The latest stable version is always on Nexus. If you want your gameplay experience with CS to be stable, use this version.
If you are interested in trying out the latest development or testing versions, the only place you should get them is from the CS Discord or the official GitHub repository. Builds from other sources are not supported or endorsed by the CS development team. Test builds are often offered as an all-in-one (AIO), so you must remove any previous installation of CS. If you have concerns about or issues with testing builds, please post about them in the thread that you got the associated build from.
Because CS is open source, anyone can release their own version so long as they follow the GPL-3.0 License. This is the benefit of open source.
However, only mods marked as CS Official are released by the official CS team, meet our minimum quality guidelines, and will be tested or supported by the official team on the CS Discord.
See the installation guide.
In an upcoming update, the following features will be integrated into the base CS install and should be removed from your mod list if you update to the new version:
The numbers in parentheses indicate which version of Community Shaders the features are incompatible with. If you are using a version older than specified, then the feature is still compatible.
CS features should have no conflicting files, so the order should not matter. If there are conflicting files, either you have done something wrong or it would be specified on the mod page(s).
As of CS version 1.4, ENB Lights and particle lights are no longer supported due to requiring excessive maintenance to keep CS compatible with them. Please use Light Placer and a dependent lighting mod. See the ENB Migration Guide.
Cubemap Reflections and Capture Warmer are also no longer required.
experimental feature; if PBR textures are being used, either that feature or Auto Parallax should be disabled or removed.d3dcompiler_47.dll from your root Skyrim directory.Mods that are known to be problematic:
Follow our Vanilla Setup Guide to get started with getting the most out of CS.
TLDR: No, uncheck them when installing. Otherwise you will get reduced performance.
Lux splits bigger meshes into smaller pieces to workaround the limit of allowing only 4 light sources per mesh/object. With smaller objects, chances are better that not too many light sources shed light on an object. However this increases draw calls, because much more objects must be rendered. CS does not have this limit so it is better to install Lux without the mesh options in the FOMOD.
Answer from author of Lux (03/11/2024): These meshes main purpose is to help with engine limitations indeed so using CS light limit fix makes them optional. I'm fixing a lot of vanilla meshes when optimizing them though so you won't have these fixes anymore if you're not installing them. I'm also reworking most mods texture sets because the new meshes have different trishape structures, thus keep in mind that you'll need to delete my own texture set edits on vanilla meshes or they'll be all over the place if not using my meshes. Split meshes increase drawcalls so it's up to you. I mean if you can survive that you can just keep them. If the performance issue is a priority then you should remove them.
Be careful with injected meshes though, I'm replacing models here and there, so any mesh with non vanilla name should be kept unless you fix that directly in the patch plugin. They're often named Lux_xxx so they can't be missed. If I remember well I'm using these meshes in Blackreach (mountain stuff) and some floor I needed to replace in a player house (Skyfall Estate).
See above.
Yes. Install ReShade as normal.
NOTE: As of version 1.4, CS no longer supports preventing ReShade from applying to the user interface; this is due to changes made to ReShade that workarounds have not been found for yet.
Press the end key on your keyboard.
If playing in VR, virtual keyboard does not work and the menu is not shown in VR mode. Change to desktop mode and press the key on your physical keyboard.
End key, but it ends up doing nothing!The CS settings .jsons will have to be edited directly:
SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders/SettingsUser.json or SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders/SettingsDefault.json in your MO2 overwrite (Skyrim Data folder if using Vortex) and look for the following text: "ToggleKey": 35. NOT EffectToggleKey! Unless that's what you're trying to change.35 to a different Windows API keyboard scancode. Here is a website with a scancode table.If your menu still is not opening, then disable any overlays you are using. Some configurations of RTSS and Fraps are known to cause issues.
Yes, the first time you change any setting CS generates the settings file SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders/SettingsUser.json in your overwrite folder if using MO2 or Skyrim Data folder if using Vortex. You can edit this file.
The default settings are stored in SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders/SettingsDefault.json. It is not recommended to change the settings using this file, but technically possible.
New features are usually explored and fleshed out for one version (mostly 1.5.97) in the initial phase. If the team is happy with it and it can be ported, the feature will often be adapted for other versions, usually the latest versions available of the Steam, VR, and GOG releases. However, there are no guarantees or commitments to extending features to other versions.
Be patient and do not try to push the developers about feature support.
C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\CommunityShaders.log and report to the User Help channel on Discord.SettingsDefault.json and SettingsUser.json. You can find these files under SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders in MO2's overwrite or the Skyrim Data folder. See here for information on how to access your Overwrite folder in MO2. Start the game again and check that SettingsDefault.json is created with some content (not blank / not 0kb size).bBorderless=1 and bFull Screen=0 in your Skyrimprefs.ini. If you are using Display Tweaks, make sure it is configured to run in borderless. This is covered in the installation guide.The shader compiler comes from Microsoft and cannot be changed by the CS team. There are known issues on weaker CPUs if you max out the CPU during compiling. You can try reducing the shader compiler threads (Background Compiler Threads and Compiler Threads) as a workaround. Search for the file SettingsUser.json and edit those config values. If you have not yet successfully run CS and do not have a user config file, edit SettingsDefault.json instead. Both files are located in SKSE/Plugins/CommunityShaders in MO2's overwrite or Skyrim's Data folder. This is not best practice, and you have to change those values again after your next CS update, but it may bring you past the compilation.
You most likely combined incompatible versions of CS and CS features, or the shader cache did not regenerate after an update. Either use the newest Nexus releases, or a single test build from Discord; never combine them. If you notice that CS and/or its addons are being overwritten by another mod, you are likely doing something wrong (unless specified otherwise on the mod page). It is also important to note that the CS version and feature versions are tightly coupled. A feature or feature version released for a newer version of CS will not work on an older version.
Delete CS, its features, and the ShaderCache folder (found in either the overwrite folder in MO2, or in Skyrim's Data folder), and install CS again without combining versions. If the issue is not fixed, follow the steps in the previous answer.
Additionally, ensure that no deprecated features are installed.
Lastly, ensure that no incompatible mods are installed, including ENB or Shader Tools mods (e.g., d3d11.dll, d3dcompiler_46e.dll, d3dcompiler_47.dll). Please review the above.
There are two options to fix this:
eyecubemap.dds from Dynamic Cubemaps - MetalExtended Materials tab in the CS menu, make sure Enable Legacy Terrain is checked. This is assuming you have terrain parallax textures installed, you will encounter issues otherwise. This is not required for PBR terrain textures.bLandSpecular is set to 1 in the SkyrimVR.ini file.For beta versions of CS the version numbering does not change. So CS cannot really see when it needs to update the shadercache. Usually deleting the shadercache is sufficient (step 2), but if you want to be on the safe side, also clean disk cache
There are two options to regenerate the shadercache:
end key and choose Clear Shader Cache (it's the icon on the top left with the X, hover when in doubt).overwrite folder as shown here, or open Skyrim's Data folder if using Vortex. There should be a folder called ShaderCache with many subdirectories and .pso/.vso files in there. To let it regenerate with the next game start, simply delete the complete ShaderCache folder.Make sure that you have disabled Dynamic resolution in your Skyrim.ini [Display] section. The setting should be bEnableAutoDynamicResolution=0.
For NVIDIA users: also make sure that in NVIDIA Control Panel the option 'Antialiasing - Transparency' is set to off.
This can be 1 of 2 issues.
Also ensure that you did not disable the feature at boot. There is a toggle button on the top right.
Please read the requirements on the Community Shaders Nexus page.
If the FAQ's instructions do not solve your issue(s), isolate CS to rule out mod conflicts; this is so the issue can be narrowed down to CS, CS features, or an .ini file problem.
Test with only the following mods enabled:
Note that the above is just Community Shaders and its requirements. In case requirements have changed and this FAQ has not been updated, please refer to the Community Shaders Nexus page and check the requirements there.
You can create a minimal setup by creating a new profile in MO2, pressing ctrl+a and selecting Disable, followed by enabling the listed mods.
If you're on Vortex, you can similarly create a new profile with the Profile tab on the left hand side. Then select Add "Skyrim Special Edition" Profile. This will disable all of your mods and create a clean profile. Rest assured, your mods are not disabled in the other profile, they are disabled only in the new one. You can then re-enable the relevant mods above in the new profile, then deploy.
You may also want to make sure your Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is on the latest version. Sometimes, when you install software, older versions of the VC Redist can get installed and overwrite the system one or something obnoxious like that.
To update or install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, select the X64 version:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version
You can get a brief explanation of each by opening the CS menu to unlock the cursor, then hover over the relevant Shader Types in the performance overlay.
For some basic performance debugging and improvements:
Other time will be naturally high if your game hits an FPS limit, since the game needs to wait until it's able to show the next frame.One easy way to identify if CS is the cause of your poor performance is to monitor performance with CS on and off, with the exact same in-game conditions. If your performance is significantly worse with CS, try creating a minimal setup to see if it improves your performance.