Skyrim - Anniversary Edition Will Disrupt Mods

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Eurogamer reports that the upcoming Anniversary edition of Skyrim will disrupt many mods due to the new entry being an update of the existing Special Edition. This will apparently force modders to rewrite many function calls.

The Anniversary Edition release includes the Special Edition version of the game along with all mods available in the Creation Club and more yet to be announced.

However, as reported by PC Gamer, rather than releasing the game as its own version on Steam, the Anniversary Edition will be available as an update to the existing entry. This will have a major impact on mods using the SKSE.

"Bethesda has decided to update the compiler used to build the 64-bit version of Skyrim from Visual Studio 2015 to Visual Studio 2019," explains one of the SKSE developers on Reddit. "This changes the way that the code is generated in a way that forces mod developers to start from scratch finding functions and writing hooks.

"Plugins using the Address Library will need to be divided in to 'pre-AE' and 'post-AE' eras. Code signatures and hooks will need to be rewritten. We will all need to find functions again. The compiler's inlining behavior has changed enough that literally a hundred thousand functions have disappeared and been either inlined or deadstripped, to put it in perspective," explains the developer.

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As expected.
 
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Not surprised as this will be the third version released and they always need mods to be ported, and the SKSE plugins need to be rebuilt. This is common knowledge nowadays.
 
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My install is still the original version, whatever you call it. I've never installed SE. The idea of redoing/updating all the mod installs is just to much of a PITA to warrant the effort.
 
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What mods.
I thought Skyrim was so polished after all these years by it's developer it needs no mods.
 
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Couchpotato said:
Not surprised as this will be the third version released and they always need mods to be ported, and the SKSE plugins need to be rebuilt. This is common knowledge nowadays.
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The problem is that this isn't just a third edition. It is going to overwrite/update the Special Edition. So you can't keep playing the SE with your current mods if you would prefer to. It would be much better if this were a true separate third edition so you could keep playing the SE if with the current SE mods if you wanted.
 
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Couchpotato said:
Not surprised as this will be the third version released and they always need mods to be ported, and the SKSE plugins need to be rebuilt. This is common knowledge nowadays.
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KaosWarMonk said:
My install is still the original version, whatever you call it. I've never installed SE. The idea of redoing/updating all the mod installs is just to much of a PITA to warrant the effort.
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Then you don't need to worry as the original version won't be impacted.
 
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Grifman said:
The problem is that this isn't just a third edition. It is going to overwrite/update the Special Edition. So you can't keep playing the SE with your current mods if you would prefer to. It would be much better if this were a true separate third edition so you could keep playing the SE if with the current SE mods if you wanted.
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Yeah I just read the reddit thread and the articles in full.

Can't say I like being forced to update from the Special Edition, but hey there are other ways to download your preferred edition to play. So I'm not really bothered.

It'll suck though if some modders just throw the towel in, and don't want to start from scratch again. Though most texture mods and others can still be ported easily.

The most affected will be the mods that need third party programs/plugins to function.

I barely use those.:)
 
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Well the way I read it, SKSE needs code changes and then a rebuild to accomodate the new layout of the skyrim binary and runtime process.

But as long as SKSE maintains the same external function interface it provides to mods, the mods themselves won't need huge changes --if any. Everyone would just have to uptake the new version of SKSE when it is made available.

Of course, I'm not underestimating the work of transitioning SKSE to work with the new release. Just saying that SKSE is definitely the "critical path" here.
 
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I do wonder though if the SKSE guys will throw in the towel at this point. It was a major effort to update it to 64-bit, and this might just be asking too much.
 
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KaosWarMonk said:
My install is still the original version, whatever you call it. I've never installed SE. The idea of redoing/updating all the mod installs is just to much of a PITA to warrant the effort.
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You don't need to manually install/update all the mods.
There is an automated Modlist Installer called Wabbajack that do it for you based on modlists that are know to be compatible and stable.
You can get it here: https://www.wabbajack.org/
 
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Ripper said:
I do wonder though if the SKSE guys will throw in the towel at this point. It was a major effort to update it to 64-bit, and this might just be asking too much.
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They almost didn't port it for the Special Edition. As it was a lot of work to do so. I'm sure other modders could take up the challenge if the original maker wont though.
 
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