CTD and Performance patch ENBoost (by Boris Vorontsov)

[Kuldebar]

@Keith: Very interesting albeit plodding progress on the information front, eh?ENB Gui reports the value of 4800 for VideoMemorySizeMb when AutodetectVideoMemorySize is set to True while DXDiag reports 4095 for Total Video Memory for my GPU.I usually split the different somewhat by using 3968...no idea if it matters performance-wise.

The difference it appears is in how much system ram you have compared to me. Your 32 versus my 8.

[darqnite]

Guys,

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but the ENBoost detailed instructions for STEP link here, so please redirect me if inappropriate.

 

I am trying to install the STEP: Core on my new computer, and instruction #3 says:

"Find the section marked [MEMORY] and ...

• Change parameters according to your video card (choose the enblocal.ini corresponding to your video card).
• ... "

My question is: Where do I find the enblocal.ini archive so I can choose the correct ini? I haven't found it on Nexus or enbdev sites, and google is useless.

 

Can someone point me in the right direction? Thank you.

[redirishlord]

If you manually downloaded enboost you can find the enblocal.ini file in the downloaded archive file.

If you installed via a mod manager than enblocal.ini will be in your FNV main directory (not data).

The same applies to enb presets, the enblocal.ini file will be in your downloaded enb binary archive file.

[darqnite]

Thanks for replying.

 

I had downloaded the ENB binary as advised by the STEP instructions, and had extracted the enblocal.ini contained therein, but there was only one enblocal.ini in the zipped archive.

 

However, the instuction "Change parameters according to your video card (choose the enblocal.ini corresponding to your video card)" at https://wiki.step-project.com/ENBoost#Recommendations indicates  that there must be different enblocal.ini's for different video cards.

 

My problem is locating those additional enblocal.ini's.

[MadWizard25]

I believe it might be referring to this link; https://www.iparadigm.org/pages/pnenb/ENBoost.html

 

Unfortunately the link is dead. In any case, there are no mutiple versions of enblocal.ini, just configure the file manually. Here is a more in detailed guide; https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB#tab=Installation

Edited March 29, 2014 by MadWizard25

[darqnite]

Unfortunately, I get redirected to https://sites.securepaynet.net/redirect_0.html, an "Oops!!! This site is currently unavailable" message on that page.

 

Thanks for trying,

 

What is the name of the tool to which you are referring?

[Spock]

 

As for VideoMemorySizeMb, it sets the amount of VRAM + RAM that is available for the ENBoost memory allocation. So, if it's set to be the same as your VRAM or lower, then presumably enbhost.exe won't be used, or not used much. If VideoMemorySizeMb is set higher than VRAM, then RAM will also be used (through instances of enbhost.exe) to cache textures and object geometry that's not currently being rendered. Although pulling cached data from RAM is obviously faster than getting it from your HDD or SSD, it's still slower than VRAM, and has to moved into VRAM to be used, so that's when you would get stuttering / lag.

 

I think this is why Boris normally recommends setting VideoMemorySizeMb to be equal or a little under your actual amount of VRAM. Still, it's worth doing some testing to see what the net effect is of setting it at the same as or lower / higher than your VRAM.

 

Well that makes little sense to me, why should boris make that value for Vram+Ram available for textures? Why not use that value to input vram and use ram anyway? That way ENBoost knows how much textures it can cram into Vram, it is fairly save to assume there is enough ram anyway.

To me that sounds like a more logical explaination why Boris recomends setting VideoMemorySizeMB to the actualy VRAM.

[MadWizard25]

Unfortunately, I get redirected to https://sites.securepaynet.net/redirect_0.html, an "Oops!!! This site is currently unavailable" message on that page.

 

Thanks for trying,

 

What is the name of the tool to which you are referring?

The tool is actually that 1st link that i posted, it is(was) a little html site that asks you some questions and then generates a enblocal file for you. At the moment your best source for your enblocal.ini settings is the STEP Wiki ENB guide that I linked to.

Edited March 29, 2014 by MadWizard25

[Kuldebar]

Phinix (Phinix ENB) has stopped hosting that utility it looks like, I think he is either taking a break from the game or has retired the utility because Boris has changed a lot of stuff regarding memory settings. Some of the rules have changed.

[darqnite]

The tool is actually that 1st link that i posted, it is(was) a little html site that asks you some questions and then generates a enblocal file for you. At the moment your best source for your enblocal.ini settings is the STEP Wiki ENB guide that I linked to.

I finally ignored the STEP advice to not download the Nexus file and did download and examine it.

 

It contains the enblocal.ini files referred to in STEP's instruction #3 (choose the enblocal.ini corresponding to your video card).

 

After comparing the Nexus version with the enb version (enbseries_skyrim_v0252.zip), I believe Kuldebar is correct:

 

Phinix (Phinix ENB) has stopped hosting that utility it looks like, I think he is either taking a break from the game or has retired the utility because Boris has changed a lot of stuff regarding memory settings. Some of the rules have changed.

 

The STEP detailed install instruction needs to be amended to reflect the changed rules.

 

Thank you guys - problem resolved.

Edited March 29, 2014 by darqnite

[EssArrBee]

I wonder if Phinix is going to be done modding for a while. He said he has monster rig, but might have had to sell it since he was unemployed. Would be a shame.

[alt3rn1ty]

Phinix has surfaced again https://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1469258-rel-phinix-natural-enb/page-7?do=findComment&comment=23582891

 

-------------------

 

Guys on the wiki you have the explanation for EnableCompression which does not make sense ..

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB#tab=Editing_Enblocal_INI

 

 

 

This setting will allow for more compression in system RAM by having more textures moved into VRAM. This can reduce stutter, but will cost much more VRAM. It is not recommenced to be set "true" if already near VRAM limit and be "false" if there is VRAM to spare.

 

EnableCompression=(false, true)

 

My bold = So we never set it to true ?, if so what is its purpose.

 

Boris describes this in the readme as ..

 

"Added parameter to disable compression of memory manager to reduce

stuttering while objects are loading at cost of memory usage."

[EssArrBee]

I really need to put in some time into the ENB Guide again. It is really outdated and my understanding on that stuff is so much better than when I started doing all that stuff.

[keithinhanoi]

It's interesting and timely that a question has been raised about the compression feature of ENBoost toggled with EnableCompression= in enbost.ini.
 
There's been some discussion about it over in this STEP forum thread as well, centering around the question of whether enabling ENBoost's compression will result lowered VRAM usage.
 
I initially responded that enabling compression would result in reduced VRAM usage, based on some very reliable sources, but then when questioned on the varacity of that statement, I went searching for every single reference to it on the ENB forums and the ENBoost comments thread on Nexus, and revised my statement to say that according to everything mentioned about the feature, it only compresses data in system RAM - and compression in VRAM is not mentioned.
 
So, because I and others have witnessed reduced VRAM usage in some conditions with EnableCompression=true, I went and asked Boris about it to find out once and for all whether it also compresses data stored in VRAM.
 
His answer:

"Compression applied to data in ram. Difference in vram usage is only achieved by changes in memory manager or because of not equal testing conditions or mods installed."

So, enabling compression does not result in data being compressed in VRAM, and from what Boris said, with all other factores being the same, any reduced VRAM usage seen is only coincidence, and not related to enabling compression.
 
Ultimately, the main benefit to enabling compression is reduced system RAM usage, which is of greatest concern for people using 32-bit Windows, or people running 64-bit windows with only 4, 6 or perhaps 8GB of system RAM.
 
People with over 16GB on 64-bit Windows, such as myself, will probably be better advised to leave compression disabled to avoid the micro-stuttering that some people have reported with it enabled.
 
However, like most of the ENBoost settings, it's always recommended to do testing of each setting to discover what works best on your particular computer setup.

Edited April 23, 2014 by keithinhanoi

[redirishlord]

Outstanding report Keith, that is very pertinent info for me and I will set to false (16gb RAM) as I apparently haven't been benefitting from true.

"The more you know". <insert jingle here>