Allright, the past few days has seen some incredible amount of attention to Betheseda's new game, Elder Scrolls V, Skryim. With it, comes a long legacy of tweaking, customizing and improving the game just like its predecassors, Oblivion and Morrowind.

Its become very apparent very quickly that already there are tons of tweaks that can be changed in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file which is found by default in C:\Users\Users\Documents\My Games\Skyrim

A quick look shows there is A LOT of options that can be tweaked, modified or even added to the .INI file to help improve FPS in the game, visual quality or somewhere in between depending on peoples computer setups and gaming desires.

With that comes the question that i've been asking and alot of other people have as well "What do the changes do? What does it look like" There has been much discussion, debate and even arguments on the actuall real impact of changing and or adding information in the .INI file and after a few days since Skyrims launch of spending hours searching the web, reading several forums, browsing and sorting through photos of various qualities, I decided it was time to make a "Definite" thread showing exactly WHAT is changed in the INI and then showing quality EXAMPLES of the changes, specifically BEFORE and AFTER photos with low compression and high resolution so the differences can be seen, wether subtle or massive in game

Seeings how there's PLENTY of information on the web and growing quick in regards to what type of changes and additions can be made to the .ini file, this thread will focus specifically on showing QUALITY EXAMPLES of Before and After each change in the .ini file for Skyrim  If you are looking for specific help beyond that, this thread is not for you. This was made and meant to be a quick visual reference guide for everyone an anyone who is playing the PC version of Skyrim to see exactly what can be modified/ added into the SkyrimPrefs.ini file and then seeing the differences, which at that point, the user can make changes as they see fit

I will expand upon this post as time goes on with further testing of .ini file changes and the corresponding pictures to show the differences. If you are willing to add to this visual reference guide, which is meant to be for everyone, I ask the following:

1. Include low compression/ high resolution of before and after photos of the .ini change with a picture host that can handle lots of bandwith and requests. NO EXCEPTIONS!

2. Make easy reference of what exactly you changed in the ini. file both before and after. If you are adding something to the .ini, PLEASE indicate where it should be placed for maximum reliability and stability for peoples machines.

This thread is made and updated by me for the pleasure and ease of my fellow PC gamers and Skyrim brothers to have an easy visual reference for Skyrim .ini file changes. If you have nothing positive to say or contribute, don't say anything.  I am doing this from time out of my own schedule and doing this work for the benefit of everyone else

I will start this thread with one the most basic, yet most profound changes you can make in the .ini file to make the game more immersive and life like. By default, the game DOES NOT render shadows for both tree's and small objects/rocks.  This gives the world a very "bland" look, especially in broad daylight

To correct, this find the following settings in your SkrimPrefs.ini file

bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0

The "0" indicates that these options are turned off, for whatever Bethesedas reasoning. To turn the shadows on, simple change the "0" to a "1" so they look like this

bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

Save your .ini file and load Skyrim. You will notice a difference immediately without any major FPS hit.

No Tree or small object shadows



With Tree and small object shadows enabled



Much better aint it? Well, were just getting started!

The next big issue that people have with Skyrim is the shadow quality and or distance of shadows and the effect on FPS. For some reason that I won't get into here, Betheseda has basically given us the ability to either have

A. High quality shadows close up but no shadows far away
B. Low quality shadows but shadows very far away

Wether due to the Skyrim game engine limitation, coding, or whatever the case may be, until there is an update or patch to the game, we must choose not only how good looking we want our shadows but how far away they are rendered and both will change FPS on most setups.

The .ini entry that modifies how far away and how good our outside shadows look is:

fShadowDistance=8000.0000

By default, Skyrim renders outside shadows at 8000. This looks like this

fShadowDistance=8000.0000


This is really the first thing people notice when the enter the game, the close up shadows look very blocky, pixelated and just down right awful, especially the tree shadows near the character in the above pic.  The upside is that shadows are rendered very far into the distance, especially tree's, cliffs, overhangs, large rocks ect...

What happens if we reduce that number, say to, 4000? What happens then?

fShadowDistance=4000.0000



Wow! Look at that! You can now see that the close up tree shadows near the character are MUCH better looking in comparison! Talk about nice!  Notice however that our distant tree's, especially across the river no longer have any shadows. This is the tradeoff with the current shadow system in Skyrim as mentioned earlier. We can't have our cake and eat it too at this time, its either long distance shadow with crappy close up ones or good looking shadows close with reduced shadows. To further show this, lets change the shadow distance to 1000

fShadowDistance=1000.0000


The close up tree shadows near the character look REAL good now! But dang, now the long distance shadows have really taken a hit. Notice that our tree' in front of the character on the trail have lost their shadows as a trade off. Let push it even father for giggles, now to 400

fShadowDistance=400.0000


Ouch. We don't get much better close up shadow quality and now were not even getting the shadow of the tree to our left across the trail! Yuck Unless you really like detailed up close shadows, this isn't a worthwhile tradeoff IMO.

Now that you can see the difference in changing the shadow distance and what to change, feel free to experiment to how you want your Skryim shadows to look to your desired taste and or computers capabilities


Next were gonna try a water quality increase and a popular one at that.  Can't tell you technically what the changes are, but apparently upping the following .ini entry will increase water qualtiy

iWaterMultiSamples=0

By game default, the watersample setting is at "0" which is either low or off, im not sure which.

The following screens are of at iWaterMultiSamples=0





Water doesn't look too bad to be honest. But lets see what changing the value of "0" to "8" does

iWaterMultiSamples=8


Hmmm, kinda hard to tell IMO. The water suface appears to have more ripples maybe? Lets try the other photo

iWaterMultiSamples=8


Wow, almost impossible to tell with moving water, too much changing to notice the difference

So at this point, im not seeing any real gains with changing iWaterMultiSamples in the .ini file. Unless I did it wrong or someone can fill me in on more information on this one,  we'll move on and update this later if needs be.


The next water quality improvement that seems to be popular is under the SkyrimPrefs.ini file near the bottom:

iWaterReflectHeight=256
iWaterReflectWidth=256


Apparently raising this increases the resolution of water reflections, or so its been said. The default value is "256" is looks like the following

iWaterReflectHeight=256
iWaterReflectWidth=256



Ok, lets raise it to the maximum value which apparently is "1024"

iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024


Hmm once again, the results are dissapointing in that I simply cannot tell any difference in water quality with this change. Again, unless im doing it wrong and someone wants to inform me further, we will leave this one and continue forth




After the dissapointing and hyped up water tweaks, lets do something that actually shows us some real results! The next were gonna look at is increase the tree draw distance which is the following value:

fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000


Simply put, this changes how far the tree's are rendered in the landscape. Higher the number, the more tree's farther out. Simple enough. The default value of "75000" looks like this:

fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000


With the default now shown, lets change the tree rendering max to apparently 300000, beyond that from what i've heard, you simply can't tell the difference

fTreeLoadDistance=300000.0000


Its not quickly apparent, but if you look to the far off distance mountains slightly to the left of center, you can see the extra tree's far off. Its not much, but it helps fill in the long horizon with some extra "life" rather then just blank mountain lines. Woo hoo, but now we actually see some benefits! Lets do more!
 

Dunno about you guys, but in real life, I can see vegetation pretty damn far off into the distance, so having a game that can render the valley floor, praire, flat land or whatever with as much grass and plantlife as possible gives me alot more of a immersive experience into a game, and Skyrim is no exception. A simple and very effective change we make in the ini is for grass which is:


fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000


Again, simply put, this value determines how far away grass is rendered into the far away landscape of the game. The default value of "7000" look as such


fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000


Not bad, but those far away hills and plains look really empty, dull and lifeless, which drags down the feeling of a "real world" inside the game. From my research, the max value that shows benfit is going up to 25000. Beyond that, apparently shows no difference. So lets try it

fGrassStartFadeDistance=25000.0000


Now thats what were talking about! Instant, immediate and without a doubt 100% improvement over the default game setting look! Kinda makes up for all the lame water tweaks that didn't work now doesn't it?






I will further expand this before and after guide as time goes on with more .ini file changes and the resulting photo comparison as I have time, so please be patient with me, I do have a life outside of the game, though not as much of one right now that the game it out, lol!

Love the idea thanks man. Can't wait to see screenies of all the ini tweaks before and after keep it up 

Added to original post

Fantastic thread. That's most of the stuff I have found at the moment too. The shadows in this game really ruin it for me. It's funny, I thought (before I got the game) that textures were going to be the thing that was bad. This actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise, textures are generally not too bad, but the damn shadowing is horrible.

The change to the water multisample seemed to me most significant when looking at a LOT of water from a VERY big distance.  Specifically, I hadn't done any tweaks with the water until I came out the end of the Bleak Falls Barrow series of tunnels and you have that massive view over the river that leads into Riverwood.
 
I was just taken aback at how...CRAP the water looked.  Very, very "tiled" looking waves.  The multisample tweak seemed to fix that.

maybe try changing the watermultisample    to only  "1"   as if it's just 0=off   1=on    ??    might be better  ??

fGrassStartFadeDistance=50000.0000
 
setting this value higher doesn't affect anything, setting this to zero removes the grass or lowers it with other values
 
in other engines is important to set some values to view more grass because they are related to each other
 
i am giving my best to figure out what is related to the grass
the goal is an more atmospheric and realistic view range without perfomance impacts
my gtx580 is overclocked to 960MHZ and has room for around 24% higher settings
 
1004MHZ before an watercooler-modification to solve water-resistance and dirt-problems  by removing some cooling parts inside
stupid thing, this was just an experiment and i wouldn't do it again because there are better way's to solve it without risks
i hate these low details when walking through terrain
 

Yeah, I hope to start testing terrain detail and distance rendering later, as I hate popping up landscapes and stuff as well, really distracts from the game.

I've further tested  the water sampling entry, both at 4 and 8 in place of 0 and I simply cannot see a difference in standing or moving water still.

Nor do I see any diffreneces for the following entries as well for water

iWaterReflectHeight=256
iWaterReflectWidth=256


Raised them both to 1024 with no change from what I can tell.

Added further tests

1ceTr0n

Again, simply put, this value determines how far away grass is rendered into the far away landscape of the game. The default value of "7000" look as such

fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000


Not bad, but those far away hills and plains look really empty, dull and lifeless, which drags down the feeling of a "real world" inside the game. From my research, the max value that shows benfit is going up to 25000. Beyond that, apparently shows no difference. So lets try it

fGrassStartFadeDistance=25000.0000


Now thats what were talking about! Instant, immediate and without a doubt 100% improvement over the default game setting look! Kinda makes up for all the lame water tweaks that didn't work now doesn't it?

 
Is it just me, or did that do something very weird to the plants and rocks around your character?  It seems to have...I dunno...'moved them out' some?
 
I wonder if this isn't something like the same thing as the shadow maps - that is, in this case, the amount of plants/rocks/etc in the scene is fixed, and setting the 'distance' they render out at merely 'stretches' the canvas of rendered things out to the requested distance?
 
I guess, in this case, it doesn't look too bad (not as bad as the shadow map stretching when you increase that range), but it's definitely a weird effect.

I tried every combination related to grass and there is no way to improve, whats the difference at your hardware or settings?
 
in other games i got only improvements after setting the cache or some other values higher

xanderf


I wonder if this isn't something like the same thing as the shadow maps - that is, in this case, the amount of plants/rocks/etc in the scene is fixed, and setting the 'distance' they render out at merely 'stretches' the canvas of rendered things out to the requested distance?

I guess, in this case, it doesn't look too bad (not as bad as the shadow map stretching when you increase that range), but it's definitely a weird effect.

 
 
Noticed that as well. Sometimes it changes from before and after screenshots, sometimes it doesn't. I just figured it was the game engine randomizing stuff like its supposed to *shrug*

Kumster15


I tried every combination related to grass and there is no way to improve, whats the difference at your hardware or settings?

in other games i got only improvements after setting the cache or some other values higher

 
Hmm dunno man, other then I run a pretty beefy single GPU rig as show in my sig and that I have game default settings in control panel all maxed out besides AA and no FXAA either.

really appreciate the work you're putting into this thread! Keep it up, thanks! :)

This is a great guide, please keep it updated as new settings are revealed. Thanks!
Note:
Did you try messing with (default):

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000

Seems like it'd be good to change this alongside the other grass setting.

Marc05


This is a great guide, please keep it updated as new settings are revealed. Thanks!
Note:
Did you try messing with (default):

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000 
 fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000

Seems like it'd be good to change this alongside the other grass setting.

 
From what i've gathered on other forums, nothing noticable changes in game as a result of changing those values.

Nice
I was going to post very similar thread. But when I was almost finished, I accidentally closed the windows and lost all the text, so I said f it and moved on to doing other things... lol Nice thread, man.
  
btw this nice string:
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=20000.0000
makes the trees' branches move over the wind...

So here's my question... biggest thing I've noticed is the trees in the foreground sway with the wind, and trees in the distance do not. What's the ini.file mod for that?

the most effective way for some results is to find out what engine is used and what is known to the engine from old games, some informations could be similiar but not rarely they differ from what is really in the renewed game. especially if the developers fear some mistakes they did in older games and think it is "better" to change some details for their own advantage to keep users out of what they shouldn't know in their opinion.
 
finding developing documents or command-list's in older version's(alpha, beta...) could solve it
 
the most expensive way is to get an view inside with reverse-engineering tools. there is no guarantee to find what you exspect but sometimes i got almost every command out of it by reading some strings inside dll's.
 
the last way if you can't find something to unlock is to hack the engine and change the way it works a litle bit

no visible difference:
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1
fBlockLoadDistanceLow=50000.0000(nothing from 0 to higher values)
fBlockLoadDistance=125000.0000(nothing from 0 to higher values)
fHighBlockLoadDistanceLow=20000.0000(nothing from 0 to higher values)
fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000(nothing from 0 to doubled values)
fBlockLevel0Distance=70000.0000(nothing from 0 to doubled values)
 
proved:
iBlurDeferredShadowMask= [1 or 2]
bTreesReceiveShadows=[from 0 to 1] (more shadow details)
bDrawLandShadows=[from 0 to 1] (more shadow details)
fShadowDistance=1000.0000 (sets the distance of visible shadows - lower are lesser shadows and higher are more shadows in higher distances - setting it higher than 8000 improves nothing by me due to some other values that are calculated from the game and resulting otherwise from user to user after inspiring hardware for optimal performance i think - for example my 8GB ram is always 80% filled without games, no money yet to buy some ram)
(same thing with grass)
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
 
fTreeLoadDistance=200000.0000(0=high detailed trees around you and no low-detailed trees after the related value - 75000=normal  low detailed trees on mountains or other closer places are visible - 200000=trees on the top of close mountains and at other mountains or more away places -> no performance-impacts yet, just a few more % gpu usage by great subliminal visual enhancements)
 
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000(moving your mouse from right to left at 250000 has some flickering, the flickering is away after reducing the value to 125000, i know this from other games and it happens by too low cache, this is really encumbering my friendl eyes so i decided to stop this by stalking down those error, the effect is still there but more hidden after this -> i never saw him again *scared*
value           0=http://img3.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/screenshotfblocunf80mbvcl.jpg
value 125000=http://img3.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/screenshotfblocg70zfi1wbm.jpg
value 250000=http://img3.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/screenshotfbloca6xepn3uv0.jpg
 

1ceTr0n

I will start this thread with one the most basic, yet most profound changes you can make in the .ini file to make the game more immersive and life like. By default, the game DOES NOT render shadows for both tree's and small objects/rocks.  This gives the world a very "bland" look, especially in broad daylight

To correct, this find the following settings in your SkrimPrefs.ini file

bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0

The "0" indicates that these options are turned off, for whatever Bethesedas reasoning. To turn the shadows on, simple change the "0" to a "1" so they look like this

bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

Save your .ini file and load Skyrim. You will notice a difference immediately without any major FPS hit.

No Tree or small object shadows



With Tree and small object shadows enabled



Much better aint it? Well, were just getting started!

The next big issue that people have with Skyrim is the shadow quality and or distance of shadows and the effect on FPS. For some reason that I won't get into here, Betheseda has basically given us the ability to either have

A. High quality shadows close up but no shadows far away
B. Low quality shadows but shadows very far away

Wether due to the Skyrim game engine limitation, coding, or whatever the case may be, until there is an update or patch to the game, we must choose not only how good looking we want our shadows but how far away they are rendered and both will change FPS on most setups.

The .ini entry that modifies how far away and how good our outside shadows look is:

fShadowDistance=8000.0000

By default, Skyrim renders outside shadows at 8000. This looks like this

fShadowDistance=8000.0000


This is really the first thing people notice when the enter the game, the close up shadows look very blocky, pixelated and just down right awful, especially the tree shadows near the character in the above pic.  The upside is that shadows are rendered very far into the distance, especially tree's, cliffs, overhangs, large rocks ect...

What happens if we reduce that number, say to, 4000? What happens then?

fShadowDistance=4000.0000



Wow! Look at that! You can now see that the close up tree shadows near the character are MUCH better looking in comparison! Talk about nice!  Notice however that our distant tree's, especially across the river no longer have any shadows. This is the tradeoff with the current shadow system in Skyrim as mentioned earlier. We can't have our cake and eat it too at this time, its either long distance shadow with crappy close up ones or good looking shadows close with reduced shadows. To further show this, lets change the shadow distance to 1000

fShadowDistance=1000.0000


The close up tree shadows near the character look REAL good now! But dang, now the long distance shadows have really taken a hit. Notice that our tree' in front of the character on the trail have lost their shadows as a trade off. Let push it even father for giggles, now to 400

fShadowDistance=400.0000


Ouch. We don't get much better close up shadow quality and now were not even getting the shadow of the tree to our left across the trail! Yuck Unless you really like detailed up close shadows, this isn't a worthwhile tradeoff IMO.

Now that you can see the difference in changing the shadow distance and what to change, feel free to experiment to how you want your Skryim shadows to look to your desired taste and or computers capabilities


Next were gonna try a water quality increase and a popular one at that.  Can't tell you technically what the changes are, but apparently upping the following .ini entry will increase water qualtiy

 
bad mistake
 
bTreesReceiveShadows=0 (auf 1 setzen)
bDrawLandShadows=0 (auf 1 setzen)
 
both values increased the details of shadows
 
and shadows are definitely set on by default (without those upper values)
 
fShadowDistance sets only the view range of shadows from nothing(0=no shadows) to highest(8000=not enough for me) in relation to other unknown limiting values left behind

I came across this today: http://deadendthrills.com...madness-in-the-method/
 
If you try the cell loading thing like he did, make sure you read everything his says before adding those lines to the config and back up your saves. It's nice to have a lot more load but my fps dropped to about 15-20 so I lowered the values to 6/72.
 
On a side note, I got tired of the big fps spikes and dips and started using dxtory to limit the fps to 30. It runs nice and consistently smooth now even with the extra cells loading and with vsync turned off the menu would go over 1000 fps sometimes so that doesn't happen anymore. Lastly my GPU isn't going over 75C like before and staying around 63C :D I'm considering using this thing for anything I can!

I'm honestly sick of tweaking/adjusting the damn game, I just wanna play it and have for awhile. So no, I won't be updating this thread as a result

1ceTr0n


I'm honestly sick of tweaking/adjusting the damn game, I just wanna play it and have for awhile. So no, I won't be updating this thread as a result

 
Lol no prob, it's a lot of work. Would be nice if you updated the OP if people add their own before/after shots :)

nothing is like playing a game the first time with perfect adjusted configs if possible, human perception is wonderful
 
it isn't the same if you play it again with adjusted configs, i am sure sooner or later you will regret it
 
i have more important things to do then caring too much about skyrim, i am just showing you guy's the right direction to find solutions

the line "iGrassCellRadius=8" in skyrim.ini improves grass
 
the line "uGridsToLoad=9" improves rocks
 
the highest value differs from computer to computer
too high will hang up skyrim at loading
 
 
here is stuff for you to improve skyrim.ini with lines and values(they aren't mine, i found this random at another page by searching something completely else):
[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
bAllowConsole=0
iPreloadSizeLimit=26214400
bPreloadIntroSequence=1
fMasterFilePreLoadMB=40.0000
iNumHWThreads=1
bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1
uGridsToLoad=20
uInterior Cell Buffer=16
uExterior Cell Buffer=180
iFPSClamp=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=0
iRadialBlurLevel=1
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=6000.0000
fShadowDistance=4000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=8192
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=8
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=6600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=5600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=5000.0000
fGamma=1.3600
fDecalLOD2=3500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=1000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=400.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3005.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=16
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=4
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=5
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize W=1920
iSize H=1200
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=3.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=1024.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=8192.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=11376.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=7
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=10
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=30
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
bFXAAEnabled=0
fShadowBiasScale=0.2500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
iShadowMapResolution=2048
fDefault1stPersonFOV=80.0000
fDefaultWorldFOV=80.0000
fDefaultFOV=80.0000
bSimpleLighting=0
bDynamicWindowReflections=1
bUseFakeFullScreenMotionBlur=0
bAllowPartialPrecision=0
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bActorSelfShadowing=1
bMTRendering=1
bUseSunbeams=1
bAllow30Shaders=1
bDo30VFog=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=6000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=15000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=5
bAllowLoadGrass=1
iGrassCellRadius=8
bGrassPointLighting=1
fGrassFadeRange=2500.0000
fGrassDefaultStartFadeDistance=5000.0000
bDrawShaderGrass=1
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iShadowMaskQuarter=5
iDifficulty=2
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0100
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=0
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=2048
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=3.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=0.2000
uID3=466532
fVal2=1.0000
uID2=554685
fVal1=0.8000
uID1=1007612
fVal0=1.0000
uID0=94881
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=462144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=52768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=36384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=20000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=40000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=150000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=40000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=25000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.1000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=100
bForceFullDetail=1
bEnableTreeAnimations=1
bEnableTrees=1
fUpdateBudget=4.0000
bPickSkinnedTrees=1
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=250
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=50
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=40
bDecalMultithreaded=1
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=8.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=5.2000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=6.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=4
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=2048
iWaterReflectWidth=2048
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1
bUseWaterHiRes=1
bUseWaterLOD=0
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1
bUseWaterShader=1
[BackgroundLoad]
bBackgroundLoadLipFiles=1
bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1
bLoadBackgroundFaceGen=1
bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1
bBackgroundCellLoads=1
bLoadHelmetsInBackground=1
bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1
[ScreenSplatter]
bBloodSplatterEnabled=1

Kumster15


the line "iGrassCellRadius=8" in skyrim.ini improves grass

the line "uGridsToLoad=9" improves rocks

the highest value differs from computer to computer

Happen to have 'before and after' shots of those changes?
 
I don't happen to see these values in the skyrim.ini file by default, so looks like these would be custom, anyway.
 
 

Just be careful with that ugrids command - once you have a savegame with a higher ugrid you won't be able to load it with a lower value anymore. Ugridstoload=11 rocks the business hands down though The graphics become uber mega HQ. But stuttering is guaranteed at the same time

right, ugridstoload affects your savegame and something more then rocks. too late yesterday, forget to refer this.
 
if values disappear they get default
 
i never saw him stuttering yet with much higher values, thinking why mc gpu-usage doesn't get more then 68%.