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[TheNamelessOne]

fShadowDistance=4000.0000

The resolution is 8192

Post the content under [Display] from your .ini please.

 

[KKRT00]

Ok after few hours of research i know i wont be using 4096 resolution It doesnt meet my requirements.
So now conclusions:

Best config for 4096 with fair distance and quality, and minimal amount of shimmering from LOD, is.

In skyrimPerf.ini:
fShadowDistance=4000.0000
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15000
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowFilter=3
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fShadowLODStartFade=1500.0000

In Skyrim.ini:
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1500.0

If You dont care about distance of shadows, just change this and You'll get awesome shadows.
fShadowDistance=2000.0000

8096 doesnt change situation that much, it makes a little better shadows on 4000 distance, so if You have fps to spare change this.
iShadowMapResolution=8096

My budget config for 60+ fps. It looks quite nice outside, but quite poor inside.
In skyrimPerf.ini
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fShadowDistance=2500.0000
iShadowMapResolution=2048
fShadowBiasScale=0.15000
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowFilter=3
fShadowLODStartFade=1500.0000

In Skyrim.ini
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1500.0

====

The biggest problem with shadows is that they are bugged. Use this 4000 config, go to any tree at day and look down, then straight and then a little on the ground and observe shadows all the time, they will change to nice looking one on some degree.

 

[moop1167]

Is anyone playing a Khajiit? I mentioned this in the main thread but maybe someone can help me here.

For some reason, my Khajiit's head is see through at certain angles. During character creation his whole head was transparent, and when I get to the part where you can pull the camera back, when I have it looking at certain angles you can see right through him. I reset everything to default and reset the .ini's and nothing helped. I don't know what is going on!

 

[TheOctagon]

Ok after few hours of research i know i wont be using 4096 resolution It doesnt meet my requirements.
So now conclusions:

Best config for 4096 with fair distance and quality, and minimal amount of shimmering from LOD, is.

In skyrimPerf.ini:
fShadowDistance=4000.0000
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15000
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowFilter=3
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fShadowLODStartFade=1500.0000

In Skyrim.ini:
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1500.0

If You dont care about distance of shadows, just change this and You'll get awesome shadows.
fShadowDistance=2000.0000

8096 doesnt change situation that much, it makes a little better shadows on 4000 distance, so if You have fps to spare change this.
iShadowMapResolution=8096

My budget config for 60+ fps. It looks quite nice outside, but quite poor inside.
In skyrimPerf.ini
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fShadowDistance=2500.0000
iShadowMapResolution=2048
fShadowBiasScale=0.15000
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowFilter=3
fShadowLODStartFade=1500.0000

In Skyrim.ini
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1500.0

====

The biggest problem with shadows is that they are bugged. Use this 4000 config, go to any tree at day and look down, then straight and then a little on the ground and observe shadows all the time, they will change to nice looking one on some degree.

Hate to say it but none of these fixed my blocky shadows.

 

[Betta Lines]

Ahhh. I was changing the two shadow resolution settings just below the distance setting in the ini, when Dennis was referring to the one a little further down, called iShadowMapResolution. Changing this to over 8000 gives me shadows like Dennis' screenshots, although it has killed my framerate somewhat.

 

[KKRT00]

Welcome to Bethesda Softworks:

 

[TheOctagon]

Yup, it's the iShadowMapResolution variable that makes the difference. Murdered my framerate, too.

 

[Stahsky]

Skyrim randomly closing is starting to bum me out.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Can someone post their Skyrim.ini file? I thought I backed it up but apparently I only backed up SkyrimPrefs.

 

[The Hermit]

so just out of the fucking blue my dad decided to buy him this beauty: http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus-g74sx-a2.aspx

Why? no fucking idea, but I guess I will be playing Skyrim (and a bunch of other games) sooner than I though

 

[BadTaste]

Can someone post their Skyrim.ini file? I thought I backed it up but apparently I only backed up SkyrimPrefs.

Delete Skyrim.ini then run Skyrim and it will recreate the file back to it's default state.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Delete Skyrim.ini then run Skyrim and it will recreate the file back to it's default state.

Thanks, is it okay that it only has a fraction of the data that is in my current ini file? Does it like self-update as you play the game and add more things to it or something?

Also, what is a decent uGrids setting that will yield some noticeable improved visuals but not totally overkill my frame-rate like the 11 value does?

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Skyrim randomly closing is starting to bum me out.

Same. I did the "sound fix" and I am still getting CTDs.

 

[BadTaste]

Yeah just enter the actual game after the main menu and it should add the rest of the data back to your .ini

 

[StarEye]

Today I've played Skyrim for perhaps 8 or 9 hours (phew!). I simply can't get enough of this game. But the point is, it didn't crash ONCE for me, during this whole time. I quit once on my own accord to take a break, but it never crashed at all during my playing today.

Yesterday I played most of the game on High settings, with only the AA set to 4x instead of 8. Worked flawlessly for a long long time, until it suddenly started to struggle holding a stable framerate in the cities and outside in general. Turn the game off, then on again, it worked fine, but only for so long.

Today I just said, screw it, and I ran the game at Medium settings. Only FOV changed, and since then it's been stable as a mountain. No issues whatsoever performance-wise. Perhaps those who are getting the seemingly random crash to desktop is trying to run the game at a higher setting than their PC can handle well?

I'm hoping for a good patch though, that increases the performance drastically, so I can actually go back to playing it on High. Though I'm more than happy with the graphics on Medium settings... something about the painting-like filter or art direction that makes it look incredibly good, despite having mediocre textures. The lighting and the weather does a lot to cover up the bad parts too.

 

[KKRT00]

Thanks, is it okay that it only has a fraction of the data that is in my current ini file? Does it like self-update as you play the game and add more things to it or something?

Also, what is a decent uGrids setting that will yield some noticeable improved visuals but not totally overkill my frame-rate like the 11 value does?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32630335&postcount=1280

For me it was 7.

 

[Dennis]

 

[MisterAnderson]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32630335&postcount=1280

For it was 7.

Thanks for the info. Looks great but I guess it's not worth the performance hit after all. What is OGSSAA though?

 

[Echoplx]

Skyrim randomly closing is starting to bum me out.

Make it Large Address Aware (see OP), mine went from randomly closing to desktop every hour to not doing it at all. Seems to happen when it runs out of RAM.

 

[KKRT00]

Thanks for the info. Looks great but I guess it's not worth the performance hit after all. What is OGSSAA though?

Real supersampling, it requires to 'hack' monitor driver and make custom resolution in nvidia panel.
http://www.overclock.net/t/558267/o...sion-and-screenshot-thread/5520#post_15496501

 

[Betta Lines]

Aha. Dennis, I believe you are telling porkies. I can see the shadows fading towards the back there - that is considerably less than the '4000.0000' you claim, which is why yours are so crisp.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Shadows from tall trees don't look like that anyways. You would need a gigantic spotlight for those shadows

 

[Stahsky]

Make it Large Address Aware (see OP), mine went from randomly closing to desktop every hour to not doing it at all. Seems to happen when it runs out of RAM.

So, just to make sure I was reading that right in the OP:

Download the program, check the box, apply to TESV.exe.

Done?

 

[Dennis]

Aha. Dennis, I believe you are telling porkies. I can see the shadows fading towards the back there - that is considerably less than the '4000.0000' you claim, which is why yours are so crisp.

Thats true. In those two last screenshots I lowered the distance to 2000 to see if it would make the shadows sharper.

It does. Why not just lets us get long distance and sharp shadows at the same time Bethesda?

 

[TheExodu5]

Yeah, this game is definitely CPU bound, even though it's not maxing out any core on my 2500K. Restoring my overclock gave a large boost to my framerate.

That's a shame. I guess I've got one game to look forward to playing when I upgrade from my lowly 2500K. ;_;

 

[Dennis]

 

[Betta Lines]

Thats true. In those two last screenshots I lowered the distance to 2000 to see if it would make the shadows sharper.

It does. Why not just lets us get long distance and sharp shadows at the same time Bethesda?

You probably can, by putting that iShadowMapResolution up to ridiculous figures, but it would destroy your framerate. But as Lactose_Intolerant says, shadows rarely look this sharp, unless you have very intense, unfiltered sunlight, and even then, it would go out of focus towards the top of a tree.

I would be happy with a lower res shadow that could be blurred out in a smooth manner, rather than this blocky mess. Has anyone discovered a setting that makes the shadows go out of focus slightly?

 

[BoobPhysics101]

This is getting tedious. I hate approaching the argument this way, but I'd like to mention that I have published papers at international conferences on the subjects of multicore scheduling and performance analysis.

The reason Microsoft recommends keeping a page file is because that will never cause crashes (just worse performance), while not doing so will. It's just that anyone with 12 GB ram that is not running software from the last millennium will not encounter these cases.

But hey, I'm not forcing you to disable your page file, I'm just trying to help people with a very large amount of main memory achieve better performance.

...And multicore scheduling really has nothing to do with paging file performance or usage. Two totally different subsystems.

Again, if the people that wrote the operating system say to keep at least a SMALL paging file on the computer, and if Intel themselves advise keeping it as well, especially on an HDD, I'm going to guess their knowledge/expertise in the OS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> yours by orders of magnitude.

To use your words, the majority of people advising page filing disabling are 'pseudo-experts' who really can't prove one way or another that having no paging file is better than having a small one.

I really can't advise people to do something that could compromise the stability of their systems especially if they're taking it at face-value without any knowledge of the consequences or the arguments for/against doing the action.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Yeah, this game is definitely CPU bound, even though it's not maxing out any core on my 2500K. Restoring my overclock gave a large boost to my framerate.

That's a shame. I guess I've got one game to look forward to playing when I upgrade from my lowly 2500K. ;_;

It's sad that we have to brute-force this game to increase performance, even though other, better looking games utilize the hardware so much more efficiently.

I will say this though: I just got to the marshes in Solitude... WOW. Breath-takingly good. This game really does look incredible when it wants to. It's just sad that it's such a mixed bag: mind-blowing in some locales, and just OK in others.

Let's hope Bethesda decides to release the mod-tools soon and we get some amazingly high-res textures + normal maps etc, Qarl-style.

 

[ss_lemonade]

So just how useful is the iShadowMapResolution command for real world gameplay (and not snapshot every second gameplay)? I put mine to 8192 and here's my result.

Entering Fort Amol (which looks like a tiny room with a couple of mages. Nothing major going on) on maximum settings, 1920x1080 8xAA:

4096 - 40fps
8192 - 17fps

 

[Betta Lines]

So just how useful is the iShadowMapResolution command for real world gameplay (and not snapshot every second gameplay)? I put mine to 8192 and here's my result.

Entering Fort Amol (which looks like a tiny room with a couple of mages. Nothing major going on) on maximum settings, 1920x1080 8xAA:

4096 - 40fps
8192 - 17fps

I don't take that much of a hit. If you have power to spare, why not. Not quite worth it for me though. I like my 60fps.

 

[ss_lemonade]

I don't take that much of a hit. If you have power to spare, why not. Not quite worth it for me though. I like my 60fps.

And I thought my 2500k @4.5 + 6970 would be enough. This literally brought down my framerates lol

 

[Jijidasu]

So just how useful is the iShadowMapResolution command for real world gameplay (and not snapshot every second gameplay)? I put mine to 8192 and here's my result.

Entering Fort Amol (which looks like a tiny room with a couple of mages. Nothing major going on) on maximum settings, 1920x1080 8xAA:

4096 - 40fps
8192 - 17fps

Same happened to me, I knocked them back down to 4092 and it was fine. I think it might be just the game needing some patches to fix performance, considering I'm running an i5 2500k @ 4.5 and a GTX 480 CU2 @ 950/1900..

Need to unload the whip onto those modders I think!

 

[Betta Lines]

Does anyone know what fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 does? I don't seem to notice any visual or performance difference compared to the default 0.2500.

 

[irriadin]

So, lemme tell you I've encountered some really crazy bugs indoors when my fps gets to above 200. You get the usual "objects flying at a million miles per hour" as well as no-clipping through walls!

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

It's sad that we have to brute-force this game to increase performance, even though other, better looking games utilize the hardware so much more efficiently.

I will say this though: I just got to the marshes in Solitude... WOW. Breath-takingly good. This game really does look incredible when it wants to. It's just sad that it's such a mixed bag: mind-blowing in some locales, and just OK in others.

Let's hope Bethesda decides to release the mod-tools soon and we get some amazingly high-res textures + normal maps etc, Qarl-style.

From the few posts I've read about this it seems the game uses like 30% or so of each core of a quad core. Which just shows its not really using the cores for anything that 1 core couldn't do. Its just spreading out the game and all the background programs you have going on. They really need to get this fixed for their next game.

 

[En-ou]

how do i remove shadows that cast on ppls faces/body?

 

[Dennis]

I think I am going to settle for a distance of 6000 and a resolution of 8192 for the shadows.

Sure, they are sharper at 4000 or 2000 distance but the shadow pop-in is killing me. 6000 is as low as I can go.

So far as I can tell there is no difference between a shadow resolution of 8192 and 16384. I can't tell any difference in fps either.

My game stays at 60 fps no matter what I do.

 

[Betta Lines]

So, lemme tell you I've encountered some really crazy bugs indoors when my fps gets to above 200. You get the usual "objects flying at a million miles per hour" as well as no-clipping through walls!

Stealth brag post?

I recommend... v-sync.

 

[Betta Lines]

My game stays at 60 fps no matter what I do.

Oh wait... you're that guy with the insane PC aren't you

 

[irriadin]

Stealth brag post?

I recommend... v-sync.

This is one instance where I was wishing I didn't get such good performance! Naturally, it was a small cave area, so it's not too hard to render... Compared to some people here like DennisK4, my rig is quite modest.

I enabled v-sync in the Bleak Falls Barrow, since beforehand I accidentally rubber-banded through one of the rotating door puzzles >_>

 

[Aptos]

This is one instance where I was wishing I didn't get such good performance! Naturally, it was a small cave area, so it's not too hard to render... Compared to some people here like DennisK4, my rig is quite modest.

I enabled v-sync in the Bleak Falls Barrow, since beforehand I accidentally rubber-banded through one of the rotating door puzzles >_>

I haven't got any crazy bugs from my fps being too high, but I keep getting inconsistent look sensitivity when my fps fluctuates. V-sync fixes the problem, but wtf? it's not that hard to calculate fps independent camera rotation rate

 

[EatChildren]

So by the looks of things shadows don't cast on grass. That's weird.

 

[Victrix]

Any fix for the key rebinding idiocy yet? I can't store items in containers without rebinding store item to 'R', no other key binding works, and R is one of my movement keys :|

 

[Zzoram]

Is this game CPU intensive?

How would an E8400 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo + HD4870 512MB + 4GB RAM run this game?

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Any fix for the key rebinding idiocy yet? I can't store items in containers without rebinding store item to 'R', no other key binding works, and R is one of my movement keys :|

I'm interested in this too. Although at this point I'm used to the default keys.

Another error is if you have 2 of the same item in your favorites. Like if you have 2 iron shields, if you favorite them, use them, then sheathe them, they become unbound. Only occurs if you have 2 or more.

 

[TheExodu5]

Is this game CPU intensive?

How would an E8400 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo + HD4870 512MB + 4GB RAM run this game?

Yeah, it'll run okay, albeit medium settings most likely.

And yeah, the game is quite CPU intensive.

 

[Izayoi]

Finally settled on playable settings. I might mess with uGrids some more later, but for now I'm happy.

Steady 60 outside, and 120 inside (using 120hz monitor and the frame limiter).

Stock Core i7-2600k, single stock GTX 580.

 

[Confidence Man]

Got a weird audio bug happening now, seemingly wherever there's rushing water around. Sound starts getting staticky and reverbs, never happened until that damn drinking game quest when I ended up in

Spoiler

Markath

, now I can't get rid of it.

I think I'm going to just shelve this game until shit like this is fixed and modders remove the shitty scaling.

 

[Zaphod]

Is this game CPU intensive?

How would an E8400 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo + HD4870 512MB + 4GB RAM run this game?

I have a C2D 2.2 and a 4850 1GB. It runs pretty good on high. 45 to 60 outside 30 in town.