openmw.org

I have two questions for now.

1) If I want OpenMW to take advantage of my SSD, what needs to be installed on my SSD? is it just OpenMW itself or do I need the original game installed on my SSD as well? What about my various mod files?

2) I understand that the latest loaded mod file overwrites any files with the same name that preceded it. Is the game still loading these overwritten files and, if so, what is that doing? Is it just increasing pre-game loading or is the game trying to render both (or more) sets of files and thus slowing in-game performance?

1. You only need to install the game assets on the SSD so that they are loaded faster.
2. In-game performance will not change whatsoever (although stuttering will happen if there's a lot to preload - I talk about HDDs), and the latest file takes precedence. However, loose files are naturally noticeably worse than files packed in a BSA file for HDDs when it comes to indexing them (e.g. GOG version of Morrowind loads faster if you move the unpacked resources out of the data folder, most of them are not used anyways since OpenMW prefers DDS files to uncompressed BMPs and TGAs for textures). You shouldn't have such problems with an SSD.

So, just to clarify, you're suggesting that I install the original game (in this case, from GOG) to my SSD, but OpenMW itself can be installed and run from my conventional hard drive?

If I have my mod folders on the SSD as well (which have a lot of loose files), then the game will load faster and there will be less stuttering?

Any stuttering you experience is not related to having either your game files or OpenMW on a SSD or not. A SSD simply leads to a reduced loading times, not an actual performance boost.

I forgot to mention; make sure to run OpenMW with your graphics processor and not your CPU. At least Windows wont choose it automatically.

I wasn't aware that was even an option. Where do I look to do that?

If you have a Nvidia Card there is usually an option "Run with graphics processor" in the context menu. If it isn't there, open up the NVidia Control Panel , select "Add 'Run with graphics processor' to the Context Menu". There is certainly a similar option for AMD cards available.

If you're using a desktop machine with the cable to the monitor plugged into the dedicated GPU, it will automatically use the correct GPU (because that's the one with the cable coming out of it). Even if you're on a laptop, if it has a Nvidia Pascal GPU (GT[SX]? 10xx) it'll also manage to use the correct GPU without being explicitly told to.

In both of these cases, however, it's possible that the dedicated GPU will not be in its highest performance mode, and that can be set as described by other users in this thread.

I write this text on a gaming laptop with a gtx1060, I had to choose the graphics processing unit for OpenMW manually.

Apparently, it only works sensibly on some laptops, not all of them. I was under the impression that Nvidia has got their arses into gear and fixed it.