Setting my personal enblocal.ini correctly. Questions..

[Steelman]

Ok,

I have been reading the guide at http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBlocal_INI and i had a couple of questions if you guys do not mind:


[PERFORMANCE]
* While i do not have a zprepass value set in this section i did have a different value set for iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 in Skyrimprefs.ini (had it set to 1)
I changed it to the recommended value.

-------------------------------

[MEMORY]
After careful reading what the guide states and these forum topics...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4476&start=10#p63935
http://forum.step-project.com/topic/634 ... ntry135670 (yay!a chart for dumb people like me! finally! )

...I am still confused about the value i should set on ExpandSystemMemoryX64

If i understood correctly these are different "combos" to be set on both enblocal.ini + SkSE.ini

A) ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true
+
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
ScrapHeapSizeMB=256

B) ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true
+
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=769 or higher
ScrapHeapSizeMB=512
Result --> No CTD on startup / Mostly stable but 256MB of memory wasted

C) ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false
+
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=769 or higher
ScrapHeapSizeMB=256
Result --> No CTD / Stable and you didn't waste 256MB of memory

My current settings match the "A)" example, but i do have sometimes a CTD that matches exactly this description:
"The problem is that when the "Block 1" / Default Heap usage hits 256MB, the routine the programmers used to automatically increase the size of the "Block 1" / Default Heap is flawed, and causes a memory exception error, leading to the instant CTD. This almost always happens as the player is crossing the invisible border of an exterior worldspace cell."

And, most likely, i get CTDs because...
"....people that have a lot of mods adding spawned creatures, NPCs, and other exterior worldspace elements (like me!) setting DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB to 768 is not enough."

Meaning that i should move to either "B" or "C" combo.
Now, i am a little bit confused here because moving to "C" combo would mean that i can't use ReduceSystemMemoryUsage (since this requieres ExpandSystemMemoryX64 to be enabled)
So ...why the OP would point out that you "waste" 256mb on "B" combo when not having the chance to use enboost is (i think) far worst?

In case that i am not reasoning correctly this point, wich might be the best scenario for my setup?

Intel i7 3770 3.4ghz
16 GB RAM
Win 7 64
Gforce 670 GTX 2GB VRAM


-------------------------------

VideoMemorySizeMb

Just when i thought i got this worked out.... The Dx9 tool points out that i have 4032 (-170 = 3862). Realvision Installer says i should set 8192 (!) and i think i got better performance by reducing it to 2048 (at least with the latests versions of ENB)

Any suggestions?

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EnableCompresion

The wiki guide tates
"Enables/disables memory compression. It is enabled by default. Disabling memory compression can reduce stutter, but at the cost of more RAM usage. For this reason, it is generally only recommended to be disabled on systems with more than 2GB VRAM. Any system that is already nearing its VRAM limit should leave this parameter enabled or it could do more harm than good."
So,.. is it RAM or VRAM ? I use to have it enabled but then i got this reply from boris on this topic viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4826

Well, if vram used statistics was shown as "choked", then it's a game itself (skyrim.ini, skyrimprefs.ini manual changes?) or drivers. You know, game controls amount of resources created in video memory (ignoring the size of it), ENBoost just removing copy of resources from ram (as vram have dublicated data in ram) and on issues with not enough video memory starts to unload data from it partially to create free space for new (new means also visible on screen). If your performance issues are accumulated, then it sounds like memory leak and why it happen, don't ask me as i gave the answers already. You may set ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=false to disable the memory manager of ENBoost (but game may not work at all if you have lot of mods installed) and try to to test again. Or set VideoMemorySizeMb very low, let say 1000, performance will be always relatively low, but simpler to see if vram is getting to the limit, then it's driver bug or some other software messing around (other mod may too, but i don't know any).

PS: EnableCompression=false is better for your system by performance.

Did i missunderstood what Boris said to me? Did he mean to set it to false only if i was going to reduse my VideoMemorySize?
Should i then enable it again? (since i am using pretty much all my vram)

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[ANTIALIASING]

EnableTemporalAA

"The TemporalAA setting no longer requires a helper mod, as of ENBSeries v0.213. This is excellent for screenshots at removing jaggies, but may not be preferable for general use because it can cause ghosting on high motion objects. UPDATE: Boris improved the TemporalAA code in v0.265. Several users report that most of the ghosting has been eliminated above 40FPS. Users who can not maintain at least 40FPS might still experience ghosting with this enabled."

Can somebody tell me what "ghosting" is? Sometimes my followers become invisible (and i have to try to click on them and use "disable / enable" to make it visible again). If this is what "ghosting"is... should i set this to true?

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[FIX]

IgnoreLoadingScreen

"Notice:This parameter has not been in use in several releases (current version 0.279). It remains due to still being used in some older Presets which still have this parameter present.
This line is missing in some versions of ENBSeries and will need to be added. This fix tells the ENB to ignore rendering on loading screens which speeds up loading times and prevents issues related to loading screens such as missing textures. It is recommended to be enabled and added if missing from the enblocal.ini file."

I am confused. If is not been in use by several releases... should i shouldnt i add this line?

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[LONGEXPOSURE]
There are no explanations for this parameters at all. I do, however, have them on the "default" values

-------------------------------

I have this section included in my enblocal that is not included in the guide

[THREADS]
DataSyncMode=0
PriorityMode=0


What should i do with it?



I tried to read everything as thoroughly as i could. I hope i am not asking anything too obvious and that i described my doubts clearly enough to be understood
Also, i hope my english grammar did not suck

Thanks for reading

[ENBSeries]

First of all, Step guide is not made by me and it have wrong interpretations.
Find on Nexus my ENBoost releases for version 5.0 and 6.0, read what is written in there and do exactly the same. DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB is 512 better if you have issues starting the game with ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true. It's very hard to say what is better, enabled ExpandSystemMemoryX64 with 256mb less or disabled with more of them. Very much depends from mods, for long term playing ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true is preffered, while higher DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB seems better for cases when game crashes when too much action is happening.

EnableCompresion is ram compression in about 1.5 times, it is just for users with low amount of ram (or 32 bit OS) to not stuck with low performance of swap file on hdd.

Ghosting is visible edges of objects when they move, kinda trails but from previous frame only.

IgnoreLoadingScreen set to true, it rarely cases longer loading screens when disabled.

Long exposure is not for gameplay, it's effect which accumulates many frames, some screenshots looks great with it, for example water flow and fire sparkles.

[Steelman]

First of all, Step guide is not made by me and it have wrong interpretations.
Find on Nexus my ENBoost releases for version 5.0 and 6.0, read what is written in there and do exactly the same. .

I just did that, but i did not find all the answers (i think i have more questions! )

DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB is 512 better if you have issues starting the game with ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true. It's very hard to say what is better, enabled ExpandSystemMemoryX64 with 256mb less or disabled with more of them. Very much depends from mods, for long term playing ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true is preffered, while higher DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB seems better for cases when game crashes when too much action is happening.

Keithnhanoi states on Step Forum that when he refers to "effective allocation" means that you need to add 256 to what ever you want the program to actually use, so when you say 512 is that 512+256 (768, my current setting) Or you propose that if ExpandSystemMemoryx64= true i should try DefaultHeapInititalAllocMB=512 + ScrapHeapSize=256 in SKSE.ini? But if i already have CTDs with 768 (in the way described by Keithnhanoi) because of my many NPC / Creatures mods , wouldnt this be worst?

I think I will try the "B" combo for a while and see how it goes (x64= tue + 1024&512 in SKSE.ini) since for what i have seen in Skyrim Monitor i am far away from the 4gb limit.

EnableCompresion is ram compression in about 1.5 times, it is just for users with low amount of ram (or 32 bit OS) to not stuck with low performance of swap file on hdd.

Ok, so its RAM and not VRAM as STEP guide states. Shouldn't someone tell them to correct this? it is very misleading.
So, what i should do is run the game with Skyrim monitor, pay attention to the RAM usage and if i am still far from the 4gb set it to false, correct?

Ghosting is visible edges of objects when they move, kinda trails but from previous frame only.

IgnoreLoadingScreen set to true, it rarely cases longer loading screens when disabled.

Long exposure is not for gameplay, it's effect which accumulates many frames, some screenshots looks great with it, for example water flow and fire sparkles.

- Ghosting: ok, never had that problem so i will leave that alone.
- IgnoreLoadingScreen: i understood correctly what it does. What i would like to know is if i should add it to my enblocal.ini since its not there at all or is an old feature and is not needed - anymore.
- LongExposure: ok, will leave it like that..

[ENBSeries]

Summ of values doesn't matter, crash occurs because impossible to allocate single huge memory block when crapware and antiviruses inject own libraries in random place of virtual address space of the process.
Nobody knows why crash occurs for you, it's your task to find out by experimenting with values.

(x64= tue + 1024&512 in SKSE.ini)

You will be very lucky if this will work without crash at startup, read above.

Shouldn't someone tell them to correct this?

I can't read guide and correct anything, i am lazy ass. No consulting with me while worked with it - no reason for me to bother with it.

So, what i should do is run the game with Skyrim monitor, pay attention to the RAM usage and if i am still far from the 4gb set it to false, correct?

No. Compression is happening for memory which sent in to enbhost.exe process(es) and only if enbhost.exe not exist in game folder (can't start because of antiviruses), then compression is applied to memory inside process.
You don't need to add any parameters, they are all automatically generated on first game run with the mod. If they not appear, then they are not exists in certain version of the mod.
[THREADS] is new feature and it do not work with old versions. If preset include it, that just means that author made it when at least once installed recent version of the mod. Use it or not depends entirely from your mods set, in general it should be slower, but for some cases increase performance and reduce stuttering. And if saved games won't load or still have crashes, then using values higher than 0 will help.

[Steelman]

[ENBSeries]

Do not attach files to posts, use image hosts instead.

Crash time when using different vram setting of ENBoost doesn't matter, because it's random factor and ENBoost is immune to such things whatever you set (only performance is different), ram usage of the process will be always the same limited, only ReservedMemorySizeMb affect out of memory crash (bigger is higher chance to have crash, but smoother gameplay). Use [threads] tweak as decribed at ENBoost 6.0 Nexus page without any changes to threads made in skyrim config files, if not helps, it's driver/crapware/plugin.

[Steelman]

[ENBSeries]

For god sake, stop asking things you don't need. How in the heck knowledge of functions and code parts modified by parameters will make your gameplay better? Read guide and follow it, that's all.

[Steelman]

I don't think you understood what i asked, but it doesn't matter. You are clearly upset and it was never my intention

Salutations

[ENBSeries]

Okay