The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Merad]

I'm curious what people hope to gain by this. Obviously increasing the amount of memory accessible by the game is a good thing, but there are hard limits to what is achievable. 32-bit software (i.e. Skyrim) is code limited to 2GB with 32-bit windows and 3GB with 64-bit windows. This limitation exists regardless of physical ram...it's hard coded into Windows.

Modding Skyrim to use additional system memory can lead to serious issues if it tries to grab more than Windows will let it. This is why Supreme Commander kept crashing at release. Bethesda would have considered this when developing the game.

Of course I could be missing something here in regards to how the mod works, so if anyone can key me in on how they were able to work around this I'm all ears.

To add, I've played for hours with no CTD and in some cases played 2 min to be hit with CTD. I don't think it's related to the amount of available memory.

Just flipping the LAA switch in the executable won't cause the program to use more memory anyway. Skyrim, in fact, doesn't come close to 2GB to begin with. During all my testing last week I was watching memory usage, never saw anything higher than 1.3 GB.

I don't bother arguing with people about it anymore tho. Lots of people love to drink the LAA kool aid.

 

[dennilfloss]

Steam says it just downloaded Skyrim. I presume this is an update. Where do I look to find this info?

 

[Majic 7]

The large system address mod on skyrim nexus does nothing. The guy who uploaded it edited the description saying it's worthless.

I use it on a pretty much stock game and it does increase framerates at at least one place. When you are looking down on the town square/park from Dragonreach I was getting 35 fps. I get 60 everywhere else I have been. With this I get 48 looking at the same thing. I think it helps with loading cell lags also, not really sure, haven't had it loaded long. Haven't noticed that familiar load cell hitch from Oblivion for a while. I have read other posts at Bethesda forums that got the exact same result. The mod author says his ini tweak doesn't do anything, not the LAA mod.http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=202

 

[Threefiddie]

the large system address mod definately WORKS with the 2048k-4k texture mods.

I was crashing when fast traveling with big texture mods in until I ran Large System Address app

 

[IGemini]

Steam says it just downloaded Skyrim. I presume this is an update. Where do I look to find this info?

If it was an actual update, right-click on the game and view news. But since Bethesda themselves don't plan to have the next patch out until after turkey day, I'm guessing it was something more mundane like redownloading a file that corrupted.

 

[dennilfloss]

Steam shows it was an update.

Pic

 

[RavenSEAL]

Steam says it just downloaded Skyrim. I presume this is an update. Where do I look to find this info?

Update wasn't due until the week after Thanksgiving from what I understand.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Hmmm...apparently several people are getting this patch...

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.ph...d-via-steam/page__pid__19384572#entry19384572

 

[dennilfloss]

LOL! The nude mods have arrived.

 

[Demo24]

Yeah, it was a small 18mb patch that I believe now forces you to use steam or something when launching it. I guess some were getting around it, I dunno. It does seem to break the large address mod btw, for those using it.

 

[Threefiddie]

all hell is breaking loose in the mod community

 

[RavenSEAL]

Seems like the game is now forced through Steam thanks to this patch, DRM FTW D:

 

[KIAman]

I restarted for the 3rd time as a pure mage/destruction char. This time, I only increased health and a wee bit of stamina. I got a full set of enchanted dragonscale armor with fortify destruction and health.

This is kinda OP. Currently, I consume 0 mana for any destruction spells so I didn't even waste my perks on destruction spells cost half to cast. So I perked up on smithing and light armor.

Right now I am almost unkillable. Sitting with 600+ armor rating, 700+ health. I've perked up augmented shock and knockback so now I double cast thunderbolt for 180 dmg per strike for 0 mana cost. I'm sitting in front of a dragon and tanking it while blasting it to death in about 6 hits or so while only losing 10% - 20% of my health.

Now I am extremely vulnerable to attacks that remove my magicka because I only have 100, especially on the mage questline, omg. At least I can't die and it only takes a second for my mana to get back to 1 so I can blast free 180dmg thunderbolts that knock everything back.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I just realized...

They are adding DRM to the people that already verified that they've purchased the game by activating it on Steam...

What the ***& BethSoft??!!!?!?1

 

[Majic 7]

The patch does make the LAA mod redundant. Actually getting close to sixty looking at the same scene. BUT, and it is a big BUT, now I get shimmering textures in the stone railings, really bad ones. Timing matches the dancing shadows.

 

[waggy]

ugh. great "patch"

 

[waggy]

I just realized...

They are adding DRM to the people that already verified that they've purchased the game by activating it on Steam...

What the ***& BethSoft??!!!?!?1

yeah thats fucked up.

 

[Threefiddie]

had a friend send me his exe and back playing again no crashing with high rez textures when fast traveling

 

[Majic 7]

In reference to my previous post it is dancing shadows on stone walls. This will give me headaches. Haven't had a migraine in over forty years but this could cause one again. This sucks.

 

[Rilo]

Just flipping the LAA switch in the executable won't cause the program to use more memory anyway. Skyrim, in fact, doesn't come close to 2GB to begin with. During all my testing last week I was watching memory usage, never saw anything higher than 1.3 GB.

I don't bother arguing with people about it anymore tho. Lots of people love to drink the LAA kool aid.

Call it kool aid, placebo, whatever you want. If I played the game for an hour or more, I was sure to get a random crash, not to mention purple textures and missing body textures after playing awhile.

After drinking the LAA kool aid, I haven't crashed a single time... not once... in 5 days of heavy duty playing. And I also haven't seen ANY texture issues in that time. So if it isn't doing what it says it does, it definitely did something.

 

[cytoSiN]

Yeah, it was a small 18mb patch that I believe now forces you to use steam or something when launching it. I guess some were getting around it, I dunno. It does seem to break the large address mod btw, for those using it.

Strange...on release day I activated my boxed copy on Steam, and since then I've been launching directly into the game (using the game exe, not the launcher exe), and I don't think I've launched Steam since that first day. Guess I'll be sure not to do so until this nonsense is cleared up.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Here is the un-affected version .exe from my skyrim folder.

http://www.mediafire.com/?j7vjxycdfw9dztx

 

[shortylickens]

Seems like the game is now forced through Steam thanks to this patch, DRM FTW D:

Umm, didnt Skyrim ALWAYS require Steam, even the disc version?
How is anything different?

 

[Merad]

Call it kool aid, placebo, whatever you want. If I played the game for an hour or more, I was sure to get a random crash, not to mention purple textures and missing body textures after playing awhile.

After drinking the LAA kool aid, I haven't crashed a single time... not once... in 5 days of heavy duty playing. And I also haven't seen ANY texture issues in that time. So if it isn't doing what it says it does, it definitely did something.

Correlation != causation, placebo, etc.

Revert back to your unmodified exe. Play the game. Do you see memory usage getting close to 2GB? No? Then LAA is having no effect whatsoever on the program.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Umm, didnt Skyrim ALWAYS require Steam, even the disc version?
How is anything different?

Nope, there were ways to run the game without steam if you had the retail physical copy.