Skyrim The Journey installation

[JackReacheround]

Hello.

I have done an exhausting internet search for help on this topic, but there just isn't any help out there.
Skyrim The Journey (450 mod pack) -- with either the original release or the second major release  -- https://forums.goha.ru/showthread_0_0_p152425847
It requires Skyrim Legendary Edition(with all 3 DLCs installed). 

When I load the game, it loads to the menus, but when I start the game(load a savegame) it crashes to the desktop.  Many people have posted a similar issue.

What I guess the problem is, is that you MUST have a Steam (ie. legitimate) copy of Skyrim to play this mod pack.  I'm sure that mindwrk fellow knows this, but I don't speak russian... and I don't see any proof of this on the russian forums, rutracker, or goha.ru.  I'm not aware of executable injection, but assume it is hooking the steam api dll... and crashes.

I might (sigh) actually be willing to install Steam and buy Skyrim if I know it would work.
Is there a better forum to post this question to?

Does anyone have knowledge or personal experience with this?      Thanks in advance.

[JackReacheround]

Hello.

I have done an exhausting internet search for help on this topic, but there just isn't any help out there.
Skyrim The Journey (450 mod pack) -- with either the original release or the second major release  -- https://forums.goha.ru/showthread_0_0_p152425847
It requires Skyrim Legendary Edition(with all 3 DLCs installed). 

When I load the game, it loads to the menus, but when I start the game(load a savegame) it crashes to the desktop.  Many people have posted a similar issue.

What I guess the problem is, is that you MUST have a Steam (ie. legitimate) copy of Skyrim to play this mod pack.  I'm sure that mindwrk fellow knows this, but I don't speak russian... and I don't see any proof of this on the russian forums, rutracker, or goha.ru.  I'm not aware of executable injection, but assume it is hooking the steam api dll... and crashes.

I might (sigh) actually be willing to install Steam and buy Skyrim if I know it would work.
Is there a better forum to post this question to?

Does anyone have knowledge or personal experience with this?      Thanks in advance.

Fixed it myself... although there is some help on the rutracker.org site by the author.

Check the minimum requirements to run the game if you think your computer may not be up to the task.

Install Skyrim Legendary Edition English version
Install Skyrim the Journey
Install Skyrim the Journey patch(two bsa files)

Make sure you have Directx10(or 11), the Visual C++ redistributables for 2010 and 2013 both x86 and x64 versions, and .NET 4.52 and .NET 4.6


Follow the installation procedures for Skyrim the Journey
-- install loadorder/ini files, etc...
-- run SkyrimLauncher to set the ini settings
-- run SMC.exe to load game  (if you are using a cracked copy of Skyrim, then get and install the SSME mod ( https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305/? ) into the Skyrim root directory.)
-- if SMC.exe crashes, then you probably have a ENB/SweetFX issue.
---- You can try to experiment with ENB settings or remove SweetFX, but this didn't work for me and I got tired of futzing with it.  So remove the d3d9*.dll files(place them in a unused subdirectory for later).  Personally I care about gameplay over graphics, so this doesn't bother me.

Then without the graphics enhancing dlls to get in the way, the game should start with SMC.exe.  If it doesn't and you use skse_loader.exe to run the game, you will get more frequent crashes, but that is not unbearable.

Setup your character and be wary of the possibly hardcoded keybindings for all of the mods before you change the key binding defaults.
(The correct way to play this mod pack is to load it with SMC.exe, then load the Prison Cell savegame, then press Z to showracemenu your new character traits, then talk to the statue of Mara, then sleep in the bed to start your game.)


In brief, what I had to do to get it to work was:
- remove the d3d9*.dlls to disable ENB
- install Nexus Mod Manager to test the game's load order.  To do this, I needed to install .NET.
- install SSME again so SMC.exe will work.
To be honest, I doubt it, but NMM might have fixed my ini files or something... but I assume the ENB disable and the .NET install was what was missing.

One last note: I recommend configuring all of the mods in-game with the MCM SkyUI interface before you talk to Mara.  You may also wish to remove or disable Dead is Dead or some other mods for maximum casual enjoyment.

Good luck and I hope this helps someone.  Thanks to mindwrk for his extra effort.  And a big f you to the all the whiners out there about 'stealing' mods that are cost free for public use.  I have yet to see any Skyrim mods be mis-labelled or someone claiming any re-packaged mods were their work.  Petty losers.  And while I'm bitching, F U to steam as well.

[JackReacheround]

Updated information.
This isn't The Journey specific, this is for any enhanced Skyrim modding.

Some things I've learned recently:
The minimum specs for a mod pack like The Journey requires a much stronger computer than the default Skyrim.
My specs are i7 3.9Ghz with 8Gb RAM with an ATI 3800 series 2Gb RAM Graphics card - Windows7 x64.
Going with a computer much worse than this is probably a bad idea.

I played the first hour of the game fine, but if I tried to enter a city, the game crashes.  I needed ENB to work and

I needed more than 4 Gb of RAM enabled for the game.
If SMC.exe doesn't work for you, unless you get the memory enhancing version of SKSE working, the game will not work.
If you are using a cracked version of the game, if SMC.exe doesn't work, re-install SSME.

32-bit OS will have great issues running the game.  You have to have more than 4Gb of RAM to play the game.
ENB and later versions of SKSE will load more than 4Gb of RAM.  That is, you need to get ENB working.
With ENB enabled and the d3d9.dll in the Skyrim root directory, the game would crash when loaded from the game menu.  

I was able to get EMB .132 to work, but the game was all black.  
ENB is nvidia-friendly; not too ATI-friendly.  This is because nvidia does a better job supporting standardized
graphics libraries.  The game is 2010 or so, my computer is 2012, so I updated my video drivers and ENB worked!  I
couldn't f'in believe it.  If you load Skyrim and it is all "muddy", you need to enable ENB in the game with Shift-F12.
Mindwrk provided all the mods and ENB and SweetFX enabled and already configured in his package, but if you are

loading mods yourself, you will want to make sure these settings are enabled in your ini files:
bFloatPointRenderTarget = 1
bTreesReceiveShadows = 1
bDrawLandShadows = 1
bShadowsOnGrass = 1
iMultiSample = 0

And obviously, don't add mods to The Journey that conflict with the mods already loaded.  And don't remove or add mods

once your game is started(it will probably corrupt your savegames).  
Consider re-running skyrimlauncher.exe and lowering the display settings(width/height)... or loading the 1k texture
pack if you are low on specs.
Good luck, and remember that the real game crashes sometimes, so mods will only compound that issue.