Sorry if this was mentioned and I missed it... If I am running windows 7 as a 64 bit OS, do I need to use the LAA patch to improve performance? I guess I am confused - is it that the executable is 32 bit, and the LAA allows it to use more memory in a 64 / 32 bit OS?

You have to make sure there is a 'check' mark next to the thing you want displayed under Monitoring and make sure the box saying show ingame or something is also checked. Then the On-Screen Display Server also has to run in the background (launches with afterburner) and Show On Screen Display must be on. But if you are using mods that could be your issue too lol

What I do since the mods disable it is every then and now I just alt-tab and look at the memory usage graph.

to answer your questions, it's 32bit, it allows 3gb for windows 32bit. and 4gb for for windows x64... 1gb for 32bit is required for os opperation.... reason you don't want to try and force any program within 32bit windows to try and address more than 2 or 3 gb....

you can enabled it and see how it runs..... some people with 32bit windows are saying it's improved stability....

Here a good example of what uGridsToLoad does. Pictures below are set at 7.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2405/tesv2011112019404118.jpg

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/1347/tesv2011112019391522.jpg

That's the first wireframe of grids I've seen so it is pretty interesting. Personally I want to see it at 13+ lol

But I'll have to wait for the new GTX 600s (hoping they have more than 1.5GB of memory). It svcks its the only thing holding me back is the memory, but I do love this is one of the two games I can think of that literally uses all my VRAM (Shogun 2 was the other).

Excellent.. thanks for sharing..

my question is... how did you do this.. did you use one of the available directx render modifcation programs out there that allow you to call on wireframe mode (there are 3 different types of wireframe modes, one which overlay the wireframe like you have, one that leaves a solid wireframe textured mess, and one that's pure wireframe..)

I haven't used one of those for awhile.

But i'm curious how this was done...

I'd love to have default/7/9/11/etc if possible... i'd add it to the main post for peoples referrences.

It was very easy to do.

I changed my Skyrim.ini for the http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=145 as I knew that this map is renders in realtime. Loaded the game, type "~twf" and then veiw the map.

I was think about adding a scale bar to the pictures. It look like at uGridsToLoad=7 it's about 200 m viewing distance.

Just try uGridsToLoad=11, look like it twice the area as uGridsToLoad=7

I've changed ugridstoload= to 7 a few days ago and today I was experimenting with regular settings so I tried to change it back to 5. This caused it to crash upon loading a save. Changing it back stopped the the crashing.


....also, any CPU related performance tweaks?

yeah.. as mentioned in the first post and a few posts into this thread.... once you start using a higher grid value.. you cannot restore back without following the restoration method mentioned...

What ini lines affect shadow quality? I would like to decrease those settings somewhat. Thanks

I have a few questions about this tweaking guide. I am kinda confused with it and I tried to using the ugridtoload=7 but my game kept on crashing on me every 10 or so minutes.

I tried

[General]
uExterior Cell Buffer=64
uGridsToLoad=7
iPreloadSizeLimit=51380224

But had to revert to default as I kept getting CTD's. I know my PC can run this game on Ultra so I do not think that it is hardware but perhaps I am doing something wrong.

My PC Specs

Intel Core i7 950 running at 3.07 Ghz
12 gigs of DDR3 2000 Ram
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX470 GDDR5 with 285.79 Beta Drivers. Graphics Clock at 625 MHz and Memory clock at 1701 MHz
ASUS P6T Delux Mother Board.

I am also using the Large Address Aware Program with the game at the time of crash. And I wrote in the Papyrus Memory tweak recently but have not tried it with the ugridstoload=7

[Papyrus]
iMinMemoryPageSize=100000
iMaxMemoryPageSize=5000000
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1800000000

I will provide my Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini as well. What I am looking for is for me to see far off objects like a large rock, Mammoth camp or waterfall. Better grass that writes at further distance. Just better " distance " writes.

Skyrim.ini

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Voicesixtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
iMinMemoryPageSize=100000
iMaxMemoryPageSize=5000000
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1800000000
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1


Skyrimprefs.ini

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=5000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=6
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=3
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=1
bGeneralSubtitles=1
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0280
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1


Thank you for the help. I am just trying to get as much out of this game as possible without crashing all the time.

Note: not sure if this is a factor but I am running another monitor off the same graphics card but there is nothing usually on that monitor when playing. Can this be a factor or not? Also wanted to know what if I put some graphics tweaks and ran the game in Windowed Mode, would that not cause so many crashes?

unfortunately i can't say what is causing your CTDs...

Skyrim is still new and littered with bugs... and being that tons of people are having CTDs using the default settings.... those of us that managed to get it rock solid stable with modified results are quite lucky... even more lucky if we can get any length of time out of increasing the ugrids..

I'd say in your case.. as i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary for you..... that either something or skyrim itself is just not playing nice with your system..

why... or what.. is another question.

What i find most interesting is that it seems the majority of the people with CTDs are running large amount of ram... I know i couldn't even play the game using defaults without using the LAA patch..... it just would crash all the time... textures wouldn't load properly..... it was just totally unplayable prior to the LAA... Texture packs and mods.. forget it without the LAA for me...

Thinking something odd... i yanked out 5 of my 6 4gb DDR3 modules.. (reducing my total from 24 to 4gb) and re-attempted to run skyrim... and noticed that the CTDs were toned down without the LAA... suggestiong that large capacity type computers are somehow contributing to the issues..... or at least skyrim is using ram or recognizing it improperly somehow..

Installing 8gb seemed to work fine.... 12gb or more and things got problematic.... worse as you further increased it.

I think the developers really should take a peak at that.

I5-760 OC'd to 3.3GHz/ 4gb ram / 5870 here. Playing with uGridsToLoad=7 for a while now, the following setting is stable for me (8 hours, no CTDs):

Doubt that's the issue. I have 16GB of 1600mhz RAM and I play with ugrids = 7 without any issues at all.

Perhaps it's VRAM? I run with a 2GB GTX 560 Ti. Two of them in SLI as well, which although doesn't double VRAM to 4GB, might improve stability in other ways. This game hogs VRAM though, so perhaps 1GB isn't enough to run a high ugrids value with decent stability?




EDIT: My ini values, if you're curious:

uExterior Cell Buffer=64
uGridsToLoad=7
iPreloadSizeLimit=51380224

[Papyrus]
iMinMemoryPageSize=100000
iMaxMemoryPageSize=5000000
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1800000000

FWIW, we're about two outlets chime in on this whole INI tweak subject very soon:

1.) http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/21/elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_performance_iq_review

^^ They're going to do follow ups soon and one of those follow ups will be dedicated to hard experimenting with all the .ini tweaks.


2.) www.tweakguides.com <- He might have his Skyrim guide up as soon as this week.

i tried your config, but now the FOV is stuck at 100, how do i get it back to default? Changing the values in skyrim.cfg doesn't work

i think it was because of the patch the screwed me up..

didn't realize that LAA wasn't on after an initial update...

and made worse by the fact that i couldn't apply the LAA patch.

Because i do know i was sustaining ugrids 9 very well previously...

Shrunk the old LAA patch into a spoiler with the suggestion to ignore it due to new skyrim no longer allowing it..... kept in the post for historical Reference purposes so there is less confusion..

ADDED The following to the main post for better reading and understanding without someone having to go diving into the pool of posts that follow it

The following file located at ~> http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1013 is the 4GB Launcher that INJECTS the LAA protocol/function/tag/flag into skyrim without having to manually set the flag, Additionally it allows updates and patches to be applied to skyrim without having to go about resetting the flag like the OLDER way (refer to below). So long as STEAM is running PRIOR to attempting to launch the game via the 4G Launcher, you should be fine.

Direction on using installing/using the above 4GBLauncher

@ jh2

Try changing the iPreloadSizeLimit= to 51380224

Bummer. 84934656 (What you have) is for ugrids 9.


51380224 is for ugrids 7.


Your uExterior Cell Buffer=64 is correct.

I was hoping that discrepancy was the issue.

Not sure what to suggest now, sorry. I wish you best of luck.

@jh2
Put it in skyrim not in skyrimperfs. Hope that helps.

PreloadLimit has utterly nothing to do with appearance and is specifically FOR preloading cells and such ... reducing the lagtime and likeliness of say CTD due to not loading fast enough due to a lack of a large enough preloadlimit

Your problem is that your setting this in the Skyrimprefs.ini file... Don't do that.. remove those values from skyrimprefs.ini and instead PLACE them in the Skyrim.ini file....

So, what kind of fps hit should I get with UIgrids 9 on my system?

I was on ultra with the vanilla ini, hitting 60 fps avg.

With this on I dip into the 30'ish range.

2600k
8gb ram
GTX 580

Is that about what others with a similar system get?