NVIDIA 3 monitor user: Need help launching Skyrim ("Failed to initialize renderer")

[peppergomez]

I am hoping someone can help me solve this without having to fully uninstall and reinstall Skyrim, which is what I had to do in the past.

 

I have 3 30" monitors in portrait mode, for a resolution of 5106x2560 (that's with bezel correction- 4800x2560 standard).

 

When I first installed Skyrim, it would run fine on this (the menus ingame are difficult to read, but that's something to troubleshoot further down the line). 

 

A few days ago NVIDIA lost the signal of the side monitors and I had to redo the Surround option and re-add the side monitors. It's possible that my bezel corrected resolution now differs from what I had earlier.

 

So, I am doing the STEP process from scratch, and restarted Skyrim. I get the error:

 

Failed to initialize renderer.

Your display doesn't support the selection resolution. Please set a different resolution in Skyrim's launcher under Display Settings.

 

Thing is, there are no resolutions in the Resolution field that even come close to what I am using. I've usually just kept Resolution field blank.

 

Can anyone advise me how I can get this working without doing a full uninstall and reinstall. Also, I am not interested in running the game in Windowed Mode.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Update- I searched for this issue on the Widescreen Gaming Forums, and apparently clicking "Default" on the Detail tab in the Skyrim Options box solves this problem. I just confirmed this.

 

Trouble is, STEP calls for the following:

 

1.B.1. Launcher Settings

 

Click the [ultra] button.

Under Antialiasing, select 4 Samples, as the difference between 4 Samples and 8 Samples is very subtle and not worth the performance loss (per Tweakguides). Drop down to 2 Samples as a last-resort to improve performance. NOTE: If using SMAA, set this value to zero.

Under Anisotropic Filtering, select 16 Samples (use 8 Samples for a very slight performance gain).

Click the [Advanced] button and make sure FXAA is UN-checked. FXAA reduces the Anisotropic Filter effect as well as overall texture detail. It is a huge performance improvement over AA, but comes with a quality cost. For more information on FXAA, and to see if it is right for you, see this post. NOTE: SMAA is a superior alternative to FXAA.

Consider setting shadow detail to 'High' rather than 'Ultra' for video cards with less than 1 GB VRAM (Performance STEP), or leave at 'Ultra' for Extreme STEP:

Under [View Distance], make sure Object Detail Fade is UN-checked and adjust grass to 100% with all other settings around 50%.NOTE: High-end systems can handle max view distances just fine.

Exit and click Play from the Skyrim Launcher. This will create the necessary configuration files, and registry settings required by downstream applications (contrary to popular belief, the INI files are created immediately, and the game does not need to launch).

 

 

 

It seems that following these Skyrim Options settings messes up Skyrim's ability to launch on my triple monitor setup. Any advice?

[MontyMM]

Have you tried setting your resolution manually in SkyrimPrefs.ini?  The settings are iSize H=#### and iSize W=####.  Try doing this after you've applied the recommended settings in the launcher.

 

One other thing to be aware of (though it won't be related to the current error), is the instability that seems to occur at around 3GB RAM use.  You may hit  this very quickly with 3 monitors and high quality textures.

[torminater]

One other thing to be aware of (though it won't be related to the current error), is the instability that seems to occur at around 3GB RAM use.  You may hit  this very quickly with 3 monitors and high quality textures.

 

There's sb on the boards with a GTX TITAN using 5.2 GB of VRAM without crashing. Not all VRAM is going to be mirrored in RAM - this remains a complete and utter hypothesis from our side.

[MontyMM]

One other thing to be aware of (though it won't be related to the current error)' date=' is the instability that seems to occur at around 3GB RAM use.  You may hit  this very quickly with 3 monitors and high quality textures.

 

There's sb on the boards with a GTX TITAN using 5.2 GB of VRAM without crashing. Not all VRAM is going to be mirrored in RAM - this remains a complete and utter hypothesis from our side.

 

I didn't say that all VRAM is mirrored, or that high VRAM use would guarantee a crash.  But many of us have found that RAM use increases as VRAM does, and that Skyrim become less stable when RAM use exceeds 3gb.  This is not proven, but there is sufficient testimony to make it worth bearing in mind.

[peppergomez]

I don't know if this is relevant, but here are my specs:

 

 

Mobo ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME (REV 3.0)

Memory CORSAIR XMS3 8GB DDR3

GPU 2 x EVGA 680 FTW 4GB

CPU Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz)

Drives 2 HITACHI Deskstar 3TB 2 Crucial 256 GB SSD

Displays 3 HP ZR30w 30" monitors (4800x2560)

UPS Cyberpower PP2200SW

PSU Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200 1200W

Case COOLER MASTER CM Storm Trooper

Drive LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray

CPU cooler Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe

Fans COOLER MASTER SickleFlow 120

OS Windows 7 Premium