zyg0tic

You can also use a mod like Improved Sneak Detection which rebalances and increases the difficulty of sneaking http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23353

Might be something to do with your ini files. Uninstall/reinstall won't delete them. Try deleting them from My Documents > My Games > Skyrim folder, and when you run the game again afterwards it will automatically generate new ones. Also when you reinstall nVidia drivers use the latest ones, even beta version, and choose clean installation in the installer.

Would deleting everything in the data folder except the vanilla files, and then choosing Verify integrity of game cache in Steam work? I've thought about doing this myself. I guess I'd just need to back up the data folder first and it'd be fine to try.

On your original archery play through did you abuse smithing and enchanting so that you had OP gear? I don't think you should rule out the use of bows entirely as being easy mode. They are essential to survival. I think you should instead mod your game's difficulty so that you must diversify, and archery then becomes just one of the tools in your toolkit. I have made a package of mods that makes Master harder without spoiling the vanilla feel of the game. Just search Nexus mods section for Make Master Harder and that should bring it up. Also I think you should spend more time making potions. Especially lingering damage magicka and damage magicka. Also lingering damage health is good too. Try and get become Ethereal as soon as possible for the invuln and remember to use Whirlwind Sprint as it will help you I get to cover. And you use shield bash right? Everything else you described seems good.

I bought a GTX 680 too and all my old savegames work fine. Do other games run okay? Did you have an ATI card previously? Might be bad physical installation, like the actual card is not seated right in the slot. Or bad drivers installation - reinstall drivers and choose 'Clean installation' in the nvidia installer. oh and by the way, once the problem is corrected I can share my skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini which run pretty well for the gtx 680.

That's rather strange... Could it be because you don't have the HD textures pack? (Long shot, I've no idea the cause). Here are some useful resources... http://online-source.net/tools/cfg-makers/skyrim-cfg-maker/ http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/814 Oh and what graphics card and system RAM do you have? If similar to me I can share my ini files if you like.

I've noticed this issue too and it is quite annoying. It is quite disheartening to see no reply to this thread, and that the video has been removed. If anyone else out there knows what he is referring to and has found the solution please help us out! UPDATE: Increasing fShadowDistance to 6000 did make it less apparent, especially on close objects like rocks. Its still a little bit visible when looking ahead at other shadows, so the shadow blur line might be a separate graphical feature. So I guess I need to find a setting that makes shadows crisper whilst fShadowDistance is higher....

With a PC/laptop like that, I don't think any sort of quality setting should be considered as feasible. I've used dsktop PCs for gaming all my life and the idea of 3d gaming on a laptop just seems silly to me... I'd just play 2d games, or non-intensive things like turn based strategy. There is no ini setting that changes fire as far as I know. What you could do is save a game near a spider web and another near a fire. Use Skyrim CFG Maker which i linked and start with all the lowest settings, except try to get it to make use of your available memory, and you will need to look at your default SkyrimPrefs.ini for the 3ddevice entry and screen resolution. Tweak that til you get proper looking fire and visible spider webs AND decent performance. Shadows are pretty intensive, so you might want to lower their quality or disable them - lowering shadow distance will make them look nicer at close range and improve performance.

Turns out the problem had mostly to do with the tweaks used to reduce Z-fighting (the flickering distant mountains). I've had to settle with only increasing fNeardistance and fSkyCellRefFadeDistance, because increasing the others causes stutter. All my other settings are ultra or higher, and the game runs fairly smooth and looks okay (I haven't settled on an ENB or lighting mod yet, because I'm recording and I want potential viewers to actually be able to see things at night). Also, I used a really good website called Skyrim CFG Maker that spits out a custom pair of ini files. It had some features to do with memory allocation and preload, and implementing them helped too. http://online-source.net/tools/cfg-makers/skyrim-cfg-maker/

Have you tried deleting the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini files from the My Documents > My Games > Skyrim folder? Even if you uninstall the game these might be the same as they were before.

Hey! I think I've finally arrived at mod and graphics settings that will result in a smooth recorded playthrough. Have you begun your permadeath attempt yet? I'm keen to know your progress. You might be interested to know my character's backstory... Name: Filok (meaning escape in Dragon) Origin: Both his parents were Nord, and he was born in Skyrim. Was taken from Skyrim to an early age when it was prophetically revealed to his father who was a Blade in hiding. Due to his parents knowledge of him being Dragonborn, and the threat of the Thalmor towards the Blades, he has lived a sheltered, secretive life in Cyrodiil, learning basic combat, survival and crafting skills. (He will start at level 0 in all his skills, but it does explain why a new character can start with rudimentary knowledge of all these things, such as forging). He does however have an extensive knowledge of Skyrim's alchemical ingredients which his father bestowed to him, knowing it would be key to his son's survival. Return to Skyrim: Filok had a sense of unease with the return of Alduin. He received a prophetic dream, which included his going to the chopping block and the appearance of Alduin atop the tower (hence why he did not resist stepping forward, for hearing Alduin beforehand sealed in his mind that the vision would come to pass). Before Filok left for Skyrim, his father had also been receiving prophetic dreams, and when they conferred together they agreed it was time for Filok to go. His father charged him to keep his Dragonborn status a secret, and also to protect the identity of any Blades he encounters. This will take a while to complete, and currently I plan only to release the playthrough videos if I successfully complete the main quest without dying. I'm also going to be using other mods that increase the difficulty such as my own http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/users/3301089 > Files tab

What works for me is just to set FPS Limiter in Nvidia Inspector to 45 FPS and use iPresentInterval=1. I leave all Nvidia Control Panel 3d settings at default. This solved a lot of issues for me. A higher FPS limit didnt work very well and would sometimes exceed the limit, causing NPCs to fall out of the sky when they loaded and such. The crashing with vsync enabled might have to do with some other setting or mod.

:thumbsup:

Heres what I suggest... Back up your Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini files (just make a new folder in the My Documents > My Games > Skyrim directory and cut-paste them into there). When you start up Skyrim again after doing that, it will create new, default files to replace them. Also disable all your mods. And next, go to nVidia control Panel and restore all 3d settings for Skyrim.exe back to default. After doing all that, so you can start afresh, try and do the things that saw performance issues before and check if it is still happening.

Disable the mods one by one, loading back into the game each time to check. Eventually, if the problem is caused by a mod, the culprit should be identified.

Try adding this to SkyrimPrefs.ini - which is found in My Documents > My Games > Skyrim [backgroundLoad] bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1 You can also download a program called Skyrim Configurator and it is one of the tickbox options in the Models/World General tab.

I only used digitaltrucker's ini files to see how well it run it, and I changed the settings so it matched my own GPU. After doing that I had a better idea about the changes/tweaks I needed to make to a fresh set of ini files. Since the jumping/falling animals is gone thanks to FPS limit 45 and iPresentInterval=1, Im now just left with infrequent load stutter. The FPS does dip below 45 with lots of activity on screen. The popup and lack of detail in far away things is still there and still annoying. Id prefer uGrids=7, but like I said the problems with that makes me reluctant to do so. And given that Im doing my testing in Whiterun grasslands its more noticeable due to lack of trees, fog and snow to hide distant landscape. Im also using Razer Game Booster, which shuts down many background processes. But its effect on performance seems insignificant. I dont have hyperthreading enabled on my CPU. I was thinking about disabling core parking, but that seems like a desperate measure and unnecessary.

I was able to spend some more time today tweaking my settings and have made progress, but I continue to seek the optimal. I have an i7 950 overclocked to 3.5ghz. Both my game drive and my virtual memory drive are SSD. 6GB 1600mhz memory (Im going to increase it, but Ive not observed total system memory usage above 4gb). Im using the latest beta drivers from nVidia. Graphcs card is an MSI Twin Frozr that runs remarkably cool. 64-bit Windows 7. Im not using any ENB currently, but I intend to. I have the high res textures pack but I just use high settings. I also have the Flora Overhaul, Lush Grass and Lush Trees. Xescream, do you have Immersive Patrols, Civil War Unrest and ASIS mods? If so can you test something for me. I have all these and there is an area near Whiterun (past the small giant camp with the big bonfire in the middle) where a massive amount of Imperials, Stormcloak and animals spawn. Loading/running into it is usually stuttery for me. I also have a mod that randomises the armor of the Stormcloaks and Imperials so they dont all look the same, and this of course tends to iincrease loading time stutter. In addition, without FPS limit and vsync the animal models rapidly flicker up and down like crazy and jump into the sky really high then fall to their deaths. The NPCs falling out of the sky was a major issue for me, and after much agonizing and tweaking the only solution I found has been to limit FPS to 45 and I use nVidia Inspector to do so. Increasing actor/NPC load distance to 20 helped with the loading stutter while approaching that populated area - uGrids 7 (along with the other things you have to raise with it) did too, but I hate using it due to savegame corruption issue, higher chance of CTD, and since I might change my mind about it later and be unable to switch back. Edit: the area is directly west of Whiterun city.

Hey I just got a chance to try your ini's and they work great. I had to change a few things, like the difficulty setting and I turned vsync on (iPresentInterval=1). My FPS in Whiterun grasslands hasnt gone beyond about 50, yet the stutter isnt that bad and no screen tearing to speak of. No jumping/falling/flying NPCs either - although this is notoriously fickle and tends to return right after I say its gone. I have a GTX 680 so was expecting a higher framerate than 50ish. It runs okay though. I'll preserve a backup of the ini's as they are now and work from there. Thanks so much.

Hey thanks a lot. Did you find that the threading made a significant difference with the performance? I'm trying to reduce micro stutter at the moment. It happens when Im running along into an area, as all the things are loading. Ive tried a number of things to reduce or eliminate it, but have not yet found the best solution. I have an SSD for my C drive and the drive on which Skyrim is installed. It happens even when I dont use HD textures. Maybe threading will help.

There is a guy on Youtube called Zemalf who tried it with a pure mage. He got quite far. Then he died. I've done it before (well sorta). Completed the main quest. I had two deaths, but I carried on. As I explained when I posted about it a while back... "First death was because I was stupidly wearing cloth armor and a Thalmor warrior one-shotted me with a BS outta-nowhere unblockable instakill move when I had full HP. I declared that death to be BS (which it was) and decided to keep playing. The second was fighting Ohdaving, which was stupid thing to do given you dont really need to fight him up close. He snapped me with his jaws while I had just under half hp and wiped me out. I wasnt expecting it at all given that dragons hadnt been much of a problem previously. Id gotten so far at that point that I decided to play on. You dont HAVE to fight Ohdaving so I figured it wasnt worthy of being counted as a death. Agree or disagree?" I would like to try it again with all the great mods that have been released since then. Civil War Unrest, Immersive Patrols, Deadly Dragons, ASIS... I also increase the difficulty using a few mods I made like heal potions having a duration instead of being instant, and sneak difficulty increase. Trouble is that although Im keen to do it, graphics issues have made the game unplayable since immersion is important to me. If you are going to do it, I'd have to say that not wearing heavy armor is going to get you killed quite a few times. Sure, it slows you down, but it tends to prevent being one-shotted. But also, since it slows you down, it can actually cause your death too. Its a bit hard to decide whether light armor or heavy armor is the way to go, because you can kite with light armor and sneaking is easier. Running away is harder with heavy. Depending on the situation you either need to be able to stand your ground, or run away, or use illusion magic or something. I found it necessary to have on-going access to invisibility and paralyze for moments of extreme danger - of which there are many! Versatility is the key. You really need to plan ahead and make sure you are well-equipped before heading out. Alchemy I found to be super important, both for accumulating wealth and surviving combat.

Could someone with a smooth setup for Skyrim please post both their .ini files and also let us know if they have made any changes to their graphics card settings. Z-fighting/mountain flicker I can live with, but if your settings are good and your SkyrimPrefs includes z-fighting reduction that would be great too. I've been having issues with Skyrim's performance and graphical glitches. I see so many videos where it looks great and doesn't stutter much or have wierd glitches like animals jumping or falling out of sky and rapid stutter glitching. I'm hoping that by using, or comparing, the files and settings of someone who has not been experiencing the same issues, I can actually enjoy Skyrim immersion again, especially in areas like the Whiterun grasslands.

Kind of looks like artifacting, commonly caused by overheated or overclocked video card. Is your graphics card overclocked?

Do you have Maximum pre-rendered frames set to a low amount in nVidia Control Panel or anywhere else? It is commonly changed to 1 in an attempt to fix mouse lag. But I find it is not necessary, it doesnt help mouse lag as much as just bMouseAcceleration=0 does. And low pre-rendered frames reduces performance, so more stutter. Also, enable vsync in the ini file, iPresentInterval=1. Leave the vsync settings alone in nVidia Control Panel. Animals will flicker like crazy and fly up in the air unless iPresentInterval=0 for me. Setting either Adaptive and normal Vsync in nVidia Control Panel messes up Skyrim's graphics and physics for me. The only setting I change in Skyrim preferences of nVidia Control Panel is Power Management Mode - Prefer maximum performance. I just changed my ini with the tweaks mentioned about allocated memory and exteriorcellbuffer - thanks for that! My specs: I have a GTX 680 and i7 950 overclocked to 3.5ghz. Only 6GB ram. UPDATE: The uExterior Cell Buffer=72 tweak seems to reintroduce the animal stutter/flying glitch. To correct the problem, I had to set it back to default (36), then loaded the area again with fast travel. UPDATE 2: Ugh, problem is still there. Must be some other reason for it. Argh. UPDATE 3: I managed to eliminate the stuttering/jumping/falling creature issue, and have a pretty good framerate, even when there is lots of action on the screen. I generated a new Skyrim and SkyrimPrefs file and used Skyrim Configurator to make some changes to things various. I decreased shadow detail a lot. I left vsync on from the start and am using all default settings for nVidia Control Panel. The mouse is a little laggy, but its not much of an issue. I still get some microstutter but that might have something to do with the mods I use, that greatly increase amount of NPCs on screen. Also I applied the tweaks for memory allocation and exteriorcellbuffer that Shadiva mentioned. Hopefully microstutter can be eliminated next.

Hey thanks! This did help me! The reason I had Vsync disabled in the .ini file is because people say this is what causes mouse lag. I found that setting iPresentInterval=1 doesnt cause mouse lag, and only mouse acceleration needs to be set to 0 in the .ini for the mouse lag to disappear for me. Another thing people say to change to stop mouse lag is Maximum pre-rendered frames. But I set it back to default in nVidia Control Panel and it works fine, no mouse lag. Decreasing maximum pre-rendered frames decreases game performance, so it will actually cause stuttering for some people. It is best to leave it alone. I also play on a big LCD TV as my monitor, which are notorious for input lag problems. I use nVidia Inspector to set the FPS limit to 58. I'm not sure if this helps or harms... Anyway, animals are no longer flying in the air and doing the crazy flicker thing.