Skyrim: Why Water Flickering Happens & How To Solve It?

Skyrim is no stranger to various bugs and glitches. That’s why every version release, as well as DLC release, is followed by “unofficial patches” that mostly take care of some issues that were never properly addressed by the development team. The other side of the coin are mods, Skyrim offers amazing opportunities when it comes to third-party game modifications. Those mods can cause various issues as well, especially if the proper setup is not followed. Today we’re going to be dealing with one specific issue, various bugs, and glitches associated with water. More specifically, we’re going to deal with water flickering in Skyrim, why it happens, and how to solve it. 

What is vertical sync and how it’s connected to Skyrim’s water issues? 

Vertical sync, as the name of the technology implies, synchronizes your FPS to your monitor refresh rate. Significant screen tearing might occur if the difference between your monitor’s refresh rate and in-game FPS is too large. 

Screen tearing manifests as horizontal image distortion and looks unsightly and as if something is wrong with your graphics hardware. It’s a common issue and has no long-term negative effects on your monitor and graphics card. It’s simply annoying and may interfere with your overall visual experience. 

When it comes to Skyrim, there is no way to turn off vertical sync in the game. The game is hard-limited to 60 FPS. However, you can access the setting through skyrim.ini and through various third-party applications that may place another FPS cap that may cause water flickering issues. 

Why is Skyrim capped at 60 FPS? 

Why is Skyrim capped at 60 FPS? Skyrim is capped at 60 FPS due to its mostly outdated engine that cannot handle over 60 FPS properly. Skyrim was built on Creation Engine, but don’t let the name fool you; it’s simply an upgraded Gamebryio engine on which The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Fallout 3 were developed. But you’ve probably noticed that since all games share common issues, all related to the engine. For me, the dead giveaway was the “broom-in-the-backside” walking animations that all games share, which only slightly improve with every new release.

The Creation Engine cannot handle more than 60 FPS, and the physics of the game completely breaks. This is most obvious at the start of the game when you are traveling to Helgen Keep by carriage. If your FPS is uncapped the horse will not be able to properly pathfind to Helgen Keep, it will start glitching, roll over to its back, go through the mountain, start flying, and start walking vertically over the mountain.

You also might notice that all the clutter in a cell starts flying all over the room as soon as you enter the given cell. 

One more issue is water; it might start flickering, and artifact-like distortion might also appear. 

All in all, it’s not a good idea to remove the FPS cap in Skyrim. Skyrim was released in 2011 when 60 FPS was more than adequate FPS and 60Hz monitors were standard. But as more time passed and graphics technologies, as well as monitors with better refresh rates, became increasingly available to everyone, the issue started appearing more and more. 

How do you turn on vertical sync in Skyrim or limit FPS? 

You can turn on vertical sync in Skyrim through Skyrim.ini. You can find the document in C:\Users\PC_NAME\Documents\My Games\Skyrim. To turn vertical sync on in Skyrim follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to the folder where Skyrim.ini is
2. Open the file and paste this line iPresentInterval=1 at the end of [Display] section of .ini file. 
3. Save changes made to the file 

If you’re using any kind of third-party software to set an FPS lock, the game’s settings will always override it.

In my case, my monitor refresh rate is 75hz, my FPS is locked at 75, and it causes me minimal issues with physics; I do encounter a glitch now and then, but it’s nothing game-breaking. This problem causes the biggest issues for people with 144hz monitors; they have to choose between severe input lag and screen tearing if their FPS is capped at 60 FPS and physics issues if their FPS is uncapped and follows their framerate (over 100+ FPS). This can be solved by lowering your monitor’s refresh rate in Windows Settings. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Go to settingsNavigate to System>DisplayOnce there, scroll to the bottom of the settings and select “Advanced Display Settings.”
2. Navigate to the bottom of the page where the Refresh Rate setting is located and select 60 or 75hz refresh rate from the dropdown menu.
3. Don’t forget to change your settings to default values once you’re done with Skyrim

Water flickering in Skyrim due to mods

Water may also flicker in Skyrim due to installed mods that affect water or the general vicinity of the water visually. Since there is no universal guide on how to troubleshoot and solve these issues, you’re going to have to discover the mod that is causing these issues alone. The fastest way to do that is to start with a clean installation of Skyrim and add mods one by one until the problem manifests.

Once you’ve discovered what mod was causing the issues, try replacing the mod in question or find an alternative correct way to install it.

To sum everything up. Water flickering in Skyrim is mostly caused by vertical sync being turned off. That problem is easily remedied either by setting a hard FPS lock via changing the Skyrim.ini file or by using a third-party application such as RivaTuner for example. In some cases where mods are causing the issues, there’s a long troubleshooting ahead of you. Generally, it’s recommended to start with a clean, unmodded installation of Skyrim.

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