Skyrim: Special Edition is now offering a beta patch on the PC that optimizes its performance and fixes some of the bugs players have been reporting since its release. It also addresses the issue of sound compression. The full version of v1.1.51 is expected to be released soon.
You can opt in to test the beta patch right now with the following instructions:
- Log into Steam.
- Right Click on Skyrim Special Edition in your Library.
- Select Settings.
- Select Betas.
- A drop down menu will appear. Select Beta.
- Select OK.
- Wait a few minutes for game to update.
- When done, Skyrim Special Edition [Beta] should appear in our Library.
Here’s what the patch does in full:
- General performance and optimization improvements
- Fixed rare issue with NPCs not appearing in proper locations
- Fixed issue with saves erroneously being marked as Moddded, even though no mods are active
- Updated some sound files to not use compression
The new game performs a lot better than the vanilla version of Skyrim, but players have encountered disappearing NPCs or NPCs who don’t spawn—potentially breaking some quests, including the Dark Brotherhood initiation quest. Keep in mind that you may need to reload an older save to get some of these scripts to trigger.