Kelmych

With the approach that Spock discussed optimization is done on the entire Data\textures directory. WB will then flag every mod that had any optimized textures. With Spock's approach mods that should not be optimized are reloaded with WB. But WB will be still have flags on any mod that was optimized since the textures in Data\textures won't match the files in the version of the mod that WB loaded.

Dawnguard Files: Vanilla Textures: 3117 files, 106 folders Size: 417,101,952 bytes Vanilla Normal Maps: 5 files/6 folders Vanilla Uncompressed Textures: none Vanilla Optimized: 3122 files, 106 folders I also added a new figure to the DDSopt guide that shows the number of files/folders in all the subdirectories used in vanilla texture optimization.

I don't really understand #2. You seem to be saying optimize all the texture files in Skyrim\Data\textures (which would take a very long time with DDSopt and optimizes many textures which shouldn't be optimized)' date=' then remove all the textures that shouldn't be optimized by reinstalling the original versions of the mods.[/quote'] That's exactly what I proposed to do. As we said, this isn't what we recommend. Personally I don't see any advantages and I see a lot of disadvantages.

The first comment was discussed in the previous post. Manually optimizing an individual mod with DDSopt involves: setting processing parameters in the Constraint tabenter a filter criteria using the filter window (the center window)using the filter to select a portion of the texturesprocessing the selected textures with DDSoptthen repeating 1-4 for each different subset of textures that are processed with different Constraints tab parameters (e.g., exterior ordinary textures, exterior normal maps, non-exterior ordinary textures, non-exterior normal maps, and uncompressed textures). With 5 different subsets of textures and 4 manual steps per texture subset it takes 20 manual steps to optimize an individual mod (worst case). The batch files take care of steps 2 and 3 automatically, take care of all of the texture subset types automatically, and can be used to simultaneously optimize multiple mods. They do this by automatically separating the textures into separate subdirectories prior to any DDSopt optimization. Thus steps 2 and 3 above are done first for all the mods and texture types, and then the optimization is done. With the batch files, optimizing textures takes 2 steps per texture type (steps 1 and 4) so there are only 10 steps, and these steps are simpler than those used when manually optimizing. Moreover, since the batch file approach can handle multiple mods simultaneously, only 10 steps are need for a large set of mods. The time to run the batch files is a small portion of the total optimization time; DDSopt optimization takes 80-90% of the time. The total time is similar with both the manual and batch methods, but with the batch files the user can leave the computer while the DDSopt optimization is running so the batch approach takes less user time.

#1 is the recommended approach, although I suggest optimizing a portion of the mods then doing another portion vs. one single huge optimization. The optimization process works on the textures in individual mod files, not on the textures installed in Skyrim\Data. I don't really understand #2. You seem to be saying optimize all the texture files in Skyrim\Data\textures (which would take a very long time with DDSopt and optimizes many textures which shouldn't be optimized), then remove all the textures that shouldn't be optimized by reinstalling the original versions of the mods. Among other issues, this will cause significant problems with the vanilla textures which are separately optimized. It will also be tedious since Wrye Bash won't allow two versions of a mod with the same file name, and if the names are different I don't see how WB maintains the proper installation order. I doubt it would work well with Mod Organizer either. I also don't see how it can work in a maintenance mode when updates to mods, removal of mods, and new mods are periodically being added.

I have the same number of files/folders in Vanilla Extracted\Dawnguard .

It's a wiki; just edit the guide directly. If there are any problems the previous versions are saved in history (I've used these myself when I didn't enter what I meant to enter).

Since it was unclear, the wording should be changed so that future readers won't have similar problems. Feel free to edit the guide to make it clearer or make some suggestions on what we should change to improve the descriptions in the guide and batch files; if you don't get a chance to do so, I'll do some editing to try to improve the discussion. I will add a screenshot of the folder details; that should help with several of the questions we have had recently.

The second batch file i run is "2_Pre-optimization.bat" -- since i dont have sufficient free space on my SSD, all of this is on my HDD, thus the execution of this batch file takes approx 10-15 minutes to complete.Once complete, I check the log file. The wiki says that there should be 14 blank lines (17 blank lines according to the message in the batch file output). I have 71 blank lines. The combined size of all contents in the 4 new folders (Vanilla Textures, Vanilla Normal Maps, Vanilla Uncompressed Normal Maps, Vanilla Optimized) should match the starting size of the files in 'Vanilla Extracted' (14.5gb-size on disk). My total size is 12.6gb (size on disk) -- [8.0gb Vanilla Textures; 3.22gb Vanilla Normal Maps; 1.38gb Vanilla Uncompressed Normal Maps; 18MB Vanilla Optimized] So, this is where im stuck. Short of sifting through everything, file by file, to see which files have not been moved/processed, i dont really know what i should/can do at this point. Is there a way to get a detailed/debug log? Any help would be nice. Otherwise I'll just have to do everything manually

The vanilla texture batch files have been used by many people by now and there don't seem to be any significant problems using them. They include some fixes (particularly removal of duplicate files from HRDLC and keeping several problematic vanilla textures from being optimized) that would otherwise be very tedious to accomplish. We certainly recommend these. The new STEP mod batch files haven't had much testing yet. The batch commands are fairly general (unlike the vanilla batch files, there are no commands that specifically address a small set of files) and use fairly straightforward features of the Windows robocopy program, but it's always possible there could be occasional issues since robocopy (Robust Copy) has some limitations. So far the only issue I've seen in my testing is that mods with multiple optional resolutions in the mod file (e.g., the All-in-one installer for Real Ice) don't work properly with the current version of the batch files (the batch files function without error, but they don't separate out the optional resolutions so they can be optimized with different parameters). Most STEP users are doing the STEP mod optimizations manually, but I find this a little tedious (especially if you want to use different resolutions for exterior textures) and it's also fairly easy to make errors when using the filtering features of DDSopt. If you use the new batch files I suggest using it with a small set (perhaps ten mods or less) per run for a while until there has been more testing. Of course, let us know if you encounter any problems. I'm writing additional documentation for the new batch files and I'll provide this soon.

I'm not sure exactly what is missing; I have one additional file in the Dawnguard folder in Vanilla Textures. Until you find a problem I suggest ignoring the missing file.

EZ2C Dialog Menu was mentioned a while ago, but I don't think it ever go its own thread. I prefer it to the current STEP choice since it has additional capabilities. Immersive Animations was discussed briefly in a Skyrim Revisited thread a little while ago; I think Neo is looking at it.

For me Fallout/Fallout2 were the best since they mixed a good story line with humor and interesting character development. I liked Fallout 3 and Fallout NV also, but they are quite different. While I have played those, I also have a number of inexpensive games I've bought on Steam sales (and a few other sites with older games) that are still waiting for me to play them.

For 2.3.0 I thought the goal was to have a single compatibility patch plugin that covered conflicts among all the mods in Core (but only among those mods). That seems consistent with z's comment.

It should be safe to remove. Chesko posted a while ago that he is working on this mod as it has some konwn bugs.

If you are manually optimizing STEP mods with DDSopt, you can do as you suggest using S2 constraints for normal maps (then hit process). When that finishes, you can select everything (use *.* in filter) and use S1 constraints. DDSopt won't write over textures it has already optimized. Few STEP mods have any uncompressed textures. If you want to separately optimize the uncompressed textures (for mods that have them) you will need to deselect all textures, find the uncompressed ones and check them, then process with the uncompressed settings. It is preferable to do this before the step using S1 constraints above. Post the number of files/folders in the Dawnguard directory in the temporary folders if you still have them.

There aren't many large (2Kx2K) textures in the vanilla textures, so you could probably use the High settings for these textures. You will certainly want to be careful with texture resolutions of mods with exterior textures.

Great work Nearox. Hope you are able to keep it updated as mods evolve.

This is the introduction of new batch files for use in optimizing STEP mods. They are available here since they are still beta versions; I have tested them but they are not fully tested yet. The other batch files for use with the DDSopt guide are also included; it includes a small change in 2_Pre-optimization.bat for vanilla textures. The main new batch file is 4_Mod_Sorting&Pre-optimization.bat. The 5_Compress_Mods_7z.bat file is also included for automated archiving of the optimized mods. The purpose of this batch file is to prepare one or more mods for optimization using DDSopt. The batch file sorts textures in the mod(s) into a set of temporary folders. Each temporary folder will typically be optimized with a different set of DDSopt Constraint tab parameters (format and resolution). As with the batch files for vanilla textures, normal maps and uncompressed textures are separated from the rest of the textures. The batch file works with one or more mods, so it can be used incrementally as new mods/updates become available or you want to try a different strategies to control VRAM use. As with the previous batch files, the purpose is to reduce some of the tedious tasks involved in optimizing. In addition, there is an option to separate exterior textures from other textures. Exterior textures typically cause greater VRAM use than other textures, and there has been much discussion in the DDSopt threads about the advantages of reducing the resolution of these textures to half that used for the rest of the textures (interior, NPC, etc.). This batch file supports two different ways of separating exterior textures. For mods placed in the "Mod Extracted" directory, any textures in the terrain, landscape, and architecture directories are moved to either the "Mod Exterior Textures" or "Mod Exterior Normal Maps" temporary subdirectories. For mods that have been released with multiple resolutions, a different approach can be used. The higher resolution version of the mod is placed in "Higher Res Mod Files" subdirectory and the lower resolution version in "Lower Res Mod Files" subdirectory. The lower resolution version of the mod is used for exterior textures (textures in the three directories with exterior textures are moved to either "Mod Exterior Textures" or "Mod Exterior Normal Maps"). The higher resolution version is used for all other textures; textures in this version (excluding those in the three directories of exterior textures) are copied to the "Mod Ordinary Textures", "Mod Normal Maps", or "Mod Uncompressed Textures" temporary subdirectories. The higher resolution version is also used as the source for any non-texture files from the mod. Uncompressed textures (excluding any exterior textures since there are almost never any uncompressed exterior textures) are also sorted automatically into a single directory. If you feel the uncompressed normal maps should be in a different folder that the other uncompressed textures let me know. Note that there are very few uncompressed textures in mods, and most of these are in body mod textures especially in skin-related textures. Currently I included terrain, landscape, and architectural texture folders in the exterior category. If there are suggestions to include other textures, or to exclude portions of these, let me know. One of the advantages of Optimizer Textures that has been mentioned is that it can optimize a large set of mods at once; unfortunately it is hard to be very selective in which mods and textures are optimized. With these batch files a large set of selected mods can be optimized using DDSopt without much time needed for user interaction.

The existing batch files move any large normal maps in the DLC and HRDLC to the vanilla normal maps folder, so when you run the optimization of this folder just select a smaller max resolution to get size reduction. The Constraints tab figures already include this in their recommended settings; you shouldn't have to do any additional optimization.

I thought that *.fomod files were actually 7-zip archives; the fomod extension brings up the Fomod installer. To get automatic installation with Fomod files they need an fomod script if there are any options in installation. Does Mod Organizer handle the fomod scripts from Fallout 3? Darn helped the group that did SkyUI when they were starting. Skyrim interfaces are completely different than those in the Fallout and previous TES games, so the code he developed previously wasn't useful in Skyrim.

The initial batch files we wrote were for the vanilla textures since these are the ones that are most likely to be used. The batch files separate the textures into compressed normal maps, uncompressed textures, and everything else (typical color map textures). There aren't any equivalent batch files yet for the mods to separate the textures prior to optimization (I'm working on them). There are only a few mods that have any uncompressed textures, so this part often doesn't matter (mods that have uncompressed textures have note 1 or note 4 in the last column of the STEP mod list in the DDSopt guide, by the way - Consistent Older People is not one of them). In the meantime if you want to use different resolution for the normal maps than for the color maps, as you indicate you want to do, you can do this manually with DDSopt. There is an example in the DDSopt guide appendix of how to do this as well as a number of forum posts where users have described the steps.

What constraints setting was incorrectly set (note that some of them won't affect the results with the vanilla texture data)? Check the following: Vanilla Textures: STD folder should have 18,376 files in 427 folders Vanilla Normal Maps: STD folder should have 5 files, 11 folders Vanilla Uncompressed Textures: STD folder should have 189 files, 5 folders If these 3 are OK you could remove the STD folder from Vanilla Optimized and run DDSopt on just the STD folders in the 3 temporary Vanilla directories with output to a new STD folder in the Vanilla Optimized folder.

When you run the 2nd batch file, there are three new folders: Vanilla Textures Compressed Normal Maps Uncompressed Textures In the "Browser" tab you start by browsing to (using the browse button) and then selecting the "Vanilla Textures" folder in the upper window (the input window). You then browse to and select the "Vanilla Optimized" folder in the lower window. Then select the "Constraints" tab and make that window look like it does in the "S1 Ordinary Textures" picture. Then click "Process". This will optimize the textures in the "Vanilla Textures" folder. When this completes go back to the "Browser tab", click Browse, and select the "Compressed Normal Maps" folder in the upper window. You don't need to change the selection in the lower window, Now go to the "Constraints" tab and make the parameters look like those in the S2 figure. Click Process. When that finishes do this again selecting the "Uncompressed Textures" folder in the "Browser" tab and in the "Constraints" tab make the parameters look like those in figure S3. Click Process.