TechAngel85

This would need to be tested against SkyRealism - Grass and Glorious Grass.

Simple solution for the time being is to not use the Dragonborn addon as it's not that big of a deal to skip it. I'll personally be using CoT with RLO on my actual play-throughs when I'm not testing for STEP.

Because the texture were made to be used with Pure Waters as it's an optional file for that mod. Using them with WATER would be nearly pointless because of the lack of transparency (WATER uses the same values as vanilla in nearly all instances). The only difference you'd see is the shoreline changing from rocks to more dirt/sand like (like they do in the current compare). You wouldn't see the rest of the textures. However, that particular spot doesn't look very good in the first place with just PW alone. I can expand the compares for the textures if everyone would like to see more.

Yes, PW is used and the riverbed textures in the optional file for PW is what is being changed out from default STEP. Then the two animated optional files from WATER is at the end with PW as the water mod. There is quite a bit of difference (view full screen). You'll be looking at the textures along the shore and under the water. I'll agree with you that that one instance wasn't very good. All the others (including the shots that didn't make the video because they were redundant) were very nice and PW was better in nearly all cases; providing a smoother transition from shore to water. If need be, I can add more compares to the video.

I'll vouch for Wet & Cold - Ashes and Langley's Wood Metal and Stone Textures. HD Ivy wasn't included before because the coloring of the ivy didn't fit into the rest of the textures around it. Screenshots will be need for all of it.

Here it is! The texture and optionals compare: [video=youtube] As far as the textures go, I prefer the Pure Waters textures. They are more realistic and provide better transitions, IMO. WATER - Reduced Splash is nice, but a bit unrealistic in this example. When you're standing in ankle deep water and jump like that, you're going to have a much bigger splash...though not as big as vanilla's splash. WATER - Trough Water Animated isn't worth it in my opinion. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I provided one of each. It "tries" to work at the Skyforge but just bugs out. When it does work, it's still unrealistics because the animation is a"flow" animation which there should be any flows in a trough. Your thoughts?

I hope not, but you're probably right considering Skyrim has gotten more of their attention since New Vegas was released.

I don't see it as a downside. I've only played through once and didn't get anywhere close to completing everything the game offers (not to mention the DLCs). This just means they're fully focusing on the next Elder Scrolls release!

Thus last release is a but jumbled up, but we'll get it worked out. :)

I disabled uncapper bc it was causing problems after Skyrim Update 1.9.

That is one aim of STEP, but also to not deviate from vanilla (or as lil as possible). However if this is a simple interface mod (can't check at work), then it's no problem as long as it doesn't conflict.

Not realistic. Who carries multiple sets of armor around with them to be able to change as the situation calls for it? You'd need a caravan!

I went back and added the Water Optionals (Reduced Splash & Trough Water - Animated) to the end of the texture compare video because I felt it was pointless to make a 30 second video over the two optionals separately. I'll get it posted tomorrow with my thoughts on the video overview.

I thought it was removed bc of a bug or it not working...something along those lines. I'm done with the texture compare video, just have to upload it.

I'll wait till I'm completely done with the compares to make my final judgment but atm Pure Waters is standing on top for me. I've not found anywhere yet that the transparency looked unrealistic when keeping in mind that the intent of PW calls for unpolluted waters by pollutants such as waste, dirt, sand, decay, etc.

The only thing that could have done this to my knowlegde is a body mod or RaceMenu.

Pure Waters already covers Dragonborn with an optional download. I'm going to look into the Troughs though. In all likelihood, the troughs animation isn't going to be a big deal, but I'll do the compares to be thorough.

They wanted more compares so I'm going to give them some. I will hopefully have the video up tomorrow but no promises. The real question is... How important are the WATER optionals in STEP? "Reduced Splash" reduces the splash from your character and other objects hitting the water and isn't important unless the vanilla splash is unrealistic (I've never noticed it, but will try to test it). "Extra Wet Rocks" makes the wet rock textures in-game more look more wet (again...I've never noticed but I think I usually skipped this one on my installs). "Troughs - Animated" gives a very small animated wave movement to the troughs (I've stared a several troughs and have never seen this "movement" but I'll try to find one for compares). "Plants" isn't needed at all because Vurt already includes these. "Ice" isn't needed either as it only adds two normal maps from That's Ice (STEP is using Real Ice which has its own normal maps).

Okay, here is the performance data. I tested in six different location with six different water scenarios. Mod / Average FPS Vanilla /Â 38, 28, 39, 37, 37, 34 WATER / 37, 27, 35, 34, 36, 32 Pure W / 36, 27, 35, 34, 35, 31 As you can see there is a 1-4 FPS drop with either mod. The lowest score above is at Riverwood Mill. The others are at various locations from the first compare video.

Unfortunately, I think that is going to look back regardless of which mod is install.

Making my list of things to do with the compares this weekend. What exactly do you mean by "water-air transitions"? EDIT: A quick compare of the two mods shows that the optionals included in WATER do not conflict with Pure Waters. Therefore, you can use "Reduced Splash", "Extra Wet Rocks", "Tough Water - Animated", "Plants", and "Ice" with Pure Waters if you desire those effects. The first three are meshes, to which PW uses no meshes. The last two have textures but none conflict with PW.

I'm going to say this mood should be reconsidered with the current and completely immersion breaking issues. At least until the author fixes them...like the cow spawn point so it's not on the roof and ends up as an anvil, killing the chickens.

The weekend is upon us so I'll be doing some more stuff here that I mentioned above. I'll also take a look to see if the WATER optionals conflict (I could personally care less about the optionals myself. :p ).

If that is truly the case then this mods doesn't need to be in STEP.

I'm with Z on this one and always have been. I've never used this mod because I didn't think it was "lore friendly".