Skyrim Revisited Pre-Release Feedback

[Aiyen]

Okay continued my optimizations

So far I have disabled the "punish your machine" and stick to "Ultra" shadow ini settings.

I also reduced the sizes of all *_n.dds normal maps in SRO 1.6 2k to 1kx1k max and ran another go.

No issues and VRAM stable around 1800Mb at max in all tested locations so far (Yes I even went to the ritual stone and killed the necromancer and danced naked in the moonlight!) No problems so far, so will continue to test activating lighting and ENB now.

It is also clear to me that it must be a (V)RAM/Cache issue since every spot I have found around Riverwood and Whiterun where I could provoke a certain CTD I now only get a big stutter as the game loads in the new cells.

 

For the FNIS 3.5 install will it be enough to remove the folders it made in the overwrite dir, and then remove it from the mods list and install the new version ?

[Neovalen]

Regarding DSpSOB, it seems like it won't be updated for dragon born anytime soon, which is ashame since it seems like its just a question of adding the weapons and shields as explained in the tutorial.

 

It would be nice if someone could make it play nice with cloaks, backpacks etc.

 

Still it's IMO one of the best mods out there.

 

I messaged the author at one point asking if I could take over the project in the event he was not going to continue... never got a response though(nexus says he hasn't logged in months).

 

Might work on a patch once I'm happy with the state of the guide. It isn't overly difficult to do just time consuming. I've got some stuff together I can polish and get ready for release eventually for it...

[Neovalen]

Okay continued my optimizations

So far I have disabled the "punish your machine" and stick to "Ultra" shadow ini settings.

I also reduced the sizes of all *_n.dds normal maps in SRO 1.6 2k to 1kx1k max and ran another go.

No issues and VRAM stable around 1800Mb at max in all tested locations so far (Yes I even went to the ritual stone and killed the necromancer and danced naked in the moonlight!) No problems so far, so will continue to test activating lighting and ENB now.

It is also clear to me that it must be a (V)RAM/Cache issue since every spot I have found around Riverwood and Whiterun where I could provoke a certain CTD I now only get a big stutter as the game loads in the new cells.

 

For the FNIS 3.5 install will it be enough to remove the folders it made in the overwrite dir, and then remove it from the mods list and install the new version ?

 

Yes. Remove the overwrite files I mention FNIS adds in the guide then install new version and run. Think he merged the xp32 skeleton patch into a generic skeleton patch so tick that instead.

 

P.s. gotta love years old graphics engines...

[Neovalen]

UDGP updated... from the change log not expecting any patch changes.

[NotARobot]

Is there some place explaining how to determine if a mod makes wild edits or doesn't forward stuff from the official patches? Im using some extra mods and want to clean them in the same way, but don't really know how to go about it. Is it as simple as loading them up with the main bethesda files and unofficial patches then expanding every node looking for red sections, then fixing them? I feel like that might not be right...

[Neovalen]

Is there some place explaining how to determine if a mod makes wild edits or doesn't forward stuff from the official patches? Im using some extra mods and want to clean them in the same way, but don't really know how to go about it. Is it as simple as loading them up with the main bethesda files and unofficial patches then expanding every node looking for red sections, then fixing them? I feel like that might not be right...

 

That's how you do it basically but not blindly... evaluate each conflict in the context of what the mod/mods are intending to do. You have to look out though especially with scripting mods and TEST. It could very well be that the new mod does things better than it appears (as I was reminded recently with GDO).

 

Wild edits are harder to find... but things like edited world space with no nodes or changes is obvious... when in doubt try to ask the mod author.

[Solist]

Dead Body Collision Fix updated as well.

[LordAurelius]

I ran into an issue installing Wolverines Automatic Variants Port. The unnecessarily long directory path inside the skyproc folder in the archive prevented mod organizer from being able to extract the archive. I've run into this issue before with windows and other programs not liking excessively long paths and thought that something should be mentioned about this in case someone else has this problem. I fixed it by shortening one of the folder names in the archive (the excessively long one with the  " -- author is chocolambot" bit at the end, I just deleted that part).

[Neovalen]

 

Not Really HD Display Case is showing as redundant and unnecessary due to being overridden by Langley Wood Metal and Stone Textures Workshop. I'm not sure where to find the display case in game for comparison.

There is one in Dragonsreach near the Jarl's living quarters. That's the only one I've seen so far.

There are many across the land of Skyrim but that's the easiest to find. I will check this out tonight myself.

I already explicitly state to NOT install the display case in the Langleys section... check your install. :) Thanks.

[Solist]

I ran into an issue installing Wolverines Automatic Variants Port. The unnecessarily long directory path inside the skyproc folder in the archive prevented mod organizer from being able to extract the archive. I've run into this issue before with windows and other programs not liking excessively long paths and thought that something should be mentioned about this in case someone else has this problem. I fixed it by shortening one of the folder names in the archive (the excessively long one with the " -- author is chocolambot" bit at the end, I just deleted that part).

 

Yep that's pretty much how to work around it. That mod file has a ridiculously long name. Just unzip to a temp location, rename the folder and install.

[Neovalen]

I ran into an issue installing Wolverines Automatic Variants Port. The unnecessarily long directory path inside the skyproc folder in the archive prevented mod organizer from being able to extract the archive. I've run into this issue before with windows and other programs not liking excessively long paths and thought that something should be mentioned about this in case someone else has this problem. I fixed it by shortening one of the folder names in the archive (the excessively long one with the " -- author is chocolambot" bit at the end' date=' I just deleted that part).[/quote']

 

Yep that's pretty much how to work around it. That mod file has a ridiculously long name. Just unzip to a temp location' date=' rename the folder and install.[/quote']

I didn't have the problem and my MO folder is pretty deep already... interesting.

[thalastwon]

 

 

Not Really HD Display Case is showing as redundant and unnecessary due to being overridden by Langley Wood Metal and Stone Textures Workshop. I'm not sure where to find the display case in game for comparison.

There is one in Dragonsreach near the Jarl's living quarters. That's the only one I've seen so far.

There are many across the land of Skyrim but that's the easiest to find. I will check this out tonight myself.

I already explicitly state to NOT install the display case in the Langleys section... check your install. :) Thanks.

Gotcha thats my bad. My eyes musta skipped a line or 3.

[VirusShell]

I ran into an issue installing Wolverines Automatic Variants Port. The unnecessarily long directory path inside the skyproc folder in the archive prevented mod organizer from being able to extract the archive. I've run into this issue before with windows and other programs not liking excessively long paths and thought that something should be mentioned about this in case someone else has this problem. I fixed it by shortening one of the folder names in the archive (the excessively long one with the " -- author is chocolambot" bit at the end' date=' I just deleted that part).[/quote']

 

Yep that's pretty much how to work around it. That mod file has a ridiculously long name. Just unzip to a temp location' date=' rename the folder and install.[/quote']

@Lord Aurelius I've found it seems to be ones with multiple hyphens ('-') in the name. MO seems to have more of a chance to give me false notifications for errors.

 

@Solist You could just manually change the name while you are installing it thru MO. That's what has worked for me

[Neovalen]

Some mod additions and updates tonight.... Played around with SkyRealism ENB Cinematic Preset... damn it looks good (Slightly tweaked: DOF Disabled, External SMAA, No AF-since using driver).

 

Major increase in stability by half-sizing the normal maps of the big texture packs (SRO, SHD, SeriousHD)... will see if that holds true over time. Going to see about lowering some of my mods to max of 2048 as well for most mods unless it's something big like trees.

 

My theory is: Skryim can handle loading up to 3GB of VRAM at a time but when loading between cells if it takes too long to load... CTD.

 

In any case... phew! So hard to keep up with this massively changing mod scene. :)

[Aiyen]

Half sizing the normals maps works wonders indeed, and if you are using an ENB with even one of the less invasive DoF's then you cannot really see the difference anymore anyhow.

 

Also I tried about every single new ENB released this month and my computer just laughs at their petty attempt to make it sweat it seems. I get a good stable between 30-40fps in out and indoor depending on which ENB. This is using just the default presents and not doing any tweaks to the ENB ini. Sadly I got a few problems finding one I really like, most of them have a bad time doing so fire and torches look realistic, but I guess I will just have to make my own ENB based on the one I like the most until I get the desired result.

 

Also did a bit more research on the VRAM/RAM CTD issues. I also did some RAM bench-markings to see how and what the game was doing with the RAM while playing. Since skyrim is a 32bit app. it can only max. actively access about 3.2GB of RAM. If your game reaches this point then as I have understood and observed it on my own machine then the computer has two options.

1. Create a buffer in the RAM for very fast access.

While running Skyrim on my machine I have windows using about 3GB and skyrim about the same, however there is also a reserved buffer area of about 6GB. Once I shut the game down this buffer gets cleared, so I have to assume that it is the game using it to swap the RAM really fast.

2. If no RAM is available then it will access the virtual memory cache on your HDD, however this process is really slow, and will not be able to respond fast enough if you load in a complex cell while running your machine on the limit.

 

The dependency on the VRAM comes in that it is about twice as fast at reading and writing as normal RAM is and is supposed to help the slower ram by storing all the textures and info required to render a scene. Hence if you can load all your textures in there then your normal RAM can focus on other game elements. If this is not the case then the RAM needs to store this info on top of everything else, and then even with RAM cache then there is just too much data and the game CTD upon loading a complex cell, or you get artifacts like objects without textures on them etc, which makes the game engine more unstable since it requires textures on objects to properly do other stuff.

So in general if you do not have at least have 8-16GB DDR3 1600Mhz (Why would you not? RAM is cheaper then Pizza these days) and a decent modern CPU/Mb then you will run into more CTD´s then people who do have this while playing SR.

 

However the puzzling part about CTD due to lacking memory is that in an ideal world then the game should only begin to stutter or experience lag spikes while it catches up and this is also what most people observe at some point or another while playing. The reason for CTDs hence also have a heavy game engine component which we can only try to reduce the significance off by cleaning mods, making sure the load order is correct, and that there are no scripts running amok in the background trying to access some game info and failing all the time, since this also takes up memory.