Good Performance Hunting

[Pyperkub]

My desktop rig is pretty badass, but my laptop rig is not quite as good. So I'll check out the performance increase plus slight graphical improvements on my laptop and the graphical decrease from max-res mods to optimized mods on my desktop.

If you can present the community a close-to-perfect pro/con-list of DDSopt and other methods I'll be glad to check them out and give some feedback via screenshots/vids/whatever.

 

 

Working on the DDSopt guide on the wiki now. This will take some time, as it is largely a revision of a previous guide, but with a whole lot more added from my latest round of testing. Will need to create a big table I think.

 

Is there any way to get ddsopt to skip the txt files without unpacking the archives and manually removing them?

[z929669]

Is there any way to get ddsopt to skip the txt files without unpacking the archives and manually removing them?

 

If you mean that you would like to process a BSA into another BSA minus any*.txt files, then yes. You can use the filter in the center of the Browser Tab to type in a "*.txt" wildcard, click [Apply], unselect the files, remove the "*.txt" wildcard filter, and click [Apply] again. Then when you process, the ouutput BSA will not contain the unselected files.

 

"unpacking" must be done regardless, but this way, you unpack and repack in a single step. I recommend against using any BSAs, as they aren't as configurable and also take up a plugin slot. However, using them is not in any way "bad," just a bit restricting.

[frihyland]

Skyrim Installation guide updated further to tie in with DDSopt guide.

[frihyland]

Remember that the biggest performance killers in skyrim are: shadows, number of particles and water reflections. Turn shadows down from ultra to high or medium, turn off sky, tree and object reflections in the water and reduce the maximum number of particles in SkyrimPrefs.ini and you should see at least a 15-20FPS increase. Texture mods (e.g. 2048x2048 textures) cause stuttering instead of a steady FPS drop when you run out of VRAM. Bethesda's own HD texture pack can also cause stuttering if your VRAM is limited.

 

 

Good quote from the beth forums.

[z929669]

Remember that the biggest performance killers in skyrim are: shadows, number of particles and water reflections. Turn shadows down from ultra to high or medium, turn off sky, tree and object reflections in the water and reduce the maximum number of particles in SkyrimPrefs.ini and you should see at least a 15-20FPS increase. Texture mods (e.g. 2048x2048 textures) cause stuttering instead of a steady FPS drop when you run out of VRAM. Bethesda's own HD texture pack can also cause stuttering if your VRAM is limited.

 

Good quote from the beth forums.

 

 

This is good info. Perhaps worthy of inclusion in the OP or at least the upcoming Performance Guide (:ahem: ... IS there an upcoming Performance Guide?)

[z929669]

OK, here is some video of that ice.

 

EDIT: Added a third video showing the new SROHD muddy-ice texture. Note the overall lighting difference in the SROHD image compared to vanilla. No difference between any of these loaded save games eccept for the texture replacement.

 

Unoptimized Vanilla Base

[video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ljy2Fh9kYc&context=C41151fbADvjVQa1PpcFNUbMnq55Iv3n_2DsjLrOrnBEhkvcplW84=

 

DDSopt-imized Vanilla Base

[video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9CwuUf5g68&context=C41a9349ADvjVQa1PpcFNUbMnq55Iv3qioxMU_ZPY3F7gdpYXQONg=

NEW - SROHD1k (just created by Starac)

[video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljs1OteUT44&context=C453473eADvjVQa1PpcFMHPVgqY3AsOMcXbQpdXVUoUwKfO1GrsXg=

 

 

 

Let me know what you think ...

[stoppingby4now]

The DDSopt version appears slightly less pixelated to me. I still haven't had a chance to redo my fresh DDSopt run, but now I'm dying to get that done and try it out.

[Bealdwine]

During this reinstall for STEP 2.1 I used DDSopt only on 4 sets of files:

 

Vanilla Skyrim.bsa (unpacked, optimised and used to replace the Textures folder in \Skyrim\Data).

 

HD DLC 01 & 02 (unpacked, optimised, re-zipped, .7z installed via WB).

 

Skyrim_HD_v1_5_LITE_-_Landscape-607 (unpacked, optimised, re-zipped, .7z installed via WB).

 

Skyrim_Realistic_Overhaul_v1_3-1024k-5400-1-1 (unpacked, optimised, re-zipped, .7z installed via WB).

 

Where there were seperate update files, as with SRO, they were combined in to the unpacked original before optimising.

 

Now I only mention this because (and there are way too many variables of other mods & etc for me to make this a confirmed kill) since starting to play using this setup I have consistently reached 20-25 fps outdoors around Riverwood.

All I can truly say is that prior to this install I was only able to get 13-15 fps in the exact same area.

 

(Note - no ENB, stand alone SMAA [no game or card AA], 8xAF, RLwC, uGrids 5)

 

Not very scientific, not rigorously tested, not in any way guaranteed that your experience would be the same. Just saying ;) This is the best performance/quality I have so far been able to play.

 

I may actually try playing the game through now :)

 

Rig:

Intel Core 2 2.4Ghz

4 Gb RAM

8800 GT GPU 1024Mb

GeForce 301.24

 

+ Game Booster 3 + FPS Booster v.1.1

[z929669]

This is great to hear Beald

 

Keep your eye on the DDSopt thread ... Hopefully more good info coming your way over the coming weeks ;)

[blacksol]

Any reason you didn't install ddsopt'd vanilla texture.bsa via WB? I have done this so just checking if there was a reason you didn't

[z929669]

Still working on final recommendations for DDSopt vanilla

[Bealdwine]

Any reason you didn't install ddsopt'd vanilla texture.bsa via WB? I have done this so just checking if there was a reason you didn't

 

I haven't previously encountered any problems with the DDSopt'd vanilla textures, so 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' ;) I may live to regret it but I just thought I would try them as loose files rather than compressing them this time.

[blacksol]

oops my bad, i meant any reason for not installing ddsopt'd loose files as a 7zip file via WB (not compressing back into a bsa).

[Bealdwine]

oops my bad, i meant any reason for not installing ddsopt'd loose files as a 7zip file via WB (not compressing back into a bsa).

 

Nope :) Just thought I would give something new a try, so using the DDSopt'd files as my 'base' game files (although installed as .7z through WB in my previous install)

[Bealdwine]

Just an additional note (NB. Disclaimer: I do not recommend doing this and take no responsibility for any grief it may cause another individual):

 

I've never been a huge fan of overclocking as I simply have never had the spare cash to replace expensive kit in the event of disaster... however... ;)

 

As I am hoping to invest in some new PC shinyness soon(ish) I thought I would push my ageing graphics a little - I remaind conservative in my OC and, using nVidia Inspector up'd my GeForce 8800 GT to the following spec:

 

Fan (Auto unselected) = 100% (fan sound is now noticable but not unbearable)

GPU Clock [default 600MHz] = 700MHz

Memory Clock [def. 900MHz] = 950MHz

Shader Clock [1500MHz] = 1782MHz (linked to GPU clock speed afaik)

(Standard voltage - stock air cooler)

 

This was stable in-game (idle temp 55C) with temp ~67C and could probably be pushed a little further but not for much real world gain.

In the same locations around Riverwood previously tested FPS now ~25-28 :D

 

(As I am now playing properly it may be a while before I get to Whiterun testing, but currently I'm a happy bunny)