News

Lag in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 'result of game objects moved about'
Posted: 05.12.2011 13:27 by Simon Priest Comments: 6
Why do The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim save game files bloat in size over time? It's not because of all that loot your carry around but more the physical impact you've had on the world.

A linked has been established between lag issues that plagued Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim, and it's because the game tracks objects moved from their default position - every one of them.

Sadly this means the problem of lag doesn't lay in code but in something a lot more fundamental to how the game works at its core. Knocked over a jug? In the save it goes.

"It's an engine-level issue with how the save game data is stored off as bit flag differences compared to the placed instances in the main .esm + DLC .esms," said lead designer and project director of Fallout: New Vegas, Joshua E Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment. New Vegas used an early iteration of Skyrim's game engine.

"As the game modifies any placed instance of an object, those changes are stored off into what is essentially another .esm. When you load the save game, you're loading all of those differences into resident memory."

"It's not like someone wrote a function and put a decimal point in the wrong place or declared something as a float when it should have been an int. We're talking about how the engine fundamentally saves off and references data at run time. Restructuring how that works would require a large time commitment," he continued.

"Obsidian also only had that engine for a total of 18 months prior to F:NV being released, which is a relatively short time to understand all of the details of how the technology works." Why does the PlayStation 3 suffer the most?

"The Xbox 360 has a unified memory pool: 512 megs of RAM usable as system memory or graphics memory," Sawyer explained. "The PS3 has a divided memory pool: 256 megs for system, 256 for graphics. It's the same total amount of memory, but not as flexible for a developer to make use of."

Will you be watching where you step in the world of Skyrim from now on?
Source: Eurogamer

Comments

By unsilviu (SI Core) on Dec 05, 2011
unsilviu
I just deleted all but 5 of my saves, I think it's better than to limit your ingame activities :P
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Dec 05, 2011
djole381
Hehehe PC rules XD
By Revan (SI Elite) on Dec 05, 2011
Revan
So does this mean it's been fixed, their fixing it, or they have no freaking idea what to do?
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Dec 06, 2011
herodotus
I just tried to purchase it at a decent price from an overseas buyer ($40), and as it was in the wee hours I guess my guard was down. The guy took the cash and refused to send the activation code (for Steam). PayPal doesn't cover virtual goods, so shame on me for trusting...and being taken for a ride.
Don't know about watching where I step in "Skyrim", as that world is too far from me now:(
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Dec 06, 2011
unsilviu
:| That sucks. You could get him banned if you used an intermediary site/forum, if that's any consolation.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Dec 06, 2011
herodotus
I tried, but Ebay and PayPal both won't cover items that are "virtual" products (nothing physical)- it wasn't on Steam. About time they looked into that, as PayPal really offers very little security when purchasing online content (except personal accounts safety - even then it's questionable).