akeley

Manual modding is a noble endeavour, however if you find yourself short on time I recommend Morrowind Overhaul. It seems fairly comprehensive, including the majority of essential mods/tweaks and also gives you total control over the install process.

There is the obligatory Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch - however I just realized that I didn`t have it installed and was none the wiser (ie no obvious bugs encountered so far). Other popular tweak is the Fallout 4 - Texture Optimization Project. I have 980 Ti so it wasn`t necessary for me to install it, people seem to recommend it though. Other general tweaks I use and would recommend are Dead Body Collision - well... Fr4nsson's Light Tweaks, FogOut Interiors - darker and fogless interiors DEF_UI - completely tweakable UI with sorting options Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul - better audio There`s not much else regarding essentials simply because there`s not that much wrong with F4. Sure there`s a ton of other mods you can have fun with but these are down to personal gameplay preference. For example I play in Survival and use few mods to tweak that (Quick Save, Craftable/Refillable bottles, Campsite, etc) some to adjust the dialogue (Silence Is Golden, SCDC, Configurable New Dialog). That`s about it, apart from some other mods that I can`t really even tell if they`re doing something (Faraway LOD or higher textures)

G-Sync works just fine, so if you have it, use it. What`s the point of spending heaps of cash on hardware otherwise? It requires a bit of work - well, nothing new when it comes to aiming for best-in-class Skyrim setup. And benefits of G-Sync vs V-Sync are well-known - it frees lots of fps and gets rid of the awful lag induced by V-Sync. To reiterate the most important factors to get it working properly: -set fps cap to 85 -iPresentInterval=0 and other V-Sync settings elsewhere (Control Panel, other inis) set to off/0 -iFPSClamp=0 -in Control Panel: Prefered Refresh Rate set to Highest Available and monitor refresh rate set to the highest native one (if you still get tearing then try Application Controlled setting and lower refresh rate to 85Hz - one of these two should work, mine works with the Highest Available) -umm...enable G-Sync in CP....you did that, right? :D Regarding stutter, like I said, I have none - and that`s without going into arcane settings like ReservedMemorySize. My suggestion would be to start with clean STEP install without any mods (apart from the obvious initial cleaning and patches). This should be a stutter-free situation, there`s no other way about it on your hardware. After you get to this state, start adding mods and see which introduces stutter - if any does - then deciding if you prefer the mod or smooth gameplay. (One thing: I play with gamepad, possible stutter caused by mouse settings is another set of headaches)

EDIT: I can`t edit my own posts? What`s up with that? couple more things: -your monitor`s refresh rate should be set to either highest available (in Change Resolution section of Control Panel) or 85Hz -possible nasty surprise: Mod Organiser (and maybe others) stores Skyrim`s configs in it`s own directory. So you need to edit those, and not the usual ones. This once drove me nearly mad when I forgot about it and tried to change stuff to no effect.

I was in similar situation - bought G-Sync monitor primarily to help with TES games only to find out about the limits of the engine regarding framerates and stuttering and all that. I also had similar spec PC to yours at the time. After some tweaking I had no stutter (apart from the unavoidable occasional hiccup due to memory/engine) and no tearing. What of course is hard to compare are modded Skyrim setups. Mine had about 30 mods, but nothing too heavy also no ENB/Reshade presets. it`s important to note that "stutter" is a relative term and for somebody with an OCD like me a slightest hitch counts, while others can play at 30 fps and be fine with that. So it`s impossible to say if your setup is okay without seeing all the configs, mods etc. 2 things are certain though: you should be easily playing with min fps=40-50 (and that`s populated areas), average of 60 fps and have no V-Sync related tearing at all. Stutter =/= tearing, looks and is a different issue. There`s a bazillion settings to mess with , but off top of my head: -first of all, if you go over 85 fps, the engine will break and you will start seeing dead chickens, flying cows etc. Get the afterburner/Riva Tuner and set the fps limit to 85. Also unlock the other fps caps you set elsewhere, there`s no need with this hardware to go so low. -I played with iPresentInterval=1 and GSYNC on, because I was worried about engine breaking. However now in Special Edition I tried to play with 0 and it was all fine, tried briefly in Oldrim and it worked too. However you might try 1 if tearing persists. The most important thing is not going over 85 fps -other crucial setting is Prefered Refresh Rate in Nvidia control panel. I have it set to highest available and it works this way, but you might try application controlled too (the control panel and drivers are atrocious in general and sometimes behave irrationally. For example I have to reset the machine occasionally because the driver/settings get corrupted and tearing appears) -make sure that all the settings across various configs/panels are synced, meaning that if for example you want to try vsync off, then it has to be off in all the configs, from enb to skyrim.inis and control panel. -Pre-Rendered Frames have nothing to do with tearing, stick with 1, it helps with stutter It took me several afternoons to sort out but it can be done. With this rig you should have stutter and tear - less gameplay with fps from 50 (lots of actors) to steady 85 in less populated areas. Good luck! Also: Special Edition is much better in this respect: the x64 engine works much smoother and performance is better. Recommend switching.

I recently managed to migrate my old Skyrim mod setup to SE - surprisingly, with very little sacrifices. However, I`m a DoF fanatic and this is one thing where I`m stuck. The native SE implementation is not great but not too bad either - functional. Something I could live with, however, I`m a weirdo who prefers "static" DoF instead of the usual one (where things in the background get blurry when you focus on something close by.) So basically, I`m after Static Mode from Dynavision. Unfortunately, the Dyna`s author said it`s unlikely this mod will be ported any time soon. This prompted me to search around, and inevitably I landed in the ENB-land, previously avoided because I`m also a framerate fanatic. Once there, it wasn`t long before I discovered Marty McFly`s Advanced DoF. This thing completely blew me away - beyond beautiful - sadly it also blew away my fps. Since I`m a complete ENooB (same goes for Reshade/Sweet FX/etc) I have some questions: -any idea on how to get that elusive static DoF in SE without need for ENB and its ilk? -like I said, my fps tanked - I`m on i7 2600K+980Ti and dropped up to 20-30 fps depending on area/ambiance after enabling ENB. However I don`t really know what I`m doing so I just used some presets from Nexus...is it possible to use just the ADoF? I know there`s a "standalone" (for Reshade?). Would it be less fps-hungry on its own or is the DoF the main culprit? Any suggestions/comments most appreciated.

Glad to that opinions here are rather positive. Will try it tomorrow, but can`t wait to ask: -how`s the performance? -any chance old saves will work?

It took me some time to stop being angry at Bethsoft for not remaking Morrowind and/or Oblivion. Oh well...it`s better than nothing I suppose. What I wonder is: -do you think old mods will be compatible? This is something they claim, and yet it seems improbable (at least for the mods related to gfx) -any chance the engine will be improved regarding the Vsync-on malarkey? I really wish they unlocked the framerate so it doesn`t break the game - I discovered that "safe" threshold is 85 Hz, above that I see dead chickens and other bad stuff happens. -in general, do you think minimum framerates could improve with this remake (or whatever you call it). Atm I go from ~55 in cities with lots of NPCs milling around to 85 (capped) fps. That`s on 980 Ti/2600K with about 30 mods (no heavy gfx).

I managed to build a fairly well-behaved Skyrim some time a few months ago, following STEP guidelines, though it`s not a 100% STEP build. Then I sold my GSYNC monitor, stopped playing for a while (left the install alone), bought another monitor and now I`m trying to play again. Game seems mostly okay, with one exception: there is a super annoying lighting pop in which I`m pretty sure wasn`t there before. By this I don`t mean singular light sources appearing (the fFlickeringLightDistance thingy) but more of the whole "light map", if that makes any sense. Say I`m standing in Whiterun, under the big statue and pan around. Looking at the roof of the boat house, where Companions live, the light/dark will creep on/off whilst panning, same on assorted city walls. It all seems distance related, so walking to & fro the boathouse will have similar effect. Seems I have triggered something in the period when I wasn`t playing. I did run the SkyrimLauncher before resuming, to adjust for my new monitor resolution. Apart from that I don`t recall any messing around with .inis and such. But something has clearly happened. I know it`s a long shot, since there can be a bazillion variables responsible, but maybe somebody could come up with a fresh idea. I`m quite burned out, since it took me weeks to set this thing up properly, and now another afternoon trying to sort this new f-up. Any suggestions most appreciated. I`m on Win 8.1 x64, 780Ti & GSYNC @ 1080p [skyrim.ini] [skyrimPrefs.ini] [LOOT] EDIT: Sorted. As I feared, the reason was simple, but embarrassing: I forgot that MO keeps its own .ini files and was tweaking the "dead" /MyGames .inis :/ After replacing MO inis with my backup ones it`s okay now: the effect is still there but much less pronounced so it`s just below my OCD level. I think the ol` fShadowBiasScale parameter is the main culprit, at 0.2500 it`s okay but ENB (or other things?) seem to set it to 0.15 and cause trouble.

Ah, yes, I actually considered it before. Looks good, just had two issues: -"Lockpicking, pickpocket, sneak and speech skills provides no PC exp after PC hit level xx" - not sure what that means in-game. I mean, I suppose it`s a good thing since the author decided to put it in, just unsure why. Also, what`s the "xx"? Is it set already? -'Gain carrying capacity no matter whether you invest in health, magic, or stamina" - I`m an ultra realist so probably would just like to stick with stamina...or maybe nothing (I use TCSO to limit the carry already) Will give it a go anyway I think, thanks for the heads up.

Hi folks, Over last two weeks I managed to get a fairly stable modded Skyrim going, mostly thanks to awesome S.T.E.P guides. However now I played it for a bit, one thing stands out: I level up too fast. Well, at least it seems so - I only cleared that initial Mine and found the Golden Claw, but I`m already level 5. I looked around and of course arrived at Skyrim Community Uncapper. It seems powerful and most popular, so it`s clearly a way to go, however I find it quite overwhelming. Partially due to IRL reasons (high stress and information overload atm), also maths - even simple - was never my forte. Then there`s the fear that if i mess up it might only become obvious after many hours of play, due to teh nature of this game (I only realised Oblivion leveling was broken after nearly 50 hrs in). I checked some guides and docs and they are complex too, concentrating on particular builds. My question is: what`s the simplest possible way to slow down leveling using SCU - or are there any other recommended mods for that? (there`s a few, like Gentler Leveling on Nexus but I`m unsure how reliable these are) I play as a sneaky archer type who uses one handed and some magic. However I`d rather not attempt to tweak particular skills, "build" wise, if that makes sense. I`m happy with just slower general leveling pace that would still work 100 hours in (since this is my 1st playthrough I don`t know how it all looks -mid or -end game. Heard it gets harder at higher levels...) Any advice highly appreciated.