STEP installed but CTDs...

[George79]

Hello guys/girls,

 

I just registered on this forum and I want to express my problem with STEP installation. I don't know if any more of you have the same issues and/or if already a post like this exists, but here goes.

 

I followed the STEP guide to the letter and installed all the mods with Mod Organizer (great tool btw). Since I had some weird outcomes with a few of the mods I decided to skip them (e.g. Maximum Skeletons). So I installed a kind of baseline STEP configuration with some extra mods beyond STEP. My rig is not that powerful but I managed to get around 25-30 fps in outdoor areas even with SkyRealism ENB enabled.

 

Here's the issue:

Game runs smoothly but it CTDs and/or freezes mid-game without any obvious cause. I did some digging around the net and saw a few people having issues with the 2 GB limit problem, but that's solved in the latest versions.

 

my specs are:

Intel Q6700 2,66 GHz

8 GB DDR3 SDRAM

nVidia GTX 460 SE 1 GB vRAM /w latest drivers

Skyrim /w all DLCs and HRDLCs and Unofficial patches

 

I've played Skyrim before without any mods and had no issues. Should I just try re-installing STEP see if I messed up somewhere?

[Aiyen]

yeah 3.1Gb is the new 2Gb and this time there sadly is no way around it.

You are most likely going to have to trim down the memory use, since it amounts to by far most of the CTD´s and freezes in the game.

There are plenty of threads here about the topic, with lots of helpful tips and guides etc.

[George79]

Yeah I was thinking of reverting to a pure vanilla Skyrim without the HRDLCs even and then pick only the MOST wanting mods. It seems weird that my TESV.exe doesn't even get to 3,1GB of RAM usage, I alt+tab when I "smell" the freeze coming up and the largest it had was 2.4 GB. :confused:

 

Basically only the graphics' mods affect the memory use right? I mean I'm using around 40-50 mods for gameplay purposes like Deadly Dragons, Frostfall, Realistic Needs & Diseases etc. - small in size, most are just an .esp - which don't take up much memory imo.

[phazer11]

Script mods add some too but the easiest one to trim down is textures. Always check your new downloads for a textures folder if it has one use DDSOpt on it and optimize it with extreme prejudice (yes I take an extremist view). Although I would like to add that some mods shouldn't be optimized; for instance I don't think a lot of the water mods play nice with DDSOpt.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Hello guys/girls,

 

I just registered on this forum and I want to express my problem with STEP installation. I don't know if any more of you have the same issues and/or if already a post like this exists, but here goes.

 

I followed the STEP guide to the letter and installed all the mods with Mod Organizer (great tool btw). Since I had some weird outcomes with a few of the mods I decided to skip them (e.g. Maximum Skeletons). So I installed a kind of baseline STEP configuration with some extra mods beyond STEP. My rig is not that powerful but I managed to get around 25-30 fps in outdoor areas even with SkyRealism ENB enabled.

 

Here's the issue:

Game runs smoothly but it CTDs and/or freezes mid-game without any obvious cause. I did some digging around the net and saw a few people having issues with the 2 GB limit problem, but that's solved in the latest versions.

 

my specs are:

Intel Q6700 2,66 GHz

8 GB DDR3 SDRAM

nVidia GTX 460 SE 1 GB vRAM /w latest drivers

Skyrim /w all DLCs and HRDLCs and Unofficial patches

 

I've played Skyrim before without any mods and had no issues. Should I just try re-installing STEP see if I messed up somewhere?

Biggest reductions you should try is installing the 1k versions of the large texture packs (SRO, 2k, SeriousHD). Also, DONT use Vurt's 4k/8k high-res pines optional. That was the mistake I made. Maybe try 2k treesHD instead of 4k. 2k SFO LoDs instead of the 4k default. Also try the HD DLC optimized. I use the hybrid version. Disable windows aero for skyrim too. That takes off a small amount of VRAM (which is mirrored in RAM?) 

[Luinithil]

Doubt Aero has THAT much of a performance hit. Better luck reducing textures and normals. Or dropping your resolution and using fewer texture mods.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Doubt Aero has THAT much of a performance hit. Better luck reducing textures and normals. Or dropping your resolution and using fewer texture mods.

I definitely agree. I know that aero reduced VRAM by about 200 mb and since VRAM is mirrored in System RAM apparently, it should definitely be something that everyone should do in addition to their textures/normals reductions. 

[Aiyen]

Any other application including Aero would only be an issue if you have 4Gb of RAM... and an equivalent low amount of VRAM. Every application has its own memory assigned etc. and it is ages ago that you could stop disabling aero etc. when playing. At least if you kept your windows install updated.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Any other application including Aero would only be an issue if you have 4Gb of RAM... and an equivalent low amount of VRAM. Every application has its own memory assigned etc. and it is ages ago that you could stop disabling aero etc. when playing. At least if you kept your windows install updated.

I have 8 gb of RAM but disabling Aero in Skyrim gave me back 200 mb of VRAM. 

[Aiyen]

As it has been said many times. VRAM is a horrible measure of anything. Since it is impossible to say which part of VRAM is dedicated and which is just used for buffer and page. Mine says 230 VRAM when just idling in windows as well. However back when I just had 768Mb of VRAM then the figure was lower. So it depends on your card.

 

Saying that you got "back" 200Mb of VRAM is just a bad phrase, yes you might have reduced the amount loaded into the card, but if the memory was set so that it could be overwritten by an active process by just being a buffer amount then there is no point in disabling.

I have at least not seen any performance or stability variance depending on if aero is turned on or off while playing. At least not on win 7... back in vista then it was an issue, and to some extent it is in win 8 with the new user interface. But it is most likely related to other things then amount of memory used.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

As it has been said many times. VRAM is a horrible measure of anything. Since it is impossible to say which part of VRAM is dedicated and which is just used for buffer and page. Mine says 230 VRAM when just idling in windows as well. However back when I just had 768Mb of VRAM then the figure was lower. So it depends on your card.

 

Saying that you got "back" 200Mb of VRAM is just a bad phrase, yes you might have reduced the amount loaded into the card, but if the memory was set so that it could be overwritten by an active process by just being a buffer amount then there is no point in disabling.

I have at least not seen any performance or stability variance depending on if aero is turned on or off while playing. At least not on win 7... back in vista then it was an issue, and to some extent it is in win 8 with the new user interface. But it is most likely related to other things then amount of memory used.

Ok fair enough. I'll stop disabling Aero then. Sorry, it took me a few tries to understand what you were saying :-X. 

[Aiyen]

Sometimes I am a bit too quick on the keyboard! Sorry about that!

Also I am not saying that it is 100% impossible for graphical windows extensions to cause performance/stability issues in games.

I am just saying that I am not seeing it on my computer. It is entirely possible that you could benefit from disabling it on your machine! The best cause of action is to try it out and see what happens!

However expecting a huge chunk of extra memory due to disabling it seems far fetched. If Aero required 200Mb of dedicated VRAM to function, then it would cripple lesser computers and laptops. Since we do not see this happen then I guess it is safe to assume that this amount is just a buffer or similar temporary figure.

 

If anybody else with more knowhow wants to chip in and correct me by all means do!

[Luinithil]

Just an observation: Was running a nearly full SR install plus extras, using the lowest res options provide by the mod author. My graphics card was running at nearly full capacity but never quite managed to stay at 100% use. This was with Aero on and Windows switching desktop pics in the background. Caveat: I was running at a resolution of 1366x768 with no ENB at the time and my INIs weren't pure Ultra settings.

[George79]

Hey guys,

 

sorry for the long delay to answer, I wasn't around.

 

OK, I decided to delete the whole Skyrim folder and started over. I used Neovalen's Skyrim Revisited version and followed it to the letter. I must say, it's a pain to do it all. I used everything at 1k resolution, with a few minor exceptions of 2k. Skyrim works like a charm now with no CTDs so far, which is a good sign considering I've loaded over 200 mods :P I think most of the crashes occur due to conflicting mods and Neovalen has done a great job with the TES5Edit guidelines for every mod, which in my opinion should also be done for S.T.E.P. instead of the plain install order. 

 

However, I noticed a weird thing and I haven't found a decent reply on the net about it; My male Nord character sounds like a female (!) when he's hit or power attacking!! Anyone else experienced the same thing? I tried the showracemenu solution to no effect already.

 

Cheers

[Aiyen]

Okay never had any male nords who have their voices in puberty yet.

 

Try to test if it does it for all male races or just the nord one. Might help isolate the issue. Worst case it might be as simple as making a small patch that links the nord race to the proper sound files in tes5edit.

[George79]

Hi,

 

I tested it with the Orc and the Argonian males and it works OK. How can I create this patch with TES5Edit? Can you give me some guidelines or point me to a thread that has the details?