eperdos

Seems it`s the Cinematic ENB. Strange I didn`t observe it until now. Can I revert the chages somehow to have a 4:3 view? tnx!

OK, I play on a CRT monitor using 1600x1200 resolution (@75). Everything was fine until a few moments ago, I loaded the game and the hud is over the horizontal black stripes top and bottom as in 16:9 rezolution. Again, hud is over these black stripes, so the game is not rendered in 16:9 rez. I never had this issue until now. What could have happend?

Yes, indeed. Distant Detail made me lose 3-4 frames on average. uGrids 7 made me lose around 20%. But it is worth it. Of course, I would like to set it to 11 ;) but I don`t want a still Skyrim, but a living one ;) ;) ;) Any way, of course Distant Detail is disabled. Like I already stated, I didn`t even like it so much, as it didn`t helped immersion much. So, if you say it looks good, i`m very happy. I do hope bad things won`t happen like unacceptable stuttering or very low framerates. But just for asking, what is the most intense spot in Skyrim, that very spot that drain your machine of all it has to offer and even more? Just curios to make a test with it, to see how it behaves. Thanks again for your help and for everyone`s help!!!

Finalized S.T.E.P. ok, with pretty much everything intalled after graphical mods (of course, preferences come into play and some mods weren`t intalled, like 3D maps) I ended with pretty much same performances like in previous step, witch is great. Minimum, maximum and average FPS: Riverwood - 39,74,59 Whiterun - 48,77,65 Markarth - 46,77,64 Riften - 29,75,60 This leaves room for some ENB and so I choose the SkyRealism - ENB Evolved (with inject SMAA). I play with bloom, detailed shadow, sun rays enabled while adaptation, ambient occlusion, depth of field and sky lightning are disabled. Here are the results, min, max, average: Riverwood - 30,57,46 Whiterun - 35,60,49 Markarth - 34,65,50 Riften - 26,61,46 Not bad, isn`t it? Now, for me, it still seems there is room for more and I surely not like the pop-up shadows from 2500, so I set it to 8000 (like nvidia sugests). Even more, I set the uGrids to 7. Now, that somehow made the performance hit the lowest aceptables, so I set AA to 0. I did 2 ouside towns saves. This was my framerate, minimum, maximum, average: Before uGrids set to 7: Ouside Riverwood - 30,54,44 Ousite Whiterun - 36,52,44 After uGrids set to 7: Outside Riverwood - 26,46,38 Outside Whiterun - 28,48,41 Seems a bit low in the minimums, but acceptable in average. This would me the final set-up for my Skyrim game. Do anyone have any coments regarding it? Please make them! And thanks for all the support!!!

So, should I understand that Ars Metallica - Smithing Enhancement mod is better than Complete Crafting and its companions? Having Ars Metallica all problems that Complete Crafting solve are also solved?

How do you guys feel about Complete Crafting Overhaul (and it`s companions Smithing Perks Overhaul and Weapons and Armor Fixes)? Please again understand this question as a technical one, not one concerning preferences. I would like to have this mods but I don`t want them to conflict in any way with what STEP already has. Thanks!

In did, I do see the differences. I also saw them in mod description but in actual game, though I see the rocks and trees in distance, in the very near vecinity trees and waterfalls still pop-in. So... what`s the real benefit of it if still having pop-ups that ruin the immersion... Still, well, Distant Detail mod is on my list and will eventually be activated if performance will alow. For now, I will test my game with all STEP mods (well not quite all, I already left some out but also added a few) and will try to install ENB (of course, installing appropriate mods for it). More of it tomorow...

Question: Can I use the UFO - Ultimate follower Overhaul instead of convenient horses? I ask this as I want to stick as much to S.T.E.P. guidings, but the ideea of easier controling your followers pleases me. So, despite subjective attitudes like "I like it" - "I don`t like it" what is the impact of UFO on the STEP? thanks!

it`s not that I don`t know what is doing. But the win/loss balance isn`t right. Mostly it offers things you won`t notice at the cost of 5% performance. Anyway, I`ll wayt for your shots. Thank you!

STEP 2 update I did 2 tests regarding Distand Detail mod (so not so extensive as previous mods). Outside Riverwood along the road and outside Whiterun, paralel with the road. Minimum, maximum and average FPS: Riverwood without DD - 38 - 72 - 59 Riverwood with DD - 29 - 70 - 56 Whiterun without DD - 48 - 76 - 64 Whiterun with DD - 45 - 70 - 59 My conclusions aren`t very clear: - I personaly didn`t see any significant change form it. I did expect a better imersion (that`s its purpose, isn`t it?) and it didn`t offer it. I still see the popping grass, trees, waterfalls and rocks. Mybe, just maybe, not as often as without it, but still, speaking about imersion, it`s NOT doing it`s supposed job! - perfomance is lower, as expected, but not as much as I thought will be. a medium loss of 3-4 frames and a minimum FPS difference of 10 frames (beeing with this mod, my minimum was 10 frames lower, while maximum and average was only 3-4 frames lower) Bottom line, I see no point in using it! If someone has better reasons, please present them. If someone knows better ways to test it and to see the differences, please present them.

STEP 2 Finished instaling the whole second step in S.T.E.P. procedure. All graphicall mods were installed. Well, a few weren`t as I either had doubts about their corect work or I didn`t like them or mostly they were already flagged by STEP to be problematic. These are what I DIDN`T install: - better bedrolls - antz in my pants - better freckles - birds and flocks - burn freeze & shock effects - climates of tamriel - distant detail (because of it`s potential dramatic FPS drop, I will test it though!) - eye reflection extender - improved foot wraps - improved weapon impact - new children - rabbits plus Like already stated, distant detail mod would be tested and eventualy installed! Now, like I already said in previous post, performance is great!!! So here are the FPS, lowes, highest, average: Riverwood - 44, 76, 62 Whiterun - 44, 76, 64 Markarth - 46, 78, 65 Riften - 38, 75, 61 All tests are a run inside the city, exactly same as first test. RAM load is around 1500 MB while VRAM load is 1012 - 1018 MB. Very negligeable stuttering in Riverwood, it`l like a fraction of a second. Remember, I use FPS Booster and Razer Game Booster. Now, other steps are comming but certainly, nothing as intense for perfomance like this step was. Most certain, I`ll install ENB at the end. We`ll see!

Intermediate STEP 2 While I only installed conflicting graphic mods, I do presume they are the most important ones and also the more performance hit ones. So, I must say that, after installing conflicting graphics following S.T.E.P. guiding, performance loss is minimal. I installed everything, core and extra (except better bedrolls) ussualy with lite or medium textures where aplies. FPS are very much similar with Skyrim official HD, here and there a 1-2 frame loss, especially on minimum FPS, while average remains consistant. The only important diference is concerning memory, RAM and VRAM. RAM is now around 1.5 GB (beeing around 1 GB before) while VRAM mostly goes towards maximum (1018 MB was my max) that`s 100 MB more in Riverwood and Markarth (Whiterun and Riften were already next to maximum before). Bottom line: things look pretty much promising and looks there will be room for ENB ;) P.S. coming back for complete STEP 2!

So then, Using default SkyRealism - ENB Evolved - Cinematic, the impact was around 35% FPS drop. This on official HD SKyrim with only STEP fixes. This translate for my system (see in firstpost) in aprox 20-25 fps loss, from aprox. 65 to aprox 42 average.

first of thanks for replies. I decided to let ENB as the last stage. of course the world of skyrim is more rich and beautifull with cinematic effect, but even after I turned off all the settings you pointed (and I installed the ENB under step wiki) FPS drop is considerable. I keep track of thigs I should do especially for ENB for later readjusting the game. In the meanwhile, I do intall mod after mod in step guide. I just finished texture pack combiner. FPS drop is nearly non existant while textures are way better. I`ll come to write more after I`ll install all texture in conflicting and non-conflicting steps. thanks to all again!!!

OK, I installed all mods in the first step, that is "fixes". When I wanted to go further, I saw the note about ENB and I remembered it. I thought I`d give it a try but I saw a massive drop in performance. If medium FPS in all 4 locations was above 60 after instalig the recomended ENB, medium FPS was well under 50, even actually near 40. That a serious performance drop of more than 30% and I ask if this worth it? I still not installed any of the texture mods. Should I let ENB for the end of S.T.E.P.? what settings in ENB or most performance killer? thanks!

So, I write in here to let others, more experienced, to assist me and maybe to let others, less experienced to see how things goes by... So: Hi all, after I practically killed my system by installing way to many mods and my Skyrim stuttered in an unacceptable way, I started over and discovered S.T.E.P. witch I believe should provide a better starting point. My specs: Skyrim v1.8.151.0.7 +Downguard and Hearthfire Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @3.00Ghz MSI geforce 560ti OC edition 4 Gb RAM (2x2) 500 GB HDD (7200rpm) 1600x1200 rezolution !!!running with FPS Booster v1.1 and Razer Game Booster Step 1 - clean install (as stated above) + official HD textures packs - SKSE (v1.06.05) - edited settings starting from ultra and changing: -----AA 2x -----AF off -----shadows medium -----grass distance maximized -----everithing else at 50% - nvidia inspector with these settings: https://wiki.step-project.com/images/b/b8/Nvidia_Inspector_Settings.png - modified Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini according to STEP (so AF goes to 16x from here) made 4 saves in 4 diferent locations. Testing is as follows: - for every load I freshly execute the game again. - I note the starting FPS as I spotted for 3 of the 4 location a most lower FPS spot. - I note peak memory and peak page file memory (through Elys MemInfo) - I benchmark with fraps a standardized running walk throughout that location. - I go into game`s menu and note the new peak memory and peak page file memory - I exit the game and check maximum video memory load (through GPU-Z) - I note the min, max and med FPS from fraps` benchmark Results on this clean install, v1.8.151.0.7 with officiall HD textures packs and changed settings and INI files, noting minimum, maximum and medium (rounded) FPS: 1. Riverwood: 45-77-68 2. Whiterun: 49-76-65 3. Markarth: 52-78-67 4. Riften: 42-77-63 So, that`s it! This is my first step into improving Skyrim by S.T.E.P. method. Even though they say a minimum of 50 FPS is needed in every location, I hope these result can be ok. If anyone has any advise or remarks about these, please write them here, but in a constructive manner, please