Ghoulified Reality - A Modern 3BFTweaks List

Wabbajack Modlist Installer by Ghoulified.

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Nexus Page Download on Wabbajack Discord

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Preamble

Ghoulified Reality is a modlist for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition that focuses on completely overhauling the game’s visuals and gameplay to create a more challenging and immersive experience. A fork of the Ghoulifed Reality which is a visual only modlist, Ghoulified use Requiem to enhance the game for a more challenging and strategic experience, from combat to character progression. What separates this list from other Requiem lists is Ghoulified uses 3BFTweaks which makes the world more dangerous while still maintaining a sense of fairness and balance.

System Requirements

Disclaimer

Owing to the need to clean master files and certain errors with Wabbajack, Ghoulifed Reality only supports English Steam versions of Skyrim Special Edition. GOG and other Languages are not supported.

Ghoulifed Reality REQUIRES YOUR SKYRIM VERSION TO BE UPDATED TO 1.6.1170 AND THIS IS THE GAME VERSION THAT THE MODLIST RUNS ON

Only, Windows 10 and 11 work with Wabbajack fully. LTSC, special variants, lightened editions or any other modified variant WILL NOT WORK. Your windows version must be 21H2 or newer to run both Wabbajack and Ghoulifed Reality.

Running the list from Hard Disk Drives or external drives is STRONGLY ADVISED AGAINST. A lot of content is swapped at game run time and, as a result, fast storage and RAM are needed.

Ghoulified Reality requires a mid-tier modern system to run to its fullest potential. The recommended specs given below are based on utilizing the ENB in the list. For community shaders, you can subtract a little bit from them. Users have reported being able to run on hardware slightly lower than this, however your mileage may vary.

Component Recommended for 1080p
CPU 10th Generation i5 or better/equivalent
Ram 16GB DDR4 Ram + 40GB Pagefile
Storage SATA SSD or higher
GPU RTX 3060 or better/equivalent
Component Recommended for 1440p
CPU 12th Generation i7 or better/equivalent
Ram 32GB DDR4 Ram + 40GB Pagefile
Storage M.2 SSD
GPU RTX 4070 or better/equivalent

Space required: ~134GB Download Size ~309GB install Size ~443GB Total

See how to setup a page file here: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-manage-virtual-memory-pagefile-windows-10,36929.html

NOTE: AMD RX 580 and older cards are not supported.

Installation

Installing Ghoulified Reality is relatively easy and, if you have Nexus Premium, will be a simple waiting game. If you are updating the modlist, you can safely skip to the updating section.

Pre-Installation

Prior to installing Ghoulifed Reality, please complete the following steps.

  1. Install Visual C++ x64 & .Net Runtime v5 desktop x64
  2. Change Skyrim so it does not automatically update.
  3. Fully uninstall Skyrim by deleting the folder and the Skyrim Special edition folder inside \Documents\My Games.
  4. Fully disable OneDrive and any other programs which hook into user file areas.
  5. Reinstall Skyrim into a location that is not Program files. Somewhere like C:\Games is a good location. If you only have one drive, look into LostDragonist’s SteamLibrary tool.
  6. Start the game once and let it do the graphics check. Do not worry about the settings as it will be replaced during installation.
  7. Launch the game to the main menu and allow it to download the free creation club addon files. DO NOT VERIFY YOUR GAME FILES
  8. Remove/Disable any 3rd party antivirus such as MalwareBytes or Webroot. These will mess with the installation and, in the case of the latter, causes more problems than it solves.
  9. Install the Skyrim Special Edition: Creation Kit on Steam and run it at least once.

Wabbajack Installation

Installing Wabbajack

Once you have completed pre-installation, download the latest version of Wabbajack and place it in a folder such as C:\Games\Wabbajack. Do not place it in program files, on your desktop or in your downloads folder. I recommend placing it on an SSD as it will work quicker on there.

NOTE: Ghoulifed Reality will always require the latest version of Wabbajack UNLESS IT IS SPECIFICALLY STATED HERE.

Downloading and Installing Ghoulifed Reality

Downloading and installing Ghoulifed Reality can take a while depending on your internet connection and computer. To install Ghoulifed Reality, complete the following steps.

  1. Open Wabbajack and click on browse modlists.
  2. Press the download button on Ghoulifed Reality and wait for it to download.
  3. Set the installation folder to be somewhere like C:\Ghoulifed Reality. Do not install it to your desktop or downloads folder.
  4. The download location does not need to be on a SSD but it makes installing a bit faster.
  5. Press the play button to begin.
  6. Go and pet your nearest fluffy animal whilst Wabbajack does its thing. Alternatively read through this readme again.
  7. If the installation is successful, jump for joy and move onto post installation. If the installation is unsuccessful, follow what is below.
Problems with installation

It is possible that you may encounter an error with Wabbajack when installing. Some common issues are listed below.

  • Could not download x:
    • Big files can fail to download due to connection issues. You can either run Wabbajack again or download the file manually. If you decide to manually download it, make sure to place it in the same place as the other downloads.

  • x is not a whitelisted download:

    • This will happen when I update the modlist. Please check if there is a new update or wait until you see a release ping.

  • Wabbajack could not find my game folder:

  • Antivirus reports a virus:

Post-Installation

Stock Game & Root Builder

Ghoulifed Reality utilizes a Wabbajack technology called Stock Game. What this essentially does is create a copy of your Skyrim installation within the installation location of the list. This enables greater compatibility with other mod-lists.

Ghoulifed Reality also utilizes Root Builder alongside Stock Game to enable easier management of hooks such as ENB, Reshade and Engine Fixes. Please see our guide to Root Builder for more details. ***

NOTE: Screenshots save to Overwrite\Stock Game.

Starting up the list

Open the installation folder and double-click on the program called ModOrganizer.exe.

Make sure the dropdown box on the right is set to Ghoulifed Reality and press the Run button.

In-game MCM options

Ghoulifed Reality has no required MCM options to be selected; however, you can load the smoothcam preset if you wish to do so.

You are welcome to change any others to achieve your desired setup.

Known Bugs/Crashes

If you are using an AMD GPU, you need to disable DLAA and enable TAA in the SkyrimPrefs.ini located in the profile folder. Otherwise, you WILL crash.

Dying and then reloading CAN cause crashes with Dyndolod DLL NG. The alternative is to disable Dyndolod DLL NG and re-run Dyndolod. This will enable Dyndolod via papyrus scripts which resolves this issue but is heavier FPS-wise and has worse lods.

Updating the modlist

Before updating, please check the changelog and back up your saves. You may need to start a new game after certain updates.

Updating is like installing the list. Simply make sure your paths are the same and tick the overwrite existing modlist button. Note: Any mods you have added will be deleted when updating.

Removing the Modlist

Simply delete the folder, and you have uninstalled it.

Credits and Thanks

  • YOU for reading this.
  • Ghoul smasher Biggie Forn and LaLa for being super helpful
  • WhisperDealer for the website
  • Halgari and everyone on the WJ Team - Wabbajack is awesome and so are you.
  • All of the amazing mod authors whose work made this modlist possible.