Nachtfrost

Hello, I made some more testing. Apparently it's some other issue. Even the vanilla game breaks at the same point mentioned. I was monitoring my GPU temp and it was fine (45 °C) but I could indeed hear the fan going up a bit. Before I reached the break point mentioned I also noticed one or two minor lags. My specs are: GPU: Geforce GTX 580 1,5 GB VRAM CPU: i7-2600K 16 GB RAM normal hard drive, no OC, no water cooling or such, would have to look up the mainboard type and other more detailed information I will try to dust of the fan first. If that doesn't help could someone maybe recommend a GPU stress testing tool? As said in the first post, STEP 2.1.8 or some version like that was running damn fine even with certain HQ textures. Good night, Nachtfrost

Hello, I just started to install STEP 2.2.8 according to the wiki guide. I once installed an older version of STEP manually and everything worked fine. Now I have pretty much trouble with the current version. I did a clean install, drivers are all updated etc and I installed the mods with Mod Manager, sorted them appropriately and Mod Manager says everthing's fine. I started a new game but just before the dragon attacks Helgen, the game seems to freeze, the monitor shuts down and the computer seems to be doing a reboot but still the monitor is getting no signal. I have to switch off the computer via the on/off button. This happened 2 or 3 times. I noticed that after the first time, ENboost and SKSE depending mods like SkyUI, Trade and Barter etc. are not loaded (no mod setting in the in game menu). Has anyone some hints where to start? Cheers, Nachtfrost

I think that's normal for most open world games. However, you can change the uGrids value in your ini but this is very demanding up to total instability of the game. I wouldn't do that unless you have a very powerful rig and know what you're doing. In regard of the fact that you already get stutters on the default uGrids, I believe you have to live with that. More information about your rig would also be helpfull.Â

 To make it quick, no. I have a GTX580 myself and had exactly the same problem like you have now. The thing is that most of the non-CORE mods are not much of an impact VRAM-wise. There are actually only very few mods that have a real VRAM impact for people with 1,5gb cards (e.g. SRO, Skyrim 2k HD, Flora Overhaul and such)  The way I modded my Skyrim with STEP is very complicated because I mixed a lot of high and low res textures (you have too look carefully for every filename!). But if you're willing to try, this is what makes my game run smooth. (copied from another thread) And I'm using quality Ambient Occlusion via nVidia Inspector. My VRAM usage sometimes goes a bit over 1,5gb but I didn't encounter noticable lags, even when playing for many hours.

Well, there are three categories: First, games I'm gonna check out very likely and I hope that they live up to the expectation: 1. Mass Effect Series 2. Max Payne 3 Second, games I enjoyed recently (which are quite few, and apart Skyrim ): 1. Dragon Age 1 (played it on XBox, very nice made RPG, Dragon Age 2 was horrible, never played it through) 2. Risen 2: Dark Waters (as you will see later, the best PC RPG series of all time, together with Elder Scrolls series) 3. Alan Wake (although it was boring very soon) At last, games I was really into and which I played for hours and hours (some of them more than 100 hours) 1. Morrowind (cannot judge Skyrim atm but this one was far better than Oblivion) 2. Gothic 1 & 2 + Add-on/Risen series (especially the Gothic series by the German company Piranha Bytes is a game you should check out, my first 3D-RPG and in some points superior to Elder Scrolls) 3. Rome: Total War (played with every faction, really great game, still love it) 4. Spellforce 1 + Add-ons (don't know if I try Spellforce 2 but I liked the game a lot) 5. Age of Empires 1 & 2 (even I was a child once, still a good game) 6. Heroes of Might and Magic III (a classic one) 7: Zelda series (not a PC game, my favourite is A link to the past, they really tried to bring immersion to 2D games, finished it several times)

I have another problem with your mod. Many transitions are too abrupt. When I go from a dark room into a lit hallway (example taken from Candlehearth Hall), it seems like my character triggers an automatic movement sensor for the light switch when actually entering the hallway.

It's likely that the snow road textures weren't updated in 1.3. Just take the landscape folder from the 1.3 update and overwrite. You must read it like this: Take the loose landscape files + the snowroads to ...skyrim/data (and overwrite) And then: Extract the landscape folder from the update to ...skyrim/data and overwrite. The update covers only some textures of SRO, not all!

I'm not sure your mod is causing this. I sometimes get black flickering on some textures. Like shadows but where there should be no shadows. In interior spaces as well as exterior spaces. I found out it's not a RCRN issue and after loading a savegame, these weird spots disappear. Happened on some mounatain/rock textures in the Reach, at the inn in Whiterun and in the Warrens of Markarth so far.

Ok, I did some more testing, running around the whole world of Skyrim for about two hours. (I covered Whiterun, Riverwood, Falkreath, Riften, Markarth, Solitude, Morthal, Dawnstar, Winterhold, Windhelm, plains west of whiterun, surroundings of Riverwood, surroundings of Falkreath, the Reach, Hjaalmarch, the northern coast and the woods north of Riften, I also made quite a few fast travels) I disabled SSAA and use only 4xMSAA now so I could use the gained VRAM for other enhancement. As soon as I noticed that especially the snow-related textures look pretty bad in low-res (I admit that some of these textures don't look gorgeous in high-res either) I took the 2k SRO landscape files again. Now, for exterior spaces I have a VRAM usage of ~1000-1350mb. (lower amounts at the northern coast and in cities, higher amouts at places with much vegetation) There is one exception and may I ask if someone knows if this is a corrupted spot or something. Near the Guardian Stones, my VRAM hit the 1500mb mark. It was just a very tiny area and I can't explain why it would be so much higher. There definitely is a high view distance from the Guardian stones and there is quite a lot of trees and the lake textures but there were other areas like this where my VRAM usage was perfectly fine. Interior spaces are no problem at all and this is where a new question arises. The big cities in Skyrim are as we know constructed in seperate world spaces. This explains why the VRAM usage is (similar to dungeons) not that high. I was deliberating to use high-res version of the SRO architecture folder as well (although probably not necessary because it looks very nice in low-res as I said already) So, is the architecture folder also changing the textures of the city when you look at them from outside? (except city walls and stuff like that, of course) And concernig the farmhouse textures which are in the open world space, do you think that this will be a huge VRAM impact? I post this question for people who know a bit more about modding and such because I find it very hard to grasp the VRAM usage because of the many VRAM-jumps between different regions of Skyrim.

@torminator: Of course not! :D Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it for people with 1,5 gb cards.

Ok, so there doesn't seem to be a German member around. But I have again another issue. I'm using the German version of the Unofficial Patch. I already tried to alter load order but unfortunately the NPC-names are all in German but their houses are often named in English. Like: Jon Kampfgeborener - House of Clan Battleborn Another weird thing is that the bard in Whiterun is singing one verse in German, but the next one is English. :D I wanna know if there is the possibility to have either everything in German or everything in English. Or maybe English cells/NPCs/whatever names and German dialogue. I just hate the mix, it's not a matter of foreign language.

Ok, here is what I did. I used the Texture Optimizer program to compress the textures to "resize if >1024". After that my VRAM usage was reduced to ~1100-1200mb (~-300mb). But I definitely saw a difference concerning some textures. So I added back higher textures of following mods which I can only recommend for people with 1,5 gb cards. Enhanced Blood Textures (don't use Crimson Tide, I just am a bit bloodthirsty, I'm not sure the difference is so high between high and low-res) Re-Defined Dungeons (just because VRAM usage in dungeons isn't very high I guess) Skyrim Flora Overhaul (I did this because it made a huge difference in-game in my opinion. The vegetation looks by far nicer with the high-res textures) Trees HDSkyrim Variation (same as Flora Overhaul) AOF Detailed Mountains (also a big improvement in my opinion) Enhanced Distant Terrain HD (not a big difference but also very performance friendly I think) Conclusion: In my opinion the landscape changing mods are the most necessary ones in regard of visual enhancement. I did not install again the That's ice mod because it shouldn't have been changed by the compression and the WATER mod just looked good as it was. Running through cities/villages, I think that even with 1k-textures they still look pretty nice and don't need high priority enhancement. I must admit that I did not do in-depth benchmarking and such but I could play the game with <1400 mb VRAM usage. Clutter and armor stuff also does not have such high priority and looking at armor pieces in my inventar, it didn't seem to have changed much.

What I don't understand is why I encounter these lags even after 30 seconds in the game. I mean I still have 16gb of system RAM which should be used (inefficiently I know), and as far as I recall it was generally stated that someone should be able to use 1,5xVRAM before stuttering and CtDs appear. (this is not meant as an accusation) I tried disabling SSAO and SSAA but it brought me maybe ~20mb of VRAM back.

Hello guys, I think another member had this issue once but I couldn't find the thread. I'm currently troubled with some lags occuring now and then (happens often when I turn around very quickly and when I fast travelled to a new area). There were some FPS drops but they weren't on a critical level (like 45 --> 38). Tried to disable AO, tried to disable RCRN. No changes. Then I set my FPS limit to 35 via nVidia inspector. The lags still occured, FPS dropping from 35 to just 30. It is nothing game breaking but it can be a bit annoying sometimes, happens also in different areas. I thought it might be a matter of VRAM but I monitored the usage and maximum was 1530 mb. So I guess that shouldn't be the problem? GPU wasn't overheating either, there's enough disc space left and I don't have save game bloat, in case these information matter. Rig: GTX580 1,5 gb i7-2600k 16 gb RAM 500 GB Western Digital Caviar Black 600W Corsair PSU Windows 7 64bit I use newest nVidia drivers, TESV 1.5.26 (I guess), activated 2x2SSAA+4xMSAA, Quality AO, Ultra Settings, installed most of the STEP-CORE-mods and some non-core mods from STEP. Did only the STEP recommended ini tweaks. Thanks!

I can tell now that this issue also occurs without RCRN. RCRN only enhances the effect a little bit because of the higher contrast.

I just finished setting up my personal STEP. I'm not absolutely sure it's your mod because I don't know much about modding (but I guess it is your mod); what I've seen...shadows really looked awesome now. Great work!

I'm not quite sure with the RCRN installation. Should I use the premium fxaa of RCRN or should I disable it to use SSAA with my GTX580? Concerning the overbright spots. I justed tested out my installation of STEP and tested for around half an hour. When I was running up the way to Skyborn Altar and turned around quickly (looking now on the plains west of Whiterun), it seemed like my character was blinded by a flash grenade for a short moment. Not only the cloudy sky but also the distant terrain (mountains in this case) were pretty bright, the near surroundings including trees and herbs up to a certain edge remained just fine. Could this also be an issue of RCRN or Enhanced Distant Terrain?

I'm currently installing STEP and using only SRO, not Skyrim HD 2k-textures. Is it necessary to install SRO again (and which parts when only using this large texture mod) after Skyrim Flora Overhaul and if yes, why?

So did anyone hear something about Ambient Occlusion settings with the new drivers? I installed them yesterday, unfortunately, activating AO causes weird air shadows and such. I know that this is an issue. I just wanna know if there is some solution around.

Just a few thoughts. The game Risen 2 - Dark Waters by PB/Deep Silver had very excruciating z-fighting on nVidia cards. After one or two weeks, there was a patch. And then there was z-fighting no more. And Piranha Bytes is a small fish compared to Bethesda.

Totally agree with sb4n.

Comparing the screenshots from the DDSopt wiki guide I must say I agree that SRO looks better. Looking at the Skyrim HD2k walls in White Phial, I think they are out of a comic. Also I think that the rocks have too much of a grey/silver tint. The Riverwood rooftops look by far better using SRO. But I can understand that this is an issue of personal preferences. I mean who wants too much realism in a fantasy role playing game. :happy: May I also ask why someone would need HD mods of certain areas? (like Riften HQ, HQ College of Winterhold) Are they just, again, for different tastes?

I've got a question concerning RCRN and AO. Is AO still adding some to the visual quality if RCRN is used? Or is it redundant then?

Is there someone who accidentally tested the German translation of the unofficial patch, yet?

Just got back to the issue, well sadly enabling framerate limiter via inspector didn't solve the problem, also I don't have SLI.