I need help, this is driving me nuts. I followed the installation instructions of RealVision ENB to the letter, yet Skyrim crashes upon launch. That's right, I can't even get to the main menu in Skyrim. I would think an esm is missing but everything seems to be in order when looking through the load order list (I have used BOSS). I simply have no idea why it doesn't want to launch.

This is my load order:

Part 1: http://puu.sh/6Wo8B

Part 2: http://puu.sh/6Wo9I

Thanks in advance.

What are your PC specs?

Pretty darn good, I daresay.

Intel i5 3570K

MSI Geforce GTX 660 TwinFrozr 2GB OC

16 GB RAM

This is why I hate installing enb's, I always mess something up one way or the other....

I assume you used BOSS, since your load order looks fine IMO. Have you tried updating your video drivers?

Dumb question, but did you add anything else at the same time?

Does RealVision use SweetFx?

I've never seen ENB itself crash my game, but presets often use SweetFx for extra effects, and SweetFx is fragile if there's anything wrong with it's configuration.

Without knowing the specifics, my bet is that there's something wrong with the SweetFx config file. You can test this by editing your enblocal.ini file (in your Skyrim directory), and setting:

Also, how are you launching the game? A quick read led me to the below. If you use the Steam launcher, it looks like some of the .ini options will reset which might be the issue.

Attention using Skyrim launcher!
Skyrim Launcher (that menu that shows up when you run Skyrim through Steam) will reset the values of step 3d from above like iMultiSample and iMaxAnisotropy and also fGamma in your skyrimprefs.ini, especially if you open it's options! Launch Skyrim using TESV.exe or skse_loader.exe (if you have it), instead. They're both located at Steam / SteamApps / common / skyrim. Alternatively you can set Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini to Read Only. MO users, keep launching Skyrim from Skyrim or SKSE in MO.

This sounds more like the culprit, OP. In the past, I was tweaking some shadow stuff in the .ini and some of the results kept changing on me, not realizing that clicking "Options" in the launcher causes the .ini changes to revert back.

Typing from a phone so quoting is a PITA.

Yes I added other stuff but even with it gone Skyrim still crashes. I dunno if RV uses SweetFX out of the box, can check it tomorrow. I have set Skyrim prefs and ini to read-only as per the recommendation. I use the steam launcher only for updating my subbed mods. I otherwise launch through skse loader.

My graphics drivers are fresh out of nvidia's oven, lol

What about any background programs running?

None that could potentially mess up Skyrim. No backburner or fps counter or anything

I'm stumped as to what's wrong.

I use skse 1.7.0 of that's to any help. I thought about installing sheson's mem patch but AFAIK it's already in skse 1.7.0

I don't think SSAO would crash it from the start, but I run similar specs to you (660 TI vs your standard 660) and ENBs that use SSAO bring it to it's knees. Open the enbseries file in your data folder and find this line and set it to false:

EnableAmbientOcclusion=false

I'm grasping at straws here, as I said I don't think this would crash from the get go, but it might be worth a try. Worst case scenario, when you get the ENB running you'll get better FPS, probably from slide show to very playable based on our similar hardware. That's assuming your ENB is as demanding as the one I use, and mine isn't all that demanding from what I can tell.

Funnily enough, my card is recognized as a 660ti (even nvidia says it) yet the very box says 660 and not ti.

Hmm I'll check the SSAO thing tomorrow but I still think it should at least launch.

What's more odd, when I first start Skyrim I see this blue rotating thing (like when a program doesn't respond in windoze) and then Skyrim loads but as soon as I see the start menu it crashes.

I think I've heard of that happening before. Maybe the OC gets it recognized as such? Not sure how Nvidia determines TI vs non-TI, but it's also been long enough since I read about one vs the other that I can't remember the technical differences between the two.

I get the rotating job when I launch via SKSE as well. Usually lasts a few seconds then it loads. Never saw it before getting SKSE. I don't think this is an issue, but I've been wrong before.

In any case, worth a try on SSAO, and you will likely have a much better experience using an ENB on that card. At least in my limited experience with ENBs. I forgot the option actually last time I re-installed and loaded an ENB and was reminded in a thread I made a few days ago about it.