GUIDE Skyrim INI Guide

[DoubleYou]

This is an interesting observation and it certainly makes sense given the difference in speed between hard drives and solid-state drives. I imagine this might be more pronounced on 5400 RPM drives as well given the higher rotational latency. I just checked and see I'm still using the default value since I don't have this entry in my Skyrim.ini.

If you use Unofficial Skyrim Patch, the setting is in its Plugin INI.

[Greg]

Has anyone noticed a difference with bReturnTo1stPersonFromVanity? I set fAutoVanityModeDelay=5 so the vanity mode camera activates after 5 seconds, and tried this in first and third person but it always returns to the same state I was in previously. In other first, if I am in third person view I remain in third person view after I cancel the vanity mode camera by moving the mouse.

 

 

EDIT: I don't notice a difference with fVanityModeMinDist, fVanityModeMaxDist, fVanityModeMaxDistFlyMult, or fVanityModeMinDistFly. I had expected these to be affected by objects close to the player character so I tested all these by varying my distance away from Half Moon Mill -- standing against the door, at the edge of the wooden walkway leading to the door, and a couple of steps away from the wooden walkway. In all cases the vanity camera switched to the same zoom levels as the house obstructed the view. I also experimented by standing in the open and letting the vanity camera do its thing for about 10 or 15 minutes to see if it would change the zoom disatance, but I didn't notice any changes.

[DoubleYou]

You should probably have noted that these settings are in the [Camera] section.

 

Most of these settings have never been tested. Indeed, try googling some of these settings. I've been happy to notice that this guide, with as limited information as it has, is at the top of the list.

 

They most likely do something that we haven't figured out yet. Notice that the ones with "Fly" in them were added with the official 1.8 patch, which introduced Dragonborn combatibility. That is a strong hint that it has something to do with dragons, and I'm presuming perhaps when the player is mounted on a dragon, or perhaps the other settings when mounted on a horse??? Guessing. Bethesda didn't hand out a manual.

[echo451]

[VATS]

uVATSRangedPercentSneak=100
uVATSRangedPercentGlobal=100

 

These values do not appear when using the configurator.

 

Trying to use the configurator and follow the guide is a bit of a pain. Configurator sorts on the second letter of the key.

The guide sorts on the first and, as a result, you have to go back and forth. This may lead to more errors when using the configurator or a text editor.

eg.

 

In the guide

 

bDrawLandShadows=0
bDeferredShadows=0
bShadowsOnGrass=0
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
fShadowDistance=0
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=0
iShadowMapResolution=1

 

In Configurator

 

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=0

bDrawLandShadows=0
bDeferredShadows=0
bShadowsOnGrass=0
fShadowDistance=0

iShadowMapResolution=1

bTreesReceiveShadows=0

[TechAngel85]

Don't use the configurator. Use the INI Editor.

[DoubleYou]

[VATS]

uVATSRangedPercentSneak=100

uVATSRangedPercentGlobal=100

 

These values do not appear when using the configurator.

And they shouldn't. Those two settings were removed from Skyrim in the official 1.6 patch. I didn't think they were popular or even known, so I decided to not even mention them. If there is a popular guide that uses them, I guess I could add these to the guide to explain that they are outdated and no longer do anything.

 

As to the Configurator, it may order the settings and sections differently, but that is at its author's discretion. The INI guide is best understood when arranged lexicographically descending, with each of the prefixes separated. The Configurator has rather randomly arranged sections and mixes up the prefixed settings.  

[DoubleYou]

• Finished [saveGame] section with as much as I could find out.
• Tested bAutoViewDistance and found it to buggy. Noted also on the Skyrim Configuration Settings Guide.
• Added bShowMarkers info. Looks useful for modders. See image below.

[Spock]

Thank you for the great guide!

 

One small thing:

Set the number of CPU threads Skyrim can utilize
iNumHWThreads sets the maximum number of hardware threads the game can use. Set this to the number of cores your CPU has, doubling that number if it has hyperthreading. The default value is 4, which is perfect for quad-core CPUs without hyperthreading.

fEncumberedReminderTimer=Number of CPU cores, multiplied by 2 if hyperthreaded

There seems to be a type on this line.

iNumHWThreads only sets the maximum number of havok threads. It doesn't allow the game to be truly multy threaded as the important tasks (game logic and renderer) are single threaded.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Spock

[DoubleYou]

Thank you for the great guide!

 

One small thing:

There seems to be a type on this line.

iNumHWThreads only sets the maximum number of havok threads. It doesn't allow the game to be truly multy threaded as the important tasks (game logic and renderer) are single threaded.

Already fixed the typo.

 

And you are confusing iNumHWThreads in [General] with iNumThreads in [Havok]. The [Havok] iNumThreads setting controls how many threads havok can use, like you say, and is often confused in many tweak guides as providing more threads to the entire game. However, iNumHWThreads in [General] does indeed seem to change the amount of hardware threads used by Skyrim. In testing, I set it to 1 and 2, and Skyrim would not load on my system due to not having enough power to start up. It would freeze and stop responding. Increasing this to 3 or 4 successfully allowed Skyrim to boot up. However, I did not extensively test to see whether or not Skyrim used however many threads, but the fact that Skyrim would not load at 1 or 2 proves that it does something major. Setting it to 8, even though my system has only 4 cores and no hyperthreading, did not crash the game and acted the same as 4, so it is possible that increasing the value does nothing, but it very well might improve performance on a higher threaded system. Who knows? No one has truly tested these things.

[Spock]

Setting it to 8, even though my system has only 4 cores and no hyperthreading, did not crash the game and acted the same as 4, so it is possible that increasing the value does nothing, but it very well might improve performance on a higher threaded system. Who knows? No one has truly tested these things.

What I was trying to point out was, that a performance gain is highly unlikely. Skyrim can dump some tasks (like ai, physics etc) to other cores. But at the very core, the game logic and renderer are almost certainly single threaded.

You could maybe do more rediculous things with the havoc engine but during regular gameplay the game will be limited by your single thread performance.

[DoubleYou]

Well, I presume that very well may be true, but I don't know yet. The extra threads might be useful to other parts besides the logic. All I know is it doesn't seem like it can be set too high.

[DoubleYou]

• Finished [Weather]

• Added info about several tweaks in [Display] and [General]

[Kesta]

 

• Added bShowMarkers info. Looks useful for modders. See image below.

 

 

You.

Are.

F******.

Awesome.

 

And thx for the whole guide, I've been adjusting my INI along with your progress on the matter, but stopped about 2 weeks ago. I'll probably re-do it all with all the new stuffs.

[DoubleYou]

• Finished [Water] -- no real useful settings found besides what we already knew.

[DoubleYou]

Tired of Z-fighting mountains? Tired of terrain popping into more detail. Go back to the Oblivion terrain system! LOL.

 

Skyrim.ini

[TerrainManager]
bUseNewTerrainSystem=0