Possible Skyrim PS3 Lag Solution Revealed

It’s well know by now that several PS3 users who’ve spent a lot of time playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, have experienced lag and shuttering, making the game almost unplayable.

[smurfz]

I've yet to experience these issues, but am only around 25 hours in.

[brodychet]

another 85 hours should suffice. Enjoy all your awesome treasures, in Lag-HD!

[MysticStrummer]

136 hours here on PS3 and having a great time. I like how people are pretending the PS3 version is unplayable and the PC/360 versions are completely bug free. They all have problems. I started seeing lag when my save file was around 10mb, but save/quit/continue fixes it for several hours. Disabling Autosave had no effect as far as I can tell.

[JoySticksFTW]

don't know why brody got disagrees.

Just junk was funny, and unfortunately true for many gamers

[brodychet]

Wait.. why did I get disagreed?.. That's what happened to me.. Everyone hates me):

[Bleucrunch]

I have it for PS3 and it is VERY laggy please do not mislead other people saying that its not that bad...its a problem and it needs to be resolved...the game is fun but this lagging and especially the Freezing is a deterrent for me...I am a little over 40 hours in by the way.

[ZBlacktt]

Not everyone is having such problems as other's. Here, I've been playing 18 days. I had the lag issue before the patch. I did the patch and now it's not so bad at all. If I do play for like 5, 6 hours straight. Then yes I see some lag but only is towns with many people moving about. Otherwise, this game is just awesome. So don't fall for the bug hype bandwagon so much.

http://i29.photobucket.com/...

http://i29.photobucket.com/...

http://i29.photobucket.com/...

I'm using a 80g phat PS3 as well.

[BigBoss07]

I can understand why people are upset though. Its not completely the the lag that bothers them, but Bethesda's sneakiness on the whole issue. For one, they didn't give out any PS3 review copies to anyone only PC/360, and they're being very vague and quiet on the whole subject.

It begs the question. Did they know the PS3 version was like this before or after release? If its before, then PS3 user were sold a faulty product and deserve refunds. If its after, then their QA department takes the hit. Either way they lose good reputation and possibly money for this foul-up. Its a sad state of affairs really.

Personally, I stopped playing till the game is either fixed or I get my PC built then buy it used. Its not that I'm hating on Bethesda, but I consider this bad business. The only way to show them they've done wrong is hit them in the paycheck.

[ZBlacktt]

I totally understand Boss. Not saying it is or is not happening to the degree we are seeing this news posts. Just odd that we all have the same game, same console and most, same patch installed. Yet, some have issues a lot it seems. While other's are just playing away.

[BigBoss07]

I wouldn't doubt the main cause of discrepantcy is the type of system you have, fat or silm, and then the actual serial/HDD package. Thats my hunch at least because my 60gig fat lags a little more than my 120gig slim. The 60gig actually doesn't have a 60gig HDD in it but a 320gig as well.

I know its a RAM memory leak issue, but like I said its a hunch. I'm no tech wiz. It also depends on the person telling of the lag. Some people over-exaggerate and come to the internet to post about it while others are patient and just grind through it.

In the end, my point is not about the issue itself, but Bethesda's lack of owning up to issue. They say they're working on it which I'm sure, but my question with all the shady activity is how long have they known about this bug?

[Persistantthug]

Because that's exactly what they did and they should be sued or forced to return peoples money.

They aren't the only developer/publisher though....unfortunately.

Bethesda's "sneakyness" is what makes this even more insulting.

[doctorstrange]

Good to know there's a fix

[shodaime]

I don't know, this might work, might not. The real solution must come from Bethesda's side. Also, turning off such a major feature shouldn't be the long-term solution. I expect better from a game I paid 50 dollars for.

[dabri5]

You paid 50$ for the game?

[ddurand1]

I paid 47 ;)

[dabri5]

was it used or something?

[davidmccue]

Mine only cost me $49.99, they must of seen you coming mate, i would put a complaint in if i were you.

[CrazyRap]

Shame on you Bethesda, you can't fix the lag but one guy can.

[Majin-vegeta]

Yea it seems nowadays you can't rely on Devs to fix there games so it's up to the gamers SMH at lazy ass Devs.

[PirateThom]

Interesting. All information pointed towards it being an unfixable RAM issue...

Edit: I have no "corrupted files" though, but mine isn't running that badly. May disable the autosaves anyway.

[Christopher]

It's a memory leak issue. Memory isn't properly cleaned out throughout each of the autosaves, so as you perform more it will leave more memory behind and result in lag at some point.

This may not be a solution, it may just delay how long until the memory leak starts causing issues.

[brish]

I'm a software developer. The RAM issue is fixable.

[dabri5]

RAM issue is fixable if the code is installed to the HD and not streamed off the BluRay. If it's locked to the BluRay, It could be set in stone.

[brish]

@catguykyou

You're confusing storage with RAM.

@everyone else

In case anyone is curious the problem is Skyrim keeps track of the differences from the data for the game, and the data that is changed by the user. This is called a delta in programming terms. If you have a book on a shelf and it isn't moved then Skyrim doesn't have to store anything in your save file. If you move the book Skyrim needs to save it's new position, what direction it's facing, etc.. The longer you play the more changes you make to the world so the size of the delta grows.

The way this is fixed is you don't load the entire delta into ram. Instead you just load the delta for the items that are close to the player. The problem with this is HD speed is significantly slower than RAM.

Loading data in a specific location quickly from a large data set from a hard drive is accomplished with a spatial index.

For information on a common spatial index read these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

If you want to see spatial indexing being used in software go here:

http://maps.google.com

It would be impossible to load all the data for google maps in RAM but querying the data for the entire planet works quickly via spatial indexing.

[Starbucks_Fan]

The solution? Buy a Xbo*gets shot*

[Perjoss]

You might as well have just gone into a Greenpeace meeting and asked to borrow cash for building a low budget oil rig.

[SquidBuck]

Accidentally hit disagree, oops

[MysticStrummer]

For one game? That's insane.

[BattleTorn]

+Funny

[JTX]

My solution - use one save file ...70 hours in now and it's running completely fine.

[JellyJelly]

What if you save in a bad spot and want something undone?

[andibandit]

From a 360 perspective: It would suck and you'd have to restart.

From a PS3 perspective: Adds replay value.

[Colonel_Dante]

FU Lag!!

[SquidBuck]

STFU lag is awesome...

[itsralf]

lag roolz

[Dark_Overlord]

Only when you're the host of certain games *cough*MW2*cough

:D

[Algonath]

GOOD thing i just bought the 360 version. It will come with its fair share of bugs but I SURE AS HELL know that there will be no lag. Selling my ps3 version.

[InTheLab]

You got disagrees but you got it right. Not sure why people get so defensive with the PS3 when in most cases, the developer is to blame. Lag on the PS3, and crashes on the PC. The 360 version is clearly the platform that received extensive testing. Thank god for mods but my PS3 friends are at the mercy of Bethesda.

[andibandit]

The ps3 fanboys are just in total denial and cant see beyond their own borders. We already know that not every PS3 owner has the problems, yet we keep getting the pointless posts of:

I HAS DAS game played 20000³ HOURS, PER DAY, PER MINUTE, ON PS3, NAD NO PROBLEME. MY SAVEGAME IS 999999 MEGABAIT AND ME IS ON LEVEL 200, SO CLEARLY THERE ARES NO PROBLEM ON ALL PS3.

[leemo19]

I've done this and every other possible quick fix solution the lag/frame-rate issue still happens. Even when I've turned off all auto saves on rare moments like last night on quest The Caller. The game froze for min or 2 and than auto-saved and all the auto saves feat were turned off before it happend

[SwampCroc]

I've always turned the majority of the autosaves off.. I tend to keep the fast travel one on...

because when you start making more then 1 character the autosaves and shit can get real confusing

[Ulf]

Try copying your save to a memcard, then wiping your savedata from your PS3 (along with any corrupt garbage). Clear up any other junk you don't need on your PS3 while you're at it. Then copy the file back from the memcard.

That may clean up any fragmentation issues the file was having, and the autosave might be much faster -- and possibly not interfere with world data streaming (i.e. "lag").

The same trick might work with the installed 360 game -- or using the built-in flash memory to save, while installing to HDD might work.

[SimpleSlave]

By the way I just tried this with Fallout 3 GOTY on the PS3 and it actually worked, it cleared the godawful lag. Just disable the 3 autosaves options in the settings.

Also apparently if you hit start and the save and load options are grayed out for a second or two, you have to let the game "install" itself in the background while the game is paused (last maybe 30 minutes or so?), so go read a book.

It really help with the unplayable state that it was, the lag made the game crawl to a halt . I can finally finish the damn game, and no thanks to Bethesda. Guess who is not buying Skyrim GOTY new?

Cheers

[-Gespenst-]

Eh, I'm gonna wait for patches. Auto save is super handy. I'd forget to save manually otherwise. Plus, saving manually all the time would be really tedious.

My game hasn't bugged out at all yet so hopefully by the time I get to the point at which it might, Bethesda will have released enough patches to make it a non-issue...

[nan0]

It's annoying. When the patch came out, most of my lag was outside of dungeons. Now I've experienced it inside as well. I've come across these "rare" backward flying dragons (actually one's stuck doing the "FLYIN' MAN" next to the mountain. If I try to kill them once they're nearly dead they fly up and up until they vanish. Weird.

But anyway, I have to reset my PS3 every hour before lag consumes the whole thing... and Load times are getting longer and longer. SIgh.

Also when doing the Legion missions I"m told "here's a blade for ranking out" then it says *steel shield added*

WTF? I reloaded it like 10 times and all I get are shields? For real? Weird.

[bozebo]

"why did they choose to release the game for the console which such a major problem being left unsolved?"

Seriously?

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DUH!

[geddesmond]

LMAO. I see people still getting fooled with all these neat tricks. They don't work. These fixes have been going back since Fallout 3 and they don't work. Yes turning off autosaving will stop the few second freezes the game takes when Auto saving but from experience be prepared to loose a few hours of gameplay here and there because you forgot to save and your game froze. That trick doesn't stop lag and anyone at bethesda will tell you save files is nothing to do with it.

So far I've heard people saying its your PS3s cache and doing a hard drive defrag works. Guess what I tryed it and nope. Then people say buy a better hard drive that reads faster cause thats the problem, nope I bought one last year that loads Gran Turismo 5 20 seconds faster than the original Hard Drive that came with the PS3 and my game still lags.

Starting new games doesn't work, deleting game data doesn't work, corrupt saves have nothing to do with them because the game doesn't load them and them sitting on your hard drive doesn't affect the game. Its all BS. This is a PS3 Ram problem because Bethesdas engine isn't built properly for the PS3. Remember why FF14 is delayed nearly 2 years on the PS3 and how the devs blame the Ram or how Sony said Cross game chat isn't possible on the PS3 due to ram limitations.

Then think of how PC games play when you have the minimum amount of ram the game allows. The problems with the amount of information the game tries to run at the same time. In Skyrim I could have 50 dead bodies lying on the ground with items I put on their corpses and wait 1 week in game time and travel back to those dead bodies and the game still remembers they are there along with the items I stored on their bodies.

If Bethesda cut the amount of things this game needs to remember then we wouldn't see these freezes. Hench why dungeons don't lag on long term gmeplay games

[Yukicore]

I had only save on travel activated, and then after this thread I decided to remove that one too, after i did game plays almost without any frame-rate drops. I have over 10MB save, I don't know how auto-save being activated and not saving every 5 seconds or something, could slow down a game. The saving pre-preparation processes should not slow down that much.