OK consolidating what I have learned (mostly from you ;) ):
- Settings in skyrim.ini can override ALL 'default' settings hard coded within the game EXE (i.e., effectively ALL game settings if no other INIs exist)
- Settings that are user configurable (i.e., skyrimprefs-specific settings) ...
- Are NOT configurable from Plugin INIs
- Those in skyrimprefs.ini override those in skyrim.ini if defined in both
- Are invalid when defined from Plugin INIs, and thus have no impact and cannot be overridden
- Can effectively be overridden via MO INI Tweaks
- ONLY settings that are NOT user configurable (i.e., are NOT skyrimprefs-specific settings) are valid in Plugin INIs.
- MO INI Tweaks override everything (we need to ask Tannin exactly how MO accomplishes this)
my recommendations to the game configuration settings nomenclature:
- Default Game Configuration Settings: The hard-coded settings defined within TESV.exe. Used to populate Autogenerated INIs (see below)
- Default Launcher Configuration Settings: The hard-coded settings defined within SkyrimLauncher.exe. These settings are used only for the configuration of the Skyrim Launcher itself. Used to populate User Preferences autogenerated INI (see below)
Default INIs: Don't need this one. These don't ever exist and the config is inherent to the executables (see above)- INI Presets: The Skyrim_default.ini located under /skyrim and the SkyrimPrefs.ini located under /skyrim/skyrim
- Launcher INI presets: The low.ini (low preset), medium.ini (medium preset), high.ini (high preset), and very high.ini (ultra preset) under /skyrim
which the Launcher applies against the Default INI preset.<-- Technically, this isn't true is it? Also, these presets include more than just Launcher settings ... aren't they skyrimprefs.ini presets, including all of the GUI-user-configurable presets? Base INIs: The standard game INIs generated in %UserPofile%/Documents/My Games/Skyrim after the first launch of Skyrim.- Autogenerated INIs: Generated by the Skyrim Launcher under %UserPofile%/Documents/My Games/Skyrim if not already present
- System Baseline INI: skyrim.ini
- User Preferences INI: skyrimprefs.ini (tied to GUI settings)
- MO Profile INIs: Mod Organizer's profile-specific INIs created using the Base INIs.