TES V: Skyrim Discussion Thread

I'm experimenting with the shadow settings and I came up with a pretty sweet setup.

First change show resolution to 4096
then
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 or 0 (I use 0 as I like the sharp look)
fShadowDistance=3500.0000

and here is the interesting part that I just found out tonight:
iShadowMaskQuarter=8

Give it a try.

Walk around Whiterun.

Let me know if you love me.

and one more thing to get rid of that strange facial self-shadowing:
fShadowBiasScale=0.4000

 

Would a 570M run SKyrim maxed out at 1080P? Trying to decide between the 570M now and upgrade later, or if I need to pay the $400 for a 580M.

Thoughts?

 

With the new 1.4 update i can run Skyrim at Ultra preset without AA on my HD 6970m.
A GTX 570m is slighty under my GPU if notebookcheck.net is to be trusted so im sure it will be fine.

 

Very nice to know. I appreciate it DEagleson. I'll probably go the cheap route, and grab a MSI-780 for not, and grab one of the new cards when they release, or when I feel the 570M can't keep up anymore.

 

This new update messed up my .exe because it isn't compatible with SkyBoost. SkyBoost made the game run smoother...
This new update makes my game run slower than normal (no SkyBoost in question). Do you guys have the same issues?

 

According to the author of SkyBoost, he has to update SkyBoost to work with every update. Therefore, your other bet is to use that other Accelerator program that uses SKSE if you need to boost. This is probably something that Bethsoft will probably never address in a patch.

 

Wow no one tried my shadow config in my previous post? Or no one cares to share feedback?

Anyway was playing a few hours last night and MAN, has the scenery improved.

Walking around the woods and seeing the detailed shadows that trees cast is AMAZING.

Lowers performance a bit but the visual quality increase from the better shadows is stunning!

Before: (default Ultra Shadows)


After my settings:

 

I actually set mine to 1... the ultra sharpness is a bit unnatural IMO.

 

Very impressive looking. Great work andros.

 

Thanks bro. Didn't realize just how much better realistic shadows like this can make a game look until now

 

Creation Kit coming on Tuesday! With the steam workshop, it looks like modding will be easier than ever.

The elder scrolls News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Kotaku

 

SWEET!!! Looking forward to some more user created mods!

 

Hi Res texture pack is out, I wonder if I can run it. I don't have a physical quad core. I'll test it later.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

 

I've been trying to get to the bottom of enchanting some stuff and I just realized that I can't disenchant items with the same, but greater effect. I can give the following example: 15% increased two handed damage enchantment.
I've found a pair of gloves which offer 30% increased two handed damage, but I can't disenchant it any more, because it is greyed out. Is there a way to get the better enchantments on the items that you want? Am I stuck with the lower enchantment effect?

 

The enchantment applied on a item depends on you skill level and perks + the quality of the soulgem used.

 

I have to admit, I didn't focus on the enchanting skill tree, but the soul gems only make sure that you get the maximum effect you have learned so far... e.g. If I know a 15% skill increase, a grand soul gem with grand soul will fill the 15%, while a lesser soul gem will give a 8% increase, or smth like that.

This means that the value increase depends on perks. Which ones are those?

 

Can you enchant or improve the nightinggale armor?

 

There is an official HD texture pack available in Steam from Bethesda now

Edit: Maybe I should try to read the comments first lol

 

Disenchanting an item only teaches you an effect; once you have the effect you do not need to disenchant a higher magnitude item with the same effect later on. The magnitude of enchantments that you make is dependent on your Enchanting level and perks, and the type of soul gem you use. For example, if you disenchant an item that increases your health by 5, if you have the right level and perks, you can re-enchant something else that increases your health by 20.

 

Thanks for the tip!

Btw, where can I find a list of maximum bonuses/effect values I can get for the various enchantments/increases on items/apparel? (I'm referring to the maximum non-game-breaking values)

 

UESPWiki is always a good place to start; they've got comprehensive lists of just about everything Elder Scrolls.

 

Valve and Bethesda have officially released the Space Personality Core mod for Skyrim

download here

 

Anybody download the official high-res texture pack? I'm quite pleased with it. The difference is subtle but noticeable, especially on armor and weapons. Close ups of rocks and the ground look less 'pixelated' too. My FPS is exactly the same too, I am not noticing any impact on performance. Well, to be fair according to fraps instead of 47 and 52 fps (in the areas I am testing) it flashes between 46-47 and 51-52. No difference in other places. So if the worst performance impact is half a frame, I'll take it.

I've never been a fan of user-created high-res texture packs. Some gamers go nuts over it. And I guess it's cool if somebody wants to work hard and invest their free time to do that. It's just IMO, they change the art style for the worse. Public domain photos manipulated in gimp, often with poorly implemented mipmaps. I though Skyrim vanilla looked great with and my nvidia driver forced 16xAF and 'high quality' for textures. Some closeups looks like pixel blobs.

I just get the feeling that many PC gamers don't use AF or they have it set low. 16xAF has almost no performance impact on modern graphics cards. The optimization in the driver confuse people too. They might turn them on and not realize that they potentially hurt image quality. I always turn in-game AF off and force it in my driver to 16x, turn off optimizations, turn LOD bias to allow (unless it's one of those old games where clamp actually helped), and turn texture to high quality. No need for high-res textures IMO. I mean, not the user-generated ones that change art styles.

Sorry for my rambling there. Skyrim runs pretty great on my gaming laptop. Ran 30fps average when I first got it, but now it's like 40-60 after the 1.4 update. Everything ultra except AA off and FXAA on, AF off in-game (Because I'm forcing better AF in driver), shadows on medium with the .ini tweaked for high's 2048 shadow res and the filtering at 6. Good shadows and lighting distance, no jaggies, everything looks great and runs at a consistent FPS.

 

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Do you have to manually install the texture pack? Or does it load automatically? I didn't see anything "Download" when I clicked on "buy free DLC"

 

It will load the next time you launch the game.

 

I force 16x AF in ALL my games it's the one thing I can definitely not do without and it doesn't cost too much in GPU performance. Just started playing Skyrim in 1920x1200 today again with AA off and all settings maxed like before and I am pleased to see that the fps is about the same as 1280x720 with 4x AA. I noticed the GPU temp went up significantly though, due to the higher resolution. Almost hitting 78 degrees versus a stable 70 on the lower resolution. And for the official higher resolution textures... I'm getting them right now ^^

 

skyRimGameJam - YouTube

the future of skyrim is in our hands.... lol

 

1 week.... really?? Bethesda needs to work a month on this and make it a dlc Mod pack and I would gladly pay for it.

 

From what I've heard, the new patch makes SkyBoost redundant. The 1.4 patch really improves performance a good bit.

Yes. You need Void Salts and the perk in the Smithing tree that allows you to upgrade Enchanted items. Some of those unique items depend on what level you are at when you get them, so they may not be as good as they could be if you get them when you're at a lower level. There's a mod on the Steam Workshop that lets you work around that, though.

 

I'll look into that mod. I did thieves guild very quickly.

I'd hate to get Smithing up - I want to keep my level as low as possible while just putting everything into only what I need.

Though I'm getting bored since I've done the main quest and a few others. Not much left in the game.

 

-blink-

Not much left in the game...? How many hours in are you?

 

No idea. I've done the main quest, I did that conspiracy one, the mage one is almost done, some random ones like the redguard sword, all thieves guild quests. I still have a few "big" quests to go but otherwise it's just those little random ones.

 

get yourself some mods!

 

That is true. I've noticed this myself, but I heard they are working on a new one again.

 

Been a while since someone posted on this thread...

Any way been having a problem lately, ever since I installed the High Rez Texture DLC I noticed that If I load into an outer Skyrim area twice, the game will take longer to load and sometimes I might even get some horrible lag.

First time is always super fast as it should be. Second time I'll get a jitter right after the Autosave... Third time it's usually unplayable and I have to exit the game and restart it for it to become normal again. Anyone else been experiencing this?

Anyone have a fix for this other than removing the high texture dlc which I assume is the cause of this?

 

There have been quite a few discussions lately with save files which were getting too big and corrupted. Serious loading times are a few of the symptoms. I don't think it has to do anything with the DLC texture pack. Better back up those saves.

 

this doesn't happen when I am loading a save, but when I am loading the "Skyrim" area consecutive times. Let's say for example I walk into a random farm house. I walk out, the outside world loads fine. I walk back into the house, this area loads fine. I walk back out into Skyrim again and it takes longer to load. If I do this process once again, it will probably take forever for the Skyrim area to load and it will get all jittery even after it loads. Causing me to have to save, quit the game, and reload to have normal framerate again.

 

I wasn't specifically referring to scenarios when loading saves, but more to general loading times which get longer and longer as your character's game file becomes bigger and bigger.

 

I see, well that's not the case with me.. yet. General loads are super quick as always off my SSD.

 

Same here! also if I exit and restart the game it is very fast

 

Man just got the game... played morrowind and oblivion + all DLC probably a few times through each. so you get the idea i really liked it. getting into skyrim though... controls feel really awkward (keyboard+mouse) I mean REALLY awkward lol. Think its one of the worse control experiences iv had in a PC game.

oh well il keep pluging away i guess. the storyline seems interesting and the graphics seem like more of a throwback to Morrowind styling (but with better models/textures) then oblivion. just playing the first few hours you can definitely see some similarity between the imperial armors in Morrowind which is cool.

either way maybe i just need to get used to this GUI. I hate the xbox/ps3 controllers or id give em a try.

 

lol wait until you ride a horse...my wife hated the controls for a while until she got used to it, I use an xbox controller so controlling the game felt very intuitive and natural

 

Check out the SkyUI mod. It makes that whole interface a lot more like the older Oblivion style.

 

When I first got Skyrim I was skeptic that I would actually enjoy playing a PC RPG with my wireless Xbox 360 controller.

I would have laughed at you if you told me I would be playing Skyrim with a controller a year ago, but here I am enjoying the heck out of it.

I don't think I could possibly go back to using the Keyboard for this FPRP type of game (especially with some modded extra shortkeys on the Xbox 360 controller).

Even archery has become easy for me using the controller. At first I was struggling with it.

 

yeah I love SkyUI, i think it was the most useful mod for Skyrim, Since the Original Sky's UI is just too simple, but in a bad way, lol
Oh yeah and also, "CategorizedFavoritesMenu" Mod is also very useful for the Favorite Menu, it's just like SKyUI, but for Fav Menu

 

mmm 2 things.

1. Kill Cams - Skyrim Update 1.5 Trailer - YouTube

2. Beta was released for unofficial patch - I haven't checked it out but if it's anything like Oblivion's it will be superior quality. Oh and did I mention it was by the same team that did Oblivion's? No - Ok IT IS

 

is there any possibility that Skyrim would get a multiplayer update?

 

Nope. However, a couple of independent mods are slowly being developed for supporting Skyrim online gameplay. Google "Skyrim Online" if you want. They are in very early stages of development though, and it'll take year(s) to reach decently playable states.

 

I don't think they plan to make skyrim online but there are some rumors that bethesda is working on some kind of mmo. Exclusive: Bethesda to Announce Elder Scrolls MMO in May

Still just a rumor as far as I'm concerned but you never know.

 

mmmmm skyrim mmo