How to cut down on memory usage to avoid the CTD?

[LargeStyle]

@ ArtMurder:

 

You seem quite adamant that you're not going to use ENB, and I'm not trying to convince you to do so as I respect your decision, but I'll make this last ENB related post just to raise awareness...

 

One of the good points of using the Injector version of ENB is that it does not use a d3d9.dll file - instead it uses a file called "enbseries.dll" - hence why I recommended trying it as there won't be any conflicts, file renaming, proxy library setup etc. Here's what the Injector files look like...

 

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9653/pc9t.jpg

 

...so remove the ENB d3d9.dll and replace it with: enbseries.dll, enbinjector.ini, and enbinjector.exe - then run the .exe file before launching Skyrim. The Injector will stay running until you close it down or restart / shut down your pc.

 

Yes ENB can be used to only fix shadows and I found a mod once that was simply an ENB preset with just shadow fix and DOF effect, but I'll elaborate a touch on this. Looking at the files in the image above, all you need for shadow fixes are the 3 injector files and the enbseries.ini - you don't need to install the rest of the ENB files as you wouldn't be using them. The enbseries.ini will need to have everything in the [ENGINE] section (but detailed shadows) disabled / set to false, as such...

 

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/451/xf3h.jpg

 

...plus also ensure ENB sky is set to "false" and no other ENB features such as ENB raindrops are enabled. Also the lighting values should all be unmodified so they don't affect the game. With this setup, ENB will not touch a single thing in your game apart from shadow casting fixes. Here's a quick example of the different between detailed shadows disabled (left) and detailed shadows enabled (right)...

 

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3593/i0kn.jpg

 

You really need to see it working in game for the full benefit, and as you can see by the FRAPs overlay - it has very minimal fps loss.

 

You also mentioned "shadow clouds" which I'm pretty certain is SSAO, or more specifically the misuse of ENB SSAO. People often don't understand how to implement SSAO into their ENB presets and simply don't set it up right at all. Below is an image with no SSAO (left), bad SSAO settings (middle), and my basically correct SSAO settings (right)...

 

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2549/wvo6.jpg

 

Note that I'm not recommending using SSAO at all, I'm just clarifying that the "shadow clouds" aren't ENBs fault as such, it's more the ENB preset makers' faults for making poor SSAO settings.

 

As for texture optimiser, if you only run it to not resize textures but to just optimise them (fix incorrect compression formats, remove unrequired alpha channels etc) then you won't see any visual differences at all. I however resize any mods that use 2k resolution down to 1k resolution because I think it still looks good enough and saves 75% of the resources to load up. Here's an old example picture comparing vanilla (non-HiRes) textures (left), 1k resized texture (reduced from 2k of course) (middle), and vanilla HiRes 2k texture (right) - note only the clothes were changed...

 

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6090/resdiffwithtext.jpg

 

As you can see there's a noticable improvement in the middle picture compared to the left image, and as the text states, it doesn't use much more resources than the non-HiRes textures but still looks quite acceptable.

 

Lastly, as for your SweetFX and ENB matter, as I suggested earlier - perhaps simply use the Injector version of ENB and your SweetFX settings together and see if they both work - I don't see any reason why they wouldn't as the Injector ENB won't / shouldn't conflict with any other d3d9.dll based mod.

[fifteenspades]

Use spoilers :P

 

Also as many others have said Texture optimizers help alot.

 

can also try Performance PLUS textures. not exactly sure how it would effect your floral overhauls or if WATER effects Rain.

But you can DL it try them out, keep ones you like and uninstall others without conflict.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6387/?

[LargeStyle]

 

Use spoilers

 

If people don't want to see my contributions then they can either skip past them or I just won't contribute anymore - it took me quite a while to make that post this morning and I didn't really have time for it, so if you can't spare two seconds to skip past pictures then that's not my problem.

 

I also forgot to mention the mod "Bethesda Hi-Res Textures Optimised" - it comprimises of textures half way between vanilla low / normal resolution and vanilla high res textures, as like in the clothing comparison image I posted earlier.

[ArtMurder]

But if I use the injector version of the ENB, would ENBoost still work? Or, from what I've read recently, is "ENBoost" actually just something included in the 0.193 series ENB as is?

I really do not like ENBs, but if I can avoid everything about them I don't like I can give it a shot. SweetFX does fail to touch on shadows, and has no DoF, so perhaps I can make this work.

[LargeStyle]

 

But if I use the injector version of the ENB, would ENBoost still work?

 

Yes - regarding use (or not) of the Injector version it doesn't matter if it's a regular ENB or ENBoost they both work the same, and the picture I used earlier showing the Injector files was from the 0.193 ENBoost version - just do the file exchanging as I mentioned in that same post to get the Injector version running instead of the wrapper version. Plus, ENBoost can be used for performance / stability reasons alone, or setup to have this along with graphical mods too. I don't recall exactly what .ini changes you have to do to ENBoost to make certain things work (I'm away from my own computer right now) so you''ll have to read up about that yourself on ENBoost mod / comments page and the official ENB website. All I can remember is that it's not neccessarily a case of simply installing ENBoost and running it exactly the same as any other ENB, there's a new ENBlocal.ini file (or something like that) that allows different configurations for "boosting" and graphical effects allowed.

 

 

I really do not like ENBs, but if I can avoid everything about them I don't like I can give it a shot. SweetFX does fail to touch on shadows, and has no DoF, so perhaps I can make this work.

 

I don't see why it won't work for you - in fact you have a better chance than most to get both mods to work together as you'll have the vast majority of ENB disabled so conflicts will be kept to either a minimal if not non-existent level.

Edited July 27, 2013 by LargeStyle