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Skyrim Tweaked

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Last Updated on Thursday, 17 November 2011 15:01

Published on Thursday, 17 November 2011 00:31

I've been playing with the .ini files again. Huge results visually, but stability becomes an issue and frame rates are all over the place. I'll be changing my .ini settings back for general play, but for screenshots this is the way forward. Huge thanks to Duncan Harris (@deadendthrills)
Read his guide here before you do anything: http://deadendthrills.com/2011/11/madness-in-the-method/ Have a look at his shots here: http://www.deadendthrills.com/

Here is a comparison to show the results I achieved. Click each image for original 1920x1080 screens. The difference is quite striking.

Before:

After:

Suddenly we've got distant mammoths, ground detail's through the roof, OH MY JIGGLIES!!!

Here's what I did:

Downloaded and ran Large Address Aware from here:

http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=202

Copied and renamed the following .ini files so I could reinstate them afterwards (Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini) .

Next tips from: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11

Opened C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini

Added to [General]:

uGridsToLoad=11
uExterior Cell Buffer=144
iPreloadSizeLimit=262144000

Opened C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\SkyrimPrefs.ini

Changed these values:

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=2
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
fShadowDistance=50000.0000
bDrawLandShadows=1

fGrassStartFadeDistance=20000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=20000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=10000.0000

Add these values:

dTreesReceiveShadows=1
dDrawLandShadows=1
iRadialBlurLevel=0
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024

When I ran the game, I had to stick all the settings on 11 again. Old game file loaded fine.

Pros: Impress everyone with your screenshots.
Cons: Horribly unstable. Went from smooth 60fps to as low as 15, then CTD within 30 seconds.

UPDATE: Moved my Skyrim install to my SSD using SteamTool Library Manager.

UPDATE: New mission. Find a happy medium where looks are improved, but game is stable. Inspired by Jim Rossignol's article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

UPDATE: That's enough tweaking for me. Seems I've found the stable level. Hope so, as I can no longer use my original ini files or the saves don't work.

My Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K o/c 4.8Ghz
FAN: Corsair A70
MB: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 PRO
RAM: 16GB Mushkin Redline DDR3 2133MHz 9-11-10-28
HDD: OCZ Vertex 3 SATA3 120GB (system), 2.5TB various (storage)
GPU: 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti SLi
CASE: CoolerMaster HAF 922
MONITOR: Samsung 24" SMB2430H
INPUT: Logitech G500 / Wacom Intuos3
SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro / Earforce X41s
OS: Windows 7 64bit

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