DROPPED The Skyrim Distance Overhaul (by Grieche)

[Nearox]

Just 'discovered' that you can significantly reduce the load of this mod while losing very limited quality. 

 

There are only 2 texture files in the mod and they are uncompressed (A8 & X8 format). If you compress them to A4 (texture file) and R5 (normal map) they are reduced more than half in size at virtually no quality loss.

 

This texture is used heavily by the game. As such, I have seen up to a 6 FPS increase looking from Solitude to Morthal and on average a 3-4 FPS increase while playing the game and running around in exteriors. 

[Aiyen]

Textures should not affect FPS once loaded... So going to assume you mean on average while running about in the game.

[Nearox]

That's what I thought as well, but the improvement is there nonetheless...

[TechAngel85]

Textures should not affect FPS once loaded... So going to assume you mean on average while running about in the game.

Once loaded into memory it shouldn't impact memory any greater; however, textures do impact performance. The GPU has to render every texture in the game and it's going to render a smaller, optimized texture much easier and faster than it would a large uncompressed texture. In that alone you could very well see a performance gain in terms of FPS by optimizing your textures especially if those textures are used heavily by the game. This is probably the performance gain that Nerox is receiving.

[Aiyen]

The only affect I have ever seen from texture size is in loading new cells. Hence while moving around the average FPS drops due to texture size.

But once loaded in and you stand and look at the same area then there should not be any noticeable difference. At least I have never seen one, and it i makes little sense to me why there should be.

 

In terms of this mod then yeah if it is a silly large texture and you move about the texture continuously have to be loaded which like you say require a longer amount of time since its uncompressed... Also as I understand the mod then it also adds more objects that need to be rendered in the distance which obviously will require more in terms of FPS.

Hence why I said.. it only makes sense if the FPS drop is on average while moving around!

 

Since once a texture is loaded in and you are not loading in any more textures then the FPS you get should not be affected by it, since there is no data traffic after that point.

The only things affecting performance in that case are the number of objects, shadow calculations, shader calculations, AA etc.

[TechAngel85]

The only affect I have ever seen from texture size is in loading new cells. Hence while moving around the average FPS drops due to texture size.

But once loaded in and you stand and look at the same area then there should not be any noticeable difference. At least I have never seen one, and it i makes little sense to me why there should be.

 

In terms of this mod then yeah if it is a silly large texture and you move about the texture continuously have to be loaded which like you say require a longer amount of time since its uncompressed... Also as I understand the mod then it also adds more objects that need to be rendered in the distance which obviously will require more in terms of FPS.

Hence why I said.. it only makes sense if the FPS drop is on average while moving around!

 

Since once a texture is loaded in and you are not loading in any more textures then the FPS you get should not be affected by it, since there is no data traffic after that point.

The only things affecting performance in that case are the number of objects, shadow calculations, shader calculations, AA etc.

 

This is correct, but you're not just standing around looking at the scenery if you're actually playing the game are you? You're constantly loading new cells from moving around. The only time I've ever just stood around in Skyrim was to take a screenshot.

 

This mod has been in testing for so long that I don't even remember exactly what it does so I'll have to re-investigate it when I get to that point in the 2.2.8 development. Mod like this that have been in testing for a long time will be dropped out with the 2.2.8 release if they do not show any support where testing is concerned.

[phazer11]

I can do some compares between this and vanilla soon. I'm working on my SR install now and I must say mission accomplished my Mod Organizer looks much better, not to mention I don't have nearly as much stuff cluttering it up. I finished my Tester install so as soon as I finish the SR I'll be ready to roll.

[torminater]

Well, in the past 2 things came up:

1. The mod added so many LODs to objects that ILS often were the result.

2. The mod made the distant terrain look less empty, but of course it couldnt help with the texture popping when the actual meshes and textures were loaded.

 

1. Might improve with safety load, which can create issues on its own though.

2. Can be reduced by ugrids changes which could work out with stable ugrids.

The mod might need ENBoost to give enough spare room for RAM.

[z929669]

I move to accept this mod (see screen compare in bottom of OP)

[torminater]

Yes, but performance will be a major concern for some guys out there.

[z929669]

Yes' date=' but performance will be a major concern for some guys out there.[/quote']

Perhaps, but I am not seeing any impact on my system (but I do have the VRAM to cover where it matters).

 

We can note all of the really heavy mods for those seeking to install 'performance' STEP:Core.

 

Need to determine the performance impact of this one though ... but that does not preclude it from being in STEP.

[deathneko11]

so will this be less resource heavy than ugrids 7+ or about the same/more?

[torminater]

It will be a helluvalot more stable. Performance impact depends on the exact choices made in the configuration process.

[Spock]

This probably won't be a mod that depends on anything for removal. So in case this is hard on older systems you could just put up a warning.

I think this is a great and much needed addition to STEP. In my opinion it's the difference in detail that makes cell loads more noticeable.

[Sakedo]

Does this mod absolutely murder anyone else's video card? Ugrids 9 is fine for me. But ugrids 5 and SDO? 40+ FPS down to 10, depending on what direction I face and what part of the world I am in. It's particularly noticeable if I start in the Orc Camp in Live Another Life - over near the southwest corner of the map.

 

I suspect all the varied objects that it's adding to the render scene are expanding my working set of VRAM to the point where it's having to access the drive to render each frame, but I would think higher ugridsToLoad values would trigger that issue even more.