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Yep, I don't want to rush to judgement based on the screenshots. Perhaps it will look better in-game with in the broader context of STEP and certain PP solutions. Definitely not putting the mod down ... just the examples I am seeing here :P (no disrespect ivactheseeker!). I'll give it a try someday when I finally get STEP updated.

IMHO, I prefer vanilla without ITM, as ITM adds clarity to distant trees that is out of context with other distant terrain. In RL, particulates in the air translate into gradual decay of "crispness" and color saturation. Vanilla does a good job making the distant terrain look far, far away. Just looks weird to me when those trees suddenly pop out. Totally different story with RCRN though, as that mod washes out distant trees and makes them look too bland in context with other distant terrain. In this case ITM is a great correction; however, these screens with RCRN confirm for me that I am not a fan of that mod (at least with the settings I have tried and are demonstrated here). I prefer the very first vanilla shot over the others by a long shot. :( I humbly submit that ITM be an optional Pack add on along with other post-processing solutions rather than Baseline STEP. I respect the majority though.

It could also be a combination of drivers & dds improper format. Perhaps you recently updated your dirivers and this became noticeable?

Sorry, I should have been more specific: I mean if Skyrim is never utilizing more than 3 gigs, then it could be Windows memory manager not playing nicely with certain processes and graphics hardware software memory managers. Then throw in the game's memory management, and we have several memory handlers that don't necessarily work efficiently together, resulting in paging out to disk and increasing chances of head-on collisions ... = CTD. Just speculation though. s4n is probably right, alluding to the issue being with the game's memory management limitations (hence the uGrids bugs with increasing values above 5)

Thanks for the summary Chesko. I am voting this one as a Pack mod to replace Hypothermia

Did you run your textures through an optimizer? This is texture related and may or may not also be related to graphics or hardware. My guess is that you do not see this with vanilla textures in the same location?

I am guessing that Windows memory management may be the culprit ....

good find

The 32-bit crash may not be related to memory, but I can't say for sure. It actually crashes and shuts down DDSopt. The 64-bit problem is memory related and results in a Windows warning and process stop (but not a crash... DDSopt window is still open). I must say that I really like the new "Apply" menu and options, so configuration options look much better now. One other problem is that I cannot figure out how to get the image compare working. An added option to explicitly compare any two images or directories on demand would be very nice (e.g., see Compressonator image and entire-directory compare options ... both very handy).

The 64-bit exe sucks memory at a constant rate starting at just over 2 gigs at the start of processing. Once memory max is reached (for me, that's 8 gig), the process dies with a Windows memory error. Also, the processor does not get utilized at 100%, but rather fluctuates between approx 90-100%. I'll test 32-bit next. EDIT:Decided to restart and try the 64-bit once more to be certain I had clean memory. Looks like Windows is limiting DDSopt 64 to 7.5 Gb Phys mem on my system for now. Running 15 min, says 5:45:00 left, but that should decrease.EDIT: Confirmed that 64-bit depletes RAM even after fresh startup. Happens at about 30 minutes into the run.EDIT: 32-bit version crashes at roughly the same point after two attempts. Roughly 5 minutes into processing Skyrim - Textures.

Thanks for the quick turnaround. Will check it out tomorrow night (about 19 hours from this timestamp) going to bed ;)

do you mean that when you select the mod in the Mods Tab? This likely means that there is a discrepancy with this mod's masters (inconsistent records between the plugins and this master or this master and Skyrim.esm)

RCI only overlaps with Burial urn retextures. It does not contain the ruinsurn01.dds of Ruins Urn Retex or ruinschair01, ruinslongtable, or ruinstable01 of Nordic ruins objects.Burial urn retex L vs. RCI R: (also here https://i.imgur.com/olkfY.jpg) Image to right is MUCH better (IMO). Which is that?EDIT: Doh!

thanks ;)

I like that a lot for still shots. Just wonder how it looks in motion.

Please define "zoning" for me

At our last gasp, we stand to be very knowledgeable .....

We know about those removed mods, but I wonder if Ruins Clutter Improvement doesn't also cover those textures and if so, which are better?

I'll also upload the BCFs I am making for all STEP mods now and going forward. Take'em or leave'em. ;) will advise when available.

+1, sounds like realism to me

Me too by proxy (I am counting on you guys to be the experts on PP... way too much candy for me to play with right now).

I have not done a direct compare of these (haven't even seen CT in action yet... busy building BCFs for EVERY STEP mod), but could somebody elaborate on the main diffs for some context on the pros for the updated EBT?

My final trial focused on running DDSopt 7.3 & the Pre-Release side by side using identical settings (disabling new settings in the Pre-Release) and identical vanilla-texture input: DDSopt 7.3 Ignore > Compress all known image formats [ticked] Ignore > Don't process any of the known file types [unticked] processed files: 21233 modified textures: 21231 fixed textures: 0 fixed files: 0 broken files: 0 (0 without fixed ones) planar (1x1) textures: 3333 changed texture formats: 3665 i/o delta: -156430493 bytes tex delta: -156429605 bytes DDSopt Pre-Release Ignore > Compress all known image formats [ticked] Ignore > Don't process any of the known file types [unticked] Behave > Raise foliage-map opacity ... [unticked] Behave > Contrast-correct ... [unticked] processed files: 21233 modified textures: 21093 skipped textures: 50 fixed textures: 129 fixed files: 0 broken files: 0 (0 without fixed ones) planar (1x1) textures: 3324 changed texture formats: 3566 i/o delta: -199097461 bytes tex delta: -199096573 bytes zero byte files: D:\_BACKUP\Mods\B2\B2_2X Clothing Re-Mix_BAIN-v1.2-5603\00 Fine Weave\Textures\Clothes\Merchantclothes\torsom_d.psd D:\_BACKUP\Mods\B2\B2_2X Clothing Re-Mix_BAIN-v1.2-5603\00 K-Mix\Textures\Clothes\Merchantclothes\torsom_d.psd D:\_BACKUP\Mods\B2\B2_2X Clothing Re-Mix_BAIN-v1.2-5603\01 Standard\Textures\Clothes\Merchantclothes\torsom_d.psd There appears to be more detail loss than is likely intended, although I think that a hybrid between the 7.3 and Pre-Release results would be ideal, as the latter adds better depth and shadows to distant textures (but just too much detail loss). Another oddity is the following redundant output to the log: # bear.dds #################################################################### D:\_BACKUP\Skyrim Mods\DDSopt\in\Skyrim - HR_Textures\textures\actors\bear\bear.dds processing: Format : DXT3 Dimensions : 2048x2048 - 12 levels notes: Alpha-channel has 16 distinct value(s). Alpha-channel has 256 distinct value(s). Alpha-channel has 256 distinct value(s). Alpha-channel has 256 distinct value(s). Alpha-channel has 16 distinct value(s).

Cheers ... teamwork

I made some minor punctuation and consistency edits throughout. Nothing content related at all. Also tweaked the WB installation section of that WBG, so we may or may not want to refer to that from the SIG.