What's the Most Script Intensive Mods?

[Aeradom]

You know what scares me? The idea of putting hours upon hours of effort in, just for the game to conk out on me a couple hundred hours into my playthrough and conk out on me. So when I see things like 50K scripts, I get a bit concerned. Now yes this is from the extended list but, there's a lot of mods I actually really want on there. It occurs to me though that I really don't know what mods are script intensive and what mods are safe (from that standpoint anyways). So my question here is, specifically, what are the top script intensive mods (and are there less script intensive alternatives) and in general what types of mods should I limit to avoid such issues? 

[Nebulous112]

Where are you getting 50k scripts from?

 

The amount of scripts generally doesn't matter. It is how often those scripts are called and what they are doing that can cause issues.

 

Unless you were meaning string count? If so, the bug with exceeding the string limit is worked around through the Crash Fixes mod. When you are approaching the limit, Crash Fixes will change your save type so that you won't have an issue loading a save.

 

That being said, a couple of the heaviest hitters for scripts off the top of my head are Footsteps and Wet and Cold.

[Aeradom]

Where are you getting 50k scripts from?

 

The amount of scripts generally doesn't matter. It is how often those scripts are called and what they are doing that can cause issues.

 

Unless you were meaning string count? If so, the bug with exceeding the string limit is worked around through the Crash Fixes mod. When you are approaching the limit, Crash Fixes will change your save type so that you won't have an issue loading a save.

 

That being said, a couple of the heaviest hitters for scripts off the top of my head are Footsteps and Wet and Cold.

That's what I meant not sure why I said scripts. In any event, while that might get around that issue, I'm also not wanting to see a massive performance drop (like sub 30 FPS when normally running at 60 FPS) that totally breaks my immersion. I actually found a breakdown of the individual scripts (massive props to  Darth_mathias and DarkladyLexy With help from paul666root for the detailed list), so at this point, I'm meaning more about the types. Like, I was surprised how much big quest or world expansions, as well as how high the count is in vanilla. Not sure why that was surprising to me in retrospect but, it was. 

 

Update: I guess what I'm really asking is how much of a difference in terms of performance is there between say 55K scripts and 45K scripts? I know that's a hard question because it depends on when they come into play but still, just curious. 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Aeradom

[Nebulous112]

*strings

 

You said scripts again. ;-)

 

I'm not sure, to be honest. I don't know how much effect strings have on performance as opposed to everything else (scripts being called, large textures and high-poly meshes, multiple NPCs for the game to keep track of, etc.).

 

I would be interested to know, as I don't know very much on the subject. To be honest, since Crash Fixes fixed the issue of loading saves with high string counts I haven't bothered to even worry about string counts in mods, but you have me curious now.

[Aeradom]

*strings

 

You said scripts again. ;-)

 

I'm not sure, to be honest. I don't know how much effect strings have on performance as opposed to everything else (scripts being called, large textures and high-poly meshes, multiple NPCs for the game to keep track of, etc.).

 

I would be interested to know, as I don't know very much on the subject. To be honest, since Crash Fixes fixed the issue of loading saves with high string counts I haven't bothered to even worry about string counts in mods, but you have me curious now.

That's what I get for multi-tasking. I'll tell you why I'm doing it; prior to seeing the article below, I didn't know about strings until that article. I guess this means though that the script cleaner mod ain't helping with this issue if I choose to plug and play those mods. Speaking on that, I know with script heavy mods it's a bad idea to remove those once their in place. I'm curious though if the same is said with string heavy mods. 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Aeradom

[paul666root]

Well i got 52K strings at start and reached now level 17 and still didn't go up only by 800-900. These will rise but they will also lower in time... not necessary will go only upwards.

Anyway with Crash fixes there wont be any problem with  strings anymore... and there is also the restringer now that you can use to lower the string count.

[Nebulous112]

It is a bad idea to remove any scripted mod from the game. The only thing I would personally ever swap is textures once I have started a game.

 

If you want to uninstall mods and not screw with the game, best to just start a new game.

[SwedishElk]

I'm running the SRLE version with some more, one is really hard scripted, Legacy of the Dragonborn. I'm using almost only 4k textures, or 2k where there is no higher. So there is where I derivate from SRLE instructions. I haven't even noticed much from LotD, even autosorting hundreds of items. Sure, I'm on a high end computer, but I doubt you will suffer much either, if you have lower specs go with lower textures instead. String numbers and scripts isn't a large issue as far as I can tell. I have way over 2000 hours of playtime in Skyrim, but it certainly been more mod friendly now. And merging mods, batch patching, a lot of TES5Editing makes the game real smooth running even with extreme texturing and 100k scripts and strings.

[Darth_mathias]

the forum may https://forum.step-project.com/topic/10257-srle-extended-string-count-testing/?hl=%20string help its not been updated in a while but you'll get the idea.

[Aeradom]

the forum may https://forum.step-project.com/topic/10257-srle-extended-string-count-testing/?hl=%20string help its not been updated in a while but you'll get the idea.

Well that's the first time I've re-read every post on an old topic, it was an informative though so even if I did stay up to 4 AM, it was worth it. I'm guessing with the Crash Fixes the issue has been largely resolved. And with the current tools I guess you can keep it to a reasonable number. I am curious how big an issue a high string count can affect performance (in terms of frame rate drops) though. When I looked at SRLE Extended, I saw a lot of mods that I honestly could do without. I guess at this point how much do I really need to limit myself? I was thinking for instance of having a largely "vanilla enhanced" playthrough. Meaning that I wouldn't be installing a lot of the really big quest/expansion mods, limiting to two of the big companion mods (not sure which though, more research required on this issue) and honestly, never really cared for house mods. If I do those things (along with the usual good modding practices of course), that should keep me in good shape I assume yes? 

 

I should note at this point that my system, while not top of the line, I think is a rather respectable system. I'm running an i5-2500K at 4.2 GHz (could push to 4.5 probably as I'm running at 65 C under full load and only used about 1.3 volts I believe), GTX 970 GPU (need to still overclock that one), running off a 250 GB Samsung SSD, with 8 Gigs of 1600 Ram. With all that said, the one thing I've never done is play through Skyrim at consistent 55-60 FPS all the way through because my earlier hardware just couldn't cut the mustard as it were. That's why keeping it in that range is important to me (oh at 1080 by the way). 

 

Side note: I did create a system specs thing to put in my signature, but I don't know where that went to. Where can I find that? 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Aeradom

[Nebulous112]

Maybe try just SR:LE first. Add a few mods from SR:LE Extended if you want, and check out Darth's CR subguide for some CR tips with the added mods (if you don't install everything you can't use the premade CR). That is basically what I do for my SR:LE-based profile (I also add some mods not in either guide and do custom CR for those).

 

SR:LE Extended is a wicked guide, but my specs can't really handle the whole thing, and some of the mods I'm not really interested in. I'm really pumped for the Legacy Guide to be finalized, though. Probably strain my system to the max, but I have always wanted to try an LotD playthrough. :-)

 

And the link to your system specs is here: https://wiki.step-project.com/User:Aeradom/SystemSpecs

[paul666root]

Legacy is quite finished now. The only thing that remains is the CR.

I have a weaker system than you but still the guide is worth it... ofc had to drop a bit the quality here and there.

[reddvilzz]

I just started the game and reached the first standing stones after helgen, my string count is on 63k lol.

 

Using SRLE Extended with some extra mods like Hunter born, hunting in skyrim, spectraverse, dwemertech, trade routes and the others

[Taverius]

That's not really an issue with Crash Fixes, but if you're worried you can run ReStringer on some string-heavy mods.

[Greg]

 

Update: I guess what I'm really asking is how much of a difference in terms of performance is there between say 55K scripts and 45K scripts? I know that's a hard question because it depends on when they come into play but still, just curious.

Performance statistics for strings is not statistically significant because it's basically just an array of pointers to the memory containing the strings and pointer dereferencing is very fast. The strings are also interned, meaning only one copy of the string is stored in memory even if it's 50 in different mods or 50 different scripts.