How to uncap your FPS in Skyrim SE

[Patriot03]

The Short Answer

* The short answer is to diligently install SSE Display Tweaks + requirements and modify the included mod config accordingly.
-Don't forget to launch your game with the SKSE application every time you play.

Knowledge is Power

Before you do that you should understand why the 60 FPS Cap existed in the first place, how previous uncapping methods broke people's games, and how SSE Display Tweaks is different from previous methods.

Why the cap?

- Simply put when you're programming you need to add/subtract variables all the time for basically any kind of script you can imagine that changes over time, these math operations or scripts complete once every frame, therefore if you're playing at 60 FPS then your script was completed 60 times in one second.

Assuming a 60 FPS cap If we had a starting variable with a value of 0 and a simple algorithm that simply took our variable and added 1 to it then after 1 second has passed 60 frames would be completed and our variable would now equal 60.

The keen among you can already see the problem, if we instead ran this same script at 120 FPS then after a second has passed our variable would instead equal 120 but the programmer who made the script ASSUMED you would only run the game at 60.

The basics behind keeping time and performing some kind of mathematical operation on a variable each frame is a constant throughout every bit of code ever written or that will be written anytime you have dynamic variables that need modified in real time. That's to say the above explanation applies to a massive range of coding examples.

A few of those being
- Movement of any kind in a game, be it physics or player input. (object velocity needs modified each frame)
- The keeping of time in a game, say a day/night cycle. (Time needs added each frame)
- Animations. -(With each frame the animation cycle has to progress to the next step)
- NPC scripts that check the global time to make decisions among numerous other checks an AI might make including assumptions it will calculate about where the player is and where the player will be in x amount of time etc.

Bethesda decided to cap and then assume that everyone playing their game would be doing so at 60 FPS on PC.... Either because of malfeasance or developer laziness, either way they didn't give an once of care for the minority of players who own high refreshrate monitors or those with crippling slow PCs that suffer the same problem but in the reverse.

^There's a simple fix which I'll be explaining below, Bethesda even implemented it for FO4 VR (60 fps doesn't cut it for VR) and later in Fallout 76 after they decided players in a multiplayer game getting speed hacks simply by turning off V-sync was a rather bad idea....

That's the truth, on to the next bulletin.

How can this break my game?

- You likely already figure that uncapping your game can result in super speed like playing the game in fast forward but it's slightly more complicated than that because some built in functions inside the game engine already calculate time in a framerate agnostic way (I'll explain how that's done later). For example most game engines have an animation system that includes a timer that keeps track of actual time unaffected by variable framerates, not all of them do however so it's different on a game by game basis but the point is Skyrim has various bits of code that keep actual time regardless of FPS and some that are intrinsically tied to your FPS.

This can cause massive issues if for example an NPC calculates time from a timer unaffected by FPS for some kind of action(sleep for x amount of time) but when it checks the world time to move on to a new script (like it being time to go to work or go to sleep) it runs into a cascading problem where it goes on to the next job on it's list which again takes x amount of time and eventually the time difference gets wonky enough that the NPC will stop showing up for work as expected so on and so forth. - This could easily introduce a bug which might bork the NPC altogether.
^ The above example is imperfect but you get the point, to me it would be really strange to program an NPC with it's own timer rather than simply checking the world time to see when it's time to move on but then again Bethesda is Bethesda and they do things weirdly.

Early attempts at uncapping Skyrim were ill conceived because people didn't know that various bits of Skyrim's code also relied on assuming a set FPS, they just saw the Physics playing in fast forward and that was a pretty simple config file edit to "fix" but of course other parts of the game went unfixed and this broke people's game after those time differences stacked up.

How is SSE Display Tweaks different?

SSE Display Tweaks makes a LOT of changes to various SkyrimSE files that assume a 60 FPS cap, it basically works by replacing every instances where the code for example adds 1 every frame (in script that looks like [our variable] = [our variable] + 1) with a dynamic variable that changes with your FPS.

To make code that's FPS agnostic you add a value that's a multiple of your previous frame's delta time (how long it took to complete the previous frame) rather than adding by 1 each frame.

In script that would look like this [our variable] = [our variable] + ([a value] * Deltatime)
^ The lower your FPS the higher the delta time multiplier and thus it will add more each frame, conversely the higher your FPS the lower your delta time multiplier and the amount added each frame will be proportionately lower. This makes the final result over time the same regardless of how many frames were completed in that time.

You can see all the new/edited files added by SSE Display Tweaks on their official github, the link for which can be found on their mod page.

Drama?

- There's also PapyrusVM which allegedly stops scripts if they're not completed in an allotment of time. There's a claim going around that if you uncap your FPS then the game will have less time to complete scripts thus breaking your game if you dare uncap it, I've seen zero actual evidence for this precise claim but it should be noted that SSE Display Tweaks modifies 2 PapyrusVM files.

Inside one of these edits to Papyrus VM are the following variables by name
-SetExpressionOverridePatch
-DynamicUpdateBudget (That's a clue)
-UpdateBudgetBase
-BudgetMaxFPS (Another clue)
-OSDStatsEnabled
-OSDWarnVMOverstressed (SSE Display tweaks will warn you if Skyrim's Script engine is over stressed and unable to complete scripts)

I'll post a quote taken from the SSE Display Tweaks mod page regarding the drama surrounding PapyrusVM below

SSE Display Tweaks mod author -"Regarding the so-called "high fps script timing issue" which people are eager to parrot on various forums - there is none. Just the opposite, very low and/or very unstable framerates are far more likely to cause issues with the VM. If the VM has problems at higher framerates it's a symptom of an underlying issue. Ideally it should do far better at 90-144 FPS as it would locked at 60. The built in on-screen display can detect and warn you if the scripting engine is overstressed."


You're going to see people getting in a flurry about this alleged PapyrusVM issue in the comments below and I welcome any concerned person to discuss this here. Beyond saying what I've already said I'll just add that SSE Display Tweaks has 1.1 million total downloads with great accolades in the comments section that coincides with my own personal experience using this mod and others like it on other Bethesda games covering a combined play time of hundreds of hours, most of which in script heavy modded playthroughs of FO4 and FONV.

Conclusion

At the end of the day you'll be using this mod at your own risk but you do that every time you download mods anyway, if you have a high refreshrate monitor and would like to play Skyrim like never before then give it a shot on a new glorious playthrough.

[StreamWhenGuy]

[peppermint hollows]

I would love for smr to actually outright refute the original post with evidence instead of yet again just linking his own post and saying "this has already been discussed..." especially seeing as the OP has debunked what was discussed there, and smr and the other regulars never really refuted it on that thread either...

[Lazarus {FATE}]

smr1957 eredeti hozzászólása:

Lazarus =8= eredeti hozzászólása:

@ smr1957

Patriot03's initial post explains the coding behind it and the difference between older mods and this one.

If you want to refute what he said then explain the reason the code won't work besides.. the old ones didn't work so this one won't either.

- snip -
My personal experience in 100 hours of recent gaming with over 500 mods installed 100 fps 4k gaming with no issue other than 1 user error crash when adding animations. Just my personal experience in game with no weird havoc glitches like flying items.

That is and was all gone over in this thread:
FPS Cannot Exceed 60
https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/3196992771949550559/
(from PINNED TOPIC Helpful Links and References, Section 5, General Troubleshooting} which, by the way, Patriot03 and some others (as boasted about here:

lockup_pelosi eredeti hozzászólása:

- snip -
That guy's still salty that we both caused his thread to get locked. For someone who tells off people for derailing and trolling, he seems to love doing that.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/3458220365210257018/?tscn=1660174619#c3451465085381230415 )
was instrumental in getting locked by their persistently disregarding what was posted, and arguing the point despite being asked to start a new thread.

As to personal experience, that is all it is - personal experience - and it cannot be extrapolated to others, especially when, as was consistently posted in the linked topic, there is proof of the game breaking when 60 FPS is exceeded - and this when using the above listed mods installed exactly as OP says, but which is every instance, the OP denies (even Corinze stated that there were issues in his game in the very beginning of this thread - perhaps he did not do things right - but every instance where there is an issue, OP always states that it is user error). Furthermore, one only needs to look at the posting history of those involved to see exactly where they are coming from.

For myself, for Ilja, Vlad, Arthmoor, and other long time and extremely experienced community members, there is overwhelming proof that what the OP is claiming does not work. But, as we all say - it is an individual's game to play and possibly break as they choose - but should they choose to exceed 60 FPS, they are on their own should anything go amiss. We stand behind what we post and what we recommend with all the thousands of hours of experience we have, with no personal ax to grind or agenda to push. If anyone ever does come up with a way to fix the engine and thus allow the FPS to be uncapped, we will be amongst the very first to hail it and recommend it - but that has not yet happened, and none of us are going to re-argue what we have already stated elsewhere.

But, all that is no reason for people to make off-topic posts which derail a thread - even if others have done so in other situations.

Ty for the reply, now I've read those old posts before, owned this game since release, tried the old mods, seen the errors, crashed my games in a few hours if not faster the higher the fps seen the massive havoc glitches.

Soo.. as I asked have you or anyone gone though the code or are able to explain how this is exactly like the others?
If not, linking those posts, some that are quite old with issues that may have been resolved is not proving your point which I concede is right for all the other mods I've utilized.

As to arguing and getting threads locked, I've seen that tactic from others here as well so don't point fingers for what has become common practice on steam forums for at least a decade.

I also don't go poking around people profiles simply to slander which is another popular tactic online and why my and probably many other forumites profiles are private to the general public.

This will get nowhere fast so I'll signe off this topic until a real debunk is done to the code.
I will on the other hand post if I get a game failure or havoc errors on this playthrough..

[Perplex]

peppermint hollows eredeti hozzászólása:

I would love for smr to actually outright refute the original post with evidence instead of yet again just linking his own post and saying "this has already been discussed..." especially seeing as the OP has debunked what was discussed there, and smr and the other regulars never really refuted it on that thread either...

The evidence is in the engine the game runs on. Unless you can actually improve the actual engine the 60fps cap is there. Mods wont solve the engine limitations, it can just bend it for a while, untill the limitations catch up and then your game is FUBAR. However that usualy takes a long time to happen (unless heavy modded) so most ppl using fps "fixes" wont notice as they wont play the same playthrough long enough to have catastrophic scriptbugs to start piling up.

[StreamWhenGuy]

Perplex eredeti hozzászólása:

The evidence is in the engine the game runs on. Unless you can actually improve the actual engine the 60fps cap is there. Mods wont solve the engine limitations, it can just bend it for a while, untill the limitations catch up and then your game is FUBAR. However that usualy takes a long time to happen (unless heavy modded) so most ppl using fps "fixes" wont notice as they wont play the same playthrough long enough to have catastrophic scriptbugs to start piling up.

Yes, but can you prove it? Furthermore, can you prove that it will FUBAR because of the framerate being uncapped or due to something else that'd break the game anyway after 1000 hours?
Oops, you can't.

[StreamWhenGuy]

I honestly have an urge from time to time to disable all heavy mods that strain my poor PC to be able to run at 120 FPS and make a full long playthrough with all the necessary fixes and put 500h worth of videos on YouTube to see how it goes and whether the game will break eventually to at least show them stubborn people what's up. Will a 500 hour playthrough be enough or should I do a 2000 hour one?
Or fail miserably.

[Lazarus {FATE}]

StreamWhenGuy eredeti hozzászólása:

I honestly have an urge from time to time to disable all heavy mods that strain my poor PC to be able to run at 120 FPS and make a full long playthrough with all the necessary fixes and put 500h worth of videos on YouTube to see how it goes and whether the game will break eventually to at least show them stubborn people what's up. Will a 500 hour playthrough be enough or should I do a 2000 hour one?
Or fail miserably.

I've been thinking of installing on my secondary vr rig with only the required mods to run engine and display tweaks with the unofficial skyrim patch and let it run uncapped at 120 fps and see how long it takes (if ever) to crash.

You could put up a 2000 hour video without crashes and the reply will invariably be.....

1 you are lucky.
2 you are not being truthful
3 your video is fake
4 the sky is falling.
5 all of the above.

If I'm wrong I'm man enough to acknowledge it and will say so on these forums.

[StreamWhenGuy]

Lazarus =8= eredeti hozzászólása:

You could put up a 2000 hour video without crashes and the reply will invariably be.....

1 you are lucky.
2 you are not being truthful
3 your video is fake
4 the sky is falling.
5 all of the above.

Dayum. Didn't think about it.
"See how his overlay with FPS and VRAM from SSE Display Tweaks doesn't move a bit or very rarely? It must've been pre-recorded and put on a loop to fool us."

[Perplex]

StreamWhenGuy eredeti hozzászólása:

Perplex eredeti hozzászólása:

The evidence is in the engine the game runs on. Unless you can actually improve the actual engine the 60fps cap is there. Mods wont solve the engine limitations, it can just bend it for a while, untill the limitations catch up and then your game is FUBAR. However that usualy takes a long time to happen (unless heavy modded) so most ppl using fps "fixes" wont notice as they wont play the same playthrough long enough to have catastrophic scriptbugs to start piling up.

Yes, but can you prove it? Furthermore, can you prove that it will FUBAR because of the framerate being uncapped or due to something else that'd break the game anyway after 1000 hours?
Oops, you can't.

It is hard to find direct quotes from devs online.

This was my first result on a google search:
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/want-60-fps-in-skyrim-se-but-dont-want-broken-physics-heres-a-fix/

This was the second one:
https://www.cluttertimes.com/how-to-limit-fps-in-skyrim/

None of them are quotes from devs but both talk about uncapping fps and how to do it. With a warning that the devs have recemmended against it and why.

[Perplex]

Lazarus =8= eredeti hozzászólása:

StreamWhenGuy eredeti hozzászólása:

I honestly have an urge from time to time to disable all heavy mods that strain my poor PC to be able to run at 120 FPS and make a full long playthrough with all the necessary fixes and put 500h worth of videos on YouTube to see how it goes and whether the game will break eventually to at least show them stubborn people what's up. Will a 500 hour playthrough be enough or should I do a 2000 hour one?
Or fail miserably.

I've been thinking of installing on my secondary vr rig with only the required mods to run engine and display tweaks with the unofficial skyrim patch and let it run uncapped at 120 fps and see how long it takes (if ever) to crash.

You could put up a 2000 hour video without crashes and the reply will invariably be.....

1 you are lucky.
2 you are not being truthful
3 your video is fake
4 the sky is falling.
5 all of the above.

If I'm wrong I'm man enough to acknowledge it and will say so on these forums.

it wont crash. It will just be buggy AF.

[StreamWhenGuy]

Perplex eredeti hozzászólása:

*snip*

Have you even read the topic or did you just decide to hop on this train blindly?
There are no hard proofs, only speculations that often don't even make any sense.

As slavicpotato1 said: "You'll see a lot of nonsensical claims, even the few which could possibly be relevant are never backed by any actual evidence. Feel free to ignore and trust your own observations."

[Vlad 254]

StreamWhenGuy eredeti hozzászólása:

Feel free to ignore and trust your own observations."

We do. Yet it seems to not be good enough for some.

you do you

[Patriot03]

Perplex eredeti hozzászólása:

StreamWhenGuy eredeti hozzászólása:

Yes, but can you prove it? Furthermore, can you prove that it will FUBAR because of the framerate being uncapped or due to something else that'd break the game anyway after 1000 hours?
Oops, you can't.

It is hard to find direct quotes from devs online.

This was my first result on a google search:
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/want-60-fps-in-skyrim-se-but-dont-want-broken-physics-heres-a-fix/

This was the second one:
https://www.cluttertimes.com/how-to-limit-fps-in-skyrim/

None of them are quotes from devs but both talk about uncapping fps and how to do it. With a warning that the devs have recemmended against it and why.

One link is from 2017 and simply discusses the aforementioned "old" fixes which were those that only addressed HAVOC physics and nothing else. - Already covered in the OP, not relevant to SSE Display Tweaks or similar mods.

The 2nd link has no fix applied whatsoever and simply offers the generic advice that "The devs advise against it", so it's without merit and honestly a waste of text for being written in 2021...

[Patriot03]

Perplex eredeti hozzászólása:

peppermint hollows eredeti hozzászólása:

I would love for smr to actually outright refute the original post with evidence instead of yet again just linking his own post and saying "this has already been discussed..." especially seeing as the OP has debunked what was discussed there, and smr and the other regulars never really refuted it on that thread either...

The evidence is in the engine the game runs on. Unless you can actually improve the actual engine the 60fps cap is there. Mods wont solve the engine limitations, it can just bend it for a while, untill the limitations catch up and then your game is FUBAR. However that usualy takes a long time to happen (unless heavy modded) so most ppl using fps "fixes" wont notice as they wont play the same playthrough long enough to have catastrophic scriptbugs to start piling up.

SSE Display Tweak's code is visible to the public on github, you can see the edits it makes to Skyrim's engine/VM...

The way you described these fixes is patently untrue, that's not how SSE Display Tweaks works in anyway shape or form. Even the old fixes didn't extend your game's longevity they simply addressed physics glitches.... I've never heard of any FPS fixing mod that 'bend it for awhile' to extend your game's stability beyond the point it would normally get wrecked without a proper solution.
^
Why did you make that up? Guys, fake information doesn't help ANYONE it doesn't matter how good your intentions are.

It's a pretty basic moral concept.. Even well intentioned misinformation poisons the well of knowledge and makes us all dumber for it.


PS: - Give your opinion all you want, the problem is erroneous fact statements..

[QHD_144hz_MLED_5ms]

Lazarus =8= eredeti hozzászólása:

wise explanation

wow is that user a bot? constantly repeating the same arguments and tactics?

the funny and ironic thing is i'm experiencing a lot of physics bugs, even though i have vsync on and the fps capped to 60.