Kelmych

Did you try taking the loose files from Dawnguard.bsa after DDSopt optimized the textures and creating an archive file with 7zip or another tool? I'd be interested to see whether this eliminates the problem. There have been other problems noticed with using BSAopt to repair some (but not all) of the non-texture vanilla BSAs and then return them to a BSA format. The problem didn't occur at all with Skyrim 1.6 but does with Skyrim 1.8; the exact same BSAs didn't have any problems being decompressed in Skyrim 1.6 but had problems in Skyrim 1.8. It might be a problem with the BSA decompression code in Skyrim 1.8 when it is processing BSAs compressed using the improved compression algorithm that BSAopt and DDSopt use (even though Skyrim 1.6 had no problems with this).

I've been having random CTD problems and random but all-too-frequent problems with Skyrim unable to load new areas (Skyrim is still running but it never transitions past the load screens to the new area). I reduced the number of esp files I had by combining a number of esp files (I chose ones that weren't very complex) into a single esp using TES5Edit, and I also used this tool on a save file that was recent but prior to a time when the problems got worse. After a somewhat short testing period (so far), I have not had any CTD or area-load "freezes". Note that area-load "freezes" are typically associated with too many esp files (at least they were in Fallout New Vegas which has a similar Bethesda engine). I didn't notice any harmful effects from the Save Cleaner and it did make my save game smaller.

Either this or make a patch to cause this one kid to have the right outfit.

Here is what you would need to enter in a wizard to select the proper combination of meshes from this mod: Arrow Length: vanilla (CQv2, better for male character) or longer (CQv3, includes "fixed arrow recovery" for vanilla arrows)character: male or femalefemale body model: vanilla or non-vanilla (UNP, CBBE)quiver type: vanilla, steel (when available), hidden (when available, use for male character if female body model is not vanilla), or ironCompatibility with other mods (all that apply): Explosive bolts visualized, Crossbows basic collection, torch arrows (and 9 other mods)DLC (all that apply): Dawnguard, Dragonborn As an example, if I choose longer arrows, male character, non-vanilla female body model, hidden quiver (when available), explosive bolts visualized, both DLC: Closer Quivers and Longer Arrows v3 - Updated-5711-v3.rarCQv3 - Hidden Crossbow Bolts - UNP Compatible from CQv3 - Closer and Hidden Crossbow Bolts - Vanilla-CBBE-UNP AIO-5711-v3.rarCloser Quivers and Longer Arrows v3 - Dawnguard DLC Arrows-5711-v3.rarCBv3 - Explosive Bolts Visualized - UNP - Hidden.rar from Closer Bolts - Explosive Bolts Visualized v1-02 - Vanilla-CBBE-UNP-Steel Quiver AIO-5711-v3.rarCQv3 - Dragonborn DLC Arrows.rar from CQ - Dragonborn DLC Arrows - CQv3-CQv2-Iron Quiver AIO-5711-v3.rar

The goal of the SKYRIM Save Cleaner mod is to remove bad references (REFRs) from Skyrim save files. Comments on the Nexus page suggest that some users have found it quite useful for recovering save files that had problems. I'll provide more information when I've tried it myself.

I typically need to read the description page and the individual file descriptions for this mod multiple times before installing or changing the installation of the mod. It would be significantly helped by having a single load file with a wizard or similar; I suppose the individual files might be useful for some users but I find them confusing. I think what I currently have installed is correct, but it took a while to figure it out.

There is another thread with the same name; you might want to add your post on it and you might also get some useful information from the other posts. It's hard to say much without knowing more details about your system and, for the STEP mods, what texture resolution (or STEP profile such as baseline) you used.

Looks like a mod that is certainly worth including. Based on this, I wonder how many of the normal maps from the major terrain mods can be done with R5G5B5 vs. DirectX compression. Distant Detail adds placed objects vs. normal maps. Are there situations in which Distant Detail will either complement Terrain Bump or provide useful detail when Terrain Bump doesn't? It doesn't provide much in the example you showed.

By the way, this mod completely overwrites the changes from the STEP mod Clams Drop Pearls if ClamsDropPearls is loaded before the Harvest Overhaul mod. This is the order that BOSS currently uses. Either the order of these should be reversed, since the Clams mod affects only three records, or a patch could be written that accommodates both sets of changes.

There are only a few renamed animals, namely chicken, dog, and horse, along with renaming Skyrim. It's easy to fix in TES5Edit.

Perhaps when Ethatron has some time again he will have some suggestions.

Lossy compression cannot be undone. You can transform between lossless formats (e.g., between the various lossless audio formats such as FLAC and Apple Lossless) but once you apply lossy compression (e.g., MP3) there is no way to recover the original. My question was about whether by looking at an image before compressing the tangent space normal maps there are some clues that would indicate which type of TSN compression to use; e.g., if an image has a lot of detail in most places but has regions that are fairly smooth is it "noisy"? If we need to try both TSN compression formats and look at the comparative results in the game it is very time consuming; I'm looking for an easier approach.

There have not been any comments about my post that DDSopt reduces the quality of the textures from Psychosteve's Golden Shrine mod. The original textures have a lot of very small imperfections that are lost when compressing with DDSopt. The alpha channel has only one value. I don't see any of the specific exception categories in DDSopt.ini that would apply to the problem with these textures, so we would need to add these textures into the DDSopt.ini with a SKP entry. I suggest we add these to DDSopt.ini.

In Question 3 of the recent Q&A with Ethatron (available in the DDSopt Technical FAQ tab in the guide) Ethatron mentioned that compressing normal map textures using R5G5B5 at half resolution was better than using DirectX compression at half resolution if there is enough noise (no smooth regions) in the texture. How can someone tell by looking at images with the DDSopt Preview viewer of the main texture (primary and alpha channels) and the associated normal map (primary and alpha channels) whether or not this is the case? What are the best clues for this?

Correct. By the way, if you are entering a long post we suggest using a spoiler tag before and after the long code part. You can do this with the edit function even after entering the post.

There is now an initial version of a QuickStart tab in the guide with a brief one page overview and roadmap of the steps needed for texture optimization.

you don't need drive substitution at all: del q:\actors\placeholder.txt would become del E:\Skyrim\Working Directory\HRDLC3\textures\actors\placeholder.txt

I've thought about making a version of the batch files that don't use drive substitution, but I haven't figured out the best way to do this. You only run the START file; it uses the other batch file internally. You can always take the HRDLC_Removal_Fix.bat file and replace the drive letters with the corresponding directory names for your system. Alternatively you can just connect to the working directory and run the batch file there, in which case the drive lettere substitution is easier in the text editor. If I had problems with the existing files that's what I would do since it is easy in a text editor to do this replacement. You could then edit the start file to remove the substitution-related commands, or (since there is only one remaining command) type that command into the command window to start the batch file running (with the appropriate directory names).

In a fight with a Death Hound I ended up with some black wispy smoke at my feet which stayed. The cure for this is another spell sequence: player.addspell 020028EB player.removespell 020028EB

I added a new Note 6 in the STEP mod table to indicate mods that are most likely to provide game performance improvements when reduced size normal maps are used. I put the note on some of the mods. As we do more testing  we will hopefully be able to find more mods that yield reduced VRAM use using this technique.

It looks like DDSopt.ini was changed on the wiki but the text in the Appendix wasn't. I fixed it. The wiki can show the last time the overall DDSopt guide was updated; I don't know whether the Wiki can automatically show the last update time for references like this. Meanwhile the wiki text in the guide needs to be updated manually when a new version is created.

z and I have made some changes in the DDSopt and Texture Overhaul guide to try to make it easier to read (using a new template for sidebars, primarily for ancillary information so that it is closer to where it is needed in the processing steps) and adding some material based on recent questions in the forum.

Creation Kit always has a lot of miscellaneous errors when starting up. I ignore them unless they seem very specific to the mod I'm working with.