Aiyen

There will always be a drop of about 5-6 FPS even if you only use parallax. The .dll has to load up all dependencies and all the other good stuff inside of it and all of that cost something as well. You can get a bit more performance if you use the forceLodBias to reduce the overall texture quality.

You will CTD if you overload all memory with textures... if you put full 4k textures on everything no current computer would be able to run it! But for 2k and ENBoost setup properly then as long as nothing is wrong with the hardware... and you have suitable amounts of it then it cant cause a CTD. ENBoost simply create a way too large margin to use. Also all textures are only ever loaded once.. so for skin textures it is always loaded since you will always have a model that requires it nearby. Anyways.. if you say you can just reload and play another hour.. then it is most likely just accumulated complexity due to the huge list. Depending on what you do then more or less stuff is stored in buffer as well etc. Most likely it is not just one single thing, but many smaller that just tag team up and create the proverbial drop. Edit: Another option is if you use many high quality model mods or mods that add new models to the world space... polygon count needs to be rather conservative or you will get loading issues or CTD´s upon transitions etc.

The size.... Sorry just had to!

Well if any of the staff feels this is unfair then I guess we could just add it in a note as an alternative. It is just a texture mod, and there are only really this and one other texture replacement. Just a thought anyways!

Hehe you are most welcome Osmodius.... since I am currently working with icicles then I often go that path.. just because there really is something magic about it ... everything there just fits! Even with my rather moderate quality settings! Looking forward to seeing what you cook up as well... also love to look at the textures and meshes in detail to learn from it!

A bad mesh will always cause instant CTD... faulty meshes are annoying to try to find. I currently have one in one of my loading screens.. still need to figure out which one! Anyways as to random CTD´s ... when using ASIS and SkyRe you should just never expect a CTD free experience.... ASIS is just not wise to use on large complex lists. Assuming you got 8Gb+ of RAM and 2Gb of VRAM then a properly setup memory management setup will allow you to run stable with almost full 2k everywhere... almost. Never look on your VRAM usage alone as an indicator of anything... it is just bad practice. In cases where you do not have enough VRAM you will almost always have stuttering and framerate drops due to bottlenecks before CTD´s. But again.. I would start with ASIS removal and then work from there... the features it bring is simply not worth the issues it causes.

Add in their .dll manually in your enblocal.ini file and you should be golden. I am fairly certain that RCRN have this in their faq on their website.. might remember wrong.. it has been a while since I went there. But their documentation is in general very good and easy to follow.

It is easy enough to do (nifskope and find the texture reference and alter the paths.) .. but you are right it would be a cell edit nightmare of epic proportions. It would be something you would do for your own install and not for anything that would be released. Also the memory cost increases as well since you have to load more textures. However some clutter items already exist in several variations (small rocks etc) and there you can just link to different textures instead of using the same all over. That sort of change only requires a new set of meshes.

Regardless of new visual layouts.. then the technical terms are most likely still the same. So as long as you find the corresponding values then you should be good to change them. I am sure someone who actually has an AMD card will chip in with the details soon!

Well no single texture can cover the entire world since well it is the same mesh used all over. One day perhaps someone will create a mod that diversify house textures. One can only dream of having a skyproc patcher for that sort of thing... location specific texture choice! Now that would be mod of the year worthy!

Well my main issue with "realism" arguments are that they simply do not work in a world with magic. Clearly we all have different ideas on how pervasive magic is in TES lore.. since they lore in general is not super good at portraying it. But in all cases then there are not many things in TES lore that show that skyrim is a place of "high magic use". However there is a general theme in TES lore that "back in the old days" then magic was used more then it is today.. hence for older structures etc it stands to reason that magic would be involved in their construction. I also find that most arguments are based on history where one forget to consider vital factors such as "Where is this place in real world history". Example: We had examples of how the romans did windows... well Rome was in a subtropical climate, not in a polar one. So comparing construction techniques from that place to skyrim is kinda.. well it does not really work as a "realism" argument. Proper compares would be viking architecture to that of skyrim.. and you did not really find many windows there. Finally if a culture have a tradition for making glass with patterns in them for artistic reasons or prestige then it stands to reason that many other would do it. Even more so if the style was used by the nobility.. since everyone wants to be a bit like the nobility. Nothing says that this could not be the case in Skyrim. oh well this thread is probably not really the place for this sort of semi academic discussion about the finer points of fantasy world realism! :) From a technical standpoint I like the textures and think they are nice enough for extended as well. It is clear that some work went into them, and I do not think it would be a bad mod for STEP to advocate at all.

Guess weathered is the wrong word... my main thing is that most wood in skyrim is pine wood... and somehow I prefer to have a barky look on the houses rather then the polished worked wood. It just makes the wooden huts feel more like isolated and frontier like places. That construction style is also used in the real world for cabins and such.

I actually use this in a mix with AMB (After a good little GIMP session to convert a few tidbits and normal maps here and there). These textures are really nice, but again the high degree of photo realism is not really a good thing when placed next to something that is not! What I really liked about them was that they managed to hide the repetition of the texture quite well.. as well as having a weathered look!

Well the vanilla adaptation effect is definitely not for everyone... I even think it is vastly overdone. It can depend quite a bit on your monitor settings... It will however not depend on graphics card. Also all of those lighting mods are massive overhauls that alter more or less every single interior and even some exteriors in the game... so it is a bit more then little tweaks. They will however not add new ways to do lighting etc. if that is what you meant. Compared to newer titles then lighting in skyrim is rather limited sadly.

What you experience is adaptation kicking in since word walls and spells are rather bright. When using just vanilla this effect is rather overpowered. There are mods that remove the effect entirely..however it would most likely conflict with the lighting mods.. since they require editing of the same forms. Relighting skyrim, ELFX and RLO are options for interior lighting. If you tried all of those and found they aint what you want then options are slim. You can try to add ELE as a partial solution on top as well. The thing about CoT and ENB is only if you are using the weather patch...It was made to make CoT easier to tweak for ENB users, not as a replacement for CoT. Since CoT works just superb when you do not use an ENB since that is what it is tuned for. Hope that helps a little bit.

Make sure you check for meshes as well since any changed mesh will also alter the visuals... probably more then the textures themselves.

icicles are in textureslandscapeicicle.dds And icicleparallax.dds if one use that.

As long as you follow the guide to the letter you do not have to worry about overwrite conflicts since the guide will already have taken that into account. It is very normal that some mods overwrite others since many assets use vanilla file paths.

Altering the meshes to contain transparency and refraction will alter the color of the model as well. My main gripe with this mod is that it looks awesome in certain locations (for example the caves) however horrible in others (Windhelm). In order to get this effect to really shine one would have to manually edit the various meshes with different settings depending on locale. Also the texture used needs to be one that complements the effects to begin with. And I am fairly certain that the step choices for ice do not do this atm. Hence why there is an overly blue atronach for example.

For any pack with more detailed building textures (read parallax) I would also say it beats VW out of the water. That is really what it comes down to from my perspective.

Well it has been quite some time since we where nit picking over the finer points of history vs fantasy! :) But really skyrim once upon a time had robots that worked via a mix of steam and magic... so why not just about any window type we can come up with.

Main issue with the turing test is that you can simulate your way out of it without ever having AI... with sufficient CPU power and a detailed enough reference table you can do quite a few things... but it does not mean that you have a self learning system in any way. Just a very optimal algorithm for looking through tables. I would almost say that googles search results come from algorithms of a higher "AI" level then anything that has currently "passed" the turing test!

Now the windows with different colors made me curious so fired up the meshes. Issue is that there is no refraction involved since the windows are just a glow shader and nothing else. The refraction part of the engine is not used at all. However they do have identical values in the glow shader.. and the only difference I could just find is that they have slightly different vertex color values... so I guess that is why. Oh well back to messing with crystals for me instead of windows for now!

Tech .. just no. The color of light though any material depends on the composition of said material. In a world that has exotic magical materials then it stands to reason that you can create windows that would create any sort of light transition you could wish for. Also who says that every single window is just glass in the common sense.. it could be magically imbued crystal! There are many other options that a real world line of arguments would never be able to account for... that would still be lore friendly! Also I am not saying that mages are making all the glass on an industrial scale. Rather that it would make sense that when someone orders the construction of a building like say.. the blue palace that some extra attention to detail and exotic materials where put in. So making a mage create some fancy glass is still very much plausible in my optic. Essentially I do not discount the real world.. I am saying that you discount options in a world where magic is a factor! Also I am quite aware that this wont ever make it into core... what I am going against is your line of reasoning in why it should not be there! Essentially it should not be there because the textures do not fit with the building textures in core and nothing else really. All that said then since I am in the process of messing with anything glass and crystal like I have also done windows as part of my testings. Windows are severely limited in this engine since they are just a glow shader and nothing else... there is no real glass properties possible using just that since that would require an environmental map. But that and glow map are mutually exclusive. You can switch them around and get env map properties on windows, however this would require some textures that are essentially just one big sheet of glass/crystal rather then multiple ones since even the metal would be affected when using an env. map. The nice thing about a glow map is that you decide which parts of the texture are applied. But I digress too much for this discussion! To sum up: My vote for core is no since it does not fit the vanilla texture style.

Okay I guess I might as well try to provide some counter arguments for you tech... since you went to so much trouble getting this done. First lore friendly... you are in a world where magic exist.. hence the most cheap way to create glass would probably be to throw a fireball on some sand or something similar. Hence manufacturing cannot really be compared with real history at all. If you did create glass this way then it would most likely not be smooth and flat but rather warped and twisted. In general... there is nothing not lore friendly about this, since all arguments you provide are based on real history in which there are not the same options available. Also your arguments about textured glass backfires rather badly would you not say... everything in the game is a textured glass vanilla, VW or rustic. But again.. magic! Also as for the colors of the glows... It personally bothers me more that 70% of all windows in the game are not apparent when inside a building... Also you can add imperfections and different materials to the glass crystalline matrix to make it alter the color as it pass through. In general I find most of your reasoning flawed in this or similar ways. As for the actual compares.. then in some cases I agree that it depends on which building textures you are using for it to fit in. So most likely not a core mod. However once you have building with parallax and in general more love put into the stonework.. then they become more appealing imo, since then VW have the opposite effect.. they just look too flat and boring.