TechAngel85

Since Z tossed that out there, I'm going to say that he is correct on all the sets. I think anyone who has a good knowledge of what the normals do could have guessed correctly. Set 11 is the interesting result I referred to. Both Aiyen and Z chose the original normal to be the better looking option and I agree with them on at least that one set. I am about to have to head to work, but I will give my full review and opinions this evening. I honestly think it comes down to a more personal choice and if anything results from this, perhaps the compares will give users a better understanding of what TB is doing in-game and allow them to better choose which they like best.

I'll go ahead and give that one away since it has been brought up before this compare. In set 2, A is TB and in set 3, B is TB. This is the glacierslab_n.dds file. I think those are probably the most obvious set as to which is TB and with are the original normals. As Aiyen stated, neither are ideal and it would be best to have something in-between. Maybe SparrowPrince can tone that normal down a bit.

So far, there is at least one interesting result from this that will most likely lead to another TB normal being hidden, if it is voted to be kept.

8 has very lil to do with the snow. You should be focusing in on the path stones and road path here and not the snow. Same with in set 1. The snow related normals from TB, I choose as being okay since the actual texture is 98% of how the final result looks. Like you said, the snow normals have every little effect. 9... not sure which you are voting for here...A?

Okay, took 6 more shots from a "natural" distance. This is the distance that you would mostly be seeing these textures since many of them are right on or near the main roads. Again, in random order. 8) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/qpFCd68.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/hqpMsGk.jpg 9) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/8atqqs9.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/TY8jl7v.jpg 10) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/t5BlmvA.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/8OWhBWI.jpg In this set, you get the added bonus of a few (a least 3 affected textures in one shot). 11) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/zM5J1Qv.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/A5NV8fk.jpg 12) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/WwPY2qs.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/ICoq3VH.jpg Ignore the top half of the screen here. Those objects are random on load. 13) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/FSm6l55.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/CisDpkf.jpg

If it's tied to ENB weather, it's most definitely the ENB preset at fault.

I could take some wider shots; however, since these are landscape textures you're not going to see the details of what the normals are actually doing in most of them. Some of them will look nearly identical. I can assure you that regardless of Terrain Bump being active or not, the blending in the distances isn't an issue. I'll see if I can get a mix of close ups and wider shots. But it might not be today.

Both EssArrBee and myself know the answers as to which image is which so we've both held off really putting in out 2 cents. I sent him the "answer key" before anyone voted as to keep things unbiased. I'll hold off at least another day for anyone that is wanting to comment.

I take it you haven't noticed: worldmapoverlaysnow_n.dds

I seen Hodilton's video of this several days ago. I thought they looked a bit "cartoonish" and didn't really fit in. But that was only my impression from the video. Never actually tried it in-game.

It means extract the ENB preset (also referred to as profile) files and you downloaded from Nexus. MO will not install the preset files. MO only installs files into the Data folder. The preset files have to be installed into the root Skyrim directory. I don't even know how you found that wiki page, but this is the one you want: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB

Sharp eye there Keith! Good feedback too.

Hahaha! That is about the most direct answer I've seen around here! Love it!

Whatever the outcome of the voting, I will no longer be using Terrain Bump in my personal setup and only keep it in the STEP ones if it stays. I've seen up close what it's doing to a lot of the textures and I don't like it (regardless of how subtle some of it is...some of it is not so subtle tho like that last compare).

Just so users know what incorrect normals can cause, they can create stretching, warping, discoloration, blurring, smearing, and other "oddities".

Screenshots have been posted on the mod's thread: https://forum.step-project.com/topic/1535-terrain-bump-texture-pack-by-sparrowprince/?p=101118

Okay, I grabbed some shots and posted them below. The full size image links are posted below the sets. To keep is unbiased, the groups are unlabeled and in a random order. You tell me which looks better in each group. 1) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/M0IeCOw.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/j9w2Mil.jpg 2) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/NIPqwt1.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/LLemPuj.jpg 3) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/49j2nNK.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/RdjLj0f.jpg 4) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/cuZGPom.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/1uWWXaS.jpg 5) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/8PvUch5.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/o3BC7ja.jpg 6) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/zRUYJNg.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/3jPMetn.jpg 7) A >> B https://i.imgur.com/xqhT6aU.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/X0Ny9k7.jpg To be honest, the difference are hard to see in some of the images with out gallery so viewing the full size image might be necessary (it's going to be full size when you play the game which is a downside to our gallery with compares like this that are more subtle). I assure you, there are difference in each set though. My eyes were able to pick up on the difference almost immediately.

Plan on grabbing a few if I can find some of the textures.

I had not properly researched that one and there wasn't in info on it in Keith's document so what was there was whatever left from before the overhaul. Funny how none of the author's picked up on that one. Any, I did the research and it turns out is was completely backwards. Here's the new wording: "This parameter will enable or disable memory compression. It is enabled by default. Disabling memory compression can reduce stutter, but at the cost of more RAM usage. For this reason, it is generally only recommended to be disabled on systems with more than 2GB VRAM. Any system that is already nearing its VRAM limit should leave this parameter enabled or it could cause more harm than good."

After comparing each texture to the normals, there are in fact only 9 normals in Terrian Bump that match the textures and, thus, not an issue. That is only 9 normals out of 57 that can be used without any issues. True that this might not be very noticeable in-game, but it will inevitably make a difference. Especially now that the knowledge is out there because users will be looking for it now. Unless Sparrow has plans to make a SRO compatible version, I'm going to recommend we simply drop this one.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm looking into the issue with Terrain Bump: https://forum.step-project.com/topic/1535-terrain-bump-texture-pack-by-sparrowprince/?p=101078

Terrain Bump has been brought up in the Bug Report thread as having some issues again, similar to the issues we had with the mountain slabs. The user and I go back and forth for a bit and I ended it with a promise to look into the issue. In a nutshell, the issue brought up was that normals from Terrain Bump do not match the textures from the mods that it overwrites. Same issue we had with the mountain slabs that lead it to looking very bad in-game and eventually ended with the those normals being hidden. Long story short, the user was right. There are several normals in Terrain Bump that we shouldn't be using because they do not match up to the texture that is being provided. This would result in oddities in-game if a close enough look were to be given to the areas affected. I've just started but thus far I have 7 listed normals that I will be recommending we hide. Since at least one conflict is a from a texture which SRO is providing, I plan on going through the entire list of conflicts to determine if the normals match the textures or not. I will post back with my finding later this evening.

Seems okay. Are you running the latest version is SKSE and have set it up properly?

The ENBoost section of the Guide should now be complete. Once it's got the okay, I'll move on to working on the auxiliary Guide; ENBseries INI Guide. For the ENBoost section I've added in Keith's intro text, completed the installation section (unless anyone thinks pictures are needed), and completed the configuration section. For the configuration section, I simply copied the text from the Enblocal INI section for the [MEMORY] parameters. I feel like these parameters are defined well enough for users to be able to properly set up their ENBoost memory settings without needing to expand upon them. If anyone thinks differently, please let me know.

I think it would be a good thing to find out, though as long as Skyrim has been out this has probably been debated in one way or another so we may not ever know without talking to Bethesda directly. I too have read about various issues with it being disabled and we're currently telling users to disable it on the ENBoost mod page. I shall run with it re-enabled for a time and open discussion up with the Staff at a later time. For now, I'll be working on the ENBoost section, I would like to finish it up today but we'll see if that happens or not.