Correct Enblocal Settings

[prizner]

So I was installing SkyRealism using the enb guide and I noticed the site https://www.iparadigm.org/pages/pnenb/ENBoost.html used for getting parameters for the memory section of enblocal no longer works. After some digging I found there were some formulas to come up with the needed information but as I am still unsure if I fully understand them I was wondering if anyone here could help? I have gtx 680 4GB and 12GB of ram with a i7 980x. Thanks!

[keithinhanoi]

 

@keithinhanoi

The recent increase to allowed memory at 128 GB applies to enbhost.exe, not VideoMemorySizeMb. I do find it interesting that auto-detect showed 15-17GB of VRAM, however, according to Boris most recent information, the limit for that setting is still 10240. You can set it higher, and it will show higher, but ENB will not use more than 10GB, regardless of what that shows.

 

Thanks a bunch for the clarification - I have amended my notes that I'm using for the ENBoost explanations document I'm working on, and promise not to spread misinformation about that point (since clearly it's my mission to avoid it at all costs!)

 

This highlights a problem with my research "method" which is just searching for quotes from Boris on a particular enblocal setting as the search string will only result in an incomplete "picture" of what the settings do.

 

Because at times some of the more avid readers of the ENB Forums such as yourself give well-worded explanations and Boris replies with something along the lines of "That's correct," it means that the only way to build a complete picture is to pore through the entire thread for each binary build. This is a phenomenally daunting task, which is what has led to the spread of misinformation (intentional or not).

 

Certainly, although it is true that the ENBoost settings are highly dependent on your system, they could be explained in one place in a clear enough manner and with general recommendations that I think the majority of misunderstandings could be cleared up. At least that's my ideal thinking on it - I'm not sure what you or anyone else believes.

[thommaal]

1. If I remember correctly, yes, except it's implemented by ENB which is nice for keeping everything in one place.

 

2. (..) I haven't heard of anyone having problems with the 13.12 WHQL drivers from AMD at all or and of the 14.x beta drivers, nor have I had any issues since then either. (..)

 

(..)

 

Hope that helps :)

Yes, it does help, thank you. I had the same information about (1), and I haven't seen the problem occur since I use this enblocal-setting. But I couldn't find a reference to cite its use, when we had a discussion about the function of this fix.

 

(..)

 

Certainly, although it is true that the ENBoost settings are highly dependent on your system, they could be explained in one place in a clear enough manner and with general recommendations that I think the majority of misunderstandings could be cleared up. At least that's my ideal thinking on it - I'm not sure what you or anyone else believes.

I agree, a basic guide would be useful that recommends a range of settings and explains why to use them when. It should also include information about the function of the fixes.

 

1. What does ENBoost do? 

+ an added paragraph to distinguish it from ENB

 

2. How to install it

 

3. Basic enblocal.ini information and recommended settings

 

4. What do the fixes do?

 

5. Links to more information and discussions

Edited April 14, 2014 by thommaal

[z929669]

I can "free up" more usable space in a container by modifying how the items within said container are distributed...so, semantically, I find the concept of "freeing up memory" to be absolutely correct in this case. :)

 

In relaying concepts to people, I find it best to give people a frame of reference to rely upon so they can build their own understanding, all the exceptions to the rules and other such complexities can be addressed later after they get the basic idea. At least, that's how it works for me.

Points taken; however, we have a lengthy thread on these forums about "memory optimizers", and clearly the idea that memory is "freed up" is a misleading concept that potentially perpetuates a whole lot of fiction. It is semantically incorrect. Better to state "memory is reallocated, effectively 'freeing up' memory tied to one process for use by another". I know that this seems persnickety and anal retentive, but information tends to be adopted in the way it is presented, and there is a rather controversial fallacy that is wrapped up in this. Again, if I am wrong, I invite an expert in this area to correct me. The important thing is to get it right and keep it so, IMHO.

 

@keithinhanoi (& Jafin16)

The ENB community desperately needs a (relatively) definitive and updated guide to ENB config. We have a decent ENB guide on the wiki, so feel free to upkeep your notes out there as an appendix or edit the article yourself (there are sections on INI configs). Otherwise, please share your WIP so that others can update that info accordingly (if the current guide needs a revamp or significant restructure, then so be it! ... Techangel and EssArrBee are the biggest contributors at present I think, but look at the page history if you want). Much of the wiki info is based on advanced-user experience and "best guess", so broad consensus is important to maintain validity of that info. It is important that we keep everything aligned and centralized.

[Muladhara86]

I'm confused;  what should I try setting my ReservedMemorySizeMb= and VideoMemorySizeMb= values to?  Kuldebar and keithinhanoi also have ATI cards w/ 1GB VRAM like me though I only have 4GB RAM.  Should I mirror Kuldebar's settings then?

Edited August 3, 2014 by Muladhara86

[phazer11]

Well you won't get as much out of ENBoost if you only have 4GB of system RAM. Set detect video memory to true and that should be good.

[Aiyen]

If you only have 4GB of RAM then ENBoost is not a good thing to use at all. You need at least 8Gb of RAM and a 64bit OS to get any benefit from it. 

[Muladhara86]

I don't want to upgrade my RAM 'till I'm ready to do the CPU/MoBo as well; otherwise I'll have to get specialty RAM that won't be compatible w/ the future build.
 
I changed ExpandSystemMemoryX64 to true, AutodetectVideoMemorySize to false, and changed to Kuldebar's ReservedMemorySizeMb and VideoMemorySizeMb values.  I was finally able to exceed the stress test parameters I'd laid out for myself.
 
I have a vanilla save at the Guardian Stones, just after Helgen.  I turn on god mode, set my speed high, and make towards Riverwood.  I'd go in & out of Ogmund's (had crashes outside b4), Riverwood Trader (an ELFX patch has disabled ELFX lighting there), and The Sleeping Giant Inn (had ILS' leaving inns b4).  From there I run up along Lake Ilinalta and loop around Falkreath before coming west through the town.  I'd catch a ride (had ILS' travelling b4) to Markarth, enter the city and do a lap of it before leaving.  Even w/ a strictly STEP/REGS profile, I would always ILS leaving Markarth.  This afternoon I was able to and much more (Solitude, Whiterun/Dragonsreach, zooming 'round w/ TCL).  I only had time for one test, but ENBoost seemed to make a difference for me that time.

Edited January 31, 2015 by DoubleYou

[Aiyen]

Curious that it helps out since there is not that much addition memory for it to assign when you only have 4Gb in total. But nice to know! Guess I need to update my views on that sort of setup. 

[Muladhara86]

Well the rest of those problems I've resolved through other conflict resolution measures; this change only helped me get back out into the Skyrim worldspace after much travelling and loading.

[CovertSlinky]

I have used these settings for about 2 weeks straight and have considerably improved gameplay in regards to what most people recommend.

 

[MEMORY]

ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true

ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=false

DisableDriverMemoryManager=false

DisablePreloadToVRAM=false

EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false

ReservedMemorySizeMb=2147

VideoMemorySizeMb=8192

EnableCompression=false

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

 

I also run with occlusion culling on to use less vram. Compression is supposed do something similar to what occlusion does from what I have read on enbdev, but enabling it always causes me "pop-in" stutter at cell borders. Now I have been reading lately that 1024 is the max for the reserved setting, and all I know is, that if you are running with graphics on lime me cause I have an enb preset. Then if you go into the in-game enb setting menu "shift+enter", that menu will only allow you to set it at 1024, and if you have it set higher than that and go into that menu it will force it to 1024. But I have it set at 2147, which is my EXACT vram count, because it is my understanding that this is telling my card to reserve this x amount of vram. Boris stated once somewhere that the formula that has already been mentioned, along with saying that if you have say a card that has 512 of vram, and set your videomemory and reservedmemory to both 512 that it would be the optimal solution because you are thus forcing the game to use only your vram, which using as much of vram as possible as we all know is the optimal idea. But I set it at 2147, and enboost does not adjust this value, it is always saved that way, but I will tell you that if 1024 is the max, then something is really weird, because when I run at 1024 instead of 2147 I feel the difference, the game is slightly more stuttery than with 2147. I have tested all these memory settings individually with different combinations, and those settings have been the optimal solution for my system. I literally have almost no stutter. I also use windowed mode, no v-sync, fps limiter at 60, anisotropic at 12, and sub-pixel AA on. I have read so many different scenarios that people report, and at this point I have come to the conclusion that no one but the almighty Boris truly knows what any of this really means, lol.

 

EDIT: Forgot a few things I wanted to throw out here. One, I am pretty sure that the issue with dx9 mirroring one for one memory to vram, was addressed in one of the several patches that dx9 got ages ago, that didn't fully eliminate this, but it did significantly reduce it down. Two, someone mentioned that they used dxdiag to tell them how much video memory they have, I would seriously advise against that, dxdiag has been known to report huge mistakes in how much video memory you actually have. There is a document about it that microsoft published, and the issue has yet to be resolved, I believe they intend on fixing this with the release of dx12, just google it and you will find it. 

Edited August 3, 2014 by CovertSlinky

[Muladhara86]

Ugh. . . ignore my earlier post.  I'm still getting ILS' leaving Markarth, though inconsistently now, and I'm also getting CTD's/ILS' in numerous places trying to load new cells.  This is using JUST the STEP/REGS mods, w/o texture enhancers, and using a completely vanilla save.  I've even waited a month in an unused cell after loading the mods before testing.

 

I'm just so exasperated with this stuff.  I desperately want to play Skyrim, but these past few months of failure have really turned me off.  I tried to move on to the Fallouts, but for some reason they run even worse than a modded Skyrim (no crashes, but choppy as heck).  I'm just going to give up until I get a new rig.  Being disabled and on a fixed income, that'll probably be a long time from now.

 

Farewell STEP; I wish I could've been as helpful to you as you have been to me.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Muladhara86

[Halde]

Are there a unanimous opinion on how these should be sat in your enblocal.ini? Perhaps for someone, who doesn't understand the technical speak, yet still wants optimal performance(as optimal as it can get for someone who doesn't understand it), and who are too lazy to read 45 post :-)

Edited August 8, 2014 by Halde

[Nearox]

Tell us your system specs and we can assist :)

 

There's no unanimous opinion because there is no clear documentation coming from the author. There is a general consensus though for quite a few settings, but a lot is still system-specific. 

Edited August 8, 2014 by Nearox

[hishutup]

just my 2 cents but on an AMD 6970 2GB. I've tested it many times and there is no really answer for reserved and for video memory i found when you leave it under the VRAM size enb will free memory automatically. thus gives me these values.

[MEMORY]

ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true because its worth it

ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true because same

DisableDriverMemoryManager=true because AMD. so reduced stutter

DisablePreloadToVRAM=false because I want to alt tab

EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false because I have a 64 bit OS

ReservedMemorySizeMb=128 because if youre maxing VRAM-> reduce or if you have some to spare increase

VideoMemorySizeMb=1920 because once VRAM goes high it seem to clear it and improve frames

EnableCompression=false because the stutter is horrible

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false because itll ignore the set Videomemorysize. It put mine at 6144 when I used it.

 

I have used these settings for about 2 weeks straight and have considerably improved gameplay in regards to what most people recommend.

 

[MEMORY]

ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true

ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=false

DisableDriverMemoryManager=false

DisablePreloadToVRAM=false

EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false

ReservedMemorySizeMb=2147

VideoMemorySizeMb=8192

EnableCompression=false

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

 

 

Ummm the reservememory has a max value of 1024 and it doesn't really matter what you have it set at because ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=false so that doesnt use any of the values you set

[Halde]

Ok then. 

(Laptop)

GeForce GTX 760m 2GB VRAM

8GB RAM

i7-4702MQ 2.2 GHz 2.8 in Turbo.

My HDD is sadly 5400 RPM.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Halde