z929669

Are these BAT files ready, or are you proposing at this point? It should be possible to create a single BAT to handle all of this ...?

You also need to be a little careful with mods that overwrite vanilla resources other than just textures, especially scripts, where the mod stores the resource is in a BSA. For example, some of the mods discussed in the Mod Suggestions area use BSAs to store scripts that overwrite the vanilla versions, and there is a possibility that this script(s) might not be used if there are conflicts with a mod that has its scripts in loose files (either because they were provided that way or the resources were extracted before use). I don't think there are any such conflicts in the STEP list, but users often utilize mods in addition to those in STEP. This is precisely why I unpack everything and don't use any BSAs at all (including vanilla). I want to know about all conflicts and correct them accordingly ... this also helps to spot potential issues in STEP. I just finished my latest Skyrim install from scratch. I will go through all vanilla texture optimization again and propose a revised method.

I will have a detailed look at the updated mod myself and post a recommendation based on that. Unfortunately, the mod description is not updated with any new changes (i.e., I can't tell if Vano has gone through all of the new HRDLC textures in the same way as he did the original).

Not sure about this in the context of MO, but it does not matter if you have the BSA in your Data directory. The loose files will override. I simply deactivate the corresponding plugins so that the BSAs (and plugins) don't count towards the load limit.

Aside from my view that having the conflict list handily available without bringing focus onto a context menu is a huge plus ... Does it give you the installation order slot number of the conflicting mods too? Does it allow you to toggle active/inactive conflicts? Overrides?, Missing? Mismatches? ... I could go on ;)

Yet another would be to improve resource-conflict identification. WB is still far superior in this regard I think. (I will be trying out MO at some point in the distant future ;) )

Yep, I'll take care of it and report back

I would choose whichever one of the 20 identified has the most obvious difference with the USKP. I would have to look and compare in game, and I am currently setting up my Skyrim from scratch (and running to get a rootbeer float ). I'll look too. I wish I knew how to use Nifscope better ... could you post a screen of the flag you are referencing in Nifscope?

Does he then deny that the 20 untouched meshes do not have the distance flag set? Based on SP's comment, it sounds to me like there may be some issues with the vanilla meshes that nobody has ever addressed and that SP's changes simply did not address those other problems ... and that the USP team is saying that the vanilla textures are broken ... and that they are not going to fix those. Given that response, I am inclined to keep this mod's changes and simply let USP overwrite.

Sounds like you may be a good mod tester candidate for STEP if you are willing to do that.

We can provide the fix if the author is not reachable and allows his resources to be used.

Correct ... but only on model-space or tangent-space normal maps. You can use the filters. The Terrain Bump package contains only tangent-space normal maps so for this particular file you don't need to do any filtering in DDSopt. To perforn the processing start DDSopt as usual and select the Terrain Bump file as input. Click the "Constraints" tab and where is says "Tangent-space normal-maps" select "R5G5B5 (2:3' date=' lossy)". Under resolution limit in the same tab you can use  "2048x2048" for the 2 values if you don't want any resolution changes,use "1024x1024" if you want to reduce the sizes of only the larger 2Kx2K normal maps (note that there are only a few of these, so it might be better leave them at full resolution), oruse "50%" to reduce the size of all the normal maps by 50% (2Kx2K maps become 1Kx1K, and 1Kx1K maps become 512x512)For the terrain bump file I use the file without having DDSopt change any resolutions, but you might want to do some size reduction if have a significant need for VRAM reduction. A lot of these are already fairly small, so there might not be a lot of value changing the sizes. Perhaps, but even smooth textures don't suffer much quality loss. Will need to evaluate a few of those, but face textures seem to look fine as an example. R5G5B5 is an uncompressed format; it has a little less numerical precision than R8G8B8. For mods with uncompressed normal maps, changing from the usual R8G8B8 to R5G5B5 reduces the normal map storage size by 50% typically without any noticeable quality loss. My bad ... thanks for clarifying and providing instructions ;) All of our users are encouraged to edit the wiki!!! This is a COMMUNITY project, and we could use the help

Hmm tough to say without SP's confirmation that this could be the case. Still, if we lack infor for or against, then I suppose not using is better than overwriting vanilla or USP.

Nope, I agree. Waiting on s4n to finalize the mail server on our new proposed config. Then we will move the server to a brand new VPS node.

Correct ... but only on model-space normal maps. You can use the filters. Perhaps, but even smooth textures don't suffer much quality loss. Will need to evaluate a few of those, but face textures seem to look fine as an example.

Thanks for the reminder ... Ethatron actually advised this, and it may be something for SparrowPrince and other texture modders to evaluate from their own quality perspectives.

Yes, I see that DDF resolves the arch stonework, whereas USKP does not. I would guess that this mod has some value still and that the USP team should do a more thorough analysis before debunking this entirely (or at least provide specific issues with this mod). We could also add the BCF as Kelmych states, but it is tough to know if all of the USKP textures provide the decal fixes where they overlap with DDF.

Sounds great. I like this mod but not the compat issues.

This is how it appears in the updated Guide, which is the best, IMO