TechAngel85

A few questions because we'll need some more information: What is your VRAM usage? Use GPU-Z it find this out. Also, are you overclocking? Did you use DDSopt or any other texture optimizer on your textures?

Two of the most intensive spots I can recall from testing... The area after you exit the cave from the beginning of the game before you reach the river and path leading to Riverwood. This area shot me down to 19 FPS during my ENB testing. Also, the general area around Riften can be intense, especially during foggy weather. This is the specific spot out that cave and a bit down the path which caused a drop to around 19 FPS. I actually think that was my test of Project ENB as well.

If you followed the steps on the ENB Guide for installing SMAA, your AA should be turned off via the INI edits it has you do. What Z said! You can also turn off SSAO in the same manner if it's causing too much of an issue for you: EnableAmbientOcclusion=false

Looks like I started up a bit of discussion. I was just curious if the STEP specific stuff and other guides were going to be locked down like the SIG is. I can't even edit that...but have no need to do so; however, could someone paste the wiki code that is being used for the orange highlighted text? I'd like to use it in other places throughout the wiki for cohesiveness.

Someone do a comparison and post the screenshots here. I'm all compared out at the moment or I'd do it. EDIT: nvm, I see it in the OP. Hectrol is the clear winner in those shots. Would like to see more than one location though.

Thanks, but lighting mods have no barring here. There are separate guides on the wiki for ENB and lighting mods. The Lighting Guide addresses (or will eventually) combining the two. As for your recommendations: The Wilds is too over saturated and hazy as are Seasons of Skyrim, as JJay pointed out, and Project Matso. I'll have to check out Phinix Natural's warm option and check with my testing results for Quietcool. For the recommendations, I'm really looking for something that follows STEP in staying close to vanilla but "naturally" enhancing it. Nothing overly saturated, hazy, bleak, b&w, film-like, etc.

Looks good! If you're using uGrids you don't need the Distant Detail mod. uGrids would have a noticeable performance hit as it basically tells the game to render all objects at greater distances. I would suspect Distant Detail has less of a performance hit than uGrids though.

Nope...I could edit it at will. Unfortunately that's the case. When we open the Wiki we'll be setting a few people as sysops and you'll both probably be on that list. With sysop privileges you can protect your user page so that only other sysops can edit it. Sysops! Woot!  Not really sure what that means but...  Woot! Sysops

Nope...I could edit it at will.

Examples? I found this in the Geforce guide written by nvidia:

If it's not doing it in other games then it's most likely not a hardware issue. If this is the case and AA is the problem, is the problem fixed by turning AA off? Also, if you force AA through the driver the Launcher AA should be set to 0/off. If turning off the AA does indeed fix the issue (you said you were getting it with 2x AA), then turn it off and use SMAA (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB#tab=SMAA) until the issue is fixed by nVidia or Bethesda. EDIT: I've done some more research and confirmed it is an AA issue with nVidia drivers since update 1.6. Most claim if you turn it down to 4x or lower that the issue is fixed. However, if you still have the issue at 2x AA with it turned off in the Launcher then do as I suggested and use SMAA. SMAA is better than FXAA and doesn't have the blur effects of FXAA either. Since SMAA doesn't use the nVidia drivers it shouldn't cause the same issue.

On that note, is the main wiki content going to be locked down? I know the STEP Guide is, but what about the other Guides? I'm having nightmares of users editing and adding a ton of information that has no merit, deleting good information because they don't agree with it, changing DDSopt recommended settings and having people destroy their textures, etc etc.. forcing the Wiki Editors to work full time on information and damage control. Nightmares! lol

Just checked with a blank edit. I had no issue. ..."AbuseFilter" :? Stop abusing the Wiki! No wonder it doesn't like you! LOL :P

Updated the OP. I've finished updating the ENB Guide for now. I will add to the INI configuration little by little, but it's fairly inclusive right now.

Default fShadowDistance is 4000 on High and 8000 on Ultra. I recommend leaving iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 as that isn't causing issues either way and there's no need to tweak it. Oh, didn't realized it changed with different settings. My default is 2500 from my fresh Skyrim install. iBlur...=2 or 3; both seem to work fine for vanilla. My default from my recent install is being set to 1 which is also working fine.I'm just suggesting leaving the iBlurDeferredShadowMask setting on default since messing around with INIs will only result in problems down the road for less experienced users (not suggesting that you're one of them, but STEP has to appeal to the general public).I agree. It should be left on whatever that user's default is for the STEP installation. The only time I see it being useful in changing it is if the shadow striping occurs. If this happens with the installation of an ENB, I've covered that in the ENB Guide.

Default fShadowDistance is 4000 on High and 8000 on Ultra. I recommend leaving iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 as that isn't causing issues either way and there's no need to tweak it. Oh, didn't realized it changed with different settings. My default is 2500 from my fresh Skyrim install. iBlur...=2 or 3; both seem to work fine for vanilla. My default from my recent install is being set to 1 which is also working fine.

My bad, I didn't catch the second card. :P I think you missed the part where he had an error trying to manually set the resolution. If you know a way for him to do it, please provide instructions. I'm running 310.70 without any issues. Let us know how the DDSopt helped and with a full STEP installation (minding the texture resolutions).

I would keep it were it's at (2) for the Guide. I, however, do not recommend putting it at 0 for ENBs. Doing this caused massive shadow striping in several ENBs when I was doing a lot of the ENB testing. I recently added a Shadow Striping Fix to the ENB Guide which deals with this. This fix is from my own experience and testing. Currently, I have mine set to 3 in my INI, which pretty much eliminated all striping from all ENBs during testing. I should also note that I lowered my fShadowDistance as well which helped with the striping. Currently I have that set to 2000.0000 (default is 2500).

I've been leaning more towards a hardware issue too. That's why I asked it there are these or other problems in other games. Are you running any other post-processors beside ENB (FXAA, SMAA, RCRN, etc). If not and torminator is correct, then turn off AA and use SMAA for now. Before than follow Z's recommendation and do a 100% clean install. If it's still an issue it's one of two things: torminator's suggestion which can be fixed by turning off AA and using SMAA (hopefully) or it's a hardware issue.

You card is fairly equivalent to mine. This is what i expected after reading Besidilo's post on that. He's rather spirited in it come to hardware. Him and I disagree a lot on the subject. Z, is right in this case. Use a lower resolution. 1920x1080 is widescreen. Use the closest widescreen format you can get to that, but don't go higher. I agree with Z here, your post-processors aren't an issue with VRAM. There's no need to turn them off. They don't effect my VRAM any, only FPS. Though, it might not be ideal, lowering your AA could help. I only use the RCRN FXAA. SMAA is a better option though if you have to do that. Using DDSopt can really help out a lot. Capping your texture resolutions, as I've been saying, is going to make the biggest difference. Never use anything over 2048x and always use 1024x when available. You can even use 512x on the smaller clutter objects (pots, dishes, ingredients, etc). Not repeatable? Interesting... Are you overclocking? PS: There is no INI tweak to control memory. I've never heard of this....it's not in the GeForce guides.

If you're using TPC then you're getting this: Ruins Chests: Ruins Clutter Improvement HD Noble Chests: Tobes Highres Textures Alll other Chests: SRO

I mentioned the bleakness, but it's not too bleak. I'm sure it's the "cold" preset, but IMO it looks as though there is a very light "bleak hue" over the screen. I'm sure the "warm" preset doesn't provide this hue.

I'm only offering three suggestions right now. I have SkyRealism, True Vision, and Project ENB. The latter two and Seasons are by the same author. Would you guys rather see Seasons posted than Project ENB? Project ENB is way overly saturated. I've been wanting to remove it for something more inline with STEP values. SkyRealism - Cinematic and Vanilla and True Vision - Natural are perfectly inline with STEP. How does Seasons compare?

Was that a complete uninstall and reinstall of Skyrim? Also, have you used DDSopt or any other texture optimizer on any of the vanilla textures? Does it happen in other games or just Skyrim?

Your nVidia Inspector settings look fine. Here are two really great guides for nvidia users: https://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/five-fast-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweaks-guaranteed-to-make-your-game-look-even-better https://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1 As for your artifact issues and shadow issues on NPCs, you have a lot of none-STEP mods and many that I've never heard of...try disabling/uninstalling any of your mods that modify the NPCs and player. This includes all face meshes, hair mods, etc. Then test. If the issues are gone, re-enable the mods one by one until you find the mods that are causing the issues. If none of this works, then I would suggest you do what Z said. Return to vanilla Skyrim (no mods) and default settings in the INIs and your video card. Then start installing mods in small groups, testing after each group is installed to see when these issues return. This way you can narrow it down and find the culprit mod, INI setting, or video card setting. I can guarantee, though, if you're using the STEP INI Tweaks and only those tweaks then the INI is not the issue. This may take some work, but it's just trial and error when you're first starting out.