Kelmych

There have been a number of comments in the STEP forums that the process in the DDSopt guide for optimizing textures is too complicated. The guide currently uses sequences of manual changes to the processing option settings in DDSopt to do all the steps. I've been looking at some ways of using some simple batch files in addition to manual DDSopt processing to simplify (and noticeable reduce) the steps for optimizing the vanilla textures, and also separately simplifying the steps for optimizing textures of STEP mods. DDSopt itself has a command line mode that I looked at including in batch files, but unfortunately many of the important options are not available in command line mode. The first change I've been working on is to change the processing used to repair the HRDLC textures. The current batch file uses drive substitution, a method that can easily fail and when it fails it is hard to determine how to fix the problems. The new version I'm testing doesn't use drive substitution and should be more robust and easier to use.

You also need to be a little careful with mods that overwrite vanilla resources other than just textures, especially scripts, where the mod stores the resource is in a BSA. For example, some of the mods discussed in the Mod Suggestions area use BSAs to store scripts that overwrite the vanilla versions, and there is a possibility that this script(s) might not be used if there are conflicts with a mod that has its scripts in loose files (either because they were provided that way or the resources were extracted before use). I don't think there are any such conflicts in the STEP list, but users often utilize mods in addition to those in STEP.

Correct ... but only on model-space or tangent-space normal maps. You can use the filters. The Terrain Bump package contains only tangent-space normal maps so for this particular file you don't need to do any filtering in DDSopt. To perforn the processing start DDSopt as usual and select the Terrain Bump file as input. Click the "Constraints" tab and where is says "Tangent-space normal-maps" select "R5G5B5 (2:3, lossy)". Under resolution limit in the same tab you can use  "2048x2048" for the 2 values if you don't want any resolution changes,use "1024x1024" if you want to reduce the sizes of only the larger 2Kx2K normal maps (note that there are only a few of these, so it might be better leave them at full resolution), oruse "50%" to reduce the size of all the normal maps by 50% (2Kx2K maps become 1Kx1K, and 1Kx1K maps become 512x512)For the terrain bump file I use the file without having DDSopt change any resolutions, but you might want to do some size reduction if have a significant need for VRAM reduction. A lot of these are already fairly small, so there might not be a lot of value changing the sizes. Perhaps, but even smooth textures don't suffer much quality loss. Will need to evaluate a few of those, but face textures seem to look fine as an example. R5G5B5 is an uncompressed format; it has a little less numerical precision than R8G8B8. For mods with uncompressed normal maps, changing from the usual R8G8B8 to R5G5B5 reduces the normal map storage size by 50% typically without any noticeable quality loss.

A while ago in this post z suggested for this mod using the DDSopt option for R5G5B5 compression option at the same resolution; it reduces the size of the texture file by half. Z's conclusion was that there was no noticeable quality loss. In my game setup I use this mod with that R5G5B5 compression. We might want to suggest this in the description page for the new Nexus upload of the mod. If this is done DDSopt will automatically redo the mipmaps, of course, as part of the process.

I thought of the BCF only as an interim solution; it will likely be a while before the USP team looks at this. We can add to the list ones we find  that should be included, but it will take a while to go through the whole list for this mod siknce there is already a large list of mods in the current (and expanding) Mod Testing list including some with a lot of textures/meshes.

The physicist in me shudders at the thought of making wood ingots out of metal coins.

Concur

In the meantime it would be easy to write a BCF that provides only those 20 meshes.

If you use the Unique Region names mod the patch for these 3 records would also need to include the map name that it adds. I didn't check the other two Hearthfire houses since I didn't think that the SDO esps would noticeably affect these areas; we'll need to check this also. I haven't checked ingame yet to see the effect of using SDO near the Hearthfire houses.

For the first comparison, are there any recommended locations in Skyrim to do the testing?

In the section of the DDSopt guide that discusses optimizing the DLC BSAs, the current recommendation is to extract and optimize the textures while leaving the BSAs themself alone. The optimized textures will override the ones in the BSA.

If you're using Hearthfire, one user last November reported a problem with the Morthal esps and the Hearthfire house near Morthal. I haven't checked yet in TES5Edit to see whether this mod actually adds objects to the cell that includes the Hearthfire house. The author mentioned a few months ago working on a Hearthfire/Dawnguard addition. Update: I checked the Morthal Complete esp and there are just 3 small worldspace object conflicts with the Hearthfire house. For these 3 objects the MHDT (max height data) and XLCN (location) rows need to either be copied to the morthal complete esp or a very small patch esp created that provides this. Ideally this could be in a general patch such as the one Neo has in SR; these 3 hearthfires.esm objects are overwritten by a lot of programs.

This mod is used every time the Skyrim starts, just like the ini files, and affects how Skyrim interfaces with users (just like parts of ini files). You don't just run it once and then its job is done. The tool that creates the key binding file (a text editor) is certainly a utility. It's hard for me to relate a file (this mod is the file itself) to the computer-related definition in the Merriam Webster definition of the noun utility "a program or routine designed to perform or facilitate especially routine operations (as copying files or editing text) on a computer". The word "choice" doesn't appear in the definition. I agree that a mod that is only used by a subset of users likely does not belong in core STEP. But I think that it is reasonable to include these in STEP packs where the usage of the mod is optional. There are a lot of other mods that are only useful for a subset of Skyrim users. Examples include dual-wield mods, guild-specific mods (thieves, magic users, ...), werewolf/vampire mods for users transforming their characters into one of these, etc. There are a number of mods in SR that I'll never use because they aren't relevant to the particular roles I play in Skyrim, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful, valid mods for inclusion in a STEP pack nor does it mean they should they be in a "utility" section because they aren't relevant to most users. Whether the mod belongs in the main STEP pack depends on the percentage of users that would use the mod and the importance of the mod to these users. If STEP packs are only going to include mods that are used by almost all users the packs will be a lot smaller. For me, the more important discussion is the usefulness of the mod. If it's only used by a small group then maybe it should be in a pack of mods with similar usage properties.

It sounds like a lot more work, but it would certainly be a more immersive and interesting mod.

Sounds like the right approach.

I've seen several of the issues discussed in this thread. I've gotten small injuries from bones when this mod is active. I've had particular troubles with dragons since when they fall they sometimes block the only convenient passage to somewhere (e.g., the door at one of the Hearthfire homes and various places on the roads where it isn't easy to get around the blockage, especially for companions). The spell works on modest sized creature bones but it doesn't work for me on dragons. The alternative is worse; walking through a huge set of dragon bones is certainly immersion breaking. It's reasonable for bones to provide partial blockages; ideally you could use a blunt weapon to break or at least move them when they cause blockage but that's a lot harder to implement than a spell.

It is not a utility like a mod organizer, etc.; if you use it you don't just use it periodically. It changes key bindings, so IMO it belongs in Interface mods. However, it is not needed by many Skyrim users who are satisfied with the existing bindings or who don't realize the limitations of the default key bindings including multiple keys bound to the same action. This mod includes some fixes/changes that result in more sensible key bindings.

With the exception of Skyrim.esm, all of the vanilla Skyrim esm files including the DLC esm files need to be cleaned with TES5Edit.

Sharlikran is quite emphatic that you should not include leveled lists in your merged patch. He has a video giving a how-to and his thoughts on building a merged patch.Wrye Bash has some logic to handle actual conflicts in leveled lists (e.g., when different mods change a skill level); I don't think TES5Edit has this for the Merge Patch. I've found that the bashed patch usually, but not always, makes the same decision I would make when merging records. It might sometimes be necessary to manually create a small patch to load after the bashed patch to fix such problems.

This installation order recommendation should probably be added to the STEP guide; the DDSopt guide hasn't been including any recommendations on installation order.

I agree also. I've always felt the large vanilla ice spikes were unrealistic; these are much better.

It depends on how the subscription is managed and the types of mods in the Steam subscription, but you mean mixing STEP with mods from an ongoing Steam subscription the answer is generally no. You can include Steam mods which meet one of the following conditions: the Steam mod(s) has only an esp plugin and does not use any resources (no BSA files),the Steam mod(s) does not overwrite any vanilla resources,you subscribe to a mod, and then when the mod is loaded end the subscription (keeping the mod and, if the mod overwrites any vanilla resources, extracting the resources from the BSA into loose files); if updates are needed you can subscribe to get the update then unsubscribe again.This is briefly discussed in the Using Mods from Steam Workshop and Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebars on this page .  STEP replaces vanilla resources with better quality ones, and as discussed in the Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebar, installation order can't be properly controlled when a mix of BSAs and loose files are used. Steam mods have all resources in a BSA (there are no loose files). There are very few mods which are available only on Steam Workshop; many Steam Workshop mods are also available on Nexus.

Any placeholder related files should be removed.