Help on INI/Mods: Skyrim CTD (Memory?)

[lgvereor]

I'm currently experiencing severe CTDs which have plagued me for months now, to the point I had outright quit the game for Civilization V, since that's now in a new expansion that my mods there aren't updated for. Upon coming back to Skyrim I think I finally found the culprit last night - my Texture Combiner mod. It's not unstable itself, and works fine on a clean game with no other mods (except ENB), but combined with my other 200+ mods (even if I remove ENB), some of which are graphics like WATER, it causes repeatable crashes in some areas due to heavy load (hence why I originally thought the culprit was specific scripts).

 

As my system is fairly capable in and of itself, and doesn't have poor performance aside from CTDs with the mod installed, I assume the problem is related to an internal Skyrim limit I've reached, and I am hoping that someone can offer some suggestions on how to solve this without scrapping such a defined mod (but I still want the others more). Is there an INI setting or settings that would help relieve the load without severely affecting graphics?

 

System Specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs)
16384MB (16GB) RAM
3GB VRAM NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

 

Skyrim.ini:

 

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

iNumHWThreads=8
iHWThread6=7
iHWThread5=6
iHWThread4=5
iHWThread3=4
iHWThread2=3
iHWThread1=2
iAIThread2HWThread=3
iAIThread1HWThread=2
iRenderingThread2HWThread=1
iRenderingThread1HWThread=0

bMultiThreadMovement=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseThreadedBlood=1
bUseThreadedMorpher=1
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseThreadedTextures=1
bUseThreadedMeshes=1
bUseThreadedLOD=1
bUseThreadedAI=1
bUseHardDriveCache=0

fMasterFilePreLoadMB=200.0000
iPreloadSizeLimit=419430400
uExterior Cell Buffer=36

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

[HAVOK]
iNumThreads=2

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

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

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

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

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fUpdateBudgetMS=800.0
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=800.0
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000.0
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1
iMaxMemoryPageSize=8192
iMinMemoryPageSize=256
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2147483647

[budgetCaps]
uActorMemoryBudgetCap=20971520
uLoadedAreaNonActorMemoryBudgetCap=371195904
uWaterMemoryInterior=20971520
uTextureMemoryInterior=20971520
uGeometryMemoryInterior=20971520
uWaterMemory=10485760
uTextureMemory=20971520
uGeometryMemory=10485760

[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

 

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
bUseThreadedBlood=1
bUseThreadedMorpher=1
bUseThreadedTempEffects=1
bUseThreadedTextures=1
bUseThreadedMeshes=1
bUseThreadedLOD=1
bUseThreadedAI=1
bUseThreadedMorpher=1

[backgroundLoad]
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bBackgroundCellLoads=1
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1

[imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=0
iRadialBlurLevel=2

[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODTrees=1
bReflectSky=1

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
iActorShadowCountInt=6
iActorShadowCountExt=6
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=2
bDeferredShadows=1
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=9999999.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=4
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultisamples=4
iMultiSample=16
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
iShadowFilter=3
bDrawLandShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=9999999.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=9999999.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=350
bTransparencyMultisampling=0

[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2

[interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1

[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
bUseKinect=0

[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750

[saveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=0.8000
uID7=302070547
fVal6=0.3500
uID6=3954
fVal5=0.3500
uID5=410705
fVal4=0.3500
uID4=522251
fVal3=0.3500
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.3500
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.3500
uID0=1007612

[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5
bShowLODInEditor=0

[NavMesh]
bUseThreadedMeshes=1
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
bShadowMaskZPrePass=1

[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
bDecalMultithreaded=1
bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1

[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3

[blurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[blurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0

 

[Rennn]

Unfortunately, no. The STEP team recently affirmed that Skyrim has a hard 3.2GB limit of RAM use.

 

VRAM is mirrored into RAM, and any combination of RAM and VRAM use that exceeds 3.2GB will lead to an instant crash or an eternal loading screen.

It's a limitation borne of the perfect storm; a DX9 game with shoddy memory management code, 32-bit, on the Creation Engine.

 

There's currently no known fix. You can improve script memory management via .ini tweaks, but not the RAM limitation itself. :(

Edited July 11, 2013 by Rennn

[lgvereor]

Oddly enough this is very relieving, now I'm 100% certain the problem was the over RAM limit. Thank you. At least the ENB works and "blurs" out the loss in texture resolution. Now I can get back to sorting out the rest of the mods I picked up, like my winter imperial armor. Thanks.

[prod80]

Remove this from ini (it's useless and it's much better to let Skyrim do its own thing with the threads)

iNumHWThreads=8
iHWThread6=7
iHWThread5=6
iHWThread4=5
iHWThread3=4
iHWThread2=3
iHWThread1=2
iAIThread2HWThread=3
iAIThread1HWThread=2
iRenderingThread2HWThread=1
iRenderingThread1HWThread=0

Reduce texture size... so remove this texture combiner thing and simply install the packages you want in a lower resolution, like 2K instead of the 4K it comes with.

[Rennn]

Remove this from ini (it's useless and it's much better to let Skyrim do its own thing with the threads)

iNumHWThreads=8
iHWThread6=7
iHWThread5=6
iHWThread4=5
iHWThread3=4
iHWThread2=3
iHWThread1=2
iAIThread2HWThread=3
iAIThread1HWThread=2
iRenderingThread2HWThread=1
iRenderingThread1HWThread=0

Reduce texture size... so remove this texture combiner thing and simply install the packages you want in a lower resolution, like 2K instead of the 4K it comes with.

 

I'm going to second that. Multithreading tweaks sometimes help, they sometimes hurt, and usually it's best to let Skyrim decide what kind of threading is best. I've tested all kinds of .ini tweaks in the past, and the only one that worked as intended 100% of the time was the one to add shadows to trees, lol.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Rennn

[prod80]

I need something like

 

bEnableShadowsOnLOD=1 ... but unfortunately it does not exist =(

[Rennn]

I need something like

 

bEnableShadowsOnLOD=1 ... but unfortunately it does not exist =(

 

It'd be a performance killer even if it did exist. LoD shadows singlehandedly cause massive stutter in Guild Wars 2 for me.

But this is an opportunity to shamelessly promote my LoD mod. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17984/?tab=4&navtag=%2Fajax%2Fcomments%2F%3Fmod_id%3D17984%26page%3D1%26sort%3DDESC%26pid%3D0%26thread_id%3D689529&pUp=1

Edited July 11, 2013 by Rennn

[lgvereor]

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'll remove that and see if there is any detriment, at least I got some support today, now if only Sprint customer service was as helpful as the Nexus forums.