Skyrim Mods

Oioi Stony, Can you recommend this. its getting some positive response?

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1321657-tesv-acceleration-layer-offers-cpu-optimization-massive-possible-performance-increases-now-in-skse-plugin-format/

I`m using it and getting a 7-9 fps increase, however it also seems to breaking some AI scripting especially at the beginning of the game. What I`m saying is use at your own risk, best bet is to read the entire thread at Bethsoft and make your own mind up.

Whats up with the mod thats supposed to make Skyrim into a multiplayer game?

Darkstone wrote:I`m using it and getting a 7-9 fps increase, however it also seems to breaking some AI scripting especially at the beginning of the game. What I`m saying is use at your own risk, best bet is to read the entire thread at Bethsoft and make your own mind up.

Thanks for the heads up, I had a read through and am going to leave it alone for now, but it's impressive work.

Theres an updated version out now that cures the problem .. and yes it is a great find, especially since it was only sloppy coding on Beths part that was changed.

7-9 fps increase also.

That mod + the latest beta drivers have improved my game no end, I never see it drop below 30, Most of the time it's hitting the vsync wall at 60fps, and that’s after throwing a load of mods at it.

I`ve started to get some stuttering now I`m gradually adding decent mods, this is mainly due to my weak GPU which I`m planning to replace with this beast very shortly - assuming I can jiggle stuff around as it needs 3, yes 3 ! expansion slots


GTX 560 Ti 2GB

3 slots Thats a monster.

Noticed my pc was running hotter probably thanks to higher textures, so stripped the case down gave it a clean, now temps are what they were before mods and fans are quieter, so it's worth doing occasionally.

Now thinking of re-rolling, getting bored with Sword & Board I started a Mage on the 360 and realised what I was missing.

I started as a mage and have kind of taken to swords, I joined the companions sort of by mistake and they seem to want you to use melee weapons, so my mage was using a sword but now he's using the conjured swords. I'm not really intending for him to become a warrior but it's a nice change of pace. I would like to find a different spell thats worth using at the moment pretty much all I use is Flame, I sometimes use the healing spell etc but I really want another useful fire spell. I have Fireball, but I don't really like that. I suppose all I really want is a more powerful better looking Flame spell. I know there are more spells for fire out there, but I've no idea what they are or how to get them.

Here are a couple of mods I can recommend that aren’t in the nexus top 20

Animal Pack
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3621

Dramatic Clouds
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4910

the cloud one is probably one of my favorite visual mods, the vanilla clouds are so meh! It also improves the mountain mist And along with Enhanced Night make night hunting a pleasure.

I use Bellyaches animal pack as well, he has some nice textures in there. I did use Enhanced Night Sky until I found Aetherian Skies which just blew me away. I`ll give the cloud one a go, not seen that one, cheers.

I`ll post some of the mods I use when I have a bit more time

I`ve also tried SkyBoost instead of TESVAL and got much better performance, might be worth a try on your system too.

Cheers I’ll take a look at both of those, though extra performance is always welcome I might give Skyboost a miss until Beth updates this month (along with construction Kit too ).

From Bethsdda Forums:

TiranastaAUS
wrote:

Integrater wrote: Has anyone tried using both Skyboost and TESVAL at the same time?

I don't know whether this causes problems, but even if it doesn't there'd be no point. SkyBoost performs every optimization that TESVAL does and more. Why replace A with B twice?

Interesting response, I’m sold

Going to give this a try when I get home, do I launch with the game exe or skse?

It works without SKSE so if you dont have any mods that need SKSE, just start using the game exe.

At the top of steps at Dragonreach looking down at tree:

All from the same save

Vanilla: 26 no mods
TESVAL: 30
SkyBoost R3: 35 with mods

I'm now able to run shadows on ult I take a small hit but can afford to now, I think its time to stop running fraps and this fps paranoia.

1 happy

And I'm liking that night sky

Done quite a few hours on this set up now It’s somewhere between high and ult, the only problem is the load times have more than doubled in some places almost as long as the xbox , but the game is smooth and playable even in the problem places.

Out of curiosity I removed all the mods and loaded my save on the steps in Whiterun and got exactly the same fps.

I noticed a texture seam in the Aetherian Sky mod so I've gone back to Enhanced Night, the trouble was once I'd noticed it I couldn't help but look for it all the time.

I'm now looking at save managers so I can switch between profiles.

I'll do a fen and ramble on to myself.

TESV Savegame Manager, works a treet.
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15

Put night sky back to Aetheria, I missed it to much.

Droped Shadows to high, I was getting a hit in the tunnals at the start, Dont know why there dosn't seam to be any more going on than there is in other dungens/caves. and i was running the ini tweeks.

As promised,heres my current mod/utilities list

Wrye Bash
BOSS


SkyBoost

SKSE
Container Categorization
Elys Uncapper
Smart Souls
SkyUI

Aetherian Skies
Better Females
Better Magic
Better Sorting
Calientes Female Body
Enhanced Distant Terrain
Glaciers Retextured
Glowing Ore Veins
Mossy Roofs
Quality world Map With Roads
Realistic Water Textures
Skyrim Enhanced Shaders
Texture Normal Maps
Readable Road Signs
Xenius Character Enhancement

Not familiar with some of those, Thanks for the links I’ll have a closer look later.

Current mod list:

Bellyaches Animal Pack
Better Sorting
Dramatic Clouds
Enhanced Blood Textures
Enhanced Distant Terrain
Glowing Ore Veins
Improved NPC Clothing
No More Blocky Faces
RWSerious HD Retexture Landscape
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Thats Ice
Aetherian Sky

Ive now added to my list

Readable Road Signs
Xenius Character Enhancement
Better Magic

I was in two minds about Better Magic as it's game changing but I like the way the authors justify it and seeing as I've just started a mage I thought what the heck.


As I havent posted a screeny for a while this is "Flora Overhaul" doing it's thing.

Spent my lunch reading about the Enhanced Shaders, I’ve steered clear of shaders before as I never found the screen shots convincing, but this one I like very much, the only thing that’s stopping me installing at the moment is I’m not a fan of dark nights, Though got to admit vanilla nights makes torches redundant.

So question, are the cloudy nights so dark they make exploring impossible?

And how are the dungeons, even ones that haven’t been disturbed for thousands of years still have candles burning?

I use the FXAA Injector and Enhanced shaders together but mostly have them turned off, I really only use them for screenshot purposes or when the world is particularly light, ie in the extreme north. You can toggle them on or off so if its too dark in a dungeon just turn them off.

Tried the beta Skyboost r4 but have gone back to r3, I got a boost but also had some noticeable stutter in intensive areas. I’m keeping an eye on the forum to see if changing drivers or using a fps limiter helps, but at the moment the games running so well I don’t want to tinker with it for the sake of it.

Loving Nebula’s 2k textures, I loaded it over the top of Flora Overhaul and then added RWT and Aetherian sky on top of 2k, (the 2k water was awful compared to RWT) I was expecting a hit as 2k recommends a 2gb gpu but I actually got a gain, possibly because I removed RWSerious as 2k clashes with it. d’no but I now get 40fps on Dragonreach steps.







Btw Stony, Is Darkstorne you on the Beth forums?