I've no idea about your first question (and if I'm affected at all it's not very noticeable for me).

Regarding TESVAL, the author said he is going to wait until after the next patch from Bethesda to see if they do the optimizations when compiling the exe, which would anyway be better than TESVAL or SkyBoost, I think.
Somewhat understandable, given that it would probably render a whole lot of work he puts into TESVAL obsolete.

And Alexander, please ignore the last 2 sentences and continue work on SkyBoost.

Ceased? What do you think Skyboost is? Alexander has continued to develop it with 4 revisions as of today; adding Win8 support along the way and improving FPS w/ each revision.

I think he meant as an SKSE plug-in rather than an asi.

Actually, Arisu's first release of TESVAL was a stand-alone. It was only made into an SKSE plugin after many users reported crashes.

Edit: about the stuttering, I haven't experienced it but I wonder if it has something to do w/ SKSE itself. Do people using Skyboost w/ SD have less stuttering?

I'm well aware of that. That, while interesting as trivia, is not relevant to the discussion of whether or not the current iteration of TESVAL (as in the one that's on SkyrimNexus with that name) will continue. Though none of this discussion really has any place in the thread for SkyBoost.

Intel Core i7-740QM x4 1.73GHz (2.93 Turbo)
nVidia GeForce GT 445M 3GB (GDDR3)
8GB DDR3
2x 500GB 7200rmp
17" LCD (laptop)
Windows 7 x64

I run my system fairly lean. My FPS has been all over the place since I started playing Skyrim.

I'm using FXAA PPI + Mods, AA and AF through nVidia Inspector, no vsynch. High quality settings, low shadows (for the FPS--they svck whatever I do and I'm sick of tweaking).

With R4, my FPS increase over Vanilla is probably around %140 in the "good areas."

SSE2:

10-15 FPS boost over R3. Framerate more variable with fairly frequent (but brief) freezes; although, in other areas the stuttering has smoothed out significantly.

FPU:

At least a 3 FPS (conservative estimate) over SSE2. Smoother overall. However, I am having more issues with it, like intermittent delayed sounds with unsheathing weapons or crafting items using a forge. Experiencing brief lockups/freezes when using inventory, using the smithing menu, leveling up and, less frequently, using the save menu. I am experiencing CTDs for the first time since the initial (unpatched) release of the game, but these are not significant enough for me to switch back to the more stable SSE2 version. Sometimes I'll have 1 or 2 CTDs in 1/2 hour but then I'll play for an hour or more with no problems. I've gone through the same areas with multiple characters and from previous saves to see if I could detect any clear patterns, but I haven't really found anything. The only thing I can say is that, for me, Skyrim is most likely to CTD when I am using the forge, workbench or grindstone.

I don't know if that will be of any help, but I thought I'd mention it.

Thank you, Alexander!!!! I can't say enough about this mod. It has saved this game for me.

Last thing: Is there a place to donate money to this project? I'm a dunderhead, so I might have just missed it. I'd be happy to contribute.

Is there any "simpler shaders" mod like there was in Oblivion?

okay so I did a bit of testing to see if there were any differences between vanilla/ sse2/ fpu. for these test i went to markarth and started throwing fireballs and fighting guards until i was killed. i did this six times trying each scenario twice and here are my results.

My Specs;
Windows 7 x64
AMD Phenom II x4 945
8 GB G.Skill 1333mhz ddr3 ram
320 GB WD3200AAKS 7200rpm HD
MSI Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
Playing on a 32" Vizio HDTV @ 1366 x 768 60Hz Resolution

Game Settings;
Auto-Detect @ Ultra High Quality
AA @ 8
AF @ 16
Shadow Detail turned to Medium.

Vanilla; 12.5 FPS to 55 FPS
sse2 Skyboost; 25 FPS - 60 FPS
fpu Skyboost; 30 FPS - 60 FPS

and the lowest drops in fps for each were all at the same spot heading down the walkway overlooking the waterfall and smith(i think) below. otherwise in most areas as i was sprinting and throwing fireballs the lowest dip i seen for vanilla was @ 30, see2 @ 40, fpu @ 47.

I had this issue in vanilla but it was much more subtle and the onset was longer; with skyboost r4 it seems to happen more quickly and the studdering is more dramatic. I didn't notice this same issue with r3, granted I am runniing a lot of mods and textures packs right now. I have a GTX 560 TI with 1gig of video ram; 4 gigs of system memory.

You MAY be running out of video memory (that's what it sounds like to me). I don't use ANY texture mods (I'm running @1680x1050 with 8xAA and 16xAF) and I'm seeing the memory usage in-game getting up to 1GB.

The reason it wasn't as bad as before might be because the CPU was holding your GPU back. Now that your CPU is more optimized the GPU can push harder and as an effect, use more VRAM.

That's my theory at least. Try turning down the resolution, turning down AA, taking out some texture packs, or some combination of the three and see if you still suffer the problem.

No problem thus far with the FPU or SSE2 version. Great work thus far Alexander!!

I can't get a CTD no matter WHAT I do. Also, stating what I stated with r3. r4 + TESVAL works the best for me. Still no clue why.

My results with R3 vs R4 looking at the white tree from Dragonsreach:

R3= 24-25 FPS
R4 SSE2= 26-27 FPS
R4 FPU= 25-26 FPS

tampering with ugrids seems to be the major cause of save bloat, i've visted almost the whole map and still have an under 10MB save

Strange enough the FPU version performs slightly better (smoother, fps more or less the same) than the SSE2 version on my Intel i7 840QM 8(4+4 hyperthread) cores...

Why are all the AMD people getting better results with the Intel version(and vice versa)?

looking at the tree in whiterun, standing at dragonsreach (settings are on high, + enb, which lowers at least on my system fps a bit)

r3: 31-32
r4 both: 32-34

hm.

edit, forgot my pc:

amd phenom 965
nvidia geforce 560 ti
1900x1200 fullscreen.

do you have 17 fps in whterun or a boost of 17 fps?

I afraid I am going to have to chime in with having micro-stuttering with release R4.

It is not effecting the overall shown framerate, but it looks and feels like the game is skipping a frame. Like there is a timing issue and the game has to re-synch the game.

I have tried the FPU and the SSE2 versions and while the FPU is smoother on turning left-to-right or vice-versa, both have that skipping problem when moving around.

With R3 there is some tiny lurch/skipping at times, but it doesn't occur at a constant rate. It is like listening to a record that skips once in the middle of song (Okay, can live with it) versus one that skips every other minute.

I am runing a I7-2600K, Windows 7 64-bit, 16Gigs of Mem, and a 6950 with 2Gigs of VideoMemory.

The vanilla game does exhibit the same type of behaviour, but the framerate rolls all over the place so bad that it becomes part of the package of crappiness that is this game engine.

I think Alex has optimzed the game so much that the underlying problems of texture streaming and stutter that has always existed is now really exposed.

Anways, absolutely no crashes with Skyboost that do not occur as part of the vanilla package. Skyboost is a extremely well behaved modification.

Thanks Alex,
Bats

well, its not easy to conform or deny, atleast not for me, because i usually have CTDs the last few weeks in skyrim anyway.
but, i played about 30 minutes, with the fpu-version and crashed about 4 times. was only selling items, entering and leaving buildings, in and outside of whiterun, nothing special, no fights. i have not experienced crashes THAT often before, but it is anyway hard to say, if it this because of r4 or because of the game itself. crashes are random.

but: there are few things the guy and i have in common: same cpu and same gpu. will do the fireball thing.
edit: 30 minutes fireball - no crashes.

Have a stable Game. Only thing I have changed was , updated to R-4 today. Just had a crash during the Battle for solitude. Cant say for sure this is cause...but Prior to this, during r-3 I had no crashes. 25-30 hours of r-3?...

The crash was after a reload, (not paying attention, lost an hours work!!!) play time was about 3 hours...shouldn't be a question, I normally play extended Hours 6-19 lol..Going back to the Game, if it crashes again I will report back, and revert to R-3 This is on I7 860. Used SSE.

Crashed, rounding a corner near the fire pit. In the castle courtyard.(will know cause i have to fight again....

Everything else was ok , FPS was stable and improved..Thank you again!

I tested both versions of r4 and here the results:
Intel version - I tested this in Whiterun. For the most part... my FPS stayed at 18, but constantly increased to slightly over 20 when moving. Dragonsreach shows significant improvement with over 30 FPS is select spots.
AMD version - (also Whiterun) It stayed stead at 18-19, but dipped to 16 a few times. As with the Intel version, it fluctuated when moving and looking certain directions. Dragonsreach shows even more improvement with up to 45 FPS in select locations.

Keep in mind that my system is strictly minimum-medium requirements, possibly less. My vanilla FPS (15-20) is the same regardless of my settings. I did my "smoothness" test(spinning around in a circle) and the AMD version was more smooth. However, the Intel version didn't dip to 16...not even once. It never went below 18.

okay , let's report now CTDs with SSE2 R4 , do u have 'em ?

No CTDs for either version with ~2 hours of play in one sitting for both.

I didn't test long enough for that. I usually crash once every 30 minutes though, regardless of what I'm doing. It was a quick 5 minute test for both versions. I will test that, though.