What's the best way to reduce the risk of CTD with lots of mods?

[yomarz2334]

So I'm thinking about doing some kind of Skyrim video series, be it a let's play or something else, but it will probably involve me using a heavily modded game. I want to be able to feature different mods every episode so does anybody know the best way to reduce the risk of CTD when running tons of mods at once?

 

The last install of Skyrim I had on my computer probably had around 100 something mods and I was getting semi-frequent CTD every hour and a half or so. I probably just installed everything super hastily and maybe BOSS didn't work right, but now I'm working off of a clean install so I can make sure everything is installed correctly and in the right load order. I probably won't be running 100+ mods this time but still it's good to be cautious.

[acidzebra]

Here are my 10 mod commandments, they have served me well and are the result of many hours of frustration and patient learning. YMMV.

 

1. Read mod description/stickies carefully and act accordingly when installing (re: compatibility, install procedures, special notes), and don't install a ton of mods in one go.

2. Run BOSS, manually order unknown mods (consider using Boss Userlist Manager), and act according to what the boss logs tell you.

3. Use tes5edit to clean any mods that require cleaning.

4. Understand what you're installing - while in tes5edit look over mods you're putting in, what records they affect.

5. Use wrye to create a bashed patch, tes5edit to created a merged patch if needed (and if you have more than one mod which messes with leveled lists for instance, it's needed).

6. Do NOT remove any mods more complex than a texture overhaul mid-playthrough unless you revert to a pre-install save, especially when it comes to mods that use quests or scripts.

7. Recognise that even though you may have a wizbang latest-gen machine with ridiculous amounts of ram and the latest and greatest graphics card, skyrim is a 32-bit app. Test a given modload for stability before commencing a playthrough.

8. Do not mess with ugrids, especially if you're adding tons of NPCs, texture mods, and other fun stuff. You have no clue what is happening the next cell over in a 5x5 grid load, let alone when you're loading a grid of 7x7 cells or heaven forbid, 9x9.

9. Do not mess with ini settings you or whatever internet berk you got them from don't understand (especially when it comes to stuff under the [Papyrus] section)

10. Remember that even under pure vanilla load Skyrim is kind of a fickle beast and stuff can and will go wrong. Save early, save often, and monitor the size of your savegames.

 

Also, remember to have fun ;)

[yomarz2334]

Thanks a lot. Would allowing skyrim to utilize more ram make it more stable? I remember downloading a thing to allow skyrim to use 4 gigs a while ago but I don't know if that is necessary anymore.

[blitzen]

The best way seems to be to use ENBoost and this: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1340369-skyrim-memory-patch-fixing-ils-ugrids-ctd-freezes-for-real-by-sheson/

 

Those two have virtually eliminated all crashes, lockups, and infinite loading screens for me and quite of few others. You can, of course, still have problems if you install certain mods and overload the game engine with too many scripts running, but these should eliminate crashes due to the limitations of Skyrim's poor memory management.