Problems with Tweaks and Mods

[Veltoss]

Hey everyone o/

 

I've spent the past couple of weeks, maybe more, working on modding my Skyrim to look as good as possible (along with gameplay mods of course!). I finally went through the STEP guide, have great textures, lots of fixes and improvements, etc.

 

One thing that I have wasted far too much time on is getting ini tweaks to work without freezing, stuttering, or crashing my game. I'll start by explaining why I am so confused at ini tweaks breaking it.. I have a good computer.

 

 

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Motherboard: Intel BOXDZ68BC LGA 1155 Intel Z68

Processor: Intel® Core Sandy-Bridge i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon Saphire HD 7970 3GB GDDR5

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB)

 

The OS is running on a 6gb/s SSD and Skyrim/Steam is running on a 10,000RPM HD. AMD Catalyst version is 12.4. I had upgraded to 12.6, but I had thought that was causing my crashes at the time, though that has proven to not have been the problem.

 

I know that the problem is not related to overheating graphics card, and it isn't save game bloat. I have also done tons of testing and confirmed that it isn't being caused by my mods (except the ones I explain below).

 

The main tweaks that have caused it to act the worst is uGridsToLoad. I tried it at 9 first, which some people reported was stable with good computers. That caused crashing as soon as I moved far enough to load a new area. I also tried 7, which is still causing freezes (some short and some permanent) as well as crashes if I move through areas too fast (straight sprinting on a horse or using player.setav speedmult to fly through quickly).

 

Mods such as RCRN, Realistic Lighting, and ENB Enhanced Shaders FX seem to cause it to act even worse. They only add a few short freezes without the ini tweaks, but together they make it far worse. Without any lighting/fxaa mods and no ini tweaks, the game runs perfectly fine. I can use player.setav speedmult 500 and fly through the world like there is no tomorrow, loading up objects extremely quick, with not the slightest stutter or FPS drop.

 

So my question is, why the hell are these lighting mods and ini tweaks making such a big difference? Other people are running these mods along with ugridstoload at 7, and sometimes 9, without trouble, even though they have far less ram and older video cards. I have been setting the cell buffer and other information correctly I believe.

 

Stuff like iPreloadSizeLimit= and fMasterFilePreLoadMB= I have tried at numerous different levels and combinations, there does not seem to be much of a difference in my problems whether the settings are low or high.

 

There are also other tweaks I have made which may contribute to the problem or not. Here are both of my ini files:

 

Skyrim.ini

 

 

[General]

sLanguage=ENGLISH

sIntroSequence=

uExterior Cell Buffer=64

uGridsToLoad=7

iPreloadSizeLimit=104857600

fMasterFilePreLoadMB=320.0000

 

[Display]

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0

fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0

fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

bAllowScreenshot=1

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0

fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0

fDecalLifetime=750.0000

fNearDistance=25.0000

 

[Audio]

fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0

fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0

fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0

fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

 

[Grass]

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

 

[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, HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

 

[Combat]

fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

 

[Papyrus]

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=3000000000

[Water]

bReflectLODObjects=1

bReflectLODLand=1

bReflectSky=1

bReflectLODTrees=1

 

 

 

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini

 

 

[General]

fBrightLightColorB=1.0000

fBrightLightColorG=1.0000

fBrightLightColorR=1.0000

iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1

bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

[imagespace]

bDoDepthOfField=1

iRadialBlurLevel=2

[Display]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=4000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

iShadowSplitCount=2

iMaxAnisotropy=1

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=5000.0000

fGamma=1.0000

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=0

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1080

iSize W=1920

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000

iScreenShotIndex=8

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

bMainZPrepass=0

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=350

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series"

bFXAAEnabled=0

iShadowMapResolution=8192

fShadowBiasScale=0.2500

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iAdapter=0

iPresentInterval=1

iShadowFilter=3

bShadowsOnGrass=1

bTransparencyMultisampling=0

bDeferredShadows=1

bDrawShadows=1

[Grass]

b30GrassVS=0

fGrassStartFadeDistance=14000.0000

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=14000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]

bGamepadEnable=1

bCrosshairEnabled=1

fHUDOpacity=1.0000

bSaveOnPause=1

bSaveOnTravel=0

bSaveOnWait=0

bSaveOnRest=0

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=500000.0000

[GamePlay]

bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1

bShowQuestMarkers=1

iDifficulty=2

[interface]

bDialogueSubtitles=1

bGeneralSubtitles=0

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

bShowCompass=1

[Controls]

fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000

fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0340

bAlwaysRunByDefault=1

bInvertYValues=0

bGamePadRumble=1

bMouseAcceleration=0

bUseKinect=0

[Particles]

iMaxDesired=750

[saveGame]

fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]

fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000

fVal7=1.0000

uID7=83918598

fVal6=1.0000

uID6=83918599

fVal5=1.0000

uID5=83918595

fVal4=1.0000

uID4=83920013

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=1

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20

[Decals]

uMaxDecals=1000

bDecals=1

bSkinnedDecals=1

uMaxSkinDecals=100

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60

bDecalMultithreaded=1

[LOD]

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000

fLODFadeOutMultItems=8.0000

fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000

fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]

bEnableFileSelection=1

bShowAllResolutions=0

uLastAspectRatio=3

bMouseAcceleration=0

[blurShaderHDR]

bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[blurShader]

bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]

iWaterReflectHeight=512

iWaterReflectWidth=512

bUseWaterDisplacements=1

bUseWaterRefractions=1

bUseWaterReflections=1

bUseWaterDepth=1

 

 

 

Like I said, the question here is why I am having so much trouble, even with low level ini tweaks, on my computer. My graphics card is very new, and I have far more ram than any sane human being. None of my specs are bad, I don't have overheating, etc. I figure I must be doing something wrong. Are there some ini tweaks I could do to make the game use more of my ram or something perhaps? Also, if you have any suggestions on new ini tweaks I haven't tried yet that may help graphics once my other problems are fixed, I'd be glad to hear those too. :tongue:

[Veltoss]

Bah :(

 

I've tried several more things and still no change in the small freezes/stuttering. I tried disabling several mods I thought might be able to cause it. I tried using fresh ini files with no tweaks at all. I removed all RCRN/ENB/FXAA mods. I did a "verify integrity of game cache" with steam, and even though it found one bad file and replaced it, still no difference.