I'm still getting initial pop-in (mainly of grass) when I walk into a new area, even with ugrids set to 9 and grass distance extended in the ini (14000.0000-28000.0000).

I even tried extending ugrids to 11 but still no difference to the grass.

Once it's loaded and I walk past it, I can turn around and see grass trailing off way into the distance, just not very far in front of me when I walk into new areas!

I used the Skyrim Enthusiast Graphics text guide (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1387) as a base for tweaking, and the grass as seen from Whiterun leading up to the mountains shows the same distance as http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8708/14071836.jpg (which is the vanilla 70000 grass settings) until I get close - then I can backpedal all the way back to Whiterun and see the grass as should be the case(ie http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/748/88871984.jpg.

Am I missing anything obvious?

I'm using the 1.3 version of Skyrim - not dared try beta patch yet!


Specs:
i7 2700k @4ghz
Corsair H80
16gb Corsair Vengeance
PowerColor Radeon 6970 2GB
Corsair Force 3 SSD 120GB (Skyrim installed to this drive).
2nd drive: WD HD 2TB


EDIT: Wow, just noticed a rather odd glitch with my game - what appears to be a huge pole sticking out of the ground near Alftand! http://imageshack.us/f/838/screenshot3zr.jpg/. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

I've met this as well, if you turn on 'tb' in the console you'll see the actual grid lines and can see where your current ugrid radius extends out to. But yah I've noticed it isn't always a straight up 'x' radius around you and that thing with the grass going up into the hillside near whiterun is an example where it doesn't seem to just extend out evenly all the time. If you have tb on and then tfc to frecam and just zoom back into the sky you'll notice that the grid radius isn't centered on you in that spot but more centered around whiterun itself. Not sure why that is but yah you're not alone.

Yea, welcome to TES...

Did you increase uExterior Cell Buffer to a value appropriate to your uGrids value?

Thanks for the suggestions -


Thanks for the reassurance that it's not necessarily my incompetence or my system, likely an engine limitiation.
I tried tb and tfc, and the gridlines extend well beyond the area I'm getting grass popping in from.


I've been here a while, but not had a system that's allowed me to push things to see what they can really do! I was used to playing Oblivion at 15fps!


D'oh! I had indeed increased the uExterior buffer (to 100), but somehow had left the original line in as well (at 36) so presumably the latter took priority. I deleted the original. but still no difference unfortunately. I also went through both ini files to check I hadn't done the same thing elswhere or made any typos.

Here's my skyrim.ini in case it's any help in troubleshooting the issue:

[General]sLanguage=ENGLISHuGridsToLoad=9uInterior Cell Buffer=50uExterior Cell Buffer=100fMasterFilePreLoadMB=128.0000iPreloadSizeLimit=268435456[Display]fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048bAllowScreenshot=1fSunShadowUpdateTime=0fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0fShadowBiasScale=0.6iBlurDeferredShadowMask=4[Audio]fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0[Grass]bAllowCreateGrass=1bAllowLoadGrass=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.bsasResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Voicesixtra.bsa[Combat]fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0[Papyrus]iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=3000000000fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0bEnableLogging=0bEnableTrace=0bLoadDebugInformation=0[Water]bReflectLODObjects=1bReflectLODLand=1bReflectSky=1bReflectLODTrees=1

My skyrimprefs.ini:

[General]fBrightLightColorB=1.0000fBrightLightColorG=1.0000fBrightLightColorR=1.0000iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0[Imagespace]bDoDepthOfField=1iRadialBlurLevel=2[Display]iBlurDeferredShadowMask=4fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000fShadowDistance=8000.0000iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048iShadowSplitCount=2iMaxAnisotropy=0fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000fGamma=1.0000fDecalLOD2=1500.0000fDecalLOD1=1000.0000fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000iTexMipMapMinimum=0iTexMipMapSkip=0iWaterMultiSamples=0iMultiSample=4iShadowMode=3bTreesReceiveShadows=1bDrawLandShadows=1bFull Screen=1iSize H=1080iSize W=1920fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000iScreenShotIndex=2bShadowMaskZPrepass=0bMainZPrepass=0iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100bFloatPointRenderTarget=0sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series"bFXAAEnabled=0iShadowMapResolution=2048fShadowBiasScale=0.1500iShadowMaskQuarter=4iAdapter=0iPresentInterval=1iShadowFilter=3bTransparencyMultisampling=0bDrawShadows=1uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=24[Grass]b30GrassVS=1fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=28000.0000fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000bDrawShaderGrass=1[MAIN]bGamepadEnable=1bCrosshairEnabled=1fHUDOpacity=1.0000bSaveOnPause=1bSaveOnTravel=1bSaveOnWait=1bSaveOnRest=1fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000[GamePlay]bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1bShowQuestMarkers=1iDifficulty=3[Interface]bDialogueSubtitles=0bGeneralSubtitles=0fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000bShowCompass=1[Controls]fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0200bAlwaysRunByDefault=0bInvertYValues=0bGamePadRumble=1bMouseAcceleration=1[Particles]iMaxDesired=750[SaveGame]fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000[AudioMenu]fAudioMasterVolume=2.5000fVal7=1.0000uID7=0fVal6=1.0000uID6=0fVal5=1.0000uID5=0fVal4=1.0000uID4=0fVal3=1.0000uID3=94881fVal2=0.1500uID2=466532fVal1=1.0000uID1=554685fVal0=0.8000uID0=1007612[Clouds]fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000[TerrainManager]fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000fBlockLevel0Distance=70000.0000fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000bShowLODInEditor=0[NavMesh]fObstacleAlpha=0.5000fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000fEdgeThickness=10.0000fPointSize=2.5000[Trees]bRenderSkinnedTrees=1uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20[Decals]uMaxDecals=1000bDecals=1bSkinnedDecals=1uMaxSkinDecals=100uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60[LOD]fLODFadeOutMultObjects=16.0000fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000[Launcher]bEnableFileSelection=1bShowAllResolutions=1uLastAspectRatio=3[BlurShaderHDR]bDoHighDynamicRange=1[BlurShader]bUseBlurShader=0[Water]iWaterReflectHeight=1024iWaterReflectWidth=1024bUseWaterDisplacements=1bUseWaterRefractions=1bUseWaterReflections=1bUseWaterDepth=1

I'm forcing AF through CCC, but letting Skyrim handle AA.

I'm now experiencing issues I haven't noticed before, primarily on snow - I wonder if it's part of the same "distance" issue.

I'm not sure if it's related to shadows, or to my AA/AF settings - streaming video that I captured here: http://www.novamov.com/video/4rdtur0bjjwf5

Note the darker "shadow patch" on the snow in the mid distance that goes away as I get closer and reappears as I walk back, and see the weird wavy lines on it. The snow in mid distance where it's slightly darker flickers like mad in some areas, similar to the Z-buffer fighting I see on the rare occasion on distant mountains, but this is just mid range - up close and further away it's fine. This happens both with snow texture replacers and vanilla textures.

Do you know if this is related to my shadow settings, or AA?