PCG4m3r

Version 1.1 is up! Sorry for taking forever to get it updated guys. Per torminater's request, I made separate plugins for each of the DLCs and also one which includes DG, HF, and DB. The original ESP is still included without any DLC requirements. All plugins carry forward changes from the Unofficial patches, where necessary and have been cleaned. Here's the full changelog for 1.1. VERSION INFO / CHANGELOG Version 1.1 - ESP updated with Skyrim Patch / Creation Kit 1.9.32.0 May still work with 1.8.151.0 but not recommended - Separate ESP files created for each DLC CHOOSE ONLY ONE ESP!! - Carried forward changes from official DLCs and Unofficial patches for each respective ESP ----- From USKP 1.3.1a (where necessary) ----- From UDGP 1.2.1a (where necessary) ----- From UHFP 1.1.0 (where necessary) ----- From UDBP 1.0.3b (where necessary) - ESP files Cleaned with TES5Edit 3.0.29 - Improved one of the small texture sets I wasn't satisfied with how it looked in game - Packaged in BAIN compatible format for Wrye Bash and Mod Organizer users

Hey Neo, Wow! Lots of changes recently! I can't say it enough that I really appreciate all the work you put into your guide and continue to put into it for us. And congrats on the success with Dual Sheath Redux! I'm glad to see you added RLO and COT into the guide. The only question I have is for Lanterns Of Skyrim the guide recommends the Default preset, but mannygt has a preset specifically for RLO. Do you know if it would look better to use the RLO patch since RLO is installed or does the Default give the same effect? I haven't tried them both out myself with RLO, but was curious if you compared the two presets. Keep up the great work! :)

Thanks for the feedback torminater :) I replied to several of your points. Also note, even though I cleaned with TES5Edit (removed any ITMs and UDRs) before uploading to the Nexus, based on patch 1.8.151.0, I'm doing it again with patch 1.9.32.0 and the latest TES5Edit, because it looks like it there are several more ITMs.Â

Thanks for letting me know Kal. I had cleaned all ITMs/UDRs before I uploaded, but that was with Skyrim and Creation Kit 1.8.151.0. I wonder if the differences now are due to patch 1.9. And you're correct, the ESP is the same for all files, but only differ in texture sizes. I'm going through it now to clean up and also integrate changes made by DLCs and Unofficial patches. I hope to have the mod updated (version 1.1) by tomorrow at the latest.

Hey z, haven't forgotten about this, but unfortunately my time lately has been consumed with RL issues. It didn't help that Steam updated my Skyrim and the CK to 1.9 even though it was set to not do that (no surprise though! :)). I've been playing catch up getting all my installed mods updated (I'm using Neo's Skyrim Revisited setup). The current version of my SIP mod will still work even with 1.9 installed, but I started working on an update with the new patch and new CK version. I found two instances that do not carry forward some fixes made by the USKP and my next update (1.1) will include those, so that it will not undo what the USKP fixed. One instance was a correction of the music played while inside the Windhelm Barracks and I can't remember what the other was at the moment. I did attempt to make the original Bethesda decals higher res per my previous post and placed them underneath the real (jagged edge) water puddle effects to see if it gave the impression of a smoother transition. Unfortunately, the jagged puddle was still very obvious no matter what I tried, so that idea won't work. In my spare time I've been trying to learn how to use 3ds max (no small task) and NifSkope. I'm hoping to learn enough so that I can try to edit the ground meshes and/or water puddle mesh myself to see if I can make them look smoother. Of course, if Brumbek decides to update those, I will gladly use his meshes! :) I haven't asked him about those yet, but I will. I know you're a busy guy around here, but if you get an opportunity and want to quickly check SIP out in game, try the following: 1. Install the ESP with included \textures folder and activate the plugin NOTE: For a quick test, load order can be at the very bottom to keep it simple, but I have BOSS Userlist Manager setup to put SkyrimImprovedPuddles.esp at the BOTTOM of "Water and Lava" in my setup. 2. Go in game and open the console, then type coc WindhelmMarketplaceExterior 3. Take a look at the ice textures on ground around the Windhelm Market area (those textures are only used in Windhelm) 4. Open the console again and type coc IlinaltasDeep01 NOTE: You can ignore enemies by also typing tgm in the console, which will help keep you from dying while you look around. 5. Walk through the place and take a look at the real puddle effects on the ground (some are Bethesda placed, some are Brumbek's, and some are mine. I also added some water drips above and water splashes in the puddles where necessary to give it more immersion -- some had drips, but no splash effects or splash effects weren't placed correctly, etc.)

That's too bad Neo. Hope you feel better soon.

I agree the modified look is more jagged in certain places (outside of Windhelm). Unfortunately I think it's a limitation with the game engine and no way to fix that as far as I know. The changes that were made actually use real water puddle effects instead of the static decal textures, which I think makes the environment feel more alive. The jaggedness is likely due to those water puddle effects "fitting" around the meshes on the ground, which in and of themselves are jagged in shape it seems. If the ground was less sharp/jagged, then it may flow together more smoothly. Unfortunately, I don't know how to improve the meshes at this point, but may try to figure that out at some point. In the meantime, based on your feedback, I've been playing with the original Bethesda decals to see if I can make them at least look better. What I may do is try to "fit" modified versions of those underneath the real water effects that were added or that had replaced the ugly decals, so that it gives the appearance of a smoother transition, but still retains the lively water effects. When I get far enough with the changes, I'll post some samples here for feedback.

@all Thanks for suggesting my mod for S.T.E.P. I just posted version 1.0. Those shiny textures were just the initial improvements over the really ugly vanilla decals, but certainly were not my final version. The version I just uploaded includes my new ice textures for Windhelm and hopefully look much better. The textures still are not perfect, especially the smaller ones, but I'm new at creating textures and I really had a hard time getting the normal maps right. As I gain more experience and have time, I will try to make them even better than they are now. Hopefully you all like the result for now though. :) Also note, Brumbek (SMIM author) figured out how to make the puddles real water instead of ugly, static decals. He shared his plugin and was kind enough to let me incorporate his edits into my mod. I used that as a baseline for version 1.0 of my mod and made some additional tweaks of my own. I will expand on the mod into more areas to try and improve/fix puddles wherever needed. Feedback welcome! :) EDIT: Here's the original thread: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1741

@Brumbek Thanks again for letting me use your ESP. I just updated my mod with our edits combined and it also has my new ice puddle textures for Windhelm. It took fooooorreeeeveerrr trying to get those textures looking good and I suck at it, especially the normal maps. But I did the best I could for now and may try to improve them once I learn how to do that kind of thing better. @all Hope you like the results so far! :)

Thanks! I finally got around to making my version. Basically, I disabled all 34 decal puddles the game uses and replaced them all with the real water puddles the game uses 100 other places in the game. They should have never used these ugly decal puddles. As PCG4m3r has no doubt found out, you can't seem to fix the texture on the decals...even with very high quality textures the decals look terrible in-game. So...real puddles was the only proper solution, IMO. Here is an archive with my .esp and screenshots comparing. (ESP is perfectly clean.) Before After Before After Anyone is free to modify and improve what I've done. I've check out half of the ten locations in-game and they all look great with the real puddles. I will mention to SparrowPrince he should include this in WATER. PCG4m3r: Feel free to use my .esp or incorporate into your mod...more could be done like more nuanced placing of puddles...anyway. Thanks to all for the info about this issue. Brumbek, thank you so much kind sir! :D I loaded up your ESP and those WaterPuddle* objects definitely look better than the puddle decals. I really appreciate you allowing me to use that in my mod. Would you mind if I combined your edits and my edits into a single ESP, just so anyone downloading doesn't have to load 2 separate plugins? I would of course give you full credit for your edits. IMO, I think the Windhelm area may be the only place where moving water puddles would look better as ice, which is what I've tried to do in my mod. So that may be the only change I personally would make. I'm getting much closer to what I envisioned for the ice and here is an in-progress sample, but still needs some work: Windhelm Ice Decal That is actually a new decal I created and so far I'm only working on a large version at this time. I'll also create some medium and small versions that have a slightly different look, so these can be placed anywhere and I think adds to the realism that Windhelm is a cold/icy place.  The problem with the vanilla decals, for those who weren't aware, is that not only are they static images, there are four in a single 512x512 DDS (4 quadrants essentially each with a different puddle shape). That same image is used for the small, medium, and large DecalPuddle* objects and the game engine randomly picks one of the shapes to spawn when loading the cell. In the case of the large, they are severely stretched because the game varies between 256 and 512 for the size when used in game (i.e. one portion/quadrant of the 512x512 DDS stretched to become 256 or 512 in game). Needless to say, they're ugly! :) Once I finish my ice textures, I'll take your idea of using the WaterPuddle* objects and will incorporate more of those throughout Skyrim, wherever it may make sense. Thanks again for the ESP and your efforts!

Thanks rootsrat! :D I'd be curious to know what you think about it after you've had a look in game, not just the ice textures, but how I fixed some of the other problems mentioned in the Description and sticky in the Posts section. For the ice, I'm trying to figure out how to make it look like real ice. Currently it looks like a shiny, bumpy texture of some kind and from a distance it's not bad, but up close, to me it still doesn't look good. More work to do! ...:) If you find any issues with the changes, let me know. After the textures look better, I may try to expand and fix other areas that could use some puddle treatment, like a puddle overhaul! LOL

I created a new mod that is an improvement over my first one: Skyrim Improved Puddles - SIP - WIP BETA I started from scratch with a new plugin for that one. The specific changes I made are listed in the Description page. Essentially I made the puddles ice instead of water in Windhelm and they are separate textures/objects to keep them distinct from all other puddles, which will look more like water. I also fixed some problems I found with puddles in game as I was going through the CK. The textures still need MUCH improvement (I'm new at this), but it's a start. :) Also, I added some step-by-step details in the mod's Posts section, identifying how you can see some of the other before/after changes I made in game.

Thanks for doing that torminater. Another texture pack would be great and hope they do fix those. Appreciate it. :)

Thanks Neo. I really appreciate that! I was hoping maybe you'll consider it for SR if I was to do a good enough job on the textures. :D For now, I updated my mod and added an optional file to hide the low res puddles everywhere else in the game, if anyone is interested. The locations are listed in the version info and I believe those are the only places those decals appear from what I can tell in the CK. I changed the title to "Ugly Low Res Puddles Be Gone" too.

Forgot to mention, I posted my mod the other day. :)https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33129 Also, I've been working on trying to improve the textures myself, just to see if I can figure it out. Here's what I've managed to do so far. It's an improvement compared to vanilla, but a bit too shiny and needs a lot of tweaking. This is new for me, so I'm having to learn as I go, but hopefully will be worth it if I can do it right! Ugly Vanilla: My improved textures:

Some of the other areas, like the ground surface below Candlehearth Hall have the puddle textures tied to the mesh. A good example of this is the following: meshes\architecture\windhelm\whlandfront2.nif That NIF is covered with these DDS files: textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_n.dds textures\cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_m.dds and then another layer over top those above with these DDS files, which are the puddles you see elsewhere: textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughgroundmud.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughgroundwet_n.dds textures\cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHextrawet_m.dds The Market area (i.e. whmarket01.nif) only has these DDS files tied to the mesh: textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughground.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughground_n.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_n.dds textures\cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_m.dds and the decals were applied over them: \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles.dds \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles_n.dds \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles_m.dds \textures\Cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds I could be wrong, but to apply the more common puddles in the Market area I believe would just require editing the whmarket01.nif and applying those DDS files in orange over top, essentially tying them to the mesh. Unfortunately I don't know how to edit UVs or meshes, otherwise I would give it a shot.Â

I salute you for finding this. I missed the decals on my first look. Arthmoor the genius had to help me. Well...deleting the puddles obviously is one method...but that isn't what the developers intended, since you lose the puddles entirely.The true fix for this would be to create a new proper puddle .nif that uses the proper puddle textures you mentioned in yellow. Then insert the new puddles and disable the old ones. That is the true solution. This could be done by modifying the waterpuddle01.nif mesh.I may attempt this at a later date...replacing all terrible decal puddles with proper puddles...perhaps even the USKP would include this fix then, although they may deem it beyond the scope of the USKP. I will update this thread if I do take the time to replace all the puddles. For now, though, the decal puddles remain a mystery to me. Perhaps only the developers would know if decal puddles can be improved. Welcome Brumbek! I think I speak for most, if not all on the forum, that your SMIM mod is one of the best and an absolute essential mod to make Skyrim look better! Thank you so much for all your hard work. :) I appreciate the feedback and would love to see things like this in Windhelm fixed by your mod, if possible. Based on what I've been able to tell from the CK, these are the files related to the decals. They are low-res 512x512 DDS files with 4 different puddle shapes in the same image file and are blurry, so it's no wonder they look terrible. \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles.dds \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles_n.dds \textures\Puddle\DecalPuddles_m.dds \textures\Cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds I don't see any reference in the CK to a NIF file that calls those DDS files. It might be that these are more like "stickers" for lack of better term, that just get placed on top of surfaces anywhere Bethesda or a modder decides to put them. I don't know enough about the CK to dig further though. I guess they could be improved if someone made a higher res version of those files, but I'm not sure if that would be good enough. What I ended up doing was just hid those decals below the surface and set them to disabled. So they are still available and if a Bethesda script happens to enable any of them, they will still be hidden. I also made sure to keep them within the same cell location so to prevent any possible errors. Now the 4 market puddles are gone (confirmed in-game). I may post a mod on the Nexus later (my first mod! :)) per torminater's suggestion. If these ever get fixed by SMIM or USKP, I'll remove the mod.

Good to know. Thanks torminater! I definitely have much to learn with regard to the CK. I tried it again and instead of deleting this time I chose to edit each and checked a box called "Initially Disabled". In addition, I deselected the box "Respawns" (it was checked), since we don't want these to respawn. The only problem is I still see two puddles in-game by doing it this way. I'm not sure if a Vanilla script is somehow setting them to enabled again, but I confirmed all 4 objects are still set to "Initially Disabled" when I go back and look at the ESP in the CK. I did notice another option under an "Enable Parent" tab for each object called "Set Enable State to Opposite of Parent" but I don't know what that does exactly and I'm hesitant to make other changes without knowing what I'm doing. That Enable Parent box is checked for the 3 medium puddles, but it's not checked for the large one. Any suggestions?

ICE OF SKYRIM: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3030 That one has actually been around since December 2011 (a month after Skyrim was first released) and I still think it has the best looking icicles. I've tried some of the icefloe and glacier meshes/textures in that mod and they're ok, but I prefer Real Ice All-In-One and SRO for those. I just use it for the icicles only. Here are some examples (comparing Skyrim Revisited Default and SR with Ice of Skyrim): https://imgur.com/a/ke4vi#3 It conflicts with meshes/textures in a few mods, but just load this after those conflicting mods. I put mine after WATER in MO Â Installed Mods. These are the only files I install: \meshes\landcape\ice\ iciclebigclump.nif iciclebigsingle01.nif iciclebigstrip.nif iciclesmallclump.nif iciclesmallsingle.nif iciclethinstrip.nif \textures\landscape\ icicle.dds icicle_n.dds icicleparallax.dds

Hopefully there is a fix to this... There is a FIX guys!! :) I didn't even know about those puddles until I read this thread and after seeing them for myself I had to figure out how to get rid of them because they definitely looked terrible! I searched through every property in the mesh file but couldn't find the problem. It turns out, the only way to fix this is in the CK. And this was also my very first time creating a plugin in the CK, so I'm proud of myself for figuring it out! Here's what I did to fix: EDIT: Updated steps based on torminater's tip below (NEVER Delete in the CK). Thanks torminater! EDIT: I checked the results of the ESP in TES5Edit and by doing it this way, with no other changes, it looked clean. I know very little about using the CK beyond this, so I don't know if there's a better way to do this type of edit, but I tested it out in-game and all I know is the "WindhelmPuddlesBeGone"!!! Now if only we had some quality textures surrounding the other icy puddles throughout Windhelm! I spent a lot of time looking in NifSkope and comparing textures, editing them in Photoshop, trying different combinations from a few mods to try and get the best result. These are the primary textures that seem to affect the quality of the puddles. textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughgroundmud.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHroughgroundwet_n.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_n.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHstreetstone01_m.dds textures\architecture\windhelm\WHextrawet_m.dds textures\cubemaps\QuickSkyDark_e.dds I compared SRO, Skyrim HD2K, Vanilla/HRDLC, and Langley's Wood/Metal. The last 2 files are only available in the Vanilla Skyrim textures and the cubemap is very small and pixelated, which contributes to some of the problem we see. It does seem that SRO gives the best result all around, but the 3 WHstreetstone* textures from SRO just look like they were upscaled versions of Vanilla or HRDLC2 textures, so are are blurry when viewed up close and still retain the qualities that show bad pixellation in-game. Look close at WHstreetstone01_m.dds and I think that one is part of the problem along with the pixelated cubemap. Still, I'll take SRO over vanilla any day! I did some tweaks to a couple SRO files to try and improve the looks and the results from in-game are posted here (showing Vanilla, SRO original, and SRO TWEAKED textures): https://imgur.com/a/q4Pkd#5 NOTE: Those are 2560x1600 res images, so will be best viewed when opening in separate tabs and navigating back and forth to see the comparisons. There were no other mods, except for the 5 texture files in yellow above, with the exception of the first image in each group, which is pure Vanilla. Here's what files I edited and how to get those TWEAKED results for the 3rd image in each group in case anyone is interested: 1. Used SRO for all yellow textures above (as mentioned) 2. Used the NVidia DDS Viewer Plugin for Photoshop to open/save as DDS 3. In Photoshop I opened SRO's whstreetstone01_m.dds and performed a basic >Filter >Blur >Blur 3 times, then saved it as a DDS color map file with DXT5/interpolated alpha and "Generate MIP maps" on 4. Also in Photoshop, I opened SRO's WHstreetstone01.dds and did the following: Immediately chose File, Save As using the NVidia DDS file type optionUnder Normal Map, chose "Convert to Tangent Space Normal Map" with these options: Checked Invert Y7 x 7 sampleMin Z=0, Scale=8Alpha Field=HeightAlternate Conversions= ColorspaceUnder Image Options, set Compression Quality to "Highest"Generate MIP maps onDXT5/interpolated alphaI've never really messed with DDS textures other than installing them with mods, so I don't know if the choices I made are even good ones, but I think the results look better and certainly not as pixelated in-game. It was more of an experiment for me to see what I could learn and figure out, but hope someone else finds it useful. I also haven't tried running DDSopt against those tweaked files yet, but I probably will at some point.

Neo, something to be aware of. I was looking for the "+ Updated Arrow Count" mentioned in the guide for Closer Quivers/Longer Arrows and couldn't find it on the mod's download page. This is what the author wrote in the comments: "I had to temporarily take down the CQv3 Updated Arrow Count files. I have to fix something. Sorry, folks." I'm not sure what needs to be fixed or when it will be back up, but will try to keep an eye out for the update.

Hey Neo, First, just wanted to say thanks again for your continued efforts to give us an awesome suite of mods to use in SR. Your hard work is very much appreciated. :) I noticed a couple changes that weren't documented in the latest changelog and I wanted to make sure these were intentional. Lanterns of Skyrim Showed the new version 2.0 yesterdayChanged back to "1.3 (Dawnguard Compatible)" todayVibrant Auroras Showed the new version 1.2 yesterday with 2.0x optionalChanged back to 1.1 today

I believe those may indeed be typos try the files 080053E5 and 080053EC - probably best to wait for confirmation from Neo though.This is more than likely correct if said nodes exist. They do and it is what I did.It looks like that's what it was. I found 080053E5 and 080053EC under Ingestible RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp and was able to make the changes. Thanks all for the help!Â

Hey Neo, Going through the latest update to Realistic Needs and Diseases 1.9.2 and in the first part of the TES5Edits, there are a couple Form IDs I'm not able to find. I'm good on all of those listed below until I get to "070053E5" and "070053EC". Repeat this for the "0003133B","0003133C","00034C5D","000508CA","00085368","000C5348","000C5349","000F693F","070053E5", and "070053EC" nodes. I even tried filtering on those two, but nothing shows up and I'm certain I have all the right ESMs and ESPs selected (triple-checked). If those are definitely the right Form IDs, any idea why they could be missing from my end?

Hey Alt3rn1ty, I made sure Skyrim was the selected game when I had used BSAopt to unpack/repack. Of course, in my case I didn't experience any crash, but just a strange issue with some Hearthfire courier letter not working right. I don't know what else it could be, but it worked for Kelmych. Any ideas?