Skyrim Modding & Optimization Guide 2018

v1.0.0 WIP
by Ciathyza, 2018/01/26
Origin: github.com/ciathyza/skyrim-optimization-guide-2018

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. System Preparation & Optimization
3. Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)
4. Mod Organizer
5. Additional Tools
6. Ini Files
7. Graphics Optimization
8. Mod Installation
9. Mods
10. Troubleshooting
11. Useful Links

1. Introduction

This document is designed to provide a complete and comprehensive guide for modding and optimizing Skyrim LE (Legendary Edition). It goes through the steps of tweaking and modding the game to provide a visually high-end and rich, dynamic and immersive game which should still run stable and at a high framerate.

The aim of this guide is to provide reliable and time-tested instructions to create a base mod setup from zero that consists of a popular ENB, tweaked for gameplay but visually pleasing, the most recommendable texture and mesh replacements, UI tweaks, weather and light mods, animations, and various gameplay-enhancing mods. This base setup can then be used to build onto and to add secondary mods, such as companions, NPCs, houses, quests, encounters, and so on.

To follow this guide a fairly good grasp of handling and understanding Windows-related file operations and being familiar with Mod Organizer is assumed.

Furthermore, while many other guides direct you to run Skyrim in borderless windowed mode, I recommend to run it in dedicated fullscreen mode and this guide respects that. There are pros and cons to both modes: borderless windowed mode is better if you want to be able to switch between game and desktop but it never delivers the deep, contrasty colors of fullscreen mode. On the other hand, Skyrim is touchy with alt-tabbing to desktop in dedicated fullscreen mode. I personally prefer to have deep colors rather than being able to switch to desktop mid-game as my goal is to get immersed into the game but you preference may vary.

1.1 Why Skyrim LE?

With Skyrim Special Edition having been released in mid 2017 you might wonder why anyone still uses Skyrim Legendary Edition! The answer is simply that the state of modding for SE is still nowhere near that of LE. SKSE64, while being usable, is still in alpha state and there are many great mods that aren't available for Skyrim SE. Not only that but ENBs tend to not look as good on SE either, in particular the DoF effect (that might be my personal experience but I've heard other players say the same). There isn't any HDT physics for SE yet either and you would miss out on many great mods that tweak the game in favorable ways.

Skyrim SE may be more stable due to its 64bit nature and hence being able to address more memory space but recently a number of bug fix mods have been released for Skyrim LE that make it equally stable and on top of that you can use ENB to increase your VRAM beyond the 4GB limit of DirectX 9. So in the end there isn't a good reason to favor SE over LE until the mod community has caught up with SE to make it equally awesome as the modding state of Skyrim LE.

With that in mind, while many of the topics of this guide may also apply for Skyrim SE, it has been written strictly for Skyrim LE.

1.2 Hardware Reference

As a reference, this guide is based on the following system:

User Benchmarks (measured with www.userbenchmark.com): Game 119%, Desk 105%, Work 88%

This is (for the time being) fairly high-end but you should be able to achieve a good framerate even with a lesser GTX-level graphics card, less RAM, and a slower CPU. Of course a powerful graphics card with over 4GB of RAM is key to a fluid gameplay and having more RAM always helps because we can utilize it as VRAM via ENB.

2. System Preparation & Optimization

A game can only run as good as the system on which it runs. this sections tell you how to optimize Windows to get the most out of it for smooth gameplay.

3. Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)

Needless to say that you need this since many mods will require SKSE. Download the zipped version from skse.silverlock.org, unzip and copy the following files into your Skyrim install folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim).

skse_1_9_32.dll
skse_loader.exe
skse_steam_loader.dll

Install the SKSE Script folder incl. contents with Mod Organizer (see below) into a dedicated mod entry. Do this step after you've installed Mod Organizer (We install SKSE before MO so that MO automatically picks up the SKSE loader)! Simply zip the Scripts folder and then install it with Mod Organizer (Install a new mod from an archive) into a new mod entry named SKSE or something similar.

3.1 SKSE Launch Argument

If you've installed SKSE before Mod Organizer then MO should have picked it up automatically and created an SKSE entry under Launchable Executables (the blue/green gears icon) for you. If you use the Skyrim Steam version you should add the -forcesteamloader argument to the SKSE launch entry:

1. Click on "Configure the executables..." button (green/blue gears icon).
2. Select SKSE.
3. Add -forcesteamloader in argument field.
4. Click on 'modify'.
5. Close.

3.2 SKSE.ini

Find SKSE.ini by going into Mod Organizer, double-click your SKSE mod (as mentioned in 3.1), Filetree tab, under SKSE/SKSE.ini. If the file isn't there, create it. Make sure the file reflects the following settings:

[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048

[General]
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1
EnableDiagnostics=1

• iTintTextureResolution: Set this to 2048. If you get pixelated lips on your character, either delete this line or find the size of your used tint map texture and update the value here.
• ClearInvalidRegistrations: When turned on SKSE tries to clean unused scripts which is good! Set this to 1.
• EnableDiagnostics: If set to 1 SKSE shows missing ESPs when a savegame is loaded.
• DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB and ScrapHeapSizeMB are obsolete since meh321's Crash fixes mod (more below) completely replaces the SKSE memory patch. Therefore these two values should be removed from SKSE.ini.

4. Mod Organizer

Do yourself a favor and save yourself the headache of mod conflict chaos by using Mod Organizer as your mod manager. As a matter of fact this guide assumes that you're using Mod Organizer. Contrary to what some guides and users will tell you Mod Organizer isn't hard to understand or hard to use. The important concept to understand with Mod Organizer is that it virtualizes the Data folder of Skyrim. What this means is that Mod Organizer stores all installed mods separately, each in its own folder and when Skyrim is launched via Mod Organizer it creates a 'virtual' file structure in memory that resembles the Data folder as if all mods were installed physically into it. The advantage is that no files are ever physically overwritten and your Skyrim install folder never gets modified by Mod Organizer which makes modding non-destructive. Mod Organizer will 'override' (not 'overwrite') mod files that are lower in the load order with same-named files that are higher in the load order and thanks to the non-destructiveness you are able to change the order of mods without any loss of files. This makes it much easier to experiment with different load orders. This is the biggest advantage of Mod Organizer but by far not the only.

By using the latest version of Mod Organizer (at the time of this writing v2.1.1) you are also able to use one Mod Organizer installation to manage all your Bethesda RPGs (Skyrim, Skyrim SE, Fallout 4, Oblivion, Fallout New Vegas) so you don't have to fumble around with multiple, standalone Mod Organizer installs. It's your one-stop-shop for Beth RPG modding!

Download

Get Mod Organizer v2.1.1 or later from www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6194

Download the installer .exe and install it wherever you normally install your program files. Since Mod Organizer 2 is 64bit it will go into C:\Program Files\ModOrganizer by default.

USVFS

Optional but recommended: you might want to join the ModOrganizerDevs chat channel on Discord (discordapp.com/invite/JdQvBtn). Not only can you get modding-related help from other users there but the #builds room provides a download link to the latest Mod Organizer and USVFS dev builds and that's the ones you want to use unless there is a final non-beta available in the future.

USVFS is the file system component that Mod Organizer uses for its file virtualization. In case you download the latest version of USVFS (e.g. link named usvfs 0.3.1-beta5) you need to unpack the files and manually copy them to your Mod Organizer installation directory. The files needs are:

usvfs_proxy_x64.exe
usvfs_proxy_x86.exe
usvfs_x64.dll
usvfs_x86.dll

You can delete the old usvfs_proxy.exe/usvfs.dll afterwards.

Mod Organizer Tips

• Virtual File Access: Configure your favorite file manager (e.g. Directory Opus) to launch via Mod Organizer. This gives you access to the file structure of the Data folder as Skyrim will see it when launched. It enables you to browse the asset files that are ultimately used by the game. Then You could for example use a DDS viewer to check the textures, etc. Note that this won't work with the Windows Explorer as that Windows process is already running in memory by default so Mod Organizer can't hook its virtualized file system to it. You need an app that is launched and that quits later on.
• Mod Files Location: As hinted before, Mod Organizer stores downloaded/installed mods separately from the Skyrim installation directory. The default location for all your Mod Organizer Skyrim-related files is at C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\Skyrim. Mod Organizer allows you to store these files in a different location but it is recommended to have all installed mods on the same physical hard disk on which your Skyrim is installed. If you store your installed mods on a different drive Skyrim will have to access files from two different drives which will decrease load performance.
• Unpacking BSAs: In Mod Organizer's plugin settings you can enable the BSA Unpacker. This allows you to see which files of the mod are conflicting (override or being overridden) with other mods and you can more easily decide which mod should take preference, ignore certain files, etc. HOWEVER: loading loose files instead of BSAs has shown to be not only slower but also makes loading unstable in some cases. Therefore I recommend to leave BSAs packed if a mod comes with a BSA. Only mods that override existing asset files use unpacked files, everything else can safely stay inside a BSA archive.

5. Additional Tools

The following list provides an overview of the most important tools used for modding Skyrim.

5.1 LOOT

LOOT is a tool used to sort the load order of ESP files. It uses a master list with information about many published mods to arrange the files into a (hopefully) conflict-free order. It does a fairly good job at ordering your files but depending on the mods you install there might be exceptions where you still have to order manually afterwards. In my experience I found that I always have to order several mods manually and/or tell LOOT that it should place a specific mod after some others so know that you can't blindly rely on it. In addition LOOT is very useful to let you know of mods that need to be cleaned with TESEdit.

Download LOOT from github.com/loot/loot/releases

Install it and then add an executable link in Mod Organizer so that you can launch LOOT via Mod Organizer and it 'sees' the virtualized mod files.

Note: Mod Organizer ships with its own LOOT integration but it's better to use the standalone LOOT because it is updated more frequently.

5.2 TES5Edit

TES5Edit is used to clean ESP files and can also be used to make other modifications to ESP files. Download it from www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25859, install it and add a link in Mod Organizer just like you did with LOOT.

5.3 Wrye Bash

While Wrye Bash can be used for a lot of mod-related purposes, the main reason for our use is to create bashed patches which are required by some mods. Download it from www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1840, install it and add a link in Mod Organizer just like you did with LOOT.

5.4 Merge Plugins

Another tool at our disposal, Merge Plugins is used to merge ESP files together as a workaround to the 256 ESP limit that Skyrim's engine has. By merging multiple compatible ESPs together we can exceed this limit. Download it from www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69905, install it and add a link in Mod Organizer just like you did with LOOT.

5.5 Save Game Script Cleaner

A tool that can help with savegame cleaning in case you want to remove or update mods while actually playing Skyrim for a change ;). Download it from www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52363, install it and add a link in Mod Organizer just like you did with LOOT.

5.6 ENB And Reshade Manager

This tool can be used to backup and restore all ENB-related files from the Skyrim folder and create presets to easily switch ENBs. A real time saver! Download it from www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4143 and install it. No need to run it via Mod Organizer since MO doesn't manage files that are located directly in the Skyrim root folder.

6. Ini Files

6.1 BethINI

BethINI is a new tool that creates clean Ini files, fine-tuned per the latest knowledge from the Skyrim modding community. To eliminate most common issues right from the start you should create fresh Ini files and then change a couple of properties for optimal use.

Get the tool here:

• BethINI

Install the tool where you keep all your modding tools. Once installed, close Mod Organizer if you have it running and launch BethINI. Next follow these steps:

1. Upon first launch BethINI will ask which game to configure. In this case, choose Skyrim.
2. Setup tab: If the Mod Organizer field is blank, select the drop-down menu and then click browse and navigate to your Mod Organizer install location. BethINI may restart afterwards.
3. Set the INI path to your current Mod Organizer profile folder. Again BethINI will probably restart.
4. Finally, for the setup tab ensure that Fix Creation Kit is checked.
5. Basic tab: ensure BethINI Presets is selected, click the Default button to reset the INI files.
6. Click the High button and then check Recommended Tweaks.
7. Ensure ENB Mode is checked as well as Enable File Selection.
8. Ensure Windowed Mode is unchecked.
9. If you don't use a GSync screen, ensure that V-Sync is checked, otherwise uncheck it.
10. Ensure Anisotropic Filtering is set to None.
11. Choose your screen resolution for playing the game. You can enter custom resolutions. Since I'm playing on 21:9 ultra-widescreen but don't want to run Skyrim at the highest-supported resolution I created a custom resolution in the Nvidia Control Panel and entered that one here (2580 x 1080).
12. General tab: No changes required here!
13. Gameplay tab: Set the Over-Encumber reminder to 3600.
14. Optionally, check NPCs Use Ammo if you prefer a bit more realism.
15. Interface tab: Ensure Fix Map Menu Navigation and Remove Map Menu Blur are checked.
16. Set the quest markers, compass and subtitles options to your preference.
17. Mouse settings are recommended to be left at defaults.
18. Detail tab: Set Texture Quality to Ultra.
19. If using a 16:9 screen (1080p, 1440p) it's recommended to set Field of View to 70.59. 16:10 users (1680x1050, 1920x1200) should leave this at 65. Alternatively, you can set it to your preferable value, e.g. 90 or leave this at 65 and use the Customizable Camera mod from the Nexus to handle all aspects of the camera from an MCM menu with the ability to save preset profiles.
20. Ensure that Reflect Sky is checked.
21. Set Particles to 10000.
22. Set Shadow Resolution to 4096.
23. View Distance tab: Set values as follows: - Object Fade: 15 - Actor Fade: 15 - Item Fade: 15 - Grass Fade: Max - Light Fade: Max
24. For Distant Object Detail choose the high preset.
25. Visuals tab: Ensure Gamma is set to 1 (this depends on the ENB you use but since this guide uses Rudy ENB we will use a value of 1).
26. Ensure Grass Diversity is set to 15 and Grass Density is set to 60 (very dense grass). These values are for use with Skyrim Flora Overhaul and Verdant Grass. You can use a larger density value if 60 is too much of a performance hit.
27. Set Far-off Tree Distance to 40000.
28. Head back to the Basic tab and click Save and Exit.

Next we're going to adjust some settings in the Ini files that BethINI didn't take care of ...

6.2 Skyrim.ini

[HAVOK]
fMaxTime=0.0166

• fMaxTime: set this to 0.0166, which will cap havoc physics at 60 FPS.

[Display]
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.25
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.5

• fSunShadowUpdateTime: Determines the time in seconds at which the sun position is updated which in turn causes the shadow to move. I found that this looks best to me when left at default value (0.25). Alternatively you can try setting this to 1.0 and fSunUpdateThreshold to 0.05.
• fSunUpdateThreshold: Determines the time between sun-shadow transitions. A value of 0.05 is equal to 1 second, so a value of 1 equals 20 seconds and a value of 0.005 equals 100 milliseconds. Increasing this also increases the distance the shadows will move during the transition. Again I found this looks best at default value (1.5).

6.3 Skyrimprefs.ini

[Controls]
bGamePadRumble=0

• bGamePadRumble: If you don't use a gamepad to play Skyrim (and who does??) then set this to 0!

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=16
iMultiSample=0
iShadowFilter=4
iShadowMapResolution=4096

• iBlurDeferredShadowMask: Determines how smooth character shadows are drawn. If your character hair's shadows are jaggy then this value is too low. Try setting it to 4 if you're on a lower spec system. If that's too jaggy, try a value of 6, then 6, and so on. Keep in mind the higher this value is the more a 'halo outline' appears around NPCs but I found that a value of 16 looks best for me. Some people set this to 32.
• iShadowMapResolution: Determines the size of an in-memory texture map used for all shadows drawn in the current scene. 4096 should be fine for most systems. If your framerate struggles you can set this to 2048 and have lower shadow quality. A value of 8192 gives sharper, clearer shadows but might cause too much of an FPS impact. You can check what works best for you.

[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1

• bDoDepthOfField: ensure that this is set to 1.

[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bSaveOnPause=0
bSaveOnRest=0
bSaveOnTravel=0
bSaveOnWait=0

• bGamepadEnable: Again, you don't use a gamepad, do you?! Set this to 0.
• bSaveOn...: Recommended to set all of these to 0 and do game saving manually.

[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=0

• fAutosaveEveryXMins: Recommended to set this to 0.

7. Graphics Optimization

7.1 Graphics Driver Settings

These settings are for Nvidia users. As I don't use a AMD card I cannot provide any settings for these. Sorry for that!

Go to your Nvidia graphics card driver settings (right-click on desktop, choose Nvidia Control Panel) and under 3D settings choose the application-specific settings for Skyrim (tesv.exe). The following table tells you about the recommended settings.

7.1.1 A Note On Anisotropic Filtering

Yes you could set this to Application-controlled in the driver settings and instead use ENB-based anisotropic filtering but in my experience this doesn't look as good as driver-level filtering, in particular because ENB seems to decide which textures get filtered by what amount and you will end up with some textures not being processed by the filtering. Anti-aliasing seems to also play into this as I noticed more jagged textures with ENB-based filtering than with driver-level filtering. So my recommendation is to use driver-level Anisotropic Filtering. Alternatively, set this to 8x if 16x is too much of a framerate hit.

7.1.2 For G-Sync Users

If you have a G-Sync capable monitor it's recommend to use G-Sync and vertical sync together because it will solve any performance limitations introduced by VSync. It is recommended to use both. Read this guide to see why. To use G-Sync with Skyrim you need to make the following tweaks:

In Skyrim.ini, disable vertical sync:

iPresentInterval=0

In enblocal.ini, disable vertical sync and FPS limiter:

EnableVSync=false
EnableFPSLimit=false

In Nvidia graphics card driver settings change these settings accordingly:

After this you should still limit the framerate to 57 FPS but since ENB's FPS limiter has proven not to be very reliable for me I recommend to use the FPS limiter from Nvidia Inspector instead. So download and run Nvidia Inspector, go into the Driver Profile Settings, select the profile for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and look for a setting named Frame Rate Limiter. Set it to a value around 57. Setting it to 57 instead of 60 will reduce input lag (at least if the game is running at full FPS).

After these tweaks Skyrim should run properly with GSync and in-game physics should not go bonkers either. Your monitor will now refresh the image according to what FPS the game is currently running at, thus eliminating tearing and any performance drawbacks introduced by VSync solely.

7.2 Custom Screen Resolutions

I'm playing on a 21:9 ultra-widescreen monitor with a native resolution of 3440 x 1440 but playing Skyrim at that resolution would decrease the framerate considerably so I'm fine with playing at 2580 x 1080. This resolution however isn't predefined in the factory Nvidia driver settings so I had to create a custom resolution for it. You can easily do this in the Nvidia Control Panel under Screen Resolutions if you need a custom resolution. Just make sure the resolution is actually supported by your monitor.

7.3 Monitor Calibration

7.3.1 Enabling Full RGB Dynamic Output Range

This is for Nvidia users again. Be sure to enable full RGB dynamic range in your Nvidia control panel. The setting might be reset to limited after a new driver install.

If the option to switch to full RGB dynamic range is disabled or not visible in your Nvidia Control panel you can try this fix to enable it: www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/7adzrr/nvidia_doesnt_display_full_rgb_use_this_fix

More info about the issue at pcmonitors.info/articles/correcting-hdmi-colour-on-nvidia-and-amd-gpus

7.3.2 Monitor Gamma & White Balance Adjustment

How to adjust gamma and white balance depends on your monitor but let me give an example on how I set it for the ASUS PG348Q. You should definitely do some research for your screen model and see if you can set it to the optimal gamma and WB values. I was surprised by how much contrast and darker black I could get out of this screen after adjusting the settings. Skyrim looks way better with this!

The guide I followed for the was posted here by user willverduzco ... www.overclock.net/forum/44-monitors-displays/1591317-official-asus-rog-swift-pg348q-owners-club-271.html#post25690268. He also provides a color profile for download. To quote his instructions for the Asus PG348Q:

Set your GameVisual mode to RACING. This is very important because some of the other modes mess with Gamma to help you see in dim scenes! Go to the color tab and set: Brightness 30, Contrast 50, and Color Temperature to User (R99, G94, B98). Note that Saturation will be greyed out.

Finally, if you want to fine tune that already great response with a software LUT in the form of an ICC, you can apply my latest color profile in Windows. To do this, go to the Color Management window (Advanced Display Settings -> Color Settings -> Color Management). Next, remove all other profiles on the target display. Finally, apply my latest profile and set it as default.

Again, please keep in mind that in order to use this color profile, you MUST set your GameVisual mode to Racing, your Brightness to 30, Contrast to 50, and Color Temperature to User (R99 G94 B98). I will also link to this post from my previous calibration posts to make sure people who see the old post have this latest option.

Link to the ICC Color Profile for Windows: drive.google.com/open?id=0BxnEA1OTspCUR2k0UEdRSVVKbDA

... Obviously these instructions are only useful for PG348Q users. For any other screen you need to do your own research.

7.3 ENB

The goal of this section is to install Rudy ENB and tweak it for optimal quality and performance on your system. Additionally we will replace the ENB's DoF (Depth of Field) with that of RealVision ENB. The reason for this is that while Rudy ENB's DoF looks great it's not well suited for gameplay. The DoF uses a center point to determine whether to apply DoF or not and it generally is only good for screen archery but not for constant camera movement. RealVision's DoF on the other works very well even with a lot of camera movement and looks fantastic.

Rudy ENB is a great all-round ENB that's very tweakable and delivers an excellent image with beautiful colors and sharpness of textures. It's also relatively performant and modern and has support for various weather and lighting mods. In this guide we will set up Rudy ENB for use with Climates of Tamriel!

You need two files to get started:

• ENBoost v0.319 (On that page click the version and the download link is at the bottom of the next page!)
• Rudy ENB (download the Rudy ENB for CoT version)

Also get the VRAM Size test tool from enbdev:

• VRAM Size Test

7.3.1 ENB Installation

To install the ENB follow these steps:

1. Unpack the ENBoost archive downloaded from enbdev.com (enbseries_skyrim_v0319.zip) and copy the files d3d9.dll and enbhost.exe from the WrapperVersion folder to your Skyrim folder (where TESV.exe resides). You can delete the other files from the unpacked archive afterwards.
2. Unpack the downloaded Rudy ENB archive.
3. Copy the contents of [ Skyrim folder ] (enbseries folder and enbseries.ini) to your Skyrim folder.
4. If you don't have a enblocal.ini in your Skyrim folder yet, copy over the one included from the !!! enblocal.ini_... folder.
5. Go into the included [ Data folder ] folder. There, zip the contents of that folder, name the zip something like Rudy ENB Files.zip and install that zip as a mod with Mod Organizer.
6. There are optional DoF configs and rain textures included in Rudy ENB but we won't need them. The Optional DOF looks nice but isn't very suitable for gameplay. The Optional stronger DoF looks great on screenshots but makes you feel like you need strong glasses when playing the game.
7. Instead we will use the DoF config from RealVision ENB which happens to be perfectly compatible with Rudy ENB ...
8. Download RealVision ENB from www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30936. You only need the main file (RealVision ENB 315b).
9. [TODO] Find RV DoF files!

7.3.2 enblocal.ini

Now that you have all necessary ENB files installed we're going to configure the ENB. Open enblocal.ini with a text editor and adapt the values as follows ...

Proxy, Global, and Performance Settings

All these values can stay as they are for use with Rudy ENB.

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=false
InitProxyFunctions=true
ProxyLibrary=other_d3d9.dll

• EnableProxyLibrary: Enables/disables the use of the proxy. Unless using a separate post-processor in combination with ENB, this parameter should remain disabled. Enable it whenever using a second processing library is used such as, FXAA injector, SMAA or SweetFX.
• InitProxyFunctions: For simplicity, if the above parameter is set to true this one should also be set to true; else leave it set to false. This parameter attaches drawing functions to the proxy library. When using a second post-procesor, only set this to false if the second .dll is not hooking rendering functions and needs to be injected into the game process (i.e. bug fixes or process memory patchers).
• ProxyLibrary: This sets the name or full path to the proxy library that ENBSeries will load (second d3d9.dll file) if both the parameters above are enabled. If the second DLL file is not located in the root Skyrim directory, the full path must be used starting with the drive letter. Neither the name not full path supports unicode symbols. The second DLL must be renamed if it has the same name as the ENB DLL (d3d9.dll).

[GLOBAL]
IgnoreCreationKit=true
UseDefferedRendering=true
UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false

• IgnoreCreationKit: Tells ENB to whether or not to ignore the Creation Kit. It is enabled by default and should be left enabled.
• UseDefferedRendering: Enables/disables deferred shading rendering which many ENB effects are reliant upon. These include screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), Image Based Lighting, Reflections, Particle Lights, and Skylighting. This can be disabled for users having performance issues; however, it will affect the look of the ENB preset. Should be enabled by default.
• UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics: Used to turn the graphic modifications of ENB on or off. If only using ENBoost features, set this to true to disable the ENB graphic modifications. If using an ENB Preset, set the parameter to false. However this parameter is set, the ENBoost function will only work if SpeedHack is set to true under [PERFORMANCE].

[PERFORMANCE]
EnableOcclusionCulling=true
SpeedHack=true

• EnableOcclusionCulling: Enables/disables Occlusion Culling. It is enabled by default. Disabling this parameter will return Skyrim to its default behavior; however, this is not recommended. Leaving this enabled can provide a performance increase.
• SpeedHack: Enables/disables certain DX9 functions not required by ENBoost in order to save some overhead, which could lead to better performance. It is recommended to always have it enabled.

Memory Settings

[MEMORY]
AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false
DisableDriverMemoryManager=false
DisablePreloadToVRAM=false
EnableCompression=false
EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false
ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false
ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true
ReservedMemorySizeMb=64
VideoMemorySizeMb=22320

• EnableCompression: Enables/disables memory compression. It is disabled by default. Disabling memory compression can reduce stutter, but at the cost of more RAM usage. For this reason, it is generally only recommended to be disabled on systems with more than 2GB VRAM.
• ReservedMemorySizeMb: This can be set to any value from 64 onwards. If you get stutter your actions will depend on your Windows version:
  • Windows 7 or the Windows 10 with Fall Creators Update: Increase in blocks of 16 or 32 until gameplay becomes smooth. At higher values, you will see diminishing returns so values above 1024 may not be beneficial.
  • Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 prior to the October 2017 Fall Creators Update: Increase in blocks of 16 or 32 until gameplay becomes smooth, but stop at 512, you're limited to 4064MB, you want to keep as much of that for actual rendering as you can. While your display driver knows it can use more VRAM and shared system RAM, Skyrim/ENB can't.
• VideoMemorySizeMb: Run the VRAM Size Test tool you've downloaded earlier as admin (the DX9 version). This will give you the value to be entered here. Since I have 32GB RAM my value will be 22320MB (That's about 21GB of additional VRAM!) Make sure to close memory-hogging apps (such as Google Chrome) before using the tool! Boris' DX9 tool measures how much memory is available to ENB. This memory is used for enbhost.exe processes, which include both post-processing and serving as an additional pool of video memory for Skyrim. What this means: Skyrim's rather buggy and limited system of moving things in and out of video memory is hacked by enbhost.exe, and now Skyrim can use the memory it can access as well as the memory ENB can access.

All other memory settings should be left as above.

Threads Settings

[THREADS]
DataSyncMode=0
PriorityMode=0
EnableUnsafeFixes=false

[MULTIHEAD]
ForceVideoAdapterIndex=false
VideoAdapterIndex=0

In the latest version of ENB, the "Threads" section was added. These changes will cause performance loss and stuttering. However, they can allow saves that would not load otherwise to load, and possibly some other stability improvements. So unless you have to deal with savegames that wont load, it is best to have these settings disabled, but if you wish to enable them the recommended settings follow ...

• DataSyncMode: Should always be 0. You would probably do better to try using either of Continue Game, No Crash or Load Game CTD Fix with the latter being the preferred option, some users may have better results with the former.
• PriorityMode: Should always be 0.
• EnableUnsafeFixes: Recommended false as true may cause strange game bugs, however, test for yourself if needed.

Window Settings

[WINDOW]
ForceBorderless=false
ForceBorderlessFullscreen=false

• ForceBorderless: Enables/disables borderless window. This setting forces the game to run in a window rather than as a fullscreen application as it normally would. However, the window will fill the whole screen but without a border. This enables users to Alt-Tab in and out of the game without issue but the game graphics will not be as contrasty and dark as on dedicated fullscreen mode.
• ForceBorderlessFullscreen: This parameter will remove the border lines of the game window when Skyrim is set to Fullscreen Mode. This is best used when down sampling is also used.

I recommend to leave these values set to false. If you do want to use borderless window mode there are better options for that, e.g. OneTweak.

Engine Settings

[ENGINE]
AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=false
EnableVSync=false
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=true
ForceLodBias=false
LodBias=0.0
MaxAnisotropy=16
VSyncSkipNumFrames=0

• AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions: Set to false! This parameter enables downsampling to be used without having to force it through the graphics driver. It is recommended to remain disabled and only to be used by advanced users. In the most basic explanation, downsampling is rendering the game at twice the monitor's set resolution and then downsampling it to the correct resolution before being displayed on the monitor. This mimics supersampling. For this to work, users must enable this parameter, run in full screen mode, set the resolution in SkyrimPrefs.ini to 2x the monitor's set resolution, and set UseDefferedRendering=false under [GLOBAL]. For a more in-depth explanation and how-to's using the video drivers rather than the ENB parameter below, see this article.
• EnableVSync: Set to false! It is recommended to use driver-level VSync.
• ForceAnisotropicFiltering: Set to true! This will force anisotropic filtering for all textures with a linear filtering type. Textures which should not have anisotropic filtering are not filtered.
• ForceLodBias: Set to false! This parameter forces LOD Bias for all LOD textures.
• LodBias: Set to 0.0! LOD Bias controls the sharpness of LOD textures. Values should be between -0.5 and 0.5; any higher or lower and texture degradation is highly probable. Lower values result in sharper textures.
• MaxAnisotropy: Set to 16! This is the level of anisotropy filtering for textures. The values are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16; higher values provide better quality. Alternatively You can set it to 8 to save 1-2 FPS.
• VSyncSkipNumFrames: Set to 0! This tells the frame buffer to ignore the back buffer 0, 1, 2, or 3 contiguous cycles before grabbing a frame. This feature is mainly for users with high refresh rate monitors (> 60Hz) and should be set to '0' for most other users.

Limiter Settings

[LIMITER]
EnableFPSLimit=false
FPSLimit=58.0
WaitBusyRenderer=false

If you use VSync you shouldn't limit the FPS at all since VSync inherently limits FPS to the monitor's refresh rate. If you use GSync it's recommended to leave these disabled and use Nvidia Inspector's framerate limiter instead as ENB's limiter has proven to be unreliable (see Graphics Driver Settings for more info).

Input Settings

[INPUT]
KeyBruteForce=0
KeyCombination=0
KeyDepthOfField=0
KeyEditor=111
KeyFPSLimit=0
KeyFreeVRAM=109
KeyScreenshot=0
KeyShowFPS=0
KeyUseEffect=106

You can define key codes here for various ENB functions. I leave most of them disabled (set to 0). You should assign at least KeyEditor so that you can open the ENB editor in-game.

Adaptive Quality Settings

[ADAPTIVEQUALITY]
DesiredFPS=20.0
Enable=false
Quality=1

Leave disabled! We're striving for a game with supreme visuals and will optimize by other means.

Antialiasing Settings

[ANTIALIASING]
EnableEdgeAA=true
EnableSubPixelAA=true
EnableTemporalAA=false

• EnableEdgeAA: The EdgeAA solution is excellent for low-end systems because the performance impact is very small; however, it does come with some blurriness. Mid to High-end systems may find SMAA a higher quality solution for EdgeAA; however, EdgeAA and SMAA can be used together for possibly even better results. Using these two solutions together will come at a small cost to performance. Set this to true.
• EnableSubPixelAA: This parameter will enable SubPixelAA on specular reflections and should only cause a minimal performance impact. This setting recommended to be enabled.
• EnableTemporalAA: Can be set to true for improved antialiasing but if your framerate drops below 40 you might experience ghosting on high motion objects. My AA looks fine without it so I leave it at false.

Fix Settings

[FIX]
FixAliasedTextures=true
FixCursorVisibility=true
FixGameBugs=true
FixLag=false
FixParallaxBugs=true
FixParallaxTerrain=true
FixSkyReflection=true
FixSsaoHairTransparency=true
FixSsaoWaterTransparency=true
FixSubSurfaceScattering=true
FixTintGamma=true
IgnoreInventory=false
IgnoreLoadingScreen=false
RemoveBlur=false

• FixAliasedTextures: Set to true! This parameter helps reduce aliasing of snow on mountains and other similar objects. It is recommended to enable it, unless SMAA is being used.
• FixCursorVisibility: Set to true! This fixes an issue with the cursor visibility after using Alt+Tab. When enabled, this will replace the Double Cursor Fix mod. It is recommended to be enabled.
• FixGameBugs: Set to true! Allows the ENB to fix game rendering related issues and errors such as divide-by-zero errors that can cause crashes. The is normally not needed but can be safely enabled.
• FixLag: Set to false! This feature will reduce some delays which are mainly experienced in windowed mode. These delays are actually frames skipping when the video card is under heavy load. This feature is an experimental hack which was made specifically for NVidia users, however, it may work for AMD users as well. It is new to v0.266 and, thus, not much testing has been done with it. It is disabled by default.
• FixParallaxBugs: Set to true! This fixes parallax texture rendering issues by changing the shader used on those textures in order to render them correctly.
• FixParallaxTerrain: Set to true! This feature adds parallax for terrain ground textures (soil, gravel, sand, rocks, etc.) in Skyrim. The above FixParallaxBugs parameter must also be enabled for this feature to work. This parameter is disabled by default. More info on this under the Mods/Texture & Mesh Replacers/Parallax Maps section.
• FixSkyReflection: Set to true! This fixes an issue with the reflection of the sky flicking in some weathers. It is recommended to be enabled.
• FixSsaoHairTransparency: Set to true! [TODO]
• FixSsaoWaterTransparency: Set to true! Fixes some problems with ambient occlusion and water.
• FixSubSurfaceScattering: Set to true!
• FixTintGamma: Set to true! The is a fix for the small color differences in various parts of models such as hair.
• IgnoreInventory: Set to false! Tells ENB whether it should be disabled while the inventory menu is open. Can in general be set to false (i.e. use ENB on inv screen) but if you face issues with rendering in the inventory then set this to true.
• IgnoreLoadingScreen: Set to false! Same as above but for the loading screen.
• RemoveBlur: Set to false! This parameter will remove Skyrim's static Depth of Field which is used to blur distance landscapes when some weathers are active, hiding LOD flaws well. The setting is generally left up to the ENB Preset. You won't break anything using two DoFs, you'll just get more focused blur.

8. Mod Installation

After we've optimized the system, installed Mod Organizer and other required tools, installed SKSE, created clean Ini files, optimized graphics driver settings, calibrated the monitor, and installed the ENB we're finally ready to install mods. All mods will be installed with Mod Organizer unless stated otherwise.

8.1 Mod Installation Best Practices

If you want to eliminate mod conflicts and game issues you must be pragmatic when installing mods. The approach described here recommends to install mods in a certain order, one by one, testing them early, and fix issues early. This means that you download and install the most essential mods first and after that start to install other mods following a certain order and test them in-game before installing new mods. As you keep (mostly) relying on LOOT to sort your mod order you will see that it's easier to see changes in the mod order with few new mods rather than after installing multiple mods and have LOOT order it all over the place, screwing up mods that do require manual ordering. Luckily you are using Mod Organizer so you can change the mod order non-destructively at any time but you should still proceed with care because with many mods installed all at once and not checking for issues in between it will be very difficult to figure out which mod causes problems later.

Here are some general rules that should be followed for a clean and smooth running mod setup:

• Don't unpack BSAs when installing mods! It's generally better for performance and stability to load assets from BSAs. Only unpack if you absolutely want files from BSAs to override loose files!
• If a mod contains doc files (readmes, screenshots, etc.) create a folder named Docs and move these files into it. Then set the Docs folder as hidden (MO will add the extension .mohidden to it). Do the same with Source folders. This will have MO ignore all these mod-unrelated files.
• You can install additional ESP files for a mod and set them as optional in MO if they are not required or if you need them later as a dependency for another mod.

8.2 Installation Order

As we strive to create a solid base setup onto which we can add optional mods later, we will follow an order when it comes to installing mod categories. The mod installation will therefore be divided into three stages: Base Setup, Location Changes, and Optional Mods. The base setup will contain all mods to provide a solid game with a maximum of mods that improve gameplay, graphics, audio, UI, animations and so on. The location changes will deal with installing mods that change or add locations/cities/houses. The optional mods stage is used to install any other desirable mods such as companions, quests, creatures, weapons, armor, etc.

Note that while this order should be followed as far as possible some mods require special ordering and/or a high priority in the load order. Luckily we can move around things later at any time in Mod Organizer.

• Base setup
  • Mod Resources
  • Bug Fixes
  • User Interface
  • Camera
  • FNIS & Animations
  • HDT Physics
  • Character Customization
  • Gameplay
  • Crafting
  • Combat
  • Textures & Models
  • Weather & Lighting
  • Audio
  • LODs
• Location Changes
  • New Areas
  • City Enhancements
  • Player Houses
• Optional Mods
  • Companions
  • Creatures
  • Quests
  • Weapons & Items
  • Armor & Clothing

8.3 General Load Order

It's a good idea to define a categorical mod order in Mod Organizer to prevent chaos from ruling your mod list. However due to the nature of Skyrim mods (assets & ESP files) it's not always easy to follow a strict order since you will have to move textures and ESPs around to suit your mod overrides. But you can set up a 'rough' order that follows some mod categories. For example you want texture replacers late in your mod order and mods that only contain SKSE plugins can be anywhere since they don't adhere to a specific load ordering. Here is a categorical order that I'm following for the mod entries in the left pane in Mod Organizer:

Official Update
Official DLCs (TESEdit-Cleaned)
---------------------------------------
Unofficial Patches
---------------------------------------
Essential (Mod Resources, Bug fixes)
---------------------------------------
New Lands
Areas
Cities
Mercantile
Player Houses
---------------------------------------
Creatures
NPCs
Followers
---------------------------------------
Items & Weapons
Clothing & Armor
---------------------------------------
Textures & Models
Weather
User Interface
Audio
---------------------------------------
Animations
Character Customization
---------------------------------------
Crafting
Quests
Gameplay
---------------------------------------
Top Priority
---------------------------------------
LOD
---------------------------------------
Generated (FNIS, SKSE Configs, etc.)

Note that you still have to make some exceptions for specific mods. Several of my mods don't work or look right unless I place them on a higher priority than they would be in their respective category so I order them under Top Priority.

9. Mods

This section will finally lead you through installing mods. We'll first install the most critical and essential ones and then work our way up through other mandatory mods that have proven to be worthy. Eventually I will recommend some secondary mods that I found suitable for a base setup.

9.1 Mod Resources

Mods of type Mod Resources contain files that provide functionality and/or assets for many other mods. Because of that we will install these first.

9.2 Bug Fixes & Patches

If you were cursing at your heavily modded Skyrim crashing approx. every 30 minutes there is finally a cure for you!

• Crash Fixes by meh321
• SKSE Plugin Preloader

Installation

1. Extract SKSE Plugin Preloader, copy d3dx9_42.dll into your Skyrim folder (where TESV.exe is located).
2. Install Crash fixes by meh321 with Mod Organizer.
3. In Mod Organizer check if you have a file named CrashFixPlugin_preload.txt in SKSE\Plugins (besides CrashFixPlugin.ini and CrashFixPlugin.dll), if not, create it (can be an empty file).
4. Open CrashFixPlugin.ini, and set UseOSAllocators to 1. Save the file.
5. Done!

The Crash fixes mod fixes many of the bugs, see the mod's website and CrashFixPlugin.ini for details. The SKSE Plugin Preloader makes sure that mods are loaded before game initialization for which it finds the _preload.txt file.

9.2 User Interface

9.3 Texture & Mesh Replacers

9.3.1 Parallax Maps

Some texture mods include parallax maps. Parallax mapping is just a fancy word for height maps that can be utilized by ENB to make textures look more '3D'. Normal maps do that, too but parallax maps go a few steps further to make the depth effect of textures look even more realistic. ENB distinguishes parallax maps for two different texture types:

• Ground textures
• Other 3D objects

And both of these can be enabled in enblocal.ini ...

[FIX]
FixParallaxBugs=true
FixParallaxTerrain=false

• FixParallaxBugs: If set to true, enables parallax mapping for any non-ground objects. If an object texture comes with a parallax map the object receives parallax mapping, if not then the object will just be fine without it. Enabled by default and you can safely leave it on.
• FixParallaxTerrain: If true this applies parallax effects to ground textures. This is an 'all or nothing' switch! If enabled, all ground textures are processed. In this case you should have texture mods installed that have a parallax map provided for all ground textures. If this is enabled and a ground texture doesn't have a parallax map then the ground covered with that texture will look trippy (in a not-good sense). Luckily there are a couple of texture mods that cover all ground textures and we're going to pick the best of them. For this guide you should enable this option because we are going to install texture mods that will cover all ground textures with parallax maps.

9.4 Water

[TODO]

9.5 LODs

LODs (Level Of Detail) are textures that are smaller and more resource-friendly than their full size counterparts and which are rendered by the game engine instead of hires textures when a textured object is far away from the player and texture detail isn't important because the object is in the distance. Simply put, the difference between LODs and Mipmaps is that LODs are actually not only lowres textures but also simplified meshes on which the textures are applied. Skyrim uses LODs for all large objects like rocks, trees, ground, houses, etc. to reduce the burden on the GPU. LODs can be generated with different levels of resolution and quality and this section walks you through generating the best-posssible LODs that wont eat up too much of your available VRAM. We will use three different tools to accomplish this: TES5LODGen, TexGen, and DynDOLOD and we set up these tools in Mod Organizer so that re-generating LODs will take the least amount of efforts because you will need to re-generate LODs from time to time after you installed new texture packs or mods like houses or city improvements, etc.

First get the tools and install them in a location where you keep all your modding tools.

• TES5LODGen
• DynDOLOD (TexGen is included. Also download the DynDOLOD Resources package over Mod Organizer!)

After that you want to create three empty mods in Mod Organizer (right-click on left list and chose 'Create Empty Mod'). Respectively name them:

• TES5LODGen Generated LODs
• TexGen Generated Files
• DynDOLOD Generated LODs

Next you link the three tools to Mod Organizer so that you can launch them over MO and so they save generated files right into the empty mods you've just created.

Install the DynDOLOD Resources from DynDOLOD mod with MO. Then download and install any other LOD mods you want to use and arrange them in MO at the bottom according to the following order (note that I've installed a couple of additional LOD resources):

------ LOD ---------------------------------------
LOD - Indistinguishable Vanilla Tree Billboards
LOD - Skyrim Flora Overhaul Billboards
LOD - Realistic Aspen Tree Billboards
LOD - Skyrim High Definition Dark LODs
LOD - DynDOLOD Resources
LOD - TES5LODGen Generated Files
LOD - TexGen Generated Files
LOD - DynDOLOD Generated Files

Now every time you have to regenerate LODs you can simply follow these steps:

1. Make sure your mod order is as desired and any new texture mods are enabled.
2. Uncheck DynDOLOD Resources.
3. Delete any generated files from TES5LODGen Generated Files, DynDOLOD Generated Files, and TexGen Generated Files (don't delete the meta.ini file in the mods).
4. Quit Mod Organizer and run it with admin privileges (required for some of the LOD tools to work correctly).
5. Launch TES5LODGen from MO and let it finish scanning files. Select all worldspaces in the left list and leave the settings as default (Build atlas with 2048x2048 atlas size, max texture size 512, in UV range 5.0, check Tree LODs). Click Generate.
6. After TES5LODGen is finished, close it and refresh the mod list (top menu above left-side mod list in MO).
7. Launch TexGen from MO and let it finish scanning files. As Output Path make sure that it points to your physical TexGen Generated Files folder in your Mod Organizer/Skyrim/mods path. Set LOD Texture Size to 512 and click Start.
8. After TexGen is finished, close it and refresh the mod list as before. Your TexGen Generated Files mod should now contain the textures created by TexGen.
9. Enable the DynDOLOD Resources mod!
10. Launch DynDOLOD from MO and let it finish scanning files.
11. Click the Advanced button.
12. Select all worldspaces in the top-left list.
13. Click the Medium button.
14. Make sure the following settings apply: check Candles, check Generate static LOD, check Create texture atlas, Max tile size 512, Generate tree LOD, LOD brightness 0, Generate DynDOLOD, NearGridToLoad 11, FarGridToLoad 21, check Windows, check High, check Fake lights selected world.
15. Ensure that the Output path is set to your physical DynDOLOD Generated Files folder in your Mod Organizer/Skyrim/mods path.
16. Click OK and get a cup of coffee while DynDOLOD is doing its work.
17. After DynDOLOD is finished, close it and refresh the mod list as before. Your DynDOLOD Generated Files mod should now contain the files created by DynDOLOD.
18. In the right-side mod list enable the DynDOLOD.esp.
19. Done.

10. Troubleshooting

• Issue: The lips on my character's skin are pixelated. Solution: Find the texture used for the lips tint mask and check its texture size. Edit SKSE.ini and set iTintTextureResolution to the size (e.g. 1024, 2048, 4096, etc), most likely 2048.

• Issue: Skyrim takes screenshots whenever I press the End key (In particular frustrating if you're a left-hander using the End key as your 'Use' key). Solution: You most likely have an ENB installed that contains a file named injector.ini. It is there where this obnoxious keyboard shortcut hides. You might want to remove all the keyboard assignments defined in this file:

  [injector]
  ;toggle shader keycode
  key_toggle =
  
  ;make screenshot keycode
  key_screenshot =
  
  ;reload shader files keycode
  key_reload =
  

• Issue: The framerate goes down considerably but it seems not to be related to rendering.
  Solution: One possible cause for FPS slowdown over time that is not related to rendering might be HDT physics issues. Please see this thread if you use BodySlide and custom skeletons for a possible fix.

11. Useful Links