Recent game lags

[Tarquine]

Dear all,

 

I have been playing Skyrim on PC since it was released with no real problems. However, since I updated to the latest version, I have been experiencing very frequent (approx. every one minute) game pauses that tend to last for a couple of seconds or so. During these pauses both sound and picture momentarily freeze and it seems that if a pause happens during a loading screen, the game simply hangs on that screen (not frozen) forever. Interestingly, the pauses do not happen when I start the game and I am in the very first menu, where you select which game to load. Furthermore, when in-game the pauses happen regardless the window I am in, e.g. on the save window, the map, the skills interface, indoors or outdoors. During the pauses, my CPU usage doubles or triples and from a normal in-game usage of around 10-15% it jumps to 25-35%. However, nothing changes in the memory usage, which is always around 45-65% in-game. It seems that the file responsible for these CUP usage spikes is indeed TESV.exe. Finally, although I have many mods running, I have made sure to update all mods that released compatible versions to the latest Skyrim (e.g SKSE, SkyUI, USP, etc.). I have defragmented all files and TES5Edited all mods. I find this behaviour rather perplexing and I would honestly appreciate any advice.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tar

[Georgiegril]

It sounds to me like you may either have some background process running, or maybe it is caused by autosaves? Have you tried disabling all your autosaves in the prefs.ini folder?

Also, maybe double check to make sure all unessential processes and services are disabled? I had a similar problem at one point that was caused by my computer sending "waves" to my external HD, although I had disabled the HD. Also, I've used anti-vrus programs that insisted on sending requests for updates, even in their "game mode," so it might be something like that for you.

Finally, when you are looking at "memory" are you talking about RAM or VRAM? If it is your computer memory, you might check your graphics card memory as well, because the pauses you describe can come from VRAM being used up, and having to wait to free up memory before adding anything else.

[Tarquine]

Thank you ever so much for your suggestions. I have 2Gb of VRAM and never had a problem with skyrim before. I will still check it though, along with all the rest of your suggestions.

 

Best, Tar

[Tarquine]

Dear all,

I followed Georgiegril's kind suggestions and in realtime I monitored my GPU, antivirus and other running processed, while playing skyrim. Still, nowhere close to identifying the cause of the game pauses. The GPU activity and the dedicated VRAM never reach their maximum, while the antivirus and any other relevant system activities are suppressed by either the programs themselves running in preset game-modes or through the ATTK launcher. In fact, I wasn't expecting anything new here, as nothing changed in my system since I installed the latest skyrim patch (and I never had such issues before the patch and the mods were updated). The only process that spikes is TESV.exe (and let me repeat that the pauses do seem rather periodic and not at all random). Also, I always use tailor-made game inis that allow for optimal game performance on my system, and I make sure I keep them there even after, say, Steam indirectly replaces them.

 

Does anyone know of a way to record a log of skyrim activity that could perhaps be helpful?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Best, Tar

[Georgiegril]

You can generate a papyrus log. It is not always useful, but it may show if your lags are caused by hanging scripts or the like.

To do this, go to your skyrim.ini (the only in your mydocuments/mygames folder, not the one in program files folder)

Add the following lines (if they are not there already:

[Papyrus]

bEnableLogging=1

bEnableTrace=1

bLoadDebugInformation=1

 

If you have done this correctly, you should find that the folder where you found your ini files also has a logs folder.

Then, after you experience a lag incident, go to your logs folder, open it, then the scripts folder and look for a papyrus log.

Open the log and check out the end of it. You probably have a lot of stuff going on, and most of it is normal. However, you want to look for a pattern, something that is happening consistently at the time your lags are occurring. (This means you may want to repeat this process a few times, or play through multiple occurrences of the lags and make a note of the exact times the lags occur so you can check against the times in the logs file) If something sticks out, and you can easily identify it, then there you go. If you cant make sense of it, then post the last 40 or so lines, enclosed in spoiler tags, and hopefully someone here can help you out with it.

 

Like I said, this will only be helpful if the problem is indeed related to scripts, and it may not be. It's the closest you can get to a running log of skyrim activity, however.

Also, when you are done with this, you will probably want to set those values to 0, so you aren't wasting resources on constantly generating logs.

 

Another thought: If you haven't already done so, I would suggest disabling your auto-saves via your prefs.ini, including the line that says autosave every x minutes, and playing steam in offline mode, just to make sure neither is the cause of your lagging.

[Valkyrie]

Ya might wanna take a look at this thread pertaining to limiting fps by using MSI afterburner. I dont know how or why but it made my game run much better.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/955666-skyrim-low-fps-on-my-msi-ge60-0nd/

[Tarquine]

Dear Georgiegril and Valkyrie,

 

I will try Valkyrie's suggestion after I resolve the issue at hand. For now, I followed Georgiegril's recommendation and I think I have something, though I am not sure what it actually means. I ran the game for 10 minutes and it generated an impressive 2.5 GB log! Anyway, the following scripts (I assume they are scripts) keep appearing during the freezes:

 

USKPCWCampLeadersFixScript.OnUpdate

dynavisioneffectscript.OnUpdate

DynavisionMaintainanceScript.OnUpdate

DynavisionStatusScript.OnUpdate

_APB_Spawner01.OnUpdate

zbloodnpcquestupdatescript.OnUpdate

 

I assume the USKPCW one refers to the unofficial patch (I have version 1.3.1a), the dynavision ones to the Dynavision mod (version 2.2), and the zblood one to the Enhanced Blood Textures mod (version 3.0), while I have no clue where the APB_Spawner belongs to (ASIS perhaps?).

 

Interestingly, even though I subsequently deactivated USP and uninstalled Dynavision (hopefully correctly), I still get the same errors during the freezes. I haven't touched the blood mod yet, but that is my next move.

 

Any advice on the situation will be appreciated.

 

Best

 

Tar

 

[Georgiegril]

Could you please copy and paste the last 40 or so lines of your log, enclosed in spoiler tags?

[Tarquine]

Dear all, I believe after considerable strive and the invaluable advice from Georgiegril (if you ever find yourself down-under, I owe you a beer!) I managed to correct the error (sorry Georgiegril, I cannot send you that log anymore; after multiple game restarts, I realised that only the last few logs were kept saved, perhaps due to some oversighted setting in my ini.

 

What did I do? First, the steps that did not help: I ran SKSE's ClearInvalidRegistrations, StopQuest on all the ‘naughty’ (albeit 'ghost') scripts, pcb, or waited for 31 days, but none of these corrected the problem.

 

So, in despair and as a last resort I reluctantly decided to follow Flexcreator's ‘How to remove all embedded scripts from your savegame’ procedure (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/31675). I was sceptical, because it sounded relatively dangerous. It worked flawlessly! My saves are now back to 11 Mb (from 80 Mb they were during the crisis), and the game seems to be running smoothly again (or even better than before).

 

However, I still see a few errors in the log. I am attaching the full log, since it is now only 9 Kb, in case someone has any suggestion on how to get rid of these residual errors (or what they actually refer to; I think they have to do with 'dodgy' follower mods).

 

Once again thank you ever so much Georgiegril!

 

Let me now check Valkyrie's suggestion.

 

Best,

 

Tar

[Georgiegril]

(if you ever find yourself down-under, I owe you a beer!)

 

Tar

I'll start paddling.... :biggrin:

Glad you got it working!