This is an optimized SkyrimCustom.ini file written from scratch. It is the result of an entire day spent reading through various guides for Skyrim's configuration .ini's, a week of refinement, and an ongoing period of peer-review here on the Nexus. The guides I used are themselves the result of weeks of research. I will link to these guides at the bottom of this text. Most of the guides were written specifically for Oldrim; I have individually weighted each of their recommendations and considerations, and modified them where necessary to work with SkyrimSE. In total, I looked at over 1500 different variables. I will update this file here on the Nexus if I make any more changes to it.

Features

• All performance settings enabled -- most people report stabler FPS! (Sources #1, 2, & 3)
• All known broken settings fixed -- the Unofficial Patch doesn't fix these! (Sources #1, 2, & 3)
• No more blocky shadows! (Source #5)
• The sun moves smoothly and continuously -- you'll never notice the sun move again! (Homegrown)
• Larger, easier-to-read books and notes (Source #8)
• Better arrow/bolt arching (Sources #1 & 9)
• Havok'd combat (Source #13)
• Less AI cheating (Homegrown)
• Less distracting killcams (Homegrown)
• Fixed camera location on both horseback and foot (Source #1)
• Improved world map (Source #1)
• Improved HUD position (Source #1)
• Comments describing blocks of settings, most of which is ReStructuredText (Homegrown)
• "NOTE" comments to let you know where user action is required (Homegrown)
• Alphabetized, but with semantic exceptions (Homegrown)
• Compatibility with in-game settings
• Compatibility with ENBs (Source #1)
• Countless graphical enhancements
• Countless other things
  

• Q: Does this work in Oldrim? A: Probably. With the manual install, you'll have to rename SkyrimCustom.ini to Skyrim.ini, and replace the Skyrim.ini file that you already have. The automatic install *should* just work with Oldrim, and is probably preferrable, since you don't have to delete your existing Skyrim.ini.
• Q: Is SkyrimVR Oldrim, or Special Edition? A: Special Edition.
  

• The manual version conflicts with any mods that edit .ini values. This is a *lot* of mods! This is a good thing, because many mods set BAD .ini values! Safe .ini settings from many .ini mods are already included in this file, so most .ini mods are unnecessary if you're using this mod, anyway. If your favorite .ini mod has some cool settings that you'd like to see included in this mod, let me know!
• The automatic version should only conflict with any mods that change Update.ini (This file does not exist by default.). However, this compatibility unfortunately means that if you install a mod with a broken .ini value, this mod will not be able to protect you! This is the only way to install this mod on consoles.
  

• The "manual" and "automatic" options both contain the exact same file.
• Because of the nature of .ini edits and the vast scale of this mod (Over 700 settings!), it is very important that you check back regularly for updates in this first week of release.
• I use the following versioning scheme: X.Y.Z, where 'X' is a major release (where the entire thing was rewritten), 'Y' is a feature release (where the mod got some substantial new feature or was otherwise reworked), and 'Z' is a tweak release (where very little of the mod changed -- usually, these are bugfixes.).
  

• (Manual Install) Copy SkyrimCustom.ini to Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\.
• (Automatic Install) It *should* just work.
  

• Go to Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\ and find SkyrimPrefs.ini. (The following settings don't work in SkyrimCustom.ini, so we have to add them to SkyrimPrefs.ini.)
• Add 'bEnableFileSelection=1' under the '[Launcher]' header (You will need to create a [Launcher] header if it does not exist.).
  

• (Manual Install) Go to Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\ and find SkyrimCustom.ini.
• (Automatic Install) Go to steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Data\ and find Update.ini.
• Change 'iNumHWThreads' to equal the number of logical CPU cores you have on your computer. If you aren't sure, open a PowerShell prompt (Press Win+R, and type "PowerShell.exe".) and copy/paste this command: "(Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Processor).NumberOfLogicalProcessors". Press Enter. Whatever number it returns, is the number you should use for this line.
• This mod uses the centered crosshair recommended by the STEP project. If you prefer your crosshair off to the right like in vanilla, then search for and delete the lines just below "Crosshair location". If you want to change these values for an existing file, all you need to do (after you reload the game), is unsheath or sheath your weapon.
• This mod disables MSAA (it leaves TAA alone), ansiotropic filtering, V-Sync, and FXAA, per the assumption that the user is using ENBBoost (While it is not mandatory for SkyrimSE the way it was for Oldrim, it does still improve performance and fix a few bugs.) or overriding Skyrim's settings from their graphics card's control panel. If you are doing neither of these things, then you will probably want to re-enable some or all of these. To do so, remove the 'Graphics settings' subsection.
• This is an "ultra" preset; however, in-game and in-launcher graphics settings take precedence, so you can still lower your quality there. If you'd like to squeeze out some additional performance on top of that, you can try reducing certain values -- iShadowMapResolution, iWaterReflectHeight, and iWaterReflectWidth are some low-hanging fruits, but there are lots of others. You can also try outright disabling certain variables -- anything marked as "Required for ENB" is an obvious low-hanging fruit, but (again) there are plenty of others.
• There are several other things you can tweak. To jump between them, press Ctrl+F and type 'NOTE'; you'll find that many of them have descriptions.
  

• .ini editing is not for the faint-of-heart! If you want an easy, prepackaged solution, use BethINI. This mod is just a starting point for you to create your own SkyrimCustom.ini by hand!
• The game adds your .ini settings to your savefiles. Because of this, whenever you change a setting, you'll need to "refresh" what that setting affects. So, if you change ie fBookDistance in the .ini while you're reading a book, you'll need to run 'refini' in the console and close/reopen that book in order to see a change.
• Any variable defined in SkyrimCustom.ini (manual install) or Update.ini (automatical install) overrides any identical variable in Skyrim.ini. This means that many .ini changes you make with, eg, Mod Organizer 2 or Wrye Bash are likely to be ignored by the game while this file is installed.
• Any *valid* variable defined in SkyrimPrefs.ini overrides any identical variable in SkyrimCustom.ini and Skyrim.ini. Thankfully, many of the settings in SkyrimPrefs.ini are actually invalid, and are therefore ignored by the game. However, because of this caveat, I will need to add some additional SkyrimPrefs.ini tweaks at some point.
  

• Skyrim's .ini files contain hundreds of unused settings. Many of these settings, like bMouseAcceleration, are frequently toted as useful tweaks, when in reality, they do absolutely nothing! If I did not include these unused settings, people would ask for them; so I included them, but made sure to place them under "Unused" subheaders. I defined any unused setting that seemed like it would have been a useful tweak if it were functional. I also included some popular non-existant settings, like f3PBoltTiltUpAngle.
• Most of Skyrim's broken/dangerous settings are already correct in the basegame. I have, regardless, defined them with their safe values in this .ini, so that SkyrimCustom.ini can fix any mods that try to use the broken settings.
  

• If you find any problems in this mod, please let me know, and I'll work to get it fixed. If it's a problem for you, then it's a problem for all of us.
• The current stable version of Mod Organizer 2 does not recognize SkyrimCustom.ini. This is a problem with Mod Organizer 2, not with this mod. A development version of Mod Organizer 2 with support for SkyrimCustom.ini can be found at the following URL: https://github.com/Modorganizer2/modorganizer/releases.
  

• https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_INIs
• https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_INI
• https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:SkyrimPrefs_INI
• https://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1
• http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/23/tweaking_skyrim_image_quality/2#.UsSRvbSd0pY
• https://forum.step-project.com/topic/10408-flandfriction
• https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/5bf2tt/detailed_lod_draw_distance_no_more_dyndolodmaybe/d9ofpy0
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6367
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11941
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50692
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59603
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/266
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33461
• https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11052
• https://forum.step-project.com/topic/11523-skyrim-special-edition-default-values-for-all-valid-ini-settings