How to fix Skyrim's incredibly long loading screen caused by d3d9.dll?

Question

I have just bought Skyrim, and instead of 3 hours of playing, I've been spending 3 hours getting it to work. I experienced heavy mouse input lag (about 0.2 seconds, try to block someone's sword with that). I fixed this problem using instructions in this video.

In particular, this instruction had the strongest effect:

Step 6: -download "D3D_Antilag_v1.1" and move "D3D9.dll" and "antilag.cfg" into the game folder (where the *.exe files are located) -open antilag.cfg with notepad and set "frames rendered ahead" to "1" (This forces frames rendered ahead to 1 and adds a framelimiter, which is required to fix vertical sensitivity issues)

Step 7: -open antilag.cfg with notepad and change "FPSlimit" to "50"

^{I downloaded it from here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34/}

However, as long as D3D9.dll file is present, game takes up to 7 minutes to load the main wasteland area and up to minute to load when you enter/leave a building. I found two workarounds:

1. Ctrl+Alt+Delete out of the game, when you focus the game again, the game will instantly
   • 70% finish loading
   • 30% crash
2. Read a book during loading. So far the only reliable workaround.

Is there a way to prevent this long loading problem? I have a strong suspicion it has something to do with FPS limiter, since exiting the rendering mode allows for instant load (if it doesn't crash, that is).

Renaming the DLL file to D3D9.dll.bak instantly removes the long loading and instantly re-adds the input lag, so this file is relevant to both problems. The game is unplayable with mouse input lag since I can hardly aim for inventory items and people. This means I desperately need to get the FPS limiter to work, otherwise I just wasted 15€ for nothing.

How to I resolve the long loading without removing the FPS limiter?

Answer 1

The mouse lag can be caused by display driver problems.

Try updating your graphics card drivers.

Answer 2

First of all, try installing SKSE and see what effect it has. You can try tweaking its settings if you feel up for it.

As for the d3d9.dll issue, I suggest you try a version of ENB, since the 'Wrapper Version' will replace the existing d3d9.dll.

If this reintroduces your mouse lag problems, you might want to try some alternative methods to fix the input lag:

• Change the Max Frames to Render Ahead in the NVIDIA Control Panel to 1, preferably, or 0.
  If you have an ATI video card, the process is a little harder, since the similar Flip Queue Size option was removed years ago. You can add this through the Windows Registry Editor. Go to:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
  Class {4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\UMD

  Add a Binary Value called "FlipQueueSize", and set its value to 31 00.
  (More on that here, and some general insightful info here).

• Install the Borderless Window mod.
• Another suggestion can be found in the approved solution here on the Arqade.

---

Alternatively, if only keeping your d3d9.dll file present in the game folder prevents mouse lag, there are some additional tips that might help cutting down loading times:

• Delete or move as many saved games as possible from the default location:

  C:\Users\'username'\My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves\

  This will prevent the game from loading their thumbnails and some extra info (player name, play duration, location).

• Skyrim - especially when modded with script-adding and -altering mods - has the tendency to exponentially increase the size of its saved games. When this is the case a saved game cleaner can do wonders for loading times. There are several, so I'll name a few: Skyrim Save Cleaner, FallrimTools ReSaver, and the Save game script cleaner . Download and install any of them, and follow the steps mentioned on their respective Nexus page.
• Changing the fps setting might help, either by capping at different values or uncapping it. For some users in the linked thread, setting it at 35 has made loading times up to 4 times faster. Some ENB's have caps built in, but you can also change the values through your video card utility software (e.g. Catalyst Control Center or NVIDIA Control Panel).