How can I make an SR install more stable?

[Wraithpk]

I'm not really having problems indoors, the problems I am having are outside.  I'm getting pretty frequent freezing and CTD.  I'm not hitting the 3.1GB memory cap, I know that for sure.  I have run batched patches and merged patches with TES5EDIT and Wyre Bash.  The only thing I can think to do is try to optimize some of the textures and normals in the outdoors mods.  I'm using the July version of SR with updated versions of all the mods in it.  My first thought is to optimize the texture and normal sizes for Skyrim Floral Overhaul and maybe the outdoor textures in SRO, maybe putting the textures to 2k and the normals to 1k resolution.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Luisangre]

Going with 1k textures and 512 normals greatly improves stability.

[Wraithpk]

Ok, thanks for the tip, I will try that out. In particular, which mods should I focus on optimizing first, or should I optimize them all at once?

[Luisangre]

I would resize/ optimize mods like SRO, skyrim 2k textures, serious hd textures first and see how it works for you.

Since I am kind of a purist, I am going with all 1k textures/ 512 normals for max consistency and stability.

The game still looks amazing and remember, this game is limited by its own engine and not your hardware (unless you use a 5+ year old pc).

[phazer11]

Focus on the major ones like Skyrim Realistic Overhaul, Skyrim HD 2k Textures, Serious HD to begin with. I also wouldn't say that going to 1k diffuse with  .5k normals necessarily improves stability, it will in some cases however  optimizing at any resolution usually will to some degree. Some times it might not  necessarily improve stability but it can in others. Too tired to elaborate so if this post makes no sense forgive me.

[Wraithpk]

I optimized SRO and SFO to 1k textures and .5k normals and played for several hours without a freeze or crash. Looks like that helped a bunch, thanks for the advice!

[Aiyen]

I am quite sure if you went for even 1k:1k you would see the same effect.... I still have not seen anything conclusive about it being required to go to 512.

[Luisangre]

1k textures/ 512 normals definitely helps when running a heavy modded game with lots of game play content...Requiem/ Asis/ Requiem patches for other mods.

You need to decide if you want higher resolution textures or more game play mods/ scripts.

[Aiyen]

Have you actually tried to go up to 1k normals and then play?

 

It takes at least 10 textures to even make 1Mb difference in memory use by going from 1k to 512.

So from the average cell load then you would only see like a 10-20Mb difference give or take. It just seems odd to me that a difference of that little would make any impact on stability on any sort of reproduceable scale.

 

This in contrast to the 500-700Mb difference from going from 2k to 1k.

[Luisangre]

I haven't tried going 1k textures and 1k normals but every bit helps when you're trying to run a massive number of mods.

What resolutions do you use, Aiyen?

I may consider going 1k textures and 1k normals if the quality/ performance is worth it.

 

e; I've been a longtime user of 2k textures and 1k normals but I don't think this is optimal when running mass mods so I stepped down textures.

[alexbeugelsdijk]

I'm having the same problems. Freezes in exterior worldspace even I'm not even close to the 3.1GB ram limit or my vram limit. The current SR Legendary guide says to optimize the bethesda high res texture packs at 2K with DDsopt. Would you recommend converting those to 1K as well?

[phazer11]

I've mostly gotten rid of these and it mainly comes down to what you can live without. I took SkyTEST out of my setup and things improved immensely. I'd also recommend removing Burn Freeze Shock and Enhanced Blood Textures (or at least EBT's scripts). I'm probably going to remove Automatic Variants when I finish the setup I'm doing which will be for my Desktop for after Thanksgiving when I get my new Graphics card(s) though I haven't decided yet. Resolution wise regardless of ENBoost I'm going with 1k (diffuse and normals) for exteriors and 2k (diffuse and normals) for interiors, with 2k for weapons and armors, and 1k for creatures (especially the automatic variants ones if I decide to keep it) with a few exceptions.

[EisDrache]

Ya i also have removed SkyTEST and BFS and Automatic Variants and have gotten rid of pretty much all of my insatiability problems. I still use EBT tho.

[phazer11]

I'm still using Enhanced Blood Textures well textures just got rid of everything else like the scripts and all. I'm also using a lvlpredator script fix that seemed to fix things like the infamous Riverwood Wolves freeze, etc.

[Luisangre]

My new and possible final setup will be 1k textures/ 1k normals max for everything and I believe this will be the best in terms of quality/ performance and headroom to add more stuff.