Wrestling with script latency

[Nazgren]

Hi,

I have built a high end gaming rig and have downloaded a large variety of mods but am struggling with script latency. My script latency usually sits around ~150 outside solitude, enough for animal AI to shut off. My CPU is the i7-6700 and is only at an average 15% utilization and 38 threads in the same place. I am trying to get my script latency down by starting a game, using AS-LAL to teleport to solitude docks, running around for a minuite or two, checking papyrus logs for whichever mod seems to appear most, disabling it and then starting again. However i am slowly but surely losing all my gameplay mods and seeing virtually no improvement in script latency. i have set up my skyrim ini to make use of my CPUs 8 cores , but i cant seem to make skyrim use any more of it then it is. At this rate i am going to be left with only script-less graphics mods.

 

Is there any other ways i have missed to reduce script latency besides removing all gameplay from the game?

[cdcooley]

Script latency can be just as much about resource contention and locking as raw CPU power. It doesn't matter how fast your CPU is, only one script at a time can access any particular object (including the player). If you have one or two poorly written mods they can still lock up even the most powerful system.

 

If you added any Papyrus settings to your INI file remove them. Changes to the Papyrus values almost always cause problems not solve them.

 

You haven't mentioned your framerate. Framerate is vital to script performance so you need to keep it as close to 60 FPS as possible.

 

Finally, how are you measuring script latency? I would start by removing everything except whatever you're using to measure that, then start adding mods. You'll feel a whole lot better when you keep adding mods and not seeing a problem than removing them and not seeing a solution.

[dragonslayer2k12]

This is what I hate about this game is the script and havok and everything else link to fps just because console version ugh:-(

 

I am thinking that if the framerate drops below lets say 40fps and you are going through a script heavy part of the game and or mods, things will get screwed up and stay that way.

[Nazgren]

Script latency can be just as much about resource contention and locking as raw CPU power. It doesn't matter how fast your CPU is, only one script at a time can access any particular object (including the player). If you have one or two poorly written mods they can still lock up even the most powerful system.

 

If you added any Papyrus settings to your INI file remove them. Changes to the Papyrus values almost always cause problems not solve them.

 

You haven't mentioned your framerate. Framerate is vital to script performance so you need to keep it as close to 60 FPS as possible.

 

Finally, how are you measuring script latency? I would start by removing everything except whatever you're using to measure that, then start adding mods. You'll feel a whole lot better when you keep adding mods and not seeing a problem than removing them and not seeing a solution.

I have kept them at the default except for the fUpdateBudgetMS which i set to 2 as the Skyrim Stability guide says it may help in script heavy set ups.

 

My framerate is about ~15-20 according to ENB. However it was like this before i installed my scripted mods (i had only Skyrim mod Combiner installed), im not sure what is causing it to report it being that low but i am pretty sure its off, my system is more then capable of handling what little graphics mods it has. I do not believe it is actually 15-20 fps as it looks much smoother then that. Like i said, the only visible issue with the game is the fact that the animals are statues, I'm sure theres more issues under the surface but i have yet to encounter them. From what i have gathered low framerate can help with script heavy set ups but it does not seem to be enough

 

I am measuring script latency with the Convenient Horses tool. I have also got Jaxonz Diagnostics but i cant make heads or tails of it.

 

Since starting i have disabled aprox. 8 .esp's worth of script heavy mods, including Wet and cold, Civil war Overhaul, Hunterborn, Skyrim immersion mod, camera directed head tracking and others. I have seen little improvement. I will try working my way up through the mods list and seeing what happens. As you can see a huge amount of gameplay is sitting deactivated in my MO folder. If there is an underlying issue somewhere i would much prefer to fix that then lose all my gameplay mods.

 

Edit:

Even with just SkyUI, AS-LAL and Convenient Horses my script latency is still 70-80. Is this normal? Does having papyrus logging make a big difference?

Edited February 2, 2016 by Nazgren

[Nazgren]

Ok, i tried again with just Skyui, CH and AS-LAL and realvision ENB, i went for outlaw in the wilds, which put me in the cave outside Riverwood. I went outside and hte animals were still non-functional. I punched a wolf to daeth and the next highest script latency result was 900ms. This isnt a mod issue. WTH is going on?

Here is my Skyrim ini:

 

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
iHWThread6=6
iHWThread5=6
iHWThread4=6
iNumHWThreads=8
uGridstoload=5
uExterior Cell Buffer=36

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
fLightLODRange=50000
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=8182
bAllowScreenshot=0

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

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7
iMinGrassSize=10
fGrassFadeRange=10000

[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
bInvalidateOlderFiles=0
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fUpdateBudgetMS=2
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
iMinMemoryPageSize=128
iMaxMemoryPageSize=512
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1
bEnableProfiling=1

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

[LightingShader]
fDecalLODFadeStart=1.1
fDecalLODFadeEnd=1.1

[MapMenu]
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0
fWorldMapMaximumDepthBlur=0
fWorldMapNearDepthBlurScale=0
uLockedObjectMapLOD=8

 

Here is Skyrim Prefs:

 

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=8192
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=8192
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=1
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=8192.0000
fGamma=1.0400
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=1
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=2160
iSize W=3840
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=4096.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=6144.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=100
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=250
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=8192
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDeferredShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=0
fGrassStartFadeDistance=6650.0000
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=1
bGeneralSubtitles=1
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=0
bMouseAcceleration=0
bUseKinect=0
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[saveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=1594040501
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=1594040498
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=1594041880
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=1594040502
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
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=0
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=200
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=14.3000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=13.6000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[blurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[blurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=2048
iWaterReflectWidth=2048
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

 

Can anyone see any issues in these?

 

edit:

tried turning off hyperthreading, no improvement, so thats not the issue.

 

Ok, i've worked it out. Its screen resolution. I dropped my res from 3840 x 2160 to 1920 x 1080 and my script latency halved. I even set it back to 4k to ensure it was this. Why would increasing screen resolution cause scipt latency?

Edited February 2, 2016 by Nazgren

[jones177]

Hi

It is not the screen resolution. It is the frame rate at a particular resolution.

 

cdcooley is dead on. You need to be close to 60fps. At 3840 x 2160 my frame rate is in the low 30s. Scripts back up real fast at that frame rate in my game. I play at 2560 x 1440 at 60 & have zero problems with scripts.

 

The main reason I replaced my GTX 980 with GTX 980 ti sc was to get close to 60 in my game at 1440. The game was smooth in the 40s with the 980 at 1440 but not ideal.

 

It would probably take 2 GTX 980 tis to get 60fps at 3840 x 2160 with ENB right now. I hope a single pascal card will be able to do it by the end of this year.

 

Later

[Nazgren]

I dont think i was getting 60FPS even at 1080 with ENB, i think it was about 30 so 10 fps higher. IIRC from the post the Bethesda employee made about papyrus edits in the INIs a lower framerate is better because it gives the scripts more time to do there thing. I am currently reinstalling skyrim in case at some point as unlikely as it may be MO may have messed with my installation as i noticed files in there that should not be that came from mods, so will slowly build on that from there and see what sort of script latency / framerate i get.

 

Edit:

With a fresh install skyrim is still completely f****d. I set it to 1920 x 1080 on ultra, otherwise all default inis, no ENB, just SKSE. I start the game and the carriagaes bugged out, 5 times in a row so its not a one off thing. I start it through MO to use AS_LAL and the animals are working (i think it was caused by FNIS) now at solid 60fps and script latency averaging 25, however i also get the water splashing noise play when i run over land, i teleport slightly into the air, put away my fists and the about 10yards in front of me goes solid green. all of this happens for about a fraction of a second and stops, this repeats every 1-2 miliseconds while my character moves, so the sound and green screen is going like a machiengun when i walk. It is also visibly happening to the animals as well, most noticeable the jumping into the air. I also seem to have some form of slow fall. All of the above is obviously reminiscent of being in the water, so the game seems to think that i am in the water whenever i am moving intermittently but at an extremely rapid pace. I remind you, this is a clean install and with MO only SkyUI, Convenient Horses and AS-LAL. I'm starting the lose my patience now.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Nazgren

[cdcooley]

Animal responses aren't related to scripts, that's the AI system but if they aren't responding you've completely overwhelmed your entire system. If you're running at 30 FPS don't expect to run anything but the most basic mods. If you're below 30 FPS then you shouldn't even be thinking about using ENBs.

[Nazgren]

This is the thing though, I have an overclocked Titan X. an ENB shouldn't bother my system in the slightest. Thats not the current issue however, my seemingly water everwhere on a virtually completely clean set up is.

 

edit:

For whatever reason re-installing the ENB fixed the water issue. But now even at 1080 res im getting about 50FPS. if i set it to 3840 x 2160 i go down to 30 FPS. At either setting Skyrim Performance Monitor says my system isn't breaking a sweat.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Nazgren

[dragonslayer2k12]

Make sure your hard drive or ssd drive is not going bad, check your system for issues blah blah. Something is just not right there or you might have to try the game without that live another life mod and see what that does.