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I operate using only 1 GB VRAM (mirrored via CrossfireX), so I'd like to determine 'stretched' versus 'un-stretched'. Then I want to construct a custom hybrid of SRO and compare only the following + HRDLC over a virgin vanilla installation without any post processing or other 'noise': SRO 1024 fullSRO hybrid full (need details on your recommendations for combining HI & LO - If I construct, I will share with you for upload to your mod)SRO 2048 fullI will likely also experiment with 4096 mountains.

@Starac I see that you were able to upload 1024 this evening (31st), so belay my last. Does this include higher res 2048/4096 textures for dungeons, landscape and other stretched textures? Or is everything 1024 in that one (I could look, but simpler to ask you before I download). If not, do you recommend download your 1024 AND 2048 packs and mix them up as you say?

Thanks for the advice mate, I've been doing it wrong the whole time. :facepalm: Do your textures need DDSopt optimisation at all? No. Everything is already optimized. To create package is easy. But to upload it is a problem with my speed and with errors that Nexus is full. I have tried to re-upload 900mb file for 4-5 times. 1024k SRO version is in question. But every time some error pops up in the middle of the upload and cancel it. Now imagine a bigger file. You can upload to my DropBox and I could try using my connection (I have a premium account, and fairly wide bandwidth, which both may have bearing on the Nexus) Let me know if you would like me to try on your behalf and I will PM you details (of course you still need to upload, but Dropbox will not restrict, so set it before bed and it will be done before wake).

compared ultra presets... same.

Now THIS is some good advice (as well as your 6 mod suggestions in prev post). Thanks for the detail and taking the time to provide more constructive criticism ;) @Trexasle Your input adds good context to the conversation, thanks. Ultimately, I agree that 'new' and 'more' is definitely not better. This is exactly where we are going with STEP; however, we have some growing pains right now, given the huge amount of mods to sort through and test. Some of our testing mods have ultimately made it to the final release(s), and development/refinement continues ...

Using SIS and manually saving both TES versions and generated INIs with each. Skyrim and SkyrimPrefs are both exact matches between the two.

OK, let's get back to SRO and Starac's views and questions to him about his mod before this topic goes off on a tangent. We can open another thread to talk modding philosopies I'll re-pose my question to Starac (see my previous post).

Glad to help ... ;) I agree that I am the best chooser of things I like, but I don't have the time to mimic Cestral's efforts AND help to run this site and STEP ... so I appreciate his efforts in my stead, as do many others I am sure This is essentially what we are doing. Cestral's work is a good proof of concept for new mod users and is representative of where we are going with STEP; however, we will go further in expanding the idea. Technically, Cestral is not redistributing your work, but rather suggesting a context to others for its use (just as we are in STEP). However, I would personally respect an author's wishes not to have their work suggested in a context that they dislike, so perhaps he will work with you aesthetically such that you can stomach the result. Else, he will not, and you will not be happy, and we will miss updates to SRO to be sure .... ... now, I for one would like to hear your suggestions for those 5 (more?) mods that you recommend for Skyrim PC.

I personally love all of the Halo games, particularly the storylines of Halo 1 and Halo Reach. The latter is the best in terms of gameplay and graphics IMO. I am looking forward to the release of Halo 4 to be sure

Again, I agree that you work is superior, and I personally disagree with mixing Serious/Skyrim HD in with your work (I prefer yours + vanilla and nothing else). What I want from TPC is those assets that are NOT covered by the three major overhauls (e.g., SMIM, water, flora, etc). The reason taht we employ TPC is that it reduces the STEP install burden on the user and serves as a model for where we are headed with STEP. A largely automated install of the best of the best. We would like your insights and that of other authors to do this best. STEP is not complete

Just as soon as you create textures for all of Skyrim Actually, TPC is a fairly comprehensive compendium of Skyrim textures from the modding community (although I have not personally evaluated each of Cestral's choices compared to vanilla). If you read Cestral's description, it sounds like a lot of effort was spent on picking these, so I defer to his picks as a baseline over which to install those textures that I know I want. All textures? No way i'm gonna do this. This is not easy to do, especially how i do it, and it's time consuming. And i don't have any benefit from this. Btw, i did not say to you that you should not use other mods. But this Cestral guy knows nothing about moding. And people expect his analysis!? I "accept" his analysis indeed, especially since he has qualified his methodology (i.e., comparing textures in-game). Ultimately, his methodology is an aesthetic that I agree with philosophically. And I was just kidding about you fixing all textures ... I know that is not possible unless you were earning a salary ;) I am certain that we can agree that Bethesda artists did not give all of the Skyrim textures the same level of care (else why would Starac bother?). you should take a look at the final result of TPC yourself in-game and critique his choices. I'd appreciate an analysis from a texture artist Looks like i was wrong about you? I told you once that Skyrim is primarily a console game. So textures, meshes and UV-mapping cannot be better. All i need is to see these 2 pics from TPC: Could you post screens of the same with vanilla and your personal preference (i.e., PC version), noting the offending details? My cup is not yet full ... Could you be more specific? An you know how my textures look. I just want to know what you specifically don't like about the above images (this is not a challenge, I just want your insights). I appreciate your work over any texture that directly conflicts, and that is why I suggested copying your textures into the Data directory last. What I am looking for is your opinion on some of Cestral's picks that do not conflict with your textures and why you think that his picks are not better than vanilla in-game. Just saying that if you disagree with TPC, I'd like more specifics as to why you don't like this solution --not in comparison to your work, but rather in comparison to other options, including other mods as well as vanilla. Just a few examples to help me understand your comment, "remove this nonsense completely" ... are there no benefits at all to Cestral's mod in your opinion? I suspect that you may be generalizing just a bit

Very good advice! I see that you learned a lot  I also have a very good advice; remove this TPC nonsense completely. Just as soon as you create textures for all of Skyrim Actually, TPC is a fairly comprehensive compendium of Skyrim textures from the modding community (although I have not personally evaluated each of Cestral's choices compared to vanilla). If you read Cestral's description, it sounds like a lot of effort was spent on picking these, so I defer to his picks as a baseline over which to install those textures that I know I want. All textures? No way i'm gonna do this. This is not easy to do, especially how i do it, and it's time consuming. And i don't have any benefit from this. Btw, i did not say to you that you should not use other mods. But this Cestral guy knows nothing about moding. And people expect his analysis!? I "accept" his analysis indeed, especially since he has qualified his methodology (i.e., comparing textures in-game). Ultimately, his methodology is an aesthetic that I agree with philosophically. And I was just kidding about you fixing all textures ... I know that is not possible unless you were earning a salary ;) I am certain that we can agree that Bethesda artists did not give all of the Skyrim textures the same level of care (else why would Starac bother?). you should take a look at the final result of TPC yourself in-game and critique his choices. I'd appreciate an analysis from a texture artist Looks like i was wrong about you? I told you once that Skyrim is primarily a console game. So textures, meshes and UV-mapping cannot be better. All i need is to see these 2 pics from TPC: Could you post screens of the same with vanilla and your personal preference (i.e., PC version), noting the offending details? My cup is not yet full ...

Yeah, I detected on a mod some tint-maps, and because skin-tones are sometimes severly changed by the colour-precision offered by DXT-compression, I thought it should be adressable if someone wants to. They also are not like regular colour images which will be shown on your monitor, but they are basically data for a blending-algorithm which must not be considered as-if-to-be-displayed-on-your-monitor, like all the other colour textures. So while I already had to classify them I just added them to the constraints. Hm, I just exposed the strength "knobs" of the algorithms to the GUI. How much contrast is applied, how much gamma-corretion is applied, how much brighter (thicker) the foilage gets etc. They are all ad-hoc values, there is no scientific basis to it, trial'n'error.I added the information which strength will be used of what to the preview-info, in that info-field below. So one basically can become aware when what applies. In pre5 I think I added the new alpha-channel compressor, which should have half the error-rate. I also changed some thinks to be Skyrim-specific, which differ from Oblivion - like in Oblivion the used shader get's switched if you use DXT1 or DXT3, that is not the case in Skyrim; so in Skyrim it doesn't matter if a map is DXT1 or DXT5 unlike in Oblivion. This leads to more smaller textures, at least on my run. I recompressed all of the texture I use, and it looks fine so far. I'm still after the exact file which causes the screen's blood-splatter to go black (it's probably fxbloodflare.dds, and the reason is the 1x1 planar conversion), but haven't had the time to fire Skyrim up. The Soulgems Differ should work in theory, but the setup is such a PITA without NMM (and even with) that I haven't checked it out. You may just try and report back. Great details to know ... not dummies after all it seems, but lots to test for sure. BTW, you can use the BAIN Wizard for Soul Gems Differ. I revamped Thechosenone's original, so you should be able to "easily" select the textures you want to see from Wrye Bash.

Very good advice! I see that you learned a lot  I also have a very good advice; remove this TPC nonsense completely. Just as soon as you create textures for all of Skyrim Actually, TPC is a fairly comprehensive compendium of Skyrim textures from the modding community (although I have not personally evaluated each of Cestral's choices compared to vanilla). If you read Cestral's description, it sounds like a lot of effort was spent on picking these, so I defer to his picks as a baseline over which to install those textures that I know I want. All textures? No way i'm gonna do this. This is not easy to do, especially how i do it, and it's time consuming. And i don't have any benefit from this. Btw, i did not say to you that you should not use other mods. But this Cestral guy knows nothing about moding. And people expect his analysis!? I "accept" his analysis indeed, especially since he has qualified his methodology (i.e., comparing textures in-game). Ultimately, his methodology is an aesthetic that I agree with philosophically. And I was just kidding about you fixing all textures ... I know that is not possible unless you were earning a salary ;) I am certain that we can agree that Bethesda artists did not give all of the Skyrim textures the same level of care (else why would Starac bother?). you should take a look at the final result of TPC yourself in-game and critique his choices. I'd appreciate an analysis from a texture artist

Yes, a wiki update is long overdue and likely worthwhile now that Ethatron is actively developing DDSopt again.... but not until I tinker more with the new version on the vanilla textures that it seems like I have run through the app a hundred times now ... ugh

Very good advice! I see that you learned a lot  I also have a very good advice; remove this TPC nonsense completely.  Just as soon as you create textures for all of Skyrim Actually, TPC is a fairly comprehensive compendium of Skyrim textures from the modding community (although I have not personally evaluated each of Cestral's choices compared to vanilla). If you read Cestral's description, it sounds like a lot of effort was spent on picking these, so I defer to his picks as a baseline over which to install those textures that I know I want.

As alt3rn1ty stated, those are probably dummy options at the moment, but who knows? I will be taking a look at the command line help at next opportunity ... can't believe I never thought of that :>

... but still a prisoner nonetheless :P Just 8 more posts to become a full-fledged Citizen ;) Sounds like you get some good use out of DDSopt that I had not considered (but I have not taken to modding textures... yet.). If you review the history of this thread, there are a number of informative posts that you may or may not be enlightened by (check the OP).

Consider for inclusion into sec I

Just checked out the Pre 5b ... several additional fine-tuning options as well as two new constraints. @Ethatron Would you care to describe some of the feature enhancements (or point to some notes)? - do you need anyone to test anything in particular?

Wow, it is true. That guy has been busy behind his curtain ... And I am supposedly tracking that one on Git ... I have yet to try out either pre IV or V, but plan on doing so soon and updating here.

or even better ... download the SRO update and install just after TPC. SRO's textures will almost always be as good as or better than any conflicts ;)

Had you contacted those authors or did they just serendipitously fix themselves? Either way, thanks ;)

I would be happy to begin modding these normal maps myself, but, alas, I have other priorities :(

To be fair, some of them have been working on Skyrim for the past 10 months. It's been a long and, quite possibly, tedious ride. I hope I don't sound blasphemous here, but I highly doubt Skyrim will be remembered as one of the best TES games in the future. It lacks appeal in the long run, unlike Oblivion and some other RPGs. Have to disagree. I personally thought that Oblivion was a flop compared to Morrowind. Modding made it a lot better, but it is still pretty limited ... Daedric/Dwemer ruins of Morrowind were far superior to Ayleid/fort ruins of Oblivion, and I also like the Nordic/Dwemer/fort ruins of Skyrim better. It is all a matter of opinion though.