OK folks, Part 2.
Before we get started, let me explain a couple things that are important to understand when modding skyrim, regardless of what CPU or graphics card you have. the Creation engine, running DX9, was old when Skyrim released and was a kludge of sorts based on the old Gamebryo. Without getting into detail, lets just generalize and say it has issues. Memory management being among them. And many of the problems encountered modding Skyrim, and that includes VR modding, stem from those.
Fortunately there are fixes/workarounds out there for many of them. Skyrim could not be modded without them to the degree it is. They all address one or more issues and some are the literal basis of many a mod besides. These are must installs even if you do not mod Skyrim because they deal with problems that need dealing with, mods or not. I’ll provide the links and you can read up on them from there because there is no point in me rewriting War and Peace…which is what a thorough explaination here would result in …and this ain’t that kinda’ article ;)
Skyrim Script Extender / SKSE / SKSE-Shishon’s Memory Patch
http://skse.silverlock.org/
Bug Fixes
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76747/?
Crash Fixes
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72725/?
USLEEP – Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Patch
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71214/?
They are the American Express of Modding. Don’t leave home without’em. (Yes, I’m that old ;)
There is one more ‘essential’ that unfortunately we cannot use in VR. ENBoost. This is a memory manager and more that unfortunately VorpX cannot use…at least in theory. There is a version…the ‘Injector’ version, that supposedly work but success stories are unicorns. So for now, I’ll leave discussion on that out. Hopefully at some point, someone will sort it out because it is a great program and solves many, many issues.
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OK. So with the memory patches and assorted fixes in place, we move to the meat of the issue. Skyrim 2K texture pack / Lite version.
From the Nexus page:
“Explanation FULL/LITE:
FULL – All the textures are at the maximum resolution. Average is around 4x the official HD DLC.
LITE – All the textures are at 50% of the FULL Version. Average is around 2x the official HD DLC.”
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/? ”
While twice the rez of the official texture pack, the lite version of this one is actually less heavy on resources than the official version, looks better and is pretty damn nice to look at. But surely something that much more detailed than the stock textures HAS to be a framerate killer right? RIGHT????
Well lest we forget, we installed better memory management above. And because of those few changes and fixes, Skyrim is now a very different animal than it used to be. Normal rules have been altered a bit. Remember that in bone stock trim, I was seeing solid 43-45FPS on the WRF/FRW runs. The only dips below that were on cell loads and changes which CANNOT be totally eliminated.
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Whiterun/Riverwood/Falkreath (WRF run) and back:
No change in minimum framerates. In fact, thanks to those managers and fixes, the framerate counter was most often 44-45.5. It got FASTER. Not slower. Faster. Ever so slightly, but it’s there. Now consider this is still at 8xAA, 16x AO and 2.0 upscaling. This included day/evening, night and sun/rain.
And it ‘felt’ more responsive. It was smooth before. As I said. This is now a different animal altogether. The CPU and GPU are still just casually cruising along with no effort on their part.
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OK now how does it look? Well, as you’d expect, it looks considerably better. It’s not yet at Witcher 3 levels because no lighting or weather mods are in yet, but there is no mistaking a significant visual boost. And at ZERO FPS cost and quite literally, for 20 min of modding, including downloading the files.
Next up will be the killer. Skyrim Flora Overhaul. I will be using the ‘regular version rather than the newest because the regular is hard enough on the system. In VR, the full/new version is too intensive to deal with, even for a Titan. However, the regular version is a sight to behold and transforms the game into something far more ‘realistic’ looking.
OK, thats it for now. Time for bed ;)