Kelmych

The parameters that should be used are the ones shown in the screenshot figures at the top of the page. The text was changed to make this clearer.

The textures I found in SRTO were fallforestgrass01.dds and fallforestgrass01_n.dds. I ran the 2K version of the mod through DDSopt and compared the original and output versions with the DDSopt preview viewer and they seem identical to me. The log said it didn't change the textures. What DDSopt parameters did you use? Did you have the "Raise foliage map ..." unchecked in "Behave"? Did you process the textures using the recent recommendations for the "Constraints" menu as shown in this figure ? The recommended constraints menu settings have lossless uncompressed format settings so that uncompressed textures are not changed to compressed (it still processes compressed textures properly with these settings). In this case the normal map texture fallforestgrass01_n.dds is uncompressed (as are many of the normal maps in SRTO), and it's possible if it was changed to compressed that the image wouldn't look correct.

Update.bsa has no textures so there isn't anything to optimize. I'm not sure what to suggest for DDSopt crashing. Make sure you have the current version of Microsoft redistrutable C++ libraries, 64 bit version if you are using 64 bit DDSopt.

As you mentioned the guide should be updated to make this more apparent. You can do this or we will do it soon.

Did you look at the log entry for this texture in the log that DDSopt creates when optimizing? This is often useful in determining optimization problems.

The plan for a long time has been to incorporate the SR:LE mods and mods from other STEP packs into the DDSopt guide section on mods, but this hasn't been finished yet unfortunately. The DDSopt guide does discuss the SR:LE mods that are also in the STEP guide. Meanwhile, for mods that aren't in the STEP guide what I've been doing is: - don't optimize mods when the mod author (e.g., Cabal) is known to do sufficient optimization before posting the mod - optimize mods that have exterior textures (e.g., Falskaar, Wyrnstooth) - optimize other mods if STEP discussion of the mod suggests optimization is useful, or if the mod has texture sizes larger than can be used in your system. I've also done optimization of selected mods that have body-related textures but determining when to optimize or not and what parameters to use is harder than for other texture categories. If there are some specific mods of interest (especially mods with body-related textures), provide a list and we'll see if we can answer the question.

oops, I must have accidentally deleted it from the post. Fixed. EDIT apparently it wasn't fixed but it is now.

Did you look in the SkyrimData directory to see whether the HRDLC BSAs are actually there? When you looked for them after clicking the Browse button in DDSopt, did you change the file type in the lower right hand part of the window to "Bethesda Software Archive (*.bsa)" ?

As I said, the thread needed to keep a civil tone which it is no longer maintaining. It is now closed. New threads can be opened to cover the material.

World Map Min_Max Height Pitch Tweak Using the A Quality World Map - with Roads mod, I also used some of the Mapmenu ini tweaks mentioned in the Nexus guide page for this mod to be able to zoom in and out with the map. When the Dragonborn DLC was added to Skyrim, three of the key map interface parameters were moved from Skyrim.ini parameters to parameters in Worldspace records in a plugin. This allowed including separate values for these parameters with the Solstheim map. This simple mod provides two map interface capabilities: plugins that include the Skyrim map min height, max height, and pitch parameters to allow zooming much closer to locations than possible with the vanilla map parameters plus the ability to vary the pitch angle at which the surface is viewed.the pan distance is increased to the north and west; previously it was impossible to pan far enough to see some of the Northern and Western locations.The mod does not include these changes for the Solstheim map, but it would be easy to add these as it require only a few parameter additions. The mod comes with several different options for the plugin to be used, each of which has different values for some of the key parameters. The mod needs to load later than any mod that includes the Tamriel Worldspace record with the default map interface parameters, so typically it loads just before the bashed patch.

Although this thread covers some important topics, this thread seems to have moved past the point where the posts are confined to rational discussion. There also seem to be multiple topics being discussed simultaneously, making it difficult for myself and others to try to contribute usefully to the discussion. Would it be better to open new threads on more limited topics such as BSA extraction and/or some of the other topics being covered?

We should keep the file type descriptions, but probably in another guide such as a mini guide about file types. The information about utilities could be moved to another guide, but it would still make sense to remove parts that are already covered at the same level of detail in the STEP guide. The utilities material also needs updating (e.g., it still includes Script Dragon). For completeness we should have a guide that includes some of the more complex installation issues. Steam allows installing games in multiple directories; I use this myself to put Skyrim on an SSD but we don't have a guide that describes how to do this. It could be part of the Skyrim Installation Guide, or we may feel it is more involved than what we want in the SIG. Overall I'm not sure the current Skyrim Installation guide fulfils its purpose. One goal was to keep it quite short, but IMO in doing so we've left out some of the details that are not covered in the STEP guide. and that should be covered at least briefly somewhere (e.g., issues in using UAC controlled directories for games and utilities used with games). Also, as the STEP guide and other guides have evolved they now cover some of the material that used to only be in the SIG. I also feel that the guide should be better integrated with the use of Mod Organizer use, perhaps even pointing to specific sections of that guide.

The only book interface texture files (*.png) that the batch files copy to Vanilla Optimized are from Skyrim-textures (STD). The DLC BSAs are still used as they contain many resource types, and the book interface files from the DLC are used from the BSAs (they do not need to be copied to Vanilla Optimized).

There should also be some other files in Vanilla Optimized, are any of these in the folder? Are the file counts in the STD folders inside each of the 3 Vanilla folders consistent with the screenshot that shows folder contents after repair (repair only affects the HRDLC)?

The book textures with a .png extension are used only for interfaces and don't need to be optimized. The batch file puts them directly into the Vanilla Optimized folder without any optimization (along with a few other files that don't get optimized). If DDSopt optimizes them they would be corrupted, by the way.

That's what I would recommend. EDITED: The files from the original WAF mod have all the meshes that are needed.

Indeed, both Gun Runners and the Van Graff's seem like gun stores vs. being integrated gun running enterprises.

At the beginning of the game if you start in Goodsprings I use Victor's house as my player house and I use the sortomatic mod file for this house. Once I get the Chef's house I find it's location is ideal for me, which is part of the reason I added Sortomatic to it. However, if someone prefers to use another player house that doesn't already have the Sortomatic mod installed I can help with this; the detailed instructions used to be on the Sortomatic mod site but were removed because portions of the material are out of date with the newest version of Sortomatic. Since the Chef's house has multiple rooms with a lot of containers, I was able to add a more extensive set of default container uses than those in the other Sortomatic house mods I've seen. I noticed that several new recipes were added in the recent TBS updates so I'll need to update the Sortomatic Chef's house mod to add any items used in new TBS recipes to the crafting benches. The items added to crafting benches by this mod should be usable in crafting benches in any Sortomatic-enabled house, by the way, as they are added to global lists. Make sure you make use of the "plant" a lot if you want to get it's full value, by the way. It takes a long time to do this. I'll admit that personally I use fast travel to the house once I'm in Novac and close to the elevator. It's pretty much the only use I make of fast travel.

If you are not using imp_helm_imp plugin then it doesn't matter where you put the legendary patch (or imp_helm) as long as they are loaded after their master plugins. If you choose to add the imp_helm_imp plugin to get the small change it makes (that I suggested isn't very useful), then it needs to load after the WAF legendary (or the WAF imp_helm if you aren't using the legendary patch) plugin. The legendary (and imp_helm) plugin contain all the records for the imperial helmet, but the version of these records in imp_helm_imp is slightly different. The imp_helm_imp plugin can actually be used standalone without the imp_helm or legendary plugin if all you want is the imperial helmet.

I added this to the mini-guide on Merging plugins.

I agree. All of the changes in the Plus version of WAF look to me like fixes.

The original base mod file, "Improved Closefaced Helmets --FULL SET", includes all the meshes for 7 different types of Skyrim helmets (no DLC versions) plus the imp_helm plugin. This plugin includes all the records associated with all 7 types of non-DLC helmets. The "improved imperial full face helmet - no cloth around the neck" file contains some different meshes for one helmet type (imperial) and a plugin imp_helm_imp that includes records for just the imperial helmet. This records in this plugin are duplicates of the records for imperial helmets in the imp_helm plugin, with one small exception. The helm_imp plugin records have a "Long Hair" flag while the helm_imp_helm plugin does't have that flag. The alternate "improved guard helmets -tighter eye holes" file has different guard helmet meshes and a plugin with records that are duplicates of the guard helmet records in the imp_helm plugin. As stated in the readme, the WAF legendary patch includes slightly revised versions of three of the plugins: imp_helm and the 2 DLC plugins. Even though it includes only 3 of the 5 plugins, the legendary plugin has all the records for all 7 Skyrim helmet types plus the 2 DLC helmet types and is complete by itself - no other plugin is needed. It already has the plugin record data needed for the alternate imperial helmet and the alternate guard helmet (the alternate meshes need to be added, of course, if the alternate helmet style is desired). The WAF imp_helm_imp plugin can be used in addition, but all it does is to eliminate the "Long Hair" flag on the imperial helmet. I have checked in game with my own character and some guards wearing imperial helmets and I am unable to see any clipping associated with the hair, by the way. I suggest that the STEP instructions eliminate the use of the WAF imp_helm_imp plugin when the legendary plugin (or the WAF imp_helm plugin) is used since it isn't clear to me that the additional plugin adds any value.

For this comparison I was primarily interested in whether there was some hair that caused clipping. Sadly, as you mentioned, cloaks are well known for clipping.

I looked at some imperial guards. I don't see much hair at the bottom of the helmet, and no clipping of hair. I do occasionally see a little clipping of the bottom of the helmet with the cape that the guards wear.

This thread addresses a similar problem and might fix your problem.