Memory Taxing Mods for Skyrim

[Killerbuddy]

@JanusForbeare

That is not the point here. What you are describing is a seperate issue. Yes, I know that texture mods relate to issues and CTDs as well, but those you are describing are more of a VRAM issue, not the issue I am trying to point out here. Here, I am pointing out that mods that are large and deal with placing more static pieces into the world usually cannot co-exist with each other due to them being so resource demanding of the game engine. Also, I am in no way giving flack to the mod authors of the mods that are listed in my post. As you can see, I encourage people to experiment and see what variations of mods they can get working together, then posting them here for other people's knowledge, just in case they do want to try out a few of these mods in the future, they know here what types of limits are done. WATER deals with static stuff as well as textures, so installing that can lead to issues that is not VRAM related. Same with SMIM. I have never used an ENB mod before, although they do look very nice. And lol, even if you did steal your computer from Cheyenne Mountain, you would not be able to run those three mods in conjunction with each other due to Skyrim's game engine.

[AustinScott]

I use Mod Organize due to the fact I spend more time tinkering with adding Skyrim mods, messing with the load order etc;etc and I've noticed a method of predicitng a games stability from loading it and completing the Helgen quest.

 

1) When starting a new game, after hitting 'new game' if the icon stays on the screen for longer than three seconds its certain that loading most of those saves later on will leave you hanging on the load screen, and will eventually crash. I think it's when I load so many extra mods and manage to get it to start, eventually the engine can't keep up and craps itself and dies.

2) The carriage ride to helgen. When you reach the last band in the road, if there are extremely low res trees, or floating trees, or Helgen is missing walls buildings, is from loading mods that add or change vanilla locations, or add new locations .For example beautifel white run will work fine by itself. So will King of Riverhelm, or expanded villages. When used in combination they produce exact same errors listed previously. Though they dont directly effect each other, the way in which they are loaded produces the same results

 

Also the current version of expanded villages seems to be much more sensitive, reslting in CTDS when used with any of the mods youve listed.

[DubstepKid]

Vurts Skyrim Flora Overhaul is another memory taxing one (med res version didn't matter). Haven't had a single CTD since I uninstalled it.

[Killerbuddy]

@AustinScott

That is funny you say that, because that is exactly how I know which mods are very resource intensive! I guess I should've posted those things to show how you can find out which mods are taxing up the system lol. I also use the MO, great tool, love it. Just waiting to see if the author updates it for SkyProc stuff to work through it. For whatever reason, the way MO tricks the game into seeing it's directory as the game directory does not sit well with programs that stem from SkyProc( i.e. Automatic Variants, ASIS, and SkyBash ).

[Killerbuddy]

So Bethesda has put up the beta for 1.7 which has seemed to have fix the edited npc dialouge bug that 1.6 introduced( according to Arthmoor who is spearheading the USKP now that Kivan is on reprieve ). Arthmoor is still investigating to see if the entire modified npc dialouge bug has been fixed. The patch states that is also provides some memory optomizations and stability. It seems now that the game can handle more resource heavy mods, but needs some investigating.

 

I will look into what I can also throw at my game to make it blow up, but I would like to give a little note before well all try cramming new mods into our game. I would suggest making a note somewhere listing all your mods that you have right before this 1.7 patch( or just a list of the mods that are resource intensive ), and keep it for future referance. I was thinking that this patch could possibly be the foundation for the DLC coming up, and if we start getting Skyrim to its max, when the DLC rolls in, we may ned to backtrack to less resource intensive mods to be able to run the DLC. I do not konw if when they release the DLC it will come with its own optomizations, allowing us to play it with all our currently instaled mods, but just in case, DO THIS! It ma save you some time and headaches if there is need for this.

[Roentgens]

This has been a very helpful discussion as most of the hangs and CTDs I encountered were a consequence of pushing the game too hard. After disabling the Texture Pack Combiner, these issues disappeared. It's a fact that certain areas are oversubscribed. Whiterun and its surrounding areas are especially bad as others have said.

 

For reference I only had the following mods:

 

Whiterun Outskirts Market

LC-Become King of Riverhelm

Texture Pack Combiner (Skyrim 2K, Serious HD, Skyrim Realistic Overhaul, Vurt's Flora, Lush Trees and Grass)

 

And it resulted in nonstop CTDs and hangs all around Whiterun.

[Killerbuddy]

@Roentgens

Also, I do not know if the author of Riverhelm had fixed some possible compatability issues with Whiterun Outskirts Market, since I did read in the comments section of his mod that there were some issues between the two. Although, I am not sure if the issues reported were due to people pushing their game too hard, since by the look of things, there is some distance between the two altered areas. Skyrim has such a temper though hahaha.

[steve40]

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

 

That's not proof and it is in fact misleading. The reason why the word "Gamebryo" can be found in the Skyrim executable (as well as previous games) is simply because these engines can play Gamebyro animations (d'oh), so of course this name will be found several times in the code!

[steve40]

I reckon one of the biggest causes of random CTD's (one which players quickly forget was their fault all along :whistling: ) is changing "uGridsToLoad=5" in their Skyrim.ini to 7 or higher :tongue:

[blitzen]

EDIT: Regardless of the value of those links and whether or not it's a new graphics engine, I don't believe the problems we primarily have are related to the Creation Engine. They are related to memory management, which is a separate subsystem.