bpr5016

Ran the DDSOpt on Skyrim HD, Serious HD, and Vurt's flora just for the _n.dds "normals" as suggested.  I compressed to half of the 1024x1024 default size (so 512x512). Retains the same performance that I saw after disabling the mods altogether!  Working great now in the cities and wilds, thanks for all the help!

Alright cool, and this optimization and subsequent filtering can all be done using DDSOpt? Does the DDSOpt guide go over how to filter the _n.dds files?

Okay great, thanks guys I have GPU-Z and will use it to enhance my understanding of what my performance is looking like. Won't be using papyrus just yet. I found this relevant discussion elsewhere on this forum regarding stuttering and optimization using DDSOpt: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1776 After reading, I decided to go into MO and uncheck all the big 'foundation' texture overhaul mods (Skyrim HD 2k tex, SMIM specifically) as well as the 'More Farm Animals' mod. And voila! My stuttering has all but vanished. Walking around Whiterun and Solitide was very smooth (resembled vanilla performance), despite some residual "nuisance" stuttering. I am still having some issue walking in the Skyrim wilds, specifically when loading a big new cell. Could be due to the Flora Overhaul maybe? Just speculating. Also, some distant terrain isn't loading... But I don't really mind these things so long as I have decent performance overall. And it looks like quickly switching off those big VRAM intensive mods really helped! Would using DDSOpt on these big texture files (namely Skyrim HD and some of the Automatic Variants textures) allow me to enable them and retain decent performance? I am thinking this will likely be the next thing I try out. Thanks all!

Ah alright, very clearly explained thank you. I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes! Last question: VRAM usage and performance variables can all be monitored with the papyrus log, correct? I believe this is the "benchmark checking" as stated in the STEP guide. I've also read something about a VRAM monitor by Elys, anyone use?

Oh okay, great that will help out a lot not having to rebuild everything each time. What about rebuilding the bashed patch? Is that a necessary step after changing out mods or is that just for ones that use leveled lists?

Alright thanks for the insight! I will likely backup MO's "mods" folder before I start tweaking things just to be safe. Gonna start with my plan posted above and hopefully that will improve the stuttering issues.

When following the guide, do we need to remake compatibility patches between mods when updating one of those mods?

Okay excellent, thank you statmonster. I am thankful that I have everything configured with MO as that will hopefully make this tweaking process a little easier to manage. How about rebuilding the compatibility patches for various mods (as per Skyrim Revisited instructions)? Is that necessary if I am switching from a high res to a low res textures? I'm guessing I should assess that on a case to case basis. The .esp files shouldn't change though I think..?

Ahh okay, duh. Thanks! Could disabling this improve performance? Or would it be game breaking? Maybe I can switch to a performance friendly SMIM as I've got the full version installed.

Thanks Aiyen! I've got a lot of places to check out it seems. What do you mean by SMIM ? Just to clarify :D So a good strategy could be to first lower settings in the skyrim.ini & skyrimprefs.ini (such as z-fighting and shadow res, etc) and then work through DDSOpting some of the larger texture files? I will probably disable the "more farm animals" mod and see if that helps w stuttering too. My check will be the walk from Helgen through Riverwood in game and see how it plays.

Hmm okay, again thanks for the advice. I will try to remove the z-fighting tweaks as per your suggestion and see if that helps. The main issues I have seen with my install so far is when leaving an interior and entering Windhelm. Or entering Windhelm from Skyrim. Major lag encountered here. Also, generally whenever I try to turn my character quickly there will be a long (2-3 second) lag time before my game catches up with it. Mostly noticed this in Windhelm and some of the surrounding Skyrim world space. I will run through some of the common problem areas when I get off work and see of I get any major issues / CTDs. I'm assuming these stuttering issues go back to Aiyen's comment above about VRAM. Think DDSOpt will still help? The texture files I downloaded in "foundation" of the guide are mostly 1024x1024.

Great thanks for the advice! Ill definitely start there at the foundation. I try to use 1k textures whenever possible, maybe I mistakenly used some 2k in the foundation. I've read some stuff about half sizing normals that helps... would that be 1024x512 textures? Sorry for if the questions seem basic! This is the most in depth into modding I've gotten, can't stop!

Yay! Yours truly, I'm assuming? Can't wait to give it a whirl once I'm finished working through the Skyrim Revisited guide

So I just got my Skyrim Revisited install finished, tried running around for a bit. Â No game breaking CTDs (yay!) but lots of stuttering. Â I have a GTX 470 graphics card, 9gb ram, ~1.5gb vram... so middle-of-the-road set-up I think. Â Would now be a good time to work through the DDSOpt guide? Or should I have been doing this all along? Â I am not really sure what big texture mods I should start at and what resolution / normals I should crimp them to. Â I did use DDSOpt to optimize the Bethesda textures as per the SR guide's instruction. Â Am I doing it okay? Â Thanks! Guide I'm referencing:Â https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=STEP_Mod_Texture_Properties

Hmm well would you recommend following the .ini changes discussed in the STEP guide for a SkyRe + Skyrim Revisited install? Or none at all? Just curious :D I played a full STEP v2.2.4 and SkyRe modded game for several days before restarting with Skyrim Revisited, had no major issues that I could tell.

This is covered in the Skyrim Revisited walk-through, correct?

Also, there is a really great / comprehensive guide being put together by Iroha and some of the Skyrim Revisited folks: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=2252

Is the first post in this thread the updated guide? It seems you are continuously updating this guide (yay!) and I just want to make sure that is what we should be following.

Excellent! I won't despair quite yet then. Thanks for the letting me know. Ill follow up if I find or see any issues. I've been running baseline STEP previously with some auccess

If you guys don't mind me resurrecting this thread, what is your general opinion of my "lower-end" graphics card: Nvidia GTX470. I was thinking using the ~1000px textures in order to run a full Skyrime Revisited install with (optionally) a high performance friendly ENB.

Great, I'm looking forward to it! Keep up the great work. Should find a way to attach this guide to Skyrim Revisited, in an "Appendix" or "Extra Content" type section for easy viewing.

Thank heavens you took the time to write this guide, I am going through the whole Skyrim Revisited install and am very interested in getting SkyRe working with it as well. Can't wait to work through it!

An issue with downloading speed or an issue with comparability / mod configuration?

Excellent thanks for the responses! Ill give it a go the next chance I get. Hopefully there won't be too many issues with me converting from mainly using Wrye Bash to MO.

Does MO work well with Wrye Bash? I had thought WB was the preferred modding tool for a heavily modded Skyrim as per reading the STEP guide. Definitely willing to change/upgrade though! Anyway I could re-use my configured Bash - installers .rar and .zip files? Edit: I did some snooping and it looks like Wrye Bash is only used in this guide to generate the Bashed Patch. And it seems to me I would have to revert to a vanilla install and re-download all the mods using MO to convert from my STEP "proper" config to the SR version