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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 22:52, 12 March 2019 by 75.49.123.213 (talk) (Corrected Wine AppDB link)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition cover
Developers
Bethesda Game Studios
Publishers
Bethesda Softworks
Engines
Creation Engine
Release dates
Windows October 27, 2016
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition guide on StrategyWiki
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition on Wikipedia
The Elder Scrolls: Arena 1994
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall 1996
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire 1997
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard 1998
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 2002
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 2006
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2011
The Elder Scrolls Online 2014
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition 2016
The Elder Scrolls: Legends 2017
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR 2018
The Elder Scrolls: Blades TBA
The Elder Scrolls VI TBA

This page is for the Special Edition. For the original game, see The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For the VR version, see The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR.

Key points

Remastered version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Improvements include higher-quality textures, built-in modding, engine optimization, full 64-bit support and a variety of new graphical and lighting effects.
Free to those who owned the original game and all its DLC on or before October 28, 2016.[1]
A significant number of graphics options are missing from the launcher's graphics option menu. The number of tweakable options in the config files has also been significantly reduced.

General information

Official forums
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Modify configuration file[2]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Skyrim.ini.
  3. Go to the [General] section.
  4. Add the following line sIntroSequence=.
  5. Save your changes.

Mods

Before installing any mods, SKSE64 and either Nexus Mod Manager or Mod Organizer should be installed.

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch

Community-created patches which fix many issues which otherwise remain unresolved in the official patches, such as quest bugs, rendering issues and subtitle coding errors.

Mod Organizer

Powerful and easy to use mod manager with mod virtualization, in order to keep the installation folder clean.
Features a configuration editor, the SKSE executable can also be set to be launched through the configurator.

SKSE64

Required by most mods.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Saves\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/[Note 1]
Save data from the original game can be copied and used with Special Edition;[3] however, save files that are using mods may not work.[4]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Syncs up to 953.67 MB of saves online.

Video settings

Launcher graphics settings.
Launcher graphics settings.
Launcher advanced graphics settings.
Launcher advanced graphics settings.
In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Manually set resolution in SkyrimPrefs.ini[5]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SkyrimPrefs.ini.
  3. Change iSize H and iSize W to the display resolution's height and width respectively.

Notes

Changing options in the launcher may undo this edit.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Manually set borderless fullscreen windowed in SkyrimPrefs.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SkyrimPrefs.ini.
  3. Change bBorderless=1 and make sure bFull Screen=0.
  4. Save and close the file.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Disable Vsync[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open SkyrimPrefs.ini.
  3. Change iVSyncPresentInterval=1 to iVSyncPresentInterval=0 to disable Vsync.
  4. Save and close the file.

SMAA

SMAA Anti-Aliasing with SweetFX[citation needed]
  1. Download custom SweetFX
  2. Extract archive contents to executable location, and replace DLL's with one's from x64 folder

Frame rate (FPS)

Havok physics do not function correctly past 60 FPS by default.[6]
Remove 60 FPS cap and correct physics[7][8]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Skyrim.ini.
  3. Under section [Display] add line bLockFrameRate=0 to remove 60 FPS cap.
  4. Add the section [HAVOK] and under it add line fMaxTime=(1 / your monitor's refresh rate) to correct the physics, i.e. for a 144 Hz monitor you would add fMaxTime=0.0069.
  5. See Run the game at screen refresh rate to run the game at above 60 Hz refresh rate.
  6. See Vertical sync (Vsync) to disable Vsync if you want FPS to exceed your monitor's refresh rate.

Input settings

In-game input settings.
In-game input settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Mute on focus lost

Set mute in background[citation needed]
  1. Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.
  2. Start the game and press Ctrl+ Shift+← Backspace to toggle Special K's Control Panel.
  3. Expand "Window Management" and "Input/Output Behavior".
  4. Enable "Mute Game" under "Background Behavior".

VR support

Issues fixed

AMD frame rate stuttering/screen tearing

Default Skyrim v-sync frequently causes frame rate stuttering. Disabling in-game v-sync causes physics glitches. Enabling frame rate limiting in Crimson causes tearing
Set iVSyncPresentInterval to 0[9]
  1. See Vertical sync (Vsync) to disable Vsync.
  2. Download Fallout 4 ENB v0.307.
  3. Extract the "WrapperVersion" folder and copy d3d11.dll, d3dcompiler_46e.dll and ENBlocal.ini into the Skyrim Special Edition installation folder.
  4. Open ENBlocal.ini.
  5. Under LIMITER, change EnableFPSLimit=true to EnableFPSLimit=false
  6. Under ENGINE, change ForceVsync=false to ForceVsync=true.
  7. Save and close the file.

Notes

Game will start with a black screen and may take a solid minute or two for the main menu screen to appear.

G-Sync frame rate stuttering

With Nvidia G-Sync enabled frame rate becomes unstable.
Disable Vsync[10]

See Vertical sync (Vsync) to disable Vsync.

Game crashes every 10-15 minutes on Windows 10

Disable the Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service on Windows 10[5]
  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type services.msc and press Enter.
  3. Search for Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service on the list of services, double-click on it.
  4. Make sure that the service name is TabletInputService.
  5. Change Startup type to Disabled and click the apply button to disable the service from auto-starting.
  6. Click the stop button.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode defaults to 60 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.
Set screen refresh rate[citation needed]
  1. Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.
  2. Start the game once and close it to allow the configuration file of Special K to be created.
  3. Open <path-to-game>\dxgi.ini or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Profiles\SkyrimSE.exe\SpecialK.ini depending on the installation method you used.
  4. Change RefreshRate=-1 to RefreshRate=0 under [Render.FrameRate].

Allow pressing Alt+F4 to close the game

Enable Alt+F4 shortcut[citation needed]

Method 1.

Install Keyboard Shortcuts Fix SKSE64 plugin.

Method 2.

Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.

Method 3.

Install Super F4 [1] closes out of any program with cltr+alt+F4.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Interface Scaleform 3.3.92
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.99f

Continue rendering in the background

Set always active[11]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Skyrim.ini.
  3. Add bAlwaysActive=1 under the [General] section.
  4. Save and close the file.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-750
AMD Phenom II X4 945
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 470
AMD Radeon HD 7870
1-2 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible
64-bit OS is required

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/489830/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (489830) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Skyrim Special Edition is 1 week away! - last accessed on 2016-10-21
  2. Verified by User:Blackbird on 2018-06-22
    Gets straight into the menu.
  3. Pete Hines on Twitter: "Chatting w Todd just now, able to confirm on Skyrim SE for PC: 64-bit Saves should transfer Separate creation kit to upload mods to Bnet" - last accessed on 2016-6-16
  4. Skyrim PC saves that use mods don't work with Special Edition • Eurogamer.net - last accessed on 2016-10-29
    "Existing save games from the original PC game will work in the PC version of Skyrim Special Edition. Simply copy your old saves from My Games/Skyrim to My Games/Skyrim Special Edition. Only use original saves that have never been used with mods. Do not use your original save game if this error appears when you load it in Skyrim Special Edition: 'This save relies on content that is no longer present."
  5. 5.0 5.1 The Unofficial Bug / Crash + Resolution Thread :: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition General Discussions
  6. Skyrim Special Edition: Vsynced 144Hz - YouTube - last accessed on 2016-12-10
  7. Skyrim SE Beta 1.3 is now available on Steam - last accessed on 2017-03-16
  8. Possible fix to allow Skyrim to run on 120fps monitors: skyrimmods
  9. https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5a6la7/skyrim_special_edition_vsyncscreen_tearing_fix/
  10. https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/59s1f8/skyrim_se_pc_gsync_performance_fix/
  11. How-To: Alt tab without pausing the game: skyrim