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Skyrim on PS3: The Last Stand / Update: Digital Foundry investigates

Yup

Patch went up for 360 but also up for EU PS3

Created this thread as I honestly thought this issue can't get enough attention.

Let us see if Bethesda did in fact keep their promise. I mean shit, could they really re-engineer some fundemental engine shit this late in the game? ...who knows

At any rate, all PS3 Skyrim owners, let this thread grow and be your bastion.

Let the discussion commence!

Bethesda said:
NEW FEATURES:
Skyrim launcher support for Skyrim Workshop (PC)
BUG FIXES:
General optimizations for memory and performance.
Fixed occasional issue with armor and clothing not displaying properly when placed on mannequins in player's house (PS3).
Long term play optimizations for memory and performance (PS3).
Improved compiler optimization settings (PC).
Memory optimizations related to scripting.
Fixed issue with dangling scripts not properly clearing from memory.
Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI.
Fixed crash in "Haemar's Shame" if player had already completed "A Daedra's Best Friend".
Fixed rare crash with loading saved games.
Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line.
Fixed issue where dragon priest masks would not render correctly.
Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save.
Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player's home.
Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally block other scripts from properly firing off.
Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player's house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any upgrades.
Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly.
Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells.
Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly.
Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail.
Fixed memory crash with container menu.
Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves.
Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally fail.
Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks.
Fixed occasional audio issue that would play sound effects louder than intended.
Fixed bug related to hitching between cell boundaries.
Master Criminal achievement/trophy unlocks properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian.
Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor's Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions.
QUEST FIXES:
The Unusual Gem that was inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing "Diplomatic Immunity".
In "Breaching Security", the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble.
Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if "Season Unending" was an active quest.
Fixed issue where starting "Season Unending" after finishing "Joining the Stormcloaks" would prevent "The Jagged Crown" from starting properly.
Fixed issue where progressing through "Message to Whiterun" while "Season Unending" was still open would block progression for both quests.
In "Arniel's Endeavor", fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times.
In "Forbidden Legend", the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it.
Fixed rare issue in "Forbidden Legend" where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible.
In "The White Phial", the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it.
"The White Phial" will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory.
Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing "A Night to Remember" .
Fixed issue where leaving Riften during "A Chance Arrangement" would prevent quest from progressing.
In "Darkness Returns", a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest.
In "Revealing the Unseen", if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly.
"Onmund's Request" will now start properly if player has already found Enthir's staff before receiving this quest.
Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor.
"Repairing the Phial" will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory.
Finding Pantea's Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating.
In "The Break of Dawn", fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis.
Fixed rare issue in "The Mind of Madness" where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack.
Fixed issue in "Pieces of the Past" where Mehrunes Dagon's Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it.
"Blood's Honor" will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest. .
Fixed rare issue where "Dampened Spirits" would not start properly.
Fixed issue where player would be unable to become Thane of Riften if they purchased a home first.
Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" .
Fixed numerous issues with "Blood on the Ice" not triggering properly.
In "Blood on the Ice", Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm.
In "The Cure for Madness", killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress.
Fixed rare issue in "To Kill an Empire" where an NPC would fail to die properly.
Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting "Boethiah's Champion" no longer prevents quest from startin

and PS3 specific notes

Bethesda said:
ay, 01:30 PM

Administrator

Community Manager
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
583 posts
Location:Washington, DC
The 1.4 patch for Skyrim includes many performance-enhancing updates for the PlayStation 3. A few important things to note:

1. To ensure the fastest jump in performance after applying the patch, be sure to first create a new manual save by entering the save menu and choosing “save game.” You should then restart your PlayStation 3 before continuing to play.

2. If you encounter strange behavior while playing immediately following application of the patch, do not be alarmed – this is a temporary effect of Skyrim scripts correcting themselves after the update. Once this process runs its course, be sure to make a new save and restart your PlayStation 3

aand early impressions:

My save wieghs 15 mbs and I have over 160 hours clocked in in Skyrim. Here are my experiences pre and post patch:

Pre-patch: Lag would kick in after 20 or 30 minutes depending on what I was doing. The framerate would also get choppy whenever I entered Windhelm because of the heavy snowfall (same thing happened in mountain regions). Horse riding and dragon fighting would also make the lag kick in.

Post patch: played over an hour and a half and so far 99% of the lag is gone. There is the occasional stutter here and there but the difference is night and day, basically. To test how well this patch holds up I did the following things:
1. Rode from Downstar Sanctuary all the way to Morthal. No lag with a bit of stutter when I uncovered a new dungeon.
2. Fought dragons. No lag.
3. Fast traveled to and ran around Whiterun and Solitude. Before the patch these two towns were the most laggy for me and where the game would basically turn into a slideshow. Now, there's a bit of lag when I enter the city and the game stutters at times when I'm running around Whiterun. It's not perfect but it is a tremendous improvement.

Honestly, I'm both impressed and pissed of by this patch. I'm impressed because it seems that it fixed this game breaking bug and at the same time I'm pissed that it took almost two months before this was patched. This patch should've been a day one patch, not a month two one. But I guess I should be thanking the heavens that Bethesda actaully fixed it.

and now

Digital Foundry weighs in

Eurogamer said:
Patch 2.03 - equivalent to 1.04 on other platforms - sets out to make amends for the severe bouts of stuttering that plague Skyrim's playability on Sony's console. Notoriously, this has had a greater impact on those with a larger time investment in the adventure, with performance deteriorating the further players progress and the more they interact with the world and its characters.
As detailed in our previous dissection of the phenomenon, the catch with this bug is that it has little to do with the hardware's graphical output; a new save running on the same patch, and through the exact same areas, manifests no such problems. A memory management issue stemming from larger-sized save files, and issues with the PS3's more restrictive split-RAM setup, were assumed the most probable causes at the time, with no absolute explanation being put forward so far. Bethesda's knee-jerk response to the problem last year arrived by way of patch 2.01, where some improvements were made, although the stuttering still persisted to an unacceptable level.
So here we are, three months later with the long-awaited patch 2.03 - but does it do a better job? To measure the change as best we can, we follow Bethesda's patch notes to a tee by loading up our 65-hour save and then saving to a new slot manually - a process which reduces our file size from 12MB to 11MB. After the recommended restart, we load this smaller 65-hour save state and fast travel between several major locations on the map for about 40 minutes in an attempt to initiate the bug fully. Finally, we run through a set route, from Riverwood to Whiterun and closing at Falkreath, with the results being paired against the very same save treading an equivalent path on patches 2.00 and 2.01. The results are enlightening, and we think you'll be pleased......

Rest at the link
 

Mad_Ban

Member
93MB it seems to be (UK PS3 owner here) and it's downloading now.

Will report on if there's any improvement for me :) Level 33, 40 hours.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Would be great if they actually managed to fix it. I'm not playing the PS3 version, but I really want everyone to be able to experience this great game at playable framerates!
 

DemonNite

Member
I won't be able to get the download tonight (I'll try tomorrow at work) but I reckon there will STILL be issues. The game is just too huge with so many variants in game data that I see it really difficult for them to nail them all.

However, maybe they will surprise us and just make a miracle (force objects to be deleted from world after 1 minute lol)
 

McLovin

Member
As much crappy as the ps3 version gets the 360 version(the version I got reluctantly) is, although playable, one of the buggiest games i have ever played. Random crappy happens constantly, eventually you just give up and accept the bugs as part of the world.
 
As much crappy as the ps3 version gets the 360gb version(the version I got reluctantly) is, although playable, one of the buggiest games i have ever played. Random crappy happens constantly, eventually you just give up and accept the bugs as part of the world.

you should try uncharted 3.
 
Very eager to hear impressions

As I've stated before, I got the 360 version as a gift (actually had to tell my father-in-law to rebuy it, as he bought on PS3 originally) but would still prefer to play this on a DualShock3

Not to mention the CE dropped to $99 on Amazon
 

Mad_Ban

Member
Performance is quite a bit better indoors for me, but I'm going to leave it run for a bit to see if it's not just because I've just started it up. :)

Though the last time I opened a save up it immediately ran like shit, so this is an improvement already. :p
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
As much crappy as the ps3 version gets the 360 version(the version I got reluctantly) is, although playable, one of the buggiest games i have ever played. Random crappy happens constantly, eventually you just give up and accept the bugs as part of the world.

I've actually had surprisingly few instances of crazy shit happening (PC version, but they shouldn't really be any different in that regard).
 
Patch 1.2 solved the lag issues for me, fortunately. Before that the game was nigh-unplayable. Hope this patch clears things up for players still having issues.
 

Mindman

Member
Add this to the OP. From Bethesda forums:

The 1.4 patch for Skyrim includes many performance-enhancing updates for the PlayStation 3. A few important things to note:

1. To ensure the fastest jump in performance after applying the patch, be sure to first create a new manual save by entering the save menu and choosing “save game.” You should then restart your PlayStation 3 before continuing to play.

2. If you encounter strange behavior while playing immediately following application of the patch, do not be alarmed – this is a temporary effect of Skyrim scripts correcting themselves after the update. Once this process runs its course, be sure to make a new save and restart your PlayStation 3.

Agreed. Split memory configurations are dumb.

LOL, indeed.
 
Looking good so far, based on reaction from the Bethesda forums.

It took a few hours last time for problems to start creeping in.



Edit: Oh Crap, I was copying my saves over from my online storage and I wasn't paying attention and deleted my main save, my 100+hours 13MB main save. Gone to the beyond, never to be retrieved again. Bugger.
 

Zoibie

Member
Only played about 20 hours before the patch but it seems to hit 30fps much more frequently now. I'll take that as a good sign.
 

DemonNite

Member
please work... I haven't played Skyrim for a month since it got too laggy. Been going through other games in the meantime (started batman and finished saints row 3) and need to get back to me dark assassin!
 

edgefusion

Member
Downloaded the new patch, an hour later Skyrim crashed forcing me to hard reset my PS3. Fuck this game, I'm done. I've already had one PS3 die which I am attributing to Skyrim being a crash-happy, zero fps mess, I'm not about to let it happen to this one too.
 

Stoffinator

Member
I doubt very much they fixed anything. Least not the major problems. I just don't see Bethesda really caring about the PS3 version.
 
Agreed. Split memory configurations are dumb.

If the memory configuration makes it literally impossible for the game to run, then Bethesda shouldn't have released a PS3 version in the first place, instead of trying to maximize profits by releasing a broken version of a game on a console that couldn't handle it.
 

colinp

Banned
Downloaded the new patch, an hour later Skyrim crashed forcing me to hard reset my PS3. Fuck this game, I'm done. I've already had one PS3 die which I am attributing to Skyrim being a crash-happy, zero fps mess, I'm not about to let it happen to this one too.

You never had to hard reset from a crash pre-1.4? eh, happened to me four or five times... I don't think that gives the final word on the patch.


Also, I've been playing on my PS3 for 60+ hours and have only now just started to get frame rate dips in town. Save file is a bit over 7 megs. User experience varies greatly and I'm hoping 1.4 returns the frame rate.
 

CTE

Member
Downloaded the new patch, an hour later Skyrim crashed forcing me to hard reset my PS3. Fuck this game, I'm done. I've already had one PS3 die which I am attributing to Skyrim being a crash-happy, zero fps mess, I'm not about to let it happen to this one too.

Did you do what they recommended after updating?
 
In "Forbidden Legend", the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it.

This was broken for me on 360... so that's a relief. I wonder if it retroactively fixes the quest if it's been broken already, or if you have to start a new game?
 

edgefusion

Member
You never had to hard reset from a crash pre-1.4? eh, happened to me four or five times... I don't think that gives the final word on the patch.


Also, I've been playing on my PS3 for 60+ hours and have only now just started to get frame rate dips in town. Save file is a bit over 7 megs. User experience varies greatly and I'm hoping 1.4 returns the frame rate.

Yeah I had to hard reset my PS3 virtually every time I played Skyrim due to crashes. If i have the same problems on a new PS3 with a new patch then I just don't wanna be involved anymore. Ironically after more than 200 hours of play I've never encountered any regular glitches or bugs apart from extremely minor stuff. All I've had is the crashes and horrible framerate issues which is more than enough to completely put me off the game, especially when I consider it could be doing permanent damage to my PS3.


Did you do what they recommended after updating?

Yes I did, was the very first thing I did. To be honest I think I've gotten all the enjoyment I'm gonna get out of Skyrim anyways. I won't be there for the DLC party though!
 

okenny

Banned
Downloaded the new patch, an hour later Skyrim crashed forcing me to hard reset my PS3. Fuck this game, I'm done. I've already had one PS3 die which I am attributing to Skyrim being a crash-happy, zero fps mess, I'm not about to let it happen to this one too.

So the software killed your hardware? That's not good :(
 
Does this patch reduce the visuals in anyway? I held off on the last patch when I heard the textures take a hit, but I'm still on a <5mb file so I don't have any real issues yet.
 

danwarb

Member
I've only seen one bug in the 360 version. I have the book Glories and Laments in my inventory, and the active quest to find the book points me to an empty chest. I can't remove it from the inventory because it's a quest item.

I'll check it out later.
 
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