Total Skyrim Meltdown (third time and counting...)

[twowolves80]

WARNING: This thread contains references to mods that are NSFW.

Also, this is kind of lengthy, so I apologize ahead of time.

Background Information:

 

The System:

 

IBM-Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E350

Intel i5-3230M Quad-Core @ 2.6 GHz

4GB Ram (3.58GB available)

Intel HD-4000 Graphics

Approx. Total Memory: 1,638 MB

Display: 1366 x 768 (32-bit) 60Hz

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS

All drivers up-to-date

 

The Game:

 

Legal copy of Skyrim Legendary Edition (of course)

 

The Problem:

 

Well, besides the fact that I am rather dumb (the avatar is not meant for irony, here. It's a warning), I have tried to mod Skyrim, following such things as Modding Beginner's Guide by tony971, and Skyrim Stability Project by GrandBulwark, along with Gopher's Machiavellian videos on YouTube (Machiavellian to me. By viewing my avatar, you agree that you were fairly warned). So I was able to run about 90 plugins or so, including some adult animation ones which I no longer bother with, having gotten bored with the novelty. I've experienced CTDs, broken saves, Matrix-like slow downs of NPCs (which makes for great theatrics, but not really great playability), stuttering, and even console failure. Impossible, I know--I've heard it all before, but there it is. The "help" command in the console refuses to work no matter how many ways I write it out. Example: help lydia. help lydia 0. help "lydia" 0. And other iterations. All result in the Filters: 0-..., 1-..., 2-... etc pop up. Page Up and Page down do nothing. I've run as high as 90 plugins before, but the game would always get so glitchy by the mid 30s levels that it becomes unplayable (I've yet to be able to play past level 35 because of that), with constant CTDs. I've pared down the mod list to what I want the most, and without these, I might as well not even play it on the computer and just stick to my PS3. I've tried the ENBoost, and the SKSE.ini to unlock Sheson's Memory Patch, and none of it works for me, resulting in my frustration, and that of the Vampire Dante, Millenia, and MotoxxScorpioxx as I annoy the chatroom mods and guests with my ignorant questions because I am...say it with me...A MORON when it comes to modding.

 

And no, I don't have enough money to upgrade to a better computer, or build one myself. I am stuck with my laptop.

 

Thus, being on the verge of rage-quitting my favorite game forever, I've decided to submit myself to the public forum, risking ridicule I'm sure, and ask for your help in determining the following:

1. The correct load order, if it is wrong, for these mods I've listed;

2. Anything that will help save VRAM and boost performance while making it more efficient;

3. A setup that will help me play the game completely through with a minimum of fuss

 

I'm not asking for immortality, here, just playability so I can enjoy my game. That's all.

 

The Mod List: (shown in current load order)

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

SKSE

SKSE.ini (unlocking Sheson's Memory Patch)

Optimized Vanilla Textures

RSChildren Overhaul

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Optimized Dawnguard Textures

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

Optimized Hearthfires Textures

Unofficial Hearthfires Patch

Optimized Dragonborn Textures

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Non-Essential Children

Hearthfires Multiple Adoptions

Better Vampires 6.6

RaceMenu

Guard Dialogue Overhaul

Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2

Immersive Sounds-Compendium

Enhanced Better Sorting

SkyUI

XP32 Maximum Skeleton

Enhanced Character Edit

Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition

Decrease That Grass

One Mountain To Rule Them All

Remove Interior Fog

Bloodthirst

Customizable Camera

Immersive HUD

Make Any Child Your Follower

New Children

Mindi Badewyn a Nord Follower

Cloaks of Skyrim

Cloaks of Skyrim-Dawnguard Patch

Simple Multiple Followers

Jaxonz Positioner

Skyrim Coin Replacer Redux

Better Dialogue Controls

Knocked Up

Knocked Up-ProLife Patch

Sexy Mara Statue

Edhildil's Sexy Azura Statue

Edhildil's Winterhold Mage Statue

Sevenbase Dibella Statue

SM Drop Lit Torches

Deathstar Moon-Secunda

Free Hug Mod

Humorous Naked Comments

Telescope

FNIS

ShowRaceMenu with Precache Killer

Dawnbreaker II (a private mod from GrandBulwark that upped the damage of the Dawnbreaker by like 5)

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

Solutions Attempted:

 

I have cleaned everything that should be cleaned with TES5_Edit, rebuilt the bashed patch using WryeBash, re-ordered some masters in some mods that WryeBash pointed out, ran LOOT extensively, spent hours and hours tweaking the ENB files and finally got rid of them, only after tony971 sent me one tweaked for my system, nagged, pleaded and begged for help in the chat rooms, pored over everything I could find, watched Gopher's videos without falling asleep more than twice, and followed all installation instructions that I could understand. And yes, I have a clean save that is CLEAN.

 

I understand that my system is underpowered, but I am not trying to run a lot of mods. Just these. If there are others that would make my system use its resources more efficiently (like Remove That Grass), I would love to know that, too.

 

I apologize for the length of this post, truly. I want to be as thorough as possible, though, because I really don't understand what is going on, and don't know what information someone might need to be able to tell me, hey, dummy, you have to change this.

 

Thank you ahead of time for your patience.

 

twowolves80

Edited October 19, 2014 by twowolves80

[mirteiwaz]

1.Go Vanilla, and start installing the mod 1 by 1 till it broke.
2.Use Hialgoboost if you don't care about graphics.
3.Remove shadows if you can live without it, they're memory hogs.
4.Consider reducing your draw distance.
5.Use this http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/814/? it makes editing ini easier.

[twowolves80]

Yes, but will HiAlgoBoost work on my paltry system? I tried it once before with no results...I mean, is that mod list really that bad? I didn't think I was asking too much of my system with the handful of mods I want to run.

 

As for removing shadows, is there a way to reduce them drastically without eliminating them entirely? And how do I reduce, and what is, draw distance? I'm getting the configurator, too, thanks!

[twowolves80]

Update: Painstakingly reinstalled everything but the optimized textures mods on NMM. Still crashes. Uninstalled Audio Overhaul, crashed at the logo. Uninstalled Immersive Sounds Compendium, crashed at the load screen. ~!@#$%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am literally moments from smashing my laptop and calling it quits forever! Nothing I am running works, and no mods I am running should be causing this big of a !@#$%^ headache! HiAlgoBoost is not going to stop crashing at the load screen. Moreover, I used the Skyrim Configurator mod, and I dialed back the shadows, the resolution and anything else I could to help, and nothing works. So either, there are mods conflicting that I don't know about (Nothing showing in LOOT or WryeBash) or I am just destined to be forever stuck with this @!#$%^&. I'm so pissed off right now I can't even see straight.

 

I AM WILLING TO PAY SOMEONE TO OPTIMIZE THOSE MODS FOR ME!!!

Edited October 19, 2014 by twowolves80

[chanchan05]

1. Your graphics card is at the minimum (slightly below if if I'm not mistaken), that means no texture mods, or anything that makes anything look better. You actually want the game to look worse if possible so that your system can handle it.

2. Anything that adds stuff to the world, like new NPCs adds to GPU strain. So the new children and stuff like that must go.

3. Can't remember if CBBE puts high res bodies. If it does, remove it.

4. Those sexy statue mods are high res AFAIK.

5. Use both ENBoost and Hialgoboost (you don't need ENB to get the boost from ENBoost). Hialgo and ENBoost doesn't care for your system. They're designed to increase performance.

6. Use the Unofficial Skyrim Patches. They're available at Nexus.

7. Decrease the resolution of the game. The lowest on the settings page is 1280x720. However you can actually go lower. Go to My Documents>My Games>Skyrim>Open SkyrimPrefs.ini>look for the lines "iSize H" and "iSize W". Change the values to iSize H=600, and iSize W=1024.

 

Interestingly, you have a good CPU, so you can run scripted mods like Frostfall and iNeed without much trouble. Basically: scripts=CPU strain, textures and new NPCs=GPU strain. Although you might want to look at increasing RAM. If your laptop has 2 slots you can get an additional 2GB (making your total to 6GB) for like $30.

[twowolves80]

I've run more than ninety mods at one point, inclucing Climates of Tamriel with Minty's Lightning Mod and Real Shelter. I had all the above mods at that time. Now, however, it wants to crack. As far as ENB goes, I've gone round and round with ENB with tony971, along with the whole Sheson's Memory Patch, DDSopt, and everything else, and that very negative experience makes me avoid them like the Bubonic Plague. If I can't run texture mods, fine, but if I can't run mods that add more material to the game, such as lands, story lines, and whatnot, then what is the point of playing? I could play the b.s. version and be bored on my PS3. That will just have meant that I wasted $40 on the pc version, along with hundreds of hours of trying to get it to work. I want to know what changed since I was running all the same mods before, but ever since playing with that stupid !@#$%^ ENB and skse.ini from the Modding Beginner's Guide, I've had nothing but instability and CTDs as far as the eye can see. I don't want a game that looks like a damned cartoon, and that's exactly what happens when you lower the resolution or mess with the shadow settings in the configurator. So unless I can figure out something quick, I'm done playing skyrim for a very long time as I do not have the money for even 2GB of RAM for my laptop. Yes, I am that broke, with no future in sight. Skyrim is pretty much the only joy I have aside from my fiancee, who is 7000 miles away right now.

 

So, I gues, thanks, but no thanks. That's the end of skyrim for me.

[chanchan05]

Storyline add-ons yes. New lands yes. But mods that add huge 20vs20 NPC battles in the world with reinforcements like Immersive Patrols, no. There's a difference. What I'm talking about is that you can't use a mod that, say, adds 20 new NPCs and trees to Whiterun. You can probably run Moonpath to Elsweyr and some other quest mods that doesn't put to much strain and uses mostly vanilla assets. Quests like Lost Wonders of Mzark however, which makes even PCs capable of running performance ENBs stutter are a no go.

 

Also the argument that "I've used all those mods before, but only now it gets wonky" is irrelevant. The fact that you ran them before means you strained your video card, which means the drop in performance could be due to hardware deterioration. Or it could be due to ini errors due to wrong tweaking and all.

 

ENBoost increases performance. ENB reduces performance. ENBoost is a memory hack that prevents your RAM from mirroring your RAM. You need that.

 

If you really want to play with mods, give up trying to fix your game, and torch the installation, then start from scratch. I've done that several times before. That's the thing with modding. You'll spend days/weeks getting your game to work right, before you can play. But it's worth it in the end.

 

Here's a guide to reverse all changes you made to Skyrim:

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Make_Skyrim_Vanilla_Again

Edited October 20, 2014 by chanchan05

[twowolves80]

I've done the install-from-scratch twice in the last three days.

 

I've run the ENBoost from Modding Beginner's Guide. I should have said ENBoost in the beginning, my mistake. The point is: DOES NOT WORK. If it's videocard deterioration, then I'm !@#$%^ anyway. I have no problem getting rid of some of the mods on that list. The Optimized Vanilla Textures mods seem to have the opposite effect on my computer, and I still haven't figured out why the help command refuses to work.

 

I could pare down the mod list further, and this should just about do it. If I can't run it after this, then there is no hope on this computer. I'm still debating on HiAlgoBoost...Oh, hell, I would probably have that, too, just to try to reduce strain on my system.

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

SKSE

SKSE.ini (unlocking Sheson's Memory Patch)

Optimized Vanilla Textures

RSChildren Overhaul

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Optimized Dawnguard Textures

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

Optimized Hearthfires Textures

Unofficial Hearthfires Patch

Optimized Dragonborn Textures

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Non-Essential Children

Hearthfires Multiple Adoptions (Keep or no?)

Better Vampires 6.6

RaceMenu

Guard Dialogue Overhaul

Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2

Immersive Sounds-Compendium

Enhanced Better Sorting

SkyUI

XP32 Maximum Skeleton

Enhanced Character Edit

Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition

Decrease That Grass

One Mountain To Rule Them All

Remove Interior Fog

Bloodthirst

Customizable Camera

Immersive HUD

Make Any Child Your Follower

New Children

Mindi Badewyn a Nord Follower

Cloaks of Skyrim

Cloaks of Skyrim-Dawnguard Patch

Simple Multiple Followers

Jaxonz Positioner

Skyrim Coin Replacer Redux

Better Dialogue Controls

Knocked Up

Knocked Up-ProLife Patch

Sexy Mara Statue

Edhildil's Sexy Azura Statue

Edhildil's Winterhold Mage Statue

Sevenbase Dibella Statue

SM Drop Lit Torches

Deathstar Moon-Secunda

Free Hug Mod

Humorous Naked Comments

Telescope

FNIS (Not sure if I would need this anymore...)

ShowRaceMenu with Precache Killer

Dawnbreaker II (a private mod from GrandBulwark that upped the damage of the Dawnbreaker by like 5)

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

How much of a strain would the remaining mods really put on my system? There's not a lot there, especially if CBBE is set to Low-Res in the installation. I would like to try to get away with Hearthfires Multiple Adoptions and the Enhanced Character Edit. The Hearthfires one doesn't add much considering it just changes the tags of what is already there. The ECE, though, I'm not sure of. I'm not even going to mention Convenient Horses...And would I even need the skeleton with any of these? If not, that would be one more that could go.

Edited October 20, 2014 by twowolves80

[chanchan05]

Well first the question should be, how many FPS you do get on a purely vanilla installation. You'd want to be counting the FPS in Jorvasskr(forgot the spelling. The Hall of Companions), and the Falkreath forests around Riverwood, then compare them to Whiterun proper and the Whiterun plains. It totally depends on how the game is holding up in those vanilla situations. Those two AFAIK are the most demanding areas that are easily accessible on a new game, while the plains around Whiterun and the city proper are more of the average strain on GPU.

[twowolves80]

How do I measure FPS? MFG console? I took all those mods out (per the above list) and ran the clean save point. The fan is going, but it's barely warm, not like before, and the system doesn't feel laggy. I still have the clean save to test, though, to be sure. That's without the HiAlgoBoost...I want to benchmark the clean save first, then the clean save with HiAlgoBoost. Those tests I'll run tomorrow and post the results. Just tell me how to do them. And I almost took Better Dialogue Controls out until I remembered, it doesn't add to the game, just allows you to use the mouse to click on dialogue.