Skyrim Game Tweaks

[Fliggerty]

I want to share game setting tweaks that I come across here, and encourage everyone to add theirs as well!

Disable Mouse Smoothing
Go to your Steam Directory, then steamapps, common, skyrim, and select Skyrim again. Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file. Open the file, then scroll down to where it says [Controls] and find bMouseAcceleration=1. Change to bMouseAcceleration=0. Save, exit, and play This fix and the two below are from Skyrim Reddit, and are credited to "Dead man posting" on the Something Awful Forums.

Change Field of View
Head to My Documents, select My Games, select Skyrim, and then Skyrim again, then create a backup of the skyrim.ini file. Scroll down to [General] in the file and add fdefaultfov=XX (where XX is the field of view you want). Then save and exit.

Fix common crash to desktop problem
Access the Sound menu fromt he Control panel. In the playback tab, right click on speakers and select properties. Select the advanced tab on the new screen and select 24-bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) from the drop-down menu. This fixed crashes for us last night.

Disable Vsync
Access the SkyrimPrefs.ini again and add iPresentInterval=0 to the bottom of the [Display] section. This can improve a sluggish framerate and eliminate instances of mouse lag. Thanks to Tweak Guides for this one.

Graphical tweaks
Curate on the Bethesda forums has highlighted a number of interesting variables in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file. Change the digit at the end of each line to 1 to turn the feature on, 0 to turn it off. Don't forget to create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file just in case.

Interesting variables are as follows, in order of appearance in the .ini and showing their default settings:

bDoDepthOfField=1
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
bShowCompass=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

Redditor Ryz also suggests changing iWaterReflectHeight=512 and iWaterReflectWidth=512 to 1024 and adding the following text to the SkyrimPrefs.ini to improve the quality of water reflections.

bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1

[Leonardo]

I want to share game setting tweaks that I come across here, and encourage everyone to add theirs as well!

Disable Mouse Smoothing
Go to your Steam Directory, then steamapps, common, skyrim, and select Skyrim again. Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file. Open the file, then scroll down to where it says [Controls] and find bMouseAcceleration=1. Change to bMouseAcceleration=0. Save, exit, and play This fix and the two below are from Skyrim Reddit, and are credited to "Dead man posting" on the Something Awful Forums.

In case you didn't notice that, but in the "C:\Users\<name>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim" folder can both Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini be found.

I suggest that you don't change the Skyrim.ini in the \Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim folder, because I think SkyrimPrefs.ini is use to restore the default settings. The same was for Oblivion.

You enable screenshot in Skyrim.ini and not in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file.

Skyrim.ini

Show Spoiler

Code: Select all

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=0
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=0
bReflectLODTrees=0

[Wolf undefined]

Now how did you find these so quickly

[Leonardo]

Now how did you find these so quickly

Because I already have Steam games installed on my computer.  

Empire Total War
Napoleon Total War
Shogun 2 Total War
Civilization 5
Mount Blade: Warband (not installed)

[SpiritedTreasure]

How do I force the game to run on high texture setting?

[SpiritedTreasure]

More Stuff!

Apparently Skyrim uses CPU for Shadows instead of GPU.. (can some geeky person explain that please?) Norton complains that Skyrim is using 100% of at least one cpu..
I lowered my shadows and had no affect I could tell. (fps is already fine)

Windowed mode did not help the freezes..

-------------------------

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-disabl ... t-fps.html

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... mance-hog/

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... on-thread/

Also people are having performance increase by disabling AA and enabling FXaa instead..

[Leonardo]

If I were you I would probably shut down Norton first before playing Skyrim, since you can play in off-line mode with Steam provided that you don't have the "Don't save account on this computer" box checked in Steam Client.

[Leonardo]

It seems to me that the control keys doesn't work in-game as intended if you have userdefined key, but I know that you can change one or several keys in the control option in the game menu by pressing Esc button anytime.

The "Ready/Sheathe" key must be change to the default key if it's userdefined, because if not you can't consume a dragon soul to activate a voice for one of your shouts in the magic menu. I tried an userdefined key to consume a dragon soul, but the game just freeze.

If you have problem to continue the intro video just save the game then exit. Check the "LoadLooseFiles" box in the Data option in the Skyrim launcher.

[SpiritedTreasure]

Does anyone know how to show fps in Skyrim..
I'm just curious what mine is..

tdt does not work..

[Leonardo]

I've no idea how to show FPS in-game and only thing I find was this in SkyrimPrefs.ini.

[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=0

My guess is to have this line "bShowFramePerSecond=1" or "bShowFPS=1" in SkyrimPrefs.ini in the \My Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder.

[SpiritedTreasure]

I tried both and neither one works..Oh well..

Thanks -s-

[Chazz of Blades]

Anyone else having HORRID vertical look speeds? My horizontal speed is fine, but vertical is just awful.

And I had Oblivion looking better than, and running faster than Skyrim.

[Chazz of Blades]

As well, Skyrim isn't recognizing any input from the keyboard mounted volume control. So I have to alt-tab out to change my volume any.

[Leonardo]

Disable Vsync
Access the SkyrimPrefs.ini again and add iPresentInterval=0 to the bottom of the [Display] section. This can improve a sluggish framerate and eliminate instances of mouse lag. Thanks to Tweak Guides for this one.

I wouldn't recommend to disable Vsync according to this thread on BSF.

Now is there some console codes with a description of what they do and how to write them in the console.  

EDIT: Here is more interesting tweaks in the console - http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... ting-read/

[Raflod]

Disable Vsync
Access the SkyrimPrefs.ini again and add iPresentInterval=0 to the bottom of the [Display] section. This can improve a sluggish framerate and eliminate instances of mouse lag. Thanks to Tweak Guides for this one.

I wouldn't recommend to disable Vsync according to this thread on BSF.

Now is there some console codes with a description of what they do and how to write them in the console.  :twothumbs:

EDIT: Here is more interesting tweaks in the console - http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... ting-read/

I found an interesting list here: http://www.skse.silverlock.org/vanilla_commands.html.

[Leonardo]

Earlier today I found this tweaking tool for Skyrim on Nexus.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=88

[SpiritedTreasure]

Use your ~ button

type this in

player.forceav carryweight #

# being the number you desire .. 500 or whatever..

That's it.. It should stick to the next time you load..

[Elaura]

For NVIDIA users, there is a new 290.53 Beta driver released specifically for Skyrim players.  It was released in late December, so it still may be news to some.  Find it here under option three and be sure to make certain you have the correct version for your card, computer, and OS.

[Leonardo]

Finally the USP is out!      

[Chazz of Blades]

Now if I can only fix the ENORMOUS load times! Gah!

[Leonardo]

What enormous loading time... What are you talking about?     Don't say you have extract textures from a BSA file into the Data folder.  If so just backup your gamesaves and reinstall Skyrim with all mods you want to use if any.

[Chazz of Blades]

No mods active, and all BSAs intact.

BUT, I'm getting 5 minute load times sometimes, and way too long ones every time.

[Leonardo]

Ah I see.  Well you're not the only one who are having LONG game loading and I've that too.  

If I play Skyrim late in the evening or should I say middle of the night, because sometimes I got so sleepy and I wonder why must it be so damn long loading time.  

[Elaura]

Chazz, I don't have Skyrim, but I do know somethings to look for in any game with long load times:

If the load time is with a savegame, make a mental note of where you are in that save.  Are you outside in a town, with a lot of crap the engine has to render or are you in a fairly sparse interior?  If you have saves to compare, then see if saves in particular areas are consistently longer or shorter.  Also consider whether there is a lot of scripted action in the cell you are trying to load.

Just because games and hardware have gotten newer, doesn't mean they aren't subject to the same issues they always have been.  The more a game has to render right out of the gate, the longer it's going to take.

If the load time is in the actual game loading (before the savegame) then there might be some tweaks to the shortcut that can be made to prevent certain checks or logos or start-up sequences from bogging down the load.

[Wolf undefined]

Restart your computer, that helps everytime in Oblivion.