Shadow Details vs. Performance Problem

[Nachtfrost]

Hi guys!

First of all (cause this is my first post on this forum) I wanna say that I've been following the development of STEP with great interest over the last few weeks. Therefore I want to thank The Compiler and all the supporting members of the project/forum for their effort to share the discovered enhancements for Skyrim.

 

I've posted the following problem already on the Nexus forum but so far I didn't get a proper solution.

 

[Copied from Nexus]

I have a similar problem. Yesterday I tried out Skyrim for the first

time and wanted to test out the optimal graphic settings before really

beginning to play. I only used the old 1.1 version of Skyrim with latest

graphic drivers installed. So I set everything to ultra except 4x AA

(because I don't notice a difference in-game) with 4x SSAA and Quality

Ambient Occlusion through the nVidia Control Panel. I hadn't done any

ini-tweaks or mods installed so far. I just started a new game and ran

straight to Whiterun (because I had heard that it's a good place to test

out performance). So my average FPS (with FRAPS) was 50 and never

dropping under 30. Changing single graphic settings, I quickly noticed

that changing AA, SSAA, AF or Ambient Occlusion barely affected my FPS

at all (either way). The game ran fluidly so far.

 

Unfortunately, when I got out of Whiterun at sunset, and when the rays

of the sun broke through the branches of a nearby tree my fps dropped to

20-22!!! I made a quicksave and changed the shadow settings from ultra

to high and gained 40 fps!!! running around the area of whiterun with up

to 80 fps. I wanna know if it's possible that this setting can cripple

my gpu so much? (I know that shadows are a big fps killer, but 40

fps???) Besides I think my rig should be able to deal with ultra

shadows. I saw youtube-videos of ppl who had the exact rig as mine and

could run everything on ultra + many graphic mods.

 

 

 

So here's my rig:

 

Windows 7 64bit

 

ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro

 

i7-2600k @3,4ghz

 

16 gb ram

 

Geforce GTX 580 1,5 gb VRAM

 

Corsair GS600

WD Caviar Black 500 GB

 

 

 

Also, I played with the native 1920x1080 resolution on a single monitor,

real time virus scan was disabled, there weren't any other programs

running in backgound (except FRAPS), energy option was set for high

performance and my gpu wasn't overheating. My overall time in-game was

estimated 30-45 minutes. I had to leave Vsync enabled to avoid too many

fps fluctuations.

[/copied from Nexus)

 

Added: Also the official HD Texture Pack was not installed. The game runs fine as long as the fps stay above 30 minimum. Going further down I notice a change of game pace. I'm not much of a pc expert so I hope that there is an easy explanation for the problem. (Maybe the new patches will be enough to change the problem, you think?)

 

I admit that I'm a little bit sad right now cause I bought this rig just 6 month ago (so shortly after Skyrim was released) for a huge amount of money. I was thinking that this would be more than enough to run Skyrim on ultra at least without mods/hd texture packs/ultra ini tweaks. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that a single graphic card can do **** these days, even if you spend money like hell for it.

 

Thanks already! Your work is very much appreciated!

[Bealdwine]

@ Bealdwine:did this tweak work the way it should?

Sorry, meant to get back on this one... unfortunately, no, it didn't work for me either.

 

@Vond, when you've tried the other possible settings could you drop a note back here please.

[Vond]

I tried setting it to =2, and there was no difference as far as I could tell. Will try -1 aswell when I get home tonight, hardly had any time at all yesterday sadly.