2.2.7 Making me Crazy

[redfenix117]

So I have been using STEP for quite a while now.  I use MO, I now how to use TES5Edit and BOSS.  My system:

 

Alienware m17x R4

Windows 7 home (service pack 1)

Intel i7-3610QM ~2.3Ghs (pre-boost)

6Gb RAM

DirectX 11

AMD Radeon HD 7970M 

 

I was running STEP 2.2.3 and decided to come back and have a new play through so I completely re-installed Skyrim vanilla, cleaned the files, tweaked ini's and started downloading the mods according to 2.2.7.  Well now I have a headache, I have been over the list and made sure they are in the correct order four times now. I checked for patches, special install notes and so far it all looks to be in proper working order.  

 

Note: I always use the LQ options when possible.  Technically I should be able to run almost all recommended settings but I am not super picky and many times I can't tell much of a difference.  

 

My issues:

 

SMIM is not adding all the mesh changes that I have selected during install. Namely the 3d ropes. Neither buildings nor docks have them.

 

My other issue is a general FPS and Lag problem.  I do understand that there could be a million reasons for this so asking for help is difficult to nail down.  Hopefully the two are related.  Specifics:  Outdoors looking a distant objects (i.e. Mountains/flat lands)  I only get 18-45 FPS before I started changing things I was getting upwards of 70 and I limited it to 60 just for smoothness sake.

 

I know that the FPS is a general issue and make take a while to solve if you have any ideas or suggestions for either of my issues please let me know I can try whatever.

 

TO THE STEP TEAM:  Thank you for making this guide its a huge help to amateur modders like myself. I love being able to add a little realism and simplicity to my gaming as well as learn some neat technical stuff along the way!!! 

 

Edit: Spelling

[Mondain]

I recently did a reinstall of Skyrim and had the same SMIM issue you are having with the rope meshes on farmhouses, walkways etc. I found that the installer was not putting the mesh file into the mod organizer directory. It wasn't installing it. I unzipped the mod and manually moved the nif file into the right directory and that fixed it.

[EssArrBee]

Did you also let Brumbek know on the SMIM page so he could fix it?

[Mondain]

I did. There have been a couple updates to SMIM since then, and I haven't seen anyone else reporting the issue. I'm not sure if it was just me being struck by lightning by the mod gods, or no one else has noticed etc.

 

edit: I just browsed the Nexus thread for SMIM and some people are having trouble with this same mesh but it seems to only be affecting MO users.

[redfenix117]

I did. There have been a couple updates to SMIM since then, and I haven't seen anyone else reporting the issue. I'm not sure if it was just me being struck by lightning by the mod gods, or no one else has noticed etc.

 

edit: I just browsed the Nexus thread for SMIM and some people are having trouble with this same mesh but it seems to only be affecting MO users.

Yeah for some reason it is just not installing all the files.  I went through and manually dropped in the meshes in for it and it showed up in game.  I got all the the mods I wanted from STEP installed and I am maintaining 45-60 FPS.  I think it was the fact that the beginning of the guide said to turn on Supersampling and I just cant quite handle it.  I'm gonna try to see if I can figure out how to maybe make some improvements using ddsopt and maybe cut out the stuttering I'm getting indoors.  I was hoping to be able to use climates of tamriel, realistic lighting overhaul, and both the immersive armors and weapons mods.  I'm not sure where I would drop them in the load order if anyone has any suggestions.

---

If you did the following, then that would explain why you went from 60fps to 45fps in step 3.

 

"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. This change is appropriate for all systems that meet or exceed the Minimum hardware specification."

 

The reason you're running at 60fps again is most likely because your AA is disabled. You could try out SMAA injector as an alternative.

Changing the AA didn't make a difference but when I turned off Supersampling and put it back on multisampling it fixed it.  

 

I tried turning off AA and installing SMAA but it just made everything super bright white.

[z929669]

I would start by disabling all the distance terrain & LOD mods see if that resolves the fps issue. Also make sure you did the SFO tweaks as per https://wiki.step-project.com/Skyrim_Flora_Overhaul#Recommendations

Terrain mods should have almost zero impact on performance (LOD depends, just avoid SFO 4k). The biggest issues are likely going to be SRO and, as already mentioned, SFO. It is imperative to install the Vano89's HRDLC optimized.

 

Lastly, start over completely ... uninstall everything and collect a baseline benchmark according to the guide and benchmarks at each point that the benchmark tag appears in the guide. This will isolate the problem areas with regard to performance and will potentially rule out the baseline INI tweaks as being a root cause (as well as any of the sections).

 

The most taxing section is Sec G, but F can also take a toll and so can H and K.

[redfenix117]

alright so before I started all over (again) I checked and I did not install the HDDLC optimized. In the detailed instructions it said if you have over 1.5vram don't use it so that is probably why I skipped it. Either way I installed it, using the hybrid setting and suddenly I'm killing at 45-60 non stop. YAY!!! I went in and disabled the SFO for kicks and giggles and it bumped me up to 54-63 FPS so idk if I want to leave it turned off or not I kinda like it but at the same time I'm not super picky and idk if I can tell enough of a difference yet.

 

As I said earlier I was wanting to add Immersive weapons and armors, and if I can possibly make it work CoT and RLO. Any suggestions on load order?

[redfenix117]

Ok so I got everything working pretty darn well so far, I do have a couple of more questions though. For some reason when I am walking outside shadows and some texture details will just suddenly "snap" into place. especially shadows. Is there a way I can smooth this out?

 

also. Im using ELFX and CoT and interiors look absolutely amazing and I'm still getting upwards of 55fps. However when I'm outdoors the colors look kinda bland. Is there a way to get more vibrancy out of the landscape? I tried to install RealVision ENB since I liked the screens and I couldn't get it to work so I just rage quit cause I couldn't get it to work right. for some reason it just made everything look like it was simply not loaded.

 

comparison indoors vs outdoors. https://imgur.com/a/k6f7K

[EssArrBee]

Try our wiki guide on ENB or just tell us which part of the install you have trouble with. It is only 3-4 step process, but if it isn't done right then you will have a headache. It is second nature once you learn how it works.

 

Oh, and don't install ENB with a mod manager, it requires manual installation and few of the staff here do not recommend using an ENB manager.

[redfenix117]

Mission Accomplished!!! Thank you guys so much for all your help and this great guide!!!

 

 

 

EDIT: Well then I got to the city. In heavily populated areas fps drops into the 10's and single digits. Any ideas on tweaks that might help with this?

 

EDIT 2: Nevermind I found the performance options folder and took care of it. the DOF seems to wreak havoc in the cities for me.

 

EDIT 3: ok so after messing with it for about two hours I went ahead and removed the ENB altogether. It looks amazing and works really well most places but all the cities and some dungeons just absolutely murder my system. In cities I can't even properly move the fps rape is so bad. Personally I just want the option for the more vibrant colors I don't really care for the DOF as much. Is there a way or option to get the colors without melting my computer?

[EssArrBee]

Did you set up the enblocal.ini properly?

 

Are you using an ENB with SMAA or SweetFX? If so then look for injector.ini in your Skyrim folder and set to medium or high instead of ultra.

 

Did you make sure that AA and AF are turned off in the Skyrim Launcher and Nividia Inspector or CCC? Also, try turning the AF in enblocal.ini to 8 instead of 16.

 

Maybe disable SSAO, this can be done with the in-game ENB editor, Shift-Enter and then uncheck the SSAO.

 

Even if you don't use ENB, then keep your ENB installed and just open up enblocal.ini and set the line UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics to "true", so you use the ENBoost features without the ENB graphics. This will help with memory management.

[redfenix117]

Could you give me a little definition of some of those acronyms?

 

specifically SSAO

 

I'll go through again and see if I can get it working.

[EssArrBee]

SSAO is screen space ambient occlusion, wikipedia will describe it better than I can. AA is anti-aliasing, I'm sure you know what that is. AF is anisotropic filtering, again it is one of things that everyone knows about. SMAA is subpixel morphalogical anti-aliasing, good type of AA with low performance cost. SweetFX is a graphics injector built on the SMAA injector that adds graphical effects like Lumasharpen on top of SMAA.

 

Our ENB guide has some more info about these things and how to set it up.

[Aiyen]

Guess we should update the "performance tips" part of the guide. Or just make a dedicated thread (No I know absolutely nothing about doing any wiki editing! :p )

 

In short for more FPS.

Disable skylighting... most of the time you are not going too miss it.

 

Reduce the following two parameters in both SSAO, and Reflection. This has to be done before starting the game in notepad etc. in the enbseries.ini.

SizeScale and SourceTexturesScale try setting them to 0.5 in all cases.

 

DoF... most of the ones you get are set to screenarchery quality, which kills even the best of systems. Either use a performance version or just disable it.

 

That should take care of most of the issues with performance. Ofc. you can also set the ingame quality parameters to low, hit save, then apply.

You are not going to notice the visual difference unless you really go looking for it.

[z929669]

For shadow and distant detail pop-in resolution, set your Skyrim Options for ultra distance settings (I don't recall the INI settings specifically right now).

[redfenix117]

Well I went through and made the changes you guys were suggesting and it bumped my performance quite well. I still get a huge range from 25-52ish fps. I think I'm just gonna have to pass on the enb for now. I like the look for the most part but I would rather have the higher frame-rate so that its smoother playing. the occasionally choppy frame rate really takes away from just playing the game. I'm doing all this on my laptop so to have it running as well as it is makes me plenty happy. I'm working on putting together a computer for home so I'll revisit this stuff when I have more hardware capabilities.(of course by then we will be modding the hell out of fallout 4 hopefully!!!) Thanks again for helping me out so much.