The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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Performance & Optimization (Low End / Old Comps)
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Description
Only mods that help performance / optimization.

Most are removers, and safe to use together. However, be wary of conflicts with mods not in this collection (IE: a mod that uses something removed).

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Overlapping Mods (pick one or the other, b/c using both is redundant)

* DECORATIVE PLANTS:
- "Skyrim Performance Underwater Plants" removes underwater plants
- "Declutter: Outdoor Decorative Plants" removes all plants (more aggressive)

* SMALL ROCKS:
- "Skyrim Performance Rocks" removes some small rocks.
- "Declutter: Small Rocks" removes them all (more aggressive).

* PLANT "WIND" ANIMATIONS
- "Skyrim Performance Animations" removes from plants only
- "Declutter: Plant & Tree Movement" removes plants & trees (more aggressive).

* LAGGY CITIES
- "Poor Man's Skyrim" more subtle; 1 mod covers all cities
- "Declutter: City X" more aggressive; 1 mod per each city

These can clear up laggy cities without affecting the whole game world like global removers (eg: they'll remove some plants from a specific city instead of removing all plants globally). You can use city and global removers together. They will overlap in functionality, but shouldn't conflict.

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-- Reason for including some mods --

* "Run For Your Lives": NPC's going indoors unloads them from cell, reducing overhead during dragon fights.

* "Reduced Distance NPC Greetings": Keep citizens from processing chatter while running through town.

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-- Nexus mods --

Useful mods not in Steam Workshop:

* "Skyrim Performance Plus" ... http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6387/? ... alternate to "No Leaves / Needles" mod. This one can reduce image sizes & animations of Riften leaves & White Run pine needles. Also has DDS' to reduce size of snow and rain.

* "Skyrim Project Optimization" ... http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/32505/? ... adds many Occlusion Culling Planes to prevent rendering stuff you're not looking at.

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-- INI Tweaks --

Skyrim creates two .ini files in your C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\ folder:

* Skyrim.ini
* SkyrimPrefs.ini

These are updated / overwritten when you alter settings in Skyrim Loader, ingame options, or use Steam's file verification to fix corrupted files. Performance tweaks involve altering the .ini's, so it's important to make backups ...

* BEFORE (to revert back in case of screw ups)
* AFTER (to keep a copy of tweaks you like)

In general...

1) Use Skyrim Loader & In-game Options to bluntly fix issues (LOD distances, resolution, etc)
2) Manually tweak the .ini's
3) Find mods for extra stuff not covered by those (removers, optimizers, etc)

Don't go crazy with the .ini's. There's tweaks about increasing cells loaded, multi-threading, etc, some having major consequences, and some debateable whether they help or not. Keep it simple; tweak as little as possible to get results.

I've listed some tweaks below, but...

* Changes below remove shadows completely, b/c Skyrim's shadowing system sucks. They're either abundant and ugly, or nice and laggy (even on beefy systems). Low-end systems should disable shadows, and high-end systems can gain a good boost by doing so.

* Changes below don't involve things modified in Skyrim Loader (EG: LOD fades). You can use Nvidia's tweak-guide further below for more info on manually tweaking those.

* Skyrim's Antialiasing is broken, so your gfx card control panel will need to control it. However, higher resolutions benefit less from it. Try disabling it, and raise your resolution instead. At 1080p or 1600 x H you won't miss it.

* Skyrim's game engine will cause stuttering and physics issues with FPS > 60. So, either use VSync to keep 60FPS if your monitor has 60hz refresh rate, or keep SkyrimPrefs.ini > [Display] > iPresentInterval=1 (vsync) enabled. An uber gfx card can get 200+ FPS, but the stuttering and physics issues make it unplayable. So, 60 FPS should be the max you shoot for.

--SKYRIM.INI--

[General]
; alter FOV beyond setting's limit
fdefaultfov=100

; add to [General] section to skip intro movies
; (faster program startup)
sIntroSequence=

; add to [General] section to disable all gore
; (spurting blood, blood splatter, etc)
; increases performance, but lowers realism
bDisableAllGore=1


[Display]
; disable LOD shadow
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=0.0

; alter FOV (try to set them all the same)
fDefaultWorldFOV=100
fDefault1stPersonFOV=100

[Grass]
; disable grass, but not decorative plants or trees
bAllowCreateGrass=0

[Water]
; disable water reflects for better performance
bReflectLODObjects=0
bReflectLODLand=0
bReflectSky=0
bReflectLODTrees=0

; if you add this to the bottom of Skyrim.ini
; it will disable rain & snow, but boost performance
[Weather]
bPrecipitation=0

; NOTE - DO NOT add the "screensplatter" part below to your Skyrim.ini
; The Nvidia tweak guide suggests it to remove the blood splatter
; on screen. But, it will cause your game to CTD when opening map.
;[ScreenSplatter]
;bBloodSplatterEnabled=0


--SKYRIMPREFS.INI--

[Imagespace]
; turn these two off for sharper distant viewing,
; but you'll notice LOD pop-in and game won't look as "professional"
bDoDepthOfField=0
iRadialBlurLevel=0

[Display]
; get rid of exterior & interior shadows
fShadowDistance=0.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=0.0000
fInteriorShadowDistance=0.0000

; Skyrim's built-in AS is lackluster, so prefer
; using your Nvidia / AMD control panel to set it
iMaxAnisotropy=0

; turn off blood splatter, burn marks and other decals
; less immerssion, but better performance
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=0
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=0

; main shadow "disabler", but setting other shadow
; distances to 0 ensures shadows are nipped in the bud
bDrawShadows=0

[Controls]
; adjust mouse sens. beyond what settings will allow
; useful if you're running a trackball or like higher sens.
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.1250

[Particles]
; caps various particle effects, mainly candles/flames,
; so alter at your own whim (100 is a decent low, but expect
; some particle "pop in" every now and then)
iMaxDesired=500

[Decals]
; switching off more decals
uMaxDecals=0
bDecals=0
bSkinnedDecals=0
uMaxSkinDecals=0
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=0

[BlurShaderHDR]
; game will look less "professional", but can pick up performance
bDoHighDynamicRange=0

[BlurShader]
; ditto
bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]
bUseWaterDisplacements=0 ; don't cause ripples when things move through water
bUseWaterRefractions=0 ; don't cause distortions when things are in water
bUseWaterReflections=0 ; turn off water reflections

; if you turn depth off, coast-lines will have a very sharp
; edge to them, and you'll remove the underwater fog
; I prefer to leave it on, but you can alter it as you see fit
bUseWaterDepth=1

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-- Other --

* Nvidia's 20-page tweak guide is a good place to start for more in-depth tuning (all are fairly safe) ... http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

* A more in-depth look at ini tweaks can be found here (use at your own risk) ... https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=173284583
Items (24)
Declutter: City - Riften
Created by Team Vladof
A rather aggressive "remover" for Riften city, both in and out. Gets rid outside objects: * food-stuffs & food barrels * unusable barrels and crates * misc rock clusters * small boats (and splashing sounds) * mist over the canals * decorative plants (but n...
Declutter: City - Whiterun
Created by Team Vladof
A rather aggressive "remover" for Whiterun city. Gets rid of outer-cell objects: * food-stuffs * food barrels * misc rock clusters * some of the small water falls (but not all) * decorative plants (but not ingredient plants) * chimneys & chimney smoke * a ...
Declutter: Floor & Wall Decor
Created by Team Vladof
Declutter / Remover mod to get rid of basic floor & wall decor that add ambience, but won't impact gameplay if missing: * Rugs / carpets / floor runners * Animal pelts (floors & walls) * Wall basket decorations & snowberry wreaths * Mounted Animal heads on...
Declutter: Footsteps
Created by Team Vladof
Experimental Mod. Footstep impact data for people and creatures had .nifs attached to them for foot prints. However, characters don't leave footprints in the game. I'm guessing the .nif is just an empty placeholder, but in case it's actually doing somethin...
Declutter: Mountain Clouds
Created by Team Vladof
Removes the low-hanging clouds that appear on mountains when viewed in the distance, but dynamically disappear when you get closer to the mountain. Does not alter the actual sky....
Declutter: Object Overlays
Created by Team Vladof
Removes the dynamic snow, sulfer, etc from the game that randomly covers objects splotchily during certain conditions (like when it's snowing). Skyrim uses a dynamic overlay system to cover certain objects in effects during certain times. This is most appa...
Declutter: Omnidirectional Shadow Lights
Created by Team Vladof
Makes majority of "Shadow Omnidirectional" and "Shadow Hemisphere" lights just "Omnidirectional". This means they won't do shadows. "Shadow Spotlight" are untouched, as they provide special spotlighting effects that omindirectional would have made look tac...
Declutter: Outdoor Decorative Plants
Created by Team Vladof
A simple "declutter / remover" mod that removes: * decorative, outside plants (but not trees) * dead tree limb piles (usually seen washed-up on the coasts) * hay piles & mounds (but not bales, since things could be sitting on them) * patches of leaves on t...
Declutter: Plant & Tree Movement
Created by Team Vladof
Removes "wind" animations from all plants & trees. Basically, a more aggressive version of Bambinator's "Skyrim Performance Animations". Use his or use this one, but using both is redundant. (Doesn't affect grass animations. This mod is meant for low-perfo...
Declutter: Roads
Created by Team Vladof
Removes small and medium road "chunks", goal being to help FPS on lower-end machines. Skyrim's roads are a patch-work of long static meshes filled in with large, medium and small chunks here and there. The long road meshes have lots of brick, so to give th...
Declutter: Ruins
Created by Team Vladof
A simple "declutter / remover" mod that's expanded to cover draugr / nordic / dwemer dungeons & ruins. Gets rid of: * Broken urn pieces * Random pots & metal pole/stands that get kicked around * That white napkin/rag on every table * Floor runners / rugs (...
Declutter: Small Rocks
Created by Team Vladof
Removes all small rocks / small rock piles / small road chunks to try to boost FPS on lower-spec comps. It's basically a more aggressive version of Bambinator's "Skyrim Performance Rocks". His removed select small rocks. This one removes all of them. Mediu...
Declutter: Snow & Ice
Created by Team Vladof
Removes: * flat snow patches (most noticeable at Winterhold Mages College) * small snow drifts * snow drift winds * icicles * ice floes (patches of ice in frozen northern sea) v.1 removed all snow drifts, but I noticed gaping holes in the terrain outside a...
Declutter: Water Rapids
Created by Team Vladof
Removes various rocks / rapids from rivers, and a bit of mist and splashing from waterfalls. Doesn't remove sfx. This impacts ambience, but shaves off polygons from outdoor scene generation. Also removes the "salmon jumping up-stream" animation loop (used ...
Declutter: Webs
Created by Team Vladof
Removes: * webs * web corpese (humans / skeevers) * decorative egg sacs (ones you can't harvest eggs from) Leaves the cob-web mesh that the guy in Bleak Falls Barrow is stuck in (that you cut loose), and a few other spider web related things. But, reduces ...
Declutter: Worthless Loot
Created by Team Vladof
Not really meant for FPS optimization, more for loot-collecting optimization. Basically, gets rid of a bunch of worthless pickups: * dishes (tankards, flagons, plates, bowls, etc) * embalming tools (cluttering up draugr ruins) * baskets & buckets (stuff in...
NoFallingLeaves
Created by Evangle20
------------------------------------------------------------------------- No Falling Leaves/Pine Needles mod vanilla edition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------...
Poor Man's Skyrim
Created by Squirrel1256
The average Skyrim mod will either add something new to the game, or fix something that is broken... This mod does neither of those... Wait...why would I want that? You may ask? You probably don't, in all honestly, but for some they don't really have a cho...
Reduced Distance NPC Greetings
Created by Cipscis
This mod reduces the distance required for NPC greetings so that you'll need to nearly bump into them. Also available on Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=746 Also see: No NPC Greetings - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/...
Skyrim Performance Animation
Created by TheOtherGuy
DESCRIPTION: - This removes all the animations done by the small plants, not trees. FEATURES: - Removes all the animations from small plants, except trees AND Grass. PERFORMANCE: - You can get a boost ranging from 1-4 fps GRAPHICS: - You barely notice the ...
Skyrim Performance Particles
Created by TheOtherGuy
DESCRIPTION: - Removes smoke, Ambient effetcs, floating particules from everywhere. FEATURES: - Removes alll ambient fogs, particules, etc. PERFORMANCE: - This can really help in dungeons and caves, or anywhere that theres a fire burning, any kind of smoke...
Skyrim Performance Rocks
Created by TheOtherGuy
DESCRIPTION: Removes the small useless Rocks in Skyrim while still keeping a good scenery quality. FEATURES: - All small rocks Removed. PERFORMANCE: - You can get a boost of about 1-3 fps. It is small but if you combine it with my other mods, it's worth It...
Skyrim Performance Trees
Created by TheOtherGuy
DESCRIPTION: This is a performance mods that removes most of the trees, while still leaving a forest look. FEATURES: - Removes a lot of trees in Skyrim for fps boost PERFORMANCE: - You can get a fps boost ranging from 4-8, I have a GTX 645 and I got a 6 Fp...
Skyrim Performance Underwater Grass
Created by TheOtherGuy
DESCRIPTION: - This mod removes the underwater grass for a performance boost. FEATURES: - No grass in the water CREDIT: ALL CREDITS GO TO Cauug for the idea of this mod. Rate and Enjoy! :)...