Terrible LOD/Distant Terrain

[Evanesco]

I don't know what to do. I spent 300 bucks so I could upgrade my PC so it could run Skyrim and not look like it's shitty console versions. It doesn't except for one thing: the LOD on everything in the distance is still s***. It looks like early PS1 graphics. I'm sure you all know this by now. I can't play this game with the distance looking like that, and I especially can't play it when my game physically loads all of those objects at one time. I've started 6 playthroughs playing with my SkyrimPrefs file trying to change the uGrids settings, the blockdistance or whatever lines, and I can't get any of that nonsense to work. I don't see a change at all. I even installed Skyrim on an SSD to see if the visual assets would load faster in the distance, and it hasn't done s***. I just uninstalled Skyrim for the third time, so I can be sure I have a clean SkyrimPrefs file. I need help getting the distance in this game 1) not looking like a polygonal abortion and 2) transitioning smoothly between levels of detail, not spawning new meshes all at once in my entire FOV.

 

Also, all of these places on the web talking about .ini files, I've been tweaking the SkyrimPrefs file because it looks exactly the same as these .ini files people are talking about, but I've yet to find any files with .ini in their name.

 

I really want to love this game, really I do. I just can't get past this problem, it annoys the living daylights out of me, it's monstrously immersion breaking, which ruins my whole experience. Anyone, please, help me fix this.

 

 

Also: Worldshadows are pissing me off. I need to know how to make them update in realtime, like Read Dead Redemption's, not this "all of a sudden move all the shadows at once and hope I don't notice," nonsense that's going on now. Cause I notice. Every time.

[Georgiegril]

1. There are two .ini files. If you change the one in the Skyrim data folder, you will not see any results; that one doesn't change your game. The ones you want are in your username/mydocuments/mygames/Skyrim folder.

2. There are two files you would be looking for, one is Skyrimpref.ini and the other is Skyrim.ini.

 

You can make a copy of these and keep it on your desktop before making any changes to them, then just copy/paste over it if you make a mistake. this is way easier than reinstalling Skyrim everytime.

 

What settings are you using on your game settings? What are your computer specs? I might be able to offer you some more detailed suggestions depending on these.

 

Also, have a look at these two resources (if you haven't already, looks like youve been doing a bunch of web searching)

Geforce Tweak Guide (especially the part about ugrids, I have the link going to that page, but the whole thing is good. It also discussed the shadow update problem, which can't exactly be fixed but can be adjusted.)

RookieNoob's Tweak guide (does a good job of explaining tweaks for both high and low end computers)

[Evanesco]

1. There are two .ini files. If you change the one in the Skyrim data folder, you will not see any results; that one doesn't change your game. The ones you want are in your username/mydocuments/mygames/Skyrim folder.

2. There are two files you would be looking for, one is Skyrimpref.ini and the other is Skyrim.ini.

 

You can make a copy of these and keep it on your desktop before making any changes to them, then just copy/paste over it if you make a mistake. this is way easier than reinstalling Skyrim everytime.

 

What settings are you using on your game settings? What are your computer specs? I might be able to offer you some more detailed suggestions depending on these.

 

Also, have a look at these two resources (if you haven't already, looks like youve been doing a bunch of web searching)

Geforce Tweak Guide (especially the part about ugrids, I have the link going to that page, but the whole thing is good. It also discussed the shadow update problem, which can't exactly be fixed but can be adjusted.)

RookieNoob's Tweak guide (does a good job of explaining tweaks for both high and low end computers)

 

The settings I use are all Ultra. The game autodetects High Quality, but I crank up the extra sliders anyway. I'm running an intel Core 2 Duo e7400 @2.9 ghz, Radeon HD 6950 2gb Sapphire (OC), 4gb RAM, Patriot Pyro 60gb SSD where Skyrim is installed under it's Steam umbrella program.

 

I've looked at that GeForce guide quite extensively, but I think my biggest problem is that I've been editing the wrong files. I didn't understand that even though the game was being installed on my Patriot drive, it was still putting asset files into my C drive. I'll look at my .ini modifications to see how those work now, or if they do at all. That second link seems quite useful as well as I'm reading it, nice and lamen.

 

 

EDIT: I've gotten the distance about to where I want it, I just need to figure out a way to get distant objects like trees and rocks to transition between LOD's slower, or more smoothly, rather than instantly. Anyone have any ideas?

Edited September 26, 2012 by Evanesco

[Georgiegril]

You could try adding this line to your prefs.ini if you don't have it (under [main])

 

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=100000.0000 (I think this can be pushed farther)

 

And/or you could try pushong out the values under

[TerrainManager] (these are mine just for reference, I have a much older graphics card)

fTreeLoadDistance=12500.0000

fBlockMaximumDistance=75000.0000

fBlockLevel1Distance=25000.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=15000.0000

fSplitDistanceMult=0.4000

bShowLODInEditor=0

 

I think the split distance multiplier has an effect on when the transition occurs. I'm pretty sure the RookieNoob guide I linked to has a better explanation of this.

[Evanesco]

You could try adding this line to your prefs.ini if you don't have it (under [main])

 

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=100000.0000 (I think this can be pushed farther)

 

And/or you could try pushong out the values under

[TerrainManager] (these are mine just for reference, I have a much older graphics card)

fTreeLoadDistance=12500.0000

fBlockMaximumDistance=75000.0000

fBlockLevel1Distance=25000.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=15000.0000

fSplitDistanceMult=0.4000

bShowLODInEditor=0

 

I think the split distance multiplier has an effect on when the transition occurs. I'm pretty sure the RookieNoob guide I linked to has a better explanation of this.

 

 

I can't seem to get a result on when the trees change LOD. All I want is for that change to be subtle, or gradual. Something other than the instant <<BETTER TREES POP>> that happens now. I've tried all those lines.

[Evanesco]

i give up