A conservative, configurable SKSE64 derivative of Disk Cache Enabler by Archost (original Nexus upload by enpinion).
Safe is the recommended profile.
A conservative SKSE64 file-cache plugin that modifies only eligible read-only BSA/BA2 archive opens. Includes Safe, Minimal and clearly labelled Experimental profiles. Saves, plugins and loose assets are never modified. Performance gains are not guaranteed.
Nexus: NextGen Disk Cache
Source: github.com/ShugokiFable/NextGen-Disk-Cache
NextGen Disk Cache changes the Windows file-caching flags used for a very limited group of Skyrim archive reads.
When Skyrim opens an eligible .bsa or .ba2 archive with FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING, the plugin can remove that flag so Windows is allowed to use its normal file cache.
An archive open is eligible only when it is all of the following:
- A
.bsaor.ba2archive - Opened for reading only
- Opened synchronously
- Using
OPEN_EXISTING - Not opened with write-through, overlapped, delete-on-close, create, or truncate behaviour
The recommended Safe profile limits interception to file-open calls made through SkyrimSE.exe's own import table. File operations originating from unrelated SKSE DLLs do not pass through the Safe hook.
Outside the modification policy in every supplied profile:
- Skyrim save files
- SKSE cosaves
- Save backups
- Journals and database state files
- ESP, ESM and ESL plugins
- Loose meshes, textures, and audio
- INI and JSON configuration files
- Logs, crash dumps and temporary files
- Unknown file extensions
- Any handle opened for writing or deletion
- Any create, truncate, overlapped, write-through or delete-on-close operation
The plugin does not parse, edit, or store information inside your save files.
The FOMOD contains three mutually exclusive profiles.
Normal-play profile.
- Hooks only the relevant imports belonging to SkyrimSE.exe
- Considers only eligible read-only synchronous BSA/BA2 opens
- Removes
FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING - Applies
FILE_FLAG_RANDOM_ACCESSto eligible archives - Warm cache disabled
- Hardware profiling disabled
- Automatic tuning disabled
- Process-wide interception disabled
- Working-set expansion disabled
- Power-throttling changes disabled
The random-access flag is a Windows caching hint, not a guaranteed performance switch. It is used only for eligible archives because archive access may involve seeking between internal records.
Same narrow executable-only hook and the same safety gates as Safe.
It only removes FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING from eligible archive reads. It does not add the random-access hint and does not enable any experimental process, hardware, or warm-cache features.
Choose Minimal when:
- You want the smallest possible behavioural change
- You are investigating a compatibility concern
- You want to compare stripping NO_BUFFERING alone against Safe
Includes the archive policy used by Safe but also enables features that have not been demonstrated to improve Skyrim performance.
It enables:
- Process-wide Detours interception rather than the narrow SkyrimSE.exe import hook
- Bounded speculative warm cache
- Hardware profiling and automatic warmer reduction
- EcoQoS execution-speed throttling disabled for the Skyrim process
Supplied warm-cache limits:
- 512 MB maximum total read budget
- 8 MB maximum per archive
- 128 archives maximum
- One low-priority worker thread
- 60-second startup delay
The warmer cannot know which archives your current save will need. Background reads may provide no benefit and may introduce additional disk activity or microstutter.
Automatic tuning can only reduce the configured warmer limits. It does not scale the warmer beyond the values listed above.
Benchmark Experimental against Safe on the same save, route and conditions. If you cannot measure a repeatable improvement, use Safe.
The Microsoft DirectStorage runtime DLLs are not included in the public release package (Nexus or the GitHub FOMOD zip).
The plugin DLL still contains an optional, dynamically resolved DirectStorage backend compiled against Microsoft SDK headers. DirectStorage probing and DirectStorage warm reads remain disabled in every supplied profile, so the backend is inactive with the shipped configurations.
This release makes no DirectStorage performance claim. The archive includes the Microsoft DirectStorage SDK code-license notice because the SDK headers are used to build the plugin.
This mod changes file-open caching policy. It does not guarantee:
- Higher FPS
- Faster loading screens
- Elimination of traversal stutter
- Lower memory usage
- Better performance on every storage device or mod list
Results may vary depending on storage hardware, available system memory, Windows file-cache state, archive layout, mod-list composition, and the save and route being tested.
Version 2.0.0 includes a runtime file-policy self-test and public source/package validation. These checks verify policy invariants and package structure; they are not an in-game performance benchmark.
At the time of publication:
- No public comparative in-game performance benchmark has been completed
- No complete Skyrim runtime compatibility matrix has been completed
- No universal compatibility claim is made for specific mod lists or SKSE plugins
Any performance improvement should be treated as a possibility to test, not a promised outcome.
- 64-bit Windows
- Skyrim Special Edition or Anniversary Edition with SKSE64
The DLL metadata explicitly lists Skyrim runtimes 1.5.97, 1.6.640, and GOG 1.6.659. Other runtime versions are not claimed as tested in this release, and no complete runtime compatibility matrix has been published.
Do not install together with the original Disk Cache Enabler DLL, another version of NextGen Disk Cache, or any duplicate NextGenDiskCache.dll.
Install with Vortex or Mod Organizer 2.
- Choose Safe for normal play
- Choose Minimal only for troubleshooting or controlled comparison
- Choose Experimental only when you intend to benchmark it
The installer places NextGenDiskCache.dll and the selected NextGenDiskCache.ini in Data\SKSE\Plugins. Launch Skyrim through SKSE64.
Default/Steam path:
Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\NextGenDiskCache.log
GOG fallback path:
Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\SKSE\NextGenDiskCache.log
The log reports the selected hook scope and whether the hook was installed.
For temporary diagnostics, set bLogEveryOpen=1 in the INI. This may produce a large amount of logging; return it to 0 after testing.
When reporting an issue, include the complete log, selected installer profile, Skyrim executable version, SKSE version, storage type, and whether the issue occurs without this plugin.
Only one copy of the DLL and INI should be installed. When changing profiles, reinstall the FOMOD and replace the previous INI rather than merging settings manually.
The plugin does not store data in Skyrim saves. To remove it, uninstall the mod and confirm that Data\SKSE\Plugins\NextGenDiskCache.dll is no longer present.
- Unified Nexus, DLL and GitHub version numbering
- Added Safe, Minimal and Experimental installer profiles
- Made the narrow SkyrimSE.exe import-table hook the recommended default
- Restricted modifications to eligible read-only synchronous BSA/BA2 archive opens
- Saves, cosaves, plugins, loose assets, configuration files and unknown extensions remain untouched
- Added a Minimal profile without the random-access hint
- Kept the process-wide hook and speculative warmer inside the clearly labelled Experimental profile
- Warm cache, hardware profiling and automatic tuning remain disabled in Safe and Minimal
- Removed the DirectStorage runtime from the public package
- Added runtime policy validation and corrected diagnostic counters
- Restored all required license and attribution files
- Rewrote performance and compatibility statements to reflect the current testing status
- Nexus 1.1.2 was an unsupported experimental build corresponding approximately to repository version 1.3.0
- Nexus 1.1.3 was an unsupported narrow safety build whose exact source was not published
Detailed developer notes for pre-2.0.0 work remain in CHANGELOG.txt.
AI tools assisted portions of development, auditing and documentation. AI assistance does not replace verification; this description is limited to behaviour represented by the published source, distributed configuration and current testing record. No performance result is presented as proven without supporting testing.
The plugin DLL distributed in the 2.0.0 compliance package is the unchanged GitHub Actions build produced from tag v2.0.0. Later compliance revisions update only the surrounding FOMOD documentation, licensing, and package metadata; their ZIP hashes are published separately. The PDB is not inside the FOMOD zip.
dumpbin /exports NextGenDiskCache.dll → only SKSEPlugin_Load/Query/Version
dumpbin /imports NextGenDiskCache.dll → SETUPAPI, KERNEL32, SHELL32 only
MSVC output is not bit-identical across compiler versions; local builds may differ in hash while matching imports, exports and behaviour.
.\build.ps1 # builds Release x64 (may fetch DirectStorage SDK headers for compile only)
.\package-release.ps1 # produces the public FOMOD zip + SHA-256 (no DirectStorage runtime)- Archost — original Disk Cache Enabler and ISC-licensed source
- enpinion — original Nexus upload
- Microsoft — Detours and DirectStorage SDK headers
- SKSE Team — SKSE64 plugin interface and notices
This project is a modified derivative of Disk Cache Enabler. The archive includes the original Archost copyright and ISC permission notice, the project license, Microsoft Detours license, Microsoft DirectStorage SDK code-license notice, and the SKSE64 notice. The DirectStorage runtime DLLs are not included.