Skyrim’s PS3 Lag Getting Addressed This Month

Even though Giant Bomb awarded The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as 2011’s Game of the Year, it came with a very specific caveat: it didn’t apply to the PlayStation 3 version.

On Twitter, the official Bethesda account told one concerned user the lag problems associated with the PS3 version of Skyrim would be addressed in the 1.4 patch “planned for this month.”

@ElderScrolls @nvidia @Bethblog What about PS3 Lag ?????

— denisvj (@denisvj) January 9, 2012

@denisvj we're addressing that in the 1.4 update planned for this month

— Bethesda Blog (@Bethblog) January 9, 2012

The PS3 experience remains a troubling one, and that consumers have gone months without some major issues getting addressed remains completely ridiculous. Thankfully, at least one problem should be ironed out this month.

Other PS3-specific quirks should hopefully be coming in this 1.4 patch, which hasn’t been officially outlined yet, but was discussed in early December, in response to fans demanding more details.

“While the 1.2 update fixed the long-term play issues for most PS3 users, we are aware that is not the case for some,” said the company. “We’ve been reaching out to a number of those users to collect save games, so we can take a look at their specific issues. Right now we know it’s not one thing, but a combination of smaller ones that some folks are seeing, but others are not.”

“These fixes are not in the current 1.3 update that is in final testing, but will be in future ones,” it continued. “We understand how frustrating it can be when your game is having issues, and we thank all of you for your continued feedback and patience. Rest assured we take your gameplay experience seriously and will continue working on this until it’s resolved.”

That doesn’t really help the players who’ve been waiting since November, though.

Finally, was beginning to think this was never going to be fixed.

I don't play this game on PS3 but this is very good news for PS3 players.

The patch that was supposed to help the lag introduced occasional crashes on the PS3, and the one after that made those crashes happen every 5-10 minutes for me, let's just say that I remain less than optimistic about Bethesda's ability to fix the PS3 version.

Likelihood it's broken? High.

I hope PC users get some love too. So many times I've been having fun, getting into the groove, and then bam! Like, three busted quests in a row, followed up with dubious quest logic that barely follows the laws of causality.

Never happened to me but I am very glad that Bethesda is trying to fix this problem and addressing it. While it may not solve every problem, I hope it gets some serious problems fixed.

I can't fathom the difficulties they've had trying to shoehorn a game with the complexity of Skyrim into 512MB of memory.

Finally a glimmer hope.

I've played over 100 hours on the PS3 version and I haven't had any problems with lag. Maybe it depends on the model of the PS3?

I posted this on the forums earlier *smug face*

Just for balance i'm sure lots of players have experienced major lag but i'm 90+ hours in on my original fat ps3 and i've hardly noticed any lag issues and the game has frozen only once. Compared to playing through fallout 3 where I was constantly expecting a crash around every new corner it's been pretty smooth sailing.

@hookem1883 said:

I've played over 100 hours on the PS3 version and I haven't had any problems with lag. Maybe it depends on the model of the PS3?

interesting. how long have yr play sessions been, on average, would you say?

This patch is sure to be perfect, and will solve exactly what is says it will with absolutely no adverse side affects. No backwards dragons here, no sir.

@NekuCTR said:

This patch is sure to be perfect, and will solve exactly what is says it will with absolutely no adverse side affects. No backwards dragons here, no sir.

:(

@damnable_fiend: I would guess that my average play session is 3 hours, though I've gone up to 7 hours on a weekend.

@Crushed said:

I hope PC users get some love too. So many times I've been having fun, getting into the groove, and then bam! Like, three busted quests in a row, followed up with dubious quest logic that barely follows the laws of causality.

I hate to say it, but that's pretty much every Bethesda game. The most you can hope for is that their games don't have any game-breaking bugs. Unfortunately, the PS3 version did. Just like their last few PS3 releases. Luckily for non-PS3 owners (sorry guys) this has been one of the least bug free (again, non-PS3 version) games released by Bethesda.

I wish I could stop playing it. I'm 180 hours in, and I have other games on my queue.

If you got Skyrim problems, I feel bad for you son. I dodged ninety-nine arrows but my knee took one.

@Volgin13 said:

If you got Skyrim problems, I feel bad for you son. I dodged ninety-nine arrows but my knee took one.

This is the best thing I have read today.

Careful hoarding items, a little bird has told me just the simple act of "collecting" things you find in the world increases your overall game lag and can literally make the game unplayable after a certain point. I have the PC version so that's not a huge issue for myself, but if you want to test this on a console just go delete a bunch of crap you don't need and you should see a difference.

@hookem1883 said:

I've played over 100 hours on the PS3 version and I haven't had any problems with lag. Maybe it depends on the model of the PS3?

I thought this might be a cause as well. I remember reading an article about how Uncharted 3 was almost released in a broken state for fat PS3 models because at a certain point it stopped loading textures because of the way they're streamed on old PS3s. They didn't notice this until late in development because in the studio they had all been using Slim models and didn't catch the problem till someone played it at home on an old model. Maybe something similar is happening here with Skyrim.

The saddest part about this whole Skyrim mess isn't really that the game is (completely) broken on the PS3. There's no question that it's a really bad situation to be in for people who bought the PS3 copy – they deserve a working game, but the issue isn't really Skyrim not working.

What's worrying me is that Bethesda simply gets away with putting out a broken product. No one is willing to ask the tough questions, and there won't be any consequences for Bethesda. I'm surprised no one has sued them yet as there's absolutely no way they did not know about the problems. It's something they must have known about prior to the release of the product. Sony isn't doing anything , retail isn't doing anything, the press isn't doing anything.

We don't need the press to tell us what features a game has, we need the press to step up and complain (for us) when stuff like this happens. Unless you're famous and reach a lot of people, you're simply out of luck. We've seen that countless times (Xbox Live hacks, for example). Where's the response from Sony PR? How come they let such a broken game through cert when it clearly fails some of the requirements (not all Trophies can be obtained unless you're playing the English version). Skyrim only got a 'ok' from Sony certification because it's a huge game and no one is telling anyone about that. Everyone is up and arms about Bethesda releasing a broken game, but we should ask “Why can they even do that?”. It seems like it's because the platform holder doesn't care, because the press is not willing to give them a hard time and because you cannot simply return your copy of the game once you encounter all the problems and glitches.

Someone should make a feature about the Skyrim-mess on PS3. When did they know they were shipping a broken product? How did Sony react when they found out this well selling game wouldn't/shouldn't pass certification? Why did Bethesda lie to their customers about the engine they're using? Why doesn't anyone say 'No, we simply cannot make it for PS3' when they clearly know that their engine doesn't work well on that platform? That's what I want to know.

It seems they have dumbed down the textures with every patch. Maybe i am crazy but i remember when i first started playing it in november it looked amazing. Now not so much and the lag isn't helping.

Why is the PS3 version messed up in the first place compared to the 360 and PC version. Someone want to explain. The PS3 is technically good so why so much trouble with the game.

It doesn't help the players that have been waiting since November, and it's terrible that the game shipped in that state, but I'm not sure what it does to behave like Bethesda can just snap their fingers and fix the problem.

Took them long enough.

@hookem1883: From what I have read it isn't the PS3 model it's more of what has transpired in the game and how you did it. An example that isn't true but again an example is taking an item from one part of the game and somewhere in the script it bugs it out and causes issues through out. It's like a butterfly effect that is why not everyone is experiencing the same issues.

and yes HOOK EM indeed!

@Nicky92 said:

Why is the PS3 version messed up in the first place compared to the 360 and PC version. Someone want to explain. The PS3 is technically good so why so much trouble with the game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-does-fallout-nv-lag-explain-skyrim-issues

Both Fallout 3 and New Vegas exhibited an issue very close to that seen in Skyrim. The game save gradually increases in size until performance is impacted, resulting in the same kind of performance drop we see in Skyrim.

"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," Sawyer explained, referencing the database files used by the Fallout 3/New Vegas engine, which remain in place in Skyrim.

"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."

Sawyer also explained that the issue isn't a simple bug that can be easily fixed - for New Vegas at least. If it is indeed the same issue that manifests on Skyrim, it's not a section of errant code that can be corrected, but something more fundamental - which may explain the limited impact of last week's patch.

"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. 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."

Asked why the Fallout NV lag issue impacts the PlayStation 3 more severely than other platforms, Sawyer noted the differences in the memory set-up of the respective consoles.

"The Xbox 360 has a unified memory pool: 512 megs of RAM usable as system memory or graphics memory," he said. "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."

@Nicky92:

Edit: Apparently I'm not the only one who thought this was relevant... (same quote as above)

I think it is mostly for the same reasons as New Vegas, and this is what was said to explain that:

"The Xbox 360 has a unified memory pool: 512 megs of RAM usable as system memory or graphics memory," he said. "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."

- Joshua E Sawyer, lead designer and project director of Fallout: New Vegas

Just to voice the other side. I only have a ps3. Ive been playing Skyrim on it for a few months now. And ill admit im not a marathon gamer (2 hours straight is my max and an uncommon occurrence) and I have not encountered any major issues. Sure a few textures here and there not loading, and the occasional backwards dragon but other than that im almost 45 hours in level 21 and having a great time.

@capnahav said:

Just to voice the other side. I only have a ps3. Ive been playing Skyrim on it for a few months now. And ill admit im not a marathon gamer (2 hours straight is my max and an uncommon occurrence) and I have not encountered any major issues. Sure a few textures here and there not loading, and the occasional backwards dragon but other than that im almost 45 hours in level 21 and having a great time.

if you only have a ps3, why is yr user name green *curious*

@Volgin13 said:

If you got Skyrim problems, I feel bad for you son. I dodged ninety-nine arrows but my knee took one.

*slow clap...stands...turns to raucaus applause*

I have played around 80 hours of the game and have found some couple minutes of serious lag, and the worst crashing my PS3 meaning I just lef it off for a full day - not even playing anything else. However the problems has occured at most three times, I fear it could excalate but hasn't seemed so. I have the original launch PS3 (the backwards compatability one) and overall it has been fine. Maybe it has been less for me though since I make sure ot wait in-game time quite often to lower the number of things it has to remember are out of place (as after a certain time limit they seem to dissappear) Also I haven't been doing many quests, just randomly going places and leveling up and seeing the world (trying to discover all of it by simply running around, and only completing somehting if it is in my way - like a bridge area).

Might be interested to see if doing lots of quests would make the problems appear quicker, or if hoarding lots of items in places like your house would increase it as well. I would also like to see if doing the story makes it worse than doing random quests, as I have done hardly any of the story. Since when the lag does occur it seriously hurts my eyes though I will stick with Dark Souls for the time being.

Awesome. And I have ac and bf3 to keep me busy till then. Haven't had any major problems but I have seen it before

Yo. This Tweet just in...

@Bethesda @patrickklepek Skyrim's still broken but who cares ur site gave us GOTY we iz teh best lol #goty #fuckyall

Even if this is done all correct and it works as it should, I feel like the time for this game has passed.

I have moved on!

@Crushed said:

I hope PC users get some love too. So many times I've been having fun, getting into the groove, and then bam! Like, three busted quests in a row, followed up with dubious quest logic that barely follows the laws of causality.

Causality means dick when you can just hit tilde and fill all the dungeons with cheese wheels.

i gonna be so pissed if bethesda re-releases Skyrim by the end of the year with a big 2011 GOTY logo/phrase on the box of the PS3 port.

1.4 Patch Notes:

- Corrected rare situation where Dragon Killa dubstep remix does not kick in whenever you kill a dragon using a "fatality".

I'll believe it when I see, and then I'll question my perception.

Playing on a slim. 3 fucking times in a row the game froze on me last night. It was in Markarth right next to the water wheel. I'm assuming there is too much going on from all the moving water/people in that area? And it's most definately the game, not a single problem from my other owned new releases. Can I get some compensation if this game ruins my PS3? Countless times I've had to shut it down with the power button. FUCK!

Bethesda has consistently lied about the nature and consistency of this problem. If I ever do play this game, it will be used or rented. This company does not deserve my money and certainly does not deserve any accolades for disrespecting the consumer rights of millions of people.

@chilibean_3: Sky High = PUN

Alright, game of the year right here that doesn't work on one platform!

in all seriousness though, I hope they get this figured out for people that it is affecting soon. I understand that not every PS3 owner is having a bad experience, but for the ones that are this really sucks and it is pretty shameful that Bethesda would (once again!) release a game that is busted all through to hell. I don't see why the community keeps giving them a pass on this shit.

The same was said for the first patch.  

We all know this will add more issues and might not even fix the lag issue at all. 
 
If I was playing on the PS3 I would simply say it's way too late for this. Having to wait over 2 months for a fix that makes your game unplayable is not how to go about the situation, Bethesda. They obviously give priority to other versions of their games.

I just figured that's how the game ran, even after the last update I was convinced the frame rate was better... LOL. I actually stopped playing at level 10, I wonder how much of my dimmed excitement was due to the visuals as playing in first person sucks. I haven't played it in weeks, I'll wait till all patches are released before I jump back in. I think I'm going to stick with X360 for my multi platform stuff now as they just get more attention from developers. Sony really blew it this generation.

someone on sa claims that this works for them, btw

http://www.ps3blog.net/2011/01/28/tips-and-tricks-ps3-rebuild-database-faq-recovery-menu/

What's worrying me is that Bethesda simply gets away with putting out a broken product.

@Sweetz said:

I can't fathom the difficulties they've had trying to shoehorn a game with the complexity of Skyrim into 512MB of memory.

256 megs on the PS3. Which is why it's having huge issues.

The 360 can allocate resources to and fro, and you can tell that super low res textures were used so more memory could be allocated away from the gpu. So, while the PS3 is locked at 256 DDR3 vram, 256 Rambus, the 360 can do things like 128 megs allocated to the gpu, 384 megs allocated for system.

The PC technically was hindered by the way 32 bit software handles memory. 2 gigs is reserved for the OS swap leaving the rest of the memory addressed in a 32 bit environment to the game. Once that limit was hit, crash to desktop. With that 2 gig swap for the OS disabled, its no longer an issue, and the PC version of Skyrim can address 4 gigs of memory.

So...am I the only one who hasn't had any lag problems? That doesn't make it ok, I just haven't had this problem...yet.