z929669

This tweak is unnecessary for anyone using SkyUI v3.0 or greater. The following is an improvement to the menu interface of SkyUI: Larger item preview imagesRepositioned preview pane to account for larger imagesPersistant Value/Weight ratiosBefore > After: I use 1920x1200 resolution, so anyone using something close to this should be fine (but smaller res may work well too). Change the values like so in each of the corresponding sections of SkyIU_cfg.txt, which is located under skyrim\Data\interface\ I would be great to do this via Wrye Bash INI Tweaks, but WB does not recognize the TXT file extension in INI Tweaks [ItemInfo] ; ===================================================================================================================== itemcard.align = center itemcard.xOffset = 0 itemcard.yOffset = 20 itemicon.xOffset = 0 itemicon.yOffset = 2 itemicon.scale = 1.75 [ItemList] ; VALUE COLUMN ------------------------------------------------------- valueColumn.states = 2 valueColumn.weight = 0.2 ; VIEWS ------------------------------------------------------- defaultView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, nameColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> weaponView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, awNameColumn, damageColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> armorView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, awNameColumn, arColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> allView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, allNameColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> contWeaponView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, awContNameColumn, damageColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> contArmorView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, awContNameColumn, arColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn> contAllView.columns = <equipColumn, iconColumn, allContNameColumn, weightColumn, valueColumn, valueWeightColumn>

Updated the wiki guide and the main page accordingly

Discussion thread: Z-Fighting Guide by STEP Wiki Link This is a brief guide describing the z-Fighting issue and an evidence-based 'fix' that significantly reduces this issue. Thanks to torminater for the background research and resulting fix. General thread about Z-Fighting: https://forum.step-project.com/topic/124-black-circles-z-fighting-and-texture-shimmering/

Yep, that was the value I initially settled on for basically reducing clipping to zero; however, I also noticed that the z-fighting showed little to no improvement with this value, thus the compromise at 20. Also, I do think that since torminater's z-fighting fix has been well vetted (no thanks to me for the past couple of months), it should be added to the STEP Guide and included among our "other guides" section on the wiki MP.

OK. I can confirm that my own independent analysis has confirmed that torminater's 'fixes' indeed have a visible positive impact. Sorry that I doubted in the face of all of the previous confirmation on this thread ... I just don't really believe much unless I do the experiment myself :P (probably why I am a scientist/researcher): Following is [native Skyrim INIs on Ultra] > [Applied all recommended SkyrimPrefs.ini tweaks] > [added the fNearDistance Skyrim.ini tweak] [video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=L_yoaAw8PHg [video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dDdCiJTpst4 [video=youtube]http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s4d7TO9mF1Q All that said, I have found that for my own personal needs, fNearDistance=20.0000 is a good compromise for minimizing both close-clipping and z-fighting. Also, I think that these tweaks should be added to the next release of the STEP Installation Guide --following are the only diffs with default: SkyrimPrefs.ini [TerrainManager] fBlockMaximumDistance=500000 fBlockLevel1Distance=140000 fBlockLevel0Distance=75000 fSplitDistanceMult=4.0 [MAIN] fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=500000.0000Skyrim.ini [Display] fNearDistance=20.0000 (or 25.0000) with attention to clipping issue

I can confirm that this does work. From my 4.5GB of textures the batch file extracted 1.48GB. I'll look more into it by referencing the extracted files to the batch file to make sure they are indeed the SRO files. I'm fairly confident they are. :happy:I have failed to read all of the context of the goal here, but ... Yep, I have no doubt that this would work as long as you are only interested in the SRO files that Cestral has included in the BAT. Another simple way of isolating only SRO from TPC Combined is to use something like Free File Sync to compare against SRO, output the overlap to text and use that to create a new xcopy BAT file (this is how I often resolve conflicts or investigate package contents against a reference).

Actually, it fits though, if this setting indeed does affect z-fighting. The discussion would be around the trade-off and how to minimize clipping.

I am not convinced yet about any of these tweaks. This one in particular still needs to be tested. The others may 'reduce' z-fighting by increasing the amount of rendered fog, effectively preventing the offending distant textures from being visible. Following is an example (you cannot see the z-fighting in still images, but trust me when I say that it is very bad here). The first image had prominent z-fighting on most of the distant mountains just to left of center. After applying all recommended tweaks, z-fighting was reduced to only a couple of very tiny little patches of the same area. Note that the fog is likely hiding the rest ;)

FYI regarding the "fNearDistance" z-fighing fix (this IS mentioned in the Guide, however, it would be best to make the warning more prominent, as this could easily be missed): This causes texture clipping at certain angles when close to objects like walls. I began seeing this when trying out my new darker dungeons settings and basically running into walls and crypts in Bleak Falls Barrow. At oblique angles against certain wall/cave textures, I was getting this very annoying, game breaking clipping. This reminded me of this issue in Deadly Reflex (Oblivion combat mod), which fixed by setting fNearDistance=0.0000. Sure enough, that also solved my issue in this case, so while the fNearDistance=25.0000 z-fighting fix ?might? help with that issue, it will cause the (IMO much worse) clipping issue. EDIT: In my case, I had to set fNearDistance=18.000 to effectively eliminate this clipping; however, I am not convinced that the issue is 100% resolved at this value (maybe Bethesda already found the sweet spot to be 15.000??).

If NebuLa intends to use paint rather than photos and to stay true to vanilla, I will be interested.

Google "Compressonator"

Me too (music connoisseur more than a musician per se... been awhile) Welcome

Thanks for your hard work, it's much appreciated.Yes, thank you Tech. It looks MUCH BETTER.

After looking into this some more, I remember now that I used RadeonPro a while back for Oblivion and Morrowind; however, I don't think this plays nicely with ENB, so it is probably an either/or situation for people that want an alternative to ENB. It may be possible to get them to work together, but I am pretty sure that Boris will tell you otherwise. (it would not work with SkyRealism on my system after a cursory trial). It DOES integrate with SweetFX though, which is another interesting caveat.

Yep, the guide needs an update to match the latest release now that it is (finally!) on the Nexus. I will tackle that when the time comes, but too much happening with the #1 priority (STEP).

thanks, will look into this too

Yep, very strange. I have not experienced anything like this, and I have used all the same textures in the same config, so it must be a bungle or a glitch ...

RCRN uses its own textures, some of which may be sky(??). DDSopt would not cause this if used on vanilla textures according to the Guide.

They mention BSA reg issues it sounds like, which is a simple INI edit. The criticism is harsh and unwarranted without real evidence, and MO is definitely not a "piece of junk". There is a substantial MO following that would argue the contrary.

I can vouch that they are good too.

Could someone create these mod threads please? Maybe there we should create a thread to discuess this very thing? Admins? Yes, No? I don't think CoT brings as much to the table as RCRN does and from what I can tell most of us use RCRN. TC and Z have both created ENB's using it (TC exclusively with RCRN Plus).Lighting/ENB/weather will likely be handled via STEP Packs in the future (aside from 2.2.0b). This will allow for several options to suit a variety of tastes. All will be pretty cool, I think. The SkyRealism ENB presets I made for the big three lighting mods are my own dabblings in this area. There are tons of combinations though, so we will be looking to the community for alternatives. We'll include instructions for authors creating these lighting STEP Pack variants. One idea is to evaluate the best variants to be placed on the wiki as a supplement to the STEP Guide ... there are far too many possible variants to include most, so the candidates will likely need to be classified by genera (fantasy, bleak, cinematic, realism, etc) and limited to the top pick for each. I think that REC exacerbates the lightsprite *problem*, so not a big fan myself.

You will need to supply the before/after INIs you used to make any sense of this. SC is just a fancy INI editor.

SRO is effectively no longer a part of STEP.