2020-04-15

A simple remedy against stutter



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SPOILER INFO
This article doesn't contain any spoilers.
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IN FEW WORDS:

You can get rid of stutter by relaunching Skyrim.



IN MANY WORDS:

Stutter means that whenever you move your player character or your view, the image changes slowly and jerkily.

It's a major problem in the Skyrim game.

Stutter is more frequent in locations that require much memory, such as Windhelm harbor or the Solitud inn. Especially if you go to such places when your current playing session has lasted a couple of hours or more, you may find that whenever you move the mouse to look in another direction, the view on your screen changes only after a delay of a half-second or more, or when you ask a vendor what he's got on sale, you might have to wait ten seconds before the trade screen opens. When you are used to it almost always occurring in major towns, it can impede your joy of playing quite severely.

Unfortunately, there's no help to be had in forums, only sneering smartasses telling you to think before you install a mod that overstrains the memory, and well-meaning morons telling you to install one or another memory managing tool, as well as make sure you do everything that's written in the Holy Scripture (a.k.a. the S.T.E.P. guide). And after you have installed their miracle tools and see that nothing has gotten better, those wiseguys have nothing more to say, short of suggesting you get a faster computer. (I had bought a really powerful new computer shortly before I began to play Skyrim, so computer speed was certainly not the problem.)

I spent countless hours with the above, yet stutter remained a serious problem.

Then I quite accidentally found something that actually helps against stutter.

In fact, it's the only thing I've ever seen that helps against stutter.

So, here goes:
1. Save your game
2. Exit to desktop
3. Relaunch the Skyrim app
4. Load your most recent savegame

Sure, it takes some time for the app to start, but it's more than worth it. Do you know what a delight it is to be able to move around quickly and smoothly in Windhelm harbor, looking left and right without any difficulty, as if you were in the middle of a wide empty plain? It's totally possible and easy with the above method. All you lose is a little time you can actually benefit from by standing up and stretching your limbs and such.