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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 2:23:54 GMT
Posting this here, in the hopes of helping those, who are not Nexus regulars. My game is for the most part fairly stable, fairly being the operative word, since Skyrim is not completely stable to begin with. The best you can do, is to follow good modding advice, use the tools available and get your game as stable as possible. There seems to be a concerted effort to really fix Skyrim's stability issues and I know many, including myself are smiling BIG. One of the best things I've done, for myself, is to try out this newer mod ( www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305/? ) based off Sheson's work and what rare, but occasional CTD's I had are completely GONE. I'm not using Enboost or any ENB mod either and it has helped tremendously, including the overall smoothness of the game, besides the fact of getting rid of the rare CTD. I played Skyrim for 3 days, with one session lasting 6-7 hours...with no interruptions of any sort...pretty cool imo The next paragraph doesn't apply to Emma's regular forum veterans at all, nor to veterans of using mods for Bethesda games in general, you can simply ignore the next paragraph. If your new to modding though...please read below! This mod will not stop your game from CTD, if you don't follow good modding principles from the get-go and you setup your game sloppily. It is not a "cure all"! If you don't do your part, to get rid of what mod conflicts you can, creating a fairly stable game to begin with, your likely still going to have issues at times. However, if your game is setup properly, then this mod will only help your game's stability be better! If your not sure of how to do this, please search the web, there are many articles written on how to mod your game properly.
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Post by Dova on Feb 1, 2014 3:32:10 GMT
Fal, Thanks for relating the information. Sheson also provided a way to log the memory allocation here: www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50471/?This helps memory optimization by avoiding excessive allocation in SSME.ini
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Post by Seyheb on Feb 1, 2014 10:16:46 GMT
Thanks Falion. I did take a quick look at this because it mentions it is an alternative to Safety Load, which completely solved a problem I had a couple of months ago with some saved games hanging when being loaded. Skyrim is pretty stable for me at the moment, but I'll probably give it a try-out later on. Thanks also for the link you posted, Dovahkon.
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Post by DragonbornTom on Feb 1, 2014 12:46:31 GMT
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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 14:40:52 GMT
Your welcome guys. Way I figure, posting info like this can only benefit all of us. Tom, that link is exactly where I learned about SSME to begin with. I haven't used ENboost as listed in that guide you linked. Well actually I tried the wrapper version briefly, but I began to get all kinds of abnormalities and artifacts happening in my game. I am not too familiar with Enboost ( besides what I've read about it ), and realize how it makes use of your 64 bit machines ( if you have one ) and fixing some general engine bugs. However, I couldn't seem to make it work correctly for me... Does anyone here have personal experience with Enboost ( with the graphic changes turned off, and just using the game fixes ). Do you need to start a new game with Enboost, or can it be used in an existing game? Reading up on what I could find on Enboost, I could find no info stating NOT to use with an existing game, so I assume you can, but you know what happens when you assume things. When I tried using Enboost, in my existing game, is when I had all the strange video effects and a few sound issues ( such as audio stutters and echos ) begin, so I just deleted every Enboost file from my Skyrim main folder and carried on as previously without it, leaving Sheson's memory patch still installed, which is just 2 files. As said above...even without Enboost, all rare CTD's are now gone.
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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 15:31:07 GMT
Fal, Thanks for relating the information. Sheson also provided a way to log the memory allocation here: www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50471/?This helps memory optimization by avoiding excessive allocation in SSME.ini Thanks Dovahklon, using this, I ran around for about 30 minutes from city to city. I'd fast travel from one city and area to the next one, and then RUN around at full speed, jumping around an carrying on like a possessed madman. Then...off to the next city for a run around! I did this in every city, ending up in Ravenrock with no pauses or breaks. I didn't save during this, this was just a stress test. similar to normal but very fast paced gaming and to see what the log would show. The max number showing up was 259 for me after doing all of this...which explains why I would get that rare CTD even though my game is setup properly. Since Beth's initial vanilla memory block setting is 256... Seems I may be able to lower my SSME setting on the upper block to 384 if I should experience any issues with the initial setting of 512. I have plenty of VRAM, as well as system ram to spare, so unless I see an issue with the recommended 512, I'll probably just leave it as is, but I sure don't need to increase it.
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Post by Dova on Feb 1, 2014 15:34:22 GMT
Fal,
I think every system reacts to ENB binaries different, I only finally got mine working after a year (but mine was complicated because I had to use some other proxy library). And if your system is already fairly stable, then "don't fix it, if it's not broken."
Anyway, the following is my 2 cents, please take cautious in trying it out and correct me if I am wrong:
You can use Enboost on an existing game, and you will need the latest wrapper version of ENBseries: enbdev.com/download_mod_tesskyrim.html (I assume you are not using any ENBs at the moment because you said you delete all ENB related files.)
Drop ENBoost's enblocal.ini (the one that correspond to your amount of VRAM) into the Skyrim folder to replace the one from ENB binaries. Open up enblocal.ini, edit:
So you are only using performance changes without graphics modications.
If you are using onboard graphics, also change under [Global]:
Also edit these lines:
If you have a 64-bit machine, make sure you have these settings, these settings should already be set correctly by ENBoost:
This shouldn't matter, but also change it just in case:
Run Skyrim to see if ENB binary is running fine with graphics modication disabled. If it's running fine, then you probably don't have to do the following.
If you have NVidia graphics card or having problems with AMD/ATI graphics, open up enbseries.ini, and change:
Don't know if the following is placebo effect, but you can play with it in enbseries.ini (I did notice a boost in loading speed with these implemented with a older ENB patch before I even use ENBoost):
All of these are things I learned, tried, and worked (at least for me) from reading in many different places, and please correct me about any of these, as I hate to spread wrong information around.
If none of that improves anything, you probably don't need it in the first place, and you can simply just delete everything like you did before.
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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 15:53:55 GMT
Much appreciated Dovahklon, I do have an Nvidia card, a 660 3 gig card, and I don't believe I did the global variable of [GLOBAL] ForceNVidiaCard=true ForceNVidiaCaps=true This may have been the whole issue, I'll give it another go and see if I can get it working. While my game is working great, as a 32 bit application, it would be nice if I could have the game working using the full benefit of my machine.
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Post by Seyheb on Feb 1, 2014 19:12:44 GMT
I ran a couple of very quick tests on a backup copy of Skyrim, but initially I ran into some graphics problems. I've only just seen Dovahklon's post, so I'll probably run some more tests in due course. However, as I don't risk breaking what is performing ok, I'll be confining this to the backup copy for now.
I have an i7 machine running 64 bit Win7 and a Nvidia Geforce 760 card with 4gb of on-board VRAM.
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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 19:37:32 GMT
WOO HOO WOOT Dovahklon, your my new hero! Seriously! That global setting for the Nvida card, had to have been the issue. I just ran around Skyrim with ENboost,with SSME set to 512, doing the exact same stress test as I did earlier, but without ENboost. 35 minutes, high speed runs, I ran from Windhelm to Whiterun, at full speed. Then I ran around Whiterun for 10 minutes, popping stamina potions so I didn't have to stop running. Next stop...fast traveled by carriage to Solitude, did the same test, then ran all the way to the coast and back to Solitude. Next, took the carriage to Windhelm...did the same test for about 10 minutes...took the ship to Ravenrock....same test for another 5-10 minutes. No CTD's, NO ILS, no stutters and no graphic abnormalities or sound issues. I'm about as happy as a puppy with 2 peters...sorry guys LOL...but maybe for the first time, we can actually play and focus on playing / role playing a game, without the constant worry of ok...something is about to go wrong, I'd better save again. Break out the Scotch it's celebration time This time, the memory block logger, for SSME showed me using as a high of 274, so I think 512 is more than adequately giving enough headroom for even LONG extended play times. EDIT: Posting system specs, for those wanting a comparison, if planning to try this. If your machine is better, you should get even better results. Asus Sabertooth Z77 ( latest Bios ) Intel 3570 @3.4 Corsair Vengeance 16 gig running@1600 eVGA 660 3 gig Vram Corsair HX650W PSU Plextror 256 gig SSD Realtec onboard sound ( latest driver ) Nvidia Driver 332.21 Win7 64 bit pro, updated to current.
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Post by Dova on Feb 1, 2014 20:38:00 GMT
Glad I was able to help.
I actually a bit hesitated about posting it because there are more than abundant posts about different tweaks all over the place, and this kinds of tweaking opinion is usually more subjective rather than of fact (I don't have any actually benchmarking numbers to back me up nor any in depth knowledge about ENB binaries). I was afraid adding my own opinions would only confuse others that read different suggestions across the web.
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Post by zedtsayid on Feb 1, 2014 20:47:40 GMT
I looked at the mod page and did see that the reference the new alpha of SKSE does the same thing. I just updated my SKSE to try it.
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Post by Falion on Feb 1, 2014 21:09:02 GMT
Zed, let us know your results on the new Alpha SKSE, as I've read some are having issues with it and are going back to using SSME until the SKSE team irons the kinks out of the SKSE version.
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Post by Seyheb on Feb 1, 2014 23:40:00 GMT
I'm a SKSE user. I'll also be interested in your results, Zed. P.S. In view of your results, Falion, I might give those settings a more detailed trial sooner than later.
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Post by Dova on Feb 2, 2014 4:57:28 GMT
FYI, new ENB binary v0.250 needs to have the line
In order for Creation Kit to work. Took me forever to find that little line and figured out why CK wasn't working.
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