I about to throw in the towel... >;(

[EnDz87]

As the tags say, I'm having issues with Skyrim stuttering and temporary freezes. Like, when it freezes I can still hear everything in-game and it won't ever stay that way for more than 10-30sec.

I've tried almost everything from; using STEP and following the guide to a T when setting up .ini's. As well as using Crash fixes, SKSE Plugin Preloader, One Tweak, LOOT, TES5Edit, and referring to STEP.

I have included information about what's going on below. If there is anything else someone can think of PLEASE let me know. I've spent at LEAST 15hours trying to figure out wth is going on.

 

Load Order

 

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0 0 Skyrim.esm
1 1 Update.esm
2 2 Dawnguard.esm
3 3 HearthFires.esm
4 4 Dragonborn.esm
5 5 Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp
6 6 SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esm
7 7 ClimatesOfTamriel.esm
8 8 hdtHighHeel.esm
9 9 ApachiiHair.esm
10 a LevelersTower.esm
11 b HighResTexturePack01.esp
12 c HighResTexturePack02.esp
13 d HighResTexturePack03.esp
14 e SkyUI.esp
15 f ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp
16 10 ClimatesOfTamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp
17 11 SMIM-DragonbornTernFix.esp
18 12 SMIM-DungeonsCliffsIceSkirts.esp
19 13 Purewaters.esp
20 14 RaceMenuMorphsCBBE.esp
21 15 dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
22 16 CharacterMakingExtender.esp
23 17 EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp
24 18 Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
25 19 Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
26 1a Populated Lands Roads Paths Legendary.esp
27 1b hothtrooper44_ArmorPatch.esp
28 1c Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
29 1d Inconsequential NPCs.esp
30 1e Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
31 1f Weapons & Armor_TrueWeaponsLvlLists.esp
32 20 aMidianBorn_ContentAddon.esp
33 21 Immersive Weapons.esp
34 22 Masters of Death.esp
35 23 Babette.esp
36 24 aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp
37 25 Cloaks.esp
38 26 VariousGuardReplacer.esp
39 27 Immersive Patrols II.esp
40 28 Dragon Falls Manor.esp
41 29 SMIM-FarmhouseFlickeringFix.esp
42 2a Populated Cities 2.esp
43 2b ImperialGondorReplacer.esp
44 2c Populated Prisons.esp
45 2d Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul Lite.esp
46 2e isilNarsil.esp
47 2f BGSMerpsGondorianArmament.esp
48 30 WeaponsArmorFixes_ImmersiveWeapons_Patch.esp
49 31 Auto Unequip Ammo.esp
50 32 Tembtra Thief Armor.esp
51 33 Companion_Sooji.esp
52 34 Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp
53 35 TheEyesOfBeauty.esp
54 36 Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp
55 37 DreamBurrowsRegalHuntsmanArmor.esp
56 38 TERAArmors_CBBE.esp
57 39 Both Imp and SC-No respawn.esp
58 3a DSerArcheryGameplayOverhaul.esp
59 3b Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

 

 

System Performance

 

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http://i.imgur.com/KtLs2yL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also, encountered this problem as well. I don't know if it relates all. I just thought I would throw it in there as I am having issues with it as well.

 

It has happened twice. Once when loading one of my saves (i fixed by reinstalling Closer quivers and AGO mods, then organizing LOOT again) and the other time was just random after playing for about 30min.

 

 

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http://i.imgur.com/fCioDjB.jpg

 

Edited April 30, 2017 by EnDz87

[talen55]

Have you uninstalled something that wants to stay there, like resources that needed it? if so reinstall it and it typiclly works its selfout. If you havn't and its messing up, flush your library, new save, no mods, and slowly add mods one at a time, to see whats causing the problem.

[EnDz87]

  On 4/30/2017 at 1:59 PM, talen55 said:

Have you uninstalled something that wants to stay there, like resources that needed it? if so reinstall it and it typiclly works its selfout. If you havn't and its messing up, flush your library, new save, no mods, and slowly add mods one at a time, to see whats causing the problem.

 

Your answer seems a little vague...

 

I might end up doing that, BUT if anyone has any other recommendations or has heard of these issues please speak up before I "flush" everything and end up spending another 15 hours playing for x amount of time on each individual mod to see which one is the problem. We're talking about roughly 60 mods times the amount of playtime it takes to either come up with a random error again or decide "well maybe it isn't this one".

[Algabar]

Do you use ENB? And do you have any texture replacers (especially 2k or even 4k textures) installed? I'm asking because replacers wouldn't be visible in your load order.

 

Also, did you try making a backup of your ini files outside their usual folder and letting the game replace the ini files with standard versions? Are these lag spikes related to certain situations in the game (like e.g. crowded towns or interiors with lots of NPCs - Whiterun and especially the Windhlem docks are notorious for this kind of lag).

 

Did you try starting a new game? Performance problems can also arise from older savegames with orphaned scripts and other data from previously installed mods, that are no longer there. Starting a new game might show, if it's an issue with your load order - or your savegame.

 

From what I've seen so far, freezes and stuttering are VRAM or RAM issues rather than problems caused by a single mod. It's rather a problem of demanding meshes and textures in combination with not optimized settings in your inis, ENB and SKSE. I'd rather look in this direction than disable mods one by one. This is always the last resort.

 

You can also try disabling the preloader for "Crash fixes". While "crash fixes" itself is great and almost a "must have" mod, personally I had no luck with the preloader and "UseOSAllocators=1". At least its worth a try - be it only for comparison.

[EnDz87]

  On 5/1/2017 at 8:53 PM, Algabar said:

Do you use ENB? And do you have any texture replacers (especially 2k or even 4k textures) installed? I'm asking because replacers wouldn't be visible in your load order.

 

Also, did you try making a backup of your ini files outside their usual folder and letting the game replace the ini files with standard versions? Are these lag spikes related to certain situations in the game (like e.g. crowded towns or interiors with lots of NPCs - Whiterun and especially the Windhlem docks are notorious for this kind of lag).

 

Did you try starting a new game? Performance problems can also arise from older savegames with orphaned scripts and other data from previously installed mods, that are no longer there. Starting a new game might show, if it's an issue with your load order - or your savegame.

 

From what I've seen so far, freezes and stuttering are VRAM or RAM issues rather than problems caused by a single mod. It's rather a problem of demanding meshes and textures in combination with not optimized settings in your inis, ENB and SKSE. I'd rather look in this direction than disable mods one by one. This is always the last resort.

 

You can also try disabling the preloader for "Crash fixes". While "crash fixes" itself is great and almost a "must have" mod, personally I had no luck with the preloader and "UseOSAllocators=1". At least its worth a try - be it only for comparison.

 

1. I do not use ENB, but I do however have Skyrim HD 2k textures installed.
2. I have made a backup for my .ini files and tried running them clean before editing them.
3. The lag spikes are not associated with being in towns/crowds. I can be in the middle of no where and it happen.
4. I have reinstalled Skyrim and started fresh at least 4 times now (with mods).
5. I thought it might also be a VRAM or RAM issue as well, but looking at the (system performance spoiler) it never got above an undesirable amount when it spiked (maybe I'm reading it wrong.)
6. I have tried running the game before ever using Crash fixes and the pre loader, with no luck

[Algabar]

Hmm... First of all, getting rid of stuttering is a difficult task in "Oldrim". Some slight stuttering is a "feature" of the engine, when you play with high resolution textures. I managed to get rid of it almost completely, but it took time... For me (on Win 7 64), ENB and a careful tweaking of its memory settings did the trick. On Win 10 or Win 8, where you have that 4 GB limit for 32 applications, it probably won't help that much.

 

TBH, I also downgraded a lot of my landscape textures to 1K. It's not that visible, but for me it was a huge performance boost. Not so much in terms of FPS, but regarding smooth gameplay.

 

So, what can you do?

- Try a performance friendly ENB and play around with the performance related settings (mostly memory, occlusion culling and AA) in enblocal (maybe also in the ENB config menu) a bit. Won't help much on Win 10/8 though.

- Try a different texture mod - like e.g. the "performance" version of "Noble Skyrim". That's what I got installed. And try, if removing the official HD texture packs helps with the stuttering. IMHO, there are better (and less memory intensive) texture replacers here on the Nexus. IMHO, with the official highres pack, you sacrifice a lot of performance for very little gain.

- Try if uninstalling some of those mods, that add NPCs to the game will help. NPCs can influence performance quite a bit.

- Try different settings for your "defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=" setting in SKSE.ini (found in Skyrim/data/SKSE). Try raising it in steps of 128. Maximum 1280, according to some sources 1024 only. Be careful: These settings will only take effect, if you disable the preloader for crash fixes. The "OSAllocator" and the SKSE settings are mutually exclusive. You can only use one type of memory management at a time.

- Try if compressing your textures helps: You can use "optimizer textures": http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/? Be very careful though and backup your textures before using it. Despite of what the description says, this CAN decrease texture quality in a visible way. Use at your own risk - and NEVER use compression on any body textures!

 

I know, that doesn't sound very encouraging. Unfortunately I don't know that "one fix to rule them all". Maybe someone else does? As I said, stuttering is a general issue with Skyrim. You can only try to minimize it. BTW, Skyrim SE runs much smoother and stable. Might be worth a try, too.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Algabar

[EnDz87]

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:00 PM, Algabar said:

Hmm... First of all, getting rid of stuttering is a difficult task in "Oldrim". Some slight stuttering is a "feature" of the engine, when you play with high resolution textures. I managed to get rid of it almost completely, but it took time... For me (on Win 7 64), ENB and a careful tweaking of its memory settings did the trick. On Win 10 or Win 8, where you have that 4 GB limit for 32 applications, it probably won't help that much.

 

TBH, I also downgraded a lot of my landscape textures to 1K. It's not that visible, but for me it was a huge performance boost. Not so much in terms of FPS, but regarding smooth gameplay.

 

So, what can you do?

- Try a performance friendly ENB and play around with the performance related settings (mostly memory, occlusion culling and AA) in enblocal (maybe also in the ENB config menu) a bit. Won't help much on Win 10/8 though.

- Try a different texture mod - like e.g. the "performance" version of "Noble Skyrim". That's what I got installed. And try, if removing the official HD texture packs helps with the stuttering. IMHO, there are better (and less memory intensive) texture replacers here on the Nexus. IMHO, with the official highres pack, you sacrifice a lot of performance for very little gain.

- Try if uninstalling some of those mods, that add NPCs to the game will help. NPCs can influence performance quite a bit.

- Try different settings for your "defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=" setting in SKSE.ini (found in Skyrim/data/SKSE). Try raising it in steps of 128. Maximum 1280, according to some sources 1024 only. Be careful: These settings will only take effect, if you disable the preloader for crash fixes. The "OSAllocator" and the SKSE settings are mutually exclusive. You can only use one type of memory management at a time.

- Try if compressing your textures helps: You can use "optimizer textures": http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12801/? Be very careful though and backup your textures before using it. Despite of what the description says, this CAN decrease texture quality in a visible way. Use at your own risk - and NEVER use compression on any body textures!

 

I know, that doesn't sound very encouraging. Unfortunately I don't know that "one fix to rule them all". Maybe someone else does? As I said, stuttering is a general issue with Skyrim. You can only try to minimize it. BTW, Skyrim SE runs much smoother and stable. Might be worth a try, too.

 

 

So I went ahead and picked up Skyrim SE (because it was on sale), replaced all of my mods so they are SE compatible and it seems to have fixed all of my issues. Thank you for your help.

Edited May 3, 2017 by EnDz87