Footprints as a whole is a pretty expensive mod, in terms of both performance (FPS) and Papyrus. This will be a pretty long comment, but if you read the whole thing, it'll probably be worth it - if you are an end user who just installs their favorite mods. If you are a curator of modlists or a mod author yourself, this post won't contain anything that should surprise you.
So just as a start I want to inform that this not directed towards SPID For Footprints or it's mod author. I would comment this on the actual Footprints mod, but that mod has all forms of public communication disabled (which is honestly never a good sign, as even huge mods like Legacy of the Dragonborn offer public communication).
In my personal testing, Footprints accounted for 15% of all papyrus calls (out of 150,000 papyrus calls). I have not tested SPID For Footprints however, so take this comment with a grain of salt. Just know that if you are utilizing Footprints, you are likely offering a chunk of performance as payment. If you have a powerful PC, this payment will only be seen by the engine in the form of papyrus load. Heavy papyrus load is easily seen by delays in actions (such as attempting to interact with various objects and NPCs). If you are noticing any abnormal delays in dialogue, actions, broken AI behavior, etc and you have Footprints installed, I highly recommend reducing the number of footprints in the MCM.
And finally, this is not meant to scare users out of using Footprints. It is merely to inform users of the actual performance cost of the mod. There is a good chance that SPID For Footprints fixes the excessive script calls caused by Footprints. Additionally, script calls alone are not a bad thing, but they can lead to crashes, papyrus lag, stack dumps and even issues with your save if papyrus is overloaded, so users should take care not to load mods such as Footprints (or at least run footprints with a reduced number of active footprints via MCM) if they suspect their load order will be filled with mods that will collectively, heavily load papyrus. It doesn't take a conflict to cause papyrus lag, it can be caused simply by too many requests at once. Footprints runs in a constant loop with no delays (for obvious reasons), which is expensive.
Statistics for Footprints was gathered on a load order of nearly 2000 mods (over 900 plugins), utilizing Papyrus Profiler. Additionally, results may vary based on the configuration of the user (how many NPCs are allowed to create footprints) and how many NPCs are actively being monitored and given footprints. Simply reducing the number of footprints can greatly improve performance and reduce papyrus load.
The reason I have elected to post this here, is because a lot of users who experience issues with mods, may have mods such as Footprints, Nether's Follower Framework, and so on that are heavy on papyrus. There are nothing wrong with these mods and they are fantastic, but they are also expensive mods and cost a lot of your papyrus budget. Disabling mods that are heavy on papyrus such as these in large load orders can go a long way into troubleshooting if the mod you are experiencing an issue with has a bug or is broken, versus your papyrus simply being overloaded and preventing your mod from working properly.
Thank you for your comment. I try to be careful when choosing mods and this kind of information is very important, it's a shame it's not in the description of the original mod.
True , thx for pointing out. On an heavy modded game i had some problems with bards spamming different songs every 5 seconds and other AI weird stuff around. "minimizing" nether framework and footprints fixed it.
Now this raises the question, does this mod solve the script lag caused by Footprints (especially noticeable in the late game) completely? I guess it must help since there are no cloak distribution anymore, but aren't the other scripts still running all the time?
Without using the cloak distribution, I'd say this mod is far more efficient. Yes it will still run on an OnUpdate() loop, which again isn't inheritably bad. It is more so when several mods are requesting OnUpdate(), especially during heavy papyrus load that issues may arise. If you don't see any issues, you can proceed safely without worry. If you start noticing lag in your save, (e.g. interacting with objects not working, NPC behavior breaking, etc) or mods not working as they should that's usually an indicator that papyrus is struggling, and scaling back footprints and disabling unused features in mod(s) may further help control papyrus load.
Personally I set Footprints to 10 actors (instead of 50) and I turn off most of Nether's Follower Framework features, especially the ones I don't use. But this isn't a hard requirement by any means and will depend on your playstyle and load order on how you approach it.
Many thanks for this post! This is the rare type of useful post I love to see on this website. I am currently trying to make my 2400+ load order as stable as possible, and I had no idea that the Footprints mod was that heavy on the papyrus load. Much less Nethers Follower Framework, which is one of the must have mods for me. Please if you see this comment, let me know of any other mod that can possibly cause lags or crashes. I have spent ungodly amount of hours trying to fix this mess of a modlist I created and now I have no idea which mods cause crashes and FPS drops, so any similar information would be much appreciated.
I tested for script load utilizing Papyrus Profiler, which is available to anyone to monitor papyrus activity. Out of nearly 2000 mods (900 plugins) in my load order, these two were the heaviest.
In regards to crashes and FPS drops, I would say that it's probably unlikely that papyrus is at fault, especially if you've already scaled back Footprints and Nether's Follower Framework. Again - the biggest tell tale sign that papyrus is struggling, is noticeable delays in dialgue, actions, broken NPC behavior, Combat AI not starting, etc. This stuff would be pretty noticeable. If the game appears to be functioning normally but you're getting crashes, there is an issue somewhere else in your load order.
I did use Papyrus Profiler several times and found some mods spamming callings, but Footprints wasnt one of them, so either this SPID version fix the issue or I missed the Footprints script name.
It'll depend on how many active NPCs there are. When a lot of NPCs are running around, footprints calls far more frequently, but SPID For Footprints may fix it, as I didn't test this mod specifically.
Only my character has footprints for some darn reason. I have them turned on in the McM for other npc's too. So, I do not know if there's an issue _DSTR.ini for spid or what?
The _KID.ini file works because the Player leaves behind boot prints when they're worn and barefoot prints when barefoot.
So scratching my head... I suppose I need to open up the .esp to trace what it's suppose to be doing.
lol I dont know why or when it started but I just noticed all the snow footprints my characters leave behind looks like bear footprints. Anyone know how to fix this?
Would anyone be able to help me out with a little niche issue? I use a custom race mod that basically has feet like a sabre cat. How would I go about adding those footprints to my custom race? Any help would be much appreciated
Is it possible to make a Seasonal version of it? For example in Windhelm in my game there is no snow during summer but footsteps are still sound and look snowy
306 comments
So just as a start I want to inform that this not directed towards SPID For Footprints or it's mod author. I would comment this on the actual Footprints mod, but that mod has all forms of public communication disabled (which is honestly never a good sign, as even huge mods like Legacy of the Dragonborn offer public communication).
In my personal testing, Footprints accounted for 15% of all papyrus calls (out of 150,000 papyrus calls). I have not tested SPID For Footprints however, so take this comment with a grain of salt. Just know that if you are utilizing Footprints, you are likely offering a chunk of performance as payment. If you have a powerful PC, this payment will only be seen by the engine in the form of papyrus load. Heavy papyrus load is easily seen by delays in actions (such as attempting to interact with various objects and NPCs). If you are noticing any abnormal delays in dialogue, actions, broken AI behavior, etc and you have Footprints installed, I highly recommend reducing the number of footprints in the MCM.
And finally, this is not meant to scare users out of using Footprints. It is merely to inform users of the actual performance cost of the mod. There is a good chance that SPID For Footprints fixes the excessive script calls caused by Footprints. Additionally, script calls alone are not a bad thing, but they can lead to crashes, papyrus lag, stack dumps and even issues with your save if papyrus is overloaded, so users should take care not to load mods such as Footprints (or at least run footprints with a reduced number of active footprints via MCM) if they suspect their load order will be filled with mods that will collectively, heavily load papyrus. It doesn't take a conflict to cause papyrus lag, it can be caused simply by too many requests at once. Footprints runs in a constant loop with no delays (for obvious reasons), which is expensive.
Statistics for Footprints was gathered on a load order of nearly 2000 mods (over 900 plugins), utilizing Papyrus Profiler. Additionally, results may vary based on the configuration of the user (how many NPCs are allowed to create footprints) and how many NPCs are actively being monitored and given footprints. Simply reducing the number of footprints can greatly improve performance and reduce papyrus load.
The reason I have elected to post this here, is because a lot of users who experience issues with mods, may have mods such as Footprints, Nether's Follower Framework, and so on that are heavy on papyrus. There are nothing wrong with these mods and they are fantastic, but they are also expensive mods and cost a lot of your papyrus budget. Disabling mods that are heavy on papyrus such as these in large load orders can go a long way into troubleshooting if the mod you are experiencing an issue with has a bug or is broken, versus your papyrus simply being overloaded and preventing your mod from working properly.
Personally I set Footprints to 10 actors (instead of 50) and I turn off most of Nether's Follower Framework features, especially the ones I don't use. But this isn't a hard requirement by any means and will depend on your playstyle and load order on how you approach it.
Please if you see this comment, let me know of any other mod that can possibly cause lags or crashes. I have spent ungodly amount of hours trying to fix this mess of a modlist I created and now I have no idea which mods cause crashes and FPS drops, so any similar information would be much appreciated.
In regards to crashes and FPS drops, I would say that it's probably unlikely that papyrus is at fault, especially if you've already scaled back Footprints and Nether's Follower Framework. Again - the biggest tell tale sign that papyrus is struggling, is noticeable delays in dialgue, actions, broken NPC behavior, Combat AI not starting, etc. This stuff would be pretty noticeable. If the game appears to be functioning normally but you're getting crashes, there is an issue somewhere else in your load order.
So I'm looking at the Spid _DSTIR.ini and comparing it's form ID's to the esp now.
The _KID.ini file works because the Player leaves behind boot prints when they're worn and barefoot prints when barefoot.
So scratching my head... I suppose I need to open up the .esp to trace what it's suppose to be doing.
I'm trying to figure out why only my character has footprints, all other npc's don't.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/127948
took me ages to find out..
For example in Windhelm in my game there is no snow during summer but footsteps are still sound and look snowy