Spock

Yes, greater shadow distances are desirable but really require ENB to not get the lego shadows (shadow lod bug). Afaik DoubleYou doesn't run it due to hardware limitations.

For some reason that value is set to 500k in my ini. Dunno if I changed it though. Terrain Manager optimization is something I would like to do if I find the time. I would also be interested if something can be gained by tweaking the meshLOD values.

It seems like you pushed the shadow distance beyond the lod bug. Post #5 might help you optimize your settings.

Could you elaborate a little more on this one? Do you like the medium distance sounds better or the far ones? Because I think the far ones of AOS are more realistic but I didn't compare the medium ones to vanilla (AOS doesn't provide medium ones).

I completely agree! But since I also use PPR I need parallax maps for FixParallaxBugs=True. I guess Vivid Landscapes - Rocking Stones and Mountains Parallax is the mod of choice for that atm.

You need to put the esp into your data folder because T5E won't boot with missing masters. Method 1: Look through the entries of the mod you wish to cut. You should see some records being overwritten by the STEP patch. Go to the STEP patch and simply delete the records. Method 2: Look through the entries of the STEP patch and see which records overwrite records from the mod you wish to cut. Delete those records. When you found all the records rightclick on the STEP patch esp and click clean masters, done! If the mod you want to remove from the patch didn't disappear from the masters list, you forgot a record. Both methods work fine, one will probably be a little faster depending on the number of records in the mod. Note that cleaning masters may remove some manually added masters as well. Those masters are irrelevant for the functionality of the patch, they where added to make sure users install all the mods patched.

It's probably the easiest to compare sounds on a sample by sample basis. Just open them with a wav player. This doesn't mean every sample fits well into the mix but it gives a general idea.

From the dropping of Vivid Landscapes mods I assume there will be no shadows/parallax ENB recommendation for STEP 2.2.9, is this correct? I think that excluding such an ENB is turning down a considerable improvement in visual quality that hasn't much to do with personal preferrence (arguably less then choices in color maps).

I think the most important thing for users without ENB is to know about the lod switch bug (depending on shadow distance) and for ENB users what not to change (many of the settings in vanilla guides).

That's very odd, it works fine for me. Maybe some FF extension or custom host file is at work? I'm using a hosts from mvp hosts, adbock edge, disconnect me, https everywhere and self-destructing cookies. My other settings shouldn't interfere.

Another thing that would interest me is the sound list. Imho there are some mods that could be dropped due to AOS 2.1 covering them in equal or better quality (subjective!).

Just to make you aware of it, there might still be minor imbalances/incompatibilities: Cutting Room Floor NPCs probably will be too weak because they lack some Requiem specific perks (necessary for almost all mod added NPCs). Some changes by audio overhaul 2.1 might get overwritten because the patch was designed with 1.5 in mind. Those most likely won't seriously break anything to a point where you cannot play the game, but you should still be aware of those. (I used some conjunctives in italic because I'm not 100% sure as I haven't tested that yet). I'm sorry I cannot provide any more definite answers atm but I cannot really test and work on the patches without being able to start the game (my 8800gts cannot handle it). r9 290 vapor-x prices started falling in germany though so I will probably get it in the near future (I'm just not willing to pay 50€ premium because it's new, it's not that much better then other 290s).

Well, the only master I see missing from 2.2.9 that would propose any problem is Cutting Room floor. I asked Azirok for a patch as it would be great for STEP 2.2.9 anyway as I simply don't know enough about Requiem balance to do it myself. aMidian Born content add-on should work fine, but I should probably have a look at it in T5E. As for the patch: Some mods got updates since the last time I build the patch. What I've been thinking about is doing is getting a working GPU, reinstall windows, reinstall all my mods, make a core patch and link to the required extended patches and test if loot orders everything correctly. This will take some time though.

Glad you like it! I will test similar settings for ugrids 7 when I get a working GPU again. Until now I just multiplied the settings with 1.4 (7/5) which worked reasonably well. Popping is less of a problems with ugrids 7 anyway. I would also be interested if some of the downsides of ugrids 7 (events triggering on load, CPU overload) can be avoided by lowering actor distance.

I meant the pack wiki guide (linked in the first post).

The Paarthurnax Dilemma needs a patch, that patch is included in the STEP core requiem patch provided in the guide. That patch is designed pre AOS 2.1 though, so it probably needs an update. I cannot test things atm though because my annoying GPU issues are not sorted out yet, that's why there isn't a new version yet.

Well that setting definitely comes with an FPS loss in foliage heavy areas compared to a setting of 5000. 14000.0000 costs almost as much FPS as setting the value past your ugrids and loading all the foliage right away. I do think that higher fTreesMidLODSwitchDist (up to ugrids borders) provides noticable visual improvements though.

@Kuldebar: Have you tried fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=14000.0000? I would be interested if you like it, this is probably a more controversial setting as tree LOD switching is more noticable. How did you get your actor fade values? 7 seems fairly low at first glance, I haven't tested them though. What does fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell fade? Another question for people with ugrids 7 or 9: Does lowering the actor fade remove the problems with events triggering on cell load?

On a small side note for ENB users, the only two shadow quality settings (meaning strictly quality, not view distance or sunupdate) to play with are shadow map resolution and iBlurDeferredShadowMask. On a r9 290 @1440p amd 8k shadow distance, 2k shadow map resolution and iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5 were the perfect settings for me. 1k shadow map resolution got me ~1 fps and a perceivable quality loss while 4k cost me ~4-5 FPS with almost no gain leaving iBlurDeferredShadowMask the only setting to really play with. Sadly I cannot provide comparison shots atm but I prefer a value of 5 as a good mix of sharpness and hiding some edge imperfections.

I'd advise 2 intakes on the front with dust filter (most modern cases have that), 1 rear outtake and 1 top outtake should suffice. Never go against convection and try to go from front to rear. You should also try to avoid underpressure in the case as that promotes dust accumulation.

This is not my usual genre but it gives me goose bumps hearing: @roots: My favorite track from Cypress Hill is Illusions. There was a time where I heared hardcore rap on dope samples a lot. Nas smokin' is another very good example of that kind of rap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3fcqZmpSqI

Water cooling adds more parts that can fail. Sure, most of the time they won't but it's still something to consider. The pump makes noise (depending on the system this can be annoying) and can fail as well, that's why I listed it in the drawbacks. Heatflow isn't really an argument against air coolers imho because their air movement inside the case is actually beneficial (if installed in the right direction ofc). That can actually be beneficial. The H100i requires fans too to perform adequatly btw, I doubt its an improvement in noise levels. The H100i performs a little better though, but the difference is small so the NH-D14 is a valid alternative. I'm not saying go air, I'm just trying to point out that air is a viable alternative to water cooling solutions. And better CPU cooling performance doesn't necessarily mean better CPU performance. The 4670K probably clocks out at stock voltage long before you hit any temp limits on the NH-D14 (didn't test this though). @Phaser: It doesn't really matter if you cool with air, water or with a compressor. The heat from your components has to go somewhere and that is probably your room.

I recently had an extensive reading session on PSU's, appearently the Corsair AX760i platinum PSU is the best PSU out there. https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-AX760i-Power-Supply-Review/1668 Those are the electronics gurus and they say it's the best PSUs they ever reviewed, other reviews confirm that. And as a big surplus it's really quiet.The version without the i is still outstanding and a bit cheaper: https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-AX760-Power-Supply-Review/1687/1 You don't necessarily need a 760W PSU though, there are good 600W PSUs that should suffice as well. I'd advise to read harwaresecrets on a review though as PSUs are a critical part of the system and poor PSUs can cause problems (and even fry components). As for CPU coolers, you can save a few bucks if you go for the NH-D14. It performs marginally worse and doesn't come with the drawbacks of water cooling (pump, pc death if it leaks, need to clean the water). Linus' Tech Tips has it's weaknesses but this is a very good video comparing high end CPU cooling solutions: A friend of mine advised me to go with a coolermaster and put a noctua fan on it and said it would be cheaper while performing just as well. But sadly I do not have a source. As for AMD GPUs the Asus r9 280x DirectCU II or Sapphire r9 290 vapor-x are the way to go. NVidia or AMD is another page but as far as AMD GPUs go, go with one of those (in what I expect to be your price range). As for NVidia vs AMD: This is an argument you will find all over the web. The hard facts are that NVidia cards require less power for an equivalent gaming performance, AMD cards are cheaper for the same performance, AMD cards have more compute/shader power, NVidia cards are faster at geometry and texture filtering, the 290 series' performance varies a little more (though 770s can perform quite different as well), AMD cards are a little faster at higher resolutions while NVidia cards are faster at lower resolutions. Arguments that are partly speculative and hard to predict for the future: AMD had a higher falue rate Q4 2013 (might "just" have been a bad batch though), compute power and shaderpower might be more important in upcoming 3D engine development, more future titels will be AMD optimized because PS4 and Xbos are AMD based. As for Ram I always went G.Skill and never had problems with it. Most of the current overclocking world records are held by G.Skill, they made the most reliably brutal overclocker ram over the past 10-12 years. There is also a life long guarantee for G.Skill ram. Kingston and Corsair definitely make very good ram modules as well though and I've read that Kingston is ought to have especially low faliure rates lately. Hope that helps! :) [edit] For storage I would recommend going for 2 HDDs in RAID 1 (not necessarily right away but headcrashes suck big time) for data and an SSD for programs. Running windows and games on an HDD will seriously slow down your overall system performance. SSDs write speed usually goes up with size, afaik the Samsung EVO series is usually considered a great value brand with low falure rates.

I just wanted to drop by and apologize for not posting any updates for so long. My motivation took a hit because my 4th graphics card is broken (tested this in a system of a friend of mine, it's definitely the gpu) and I cannot play the game myself. The store I bought the card from sent me B-stock as replacement after the 2 weeks return time went out so I probably got the cards people returned and not RMA because of black screens. I'm currently thinking about asking my sister to bring me a r9 290 vapor-x from the US (gifts below 450€ are duty free), it's much cheaper there (~60€, about 82USD) but that's still 6 weeks from now.

Oh yes, right, didn't think about that. If mod A incorporates changes from mod B and adds more it should be loaded after mod B. I would count that as one instance though :)