Well I am going to start by playing a couple hours with just these.

https://gyazo.com/26e50f3068c24261e051dc9cd4718faf

See if it happens again, Gonna go thru hearts of stone a bit (Where I saw it most frequently)

Btw, I asked because I was curious, and now you most certainly have to give me some examples if you don't mind, i'd hate to let something amazing fly under my radar and never experience it. lol

 

[rfuzzo]

Oh these are now totally different than the first

I don’t think these should cause problem...

If you add texture mods, make sure to use mod merger.

Haha and as for mods, dunno, an impression I git is that there’s been a lot of really cool mods recently, that don’t necessarily got a lot of endorsements, I sometimes browse newest mods just to see.

 

[rfuzzo]

I’ll send you some mods I find interesting if you want sometime later, don’t wanna do in this thread now.

 

[STEVKAN___12345]

Oh these are now totally different than the first

I don’t think these should cause problem...

If you add texture mods, make sure to use mod merger.

Haha and as for mods, dunno, an impression I git is that there’s been a lot of really cool mods recently, that don’t necessarily got a lot of endorsements, I sometimes browse newest mods just to see.

I do too and all I ever see are rehashes of "Lore friendly" Geralts
And mods that give the entire female cast the body of April from the original TMNT cartoon. Not that appealing to be honest xd

And I am only trying out a few for the time being then adding more if I see no issue, I am paranoid and kinda OCd and don't wanna search thru every mod, I'd rather know what will and won't cause the problem and digest it in smaller bites.

 

[SigilFey]

It sounds like there are some problems baked into your save-state. It's perfectly fine to install and play with new mods, but removing mods can be extremely problematic. Once you save the game with certain mods installed, they may leave reference data in the savegame file that will persist even if the mod itself is removed. That means that the references wind up referring to data that is no longer available, and it can result in a whole range of interesting issues. Plus, this reference data, once included in a save-state, will be permanent. There's no way of removing it from the file. Even saving over the top of it does delete the references.

Spoiler: Whenever testing out new mods, use the following procedure:

1.) Back up your existing saves by moving them to a different directory. I highly recommend creating a backup folder somewhere on your PC and on an external drive or USB. It's easy to make mistakes and accidentally swap the wrong files of you're tired / moving quickly / not paying attention. A secondary backup has saved my bum numerous times.

2.) Choose a single, manual save file and move it back into the ...Documents\The Witcher 3\gamesaves... folder. Ideally, this should be a "clean save", meaning a saved game that was created as a new, manual save slot under vanilla TW3 -- no mods whatsoever. (This ensures that you're seeing the mods you install correctly; no reference data from previously installed mod setups.)

3.) Install whatever mod combination you want and load up that savegame to test it out. Do not save your game over that file. Use only quicksave and autosave while testing.

4.) If you encounter any errors or weirdness, exit the game and delete all of the quicksaves / autosaves, fiddle with the mods setup, then load the manual save again. If you ever experience an issue that you can't seem to get rid of, delete that, core, manual savegame, and use another copy of the original, clean savegame from your backup folder.

5.) Keep this process up until you're happy with your mod combination and everything is working correctly. Then, delete everything in your gamesaves folder, and copy in the contents from your backup folder to actually play!

6.) (And this is the hardest step.) Stop fiddling with the mods and just play. Don't install new ones and especially don't try to remove any. Just finish that playthrough with the present mod setup.

This is a process that's necessary for all games, nowadays. While game engines and modding have become more robust over time, they've also become more particular. (The days of installing and deleting plugins at will for Morrowind is a thing of the ancient past. )

Also, TW3 modding is not very user-friendly. It's not a game that's literally built to be modular (like Bethesda titles). It's a game that's built to create a very honed and cinematic experience. That means that the engine is far more rigid in places to ensure everything works. Installing more than 19 mods can cause issues. (Something in the engine won't allow it by default.) Now, I've not done any big modding with TW3 at all, so I'm not much help here, but search for threads that deal with "merging files". There are quite a few tools and walkthroughs already. Unfortunately, certain mods simply conflict and cannot be used with each other. That's completely dependent on the mods in question, though, so only research or trial and error can answer that. Normally, mod authors will note in their descriptions if their mod will / will not work with other particular mods or types of mods.

 

[rfuzzo]

I don’t agree - the only mods that I know of that store data in your save file are gwent mods and fcr3 (and I don’t see it as a particularly good practice to be honest.) I’ve never had a problem uninstalling mods ever in this game.

Conflicts, well yes, some are there because two mods literally modify the same thing in game and one has to choose, but usually conflicting mods can simply be solved by merging scripts or bundled data. You just need to know what you’re doing...

 

[SigilFey]

I don’t agree - the only mods that I know of that store data in your save file are gwent mods and fcr3 (and I don’t see it as a particularly good practice to be honest.) I’ve never had a problem uninstalling mods ever in this game.

Conflicts, well yes, some are there because two mods literally modify the same thing in game and one has to choose, but usually conflicting mods can simply be solved by merging scripts or bundled data. You just need to know what you’re doing...

It's an issue with any game that affects vanilla assets in any way. It doesn't always cause a problem, but it always can. For TW3, most of the save-state issues I've seen are from mods that alter experience, replace geometry / meshes, or in some way allow for fast travel when it's not supposed to happen. Any of these things can leave a permanent reference in the savegame file that can irreparably bork the state of the corresponding data if the associated mod is ever removed. (But reinstalling the mod in the same load-order / setup should also correct the issue.)

And this is something that affects any game under the sun. It's just that there are so many potential ways for such an issue to manifest, it's hard to pick it out, sometimes. (That's why good, systematic habits for installing mods save lots of headaches in the future! )