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🚀 Getting Started

SkyrimNet is easy to set up and flexible to use, whether you're running it locally or leveraging cloud services.

📦 Installation​

Download the latest release from:
👉 SkyrimNet Releases on GitHub

You’ll see two versions — choose one based on your system:

  • 🎮 CUDA Build
    Use this if you have an NVIDIA graphics card.
    Includes Whisper STT locally and improves performance of some components.

  • 🧩 Universal Build
    Use this if you don’t have an NVIDIA GPU, or plan to use Whisper remotely via Vast.ai, OpenAI, or text input only.

📥 Install the downloaded .zip as a mod via your mod manager (e.g., MO2 or Vortex).

⚙️ Requirements​

You must install all dependencies listed in:
🔗 System Requirements

  • For CUDA users, make sure to install the CUDA Toolkit https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-12-9-1-download-archive (⚠️ install version 12.xx not the recent 13.xx, or your dll wont start!!!) and restart your PC after installing — this is crucial.
  • Check the Version-Specific Requirements section for compatibility if using Skyrim VR or an older version.

🗣️ Piper TTS Models (Optional)​

Skip this if you’re not using Piper TTS.

SkyrimNet uses Piper as the default speech generation system, but models are downloaded separately.

🔗 Download Piper models from Google Drive

📦 Install them as a separate mod in your mod manager.

🧪 Setup​

  1. Launch the game
  2. Open the SkyrimNet MCM
  3. Go to the Overview tab
  4. Click the Web UI link to open the in-game control panel

💡 The web UI includes a built-in tutorial to help you get started.

If you want to skip setup and test immediately:

  • Enter your OpenRouter API key in the Test & Easy Setup section.

keep the endpoint exactly like it is, all the llms are already preconfigured:

llm2

🔄 Updating​

Follow any update instructions included with the release.

⚠️ Important: Custom prompt files outside of the /characters/ folder and the world settings file may be overwritten by updates.

To preserve your changes:

  • Back up your SkyrimNet/prompts folder if you’ve made edits.

If no special instructions are provided:

  • Just download the latest release and update the SkyrimNet mod in your mod manager, replacing the files.

🗣️ Additional TTS Options (Local Install)​

SkyrimNet currently supports Piper, XTTS, and Zonos.

Piper:​

Included with the mod (download models) and does not require cuda. This is the fastest option (near-instant) but has the lowest quality. Does not clone voices.

XTTS​

Requires a simple manual setup. XTTS has a good balance of speed and quality. Does clone voices, provided the right version of xtts is used

  1. Download the latest release of XTTS from https://github.com/langfod/skyrimnet-tts/releases. Only this version and one other from Elbios support automatic voice cloning. Mantella XTTS and CHIM XTTS do not support automatic voice cloning - use this link instead.,
  2. Start XTTS whenever you will play the game with the Start.bat file in the unzipped folder.,
  3. In the SkyrimNet setup page, change the TTS Backend setting to XTTS, and change the TTS Server URL to http://localhost:7860 (or, if on a different PC, to that PC's ip address)., *Note that you can also use the Zonos TTS Backend setting with this version of XTTS; see the linked github page's release notes page for more details. Thanks to Dowser for creating this version of XTTS.

Zonos​

Requires a more complicated manual setup. Zonos has high quality but is slow and gpu-intensive. Does clone voices. The following instructions are for a windows installation. You can also install Zonos on linux (or a WSL instance) by following the instructions on the official site: https://github.com/Zyphra/Zonos

  1. Download this zonos fork for windows from https://github.com/langfod/Zonos., Click the green Code button and select Download ZIP. Unzip the file somewhere.
  2. Requires python 3.12.10. Install it from here: https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.10/python-3.12.10-amd64.exe, Also requires winget (comes with windows). If you see a message about it missing, try this: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/discussions/1738#discussioncomment-1682664
  3. Run 1_Install.bat in the unzipped zonos folder. If you get a security warning, allow the app to run.,
  4. Start Zonos whenever you will play the game by running 2_Start_Zonos.bat,
  5. In the SkyrimNet setup page, change the TTS Backend setting to Zonos, and change the TTS Server URL to http://localhost:7860 (or, if on a different PC, to that PC's ip address).,