[SE] Troubleshooting script delay

[nilead]

 So, Ive made myself a rather scrit heavy build. Some script delays is probably inevitable, all things considered. Its not much different to playin an MP game with a bit of ping. Issue is - script delay is floating, While most of the time it sits on what feels like fairly acceptable sub 0.1 sec, i occasionally observe spikes to ~0.3. Wich is quite frustrating, since taking an unblocked/undedged power attack usually means im dead. 

 So, how would i go about spotting what causes those spikes, if i knew what i was doing?

Is there any way to see impact of different mods on the issue? If anyone went into those jungle before, i would love to get some pointers.

[Azailahab]

First I would try this mod (Elephant's Script Latency Tester) to help diagnose where, when, and how much the script load is affecting FPS and causing event delays. From the description for that mod;

 

"This mod provides an ability to run a simple Papyrus script latency test with optional logging and/or notification. It might prove useful if you suspect that you have an overloaded scripting system."

 

I also have a huge Skyrim SE build with lots of complicated script heavy mods. There are numerous conflicting resources out there that address the effect of script loading and papyrus settings etc., so check out the link at the end of this post for a good description of what is happening.  On the following advice I may be way off so if anyone else is more informed please chime in. That said this is how I sort of understand it with the caveat that I may be understanding it incorrectly, also I may not have the right vocabulary for some of the stuff so please forgive that.

 

Basically from my understanding the game is pretty much optimized as it is with it's default papyrus settings and is designed for around 60fps, so messing with those settings can cause you heartache, even though many sources swear by it (I disagree with changing them too far from default). Also the way the scripts relate to the frame rate is that there are 16.6ms per frame at 60fps. This give the game only that much time to run any active scripts and other functions like rendering the world etc., if it takes longer than 16.6ms then some scripts are postponed or the frame rate is lowered automatically to allow for the processing of those script functions, rendering the world and other actions. Too high a frame rate and you reduce that 16.6ms as well, so at 120fps you will drop the amount of time per frame to do all those activities to 8.3ms, this causes fluctuations in fps and more postponing of script functions, lag, event delays etc. Then when there is an opportunity some of those postponed script functions to activate and the effects are portrayed in game, you see delayed actions that make gameplay weird. That is why sometimes even though you may get a message that something is happening it takes another 3+ seconds for the actual animations to show up. One example would be using a combat defeat mod where you surrendered by pressing the hotkey, but the game postponed that script function and in the meantime your follower kills the bandit, then the game tries to execute the surrender function and play an animation (but the bandit is dead) and weird shit happens. On a side note at or around 60fps the games physics engine works best, too high and things get crazy with stuff flying all over the room etc., so keeping the frame rate limited to around 60 fps is best case scenario. 

 

Again the issue is ACTIVE scripts, you can literally have hundreds of script heavy mods in your build, and if they are not all trying to activate at the same time then you will have no problems related to scripts loading.

 

Now for an better written and more detailed explanation check out https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2gwvwl/guide_papyrus_ini_settings_and_why_you_shouldnt/.

 

Hope that helps some.

[nilead]

1 hour ago, Azailahab said:

 Now for an better written and more detailed explanation check out https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2gwvwl/guide_papyrus_ini_settings_and_why_you_shouldnt/.

 

Hope that helps some.

 Latency tester indeed is a handy thing)

By now i got issue mostly sorted by trial and error - cutting on prime suspects, cell scans and on hit events. Havent fiddled much with papyrus.ini, mostly since there doesnt seem to be a consensus on weather or not there is any benefit to it. Your post however gave me an idea, why not check active scripts in a savegame with FalrimTools. And indeed there seem to be several scritps duplicated, some - multiple times. Wich i presume is a reason for the problem apparently "manifesting" mid playthrough. While i can do some trial and eror with terminating them, question of how exactly did it get to that point remains. There is for example two active auto hide ammo scripts, wich makes absolutely no sense, since its a PC only effect, and, well, its the same player character.

 Now easy solution would be to just cut mods that produce duplicate sctipts. Hard one would be figuring out why that happens and how to dodge it.

 Anyway, thanks for your reply. Gave me some good ideas.