[Solved] Very Odd Helgen Keep Problem

[Moragg]

So I recently got Skyrim, played it for a day, then decided to mod. Found Skyrim Revisited, did a completely fresh install (even deleting savegame) and set about following the guide. Some files had been updated, I checked the changelogs to see if anything major changed, etc. and followed the guide (not LE) as closely as possible. Only differences are some higher version mods, Falskaar and Wyrmstooth.

 

Since I want to do a run through with normal start I chose the "crossing border illegally" option, everything worked fine... until I needed to choose which person to enter Helgen Keep with.

 

I chose Stormcloak (so I could get decent stuff from the imperials). I then got stuck in an infinite loading screen.

I went again, but again hit the infinite loading screen.

 

Third time, saved before entering:

Went Imperial this time, worked fine.

Tried a few more times with Stormcloak and got stuck. "coc HelgenKeep" had the same effect.

 

The loading screen I get stuck in: no picture, smoke has been removed by a UI mod, no text, level bar is there, audio continues from before (no "new" audio"). Not sure if there is a loading problem, since occasionally when loading saves/starting game the normal zoom in/out animation freezes and windows loading circle appears.

 

I am truly a noob, apologies in advance, but I am very good at following instructions. Just can't find any decent troubleshooting guides anywhere.

 

Relevant system specs: 2GB VRAM, 8GB RAM, SSD. I don't think speed/memory is the issue.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Aiyen]

There is an ini tweak that you need to make sure you are not using or you will run into that issue with helgen keep..... forgot what its called now... someone else is going to provide it soon enough and laugh at me! :)

[Moragg]

There is an ini tweak that you need to make sure you are not using or you will run into that issue with helgen keep..... forgot what its called now... someone else is going to provide it soon enough and laugh at me! :)

Wow, quick reply... and thankyou, that means I (possibly) won't have to completely reinstall.

 

I (think) my .inis are stock with just the changes mentioned in guide and changing my resolution to 1440p.

[WilliamImm]

Wyrmstooth.ini contains the iLargeRefrenceCount tweak set at a dangerously high value. Remove that, and you should be able to remove the ILSes in Helgen Keep.

 

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[7hr08ik]

Z-fighting tweaks...... Find them and remove them

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Moragg]

Wyrmstooth.ini contains the iLargeRefrenceCount tweak set at a dangerously high value. Remove that, and you should be able to remove the ILSes in Helgen Keep.

 

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

Thankyou, that worked perfectly! Loading has also become faster, this is great. Used iLargeIntRefCount=262144

 

Z-fighting tweaks...... Find them and remove them

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I saw a mention to them somewhere, but didn;t know what they were so didn't try them.

[7hr08ik]

The Z-fighting tweaks were a set of initiatives tweaks designed to stop the long distance texture flickering you sometimes get in the great outdoors, they pushed back a bunch of distances but caused frequent infinite load screens, no matter how much you molded or how good your system was. Best not to use them

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Aiyen]

Yes that was the one. Thank you WilliamImm!

[Moragg]

Sadly I've had yet another problem... can't seem to leave Helgen Keep now.

 

I actually deleted iLargeIntRefCount completely to let the game decide as before - improved loading times.

 

I load my profile, the load screen still freezes a few seconds in, but taskmanager shows TESV increasing RAM. Once it hits ~1.6GB the load completes and I am inside Helgen Keep, just before the exit.

 

I can run around, RAM peaks at ~1.7GB

On exiting the keep RAM drops suddenly to ~1GB and then everything freezes. Nothing loads anymore. I've done this 5 times with different values of iLargeRefIntCount and the same thing happens. Also tried turning off ENB and Frostfall, no luck.

 

I recently changed my RAM to 4x2GB ECC RAM (with ECC enabled) if that makes any difference.

 

My current skyrim.ini

 

[General]

sLanguage=ENGLISH

sIntroSequence=

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

fFlickeringLightDistance=8192

 

[Display]

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0

fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0

fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

bAllowScreenshot=1

fDefault1stPersonFOV=85.0

fDefaultWorldFOV=85.0

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0

fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0

 

[Audio]

fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0

fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0

fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0

fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

 

[Grass]

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=6

 

[GeneralWarnings]

SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

 

[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

 

[Combat]

fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.5

f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=1.0

f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.3

f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.4

 

[Papyrus]

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=1000.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

 

[Water]

bReflectLODObjects=1

bReflectLODLand=1

bReflectSky=1

bReflectLODTrees=1

 

[Actor]

fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

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

Are there any changes I could make to give Skyrim more time to load? Or perhaps multithreading would help, since my CPU is only 2.8GHz (Phenom II X6 1055T). I don't particularly mind long loading times if it gives me stability.

[statmonster]

I used to get this frequently. Now I never do. IIRC the cure was to get rid of the z fighting tweaks, reduce the primary shadows to 2048 and secondary to 1024 in skyrimprefs.ini and then optimize textures using DDSOpt.

[Moragg]

My shadows were already set to that since otherwise I can't hit 30fps. I'm also using the Performance ENB preset, but I'm hoping to upgrade once HD9xxx is out.

 

Turns out I could solve the problem by loading a new save, teleporting to Helgen, running through the keep and exiting into Skyrim. Then I reloaded the problem save and it allowed me to exist without a hitch. Loading screens are also fixed now. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining.

 

GPU-Z showed me hitting 1988MB when outside in Skyrim, which is dangerously close to 2GB, but unless it becomes a problem I can't be bothered to optimize textures.

[Quahogs]

The Z-fighting tweaks were a set of initiatives tweaks designed to stop the long distance texture flickering you sometimes get in the great outdoors, they pushed back a bunch of distances but caused frequent infinite load screens, no matter how much you molded or how good your system was. Best not to use them

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

 

I've been too busy trying this modding thing to actually play much of the game but I do know the opening sequence well.   As the cart is coming down the road coming around a left bend I notice mtns way in the distance on the left flickering.   Is that what you are referring too ?  I have no idea if all the tweaks/add/enb's etc will address that or not...   thanks