Skyrim Distant Terrain Issues, PLEASE HELP!

[kibuza]

Hey, I really need some help with this problem. I've spent the better part of this afternoon racking my brain trying to figure it out.

 

For some reason, landmarks such as Whiterun and Bleak Falls Barrow are not visible to me until I get very close to them. I have tried clean .ini's set at Ultra settings ( which I know should be able to see the landmarks ) but nothing is working. It's very annoying to be walking with Hadvar and have him point up to Bleak Falls Barrow when all I can see is a small crater. I can't even see the guard tower that is on the way to Bleak Falls. I have tried various .ini tweaks from all over the internet but nothing seems to be working. Please help, even speculation might lead to some solution so it is much welcomed.

 

My game is heavily modded ( Of course ) I have heard that NMM has a way to get a list of all mods installed, but I have no idea how to do it, and I have work in 20min, so I don't have time to figure it out.

 

Please leave any ideas or possible solutions ( and maybe how to print my mod list ) as it could be very helpful in helping me solve this.

[Georgiegril]

Are you running BOSS for optimal load order (if not, do that first) then you can print out the load order from the .txt report generated by BOSS.

[kibuza]

Welp, here it is. It's a large list I know. The only problem is, I have looked over all of these mods and none seem like they would have anything to do with LOD distances. I have been running BOSS the entire time, and this is what it recommends. No error or warning messages.

 

Skyrim.esm Active

Update.esm Active

Dawnguard.esm Active

Populated Cities NPCListMaster.esm Active

HBE.esm Active

JSwords.esm Active

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm Active

Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm

HighResTexturePack01.esp Active

HighResTexturePack02.esp Active

lightplacement.esp Active

TalosShrineFix.esp Active

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp Active

HighResTexturePackFix.esp Active

RevampedExteriorFog.esp Active

Improved Combat Sounds v2.1.esp Active

RemoveAmbientInteriorFog.esp Active

ClimatesOfTamriel-VanillaNights-Lvl-1.esp

Weapons and Armor fixes.esp Active

Note: For 'WAF+SPO+CCO' users. No conflicts with 'Smithing Perks Overhaul' and 'Complete Crafting Overhaul'.(checked in FNVEdit)

Weapons and Armor fixes - Hacks.esp Active

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp Active

BellyachesNewDragonSpecies.esp Active

BetterArchmagesRobes.esp Active

Birds.esp Active

Chesko_WearableLantern.esp Active

Chesko_WearableLantern_Guards.esp Active

ClamsDropPearls.esp Active

Craftable and Placeable Havok-enabled Bedrolls .esp Active

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp Active

Incompatible with: Dawnguard (Official Bethesda DLC). Get the necessary compatibility patch from the enhanced blood textures page.

HarvestOverhaul.esp Active

HarvestOverhaulCreatures.esp Active

Immersive Patrols.esp Active

Immersive Brigands.esp Active

KillThemGenerals.esp Active

Lost Art of the Blacksmith.esp Active

lt_better_horses.esp Active

Perfect Legionnaire 3.0.esp Active

ScenicCarriages.esp Active

SDO Full-LOD - Giant Campfires.esp

SDO Full-LOD - The Morthal Swamp Complete.esp

SDO Full-LOD - Waterfall Effects.esp

SDO Full-LOD - Whiterun Trundra Creeks.esp

Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp Active

Cloaks.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev}}

Note: Use only one cloaks*esp

daedric_phelm.esp Active

hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev}}

Insanity's Dragonbane.esp Active

Insanity's Goldbrand.esp Active

Insanity's Ice Blade of the Monarch.esp Active

JSwordsDistributionBalancePlugin.esp Active

Smithing Perks Overhaul - Balanced.esp Active

Note: Use balanced version with Complete Crafting Overhaul mod

Complete Crafting Overhaul.esp Active

Note: Will conflict with mods that modify existing recipes.

MM_BeluaSangunaireRevisited.esp Active

mm_BeluaSanguinareRevisitedDialogueFixes.esp Active

mm_BeluaSanguinareRevisitedLootTables.esp Active

Masters of Death.esp Active

Ash Pile Expiration.esp Active

Waterbreathing Breathless Emerge.esp Active

Better Dynamic Snow.esp Active

dD - Easy Lift Bodies and Objects - Light Only.esp Active

HBE_CarryWeight200.esp Active

HBE_Vendors_WeaponsArmors_Rarer.esp Active

HBE_DelayedPotions.esp Active

HBE_BarterRatio63.esp Active

HBE_Vendors_SoulGems_Rarer.esp Active

HBE_Vendors_Components_Rarer.esp Active

HBE_Loot.esp Active

Lightweight Scrolls.esp Active

NoAutoQuestStart_ThievesGuild_High.esp Active

dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp Active

dD-No Twitching Dragon Death Animation.esp Active

NonEssentialChilds.esp Active

Distant Detail.esp Active

SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp Active

Soul Gems Differ - NS - E.esp Active

VariousGuardReplacer.esp Active

Unique Region Names.esp Active

Populated Cities.esp Active

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp Active

Realistic Running Speed.esp Active

Predator Vision.esp Active

ToL_SKSE_by_Brevi.esp Active

BFSEffects.esp Active

DeadlySpellImpacts.esp Active

DeadlySpellImpacts - Two Fire.esp Active

Realistic crime report radius.esp Active

The Dance of Death.esp Active

DeadlyCombat_UnarmedFix.esp Active

Note: Use only one DeadlyCombat*.esp

DeadlyCombat_GiantsAIFix.esp Active

Note: Use only one DeadlyCombat*.esp

DeadlyCombat.esp Active

Note: Use only one DeadlyCombat*.esp

ACE Speech.esp Active

Balanced_Destruction.esp Active

Balanced_Magic_Adept.esp Active

Note: Choose only one of the below - optional if you prefer vanilla settings or other mods which adjust these values.

ACE Enchanting.esp Active

ACE Smithing.esp Active

ABT - Loot Arrows -25%.esp Active

ABT - Faster Arrows Improved +25%.esp Active

ABT - Faster Bolts Improved +50%.esp Active

ABT - Merchants Arrows +25%.esp Active

ABT - Progressive Damage (BS and CCO).esp Active

ABT - Recover 25% Less Arrows and Bolts.esp Active

TheEyesOfBeauty.esp Active

XCEMwW.esp Active

UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul.esp Active

Note: For safe install need dismiss all your followers, save, delete all included mods, load again, save and install UFO. For safe uninstall or update see special instructions on mod page.

UFO - Dawnguard AddOn.esp Active

Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp Active

3DNPC.esp Active

moveitLWT.esp Active

Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp Active

Timescale12.esp Active

Animated Weapon Enchants.esp Active

WATER.esp Active

WATER - Get Wet.esp Active

Blacksmithforge water fix.esp Active

dD-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp Active

 

Please help, it's very immersion breaking.

[Georgiegril]

Distant Detail.esp Active

 

Well that's the only one that screams out "maybe relevant" to me.

It is possible that your computer's VRAMis being taxed, and so the problem is being caused by it not rendering....

Also, I know you said you tried adjusting the settings...have you tried adjusting the settings beyond the slider scales by changing the values in prefs.ini? There are a couple of lines that might be affecting what you see. The Geforce skyrim tweak guide does a better job explaining these than I could, and they have pictures... The link I posted will take you to the object detail settings page, but if you keep going there is more about .ini tweaks.

 

Anyway not sure if any of that will help but I hope something does!

[kibuza]

I actually just finished checking out that guide, it didn't work. I really thought it would help too, I was very disappointed.

 

That esp I actually just added recently too to see if it would fix the problem by overwriting some change that another mod had applied. Thanks for being consistent with some help, any other ideas?

[kibuza]

I actually just finished checking out that guide, it didn't work. I really thought it would help too, I was very disappointed.

 

That esp I actually just added recently too to see if it would fix the problem by overwriting some change that another mod had applied. Thanks for being consistent with some help, any other ideas?

 

*Oops double post, sorry*

Edited August 27, 2012 by kibuza

[Brandy1123]

I would originally agree with Georgiegril. You are running a number of extremely large mods and others that require much more of your resources then intended. Now, with that being said, why do you have the HD packs from Bethesda still active? Even at XCE it is required to have them disabled. I would start by disabling those even though you have a "fix" mod, you could be having problems (remove that also). BOSS is not definitive and is often wrong as it is not updated as often as mods are. Its last release date was 8 Aug. I have no idea what version you have.

 

My guess is still you are drawing close to the 4GB limit.

 

Check and see if the following is of any assistance

 

open up skyrim.ini ---> look under [general]

 

uGridsToLoad= <----- 7 or higher can start to give you problems

uExterior Cell Buffer= <----- uGrids # + 1 times itself (if uGrid = 7 then this is 7+1) or 8 times 8 = 64

iPreloadSizeLimit= <----- do not exceed this : 262144000

 

These all affect distance and visual and all number renderable items. You can go as high as 9 on uGrids, but really above 7 and you become frightfully unstable. Its default is usually 5. play around with these and see if that makes any difference. The number of cells you load (what you are doing) can make a huge impact on game stability and playability.

 

Not sure what else to offer here. I do wish you luck in finding a solution (BTW you do have a mod that said does not work with Dawnguard, make sure you have the patch)

[kibuza]

I would originally agree with Georgiegril. You are running a number of extremely large mods and others that require much more of your resources then intended. Now, with that being said, why do you have the HD packs from Bethesda still active? Even at XCE it is required to have them disabled. I would start by disabling those even though you have a "fix" mod, you could be having problems (remove that also). BOSS is not definitive and is often wrong as it is not updated as often as mods are. Its last release date was 8 Aug. I have no idea what version you have.

 

My guess is still you are drawing close to the 4GB limit.

 

Check and see if the following is of any assistance

 

open up skyrim.ini ---> look under [general]

 

uGridsToLoad= <----- 7 or higher can start to give you problems

uExterior Cell Buffer= <----- uGrids # + 1 times itself (if uGrid = 7 then this is 7+1) or 8 times 8 = 64

iPreloadSizeLimit= <----- do not exceed this : 262144000

 

These all affect distance and visual and all number renderable items. You can go as high as 9 on uGrids, but really above 7 and you become frightfully unstable. Its default is usually 5. play around with these and see if that makes any difference. The number of cells you load (what you are doing) can make a huge impact on game stability and playability.

 

Not sure what else to offer here. I do wish you luck in finding a solution (BTW you do have a mod that said does not work with Dawnguard, make sure you have the patch)

 

XCE requires them to be disabled? That doesn't really seem worth it... I need to lose a bunch of HiRes world textures just for a couple better looking textures for NPCs? Seems like a raw deal.

 

I am using the newest version of BOSS, downloaded 2 days ago, lol. I have uGrids set to 5, with uExterior set to 36 ( Value according to recommended equation ) although checking that iPreload setting, mine is set to 419430400. What does this value do, if you don't mind me asking?

[stabbykitteh]

I think what Brandy meant was this:

 

1. Disable the two .esp files HighResTexturePack01.esp and HighResTexturePack02.esp

2. Go to the Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder and open Skyrim.ini

3. Find the [Archive] section in the .ini file

4. Add the following two entries: HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa

5. Your .ini should look like this

6. Now you should be able to use texture replacements as usual

 

That's from XCE's readme. With the esp's for the Official Hi Rez DLC active, you aren't getting the benefit of your texture packs (unless that's changed since the latest patch).

 

Also, if you haven't already, try Vano's Hi Rez DLC Optimized Still looks good, has all kinds of options and cuts down on memory usage.

[Georgiegril]

Well, I don't use the hi-res add-on because my graphics card is an older one, and I had to make concessions somewhere. I find I like other modders hi-res options better anyway, and I have noticed a lot of people with better computers than mine dont use it because it affects their performance. It might be worth disabling and seeing of the difference is appreciable. I think Brandy's point was not simply that there was a conflict with XCE but that the hi-res causes problems with a number of mods, and disabling it might help overall.

 

I agree with her, too, that the ugridstoload could improve your distance, but I didn't mention it earlier because if you are close to your maximum load, changing this value could push you over, and one you do it, you really cannot go back unless you start a new game without serious stability issues. I use 7 grids, but it did require me to give up some other options (like SkyMo, the hiRez, etc.)

 

The preload I have is iPreloadSizeLimit=268435456....I think it is the amount of RAM the system takes on loading. I am not sure that the limit Brandy mentions is actually the limit anymore, it was back in the day....I think that was when Dual core 2GB Ram was more typical. I have a quad core with 6GB RAM, and I do not have a problem. I could be wrong, but if your setting was a problem, I think the main symptom would be crashes on loading. Maybe Brandy could explain this better, especially if I am wrong?

 

If you really like the hi-rez, then what you might try is removing all of your mods, starting with that one and then adding mods in small groups based on how essential they are to you until you start noticing the problem.

 

Edit: haha Flummox, touche! The ninja payback!:tongue:

Edited August 27, 2012 by Georgiegril