Need uGridsToLoad Skyrim.ini Explanation in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Ekachakrya]

There is a lot of confusion still somewhat floating around and i figured I'd take the time and now only show a working solution, but at least have direct discussion about uGridsToLoad as well as work with alternative ideas about the buffers and preloadmemory size and anything else that has a direct impact. First off, this function is not put into the skyrimprefs.ini file, IGNORE SKYRIMPREFS.INI file completely in this thread if you please, we are going to talk specifically about SKYRIM.INI file itself, tweaks, suggestions, trial n errors and so forth. But I will start off with likely the largest difference maker in this game in terms of graphics quality and of course performance impact.

[Shae]

The function/switch/command "uGridsToLoad" basically referrers to the section of landscape that include specific details/models/animations and so forth pertaining to it. The more you load, the further/more of these will be shown, the further the LOD style (and terrible looking) placeholders are put back. Higher value, significantly higher levels of detail and quality and of course more stress on your computer in total. I've found personally that the video card is only a minor if not medium factor in this and that the CPU/RAM/VRAM etc play a huge role. If you have anything less than 1GB video card, don't bother trying anything beyond 7, it's not going to be worth it.

[Wyl]

It's not entirely certain what the preload default value is, some reports are saying 25mb (26214400), others say other things, some even suggest that the preload value will automatically adjust and no specific value has to be set unless you want to override it. But rather than setting a massive preloadsize size, I figured I would get a little more conservative. I have made 2 sets of 4 screenshots to show these in order for your viewing ease, and being that they are all stationary; you will be able to tell the difference very easily. The high resolution makes it even more easily visible how the changes affect the landscape and surroundings.

[Bubboy]

You can ALWAYS open/load a save from a lower GRID value, a grid 5 save will load if you change to 7 9 or 11, a Grid 7 save will load in a 9 or 11, but will crash in a 5, a grid 9 save will load into an 11 but crashes in a 7 or 5. And so forth. You can never open/load a save from a higher GRID value. Keep that in mind when you are playing, because if you say start playing through the game at a GRID value of 9 and find out that it's just too high, you'll have to either accept it, or load up in grid 7 mode and restore from a point before you started saving using grid 9.

[mbangali]

The whole memory thing I've toyed around with and i haven't been able to get any confirmation that these do anything, so i didn't post them as putting them in or removing them doesn't seem to have an effect at all. Right now it seems to be really trial n error still. And we aren't entirely sure if those should be put in the Skyrim or the SkyrimPref ini. I think that if anyone was/is experiencing or had been experiencing CTDs, DO NOT play with uGridsToLoad, not unless you want to battle with CTDs more often than you already are.

[LotusN]

I just hope that the developers take a look at everything in the last couple of days and whatever comes after and perhaps think about providing us all with a defined "MEGA" option in the options, allowing us to click it and be presented with the best options that many of us have found better than ultra, maybe even increasing uGrid to 7 at least in the process.

[AlisaDsa]

I now run at a uGrid of 7 without any noticeable loss in framerate (average of 60 outdoors, 30-40 in towns). Crashing is an issue though. Nothing major by modded TES standards, but between half an hours to an hour of play I'm likely to CTD. Not sure whether I'll stick with the setting, but for now the extra detailed draw distance makes for a very nice improvement to visuals. Quick save is my friend!

[Mollyi7]

It matters, Setting values that do not belong in the wrong INI file in same rare cases seems to produce inconsistencies, I actually ran into a problem in which an invalid variable caused the remaining variables below it to no load, either leading to a crash or strange things happening (like resulting in defaults being used). Technically from what i see, no you do not have to worry about what section/heading, they are mostly for at least kind of organizing the ini so it's easier to find things, although they could have done a lot better by further refining it.

[Orochimaru]

I have got this working and stable for a few hours of play at uGrid set to 9 (no crashing), and the ini and pref set to the levels posted. However I am getting a FPS hit larger than I expected. Before making changes I would get 60 or a little under most of the time, but now I get around 45 with it dropping as low 33 sometimes. I expected a drop to around 45-50, but the occasional flooring to 35 is bothering me a bit.

[VazV]

I changed the grid size and followed all instructions here game looks great! No doubt! BUT, I encountered a game glitch due to changing the grid size: just after coming out of the cave and finding the first 3 stones, clicking "E" to activate did nothing. It was broken! Only restoring grid size to default and loading an earlier save, worked. It IS possible my save game had the glitch in it, but it's unlikely. I've restarted the game like 10 times and this is the first time I encountered that bug! And it only happened after changing the grid size.