Skyrim Graphics Settings File?

[Muncywolverine]

Hi guys,

 

I accidentaly corrupted my backup file for skyrim so i brought over my laptop's old skyrim folder. I haven't touched my laptop for a few months so i had to let steam validate the cache files to get patches i was missing, but now i have a problem. All of the little graphics tweaks i did aren't there anymore. If i copy-pasted one of my corrupt file's skyrim.prefs over to the new file, will the game have all of my little graphics tweaks?

 

Thanks in advance

-Muncywolverine

[Georgiegril]

if you have a copy of the old one, you can use it as a guide to fix the new one. However, I noticed a few new lines were added by 1.6, so it might be better just to use the old one as a guide, changing what you need changed, and also checking to make sure any lines you had added are replaced, if the patch deleted them (that also happened with mine). In doing that, you will install the patches from the old file. However, I'm a little unclear, are you patching from a laptop to a tower or different laptop? Unless you are working with the same computer that the ini files are from, you probably wouldn't want to copy your prefs wholesale.. Some of the settings will be specific to your screen, and your graphics driver, which might be different, so you would in that case be better off for sure doing manual adjustments of the new ini, thoughtfully based on the old one.

 

Also so graphics changes can be made through your graphics driver interface, and not all of these are reflected in the ini files, so if the game isn't looking the same you might also want to look at that.

 

Hope this helps!

[Muncywolverine]

if you have a copy of the old one, you can use it as a guide to fix the new one. However, I noticed a few new lines were added by 1.6, so it might be better just to use the old one as a guide, changing what you need changed, and also checking to make sure any lines you had added are replaced, if the patch deleted them (that also happened with mine). In doing that, you will install the patches from the old file. However, I'm a little unclear, are you patching from a laptop to a tower or different laptop? Unless you are working with the same computer that the ini files are from, you probably wouldn't want to copy your prefs wholesale.. Some of the settings will be specific to your screen, and your graphics driver, which might be different, so you would in that case be better off for sure doing manual adjustments of the new ini, thoughtfully based on the old one.

 

Also so graphics changes can be made through your graphics driver interface, and not all of these are reflected in the ini files, so if the game isn't looking the same you might also want to look at that.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Let me explain my situation :

 

For some reason recently i've been experiencing bad lag-like stuttering and CTD's in my game. I thought this was because i had installed ENB enhanced motion picture, which reduces performance. To fix this i got rid of ENB and tried playing, but the issue was still there. So i threw out my entire skyrim folder and copy-pasted in my backup, only to find that i still experience lag and CTD's.

 

So i figured "Ok, my skyrim folder must be corrupted" and wired over my laptop's skyrim folder over the windows 7 home network. My laptop has not been updated with the latest patch or any of my mod shenanigans, so i figured it would be pure. I brought it over and let steam validate the files/download the latest patch, and now i want to do the shadow tweaks and stuff that were in my prefs file.

 

From your post i'm assuming just a copy-paste would be a bad idea. Also do you know of any mods that would cause the issues i was describing? I don't really run any HD mods.

[Georgiegril]

Well ENB mods can cause issues that remain eve after removal, but there are other causes, some mods, some not. There is a thread where the poster believes his recent stuttering was cause by his drivers (AMD); and NVidia drivers have also had a bunch of issues related to the new drivers and a change in the proper installation procedure. You could check those threads and try the solutions posted there if you think it describes your situation.

 

If this happened just ofter the patch, you may want to check your basic graphics settings on Skyrim (the ones you access on the first loading menu) I know after the patch, Skyrim was kind enough to set those to what it considered appropriate, which from my view was too low in some areas and too high on others. It also reticked the FXAA, which I had disabled. Things like that could cause lags, etc, and you might want to check that as well, before moving on to more drastic measures.

 

Also the pref.ini changes could help, especially if you think the problem began when they were changed. (I still think manual changes are better than copy-paste)

 

More Drastic Measures:

 

 

If you really want to determine the problem and hopefully solve it so that you can play without annoying interruptions, here is my suggestion:

 

Uninstall Skyrim completely using steam and also the delete local content option, Then look in your computer for any skyrim related folders/files. May of these are in programs/steam/steamapps/ but there are also some in Username/documents/games (that where your savegames are, you will want to delete those, or at least move them somewhere that Steam wont find them. Remove all your mods.

 

Then, reinstall the game through steam. Verify the cache. Start a new game with no mods. Do you find that you are still lagging/stuttering? Then it could be your computer rather than the game. Causes for that could be something simple, like your antivirus program updating in the background while you are trying to play. You can use a program like GBoost or GameBooster to she down unecessary processes while you play If it still is stuttering, you may have an issue with your computer's RAM. Not knowing your specs, but based on what you said earlier about the game working fine til recently, I am assuming your meet the basic requirements. However, if your computer's cache is full, it can limit the amount available in game, and the stuttering could be your computer waitng for RAM to be available. You can use a program like GPUZ to monitor your computers processes while you play. It should also tell you if any of your ram is no longer usable for some reason.The easiest fix for RAM is just to clear the cache, and that is probably the more common cause of RAM trouble, along with ram being resevered or utilized by other processes/apps.

 

So then if you try playing again, and the lags continue, you may want to look at your card. First make sure you have properly installed your card's drivers, whichever type you are using. There are links discussing this on the nexus either in technical or general discussion. Then, use graphics monitoring software is appropriate for your card (I use EVGA precision for my NVidia cards, but there are others like MSI After burner, etc depending on your card.) take a look at the temperature of your card and the GPU clock values..are there sudden spikes or dips? Does the card drop into 2d suddenly? If you have these issues, post back, because there are a few things that might influence this, from a dying card, to a dying power source, to dust in your computer....(and more!)

 

Anyway lets imiagine one of the above steps worked, At that point I would recommend playing vanilla until youexit the cave, and then adding mods back exactly as instructed by the mod author, read all of the readmes for every mod, looking to see if the mod has prerequisites or known conflicts with other mods.Run BOSS and then play for a but to check how the mod is working. Continue until you have all the mods you want or you get a problem. At that point, immediately work on mod troubleshooting. If you have corrupted files, the more travel saves, etc, the harder it will be to fix.

 

Likewise, if you are planning to make changes to your pref.ini file, the safest thing you can do (after creating a backup) is to make only one change at a time and then test it in game before making the next.

 

Anyway I didn't mean to write a novel. It's late hear, obviously I'm rambling. I hope something here will be of some help to you. If not, post back and I will try to be more coherent tomorrow!