Technical question: memory Patch, SKSE 1.7 and Ugrids

[Paranoid23]

Ok, this is a bit of a technical question. The memory patch from Sheson should be included into SKSE 1.7.1 according to the SKSE changelog found here:

http://skse.silverlock.org/skse_whatsnew.txt

 

The poster in this thread seems to gain massive improvements from the memory patch when increasing uGrids.

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1340369-skyrim-memory-patch-fixing-ils-ugrids-ctd-freezes-for-real/?p=11305085

 

My results are, however, very different. My game is stable at uGrids=5, about one crash every 20 hours. Using uGrids=7 or even higher results in lots of of CTDs. Looking at the post above it seems the patch of Sheson should be able to fix most of these problems, a least for certain configs. I cannot reproduce the results as posted above, not even get a stable uGrids=7. So my question is, is the patch included in SKSE the same as Sheson's patch? Because I don't have any improvements using the latest SKSE and skse.ini with DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768. My system is a quad core 4Ghz, GTX 760 2GB, 16 GB system RAM. I'm running a handful of mods, but disabling these mods does not improve stability at uGrids settings above 5. Yes, I know high uGrids settings can cause other problems but that's not the point of my post.

 

Potential solutions I've thought of:

- VRAM is too low, my card has 2GB. Don't think this is the problem because I get a CTD with uGrids=7, even when my VRAM is about 1700 MB used and nowhere near its max.

- SKSE patch is different from Sheson patch

- The results from the poster are no longer possible with the latest patches and SKSE.

- Some other mysterious thing

 

[Lord Garon]

Yes - SKSE 1.7.0/1 implements Sheson's patch. The post you linked to is typical of users who were experiencing the issue which the patch fixed. If your game is NOT experiencing the heap allocation bug, the patch will not do "anything" (other than prevent the bug from occurring).

 

Contrary to popular opinion, maxxed vram will not, by itself, crash Skyrim on modern Windows (Vista/7/8).

 

Higher uGrids affect game stability for several reasons, not just large object loadings (Sheson's fix). The mod Stable uGrids to Load can check for some of these other things and help prevent instability. Give it a shot and see what happens.

 

Other ini tweaks can also cause persistent CTD's; try reverting to default ini's and ONLY increase ugrids.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Lord Garon

[Paranoid23]

Thanks, Lord Garon, you certainly seem to have a lot of knowledge about the engine of Skyrim. I'll try out Stable uGridsToLoad. But judging from the comments it seems to vary a lot by random chance.

[Lord Garon]

Thanks, Lord Garon, you certainly seem to have a lot of knowledge about the engine of Skyrim. I'll try out Stable uGridsToLoad. But judging from the comments it seems to vary a lot by random chance.

 

Not a lot of knowledge, just a lot of trial-and-error. :thumbsup:

 

NOTHING in Skyrim works exactly the same for two different players. Hardware is different, OS's are different, drivers are different, BIOS settings, services and background tasks running, Control Panel settings, Registry entries, mod loads, load order, ini settings... you name it and if it can be different, it will be. You could have a broken texture file causing your CTD's. Or a corrupt nif somewhere. Or a bad install of "something". Finding an actual problem in Skyrim is just a process of prevention (bug fixes, ie, Sheson's patch and the cell stabilizer), elimination, and, for me, educated guess work. I'm just recommending some preventative things now. We'll get to the "ugly" stuff if you can't even get uGrids = 7 to work on an umodded game.

[Deleted5770650User]

I understand that for the memory patch from skse to work it has to be turned on in the skse.ini in data\skse, but from what I know that file is not created by default.

I also don't know the config lines needed for it. I have just been lazy and kept using SSME.

[Lord Garon]

:facepalm:

 

@chevyowner: Thanks for pointing that out.

 

@Paranoid: He's correct and I just forgot about it. If you haven't created an skse.ini yet:

 

1. Open Notepad or your favorite text editor

2. Add the following lines, including the square brackets:

[Memory]DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768ScrapHeapSizeMB=256

3. Save the file to Skyrim\Data\SKSE\skse.ini

4. If there is no SKSE folder in your Data folder, just create one.

 

The above ini file entries will create a "default" Sheson memory patch.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Lord Garon

[Paranoid23]

Already added the SKSE.ini file, judging from the documentation the defaults are the same as vanilla Skyrim:

	[Memory]	DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB= <default heap initial allocation size in megabytes, vanilla size is 512>	ScrapHeapSizeMB= <scrap heap size in megabytes, vanilla size is 256>

I must say, after adding this tweak and installing RealVision ENB my game hasn't crashed once. It's quite nice to play for over 25 hours without a single glitch, CTD or quest bug. I've read your modding hints and these are my thoughts:

 

- You are right about maxed VRAM not crashing Skyrim. I forgot my old card had 1GB VRAM and was maxed out all the time. The game didn't crash though, but it resulted in lots of stuttering.

 

- I'm not really a fan of mod tools myself. Installing mods by hand is not that difficult, most mods can be installed by simply extracting the contents of a zip file to the Skyrim\Data directory. One notable exception for me was SMIM. I managed to install it by checking the mod manager xml file and walking through all the directories manually (about 30 minutes of work).

 

- About saves: I never reload a game. If I want to reload, I exit Skyrim to desktop and start it fresh. When you reload a save you'll sometimes notice strange things like doors that should be closed or the wrong type of music playing, which is for me an indication that loading a save does not reset all world data. There is an interesting discussion about saving here:

http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3998-quicksavingquickloading-in-skyrim/

 

- Installing the game on an SSD is the best upgrade you can get. My game loads in about ten seconds and the SSD also reduces stuttering. I've completely disabled the Windows pagefile BTW, my system has 16GB RAM and a I never needed a pagefile.

[Lord Garon]

RE: mod tools

 

I use Bash cause it tells me some things I like to know about. But, at this point in my Skyrim journey, I sort, merge, and resolve stuff on my own. The only tool you REALLY need is TES5Edit. I recommend things because modding can be a somewhat over-whelming experience until you get a "feel" for it.

 

SSD, meh. Try a ramdisk. :yes:

 

I'm glad the game is working better for you now. A long, CTD free play session is a major accomplishment for a heavily modded game. Good on you.

[falandos]

Hi I have a question if it is still relevant. I just been stepping over from NMM to MO, and have installed SKSE, put in the "default" sheson lines in the skyrim.ini, But, unlike I was used to in NMM, I cannot seem to find the MemoryBlocksLog.log. The .ini says true and it should all be working correcly. I have tried to create a blank text file named MemoryBlocksLog.log in the hope it would overwrite the text, but ti did not. Instead, i got a crash as soon as i got ingame. Also, I have not modded the game yet, only SkyUI is installed, rest is vanilla with cleaned Master Files. Thanks in Advance for anyone who can help me.

 

>TLDR: How can I get the MemoryBlocksLog.log.

[notmyhome]

It should show up in your Mod Organizer folder structure, IIRC.