just got a gtx 670 4gb and it's kickin butt. so i wanna splurge a bit. i always hated how distant objects would pop in even w/ the distance sliders maxed. heard that uGrids is the thing to raise to allow more distant stuff to load, but think i remember hearing that raising it could be dangerous. like you could have trouble switching back to normal if you didn't like it. any advice appreciated. thanks!

Touch it at your own risk. It is known to cause problems in some cases. In my opinion, it is best to stick with the default of 5.

Even if you have an i7 3960X @ 5.0Ghz, three GTX 680 4GB video cards in Tri-SLI, and have the game installed to a SSD drive... Touch it at your own risk. In the vast majority of cases it causes issues eventually, go no higher than 7, as you're pushing the engine to it's limits.

Have a look at this page, scroll down to the uGrids section and read before changing anything:
http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/five-fast-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweaks-guaranteed-to-make-your-game-look-even-better/

It explains it a bit better. And as said above, setting it to higher than 7 seems to cause instability regardless of how good your PC is. I've been running on 7 for months now and it works well.


uExterior Cell Buffer=64
uGridsToLoad=7

I have it set to 7 and never ran into any problems. Don't go any higher than that and remember to adjust your Cell Buffer to 64 like Wintermist suggested.

Only issue I noticed with 7 was NPC pathing normally on the roads can get a little broken you may catch patrols a bit off the path or stuck on environment.
At least 100 hours played on 7.

I got to say I have not encountered this problem myself.

I've been running at ugrids =7 since the beginning with no issues. (100's of hours)

I use about 60 mods including script intensive ones. computer is mid range. - quadcore @2.7, geforce 560 ti, 8gb ram, win7 64bit.

However as mentioned it does push the engine, so it "may" increase the likelyhood of ur game experiencing issues if ur running mods that also push the game hard.

As always the best advice is try with ur load order. then adjust the order/ mod list / ugrids setting if u experience issues. always do this experimentation with a back up save in place.

use wyre bash, BOSS to make ur mod load order and mod uninstall easier.

Follow the geforce guide posted above and u can switch back to the default 5 setting if u need to with no issue with same save.

thanks folks! would running it at 6 instead of 7 be better, or is there not enough of a visual effect to be worth even changing it? and can i just change back to 5 easily without any problems if i don't like the change i made?

5 is the safest and best option. Any higher than that and you're risking things greatly.

6 is not a valid setting.

Just remember you can't ever lower ugrids as your savegame becomes dependent on it, you can lower it temporarily with console commands and then change it back to 5 in the ini but there is likely still some corruption happening.

Honestly you are much better off increasing all your view distance settings in the ini and using http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12866

You will get 90% of the results of ugrids=7 with 10% of the performance hit and 0% of the ctd's and gameplay issues.

Well, I guess you did not explore the page I linked fully, so here it is. This is the difference between 5 and 7. Drag the slider left and right. Pay close attention to the buildings and rock formations.

http://international.download.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/skyrim-uGridsToLoad-comparison-1.html

That's not the point here. uGrids causes issues with the AI and other issues. The trade-off is not worth it at all. It's really just asking for trouble.

Though I've been using 7 for a VERY long time now without any problems at all.

AMD x2 64 6000+
4GB RAM
GeForce 560ti 2GB

yeah, after reading some horror stories i might do that. at least i'll get all other mods i want like DOF and ENBs, and then maybe try ugrids. kinda doubt ugrid will even show much with DOF and enbs. i did read this, and seems like it might be a good way to revert back.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/63192552

do you know what view distance settings to change and to what?
oh and best ENB mod? thanks

You will get them eventually. uGrids is a value that definitely should not be touched. It causes too many issues and anomalies.

Same here.. i've using 7 for quite some time.. tried 9 and worked well but my game wasn't so smooth, about the AI issues,, do you have a link or something i could check? never had any issues with the AI..

I don't know. I must have played about 200 hours with these settings and still nothing. But regardless, I just wanted it said that I had not had any problems with this, but I am not about to debate it further. So I'll leave it at that, I gave the information I had and there's not much else for me to say about it.

Sure, there are some people that have ran uGrids at 7 for extended periords of time, but with all the horror stories out there you're basically playing with fire. Not smart.

and thank you much Wintermist. i did read the link u gave. great info. from the comments tho, i'm not sure how well that procedure to revert works

i'll ask here rather than a new topic...
best place to install NMM? i have skyrim installed in the normal Steam folder in Program files 86 on my SSD. when i go to install NMM, i'm getting errors. i think from UAC (Windows 7) . should i disable UAC or install nmm in someplace like C: Games?

also, i just got my Nvidea card after years w/ ATI. would love to use some of those nvidea specific features like Adaptive AA, SSOA, or whatever it has. is there a guide on this stuff? do i just go thru the nvidea center? and is it better to force vsync thru the gpu and disable it in the ini? thanks!

http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide/#1

Definitely install NMM out of program files and on a regular disk (not your SSD), doesn't really matter where besides those. You probably have to run it in admin mode because your skyrim is in program files though.

uGridsToLoad being messed with is a long standing and well known problem with the Gamebryo system. With Oblivion, even on a beastly rig, it wasn't useful. You'd run into what was affectionately called the bouncing landscape bug. Literally you'd be out wandering then suddenly the entire screen is jumping up and down and sometimes you'd be stuck like that until you COC'd away.

The two Fallouts, all it ended up doing in most cases was crash the game. I've read a few instances where it also corrupted the saved beyond use.

Skyrim, so far, has only shown tendency to corrupt your save over long term use, and you cannot reverse the setting should you realize it was a mistake.

Bethesda simply needs to ditch this junky engine and go with something that actually works, like what's used in Gothic 3 and 4.

If you're dead set on pushing it from 5, stop at 7. The number of extra cells it loads will strain your system memory as well as VRAM and you'd be strongly advised to avoid messing with it if you haven't got a 4GB video card.

Arthmoor, I think 4GB is taking it a bit too high. I've been using it without any problems at all with just a 2GB card. But it is as you say, if your machine can't handle it, don't use it. But I'd say to find out if you machine CAN handle it, you just have to take a leap of faith and try it. For me and my computer, it's flawless at 7. I lost maybe 2-3 FPS and that's definately worth it considering the dramatic effect it has on my visuals.

It only affects new saves so if it doesn't work out for you, revert the changes and continue from your old save and you will have lost nothing. Just remember to backup your ini files so you can easily just copy them back without anymore problems.

The only problem with saying that is that it can sometimes be awhile before problems begin to manifest, and by that time you're invested in keeping the save. For me, it's just not worth that risk. I've been quite cautious about this sort of thing and so far have managed to avoid trashing my original character I began with in November.