TES V: Skyrim Discussion Thread

I had no idea Dawnguard was even out for PC. However, I'm having a slightly different problem. Playing on my HTPC (in sig) with 360 controller, with almost everything cranked to max, and various texture mods and whatnot, and the game looks absolutely beautiful close up. However, same as Oblivion, past a certain distance, everything looks absolutely horrible and the detail totally disappears, and objects pop back into view as I get closer. Really annoying, and something I shouldn't have to deal with using a 2500k and 6950. Increasing the "grids to load" in Skyrim.ini to 7 largely corrects this issue; objects still pop in and out of view but they do so at much greater distances to where it's no longer very noticeable.

It looks great, and performance is usually ~50-60 fps in most areas. However, the trouble happens when move far enough (geographically) from my current location. Fast-traveling works fine, but when I go far enough on horseback or on foot, seemingly when it would load a new area of the map (but not when I go inside somewhere, more like when it needs to load another "grid"), the game simply crashes to desktop. No error, no freeze, it just quits. I've tried the various memory tweaks listed throughout the net, but nothing seems to seriously help. The only way to restore stability is to lower the grids to load back to 5, load a previous save, and play with perfect stability but horrible pop-in. I was able to play Oblivion with a grids to load of either 9 or 11, which I changed partway through the game, with no negative consequences. I've also read several posts about people who have increased their grids to load with no negative effects, so I'm at my wit's end as to why mine is not working.

EDIT: But it's a damn good game, though. I'm surprised at what I've been missing; should have bought it sooner. My non-gamer wife has wasted 75 hours in this game so far, and still plays it every chance she gets, so that should say something. Bought her a GPU and then had her blow out her junk PSU in the course of playing it

 

I'm guessing it might have to do with the particular mods you are running, or possibly if you changed the uGrids in the middle of your playthrough it might have corrupted your savegame. Try to start a brand new character and see if you still have the same issue.

Increasing the uGrids from 5 to 7 is a big burden, as the game engine is running scripts on all the actors in the many new cells that are now loading (64 cells instead of 32 cells with uGrids=5). This can cause a lot of problems with mods that incorporate scripts.

You may want to try using the Papyrus debug log to determine which scripts are firing just before you crash.

Open Skyrim.ini in My Documents/My Games/Skyrim and add the following lines or make sure they are toggled to "1" instead of "0".

[Papyrus]
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1

With these settings on, the game will create a new folder at “...\My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Logs\Script”.

Your logs will appear inside that folder, in the form of a text file named Papyrus.#.log with the # number ranging from 0 to 3. The 0 log is always the newest with older logs cycling through the increasing numbers.

These text files will be very large and much easier to review using Notepad++ rather than Windows Notepad.

 

I might just leave it at 5. According to google, a lot of people are having problems with the game becoming unstable at anything higher than 5. Funny, though, as people report the same thing for Oblivion, where I played nearly the whole game with it set to 9, and didnt have an issue.

Why can't Bethesda just program this as a setting that works, so those of us with decent rigs aren't stuck with such a jarring transition between awesome and not awesome graphics

 

I so missed the Dawnguard release notice.

They spent so long not telling us the release date, then just spring it on us!

I wonder why all the cloak and dagger instead of just telling us an 8/2 release date...

 

Because of their deal with Microsoft, they couldn't promote the game on other platforms. Even announcing the date is a form of promotion.

Then after that deal was over at the end of July, they probably had to take some time to decide whether to delay the PS3 or not.

 

I just installed a bunch of mods. Mainly the oh so popular hd texture one, skyui, and water/terrain mod. What mods are you all running? And for those that have Dawnguard and have played a little is it worth getting?

 

Here is a list of the mods I had installed for my last playthrough - Skyrim Mod List

Recently started a new one and added a few more new mods

Quest Mods:
Legacy of the Tyrants
Terramis Forgotten Ruins
Niflheim: House of Dark Mists
The Dead Bee Scrolls
Ildramesh's Folly
wheezesdungeonpack1.esp
Realms of the Daedra
No Mercy
Sea of Ghosts

Character Creation Menu
Xenius Character Enhancement
DorkDiva's Steam Community Eyes +100
DorkDiva's Steam Community Eyes +150
DorkDiva's Toxic Eyes

Some New Spells
spin web.esp
Frozen Tempest
Earth Prison
Summon Ice Wall

Miscellaneous
Enhanced Blood Textures
Improved Combat Sounds
Burn Freeze Shock Effects
Spouses Can Live Everywhere
Lore Based Loading Screens
detailed outskirts.esp

 

Nice! Thank you for all of that info! I 'll definitely look into them. I have a problem with one of mine and my save files are probably messed up now. But, When I am walking around the sounds of waterfalls never leave me it seems. Sometimes it comes and goes. I've tried uninstalling the mods but no luck. Any ideas?

 

Can you post your mod load order and Papyrus debug log?

It might be related to your sound settings - someone else had a similar problem and fixed it by changing the setting to 44100 Hz in Windows: Anyone else have this audio glitch? - Bethesda Softworks Forums

 

Well I disabled all of the mods and it still did it. Also the audio cuts in and out with the waterfall too. I didn't notice till recently when I got to a body of water that it will cut in and out artifacting. It's weird. And I tried that fix you listed. Didn't work for me. I'll send you my papyrus log though pm. I am going to sleep so I will have to try to figure it out tomorrow. That log is without mods too. The mods didn't help nor hurt my problems. Maybe I will just start a new character. I'll see tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

 

Hmm...from reading your papyrus log, it seems a script from your opticwaterfx mod might be causing some problems.

Unfortunately, mods that contain scripts can continue to affect your savegame, even if you delete the mod and all the scripts associated with the mod, because there are script references stored in your savegame.

Try a new character without any mods and see if you have the same problem. (for testing purposes, you can use a console command from the start menu (COC Riverwood01) to skip helgen and force the game to start with the default Nord.

 

Speaking of sound, my audio cuts out sometimes. Happens when I am moving around a person talking mostly, like it's trying to position it and cuts it off instead. Actually sounds cutting out seem to be a historic thing as I was replaying oblivion and it happens quite often there. Like out of nowhere torches and fire will stop making sound, which makes the game seem flat. Or spell sounds will stop working suddenly. Seems to be triggered by other sounds happening. Going into another area via loading screen seems to fix it.

And on top of that, don't get me started on oblivion's poor 360 controller support. Wish they would fix that.

 

I noticed that in my log too. I did what you said and the waterfall effect is gone. But the other problem remains. It seems the audio is cutting out at the exact same time the water starts artifacting. Like lakes and rivers. So they are tied together. I did another log and I didn't notice anything other than freeze state coming up a lot. Not optic water anymore. Ill send it to you through pm again and see if you have any suggestions. I might need to reinstall it.

 

I play with the following:

A Quality World Map (With Roads) - Shows roads on world map. Extremely useful when figuring out how to get somewhere new
Amazing Follower Tweaks - Most importantly, makes Lydia invincible and gives her a max carry weight of 1,000. Was more important before I discovered the Ring of Himalayan Hauling. Oh, and she also teleports to my location when I draw my weapon
Arrow Smithing - Self-explanitory. Allowed me to create my own arrows before Dawnguard existed. I keep it around because it allows me to make more at a time than Dawnguard would, and also allows me to create Dragon arrows
Better Distant LOD Waterfalls - Self-explanitory. They look better, but still ugly
Better Horse Pain Sounds - So my invincible Spectral Horse doesn't sound like it's dying every time I take a jump that's a bit too high for it
Better Main Menu - Just because
Birds and Flocks - Adds more birds (and bats!) to Skyrim's landscape. Why not?
Deus Mons - Player home/castle. Has literally everything I could ask for, all in one place. Chopping block, forge, smelter, enchanting table, alchemy lab, sauna, cool Dwemer waterfall...
Elvenwood - Elven treetop city. Again, no real reason except just because
Enhanced Distant Terrain - Because we all know how much Skyrim's LOD textures suck
Equip More Rings - I want to wear my Bond of Matrimony and Ring of Himalayan Hauling at the same time, damnit!
Fast Respawns and Rich Merchants - Cells (including ore veins) and merchants replenish themselves in 24 hours. Merchants have 10x their usual gold
Fast Travel Timescale Fix - It doesn't take me 2 hours to fast travel somewhere I could walk in 10 minutes anymore
Fix for Combat Music - Fix for glitch where combat music doesn't play if your armor rating is too high
Glorious Grasses More/better grass
Guru's Divorce - For that day when I realize I just don't love Lydia anymore. Waiting for the realistic version where she takes Breezehome and half my gold
High Quality 3D Map - Meshes required for A Quality World Map
High Quality LODs - Because, again, we all know how much Skyrim's LODs suck. This was an attempt to fix it without increasing uGrids, which does work but causes guaranteed instability with my particular game
Infinite Ore Veins - Start mining, walk away from the PC, return to 500 ebony ore!
Infinite Wood Chopping - Same as above, only with firewood
Lockpick Pro - The first mod I ever installed. Never break another lockpick again!
Lanterns of Skyrim - Lanterns and street lights make Skyrim at night feel much more complete
Lush Grass Another grass mod, compatible with Glorious Grasses
Modern-day Calendar Names - Because what, really, is Friedas of Heartfire? Don't ask me
More D-Pad Hotkeys for 360 Controller - Yes I play PC games with 360 controller, sue me
No Bethesda Intro - I haven't found any other way to skip it except for this...
Ring of Himalayan Hauling - Carry weight +10,000. Or disenchant the ring, re-enchant another with max Enchanting perks, and get +24,000.
Skyrim Distant Detail - Adds LODs for things like rocks and small buildings, to help prevent major pop-in
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul - The most comprehensive texture pack I could find. I use the 2k version, runs well on my 6950 (2gb). Wife runs the 1k version on her 460 (768mb), also works fine
Skyrim Timed Autosave Helper - Configurable autosave utility. Mine creates an autosave every 5 minutes, in case I die or crash. The saves overwrite each other, so your save folder doesn't grow out of control
Spectral Horde - Conjurable, invincible ghost-horses. You can configure their appearance and speed; mine are twice as fast as vanilla horses. With Amazing Follower Tweaks, your follower is supposed to be able to ride them as well, but that was glitchy for me, so Lydia can walk
Unofficial Skyrim Patch - Because Bethesda makes buggy games
W.A.T.E.R. - Massively improved water textures, different types of water in different places, rocks that actually look wet, and adds a cool dripping effect to my armor after I take a dip
You are Over-Encumbered - Replaced whatever Skyrim says when you're carrying too much with the "You are Over-Encumbered" wording from Oblivion


Yes, a lot of these mods are cheats. That doesn't bother me; Skyrim is a single-player game and, while I enjoy the combat and story, I try to remove as much of the grind as possible. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't keep playing past a certain point.

 

SkyRe is the mod of champions though. That and SkyUI which is absolutely essential for PC players.

 

Anyone else had problems with 12.7 beta? It seems to be causing screen flicker and freezing as well as some really weird behavior of the compass icons.

I've looked at SkyRe but it changes way too many different things in different areas for my taste. Some of the changes look cool, but I prefer to choose my own separate mods for magic, combat, stealth, crafting, variant creatures, etc. I don't want a single mod that changes everything, especially when I don't like a lot of the changes of SkyRe. For example, haggling with merchants and using speechcraft should not improve the damage of shouts, etc. Even though I've installed a lot of awesome mods that improved the gameplay experience, I suppose the underlying concept behind "Skyrim Redone" kind of turns me off, as it's almost suggesting the base game is so bad that it needs to be completely "redone." I actually enjoyed playing without any mods for several months after the release date.

And SkyUI looks interesting but I don't want to deal with SKSE and have to change it every time Skyrim gets patched. I'm sure it could be improved, but I'm pretty happy with the vanilla UI.

 

This SkyRe actually sounds very interesting. I would really like to try it sometimes, but I already have modded what I wanted to, and I'm afraid it might cause a lot of inconsistencies and crashes.

Besides, it relies on Elys Uncapper ( Skyrim -Community- Uncapper at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim mods and community), which is a great little mod that allows you to level your skills up to 300, but unfortunately, it also needs SKSE. After constantly chasing down the SKSE development after every silly little patch Bethesda kept releasing every other day, I've had enough of SKSE, removed everything and decided to stay vanilla Skyrim launcher. I lose on the SkyUI as well, but I'm OK with that, as this UI is not the end all be all some people say it is, especially when playing with a XBOX controller, as the original UI was designed with more console controllers in mind, I believe.

Perhaps I'll go for the Elys Uncapper, SkyRe and SKSE once Skyrim will get old enough to stop its incessant updating (especially with patches that sometimes do more harm than good).

 

Is anyone having trouble with the Dark Brotherhood "Death Incarnate" quest? it belongs to the last three quests within the questline (spoilers ahead for the explanation).

I simply get stuck inside the coffin and can't get out. The game doesn't freeze, but the script doesn't continue as it should. I just remain inside the coffin after Nazir pulls the coffin (with me stuck in it) out of the small pool of water inside the sanctuary.

I read that this is quite a common bug on the PC as well as the 360 and tried several fixes listed on the official wikis, but couldn't get it to work. I tried disabling all mods, played with uGrids and even went back and replayed several missions before the "Death Incarnate" quest as suggested , but to no avail. I couldn't find any other fixes and some sources even indicate that there is no real fix for this and there is no explanation for why this occurs.

This is disappointing, really. I left the Dark Brotherhood questline for last and completed 99% of the game and its quests (excluding mods) and now I'm stuck. I can't finish the last three quests as planned and now Dawnguard is out. Any suggestions?

 

172 pages...

Nope didn't read it all

I had a mod manager and a ton of mods for Oblivion, but haven't bothered to mod Skyrim yet.

 

just started this game, lovin it so far

 

Are you prepared to give up the next several weeks/months of your life? Good...

Sent from my Tricorder using Tapatalk

 

I assume you have tried advancing the quest script throught the command line?

 

Can you open the console and type tcl to walk through the coffin lid?

Sent from my Tricorder using Tapatalk

 

Your assumption is correct. I tried all quest script stages through the command line, but I only get the the quest text indicating stage competion (e.g. "Talk to Astrid"). Nothing else happens. I'm still stuck inside the coffin.

I think I tried all possible scenarios, except reinstalling the game, but seeing how this is not a mod issue, I'm not sure if this will help. My Skyrim version is 1.6 right now and I'm wondering if, by any chance, applying the 1.7 patch + Dawnguard will make a difference.

I tried tcl as well, but it doesn't work. It seems that this is one of those complex scripted scenarios where tcl doesn't work. I'm not sure if any of the console comands work during scripted actions.

 

I found a fix for this. I tried reinstalling the game and that didn't work. It was my gpu drivers. So I rolled back to one before the most recent ones and now the game runs fine.

Edit: @ Moviemaker: You think it's worth doing story and quest mods?

 

Try the command: movetoqt

It should move you to the next quest marker. I used that command a lot in Oblivion, so it's worth a try in here as well. Although I did read that you need to add a quest ID in Skyrim, but try just running it without one, just 'movetoqt'.

Edit: OR...you can use the movetoqt and add the quest ID, following the IDs in this list:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Quests
Click on the location, then the faction, then the quest and it will provide with the relevant IDs for that quest to move through.</snip>

 

Absolutely, that's probably one of the greatest benefits of buying the game on PC, lots of cool, free content. It's actually pretty easy to make a dungeon mod in the Creation Kit using existing models and creatures, etc., and some of the mod authors have done some pretty amazing stuff with voice acting and artwork that's almost on the level of a professional DLC. In fact, many modders of previous Bethesda games went on to be hired as level designers at Bethesda and other studios.

Moonpath to Elseweyr is really extraordinary. I haven't tried Sea of Ghosts and Realm of the Daedra yet but the trailers for those two looked amazing. I just added a whole bunch of dungeons and quest mods and just figured I would start a new playthrough and proceed normally. Maybe in the course of adventuring I will come across a new dungeon or end up involved in some new quest, or maybe I will never even notice it. I suppose I prefer to encounter any new content naturally rather than doing it like a linear adventure. Adding a bunch of them just sort of makes the game world even bigger.

 

Than you, moviemarketing. Not sure why I called you maker. Anyways, I will definitely install some then. Just didn't know if they would be that good but you've addressed that. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the advice. The command takes me to the next quest marker (in Astrid's chamber), but I'm still frozen. I simply can't move or look around, although characters around still interact with me. It seems I'm somehow stuck in a loop/frozen in the script where I should not be moving at all while "sleeping" in the coffin. I can only access stuff like: quest journal, inventory and abilities.

If I could just purge that frozen state somehow...

 

I once got over excited with realism mods which completely corrupted my character and prevented me from continuing, as it crashed every single time I tried exiting from a certain city or a certain building, regardless of the save. Even removing all the mods and reinstalling the game didn't help that character. I had to start a new character, instead. And no, updating doesn't help, either (it happened to me right before 1.6, and installing 1.6 didn't help).

This could be a similar issue, where you once installed something that 'latched' into your save and you unknowingly kept it until it caused some kind of conflict. I wish there was something that could purge savegames completely, which would only keep the original stats of the game, original items you have and the like, but removes anything that isn't part of the original Skyrim, kinda like a big reset button. Too bad Bethesda haven't thought of that. It's worth searching around, though, maybe someone managed to do something like that.

 

Unfortunately, for mods that contain scripts, a copy of the scripts is actually stored in the save game, so even if you delete a mod, etc., your savegame is still referencing it.

I think the best approach is before installing a bunch of mods, make a new save game and test them to make sure they play nice with each other. For testing purposes, you can skip Helgen by using the COC Riverside01 command from the start menu to force the game to start with the default Nord.

Once I know for certain they all work together and I have the right load order, then I feel more comfortable playing a character with those mods. I tend to try a bunch of new mods every time I start a new character. You also have to be careful with updates to mods that you already have installed, as sometimes a new version of a mod can create new conflicts or script errors that you didn't have with the old version of the same mod.

 

Yup, exactly, that's what I did after every mod installation

The problem is that some mods seem perfectly fine and stable, but only a few hours later you find out they corrupted something vital in there, and by then there's no turning back. That's why I now never use any mods that contain heavy scripting, especially anything that requires SKSE, just to be on the safe-side. I'm missing on a lot of great mods, but c'est la vie..</snip>

 

Had to throw up these screenshots from earlier today. Finally got back to the game to check out the current mods. How far they have come its scary. Trashes the console.

 

Those are pretty amazing!

Which mods are you using?

 

Nice, everything is so shiny and plasticky. Love the porcelain looking rocks.

 

That is on my desky so have pretty much everything that is feasible and works together without crashing. Around 50-60 mods I think I will list them when I get home. I find the lighting, FXAA and 4k textures make the biggest difference, the progress Nexus have made since I looked at the start of the year is huge.

List to follow.

As promised. Removing a lot of the ones that people won't care about. + 3 more I found

 

The Silver armor on the last pick looks amazing. Which mod adds that?

 

Mystic Elven Armour and you need Elven build options. Then you need a serious amount of Gems and QuikSilver to be able to build it. That is the hooded version. Look great with the right lighting mod.

One more pic

 

Hi everyone, I was a fan of Oblivion when it came out on the 360, but it was quite disappointing in some ways. Would it be worth while purchasing Skyrim for PC? I did not purchase it at first because I was skeptical about whether or not it would be obscenely repetitive as Oblivion was. The graphics do appear to be quite amazing for an RPG, but I wanted to hear from those who already have it before I go out and buy it.

Thank you.

P.S. Yeah, it's pretty late, this game came out a while ago - I know. I've honestly been shopping for the perfect PC for myself since this past June, when I joined the forum, and only now did I just order one after months of research. It should be here this upcoming week!

 

The only Elder Scrolls games I've played are Oblivion and Skyrim. In my opinion, when compared to Oblivion, Skyrim is a much better game; Engine looks beautiful and runs much smoother, the game mechanics are more modernized, and the animations are more fluid and realistic.

In my opinion, the main quest for Oblivion is more interesting than Skyrim. As for repetitive quests, I guess that's the same; it is an Elder Scroll game after all.

Do not buy it for the 360, buy the PC version [it has mods!] Wait for the STEAM Winter Sale, as you can probably grab the game for $30 or less.

 

Completely agree with everything AlexUW said, and yes, wait to buy it at a discount during the Steam winter sale.

 

Alright, thanks for the information guys.

 

Oops, need to amend my comment above. I disagree about Oblivion's main quest being better. In my case, I found Skyrim's MQ to be much more compelling.

 

Yeah, I didn't think it would be worse in Skyrim, especially as there are so many more things to do than Oblivion. From the reviews, it seems the game can keep you quite busy.

I'll probably get it during the Christmas sales as he recommended. :thumbsup:

 

It is a game just to have on your shelf, from time to time you just wanna fire it up and explore for a bit when bored. It is certainly a game you should buy play and then mod to see how amazing it can become.

 

anyone got any idea what causes this

tried re installing the game by disc and steam
three different drivers 12.8 12.9 and 12.11
uninstalled all mods and the manager


only at night on a fully cloudy night looks like a oil painting
really breaks immersion

 

Have you tried a sky mod? You might want to add the immersive skys that I have on my list the stock clouds look very low res. Might fix your problem.

 

I don't quite understand what you mean. The night sky in that pic looks great to me. Do you mean because the moon is so big? Keep in mind the moons in the TES world are very different from our moon.

 

Its not the night sky that's a problem on a clear night with the Auroras its great its when its cloudy or foggy its stopped me playing the main quest just because i know how bad the last bit will look here is a better screenshot



And to yiddo thanks for advice i did try a few cloud and lighting mods and no luck. also re installed windows hoping maybe there was something corrupt in the registry no avail. starting to think it maybe one of my cards in my machine

 

still not really understanding your problem. everything looks dandy to me.