1.0.63

Highlights since 1.0.60

• Far shadow cache (BETA): no more missing house and tree shadows when you turn the camera.
• Shadow cache for static lights now needs about half the video memory, up to 1 GB less in places with many torches and fires.
• Hide occluded objects (BETA): no more objects briefly disappearing when you switch camera view, teleport or sit down.
• Textures reduced by Texture Downscaler or similar mods stay at their size after loading screens.
• No more short stutters while dragging sliders in the SPS menu.
• Many stability fixes and a bit less CPU load.

All changes since 1.0.60 (SE/AE)

Shadows

• Far shadow cache (BETA): fixed shadows of houses and trees missing depending on the view direction (bug since 1.0.59).
• Far shadow cache (BETA): walking towards the sun no longer cuts off shadows of tall objects.
• Far shadow cache (BETA): objects that come into view while turning keep their shadows, only objects that are really in the cache are skipped.
• Far shadow cache (BETA): more robust in interiors, on cell changes, loading screens, pause and free camera. Its video memory is released when you switch it off.
• Shadow cache for static lights: all lights share one copy of the previous frame. Halves the video memory of the cache (up to about 1 GB less with many lights and 4096 shadow maps).
• Shadow cache for static lights: no endless rebuild loop after a failed build, inactive lights are released sooner.

Hide occluded objects (BETA)

• No more single frame flashes of missing objects when switching between first and third person, teleporting or using furniture.
• Main view detected by the world camera, reflections and previews can no longer be taken for the main view. Less work per object.

Texture streaming

• The size limit of another mod (for example Texture Downscaler) is kept after loading screens.
• Reloads waiting in the queue for more than 8 seconds are dropped, textures out of sight are no longer enlarged for nothing.
• More stable texture tracking: a reused memory address could make a foreign texture count as streamed. Results from before a loading screen are discarded safely.
• Errors can no longer reach the game's texture loader or stop the streaming thread.

Settings

• Never saved while an A/B measurement runs, so its temporary values cannot end up in SPS_User.ini.
• Settings changed in the main menu are saved right away.
• Saved once nothing has changed for one second and without forcing a disk flush. No more short stutters while dragging a slider.
• Leftovers of removed features are cleaned up in SPS_User.ini and SPS.ini.

Performance

• Less work per object and per draw call on the main thread (draw filter, light cache, torch shadows, rain and skylighting, texture scan).
• All measurements and diagnostics run only with the analysis log.

All changes since 1.0.60 (VR)

• Texture streaming: the size limit of another mod (for example Texture Downscaler) is kept after loading screens.
• Texture streaming: reloads waiting in the queue for more than 8 seconds are dropped.
• Texture streaming: more stable texture tracking, results from before a loading screen are discarded safely, errors can no longer reach the game's texture loader or stop the streaming thread. Less work per texture during the scan.
• Torch shadow culling uses the real light position and radius. Large wall shadows close to a light are no longer culled by mistake.
• Settings: never saved while an A/B measurement runs, main menu changes are saved right away, no stutters while dragging a slider, leftovers of removed features cleaned up.

SPS 1.0.62 (beta)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.61

• Shadow cache for static lights: all lights share one copy of the previous frame and take turns building their cache. This halves the video memory the cache needs (up to about 1 GB less with many lights and 4096 shadow maps).
• Far shadow cache (BETA): walking towards the sun no longer cuts off shadows of tall objects until the sun moves on.
• Hide occluded objects (BETA): the camera is checked in the same frame in which objects are hidden. No more single frame flashes of missing objects when switching between first and third person, teleporting or using furniture.
• Texture streaming: reloads that wait in the queue for more than 8 seconds are dropped. Textures out of sight are no longer held and enlarged later for nothing.
• Texture streaming: the size limit of another mod (for example Texture Downscaler) is kept after loading screens. Before, such textures could be reloaded up to their full file size.
• Settings are saved once nothing has changed for one second and without forcing a disk flush. No more short stutters while dragging a slider (HDD, virus scanner, MO2).
• Removed unused code of the sun view culling (switched off since 1.0.17).

VR

• Texture streaming and settings changes as above.

SPS 1.0.61 (beta)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.60

• Far shadow cache (BETA): fixed shadows of houses and trees missing depending on the view direction. The bug was already in 1.0.59 and 1.0.60. The engine's limits for collecting shadow casters now stay active, they are open towards the sun.
• Far shadow cache (BETA): cached frames now skip only objects that are really in the cache and draw everything else normally. Objects that come into view while turning keep their shadows.
• Far shadow cache (BETA): more robust in interiors, on cell changes, loading screens, pause and free camera. Its video memory is released when you switch it off.
• Shadow cache for static lights: no endless rebuild loop after a failed build, inactive lights are released sooner.
• Texture streaming: more stable texture tracking (a reused memory address could make a foreign texture count as streamed), results from before a loading screen are discarded safely, errors can no longer reach the game's texture loader.
• Settings: never saved while an A/B measurement runs, so its temporary values cannot end up in SPS_User.ini. Settings changed in the main menu are saved right away. Leftovers of removed features are cleaned up in SPS_User.ini and SPS.ini.
• Main view detection by the world camera, reflections and previews can no longer be taken for the main view. Hide occluded objects uses the same detection and does less work.
• All measurements and diagnostics run only with the analysis log or a running measurement.

VR

• Texture streaming stability fixes and settings fixes as above.
• Shadow culling of torch shadows uses the real light position and radius.

1.0.60

Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.59

• Fixed far character shadows flickering at the distance limit. Character shadow culling now decides per character instead of per body part and no longer switches back and forth at the limit (also VR).
• New BETA, off by default, Anniversary Edition only: small character parts (rings, earrings, eyes, teeth, small armor parts) cast no shadow beyond a few meters. Only the single shadow draw is left out, so shadow receiving stays unchanged.
• Developer diagnostics (only with bEngineProbes): main thread waits are logged with their call chains.

1.0.59

Stable release. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.57

• Shadow cache for static lights is on by default again and no longer BETA. The pulsing near fires with lighting mods is fixed. In Dragonsreach, together with hide occluded objects, about 1 ms per frame (+5 % FPS). Switch it off in the menu if shadows near fires pulse.
• New BETA, off by default, Anniversary Edition only: far shadow cache. Static objects are drawn into the far sun shadows only when the sun or the view moves on. About 60 % fewer sun shadow draw calls outdoors and about 0.4 ms less CPU time for sun shadows. Helps most on systems limited by draw calls.
• Calmer far shadows is now part of the far shadow cache and no longer a separate option.
• Removed the old shelved cascade cache. Parts of it ran every frame even when switched off.
• Less main thread time: the texture streaming scan runs at most half of the time, and sun shadow culling checks each group of objects for characters only once instead of every frame.
• New line in SPS.log after every loading screen with its duration and the textures loaded during it ([Load]).
• Debug page: measurements for hide occluded objects, the shadow cache and the far shadow cache (results in SPS.log as [Beta-AB], including sun shadow draw calls and their CPU time).

SPS 1.0.58 (beta)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.57

• Shadow cache for static lights is on by default again and no longer BETA. The pulsing shadows near fires with lighting mods are fixed since 1.0.56. In Dragonsreach, together with hide occluded objects, about 1 ms per frame (+5 % FPS). Switch it off in the menu if shadows near fires pulse.
• Less main thread time: the texture streaming scan runs at most half of the time (was about 0.4 ms every frame in big scenes), and sun shadow culling checks each group of objects for characters only once instead of every frame.
• New line in SPS.log after every loading screen with its duration and the textures loaded during it ([Load]).
• Debug page: measurement for hide occluded objects and the shadow cache (rotates every 15 s, results in SPS.log as [Beta-AB]).

SPS 1.0.57

Stable release. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log (Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE).

Changes since 1.0.50

New

• Beta feature "Hide occluded objects". Objects completely hidden behind walls, houses or terrain are not drawn. Off by default, own Beta page in the menu. Works with DLSS, FSR and dynamic resolution.
• The master switch hotkey can be removed ("No key" in the menu or iToggleKey = 0).
• Debug page: list of objects left out by micro culling, measurement for skylighting culling.

Changes

• All features that do not work perfectly on every setup yet are marked (BETA) and off by default, grouped under Overview > Beta.
• Shadow cache for static lights and texture streaming of clothing and armor are now off by default (BETA).
• Excluded texture types can be included on the texture streaming page and are saved.
• Developer tools moved to the Debug page.
• Menu settings and "Load defaults" are also saved in the main menu and while the game is paused. Keys added by hand to SPS_User.ini are kept, and the file is written safely.
• Shadow instancing (BETA) takes effect after a game restart and is no longer hooked on SE 1.5.97.

Performance

• Timing measurements and per-frame statistics only run with analysis logging on. Without it, SPS.log gets one short report per minute.
• Less work per object in hide occluded objects, the shadow cache and texture streaming.
• Torch shadow culling does no work when it is switched off.

Fixes

• Possible fix for rare crashes while rendering (BSBatchRenderer, often when arriving in big cities).
• Better compatibility with older Community Shaders versions.
• Texture streaming: textures no longer stay small, black or pixelated after loading screens. Reloads are done by urgency, failed reloads are retried, and the VRAM no longer overflows when many textures are needed at once.
• Texture streaming: models in loading screens are shown at full texture size (dark beards and faces with the bodies/faces/hair option).
• Texture streaming: textures shared with effects count as needed, runtime textures of other mods are never touched.
• Shadow cache (BETA): fixed pulsing shadows near fires, trees in the wind are no longer frozen, works with frame generation.
• Main view micro culling (BETA): only in the main world view. No more grey objects, missing inventory previews or missing preview models.
• Hide occluded objects (BETA): no grey objects with upscalers, no hidden items on characters or moving objects, no missing objects at the screen edge.
• Sun shadows: groups containing characters or cloth are no longer skipped as a whole.
• Character shadow culling also applies to torches and fires when "Also torch shadows" is on.
• Picking the Pause key as hotkey no longer binds Right Ctrl.

SPS 1.0.56 (beta)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log.

Changes since 1.0.55

Texture streaming

• Fixed textures staying small or black after loading screens. Textures that SPS had downscaled were no longer recognized after a door or fast travel and never went back to full size. If you had black or pixelated rocks, fences or banners that only fixed themselves when running past them, please test this version and post your SPS.log.
• Downscaling now checks again whether the object is still far away before shrinking it, outdated requests are dropped.
• Reloads are done by urgency, the closest textures come first.
• A failed reload is retried instead of leaving the texture small for the rest of the session.
• Textures used by effects (fire, smoke, magic) count as needed too.

Shadows

• Shadow cache for static lights (BETA): fixed pulsing shadows near fires. The cache is now rebuilt when the light has drifted since the cache was made. Trees moving in the wind are no longer frozen in the cache.
• Whole groups are no longer skipped in sun shadows when they contain characters or cloth.

Other

• Menu settings and "Load defaults" are now also saved in the main menu and while the game is paused.
• Hide occluded objects (BETA): large objects at the screen edge that were partly visible could disappear.
• The render batch hook is no longer installed on SE 1.5.97, where shadow instancing does not run.
• Values entered by hand in SPS.ini are limited to the menu ranges.
• New measurement for skylighting culling on the Debug page (needs bEngineProbes in SPS.ini, developer option).

Changes since 1.0.54

• Possible fix for rare crashes while rendering (BSBatchRenderer, often when arriving in big cities). Skylighting culling no longer clears the engine's draw list, it returns an empty one instead, the same way the main view culling already does.
• Better compatibility with older Community Shaders versions. The render batch hook is only installed when Shadow instancing (BETA) is on at game start. Enabling Shadow instancing now takes effect after restarting the game.

Changes since 1.0.53

• The fix for missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA) now really works. In 1.0.53 the paused state was never detected.

Changes since 1.0.52

• Nothing is culled in the main view while the game is paused (inventory, containers, trading). Fixes missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA).
• Hide occluded objects (BETA) no longer hides items attached to characters (weapons, shields, items on the back) or objects that move (fish, doors, physics objects). They could turn grey for a moment.

Changes since 1.0.51

• Hide occluded objects (BETA) now works with DLSS, FSR and dynamic resolution.

Changes in 1.0.51

New

• New beta feature "Hide occluded objects". Objects in the main view that are completely hidden behind walls, houses or terrain are not drawn. Off by default, own Beta page in the menu.
• The master switch hotkey can be removed ("No key" in the menu or iToggleKey = 0).

Changes

• All features that do not work perfectly on every setup yet are marked (BETA) and are off by default. They are grouped under Overview > Beta.
• The shadow cache for static lights is now off by default (BETA). With some lighting mods such as Lux, shadows near fires could pulse.
• Texture streaming of clothing and armor is now off by default (BETA). Depending on your installed mods these textures can turn black or purple.
• Excluded texture types can be included on the texture streaming page and are now saved.
• Developer tests moved to the Debug page.

Performance

• Timing measurements and per-frame statistics only run with analysis logging on. Without it, SPS.log gets one short report per minute.
• Torch shadow culling no longer does any work when it is switched off.

Fixes

• "Main view micro culling" no longer leaves grey, untextured objects until you come close.

SPS 1.0.55 (beta)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log.

Changes since 1.0.54

• Possible fix for rare crashes while rendering (BSBatchRenderer, often when arriving in big cities). Skylighting culling no longer clears the engine's draw list, it returns an empty one instead, the same way the main view culling already does.
• Better compatibility with older Community Shaders versions. The render batch hook is only installed when Shadow instancing (BETA) is on at game start. Enabling Shadow instancing now takes effect after restarting the game.

Changes since 1.0.53

• The fix for missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA) now really works. In 1.0.53 the paused state was never detected.

Changes since 1.0.52

• Nothing is culled in the main view while the game is paused (inventory, containers, trading). Fixes missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA).
• Hide occluded objects (BETA) no longer hides items attached to characters (weapons, shields, items on the back) or objects that move (fish, doors, physics objects). They could turn grey for a moment.

Changes since 1.0.51

• Hide occluded objects (BETA) now works with DLSS, FSR and dynamic resolution.

Changes in 1.0.51

New

• New beta feature "Hide occluded objects". Objects in the main view that are completely hidden behind walls, houses or terrain are not drawn. Off by default, own Beta page in the menu.
• The master switch hotkey can be removed ("No key" in the menu or iToggleKey = 0).

Changes

• All features that do not work perfectly on every setup yet are marked (BETA) and are off by default. They are grouped under Overview > Beta.
• The shadow cache for static lights is now off by default (BETA). With some lighting mods such as Lux, shadows near fires could pulse.
• Texture streaming of clothing and armor is now off by default (BETA). Depending on your installed mods these textures can turn black or purple.
• Excluded texture types can be included on the texture streaming page and are now saved.
• Developer tests moved to the Debug page.

Performance

• Timing measurements and per-frame statistics only run with analysis logging on. Without it, SPS.log gets one short report per minute.
• Torch shadow culling no longer does any work when it is switched off.

Fixes

• "Main view micro culling" no longer leaves grey, untextured objects until you come close.

Skyrim Performance Solution (SPS) 1.0.54 (pre-release)

Pre-release for testing. Please report issues on Nexus with your SPS.log.

Changes since 1.0.53

• The fix for missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA) now really works. In 1.0.53 the paused state was never detected.

Changes since 1.0.52

• Nothing is culled in the main view while the game is paused (inventory, containers, trading). Fixes missing inventory item previews with Main view micro culling (BETA).
• Hide occluded objects (BETA) no longer hides items attached to characters (weapons, shields, items on the back) or objects that move (fish, doors, physics objects). They could turn grey for a moment.

Changes since 1.0.51

• Hide occluded objects (BETA) now works with DLSS, FSR and dynamic resolution.

Changes in 1.0.51

New

• New beta feature "Hide occluded objects". Objects in the main view that are completely hidden behind walls, houses or terrain are not drawn. Off by default, own Beta page in the menu.
• The master switch hotkey can be removed ("No key" in the menu or iToggleKey = 0).

Changes

• All features that do not work perfectly on every setup yet are marked (BETA) and are off by default. They are grouped under Overview > Beta.
• The shadow cache for static lights is now off by default (BETA). With some lighting mods such as Lux, shadows near fires could pulse.
• Texture streaming of clothing and armor is now off by default (BETA). Depending on your installed mods these textures can turn black or purple.
• Excluded texture types can be included on the texture streaming page and are now saved.
• Developer tests moved to the Debug page.

Performance

• Timing measurements and per-frame statistics only run with analysis logging on. Without it, SPS.log gets one short report per minute.
• Torch shadow culling no longer does any work when it is switched off.

Fixes

• "Main view micro culling" no longer leaves grey, untextured objects until you come close.