Increasing draw distance

[Xamurai]

Is it possible to increase draw distance without using mods (in the option menu its maxed out). I have the feeling my PC can handle it. Running outside whiterun not really immersive.

[globo]

Partially possible for the grass and the trees but the game engine loads a certain number of cells around the player and draw distance is limited by that. You can easily increase the grass fade for example in the ini files but the distant buildings will still pop in. There is a line that you can change to increase the "grid" of the area to fully load around the player but it causes issues. I'm talking specifically about uGridstoLoad in addition to the grass, trees and objects fade distances.

It does tank FPS, it can cause crashes, quests trigger as if you were "there" and if you want to go back to a lower value, you'll have to go back to a previous save.

You can still do some testing with with a dedicated save file : https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/5sibly/guidediscussion_how_to_end_ugly_lods_transitions/

Don't put it higher than 7.

The alternative would be modding the game with things like more detailed LOD, grass, trees or something more "extreme" like DynoLOD : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32382/?tab=description

Haven't tested it in VR but what it does basically is giving you a tool that will generate distant land with full details and then replace the game files with them. It's only cosmetic and doesn't have the same repercussions as increasing uGridtoLoad but it's not that easy to use.

BTW this is what I use for better visual quality of distant land :
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9135?tab=images
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16609?tab=description

Those two mods are easy to install and make the transition between fully loaded and distant areas much more smoother.

[Xamurai]

If you change these, does it break achievments?


ugridstoload=7

[General]

uLargeRefLODGridSize=13

[Trees]

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=200

[TerrainManager]

fTreeLoadDistance=180500.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=300500.0000

[globo]

No, only mods disable them, and a couple allow you to reenable them.

You could also try to increase fGrassStartFadeDistance if your ingame sliders are already set to max but you feel like grass is still rendered too close. You can see the difference easily and it won't break the game.

[Xamurai]

ok thanks, will try it.

[Xamurai]

Darn it, seems i have not a .INI File.

The Skyrimprefs.ini does exist but not the other .ini file.

[globo]

Should be there : C:\Users\[user name]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim VR

You can also use this tool : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16242

It's straightforward, allows you to modify all the config files, you can always go back to the default values and a decent amount of lines come even with a description.

[Xamurai]

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=
fTreeLoadDistance=
fBlockLevel0Distance=
fGrassStartFadeDistance=

I increased all of these. but not quite happy with the result. Atleast it did not brake anything
Can't find these ones:
ugridstoload=7
uLargeRefLODGridSize=13

[Outlaw x 313]

Sorry man, I believe I have an idea of what you're looking because I was looking for the same kinda immersive in world feeling and the draw distances the game allows aren't the greatest at doing that and were really meant for the flat screen on 2011 time hardware lol and not so much vr, and that simply can't be achieved without mods. Specifically one called DynDOLOD. If this https://imgur.com/a/542129f is along the lines of what you're looking for (has sliders to change render distance in the in game options menu), you'll have to dive into modding to get that result. It's not difficult but it's just a little tedious as you need to do a little more than the average mod requires but it's a night and day game changer in game. If you're interested and would like to take a look at the process here's a smooth and simply tutorial

DynDOLOD Tutorial (Check the Description section for links to everything you'll need and more how to vids)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMrjXivssso


And here's a link to the same author's Tutorial for the software used to make modding easy (I'd strongly recommend MO2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKmSSpod69w&list=PLlN8weLk86XgJIZXTEPEcU1b6dzA_eJSB&index=4


I also see that achievements are a concern and I've got you covered there too 👌
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/245

[Xamurai]

Originally posted by Outlaw x 313:

Sorry man, I believe I have an idea of what you're looking because I was looking for the same kinda immersive in world feeling and the draw distances the game allows aren't the greatest at doing that and were really meant for the flat screen on 2011 time hardware lol and not so much vr, and that simply can't be achieved without mods. Specifically one called DynDOLOD. If this https://imgur.com/a/542129f is along the lines of what you're looking for (has sliders to change render distance in the in game options menu), you'll have to dive into modding to get that result. It's not difficult but it's just a little tedious as you need to do a little more than the average mod requires but it's a night and day game changer in game. If you're interested and would like to take a look at the process here's a smooth and simply tutorial

DynDOLOD Tutorial (Check the Description section for links to everything you'll need and more how to vids)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMrjXivssso


And here's a link to the same author's Tutorial for the software used to make modding easy (I'd strongly recommend MO2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKmSSpod69w&list=PLlN8weLk86XgJIZXTEPEcU1b6dzA_eJSB&index=4


I also see that achievements are a concern and I've got you covered there too 👌
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/245

Thanks buddy, I am not having much time right now. But i certainly will look into it as soon as i can. grtz.

[ThreeDeeVision]

The most important setting I found was the following:
SkyrimPrefs.ini file (in your Documents/My Games/Skyrim VR folder)
under the [VR] section of the file
uLargeRefLODGridSize=21

I think it was defaulted to something really low like 5. Moving this to 21 allowed for most scenery to show the detailed version of the texture. This was a huge change for waterfalls which always showed the static image until I was 100 yds away. I am running vanilla at the highest in-game settings and didn't notice any hit to performance with this change.