What other performance-robbing features does Skyrim have?

[Prenihility]

I've had performance issues for a while now with Bruma - and still do - but I also had some in a lot of areas in Skyrim around heavy foliage. I finally figured out it was ishadowmapresolution. It was set way too high and killing performance. That's no longer an issue. However, I thought to myself, perhaps there's something that just doesn't agree with Bruma and that's why around the Western Watchtower, when looking East to the big trees in the woods, my performance tanks, badly.

 

iMultiSample is another thing the STEP guide considers far too performance intensive. Is there anything else? Something that might be clashing with the woods? Idk. I outright uninstalled SFO. I was just sick of it, too taking away performance. And it stopped responding to .ini tweaks. But w/e, i'm not really talking about that.

 

There some ini setting worth investigating that might help me?

[wfandrews]

This only has something to do with Skyrim incidentally, it has more to do with your computer and mod load.

 

Following the STEP guide is great if you are following it from the beginning, if not their configuration of ini files may work for you or it may not depending on the system you have and the mods you have installed.

 

As for iShadowMapResolution I always leave it on 4096 which is the default resolution, and iMultiSample is set to 0 by default.

 

There is no way to tell what ini settings would help you without knowing what your system specs are and what mods you have installed, especially texture mods. This is something to keep in mind when considering downloading other peoples ini configurations that tell you how much it will help your game, this includes beth.ini and the STEP guide, certainly may help, then again it may not, may just bork your game. This is why before you make any changes to your ini files you should make a copy of them.

[MFitz56]

I've had performance issues for a while now with Bruma - and still do - but I also had some in a lot of areas in Skyrim around heavy foliage. I finally figured out it was ishadowmapresolution. It was set way too high and killing performance. That's no longer an issue. However, I thought to myself, perhaps there's something that just doesn't agree with Bruma and that's why around the Western Watchtower, when looking East to the big trees in the woods, my performance tanks, badly.

 

iMultiSample is another thing the STEP guide considers far too performance intensive. Is there anything else? Something that might be clashing with the woods? Idk. I outright uninstalled SFO. I was just sick of it, too taking away performance. And it stopped responding to .ini tweaks. But w/e, i'm not really talking about that.

 

There some ini setting worth investigating that might help me?

 

If, like me, you feel drawn to the methodology of the STEP program you may want to look at this:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69787

 

It is a tool put together by the makers of STEP to optimize your ini files.