z929669

I'm just dying to see your screens, period. Otherwise, I just don't believe a word of this nonsense ;)

I am testing against the proposed core background ... see the MT restricted thread for details I went ahead and further examined the other install options for RS&M, and it looks like all meshes are the same as the ones I had used in the original compare (at least with respect to stretching if not parallax). OK, here is the problem (and I hope that someone else at least acknowledges that this is indeed a problem o_O ) Left image is RS&M Classic Gray with its own meshes ... wow, look at that stretched and unwieldy textures! Right image is same but with No Stretching & SMIM meshes ... FIXED! I'll say it again: Unless we overwrite the RS&M meshes with those from No Stretching and SMIM, the mountain textures are a backslide to the unfixed vanilla meshes. This is a problem. Anyone disagree with my assessment?

All 2k versions and all gray where applicable. You should just show your light gray version of 2k Superior, as that is what you claimed was "messed up". Otherwise, you are really just reinventing the wheel here. My bet is that your screen of Superior Rocks 2k light gray against a Core background using the saves I provided will yield exactly the same result as the OP (using ultra INI settings). If you supply one or two screens of that (PNG format), we can confirm that there is not need for you to keep going on this mod compare (as there are plenty others we need)

Please use the saves I created. Mine are clean saves based on a clean character, and my saves represent 7 locations in different regions of Skyrim, capturing the various landscapes. This way we have a direct compare. Savegames are linked in the OP

There is definitely something here that I am not understanding. Was my installation process above correct? Or am I missing something? I clicked on real ice in Wrye Bash, went to conversions, apply conversion and then ran the wizard for the created file in wrye bash, which does NOT have half dull -- half ice. Just run the wizard and choose "Parallax On", then select "Half Icecube-Half Dull". Updated the note again to reflect the reality of the wizard. ;)

Yes, we will incorporate the EBT textures only. Just not the plugin/scripts, etc.

As I said above, I fixed the note and created a new BCF with wizard script. the BCF includes the fomod just for kicks so that any user can still run either installer. New note: STEP recommends "Dull and Ice" even without using ENB (this is a literal parallax effect without an ENB requirement). The BCF includes a wizard and Fomod to simplify installation --> BCF Available

Hi Hein, I assume that you are the mod author for Rocking Stones? I'll embellish your forum tag with mod author once tech confirms that you aren't a doppleganger ;) In the meantime, nice textures BTW. As you may have read, my biggest nitpick with Rocking Stones is that they seem to be using the vanilla meshes as a source ... the ones without the fixed texture mapping (i.e., rather than using No Stretching and possibly SMIM as source). I think that this is evident if you compare your mod in the gallery of the OP. The third shot of each location is RS&M (NON-ENB) using meshes from No Stretching and SMIM ... latter wins conflicts, and the fourth set is RS&M (NON-ENB) using the native meshes that you derived. Note that all other screens in each set are using NS/SMIM as well) thanks for visiting our forums! EDIT: It looks like I got ninja'd by the previous two posts That pretty much answers my questions ;)Â To confirm: I need to download All-in-One and use those meshes ... do you have any that exclude the parallax? We are looking for options that will work well for STEP:Core, which will not use ENB. (but if the ENB meshes still look great without ENB, then we will consider those). The revision indeed looks very good based on the video. Are these the normals you included in your zip file above? I still have yet to prepare the new screens, and I want to be certain that I am using your latest material. It looks like I will need to revise the B&B and RS&M screens in the gallery.

Perfect verification now. I agree totally with your assessment. I would also add that it would seem that Skyrim HD and Serious HD both used the vanilla source texture and mipped either with DDSopt or using a very similar algorithm. SRO must have used the vanilla texture only as a guide and maybe made it larger from a fresh source and using a compatible mip-mapping algorithm.

Peak and average dedicated VRAM use is probably best (see GPU-z). If the two are close, then the ceiling is likely being reached, and others with 3-4 GB video cards should probably assess. Also, testing VRAM should only apply to mods that we know are pretty VRAM intensive (Sec F-G mods in particular). I just purchased a 7970 with 3 GB, so I will be testing over the long term.

Definitely the pond fish from this one should be in Extended.

That is a bit rude of you phazer ... Please think of better ways of expressing your disapproval. ... and I am not sure why you think that Superior Rocks looks "messed up". I'd say it is quite possible that you are experiencing some kind of psychotic fit during this post ... ? Those textures look fine to me. Perhaps you also are not using No Stretching and SMIM? Our perceptions clearly differ. Screens please? The only input I have relates to your past insights on vertical objects and my own preferences (or perceptions of reality) regarding the variation in the appearance of mountains and rocks ... which varies quite a bit, depending on material and mode of origination. You once mentioned to me that the slight size reduction of uncompressed normals of Terrain Bump (R8G8B8 to R5G6B5) might be best left to ground textures and not the verticals. It turns out that I found that the mountain normals for that mod were the only ones I didn't like using ... they made mountains too ... wrinkly ... just way too noisy. I am recommending that TB be used but without landscape/mountains/ . For similar (albeit opposite) reasons, I really like the vanilla mountains (but for the mesh-texture stretching in many areas), because they have smooth facets, deep crevaces, cracks, and other interesting features that are accurate representations of mountains and rocks that I have seen (Shasta Trinity in California, Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii, Mt. Rainier in Seattle and other examples). Vanilla mountains look mostly like water-eroded igneous with some areas of metamorphic rock or even lava flows. B&B looks a bit too dimply and uniform. It is missing cracks, facets and large, water-eroded vertical crevices, etc. I'll check out the new normals though and get back ;) I contacted the author for commit. OK, I'll add No Stretching and SMIM underneath that mod to lay an speculation to rest ;)OP/gallery updated with the corrected meshes with Rocking Stones ... First image is vanilla ... focus on the second, third and fourth of each compare. These are AOF / RS&M (with No Stretching & SMIM) / RS&M with native meshes I think that it is very clear that the native RS&M meshes were not sourced using the mesh fixes from either or both No Stretching and SMIM. Furthermore, I think it is a safe bet that the textures were sourced from AOF ... or it is a very good independent copy of AOF ;) Just bumping these findings for comment ...

Just load the page and select an image. Then tick quickly through all 56 and back again. You may need to go grab a beer or something, but it should all load up within 2-3 minutes. If you click on the cog in the upper right, there should be an option to download as a zip too.

I contacted the author for commit. OK, I'll add No Stretching and SMIM underneath that mod to lay an speculation to rest ;)OP/gallery updated with the corrected meshes with Rocking Stones ... First image is vanilla ... focus on the second, third and fourth of each compare. These are AOF / RS&M (with No Stretching & SMIM) / RS&M with native meshes I think that it is very clear that the native RS&M meshes were not sourced using the mesh fixes from either or both No Stretching and SMIM. Furthermore, I think it is a safe bet that the textures were sourced from AOF ... or it is a very good independent copy of AOF ;)

These are not at all consistent with my results using the BAT procedure (tech has the same issue as I have with the optimized texture ... unoptimized has very little tiling effect). I think that you need to stick with the original screen shot, as this will capture more of the lower mip levels, where I think the problem is exacerbated. The optimized version should be much worse. Still not sure if SRO will have this problem or not, but I think that the lack of any subtle tiling effect in the close-up unoptimized version shows promise (note that unoptimized vanilla shows signs of tiling). Are you certain that your vanilla/vanilla optimized images aren't flipped?

Totally possible, but it breaks many features of the mod ... and it would look identical to AOF, so why bother?

I fixed the installation note to clarify.

but ... I'm pretty sure that it uses the broken vanilla source meshes. That is a deal breaker, IMO.Vanilla is just okay for me... Superior is too smoothed out in most places making it the second farthest from vanilla, IMO, and it's too light for me. BB being the farthest from vanilla. Alternative is okay too. Brown Mountains...eh. If you look at the first compare from Vanilla to Rocking Stones, you see a good bit of change in the meshes so I'm not seeing the vanilla mesh you're talking about. Rocking Stones seems to blend in the best with the rest of the environment, IMO, so it'll remain my top choice for now. Read the compare notes ... vanilla uses No Stretching and SMIM for "fairness". The vanilla mountain meshes are broken, and No Stretching fixes. Only Rocking Stones & Mountains uses the problematic vanilla meshes. Everything else uses the fix by proxy. Rocking Stones needs to update with fixed meshes before we consider. It is also very clear to me that Rocking Stones either uses AOF mountanin textures as a source, or it has tried very hard to mimic the AOF result. AOF is the "best", IMO, but Alternative Mountains is clearly the most consistent with vanilla. Also, Superior Rocks has a couple other color options, but the Light Gray is definitely closest to vanilla. The Default option is way too dark, IMO.

but ... I'm pretty sure that it uses the broken vanilla source meshes. That is a deal breaker, IMO.

I think the problem is the bad vanilla meshes. This is one reason why I would NOT recommend Rocking Stones & Mountains. This one appears to have based all of its meshes on the vanilla source ^$!#@-up meshes. I think that this one also used AOF textures as a source as well. If he could fix his meshes, I'd be pretty game for that one. B&B is a stylistic deviation, IMO. That rock texture seems less like granite (same goes for Brown Mountains, which looks like porous volcanic rock or something). Superior Rocks does a great job though. In many shots, I prefer this mod. It really makes the mountains look like granite rock. My favorite is still AOF with Superior Rocks coming in at a close second. Note that if vanilla were higher resolution, I would definitely prefer it. Vanilla is by far the best interpretation of a realistic rock texture, IMO. But it has issues close up. .... although, after comparing further with vanilla, Alternative Mountains seems the most true to vanilla, and I really like that style. Just need to determine if Alt Mountains looks good close up, but it seems to from some of the foreground rocks in the screens ... OP screens updated with vanilla (including No Stretching, SMIM and SRO for fairness)

OP updated with compare screens. Vanilla is not ready yet, but will be up shortly I think. EDIT: DropBox is really slow right now, so uploading will take a couple more hours from time of this post.