Kelmych

Sounds good to me

I was tired when I sent the question and I had forgotten about just getting them from the history page, which I've done before to fix things I had deleted incorrectly  . I'll add a shortened version of the options.

The options in the HRDLC tab were not just about using Bethesda_Hi-Res_Optimized. Half them are for users with high end machines that wouldn't use it all. It's reasonable have the specific Bethesda_Hi-Res_Optimized options on the mod page, and we can certainly simplify the HRDLC options to do this. However, this is the only place where we provide rough guidance on how to proceed depending on system capabilities. The STEP guide has three system categories, but we never tie these to VRAM or similar computer properties; the SIG guide is the only place where we do this. Even if we add such information to the STEP guide, we still need to somewhere tie computer capabilities to how the HRDLC is used. I suggest we add simplified version of the options, as described above, back to the SIG. Alternatively, if there is another place to put that's fine, but I don't think it should be the DDSopt guide since IMO we wouldn't expect all users to use DDSopt procedures the very first time they are following the STEP process. I can add these if you want. That makes sense to me. Go ahead and add back what you think needs to be added, perhaps I got a little trigger happy :P We do mention that Baseline is ~1GB of VRAM, it says so in the system specs on the Guide.The link to the previous version that has the option details doesn't work. The option descriptions aren't there, just the other material.

I noticed before that using links breaks a lot of templates, not just this one. Notices don't work with links, for example. Since so many of the lines in this particular tab will need links, it might be better to put the links in the body. Of course, I haven't seen what you plan for the listbox since it didn't work correctly. The simplification you provided is good, as long as there is somewhere in a guide that it is explained in enough detail. The HRDLC stuff is in the DDSopt guide abd BSA extraction is in the BSA guide so they are fine.

I put details on the results of using DDSopt on the STEP mods, almost all of which are in Skyrim Revisited, here and the preceeding section. I made a similar comment that most large texture mods in STEP were already fairly well optimized. These mods, however, are ones that can provide some noticeable performance gain without a corresponding large graphics quality loss by reprocessing the normal maps with DDSopt at half the resolution of the ordinary textures (as discussed in the DDSopt guide).

The options in the HRDLC tab were not just about using Bethesda_Hi-Res_Optimized. Half them are for users with high end machines that wouldn't use it all. It's reasonable have the specific Bethesda_Hi-Res_Optimized options on the mod page, and we can certainly simplify the HRDLC options to do this. However, this is the only place where we provide rough guidance on how to proceed depending on system capabilities. The STEP guide has three system categories, but we never tie these to VRAM or similar computer properties; the SIG guide is the only place where we do this. Even if we add such information to the STEP guide, we still need to somewhere tie computer capabilities to how the HRDLC is used. I suggest we add simplified version of the options, as described above, back to the SIG. Alternatively, if there is another place to put that's fine, but I don't think it should be the DDSopt guide since IMO we wouldn't expect all users to use DDSopt procedures the very first time they are following the STEP process. I can add these if you want.

Looking at the updated version of the questions and answers on the first post of this thread,I think it would be useful to add these to the DDSopt guide in a new FAQ tab at the end.

The layout at least for 3D Application Settings is quite different in version 13.1, which came out fairly recently, of Catalyst Control Center than those in the screenshots in our AMD guide.

You don't need the HRDLC esp files after converting the HRDLC textures to loose files. The "Selecting the DDSopt Texture Resolution for Vanilla Textures" section is referenced in the same step that says to process the data. The max resolution parameter you used is fine; with the values you used the output textures are optimized and are at same resolution as the input textures. If you need to use DDSopt to also reduce the texture resolution for large textures then you can use lower values for the max resolution limit parameters to cause this.

I tried this on a old save that was highly bloated, likely due to script problems. I did not have any problem zeroing the script data area, and when I saved and checked with TESVESSE the script data area was still zeroed. I was able to then load the game in Skyrim and then save it again. The old save was roughly 21Kb, and the final save I did was 8.5Kb.

A "working directory" is one that is used to prepare files and other data before putting where the game or any of the mod managers can see it. It doesn't matter where it is as long as it isn't located in a game directory (e.g. in Skyrim or a subdirectory) or any of the mod managers directories. I've started to work on a quickstart tab for DDSopt that has only the steps someone would use the first time you use DDSopt. That might be the basis for someone to create a video. Videos are great, but they often focus on a single path through the tasks; e.g., cleaning a mode with TES5Edit which is done one and only one way. They are, in my opinion, most useful for straightforward but somewhat tedious tasks in which there aren't a lot of choices that have to be discussed. If there is a tree structure of choices and steps, it's very challenging and time consuming to plan and make a useful video. Using DDSopt isn't nearly as straightforward as mod cleaning, but some aspects might be (such as the one I mention above).

We have had a lot of discussion about Skyrim's inability to remove scripts in save games, and the resulting importance of using the right mods from the beginning. If you have a save with a reasonably high level character that you were no longer able to use, the How to CLEAN your SAVEGAMES from BROKEN SCRIPTS - Tutorial - Solving CTD issues mod describes how you might be able to resuscitate a save using the process described by this mod. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I've thought about talking an old save from a time where my saves started to get bigger fairly quickly and see what this might do. I'm not sure that scripts are the only problems that causes saves to become unusable, but they are certainly one of the major potential causes.

Have you looked at the Dawnguard and Dragonborn textures in the updated HRDLC. There are a fairly large number of them available, and I was wondering how they compared with those from various mod authors that you mention. SRO also had some Dawnguard textures.

I agree we need to be consistent; pick one.

Alright, that solves the riddle for me :)I searched the STEP installation notes but kinda oversaw that one! Thanks for your patience, I'll set up the UHRP as loose files then. Regards Previously it was hard to find; hopefully it will be easier to find now that I added it elsewhere.

I always call it HRDLC, but others want to undermine me >:I always use HRDLC. I only use HDDLC in response to posts that are using that to avoid some confusion.

The tabs typically cover a page or so. In doing a quickstart tab I'd like to be able to reference portions of what is in another tab vs. the entire tab. Can headings be referenced below the level of a tab; e.g., can I directly reference the "Repair the HRDLC Textures" subsection?

I see what you mean about the HDDLC page; we could also move some details of using Vano's mod to the page for that mod. We would need to mention for these two mods that the user needs to read the mod page for installation details since there is a lot more information than usual on the mod page. I think the info that goes past an individual mod such as the installation combinations using HRDLC & Vano's mod need to be in SIG but perhaps some of the other details can move. I still think we also need the equivalent of a QuickStart guide for using DDSOpt. Whoops... I am way too tired. We don't have a mod for the HDDLC itself, I was referring to the HDDLC Optimized page. We can add pretty much the entire "Select the option that best suits your VRAM limitations" section of the SIG to the HDDLC Optimized page and rename the DLC tab to HDDLC. IMO installing and optimizing the HDDLC is part of installing the Base Skyrim, not necessarily STEP (thus why it's not in the mod tables). I agree, but I'm not going to touch the DDSopt stuff with a 10 foot pole, you and Z can have fun with that one :P In my comments I assumed you meant the HDDLC optimized page, which is why I said that we couldn't put all the options on that page since some options don't use it or use it with some DDSopt processing. I tried to make it somewhat clear in the SIG DLC tab that a user should decide on an option, at least initially, even though the installation is split into two pieces with the HRDLC repair/optimized (if done) before applying STEP mods and installation of HDDLC Optimized & its options after a number of other STEP mods have been installed. I'm not sure if that is sufficiently clear in the SIG DLC tab.Â

I see what you mean about the HDDLC page; we could also move some details of using Vano's mod to the page for that mod. We would need to mention for these two mods that the user needs to read the mod page for installation details since there is a lot more information than usual on the mod page. I think the info that goes past an individual mod such as the installation combinations using HRDLC & Vano's mod need to be in SIG but perhaps some of the other details can move. I still think we also need the equivalent of a QuickStart guide for using DDSOpt.

Would this be better: "Hybrid (1024 + 2048) + DDSopt reduced size normal maps", like the above but use DDSopt to generate 1024 or 512 resolution normal maps from the 2K HRDLC normal maps instead of using the low resolution vanilla normal maps. Overall I agree that the Skyrim Installation guide has a lot of useful but ancillary information. I could see two guides, one being a Skyrim QuickStart guide that describes the recommended steps to get Skyrim installed with just a little explanation and the other a Skyrim Reference guide that has more explanation and the background material that users will occasionally need later (and that may often be hard to find). I initially thought of this for the DDSopt guide. It's hard for new users since it has a lot of details that more experienced users need/want, but the first time through you just want to get something working so you can try it. A QuickStart version might make it a lot easier for the majority of users who at least initially want our recommended approaches vs. the options and background. The existing guide would be a reference guide. One way to do this might be to have another template feature that would allow hiding/not showing material based on some keyword or binary value. Since it could have more values, a keyword approach could provide a way to tailor a guide to include only examples and steps relevant to a user's system capabilities. I don't quite understand your comment re HDDLC Stuff moving to a HDDLC page - I don't know which page you mean. With the analogy I used above I expect about 70-80% of the SIG DLC tab to be in the QuickStart guide since they are steps that a user would take. There would need to be pointers to more detailed examples, especially for optional steps, that show all the individual steps but without necessarily having all the explanations of why. Some of the detailed step-by-step procedures for the HRDLC are in the current DDSopt guide but there are more that need to be added. If you decide what strategy you want to use if there are multiple guides I can help with some other sections.

The AMD Guide needs some serious help! I've recently renamed the page to better suit and represent the guide and product. (ATI CCC is no longer used and no longer its legal or official name)I've noticed that the AMD Catalyst Control Center GUI has been changed and doesn't look like the existing screenshots.

I removed the minimum height but I'm not seeing a different font size (except for the heading of course). Â When I'm not exhausted I'll see about making the heading and width optional as well. When I look at it now it looks looks the font sizes are the same. Probably more important is to see if the way I organized the content into the main body and sidebar seems useful for the topic of the page. In the process of editing the page, once I moved the system options section up, it didn't seem like some of the existing content was needed. I also simplified the material at the top of that page since there are more detailed discussions elsewhere.