This is the bomb. Once the community figures out how to push this fix to the general user base properly, it is going to have a huge impact in what mods can do.
Some obvioius improvements:
- Open Cities mod will actually be usable in normal playthrough.
- Mods that increase number of enemies (Civil War stuffs, patrols, etc) will be a lot more stable.
- Expanded/Populated Town mods are going to go crazy.
Hopefully it will be prove to be as effective as it promises in early testing, and will be integrated into the standard SKSE distribution.
I don’t think it will be a panacea for mods increasing numbers of actors and references however, as the game has additional issues there beyond memory allocation.
Does this mean things like ugrids 9 or even 11 will be playable? That addition would be enough to get me to do another playthrough.
Some of the STEP testers are reporting that to be the case, when combined with the existing set of stability improving tweaks and utilities.
Here’s the original thread at ENB series, which is still developing (latest development is an “universal” patch by Uriel24 for Steam or non-Steam users, handy if you use Mod Organizer).
The game does seem a lot more stable with this; I was able to run around the Windhelm bridge and farm region extensively with no crashes, as well as generally cover more ground outside without crashing.
I did still experience a handful of crashes in random places outdoors, but seeing as I run a heavily modded game that’s not necessarily a strike against the new dll. I’ve turned on more logging to see if I can isolate the issues I’m seeing.
Aside from just crashes, overall performance seems improved. For example, previously I could always tell when I was nearing a big battle from Immersive Patrols, because I would notice a temporary performance drop, and often a crash. Now there is no slowdown or hitching at all, even coming up on roughly 40 soldiers fighting.
I also tried to increase the memory block allocation to 768/512. With a version of the DLL I picked up from a STEP poster built with VC 2010 this proved unstable, crashing within a few minutes. However, I tried another version built with VC 2008 and experienced no immediate issues with these increased settings.
Officially SKSE only supports 2008, and there is a surprisingly large size discrepancy in the dll compiled under 2008 vs 2010 or 2013 (~122kb vs ~108kb, more than you’d expect off typical compiler improvements and suggesting considerable structural differences in the compiled code), so that’s something that may bear investigation. I don’t know if the SKSE team doesn’t support any version other than 2008 because they are aware of specific issues, or simply because they (quite reasonably) don’t care to test against multiple compilers.
Update: In about 8 hours of play using the 2008 compiled dll I have not had a single random crash (I have had a reproducible one from an actual mod related error, but that’s nothing to do with this).
The odds look good for this ending up in the next version of SKSE. It’s in a bit of a weird spot at the moment, because officially the SKSE team does not provide any sort of redistribution license. In practice they are repeating that position when asked about this, but not actually pursuing anyone for distributing customized versions of this loader dll.
With SKSE, ENBoost and this, Skyrim seems to finally be the game it could have been.
And I thought Skryim modding had reached a plateau. This opens up a whole new mountain range!
robc04
1969
I guess I should have been talking and asking about mods in this thread instead of the other. So far I think my favorite lighting mod is the Realistic Lighting Overhaul because the outdoor colors are vibrant and the indoor lighting effects seem pretty good. I thought Realistic Colors Realistic Nights darkened things up too much. I like the weather in climates of Tamriel, but the colors are not very vibrant.
Are most of you satisfied with a regular lighting mod, or do a lot of you use an ENB mod, such as Project ENB?
Wolff
1970
I am starting on a mod journey using:
While playing black guards, will report back!
So…for someone who played it when it came out, without mods, and just picked up the Legendary edition…is there a good overall guide to what you’re talking about here? Because I read the last few pages, and…right.
robc04
1972
So is anti-aliasing poor when using Project ENB, or do I have something configured wrong? The fences are really jagged. As instructed I turned off AA in Skyrim.
Pyperkub
1973
Given that ENBoost has such a performance increase, that is pretty much mandatory (along with the Memory fix skse.ini tweak), at least some sort of ENB present is appropriate. I just went through the entire STEP process for 2.2.8 this weekend, and I’m going to roll in a couple of other mods as well and restart the game.
instant0
1974
So, if Skyrim was 64-bit we’d run UGrids 11 already?
Arkon262
1975
So how exactly does ENBoost provide a performance increase? Everything I have seen about ENB stuff in the past makes it seem like it is more demanding.
Also I asked in another thread, but any recommendations on mods for a Mage playthrough. Currently I am using SPERG and Apocalype Spell Package. Would love to get some better robes if nothing else.
Pyperkub
1976
My understanding is that it offloads some of that graphic processing to a second process/additional thread.
Pyperkub
1977
PS I think I saw a better mage staffs mod but I’m on my phone
robc04
1978
I was having problems with dark shadows when using Project ENB. The installation instructions say to use version .119 or .221 of the ENB Series d3d9.dll. I had been using .119. I totally forgot that using .221 was an option with Project ENB. In any case I had probably spent a dozen hours trying to solve the problem when all I had to do was put a version .221 dll in my Skyrim folder. Now it looks great with Climates of Tamriel + Project ENB. I am wondering if my frame rate is good enough though. My fps is generally between 30 and 40, with occasional delay when loading some new stuff. Without Project ENB I am pretty much at 60fps all the time.
Is my fps good enough?
robc04
1979
Man I’m wishy washy. After I finally got Project ENB working with Climates of Tamriel I’m not so sure I prefer Proj ENB. During the brightest part of the day, it is too yellow and bright. Climates of Tamriel is a little too subdued on its own. Here are some samples. Actually these ones aren’t as bad because the area I’m in isn’t as bright. When I’m out in the open Proj ENB is really bright.
CoT without Proj ENB
CoT with Proj ENB
2 Hours later in the day.
CoT without Proj ENB
CoT with Proj ENB
robc04
1980
Now I have Realistic Lighting Overhaul, no ENB required for vibrant colors
