A cry for help - Am i pushing the engine too far?

[dlseanan]

 

 

Do you remember what "other_d3d9.dll" was for? Part of an old ENB or sweetfx setup? A version of Sheeson's Memory Patch? Is the file still in your Skyrim directory?

No, i don't currently have "other_d3d9.dll" in my directory, and i don't think i ever have. I do have a regular "d3d9.dll", which came from the wrapper version of ENB. Those enblocal.ini proxy settings i haven't messed with, as far as i know (maybe enbhost.exe has adjusted them?). Also i have never installed SweetFX ever, and the only memory patch i've used is the packaged SKSE one.

It seems like i can leave it the way it is though, if both the bools are false, right?

 

 

Skyrim is not a game engine that uses culling for efficiency. There's a mod that places culling markers for indoor performance, but there's not such a thing for Exterior. its a demanding engine.

That's disappointing. But also quite amazing to think we've moved so far in four years. I'm sure i have the mod of which you speak, Skyrim Performance Plus, if i'm not mistaken. Sad that it doesn't help with exteriors.

 

 

GFX 1GB...this is the biggest bottleneck for you.

If it's not too much to ask, could you point me towards 2GB+ cards that have a good performance/cost ratio? When phrases like "1000 cuda cores" get said, i start to feel out of my depth.

[sevencardz]

The CTDs you describe sound like memory buffering issues. Personally, I use the version of Sheson's memory patch found in Skyrim Startup Memory Editor.

If you want to verify it's a memory issue, open the console in-game:

player.setav speedmult 1000
tcl
Fly around Skyrim at full speed for a good 20 minutes.
In an unpatched Skyrim you'll CTD.

[psychoslaphead]

 

 

 

Do you remember what "other_d3d9.dll" was for? Part of an old ENB or sweetfx setup? A version of Sheeson's Memory Patch? Is the file still in your Skyrim directory?

No, i don't currently have "other_d3d9.dll" in my directory, and i don't think i ever have. I do have a regular "d3d9.dll", which came from the wrapper version of ENB. Those enblocal.ini proxy settings i haven't messed with, as far as i know (maybe enbhost.exe has adjusted them?). Also i have never installed SweetFX ever, and the only memory patch i've used is the packaged SKSE one.

It seems like i can leave it the way it is though, if both the bools are false, right?

 

 

Boris put that in as a place setting - you replace it with whatever library your ENB preset uses. In your case, you are using ENBoost only to get the memory management features - you are not calling any other proxy library. Just forget about it, your enblocal settings are generally fine. You have the swap setting at 512, which is probably way too high for your card, or what the game should need. Whatever you set this at gets duplicated for both vram and general ram, according to the ENBoost STEP guide. You may want to have a look at that page, it explains every setting in detail and gives recommendations.

 

You've got some junk in your Skyrim.ini that isn't really necessary. There are a lot of seriously outdated or wrong, game crashing settings floating around - I found this out the hard way (game crashes), getting frustrated and then poking around in the main game exe to see what was going on :-). Frankly, the most intelligent sources are the STEP guides IMO.

[jones177]

The best all round card for playing at 1080 with ENB at close to 60fps is the GTX 970. It is better suited for playing modern games with its 4gb(3.5) than a 2gb card. Without ENB it can run Skyrim at 4k at over 60fps.

For the used market the GTX 680 4gb is a great card for 1080 gaming. It is only 3fps slower than the 970 in most situations.

 

 

 

I monitor my VRAM usage with Skyrim Performance Monitor. I use on average 2.7gb with peaks up to 3.7gb. 4gb is the way to go.

 

Later

[dlseanan]

 

 

 

Boris put that in as a place setting - you replace it with whatever library your ENB preset uses. In your case, you are using ENBoost only to get the memory management features - you are not calling any other proxy library. Just forget about it, your enblocal settings are generally fine. You have the swap setting at 512, which is probably way too high for your card, or what the game should need. Whatever you set this at gets duplicated for both vram and general ram, according to the ENBoost STEP guide. You may want to have a look at that page, it explains every setting in detail and gives recommendations.

 

 

 

From the basic enboost step guide (ENBoost - STEP Project wiki):

 

ReservedMemorySizeMb=512 ;This value should be set to lowest possible value without experiencing stutter. See advanced guide above for more information.

Although when digging deeper into the advanced guide referred:

 

 

For video cards with 1GB or more VRAM, start with 128 as a baseline. If stuttering persists, increase the value in increments of 128 ( 256, 384, 512, etc ) until the stuttering has ceased or is as minimal as possible with the lost value as possible

I'm not 100% sure what this means, which is why i left it at 512 - also, i think i elected for no stutter at the time, but i think i'll do some experimentation and testing with that value. Thanks for the tip.

 

 

You've got some junk in your Skyrim.ini that isn't really necessary. There are a lot of seriously outdated or wrong, game crashing settings floating around - I found this out the hard way (game crashes), getting frustrated and then poking around in the main game exe to see what was going on :-). Frankly, the most intelligent sources are the STEP guides IMO.

Can you please point out the unsafe settings i've used? I've done reading through multiple sources and have tried to amalgamate the the safest-looking settings from each of them. Maybe there's too many adjustments there, although a lot of them are (allegedly) set to the Skyrim defaults.

 

The CTDs you describe sound like memory buffering issues. Personally, I use the version of Sheson's memory patch found in Skyrim Startup Memory Editor.

From the nexus page of Skyrim Startup Memory Editor:

 

 

This implements Sheson's memory allocation patch. If you're using one of the unofficial modified SKSE DLL files, you need to revert back to the official SKSE files otherwise SSME won't do anything. If you're using the new build of SKSE that has support for changing the memory allocation values, you don't need SSME

So it seems like that won't help me as i have the very latest SKSE. Also, I almost never go over even 4GB of RAM (out of 8), including the RAM used by enbhost.exe, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. Unless what you're talking about is how fast it moves things around in there, in which case how do i help it do what it do?

 

 

The best all round card for playing at 1080 with ENB at close to 60fps is the GTX 970. It is better suited for playing modern games with its 4gb(3.5) than a 2gb card. Without ENB it can run Skyrim at 4k at over 60fps.

For the used market the GTX 680 4gb is a great card for 1080 gaming. It is only 3fps slower than the 970 in most situations.

 

I monitor my VRAM usage with Skyrim Performance Monitor. I use on average 2.7gb with peaks up to 3.7gb. 4gb is the way to go.

 

Later

I know of these super-cards, the 970 and 980. Remember i'm a student, i don't have funding for such niceties. 4GB sounds damn luxurious i must say, but i think a solid 2GB will let my machine breathe easy, without constricting my wallet.

I'll probably direct my energies there for now though, try and find something good.

 

Thanks for all the fish.

[dlseanan]

TL; DR of sorts... Will dropping my uGridsToLoad down to 3 help me at all? Less grids loaded, less memory usage. I just remembered there's that setting.