TES Skyrim 0.201

[Phinix]

Hi Boris,

I have been running v0.200 with pretty excellent results. Briefly tested the original v0.201 with similar results to others, trouble with stuttering while outdoors, however the latest version seems to have mostly resolved that as far as I can tell.

[MEMORY]
ExpandSystemMemoryX64=true
ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true
DisableDriverMemoryManager=false
DisablePreloadToVRAM=false
ReservedMemorySizeMb=512
EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false

Going to try some additional testing with various settings enabled/disabled and will post SPM results...

One issue I have had since v0.198-ish...

The new sun glare code is really nice. I like how the sun now causes the clouds around it to brighten, and the sun rays cast through the clouds is a really nice effect as well. I am having a problem however where an object like a tree passes between my view and the sun, the sky will flicker on and off. Have tried with sun rays on and off, sky lighting on and off, sky altogether on and off, vsync and frame limit on and off, same result. Whole sections of clouds sort of disappear and reappear as I move...

Clouds 1
Clouds 2

EDIT: Only seems to happen in Morthal at dawn. If I wait until after 3pm it seems to stop, not seeing it in other places when lots of clouds are up so not sure.

To see every setting that I have currently in-use, see the default version of PNENB. I am using modified HD6 shaders, however I did test it with the default enbeffect.fx and other files for v0.199+ and had the same result.

GTX 780, Win 7 64-bit, 16GB system RAM. Was using the non-beta NVIDIA drivers and tried switching to 326.41 with no real change.

I know you are probably busy working on these new memory changes... It seems like a daunting task and I wish you the best of luck with it. In the end, I personally would be happy with the type of code at work in v0.198-0.199, as my own RAM useage doesn't ever come close to approaching 3gb to need the enbhost.exe in these versions. Only my 3gb of VRAM has reached near full capacity and even then, in those two versions, it always stayed about 512mb below max value (I am assuming because of ReservedMemorySizeMb=512), so working optimally there.

Of course any improvements you continue to make are appreciated.

[Arkngt]

I get less initial stuttering with the latest update.

[Neuba]

I tried the new version of 0.201
The same area I tested before: no changes, it's a fixed 30 fps (fpslimiter disabled). If I rapidly keep looking around it ranges from 28.5 to 31.5 fps. Tell me if you need more info.
Edit: with Vsync disabled I get ~40fps. With 0.199 and Vsync on I had about 42fps. I will test outdoor areas now.
Edit2: outdoor areas (tested walking around in Raven Rock) are unplayable. I get heavy stuttering and low fps. 0.199 keeps it above 25fps. I have DisablePreloadToVRAM set to false.

For those who get CTD when you try to load a save: change the uGridsToLoad value. Mine is at 7 and works fine. When I change it to 5 I can't load my save. Note that this has nothing to do with ENB. So please try playing with those values before you tell Boris that you can't load your save.

I get similar results with same settings if I looks straight to the ground (only one ground texture on the image, 2048*2048 resolution and my fps stay at ~30. If I disable the memorysettings, I get about 50-60 fps for the same image.

[Yersinia79]

Boris
Tested more with different ReservedMemorySizeMb and I noticed it does not actually crash. The loadscreens just freeze, but loads anyhow after a bit (if I click anything while it is frozen it crashes).
Seems like I need alittle higher ReservedMemorySizeMb for this one. Really low values like below 128MB and high values above 1536MB wont even load for me :>

[ENBSeries]

electricsheep26354
From screenshots of memory usage i don't think that fps drop to 30 happen because of not enough video memory for shadows or other render targets and not because textures allocated in non local video memory (ram). So the issue not depends from memory manager at all or if it depends, then it's driver bug or some other software you running. Also wrong skyrimprefs.ini changes or adaptive vsync in drivers can do this.

Yersinia79
Which version don't give you crashes like described? And may be you running another soft on background? I don't allow anything to allocate video memory.

Phinix
For me looks like sun not handled by the mod in that cases. Compare with each other version to find out which one have this bug first.

[electricsheep26354]

Boris
From screenshots of memory usage i don't think that fps drop to 30 happen because of not enough video memory for shadows or other render targets and not because textures allocated in non local video memory (ram). So the issue not depends from memory manager at all or if it depends, then it's driver bug or some other software you running. Also wrong skyrimprefs.ini changes or adaptive vsync in drivers can do this.

Thanks for the feedback Boris

This FPS drop doesn't occur with v0.200 or earlier, example scene: walking from bridge at Honningbrew Meadery and heading west towards Whiterun on 0.200 a get a solid 60 fps, on v0.201 (no other changes to setup) I get 30fps

Could be driver bug a guess, running Nvidia driver 326.19 beta

Tried with freshly generated ultra-setting ini files from Skyrim (with only required tweaks for enb changed) and still only 30 fps in same scene

I have no other programs running except SPM in test (same performance without) I close down all non-essential services and shutdown Explorer when running Skyrim. Don't use Afterburner or anything like that.

I have vsync forced on in Nvidia driver settings, don't use adaptive as I don't like screen-tear at all


Sorry not trying to moan, just trying to help with feedback, think last version of 0.201 is a good improvement

Thanks


i7 3770k @4.1hz, 8gb Corsair RAM, 3GB EVGA GTX 780 SC+ACX Cooler, OCZ Agility 240gb SSD, Windows 7 64-bit

[dukefx]

Thank you for all the feedback and advices, but my uGridsToLoad is fine and I don't want to change it. That was just advice for those who are are having CTDs while trying to load a save. (They might have changed it by following some tweaking guides or something like that). Performance wise 0.199 was quite playable with my settings. I think the worst I got was 18 fps, but that was rare. Otherwise it ranged from about 25 to 60. The only issue I had was endless loading after a few fast travels.

@Uriel
Vsync is basically an fps limiter where the cap = your screen's refresh rate and my screen's refresh rate isn't 30Hz for sure. I'll try the fps limiter set to 60 instead when I'm done with work and do further tests with these.

Edit: just did a few test
the fps limiter is working properly in both versions
vsync is working in 0.199, but in 0.201 it caps at 30 and not 60/75/whatever high fps I won't get anyways

So I can confirm that the low fps indoors is caused by vsync. While not using any frame rate limiters overall performance is still a few fps lower than 0.199

@Boris
would it help if I added enbhost.exe to the list of exceptions of windows's data execution prevention?

[ENBSeries]

electricsheep26354
You mean all 0.200 work fine? Because i released several without changing version number. All differencies are only for management of textures, how they are created, so ReservedMemorySizeMb and ReduceSystemMemoryUsage matters only and definetly with 3 gb vram my memory manager simply can't start to reduce performance via loading/unloading textures and geometry to/from vram/ram. Without graph of vram usage i guessed that issue, but it's not.

[Uriel24]

@Uriel
Vsync is basically an fps limiter where the cap = your screen's refresh rate and my screen's refresh rate isn't 30Hz for sure. I'll try the fps limiter set to 60 instead when I'm done with work and do further tests with these.

It's 60Hz most definitely. Or is it 42Hz? Or maybe 84Hz? Or 168Hz?

[wolfgrimdark]

i don't use texture combiner or optimizer either. My ENB setting is pretty extreme actually all the quality setting are either 0 to -1 (lower is higher quality) not to mention crazy sizescale setting. I also uses Nvidia SSAA which is FPS eater but superior quality. What driver version are you on ? You should have a shit load more FPS than me.

Apologies for a bit off-topic, but this does relate somewhat, as I have been testing the memory changes in .201 as well. First in reply to above from charlievoviii - I am far from a graphics expert by any means but from the testing I did last night and today it seems that the key here is the ENB effects versus other settings. All things remaining equal (textures, mods, INI settings, ENB settings, and using downsampling (DS) 2560 for screen 1920, etc) I found that if I edit the ENB in-game and just uncheck the "effects" flag that my fps will jump from the 18-22 range (using Somber Antique) to 55-60. That was was easily repeatable in many places. I understand this is very obvious information - just pointing out what appears to be causing the drop - not textures or INI or driver settings directly. I have all the standard things disabled and flags=1 for current ENB.

I also tried a few other ENBS - Kountervibe by Kyo, Poupouri, and Unreal all on v201 and each one dropped the FPS from the 55-60 range when I re-enabled effects. Which makes me think it is the ENB effects and not other issues making the impact. Somber is around 20, Kounter around 30, Poupouri was about 36, Unreal is about 40 for the various changes in FPS rates - somber being the worst. I also tried Seasons of Skyrim HDR by Bronze316 using ENB v119 and hardware AA at 8x. That fps also went to 19-21 similar to Sombers. I did notice my GPU% (using SPM) was very often at 99% on a regular basis although my VRAM usage was not at 6GB, more around the 3-4GB range.

Not sure why system takes such a hit when yours isn't but don't have any other ideas. I tried messing with shadows (ultra to high) and some various driver settings (like texture quality) but didn't really make much different - the only thing that really impacted my FPS were ENB effects. Just going to live with it as I prefer the high quality graphics and I can live with 20-26 fps for most of the game. Easy enough to disable for hectic large battles. Also disabling down sampling gives me another 10-20 fps (30-46) which is fine. I just like the smoother look with DS enabled.

More on topic - I found that with my memory reserved setting, in 201, set at 512 or lower I would get infinite loading screens when using Somber and DS at 2560. Upping it to 1024 or 1536 not only did that stop but the game loaded faster for some reason. At one point loads could take up to 50 seconds. Using a higher reserved memory dropped the load time to about 5-10 seconds which was great.

As mentioned I also had some fps issues being locked at 30 with vysnc enabled. I disabled everything except FixPhysics=True and fpsLimite=true and set to 60. That solved the locking for me.

In general, using current .201, with reserved memory set at 1024 to 1536 I get no stuttering, no CTD, shorter load times, and smoother game play. GPU% remains very high (often at 99%) though.

System: Intel i7-3930K CPU @ 3.2 - x12 Win7 64b; 16GB Ram, 6GB Vram on GTX Titan. Game installed on my SSD.

EDIT: Sorry - my Nvidia driver version is 314.22. I have left it at that as sometimes I use Bronzes ENB's which require 119 and newer drivers have the sun bug. I wasn't sure if that was resolved by Nvidia yet. Perhaps since I am using 314.22 it is not taking full advantage of the Titan? The old drivers do work though, even if they won't work with the 770/780 series. Maybe I will update them tonight and see if my FPS changes at all.