TechAngel85

What issues does Afterburner cause in Skyrim? Just wondering. I use it to overclock the GPU and I use the OSD to measure fps, Vmem, OC setttings, temp and fan speed. No need for me to list (I can't remember the specific error I read about...might have been something to do with SKSE but not sure. I do remember is had to do with all the 3rd party overclocking software, not just Afterburner.). A quick Google Search will provide you with a list of issues when using Afterburner in a variety of situations.

First, why are you using Afterburner? Are you overclocking? These tools are known to cause some issues in certain situations. If you're just using it for measurements, I'd suggest using nVidia Inspector. When you open it, there is a button on the left that looks like a graph. That opens the monitors. Right-clicking on the opened graphs and going to Monitors on the menu will allow to pick and choose what items to monitor. There are 14 to choose from; everything from voltage and temperature to GPU load and VRAM usage. You can also log the monitors to a CSV file for later viewing. https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5077-nvidia-inspector.html

I've been updating the ENB Guide and I need two things from the community, if you're available to help: #1. I need suggestions for ENB configurations. We're not going to add more than 3-5 choices on the guide. Currently we're suggesting SkyRealism and ProjectENB. I'm suggesting SkyRealism to become our #1 recommendation due to its variety of presets and excellent compatibility with all the lighting mods. Any other suggestions besides these two? #2. I need suggestions for ENB "complimenting" mods. These mods must be compatible with all ENB configurations and I would prefer them to also be compatible with the most popular lighting mods such as CoT and RCRN, but that isn't a requirement. Some of our current suggestions include: Dark Dungeons for ENB, Remove Ambient Interior Fog, and Interior and Dungeon Fog Remover.

Those chest look too new for the environment that chest are used in. I'd like to see something more weathered. The next STEP release will be using Detailed Chests: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4457

I only ran it on the vanilla textures and Hi Res DLC textures. The rest I haven't touched until more testing is done on which mods to use DDSopt on and which not to use it on. The newest release also has some issues that need to be sorted out as it's causing some optimized textures to display as black. HiAlgoBoost does just what you need though. It smooths out the game while turning, running, and while in combat. Since you've done everything else that I've suggested, I'm all out of ideas besides you testing out HiAlgoBoost. Maybe the other admins or users will have another idea.

OH! Stuttering! :facepalm: Well, why didn't you say so? :P Yeah, that's is more likely a VRAM issue. Stuttering happens most when your run out of VRAM and the card is switching out textures with system RAM which is much slower. That's just a simple explanation. I only have 1GB VRAM too, but I still have all the STEP mods installed. Just make sure you're conservative on the texture resolutions you use. I never go over 2048x resolutions and always pick the 1024x textures where available. This keeps my stuttering issues away. People with only 1GB of VRAM, but want a full STEP install can't always follow the recommendations on the Guide when it comes to texture resolutions. Use your best judgment. If you don't wish to use lower texture resolutions, you might try HiAlgoBoost. It's crude programing according to the author of ATTK, but it also works. So...Try using switching to lower resolution textures first and if that doesn't help try using DDSopt on your textures to reduce size and performance of the textures. Finally, if neither of those work try HiAlgoBoost before deciding to uninstall anything.

Yay! Finally, more than a 404 Error! :)

Your baby is growing up, eh? Same Lol, my baby has been adopted by many parents now and it's getting an astonishing parental care :PHmmm...wonder if I can claim STEP as a dependent on my taxes. :P Where's the "Like" button? :happy:

Textures aren't going to affect your FPS that much as long as your VRAM isn't maxed out. Screen resolution and game settings is what is going to affect FPS the most. If you're running an ENB, you can disable a few features for that small of a boost. SSAO, DOF, and detailed shadows are the big performance hitters there. If not, then try adjusting your video card/game settings to get that small of a performance boost. I'm finding a lot of new modders are trying to push their cards too far and are expecting excellent performance when maxing out the settings. In reality, their card simply isn't built to run Skyrim on maxed out settings, especially on high screen resolutions. AA and AO are two of the biggest performance hitters in your card settings. As far as game boosters, ATTK is for stability: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1220 HiAlgoBoost might help: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15123

I'm on a laptop with a nVidia Geforce GTX 460M. I play on a lower screen resolution that you too. I have done a lot of testing on my personal machine to find the right quality/performance balance for myself.

Ah! Gotcha! Thanks for clearing that up.

Once the wiki is back up check out our ENB Guide. It should be back up later tonight or tomorrow.

Someone (not me ) is going to have to do a pretty extensive comparison with some screenshots because the author has failed to include anything useful on the shots. Out of 217 ingredients he's provided a shot of around 30 items on a table and that shot doesn't look very promising compared to what we already have in STEP.

ENB is going to be a performance loss no matter what, but you can minimize the loss by turning off some of the features. The most performance heavy are: SSAO, DOF, Detailed Shadows, and Bloom. These can be turned off in the enbseries.ini file under the [EFFECTS] section by changing the value from true to false. Whether or not if it's worth it is up to you. I personally use SkyRealism with the Cinematic preset. I turn off SSAO and DOF. I change the bloom quality to 1 (found under the [bLOOM] section). I also only use the FXAA injector from RCRN for my AA options as the graphic card AA is too much of a hit for my system. I run on average 35 FPS. AF is forced through my card at 16x and I don't use any AO settings.

Hybrid's is much better so the load order should be good for that.

Read edit on post above!

Very nice! I actually can't think of a mod that is updating the rugs unless it's one of the Clutter mods. EDIT: After looking around I don't think there is a mod that cover the rugs...(unless you use TPC with SRO). This should be included in STEP as it replaces the missing textures from the loss of SRO!

According to the load order, Hybrid's should be overwriting SFO. :P

My only complaint would be that the metal parts look like leather textures. Other than that it's great!

Updated to 1.27

Glad you're up and running and you're welcome!

My statements have only been towards the inclusion of the mod in STEP as the author stated on another one of his threads was the reason for his posting. I hope that my feedback has been more constructive in my replies than anything else. If not, I sincerely apologize because I've meant no disrespect. You said it exactly though...a pack is where this would belong. The packs being discussed will not have to follow the STEP Mandate and once the wiki is opened up to everyone, users will be able to submit their own packs. This is still a little ways down the road though.

No, that is not normal. If you have both RCRN and CoT install, both control and affect weather and you're most likely experiencing a conflict between the two. In fact, all your issues could be caused by having them both install. There is a reason we all said they're not compatible and a reason is stated on the RCRN Web site that they're not compatible. You're going to have to choose one or the other.

That depends on how NMM stores the mod files. Does it just dump everything in the Data folder or does it keep backups/archives of the mods? If so then you can essentially move those to the "...\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Mods\Bash Installers" and then handle them as manual installations from there. I was referring to actually having them backed up on the computer. I have all my mods in two locations. One is in the WB Bash Installers directory as archived files and one in a "STEP" folder (organized by STEP sections) for backup purposes.

I've played through the whole game only once (I didn't complete all quests...but I did finish the main story). Since I came back to Skyrim from that first play-through about a year ago is when I got into STEP. Since then I've only played as far as meeting the Graybeards for the first time plus a lot of exploring. Lol!