STEP v2.2.9 Official Bug Reports

[TechAngel85]

Okay here are my second round results:

 

In this round I did the same runs minus spawning the dragon as it served no purpose from the previous runs; however, iPresentInterval was copied to the Skyrim.ini file. For good measure, I also left it in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file as well just to see if it would have any effect. It seemed to have no effect, whatsoever, being in the SkyrimPrefs.ini. I did add a bit to this run as I wanted to see any possible havok issues and issues with NPC paths. Therefore, after entering Honeybrew, I exited and walked to Whiterun, talk to the guard so I could enter, walked up to the market and observed for a while, and then walked up the stairs to the left and observed the cow for a while.

 

Lastly, I added two scenarios that aren't on the results to specifically test claims of issues with iPresentInterval disabled. This consisted of forcing vsync via the drivers, no ENB installed, and doing one run with iPresentInterval disabled and a second run with it enabled in order to spot any differences.

 

Results

With iPresentInterval moved, all runs are now as expected. I didn't run into any "mystery runs" that were unexplainable or did not act as I would expected, so that is good news. Boris explaination of how ENBSeries is the faucet/valve now makes complete sense as that behavior was observed in these runs. As you can see from the results, there are only two cases for Nvidia users that vsync truly works:

• Driver=App Controlled + ENB=True + iPresentInterval=1
• Driver=App Controlled + No ENB Installed + iPresentInterval=1

 

Havok Issues

With these results and testing I can definitively say that all havok issues are caused by too high frame rates. This was proved in the runs where I forced vsync in the drivers and toggled iPresentInterval on and off. I experienced no havok issues during these runs. In fact, the only runs I experienced havok issues are the runs which vsync did not work and the frame rate was too high; regardless of what iPresentInterval was set to. This rules out iPresentInterval as having anything to do with havok issues and places the blame solely on frame rates higher than 60FPS.

 

NPC Path Issues

One of the claims is that NPC paths are messed up by turning iPresentInterval off. I'm not 100% positive but I can say this is likely true. In the runs where I forced vsync in the drivers, I observed the NPCs walking around the market place in Whiterun as well as the Cow that is up the stairs and to the left. The cow was okay in both cases and  was only affected by having no vsync which cause it to slide around rather than walk. The NPCs on the other hand did seem to be affect by setting iPresentInterval to 0. With the parameter on, the NPCs casually and smoothly walk around one another in a natural manner. With the parameter off, the NPC no longer walk around one another as smoothly and seem to "bump" into one another more often. These results would seem to confirm this issue but it needs more testing in this scenario to determine. To test this:

• Uninstall ENBSeries, force vsync to be on in the drivers, and do runs with iPresentInterval=0 and iPresentInterval=1. Look for differences in NPC walking behavior.

 

My official recommendation remains the same, we should mention to have iPresentInterval set to 1 in all cases (and that is in fact belongs in Skyrim.ini under the Display heading). We could simply not mention it since iPresentInterval=1 is the default; however, you will run into users that have changed it from following advice from somewhere else and then there's the fact that we've been telling users to change it. Users should simply delete the parameter from there INIs and forget about it. That would force the default setting and prevent any issues.

[z929669]

I agree with you on all points, Tech. My trial 2 test results did not include any extra analyses as your did, but by placing iPresentInterval into Skyrim.ini > [Display], I was able to convert every single 'UNEXPECTED' result ... the only exception is when AMD drivers should be forcing vsync 'off'. The lesson here is that AMD drivers are not able to override either ENB-based or Skyrim-based vsync settings.

 

For good measure, I tested every combination of iPresentInterval in both Skyrim.ini and in SkyrimPrefs.ini. The latter has no effect at all on anything I can see, but I wonder if either placement of this setting affects timing/event sync (both? One or the other? difficult to say. I think the recommendation to DELETE iPresentInterval lines from BOTH Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini is good advice. Doing so allows default Skyrim settings, which are to be left alone ... I confirmed this via testing with these values removed from my INIs ... the result is like having the 'source' of the flow 'on' and allows ENB to manage effectively (and NVIDIA drivers as well, but not AMD).

 

NOTE: I think that the navmesh issues you saw are also related to high FPS and nothing more. Event sync issues could also be attributed to high FPS, so I think that we can use those assumptions (FPS >> monitor refresh rate = BAD!)

 

 

I think we can update ALL the Guides now to use:

• Drivers: vysinc --> "app controlled" or "'off', unless application specifies"
• enblocal.ini --> EnableVsync=true
• SkyrimPrefs.ini (and Skyrim.ini) --> DELETE iPresentInterval lines

EDIT: in NVIDIA Inspector, what is the vsync dialog like? What is the default setting and the terms used? Need to update the STEP Guide to use the right settings for vertical refresh.
 

EDIT2: Tech, would you mind updating the ENBoost notes to reflect the 'best practice' according to all of your recent ENB research? I think that some of our recommendations may be outdated.

[TechAngel85]

NOTE: I think that the navmesh issues you saw are also related to high FPS and nothing more. Event sync issues could also be attributed to high FPS, so I think that we can use those assumptions (FPS >> monitor refresh rate = BAD!)

 

I think we can update ALL the Guides now to use:

• Drivers: vysinc --> "app controlled" or "'off', unless application specifies"
• enblocal.ini --> EnableVsync=true
• SkyrimPrefs.ini (and Skyrim.ini) --> DELETE iPresentInterval lines

EDIT: in NVIDIA Inspector, what is the vsync dialog like? What is the default setting and the terms used? Need to update the STEP Guide to use the right settings for vertical refresh.

 

EDIT2: Tech, would you mind updating the ENBoost notes to reflect the 'best practice' according to all of your recent ENB research? I think that some of our recommendations may be outdated.

Navmesh isssues could not have been caused by high FPS. That was the purpose of the extra testing. During my observations of those issues, vsync was forced on in the drivers as to eliminate the possibility of it being caused by high FPS. Which is the reason I wanted more to test it out since it was ruled out to be high FPS in my tests.

 

I agree with your recommendations for all Guides and I will update the notes later today.

 

As for inspector:

• Vertical Sync Tear Control
  • default is "Standard" and should left as that.
• Vertical Sync
  • the default is "Use the 3D application setting" and that is the setting that should be used.

[edemircistep]

Circling back to post 110 and 111 about the Shield of Ysgramor, and Tech saying it was in the Content Addon for AMidianBorn Book of Silence piece.

 

That addon states it requires dragonborn.  I don't have any SR DLC.  It's really annoying having a nice hi-res weapon in your right hand, and a low res shield in your left.  Is there a way to get this to match the quality of other textures?

[dreadflopp]

I was posting about an error I got in a record in the help/troubleshooting section. I first believed the error was because I have a custom STEP install. I now believe this is an error in the STEP Extended patch and that the cause is a cutting room floor update. The error is in the record 0004a38f and the cause is a keyword from cutting room floor that probably has changed formid. The weapon and armor fixes remade stats seems to be wrong to. Picture below.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15909840/ebonybladeError.jpg

[TechAngel85]

It looks like some changes just need to be forwarded to the patches. EssArrBee decided that the changes from the last USP updates weren't vital enough to update the STEP Patches so they never got updated. I really need to learn how to do the patching so that I can help him keep them up-to-date.

[DoubleYou]

I know how to do the patches easy enough. I just haven't figured out GitHub yet...

[EssArrBee]

I'm getting off work in an a couple hours and can do it. The UP stuff wasn't worth updating for but if CRF was updated then I need to look at it.

[EssArrBee]

I have to download Skyrim again because Steam can't see it since I did reinstall of Windows. Kinda weird because that never happened before. I'll get to the patches as soon as I get the game redownloaded.

 

If you want to learn some of the basics of Github I can teach you, but the biggest problem is syncing your fork to the master. It is actually easier to delete your fork if the master gets updated and then just re-fork the master. Anyways, let me know and maybe we can hop on mumble or something. Using Github for the patches is a bit weird since you can't merge files like you would with code, so only replacing plugins works and that means only one person can make changes at a time and that anyone else making changes has to start with the master. It hasn't been a problem so far though since I've only had one pull request.

[TechAngel85]

I have to download Skyrim again because Steam can't see it since I did reinstall of Windows. Kinda weird because that never happened before. I'll get to the patches as soon as I get the game redownloaded.

 

If you want to learn some of the basics of Github I can teach you, but the biggest problem is syncing your fork to the master. It is actually easier to delete your fork if the master gets updated and then just re-fork the master. Anyways, let me know and maybe we can hop on mumble or something. Using Github for the patches is a bit weird since you can't merge files like you would with code, so only replacing plugins works and that means only one person can make changes at a time and that anyone else making changes has to start with the master. It hasn't been a problem so far though since I've only had one pull request.

That doesn't sound like an ideal solution for a team environment.

[EssArrBee]

Well, you can have multiple people contribute to the master and their desktop gtihub app will sync automatically with the master. If you aren't one of those people then you have to fork it off and do your own while making pull requests to add your changes. It works really well for code since it parses the lines of code and combines the changes.

 

If someone can make patches that are up to my standard, then I will definitely add them to the project so they don't have to fork from the master. No one has actually done that yet, so they need to fork from the master and submit a pull request that I can review. There is a way to keep your fork synced with the git shell, but I couldn't figure it out because I was being lazy.

[EssArrBee]

Okay, I'm done updating the STEP Patches. The readme pages are updated too. 

 

I've been working a ridiculous amount of hours the last few weeks and need to change things up a bit, so I'll return to some testing this weekend.

[TechAngel85]

Okay, I'm done updating the STEP Patches. The readme pages are updated too. 

 

I've been working a ridiculous amount of hours the last few weeks and need to change things up a bit, so I'll return to some testing this weekend.

No problems. It the holidays so I think the hours are expected. I'm working 20hrs in just the next two days so I feel you!

[walterAgator]

Don't know if this is the right place to post this and a forum search didn't turn up anything for me. STEP Vanilla Optimized Textures - Standard Varsion  seems to have some texture folders out of place. DLC01, DLC02 and terrain folders are not in the textures folder but directly in the data folder. As viewed under the data tab of MO.

[z929669]

Don't know if this is the right place to post this and a forum search didn't turn up anything for me. STEP Vanilla Optimized Textures - Standard Varsion seems to have some texture folders out of place. DLC01, DLC02 and terrain folders are not in the textures folder but directly in the data folder. As viewed under the data tab of MO.

You are correct, thanks ... I will fix and reupload.

 

EDIT: Uploading now