Sigurd44

The guide is great, yes. Together with another internet source I could adjust my dream settings: Nvidia CP: AF 16 x Skyrim: 2 x MSAA Nvidia CP/inspector (enhanced application mode): SLI 16xQ MSAA/CSAA Nvidia inspector: TrAA 8x SGSSAA on my 2560x1440 27'' screen. ...have to say, this looks fantastic :-)

Yes I know the Nvidia Tweak Guide. The problem with this guide is exactly that he tells well how to "override" ingame AF (works great just with NCP, no need for inspector) and to raise Ambient Occlusion from "quality" (max in NCP) to "high quality" by Nvidia inspector, There is no problem too, to adjust/override TrAA to 8x SSAA or 8x SGSSAA by the inspector, but not a word how to adjust/override "normal" AA. But thx for the answer, after googling I found out that there is some sort of override protection for Skyrim ingame normal AA and you have to apply a low value to normal AA ingame and then enhancing it by NCP or inspector with Nvidia AA.

Last weeks I read a lot about several AA technics (FXAA/SMAA, MSAA, SSAA, CSAA, TrSSAA, TrSGSA etc.) and at moment I am fiddling around with several settings. Though I used google to find an answer I am still somewhat clueless how settings ingame, .inisettings, Nvidia Control Panel settings and Nvidia Inspector settings behave to each other. In Skyrim you have the following options (if you are using a Nvidia card): 1) SkyrimPrefs.ini (Display): iMaxAnisotropy=(value or 0=off) iMultisample=(value or 0=off) bTransparencyMultisampling=0/1 (off/on) iWaterMultiSamples= (value or 0=off) bFXAAEnabled=0/1 (off/on) 2) Skyrim ingame options: AF 2x - 16x (max value, maybe it's an application dependant, special Skyrim AF) AA 2x - 8x (max value, I strongly guess its normal MSAA, but not Nvidia's one, it's maybe an application dependant, special Skyrim MSAA) FXAA on/off (Skyrim's own and pretty bad FXAA in my eyes because it blurs a lot...) 3) Nvidia Control Panel: AF 2x - 16x (Nvidia AF) AA 2x (normal Nvidia MSAA for only one grafic card) - SLI 64x CSAA (max...Nvidia CSAA, a special Nvidia sampling method similar to MSAA...and yes I run 2 x Asus 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM as SLI and therefore have that option) TrAA 2x - 8x SSAA (max) FXAA on/off (Nvidia FXAA and not bad, if you like FXAA) Texture Filtering High Quality (max) Ambient Occlusion Quality (max) 4) Nvidia Inspector: AF 2x - 16 x (Nvidia AF) AA (lots of settings possible, true SSAA over Nvida's CSAA up to mixed SSAA/MSAA settings) TrAA 2x - 8 SSAA or 2x - 8x SGSSAA (Sparse Grid SSA, which should be the best TrSSAA of all) FXAA on/off (Nvidia FXAA) Texture Filtering High Quality (max) Ambient Occlusion High Quality (max) 5) RCRNv36 (FXAA injector mod, it's a special FXAA, which might beat even Nvidia FXAA) FXAA on/off So...I already noticed that changing the above SkyrimPrefs.ini settings directly correspond to the Skyrim ingame settings. If you turn off AF, AA and TrAA by .ini edit you will watch, the next time you start Skyrim by launcher, that all the values are turned off in the Skyrim options too. I am not sure, if this will occur the other way round, maybe the .ini settings overwrite the Skyrim launcher options if you actually start Skyrim and load a saved game, maybe they will be changed to the launcher settings (if your SkyrimPrefs.ini isn't write protected), I have no idea who is the master and who is the servant here, but it does not bother me, because I think Skyrim's own grafic system is inferior to Nvidia's and therefore I turned AF, AA, TrAA and FXAA off by .ini edit and in the Skyrim launcher options. I only want Nvidia driver based grafic enhancements + RCRNv36 FXAA. The same behaviour occures for the interaction between Nvidia Control Panel and Nvidia Injector, but there my question starts... With my rig Processori7 2600KMemory16 GB DDR3 RAMMotherboardAsus P8P67 DeluxeGraphics Card:2 x Asus Direct CU II 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM SLIMonitor Size>27" (2560 x 1440 native and yes I play Skyrim with this resolution and if you ever did this you never want to change back to 1920 x 1080) it's understandable that I want to run the best grafical settings possible (I have loads of texture mods). and I fiddled around for a while and came to this conclusion: I want to force all settings by Nvidia Injector, because as well as Nvidia Inspector has more and maybe better AA and TrSSAA methods (true SSAA, SGSSAA), Nvidia Inspector delivers Ambient Occluion on high quality not only quality) and I want use only RcRnv36 FXAA in addition (maybe, I am still fiddling and comparing) I realized there are two setting options in the Nvidia Inspector: -Antaliasing Behaviour Flags -Antialiasing Mode I decided to set -Antaliasing Behaviour Flags to "none" -Antialiasing Mode to "override any application settings" Is that right for getting only Nvidia Inspector forced settings without any additional mix of application settings (to be on the safe side I set all values to off already in the .ini and in the Skyrim launcher options) or Nvidia control panel settings?

If we are just talking about grafic cards and driver settings and stuff...I want to take some screenshots with different, forced Nvidia driver (AA) settings and link them to the RCRNv36 board. Do changes in the Nvidia control panel work asap while the application is running or do I have to quit the application/game and restart the game after each adjustment change? Don't want to have more work as needed...

SLI definitly causes wonders for Skyrim. You should watch an almost 100% gain in performance. I thought about the high price for 2 x Asus 670 GTX as well for ONLY one game (if you are ever once addicted in making your Skyrim as good as possible there is no way back :-), but it did work out well. If you are playing other performance pressure games in example egoshooters like Crysis and such, it's a good investment, Those sorts of games do usually all support SLI too. If Skyrim is only your solo play hobby besides heavy playing MMOs, SLI would be an expensive upgrade. But as I said above (in this bloody mess of html.text of a buggy board...), SLI won't double your VRAM. Your GPU power might be doubled, but not your VRAM. So...if you want to play a really heavy mod loaded Skyrim with loads of 2k, 4k and even 8k mods, I would suggest 2 x cards with at least 3 GB if not 4 GB VRAM and you should consider that you will make this investment almost only for Skyrim, because for other games 2GB VRAM is usually more than enough. After fiddling around a lot with my settings I ended up at: 27'' monitor 2560x1440 resolution native (and I play Skyrim with that and its awesome) System settings: Nvidia control panel AA settings (forced): 16x AF 16xQ CSAA 8x TrSSAA Other Nvidia settings: Ambient Occlusion: on/quality Texture Filtering: high quality Vsync/Tripplebufferung: On Nvidia FXAA off Skyrim FXAA off RCRNv36 FXAA on .ini-tweaks: uGridtoLoad 5/36 shadowresolution 4096 all selfshadowing on some grass/tree load distance tweaks rest is standard ultra stuff Mods: Almost any texture mod available from 2k over 4k to 8K resolution (Benjamini318's rocks for example) 25 - 50 fps ...and the most important: If you run SLI it's pretty unavoidable that one card will get hotter than the other. For my ASUS 670 GTX the throttle down border is at 70 C. With the above settings my max is around 65 C with only default fan cooling in a Thermaltake MK 1 casing. I tried CPU and GPU overclocking abit too in the past, but my GPU would get just too hot, even with only moderate overclocking and I am too lazy to get and build in water cooling. Even with SLI you will come to your limits if you use a 27'' monitor and 2560x1440 resolution. This screen and resolution sucks performance like juice.

20 fps is only my absolute minimum value in dense woods with lots of grass and maybe 3 to 4 followers with 4k body textures around, average is 30 to 40 fps and that's ok. 30 to 40 fps with AF 16 x, MSAA 16 x, TrSSAA 16 x (all FXAA off) on a 2560 x 1440 screen is acceptable I guess :-) Skyrim isn't an egoshooter where you want to have every frame you can get, Skyrim has to shine and look well :-) Yeah, I asked on the RCRNv36 boards and I learnt that I should run Skyrim only with the usual MSAA/TrSSAA and ONLY the RCRnv36 FXAA (so Skyrim FXAA off and Nvidia FXAA off). RCRNv36 FXAA is really nice and well done. it does not blur, it just antialiases in addition to MSAA/TrSSA and does not negate the MSAA/TrSSAA effect that happened before the post process injection. It does deliver a sort of shimmer on metallic textures like weapons and blades, but I have to say I like it. I will wait for the new RCRN version. I read a lot of CoT and stand alone mods and as far as I know they all have their bugs and an update problem. Some aren't even upgraded for Hearthfire, not to speak about Dragonborn. So I am not in hurry. I would welcome some ENB like features, especially more easy saturation and lighting type changes and maybe some nice presets already, I hated the Imaginator prcocedure.

As above, I usually used the console command show racemenu for my player char, even as I already was a vampire and could alter my face and eyes and hair and such, but now face complexion and eye color changes won't work. I can actually change the settings and watch the result, I leave the menu by "done" and typing my players name and enter again and even after leaving the menu the changes are still there. I save my game, restart Skyrim, load the game again and the changes have reset... I get no CTDs while using the race menu and I know I should not touch the actual race and sex of my player char...and I never used any player race changing mods... Any idea?

I have no idea where this comes from, but it happened for some posts to me. After just closing the post with a click on "post" the whole post contained the message codings for bold letters and such and I have no idea to change that again without editing line for line...its damned annoying.

System: Asus P8P67 Deluxe i7 2600K (no overclocking yet) 2 x Asus Direct CU II 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM SLI (no overclocking yet) 16 GB DDR3 RAM 256 GB SSD Kingston HyperX 27'' monitor, playing on 2560 x 1440 native, 16:9 in full screen mod no water cooling, just the default fans and a Thermaltake MK 1 casing Grafic driver settings: 16x AF SLI 16xQ (this means Nvidia's CSAA, which equals 16x MSAA) SLI 16x TrSSAA (Tranparency Supersampling AA for alpha textures like leaves, plants etc.) FXAA: Off Texture Filtering: High Quality Ambient Occlusion: On/Quality<br /> Vertical Sync: On<br /> Tripplebuffering: On<br /> <br /> <strong>.ini tweaks:</strong><br /> <br /> Only a few, I experimentated a lot with those, but at last I left the most on standard ultra settings.<br /> <br /> The most remarkable: Tree/Mountain/Grass selfshadowing on, shadow resolution 4096, TreeLoad 75.000 (ultra default), some decal tweaks for my blood mod, the usual water settings you will find in any Skyrim ini tweak guide.<br /> <br /> Besides that I tweaked every possible CPU multi usage through my .ini I could find by google. <br /> <br /> I downgraded from uGridtoLoad 7/64 to 5/36 again (reason below). <br /> <br /> <strong>Skyrim.ini:</strong><br /> <br /> [General]<br /> sLanguage=ENGLISH<br /> uGridsToLoad=5<br /> uExterior Cell Buffer=36<br /> bMultiThreadMovement=<br /> bMTRendering=1<br /> bUseThreadedBlood=1<br /> bUseThreadedMorpher=1<br /> bUseThreadedTempEffects=1<br /> bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1<br /> bUseThreadedTextures=1<br /> bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br /> bUseThreadedLOD=1<br /> bUseThreadedAI=1<br /> <br /> [Display]<br /> fShadowLODMaxStartFade=2000.0000<br /> fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=1000.0000<br /> fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0000<br /> iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096<br /> bTransparencyMultisampling=1<br /> bAllowScreenshot=1<br /> iPresentInterval=0<br /> fDecalLifetime=512<br /> fDefaultWorldFOV=80<br /> fDefault1stPersonFOV=80<br /> fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.000<br /> fSunUpdateThreshold=0.100<br /> <br /> [imagespace]<br /> bDoRadialBlur=1<br /> <br /> [Audio]<br /> bEnableAudio=1.0<br /> fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0<br /> fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0<br /> fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0<br /> fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0<br /> <br /> [Grass]<br /> bAllowLoadGrass=0<br /> bAllowCreateGrass=1<br /> bDrawShaderGrass=1<br /> iMinGrassSize=20<br /> iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=6<br /> <br /> [GeneralWarnings]<br /> 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.<br /> <br /> [Archive]<br /> sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa<br /> sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa<br /> <br /> [Combat]<br /> fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0<br /> fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0<br /> <br /> [Papyrus]<br /> fUpdateBudgetMS=1.2<br /> fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2<br /> fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0<br /> iMinMemoryPageSize=128<br /> iMaxMemoryPageSize=512<br /> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800<br /> bEnableLogging=0<br /> bEnableTrace=0<br /> bLoadDebugInformation=0<br /> bEnableProfiling=0<br /> <br /> [Water]<br /> bReflectLODObjects=1<br /> bReflectLODLand=1<br /> bReflectSky=1<br /> bReflectLODTrees=1<br /> <br /> [backgroundLoad]<br /> bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1<br /> bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1<br /> bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1<br /> bBackgroundCellLoads=1<br /> bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1<br /> bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1<br /> bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1<br /> <br /> [Animation]<br /> bMultiThreadBoneUpdate=1<br /> <br /> [HAVOK]<br /> iNumThreads=5<br /> <br /> [Decals]<br /> bDecalMultithreaded=1<br /> bForceAllDecals=1<br /> <br /> [interface]<br /> fSafeZoneX=15<br /> fSafeZoneY=15<br /> fSafeZoneXWide=15<br /> fSafeZoneYWide=15<br /> fBookOpenTime=200.0000<br /> <br /> [MapMenu]<br /> fMapWorldMaxHeight=150000.0000<br /> fMapWorldMinHeight=7000.0000<br /> bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1<br /> fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0<br /> fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.3700<br /> fMapWorldMaxPitch=400.0000<br /> fMapWorldYawRange=400.0000<br /> <br /> <strong>SkyrimPrefs.ini:</strong><br /> <br /> [General]<br /> fBrightLightColorB=1.0000<br /> fBrightLightColorG=1.0000<br /> fBrightLightColorR=1.0000<br /> iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1<br /> bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0<br /> fDefaultFOV=80<br /> bUseThreadedBlood=1<br /> bUseThreadedMorpher=1<br /> bUseThreadedTempEffects=1<br /> bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1<br /> bUseThreadedTextures=1<br /> bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br /> bUseThreadedLOD=1<br /> bUseThreadedAI=1<br /> <br /> [imagespace]<br /> bDoDepthOfField=1<br /> iRadialBlurLevel=2<br /> bDoRadialBlur=1<br /> <br /> [Display]<br /> iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3<br /> iShadowMaskQuarter=4<br /> iShadowMapResolution=4096<br /> iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096<br /> iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096<br /> iShadowSplitCount=2<br /> iShadowFilter=4<br /> iShadowMode=3<br /> fShadowBiasScale=0.15<br /> fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000<br /> fShadowDistance=8000<br /> fSpecularLODStartFade=1500<br /> fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000<br /> fLightLODStartFade=3500<br /> fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000<br /> fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000<br /> fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=1e+007<br /> fDecalLOD2=1500.0000<br /> fDecalLOD1=1000.0000<br /> fGamma=1.0000<br /> iTexMipMapMinimum=0<br /> iTexMipMapSkip=0<br /> iMaxAnisotropy=16<br /> iMultiSample=8<br /> iWaterMultiSamples=4<br /> bDrawShadows=1<br /> bTreesReceiveShadows=1<br /> bDrawLandShadows=1<br /> bActorSelfShadowing=1<br /> bEquippedTorchesCastShadows=1<br /> bUseSunbeams=1<br /> bFull Screen=1<br /> iSize H=1440<br /> iSize W=2560<br /> fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000<br /> fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000<br /> fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000<br /> fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000<br /> fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=1e+007<br /> fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=1e+007<br /> iScreenShotIndex=44<br /> bMainZPrepass=0<br /> bShadowMaskZPrePass=0<br /> iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25<br /> iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100<br /> bFloatPointRenderTarget=1<br /> sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670"<br /> bFXAAEnabled=0<br /> iAdapter=0<br /> bTransparencyMultisampling=1<br /> bDeferredShadows=1<br /> iPresentInterval=0<br /> bShadowsOnGrass=1<br /> <br /> [Grass]<br /> b30GrassVS=0<br /> fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000<br /> fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000.0000<br /> fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000<br /> bDoTallGrassEffect=1<br /> bShadowsOnGrass=1<br /> bGrassPointLighting=1<br /> <br /> [MAIN]<br /> bGamepadEnable=1<br /> bCrosshairEnabled=1<br /> fHUDOpacity=1.0000<br /> bSaveOnPause=1<br /> bSaveOnTravel=1<br /> bSaveOnWait=1<br /> bSaveOnRest=1<br /> fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000<br /> <br /> [GamePlay]<br /> bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1<br /> bShowQuestMarkers=1<br /> iDifficulty=4<br /> <br /> [interface]<br /> bDialogueSubtitles=1<br /> bGeneralSubtitles=1<br /> bShowCompass=1<br /> fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000<br /> <br /> [Controls]<br /> fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000<br /> fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0260<br /> bAlwaysRunByDefault=1<br /> bInvertYValues=0<br /> bGamePadRumble=1<br /> bMouseAcceleration=0<br /> bUseKinect=0<br /> <br /> [Particles]<br /> iMaxDesired=750<br /> <br /> [saveGame]<br /> fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000<br /> <br /> [AudioMenu]<br /> fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000<br /> fVal7=1.0000<br /> uID7=0<br /> fVal6=1.0000<br /> uID6=0<br /> fVal5=1.0000<br /> uID5=0<br /> fVal4=1.0000<br /> uID4=0<br /> fVal3=1.0000<br /> uID3=94881<br /> fVal2=1.0000<br /> uID2=466532<br /> fVal1=1.0000<br /> uID1=554685<br /> fVal0=1.0000<br /> uID0=1007612<br /> <br /> [Clouds]<br /> fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000<br /> fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000<br /> fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000<br /> fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000<br /> <br /> [TerrainManager]<br /> fTreeLoadDistance=75000<br /> fBlockMaximumDistance=250000<br /> fBlockLevel1Distance=70000<br /> fBlockLevel0Distance=35000<br /> fSplitDistanceMult=1.5<br /> bShowLODInEditor=0<br /> <br /> [NavMesh]<br /> fObstacleAlpha=0.5000<br /> fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000<br /> fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500<br /> fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000<br /> fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500<br /> fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000<br /> fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000<br /> fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500<br /> fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000<br /> fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000<br /> fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000<br /> fEdgeThickness=10.0000<br /> fPointSize=2.5000<br /> bUseThreadedMeshes=1<br /> <br /> [Trees]<br /> bRenderSkinnedTrees=1<br /> uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40<br /> bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1<br /> bShadowMaskZPrePass=1<br /> bEnableTreeAnimations=1<br /> <br /> [Water]<br /> bUseWaterRefractions=1<br /> bUseWaterReflections=1<br /> bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1<br /> bUseWaterDisplacements=1<br /> bUseWaterDepth=1<br /> iWaterReflectHeight=1024<br /> iWaterReflectWidth=1024<br /> fWadingWaterTextureRes=1024<br /> bReflectExplosions=1<br /> bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1<br /> iWaterBlurAmount=4<br /> bUseWaterShader=1<br /> bUseWaterLOD=1<br /> bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0<br /> bForceHighDetailReflections=1<br /> <br /> [Decals]<br /> bDecals=1<br /> bSkinnedDecals=1<br /> bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1<br /> bDecalMultithreaded=1<br /> bDecalOcclusionQuery=1<br /> uMaxDecals=1000<br /> uMaxSkinDecals=100<br /> uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60<br /> <br /> [LOD]<br /> fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15<br /> fLODFadeOutMultItems=15<br /> fLODFadeOutMultActors=15<br /> fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000<br /> <br /> [Launcher]<br /> bEnableFileSelection=1<br /> bShowAllResolutions=1<br /> uLastAspectRatio=3<br /> <br /> [blurShaderHDR]<br /> bDoHighDynamicRange=1<br /> <br /> [blurShader]<br /> bUseBlurShader=0<br /> <br /> [backgroundLoad]<br /> bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1<br /> bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1<br /> bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1<br /> bBackgroundCellLoads=1<br /> bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1<br /> <br /> <br /> <strong>Mods: </strong><br /> <br /> Any Texture mod you might think about from 2k resolution (Skyrim HD, SMIM, WATER etc.) over 4k resolution (CBBE body textures, SFO Aspen leaves, Real Snow etc.) up to 8k resolution (Benjamini318's rocks) + some script (EFF, Convenient Horses, some sex mods) and animation (FNIS and FNIS related) mods (NMM really needs an option to write all installed mods to a simple editor file for copy and paste...)<br /> <br /> Add to that RCRNv36 as lighting, weather, immersion and FXAA injector mod (not using the FXAA at moment)<br /> <br /> Why I set the above values is a neverending story of upgrading my rig step by step and experimentating a lot, but at first on topic:<br /> <br /> <strong>SLI or not SLI:</strong><br /> <br /> In the beginning I ran a 570 GTX, 1,2 GB VRAM and I played Skyrim as a bloody beginner in vanilla and was happy....then I found Nexus and mods...and installed and learnt about the file structure of Skyrim and installed more and learnt more about load orders lose file stuff and such...<br /> ...and after a while I watched black body textures and pink trees and grasses.<br /> <br /> Ok, I upgraded to one of the above Asus 670 GTX, 4 GB VRAM and I upgraded from 8 GB RAM to 16 GB RAM (I realised that not only VRAM was a problem, my normal RAM had max loads of up to 7,2 GB...) and I was happy again, 40 to 60 fps, depending on area.<br /> <br /> I decided to upgrade my 24 '' monitor 1920 x 1080 to a 27 '' monitor 2560 x 1440 resolution my fps dropped to somewhere at 10 to 25 fps, BUT if you ever watched a mod loaded Skyrim in 2560 x 1440 and ultra grafic settings you are addicted within a heart beat and you will NEVER go back. <br /> <br /> Ok, I had to upgrade again, buying a second 4 GB VRAM ASUS 670 GTX and my performance doubled, it really <strong>increased by 100%</strong>, 20 to 50 fps, depending on area (wood/grass areas on the one side and indoor areas with 50 fps on the other side). <br /> <br /> <strong>On topic:</strong><br /> <br /> At least for me and for Skyrim, SLI increased my performance by 100%<br /> <br /> <strong>Points to think about:</strong><br /> <br /> -the performance by 100% gain occured to Skyrim (because meanwhile this game supports SLI, I doubt that was the case in the beginning)<br /> -performance gain might vary for other games<br /> -a game has to support SLI, otherwise you won't watch an effect at all<br /> -If you want to play Skyrim as shiny as possible you want not only high grafic settings you want to install loads of texture mods and the later need VRAM, a lot of VRAM, mods suck VRAM like juice. So if you want to SLI you should look for cards with the higher VRAM version (most cards are sold in a 2GB and a 4GB version nowadays, get the 4GB one)<br /> <br /> <strong>CONCLUSION:</strong><br /> <br /> You should consider that SLI won't be supported by all games (the new ones usually do it) and you should consider, that cards with 4GB VRAM are very useful for a mod loaded Skyrim, but the VRAM won't bring anything to the table for other games, in most cases 2 GB are more than enough. So in the end it depends on your personal choice and your financial potential :-)<br /> <br /> <strong>Continuing the story...</strong><br /> <br /> Ok, I was happy with the above upgrades and decided to increase grafic driver settings even more to the (higher than ultra) values posted above.<br /> <br /> Now I learnt more about AA and what types there are and what they do. So, the last time I experimentated with FXAA as standalone AA and FXAA in combination with normal AA (MSAA/CSAA) and TrSSAA. The comparison was - at least for me - obvious. If you have the rig to run ultra and higher values of "normal" MSAA/CSAA and you are able to run TrSSAA on a high value, there is no need to blur your screen with FXAA, not even in combination. At least in Skyrim (might be different for other games) high MSAA and high TrSSAA beats the blury FXAA by miles. Even RCRNv36 which should inject a high quality FXAA doesn't beat my "true" AA settings above (maybe personal taste, FXAA <-> MSAA is a neverending "war", but at least in Skyrim I think the FXAA blur effect is really remarkable and disturbing).<br /> <br /> At moment I am experimentating with MSAA and TrSSAA "enhanced" and "forced" sttings in the panel, finding out which one is better.<br /> <br /> With those settings I made a trade to keep my Skyrim actually playable (and not only good for screenshots).<br /> <br /> As I raised my grafic settings to the above values, I downgraded uGridtoLoad 7/64 to 5/36 again. I tried overclocking too (to keep uGridtoLoad 7/64), but got heat problems with my default cooling. The one of my two grafic cards heats up to almost 70°C, which is the throttle down limit (you don't want), overclocking wasn't an option though. After I installed Dragonborn DLC I had to downgrade uGridtoLoad anyways (no idea what that DLC and its high rez pack actually did, but it sucked performance).<br /> <br /> Now I am at 20 to 50 fps again, enjoying a stunning and still playable Skyrim.<br /> <br /> <strong>Next task:</strong><br /> <br /> Getting rid of RCRNv36 as an FXAA injector (I do not need) and lighting/immersion pack and experimentating with several standalone weather and lighting and immersion mods and maybe trying an ENB. I guess if you are able to handle the above grafic settings stand alones make more sense.</p> ...and what to the hell is this damned coding bug here on Nexus Forums...sorry guys, no motivation to change that again...

I decided that I want to change the faces of my hoursecarls (Iona, Jordis, Lydia, Rayya), of Serana and my housebard (Oriella) a bit. I already made some changes in the past and I used the Apachii NPC overhaul .esp to save the changes. It worked great for weight and height adjustments, deleting outfits, applying skin types, eye colors, hair types and hair colors. I just had to apply the changes in the CK, export the FaceGenData, deleted the files under textures/..../Facegendata and saved the whole thing to the .esp file as active file. No dark head bugs and such. Now I wanted to change nose shape, eye brow shape and lip shape types and this also worked well, but as I tried to change lip and eyebrush color it didn't for all my toons, only for some and I have no idea why...I applied a dark red eyebrush and lipstick color to Oriella, worked fine, did the same for Serana, worked fine. Tried to apply dark red to Lydia and Iona, didn't work, tried to apply dark blue to Jordis, didn't work too. Another problem occured with Rayya. I wanted to get rid of her blue warpaint and set every warpaint type and dirt type and Redguard warpaint type to "color average", but the blue warpaint won't vanish. I can watch those changes very well in the CK render window, but nothing happens ingame. The Apachii NPC Hair Overhaul .esp I abuse to do more changes as only hairs, is my second last .esp in my load order. It's only followed by the RCRNv36 shaders and volumetric .esp, which shouldn't interfere at all with those settings. I use the CBBE face pack, but this has no .esp and as so called "lose file data" it should be changed by any different value/setting in an .esp file (or I have a totally wrong imagination of the functionality of load orders...). I know that certain settings like opposite gender animations could be baked into save games and maybe never changed again after a certain point (so it happened to all of my housecarls), but lip and eyebrush color?

Start Skyrim and load up a saved game Use ALT+TAB to switch out of Skyrim and back to your Desktop Edit the Skyrim.ini file as normal, modifying the uGridsToLoad variable to the desired lower value. Save Skyrim.ini and close it Use ALT+TAB to switch back to Skyrim Open the Command Console using the tilde ~ key and type "refreshini" Save your game to a new save slot, and it should now have the correct new uGridsToLoad value A uGridtoLoad value will be baked into your saved game and just lowering this value in the .ini and then loading a saved game with a still higher value won't work, you won't be able to load the saved game at all. You have to adjust the same value as your saved game has, load the game and then change the value to a lower value while Skyrim is running according the above procedure. It's important to save the game with the new value to a NEW slot, do not just overwrite an old save. Here is a link: http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide?sf2686171=1#14 Jump to the "Advanced Tweaking" section. There it will be explained what uGridvalues you have to adjust at all, or are adjustable at all.

Same problem here, but it's not a local problem, like CTDs only in aspecial area. I got dozens and dozens of CTDs since I downloaded Dragonborn, the only pattern I found was that the CTDs occurred most likely if I attempted to fast travel with lots of followers. As more followers as more CTDs occured and if I was that lucky that the fast travel succeeded I got sometimes violet or black texture grafic bugs. This already happened in the "old" Skyrim, no need to travel to Solstheim at all to make this experience. CTDs were dependant on how much textures/grafics were to load at the fast travel target (loads of trees and grass for example, fast travelling to somewhere near Falkreath or Riften was just a pain...) I did the same as always, I deinstalled all mods, parked my toon in an interior cell, created a clean save and installed mod per mod anew and tested for CTDs. All I can say so far is, it's not a mod problem, at least for me. I downloaded the new Dragonborn HD pack and maybe this was the bit needed to get over the top concerning the stableness of my system, grafic settings and .initweaks. I played Skyrim with higher than ultra values, tons of high rez mods and loads of .initweaks. The most stressing adjustments -playing with 2 x 670 GTX SLI (4 GB VRAM...and yes, I know VRAM isn't doubled by SLI mode, one card has 4 GB VRAM) but on 2560 x 1440 resolution (this resolution makes a big difference, but if you ever played Skyrim with loads of high rez texture mods at this resolution,you never want back, never, it's a dream) -uGridtoLoad 7/64 -AF x 16 -AA x 8 -Transparency AA x 8 -Ambient Occlusion On and on high quality lvl -triple FXAA (Skyrim's own, RCRNv36 FXAA and Nvidia FXAA) -alone my mountains and rocks have 8k rez textures, NPCs 4k (CBBE) I downgraded uGridtoLoad 7 to uGridtoLoad 5 and decreased some other values (treeload from 100.000 to 75.000, LoDs from 20 to 15, decreased DecalsperFrame, SkinnedDecalsperFrame and DecalLifetime and maxParticles from 1000 to 750) and kept the grafic card settings and my mods and now I will get a CTD here and there, but maybe one per hour and no need to load a game thrice for one fast travel as before. I deinstalled SFOSummer Edition and changed to the normal edition, too. I have no idea what Dragonborn did, but it increased system pressure, defintely....and to be honest, there must be some sloppy coding within Dragonborn...I expect some more performance for my machine (i7 2600K, 2 x Asus 670 GTX SLI, 16 GB 1600 DDR3 RAM, 256 GB SSD), really... My suspects number one are scripts that came along with Dragonborn, I really think that some of them aren't running smoothly and therefore claim performance. Now I am able to play again and I am able to keep the "real important" settings (that's not the .initweaks, the texture mods in combination with your grafic card settings make your Skyrim shine).

Same problem here, but it's not a local problem, like CTDs only in a special area. I got dozens and dozens of CTDs since I downloaded Dragonborn, the only pattern I found was that the CTDs occurred most likely if I attempted to fast travel with lots of followers. As more followers as more CTDs occured and if I was that lucky that the fast travel succeeded I got sometimes violet or black texture grafic bugs. This already happened in the "old" Skyrim, no need to travel to Solstheim at all to make this experience. CTDs were dependant on how much textures/grafics were to load at the fast travel target (loads of trees and grass for example, fast travelling to somewhere near Falkreath or Riften was just a pain...) I did the same as always, I deinstalled all mods, parked my toon in an interior cell, created a clean save and installed mod per mod anew and tested for CTDs. All I can say so far is, it's not a mod problem, at least for me. I downloaded the new Dragonborn HD pack and maybe this was the bit needed to get over the top concerning the stableness of my system, grafic settings and .initweaks. I played Skyrim with higher than ultra values, tons of high rez mods and loads of .initweaks. The most stressing adjustments: -playing with 2 x 670 GTX SLI (4 GB VRAM...and yes, I know VRAM isn't doubled by SLI mode, one card has 4 GB VRAM) but on 2560 x 1440 resolution (this resolution makes a big difference, but if you ever played Skyrim with loads of high rez texture mods at this resolution, you never want back, never, it's a dream) -uGridtoLoad 7/64 -AF x 16 -AA x 8 -Transparency AA x 8 -Ambient Occlusion On and on high quality lvl -triple FXAA (Skyrim's own, RCRNv36 FXAA and Nvidia FXAA) -alone my mountains and rocks have 8k rez textures, NPCs 4k (CBBE) I downgraded uGridtoLoad 7 to uGridtoLoad 5 and decreased some other values (treeload from 100.000 to 75.000, LoDs from 20 to 15, decreased DecalsperFrame, SkinnedDecalsperFrame and DecalLifetime and maxParticles from 1000 to 750) and kept the grafic card settings and my mods and now I will get a CTD here and there, but maybe one per hour and no need to load a game thrice for one fast travel as before. I deinstalled SFO Summer Edition and changed to the normal edition, too. I have no idea what Dragonborn did, but it increased system pressure, defintely....and to be honest, there must be some sloppy coding within Dragonborn...I expect some more performance for my machine (i7 2600K, 2 x Asus 670 GTX SLI, 16 GB 1600 DDR3 RAM, 256 GB SSD), really... My suspects number one are scripts that came along with Dragonborn, I really think that some of them aren't running smoothly and therefore claim performance. Now I am able to play again and I am able to keep the "real important" settings (that's not the .initweaks, the texture mods in combination with your grafic card settings make your Skyrim shine).

Same problem here, but it's not a local problem, like CTDs only in a special area. I got dozens and dozens of CTDs since I downloaded Dragonborn, the only pattern I found was that the CTDs occurred most likely if I attempted to fast travel with lots of followers. As more followers as more CTDs occured and if I was that lucky that the fast travel succeeded I got sometimes violet or black texture grafic bugs. This already happened in the "old" Skyrim, no need to to travel to Solstheim at all to make this experience. I did the same as the thread starter, I deinstalled all mods, parked my toon in an interior cell, created a clean save and installed mod per mod anew and tested for CTDs. All I can say so far is, it's not a mod problem, at least for me. I downloaded the new Dragonborn HD pack and maybe this was the bit needed to get over the top concerning the stableness of my system, grafic settings and .initweaks. I played Skyrim with higher than ultra values, tons of high rez mods and loads of .initweaks. The most stressing adjustments: -playing with 2 x 670 GTX SLI but on 2560 x 1440 resolution (this resolution makes a big difference, but if you ever played Skyrim with loads of high rez texture mods at this resolution, you never want back, never, it's a dream) -uGridtoLoad 7/64 -AF x 16 -AA x 8 -Transparency AA x 8 -Ambient Occlusion On and on high quality lvl -triple FXAA (Skyrim's own, RCRNv36 FXAA and Nvidia FXAA) -alone my mountains and rocks have 8k rez textures, NPCs 4k (CBBE) I downgraded uGridtoLoad 7 to uGridtoLoad 5 and decreased some other values (treeload from 100.000 to 75.000, LoDs from 20 to 15, decreased DecalsperFrame, SkinnedDecalsperFrame and DecalLifetime and maxParticles from 1000 to 750) and kept the grafic card settings and my mods and now I will get a CTD here and there, but maybe one per hour and no need to load a game thrice for one fast travel as before. I deinstalled SFO Summer Edition and changed to the normal edition, too. I have no idea what Dragonborn did, but it increased system pressure, definitely. Now I am able to play again and I am able to keep the "real important" settings (that's not the .initweaks, the texture mods in combination with your grafic card settings make your Skyrim shine).

I definitly benefitted from a second 670 GTX. I had around 25 fps before at 1920 x 1080 resolution and maybe 15 fps at 2560 x 1440. Now I have 45 fps at 2560 x 1440 resolution. My god, this mod loaded (around 50 texture mods, most are 4k resolution and even higher) and heavy .ini tweaked (4096 shadow resolution, uGridtoLoad 7/64, LODs at 20, all selfshadowing and water enhancements on) Skyrim, on absolutley ultra grafic settings (16 AF, 8 AA, 8 Transparency AA, Ambient Occlusion/On High Quality, FXAA), playable with 45 fps on 2560 x 1440 is just awesome. The fps has more than doubled...could it be that SLI mode has more effect for higher resolutions? Before I had 15-20 fps and it lagged as hell, was only good for screenshots, now I can actually play the game at 45 fps. It's the same scene (my standard save place in my house in Heljarchen, same actors/NPCs in my view as before), the same mods and the same settings. Have to say IF (!) a game supports SLI and you have a display that is able to show higher resolutions as 1920 x 1080, SLI seems to rock, at least for Skyrim. Now there is just one problem left. Usually overclocking GPUs (moderately overclocked, + 120 gpu clock, + 100 mem clock) with EGVA precision x can adjusted to "synchronized", so your overcklcking setup and the fan curve should be mirrored, but one card gets much hotter as the other.

As topic, I ordered a second Asus 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM a few hours before (I have the money, so it's not only for Skyrim). What performance gain can be expected by using two Asus 670 GTX 4GB VRAM instead of only one? At moment I have around 15 to 30 fps (depends on area) with a heavy mod loaded Skyrim, uGridtoLoad 7, shadows at 4096, 1920 x 1080 resolution. In theory it should double the fps, in theory... My aim is to play at 2560 x 1440 resolution with around 20 to 30 fps left :-)

I use a lot of mods too, ultra high grafic settings and tweaked my .ini files (LOD 20, shadows 4096, uGridtoLoad 7/64, Treeload at 100.000 only to name a few). My problem isn't the performance ingame, it's the performance for starting and loading a game and cell zoning. If I could enter the game I have the usual fps (around 20 to 30fps) I had before and saw no real mod conflicts yet, but loading a game has become a lottery now. My load times almost doubled and sometimes they end in an eternal loading loop... I have a 670 GTX with 4GB VRAM and 8 GB RAM. I haven't watched the VRAM use yet, but the RAM use increased in my eyes. Where I could watch a usage of maybe 5,5 to 6 GB RAM I now watch numbers of 7GB and a even more at peaks. I already got a windows message to change my profile. I used the Aero skin before. This skin eats up some performance, but before this was never a problem. I use a SSD and therefore I was somewhat irritated by this long load times. I ordered before 8 GB additional RAM (for 16 GB in total then) and another Asus 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM. I will tell you if this will make any difference.

As topic states...lydia is my spouse and therefore has a general store with 750 gold for bartering. My problem is...the store is still there in the dialogue options, but it remains empty (won't reset/refill after 24 hours too) and no barter money. The shop won't accumulate the usual money gain all 24 hours too (the dialogue option for that won't pop up). I am even able to call up the trade UI and sell items to her (for 0 gold). Problem is too, that I used this shop so seldom, that I cannot remember when this changed. I just remember, that Lydia once died and I had to resurrect her (usually I loaded an older save, if that happens, but once not). I tried already killing/resurrecting again, enable/disable, resetAI and waited 31 days to reset everything, didn't work. Is there a console command for the shop (maybe a sort of quest command) I don't know yet? or any other idea to cure this glitch? I run EFF as follower mod, but I used this mod for a long time now and remember well that there wasn't any problems with Lydia's shop. The same with SkyUI, the shop was still there and working after I updated SkyUI some time ago. I am pretty sure this glitch occured with Lydia's death and resurrection.

I will try that and maybe adjust to max settings only for screenshots again, but not for actual playing. Here some screenshots of "my" Skyrim: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/189423 http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/189429 There are some more. Look for "Skyrim unleashed".

I play a heavy tweaked and mod loaded Skyim and wanted to know, if my performance in compare to my settings and hardware is normal/realistic or maybe too low because of an unreveiled issue. I saw lots of comments in the internet where people play skyrim with ultra settings while still experiencing 50 fps and more, but I doubt they have the same settings as me and such a heavy mod loaded Skyrim. At moment I am pretty pleased with the visual output of "my" Skyrim (I will post screenshots), but performance is an issue (15 - 30 fps, depends on location like a lot of grass/trees etc.) My settings: PC: i7 2600K, 8 GB RAM, Asus Direct CU II 670 GTX 4 GB VRAM, SSD Kingston Nvidia/Nvidia injector settings: http://img.techpowerup.org/130114/nvidia_20130114_092038.png .ini tweaks (the settings which are major important for performance loss are in bold): Skyrim.ini: [General] sLanguage=ENGLISH uGridsToLoad=7 uExterior Cell Buffer=64 bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 bMultiThreadMovement=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 [Display] fShadowLODMaxStartFade=2000.0000 fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=1000.0000 fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0000 fDecalLifetime=512.0000 iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096 bTransparencyMultisampling=1 bAllowScreenshot=1 iPresentInterval=0 fDefaultWorldFOV=80 fDefault1stPersonFOV=80 fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.000 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.100 [imagespace] bDoRadialBlur=1 [Audio] bEnableAudio=1.0 fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0 fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0 fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0 fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0 [Grass] bAllowCreateGrass=1 bAllowLoadGrass=0 bDrawShaderGrass=1 iMinGrassSize=20 [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 - VoicesExtra.bsa [Combat] fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0 fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0 [Papyrus] fUpdateBudgetMS=1.2 fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2 fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0 iMinMemoryPageSize=128 iMaxMemoryPageSize=512 iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800 bEnableLogging=0 bEnableTrace=0 bLoadDebugInformation=0 bEnableProfiling=0 [Water] bReflectLODObjects=1 bReflectLODLand=1 bReflectSky=1 bReflectLODTrees=1 [backgroundLoad] bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1 bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1 bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1 bBackgroundCellLoads=1 bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1 [Animation] bMultiThreadBoneUpdate=1 [HAVOK] iNumThreads=5 [Decals] bDecalMultithreaded=1 [interface] fSafeZoneX=15 fSafeZoneY=15 fSafeZoneXWide=15 fSafeZoneYWide=15 fBookOpenTime=200.0000 SkyrimPrefs.ini: [General] fBrightLightColorB=1.0000 fBrightLightColorG=1.0000 fBrightLightColorR=1.0000 iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1 bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0 fDefaultFOV=80 bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 bUseThreadedBlood=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 bUseThreadedTextures=1 bUseThreadedLOD=1 bUseThreadedAI=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 [imagespace] bDoDepthOfField=1 iRadialBlurLevel=2 [Display] iBlurDeferredShadowMask=4 iShadowMaskQuarter=4 iShadowMapResolution=4096 iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096 iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096 iShadowSplitCount=2 iShadowFilter=4 iShadowMode=3 fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000 fShadowDistance=8000.0000 fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000 fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000 fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000 fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000 fDecalLOD2=1500.0000 fDecalLOD1=1000.0000 fGamma=1.0000 iTexMipMapMinimum=0 iTexMipMapSkip=0 iMaxAnisotropy=16 iMultiSample=8 iWaterMultiSamples=4 bDrawShadows=1 bTreesReceiveShadows=1 bDrawLandShadows=1 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=2 bMainZPrepass=0 bShadowMaskZPrePass=0 iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=30 iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100 bFloatPointRenderTarget=1 sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670" bFXAAEnabled=1 iAdapter=0 bShadowsOnGrass=1 bTransparencyMultisampling=1 bDeferredShadows=1 iPresentInterval=0 [Grass] b30GrassVS=0 fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000 fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000.0000 fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000 [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=4 [interface] bDialogueSubtitles=1 bGeneralSubtitles=1 bShowCompass=1 fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000 [Controls] fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000 fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0280 bAlwaysRunByDefault=1 bInvertYValues=0 bGamePadRumble=1 bMouseAcceleration=0 bUseKinect=0 [Particles] iMaxDesired=950 [saveGame] fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000 [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=1.0000 uID2=466532 fVal1=1.0000 uID1=554685 fVal0=1.0000 uID0=1007612 [Clouds] fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000 fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000 fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000 fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000 [TerrainManager] fTreeLoadDistance=100000.0000 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 bUseThreadedMeshes=1 [Trees] bRenderSkinnedTrees=1 uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 bShadowMaskZPrePass=1 [Water] bUseWaterRefractions=1 bUseWaterReflections=1 bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1 bUseWaterDisplacements=1 bUseWaterDepth=1 iWaterReflectHeight=1024 iWaterReflectWidth=1024 bReflectExplosions=1 iWaterBlurAmount=4 bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0 bForceHighDetailReflections=1 [Decals] bDecals=1 bSkinnedDecals=1 bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1 bDecalMultithreaded=1 bDecalOcclusionQuery=1 [LOD] fLODFadeOutMultObjects=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultItems=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultActors=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000 [Launcher] bEnableFileSelection=1 bShowAllResolutions=1 uLastAspectRatio=3 [blurShaderHDR] bDoHighDynamicRange=1 [blurShader] bUseBlurShader=0 [backgroundLoad] bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1 bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1 bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1 bBackgroundCellLoads=1 bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 The above .ini settings are stable for me, but Skyrim runs only with 15 to 30 fps at a resolution of 1920 x 1080, my new monitor could deliver 2560 x 1440 though, but with this resolution I have 10 fps left, unplayable. The performance hit does not occur because of the Nvidia and .ini settings, I have loads of mods running My mod list: Skyrim Flora Overhaul v1.75 14 January 2013 13 January 2013 Immersive HUD - iHUD 2.2 12 January 2013 12 January 2013 Deadly Dragons 6.3.1 12 January 2013 11 January 2013 Wet and Cold 1.071 12 January 2013 17 December 2012 Remodeled Armor for CBBEv3 Bodyslide and BBP 2.5.1 11 January 2013 11 January 2013 Footprints 0.95 11 January 2013 11 January 2013 SkyUI 3.1 08 January 2013 11 January 2013 Bellyaches HD Dragon Replacer Pack 1.0 08 January 2013 11 January 2013 Enhanced Blood Textures 3.0a 07 January 2013 27 December 2012 CBBE Pubic Hairstyles 1.6 05 January 2013 12 January 2013 Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS 3.4.Beta 01 January 2013 20 November 2012 Hectrol CAVES DELUXE HighRes Retex 1.0 30 December 2012 12 January 2013 ApachiiSkyHair 1.5.Full 29 December 2012 20 December 2012 Skyrim HD - 2K Textures 1.6 28 December 2012 25 December 2012 Ruins Clutter Improved 2.5 27 December 2012 14 January 2013 Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE- 3.2.3 23 December 2012 21 December 2012 Categorized Favorites Menu 0.1.17 16 December 2012 20 December 2012 Sporty Sexy Map - Athletic muscle mod CBBE UNP UNPB ADEC 1.02 16 December 2012 15 December 2012 Fair Skin Complexion Sweaty Body-ADEC-CBBE-UNP-UNPB-UNPC 4.1 15 December 2012 04 January 2013 Benjamin318s Realistic Rocks and Mountains in Skyrim 8k 4k 2k and 1k Versions 1.0 06 December 2012 12 January 2013 Convenient Horses 4.5 06 December 2012 11 December 2012 Tan Lines for CBBE v3-2 1.0 30 November 2012 28 November 2012 RCRN v36 HDR - Your AllinOne Lighting and Immersion mod 3.6 18 November 2012 26 November 2012 WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux 1.5d 13 October 2012 20 December 2012 SED7 Accessories and Piercings Merchant - NSFW 1.0 24 September 2012 31 December 2012 Lush Trees 1.4a 19 September 2012 20 December 2012 Wearable Lanterns 2.2a 09 September 2012 20 December 2012 Get Snowy 4.1 02 September 2012 29 November 2012 Extensible Follower Framework 3.5.6 28 August 2012 11 December 2012 SED7 Accessoire Piercingset for CBBE3 and Bettermales 1.4 22 August 2012 25 November 2012 Calientes Vanilla Outfits for CBBE 2.1.0 20 August 2012 05 November 2012 HN66s Earrings 1.5 22 June 2012 28 November 2012 ApachiiSkyHair NPC Overhaul 2.20 07 June 2012 19 December 2012 Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack 1.7 01 June 2012 11 January 2013 JaySuS Swords V13D 13 May 2012 02 December 2012 Skyrim Sunglare V4 4.1 06 May 2012 13 January 2013 Better Dynamic Snow 2.12 11 April 2012 12 January 2013 Better Sorting 2.06 11 March 2012 20 December 2012 The skeleton of female models 3.2.0 09 March 2012 23 November 2012 HQ Snow Texture 2.6 05 March 2012 12 January 2013 Better males - Beautiful nudes and faces - New hairstyles 2.3.2 27 February 2012 17 November 2012 More Snow 1.1 26 February 2012 12 January 2013 Re-Defined Dungeons WIP 1.0 10 February 2012 13 January 2013 AEterna Circlets 2.2 07 February 2012 25 November 2012 Quality SnowFlakes V2 2.0 05 February 2012 - CHSBHC - BBP - Nude and Jiggly Mod v2.4 04 February 2012 18 November 2012 Real Effect Candle V1.0 02 February 2012 14 January 2013 A Quality World Map - With Roads 8.0 28 January 2012 05 November 2012 Real Ice ALL-IN-ONE V3 25 January 2012 12 January 2013 High Quality 3D Map 2.0 22 January 2012 05 November 2012 Dramatic Clouds 1.3 06 January 2012 12 January 2013 Super Realistic Ore Textures 1 16 December 2011 20 December 2012 Enhanced Night Skyrim 0.4 15 December 2011 20 December 2012 AEterna Rings 1.0 05 December 2011 25 November 2012 Better Gold 1.21 04 December 2011 13 January 2013 AEterna Necklaces 1.0 02 December 2011 25 November 2012 High Quality Food and Ingredients 1.6 30 November 2011 20 December 2012 High Quality Eyes 1.2 22 November 2011 23 November 2012 Nicer Snowflakes 1.0 17 November 2011 12 January 2013 Alone the used CBBE textures have a resolution of 4096 x 4096 and you will have almost always followers or NPCs on your screen while playing. In addition I use the 8k resolution pack of Benjamin318s Realistic Rocks and Mountains and both 4k resolution packs (pines and aspens) of Skyrim Flora Overhaul and alone uGridtoLoad 7/64 is a major performance impact of course. My GPU and CPU are running with default settings at moment, no overcklocking. My aim is to get all the above running on my new 27'' monitor at a resolution of 2560 x 2440 while still playable (so not only good for screenshots). To be still playable with a reasonable performance I guess I need 30 to 40 fps. If my performance is normal for this settings I guess I have two options left: 1) overcklocking CPU and GPU 2) buying another Asus 670 GTX for SLI mode Any experiences and advices will be appreciated.

I just returned according the Dawnguard Main Quest Line from the Soul Cairn to Skyrim after freeing Valerica and completing all the side quests there (Jub, Durnehviir, Reaper) and I realized that the Skyrim Sky looks like the Soul Cairn Sky now (big black hole in the center of the sky). This effect doesn't vanish by restarting Skyrim and/or reloading and/or deinstalling/reinstalling skymods like Skyrim HD 2K and Enhanced Nights Skyrim. I wonder if this is a glitch or just the normal. I guess this will be the effect, if you have Auriel's Bow in the end and are able to shut/darken the sun, but is this effect the usual effect while doing this quest stage (Unseen Visions)? EDIT: I waited 24 hours and the effect vanished and the Skyrim Sky returned to normal, but I still wonder if this is a glitch or a normal effect? Argument for a glitch: As a vampire I still get messages about being burnt by the sun, while the sky was Soul Cairn like. As far as I know, the Aurial Bow effect should precisely prevent this effect.

I still get the so called "black body" effect on NPCs after texture loads. Usually it happens if I load a saved game and sometimes after the loading screen while zoning into another cell. It does not occur often and usually I am able to solve that problem with a second load attempt, but I have to quit Skyrim and restart if from the beginning, a simple save game load won't do it. This effect makes me wonder, if the failure is somewhere hidden in my .ini settings, or my settings are just at the limit, even for my rig. So I need some experience, advice and maybe the possibility to compare with other settings/rigs. My rig: i7 2600K 8 GB RAM Asus Geforce 670 GTX, 4 GB (!) VRAM Kingston HyperX SSD I upgraded from a GTX 570 1,2 GB VRAM to a GTX 670 4 GB VRAM and especially this makes me wonder about the sometimes occurring "black body" bug. Before I had no problem to explain that...1,2 GB RAM with a hard tweaked .ini and a mod loaded Skyrim is just too less, but now with 4 GB VRAM? My NVIDIA Settings: FXAA on 16 x AF 8 x AA (multisample) 8 x AA transparency (supersample) Texture Filtering high quality VSync + Tripple buffering on (mouse lag will kill me otherwise) Threaded Optimation on Ambient Occlusion on/quality My .ini settings (important stuff in bold): Skyrim.ini: [General] sLanguage=ENGLISH uGridsToLoad=7 uExterior Cell Buffer=64 bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 bMultiThreadMovement=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 [Display] fShadowLODMaxStartFade=2000.0000 fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=1000.0000 fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0000 fDecalLifetime=256.0000 iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096 bTransparencyMultisampling=1 bAllowScreenshot=1 iPresentInterval=1 fDefaultWorldFOV=85 fDefault1stPersonFOV=85 fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.000 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.100 [imagespace] bDoRadialBlur=1 [Audio] bEnableAudio=1.0 fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0 fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0 fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0 fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0 [Grass] bAllowCreateGrass=1 bAllowLoadGrass=0 iMinGrassSize=20 [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 - VoicesExtra.bsa [Combat] fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0 fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0 [Papyrus] fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0 bEnableLogging=0 bEnableTrace=0 bLoadDebugInformation=0 [Water] bReflectLODObjects=1 bReflectLODLand=1 bReflectSky=1 bReflectLODTrees=1 [backgroundLoad] bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1 bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1 bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1 bBackgroundCellLoads=1 bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1 [Animation] bMultiThreadBoneUpdate=1 [HAVOK] iNumThreads=5 [Decals] bDecalMultithreaded=1 [interface] fSafeZoneX=15 fSafeZoneY=15 fSafeZoneXWide=15 fSafeZoneYWide=15 fBookOpenTime=200.0000 SkyrimPrefs.ini: [General] fBrightLightColorB=1.0000 fBrightLightColorG=1.0000 fBrightLightColorR=1.0000 iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1 bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0 fDefaultFOV=85 bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 bUseThreadedBlood=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 bUseThreadedTextures=1 bUseThreadedLOD=1 bUseThreadedAI=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 [imagespace] bDoDepthOfField=1 iRadialBlurLevel=2 [Display] iBlurDeferredShadowMask=7 iShadowMaskQuarter=4 iShadowMapResolution=4096 iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096 iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048 iShadowSplitCount=2 iShadowFilter=4 iShadowMode=3 fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000 fShadowDistance=8000.0000 fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000 fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000 fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000 fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000 fDecalLOD2=1500.0000 fDecalLOD1=1000.0000 fGamma=1.0000 iTexMipMapMinimum=0 iTexMipMapSkip=0 iMaxAnisotropy=16 iMultiSample=8 iWaterMultiSamples=4 bDrawShadows=1 bTreesReceiveShadows=1 bDrawLandShadows=1 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=2 bMainZPrepass=0 iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=12 iMaxDecalsPerFrame=4 bFloatPointRenderTarget=1 sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670" bFXAAEnabled=1 iAdapter=0 bShadowsOnGrass=1 bTransparencyMultisampling=1 bDeferredShadows=1 bShadowMaskZPrepass=0 [Grass] b30GrassVS=0 fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000 fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000.0000 fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000 [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=4 [interface] bDialogueSubtitles=1 bGeneralSubtitles=1 bShowCompass=1 fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000 [Controls] fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000 fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0250 bAlwaysRunByDefault=1 bInvertYValues=0 bGamePadRumble=1 bMouseAcceleration=0 bUseKinect=0 [Particles] iMaxDesired=950 [saveGame] fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000 [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=0 fVal2=1.0000 uID2=466532 fVal1=1.0000 uID1=554685 fVal0=1.0000 uID0=1007612 [Clouds] fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000 fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000 fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000 fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000 [TerrainManager] fTreeLoadDistance=100000.0000 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 bUseThreadedMeshes=1 [Trees] bRenderSkinnedTrees=1 uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 bShadowMaskZPrePass=1 [Water] bUseWaterRefractions=1 bUseWaterReflections=1 bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1 bUseWaterDisplacements=1 bUseWaterDepth=1 iWaterReflectHeight=1024 iWaterReflectWidth=1024 bReflectExplosions=1 iWaterBlurAmount=4 bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0 bForceHighDetailReflections=1 [Decals] bDecals=1 bSkinnedDecals=1 bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1 bDecalMultithreaded=1 bDecalOcclusionQuery=1 [LOD] fLODFadeOutMultObjects=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultItems=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultActors=20.0000 fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000 [Launcher] bEnableFileSelection=1 bShowAllResolutions=1 uLastAspectRatio=3 [blurShaderHDR] bDoHighDynamicRange=1 [blurShader] bUseBlurShader=0 [backgroundLoad] bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1 bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1 bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1 bBackgroundCellLoads=1 bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 Loaded mods: To keep it short, I guess there is no inch of Skyrim anymore without at least 2k high resolution textures (Skyrim 2K HD - all 4 options, partially overwritten by the following -, Serious Skyrim HD Retexture, Flora Overhaul, Lush trees, Water, Enhanced Night Skyrim, Enhanced Blood Textures, CBBE v. 3.2 with 4k resolution body textures, JaySus Swords, Remodeled Armor, Apachii + Apachii NPC Overhaul and a lot of mods for scripts and animations as Fores New Idles, EFF, Convenient Horses etc. I guess I use around 60 mods, while 1/3 of those are texture mods. I use no ENB, but RCRNv36 as FXAA injector mod. It sucks some performance, but the sharpness and the reflections are pretty awesome. My System tools (Task Manager, GPU-Z) show me a RAM usage of around 5,5 GB on average (rarely up to 5,8 GB RAM in extreme cases). My VRAM usage is maxed at around 2,1 to 2,2 GB. The real strange value is a CPU usage of around 5% (ok, I have to window Skyrim to have a look on the task manager and usually I pause the game, so the CPU usage may drop). In spite of tweaking my .ini files for multicore support, only Core 0 and 2 actually do the work (but I remember some posts, that this might be the usual and not really modifiable). My fps according fraps ranges between 15 fps and 35 fps, it depends on location. Dense forests with lots of grass and plants are able to drop my fps to 15-20 fps, but usually I get 25 to 35 fps, so the game is not only good for screenshots, it's still playable and to play in such a Skyrim is just awesome. I just wonder about the black body texture bug although my ressource monitors show me no warning at all. Only the CPU usage seems odd for me and I detected a setting option in the NVidia panel (PhysX settings) to force PhysX over the CPU instead the GPU, but I doubt this reallocation of procedures would make sense.

I wouldn't have asked, if the answer would be so easy (and wrong btw...) I already found this http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1344060-guide-using-custom-textures-with-the-new-highres-pack/ and the thread is much more up do date, because it mentions that the .ini tweaks aren't necessary anymore (since 1.4), but my question pointed to the two .esp files. but thx anyways. As I understand the above thread right, I have NOT to adjust the suggested .ini tweaks any longer, because with Skyrim version 1.4 the system was changed in that way, that "loose files" texture mods are always loaded first, followed by .bsa files and .esp files. So Skyrim HD - 2K will always load and take effect, be there a million texture altering .esp files in the load order, doesn't matter. My specific question was more in the direction what to do with the two official high res .esp files and after reading my linked thread again I got it at last. In the first post there: **While this still works fine, it is no longer necessary. Bethesda changed how the game reads textures by giving loose files priority over .bsa archives. Also any .esp/.bsa files you have loaded after the HRTP in your load order will "overwrite" files from the HRTP where relevant. (8-21-12)** I overread the "relevant". As I understand right, the official high rez .esp files will never overwrite "loose file textures", but ONLY OVERWRITE Skyrim Vanilla grafics, so it will fill any - by other texture mods - untouched areas at least with official high rez grafics and will be changed/suppressed again by any other texture altering .esp file in load order after them. So it is possible to adjust the official high rez .esp files first in the load order, because they won't ever overwrite loaded "loose files" that change textures AND in addition you are able to overwrite the official high rez packs by even more specific texture .esp files, if you arrange them later in the load order. But maybe unchecking them is the better variant, if they still deliver failures, it won't make up for this.

As I got no answer on the official mod site I try it here. Question is simple: As almost four million people downloaded SKYRIM HD - 2k (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607) there should be some clever dudes who had the same concern as me. Skyrim HD - 2K is a texture mod, that will install into folders in your Skrim Data and load off those folders, there is no .esp file. The official Skyrim High Res pack is splitted into 2 .esp files. How do they correlate to each other? Will the texture load of Skyrim HD - 2K overwrite the official high res texture pack .esp, or vice versa, or does it no harm? Is it clever to install both (mod and official pack), because the official high rez pack will at least work for "holes" the Skyrim HD 2K mod maybe left out? I use mods since a few weeks and learnt much yet about load orders of .esp files and such, but I was never confronted with the question how a simple texture load from folders with no .esp file correlates with some .esp file who does change the same topic.

Ok, I got around that problem by another method. I just patched my Sykrim via Steam into the english version with english localization and Dawnguard loaded as smooth as a baby butt. Either I had a corrupt german .STRING file or the CK has problems with foreign localizations. I thought about to even change my Win7 into english language, because I realized that, while loading something with CK, instead a "yes to all" button with the german windows version you get an "Abbrechen" button (which seems to work like a "yes to all" button neverthless, but maybe not) and maybe this caused all the havoc. Maybe I should have just clicked all the error messages with a single "yes/ja" instead the "Abbrechen" button and Dawnguard would have loaded properly. Nevertheless, Skyrim in english is much better, because as a nice side effect I have no language confusion in my dialogue and UI options anymore, caused by several mods without any available german translation. One disadvantage...Lydia's voice is more sexy in the german version, she sounds almost submissive there, but maybe Iona has a better voice now, she sounded like an impatient general in german :-) So I can't offer a clear solution, but my strong guess is, that I do not had a corrupted loca STRING.file, but CK maybe has a problem with foreign localization files, maybe in combination with foreign localized Win7 systems. Two possibilities: 1) CK has in general a problem to read german (or even other foreign) loca files after the earliest update 2) CK in combination with a Win7 localized in a foreign language and in combination with foreign STRING.files leads to a problem I realized that the upcoming Win7 window in the CK, where you have the option to click "yes" (or "ja" in german) has a "yes to all" in the english version, but only an "abbrechen" (means halt/stop) button in the german version. Those aren't the same. Maybe you should just have clicked by single "yes" through the error messages and Dawnguard should have loaded (proposed you edited your SkyrimEditor.ini in the correct way before of course). Can't verify this now, because I patched to english loca. A spanish guy had the exact same problem (he even got the same error messages, same line, same number) like me and he solved it by renaming his localization files. See this thread on STEAM (page 3 and 4): Creation Kit and the 1.8 Skyrim patch