Memory Taxing Mods for Skyrim

[Killerbuddy]

I figured I would post this to be of some help to people. In my quest of making a stable game( LOL ), I have been through a number of mods that if they were all active with each other, would cause CTDs among other issues with your game. THIS IS NOT SAYING THEY ARE INCOMPATIBLE. They may, or may not be incompatible. Most of these are compatible. The reason for this which is more widely known now is because of the game engine memory limitation it has. This limitation gets better with each patch that Bethesda puts out for Skyrim, so if you see a new patch come out, and want to try and see if you can cram more resource heavy mods in, that would be the best tiem to try. Also, I have heard that SKSE helps with adding extra room for scripts( not specifically what it does, but this is the general idea of what it does ), so make sure you get SKSE if you do not have it.

 

Here are some resource heavy mods that I am aware of:

 

-The Quest series of mods by ThirteenOranges( since I have played through the first three of them, there really is no need to keep them active. You do get rewards and some bonuses, but in the long run I think just deactivating those three to make room for others is the best choice here. I am quite a fan of his work, and his current project, The Sea of Ghosts, is fairly a lot larger and you would want to keep this active in your load order for the content he provides! He is a big Morrowind fan, so expect a lot of riddles/secrets and having to use your brain to complete quests )

-Expanded Towns and Villages

-WARZONES

-Moonpath to Elsweyr( very excellent mod, but I haven't used it in quite a while cause of how taxing it is, also waiting for a lot more of it to be done, even though he has already done so much with it )

-Become King of Riverhelm( both the new and and old one of course )

-Whiterun Outskirts Market

-7K Whiterun

-Unofficial Skyrim Patch( due to the many fixes it provides, I find this quite worth it )

-Expanded Winterhold Ruins

-Pinewood

-Primby Village

-CLARALUX( with the .esp version, it is more taxing but the mod itself works more as he intended, the .esm is less taxing but there are some issues with the lighting sometimes )

-Open Cities( this one is very taxing on the game, do not be suprised if you get a lot of CTDs on startup or missing statics with a lot of the other mods listed here enabled )

 

 

Examples of resource heavy mods are: quest mods, new lands, and town additions.

This is what I have found out so far in my time with the Skyrim community. I have gotten this info with my testing around with and almost unstable game( lol ), but the main idea I found out from mod authors such as ThirteenOranges, and muppetpuppet. Thank you guys for enlightening us!

If anyone else has more info/better info, please share it here. I am writing this post so to help other peopel that may have no idea why their games are not working, and hopefully they will search through these forums and find the reasons and possible solutions for their problems!

 

Also, I ask people who have stable games with a number of these mods on to post their stable load orders. I would like to get a known good load order list so people know what the limits are with their favorite mods. Thakns to everyone out there for helping out with info and troubleshooting!

 

Check out this thread about enabling Papyrus logs for another avenue of trying to lacate issues with your game:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/703954-are-you-having-constant-exterior-ctds-ive-finally-found-your-solution/page__st__200__gopid__5843626#entry5843626

 

Note: Even though there maybe scripts in your log at the time of crashing, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THOSE SCRIPTS ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR IT CRASHING. Those scripts maybe part of the game itself, but this does help in trying to figure out if your save game is riddled with too many scripts that do not exist in your game anymore, but are stuck in your save game( due to how Papyrus works for Skyrim, which is very very bad for save games lol ). Lesson learned is: do go uninstalling/re-installing mods all the time, you may in fact destroy your save game!

Edited July 24, 2012 by Killerbuddy

[LenaMarie]

I have been looking into this a lot too, and everything you've said makes complete sense to me. I'd like to add though, I think Skyrim has a upper limit on how many 'normal' mods you add as well, I've found any number above 50 or so starts breaking the game and this is just armor, weapon and other fluff. The most I've been successful with is 39 addon or fluff mods (Scenic Carriages, Dance of Death, Immersive armors etc) + 1 and only one large mod.

 

Also for the list, I'd like to add Maids of Skyrim being really resource heavy, also the House addon mod (that modifies all the homes with more space and items) and Monster Wars. Sometimes new houses mods will also do it even if its in its own world space.

 

At this rate, I dont know how Skyrim is going to handle several official mods, reports indicate lots of issues due this same problem on the xbox with Dawnguard.

Edited July 19, 2012 by LenaMarie

[JackNitro]

I think people just need to realize that this is a different engine than Gamebryo, and it's going to handle mods differently as a result. I've had literally hundreds of mods running for FO3 without so much as a hiccup; I suspect others expect to be able to do the same with Skyrim, which simply isn't the case.

[Killerbuddy]

@LenaMarie

Yeah, probably the reason why we haven't heard of a date for Dawnguard for the PC, because they are probably working on stability issues, and trying to get it so that Dawnguard doesn't crash your game lol. Basically what I have experienced, script heavy mods, and mods that add static pieces are generally where you get your issues. When you start introducing those in, your game needs to use resources to run those extra scripts/generate those static things in your game, hence why having particular types of mods crash your game when there seems to be no incompatabilities. Truth is, there is no incompatabilities, it just that your game is getting overworked and essentially the "memory bubble" pops and you crash =/ Unfortunately, people without the knowledge that it is infact the game itself, and not the mod, go onto the mod's home page and starts berating the mod, when in fact there is nothing wrong with it! I try my best to spread knowledge that you need to explore other possibilitiesfirst before attacking someone for their work!

 

@JackNitro

Ah yes, how decieved everyone was when they started cramming mods into their game, only to find that it made the game unstable and crash lol. Unfortunately, I did not play Oblivion for the PC( and I never will ), so any knowledge that could have been gained from that for me has passed by. Although Skyrim runs on a completely new engine, looks like we are all learning its limits( as are Bethesda ), and I am sure things will get better with defferent types up patchs( both official and unofficial ).

[LenaMarie]

Let me let you guys in on Bethesda's dirty little secret. This isnt a 'brand new engine' thats marketing BS. I thought everyone knew this? The Creation Engine is a very heavily modified Gamebryo engine, THAT is why it still has the same problems stretching back to Morrowind. Its indeed why we still have problems with it handling a lot of mods, or large mods.

 

Yes I know, Proof for those too lazy to google:

 

http://peter.corrosivetruths.org/2011/12/21/is-skyrims-creation-just-gamebryo/

http://www.gameskyrim.com/the-creation-engine-ground-build-hybrid-t242733.html

Edited July 20, 2012 by LenaMarie

[Killerbuddy]

Didn't mean a "brand new engine developed by scratch", but just a new engine regardless even though it is a modified version of their gamebryo.

[JackNitro]

Let me let you guys in on Bethesda's dirty little secret. This isnt a 'brand new engine' thats marketing BS. I thought everyone knew this? The Creation Engine is a very heavily modified Gamebryo engine, THAT is why it still has the same problems stretching back to Morrowind. Its indeed why we still have problems with it handling a lot of mods, or large mods.

 

Yes I know, Proof for those too lazy to google:

 

http://peter.corrosivetruths.org/2011/12/21/is-skyrims-creation-just-gamebryo/

http://www.gameskyrim.com/the-creation-engine-ground-build-hybrid-t242733.html

 

Few engines are actually built entirely from scratch. Most borrow code from other engines or even use others as a base. By the way, here's another "dirty little secret" - most of the people complaining about the limitations of the new engine are the same people who bitched about the "outdatedness" of Gamebryo, i.e. you, so arguably its your fault that Bethesda was pressured into developing a less-than-perfect compromise in the first place!

[LenaMarie]

Let me let you guys in on Bethesda's dirty little secret. This isnt a 'brand new engine' thats marketing BS. I thought everyone knew this? The Creation Engine is a very heavily modified Gamebryo engine, THAT is why it still has the same problems stretching back to Morrowind. Its indeed why we still have problems with it handling a lot of mods, or large mods.

 

Yes I know, Proof for those too lazy to google:

 

http://peter.corrosivetruths.org/2011/12/21/is-skyrims-creation-just-gamebryo/

http://www.gameskyrim.com/the-creation-engine-ground-build-hybrid-t242733.html

 

Few engines are actually built entirely from scratch. Most borrow code from other engines or even use others as a base. By the way, here's another "dirty little secret" - most of the people complaining about the limitations of the new engine are the same people who bitched about the "outdatedness" of Gamebryo, i.e. you, so arguably its your fault that Bethesda was pressured into developing a less-than-perfect compromise in the first place!

 

Thats not a secret, and its a fact. I bet the old engine couldnt handle even Vanilla Skyrim to begin with, so this is better then nothing. They could have done with making a full engine from the ground up considering how many of their games use this system. Gamebyro is horrible with memory allocation, these issues have plagued bethesda games for over 10 years. Its going to bite them in the ass when the next DLC comes out if they cant nail this down now.

[Killerbuddy]

Well, they won't release the next DLC until they better optomize their game engine to actually be able to run Skyrim with Dawnguard. And hopefully they will optomize it so well that we can still use mods with it. Hopefully.

[JanusForbeare]

It's worth mentioning that 90% of CTDs are rooted in graphics mods. For instance, I've heard a few people complain that Moonpath to Elseweyr causes CTDs. It doesn't. I played through it on an average gaming rig with absolutely no problems, even my framerate was solid. However, now that I've installed ENB, WATER, and realistic lighting, I can't go back to Elseweyr without terrible FPS drops and constant CTDs. Is it muppetpuppet's fault that I chose to install memory-draining graphics mods, when vanilla Skyrim was already chewing up 70-80% of my available RAM? Of course not.

 

It would be nice to be able to run Skyrim on Ultra with the maximum draw distance, ENB, realistic lighting, WATER, WIS, Open Cities, etc. etc. etc. but unless you stole your computer from Cheyenne Mountain, that's probably not possible.