Skyrim Mod Combiner with SR:LE + Questions

[Oeolycos]

 

Answering several questions:

• Texture size reduction is one aspect of optimizing; size reduction (if done) is achieved during optimization. Optimization does other tasks like improving the mipmaps and fixing the format of textures that don'e seem to be using the most appropriate format.
• You are changing compression if you change the resolution; if you don't want to change the compression at all then set the resolution to a large value. If you mean changing the compression format (DXTx vs. uncompressed) then yes you generally don't want to change the compression format although there are exceptions. If you uncheck all of the texture types then DDSopt does nothing.
• It is generally suggested that you exclude mods where the author has already done a good job of texture optimization. Typically mods in the SR guide that are primarily texture replacers are already high quality, so unless they are quite old mods I wouldn't suggest optimizing these. The best candidates are usually the location or quest mods like Falskaar and Helgen Reborn which are primarily gameplay changing mods.
• The most useful textures for size reduction are exterior normal maps (textures in architecture, terrain, and landscape folders). Again, don't optimize mods like Flora Overhaul since these ar already high quality.
• Care is needed when optimizing body related textures such as facial textures and/or files ending in *.msn.
• Don't optimize vanilla textures along with mod textures; get already created optimized textures or if you want to experiment with different alternatives use the information and tools in the QuickStart guide for Skyrim.
• If you selective about which mods are optimized then a single run over the entire set of mods is practical. Make a new folder somewhere, copy the selected mods from the Mod Organizer mods folder to the new folder, and then optimize them and copy the result back to the mods folder after you are happy with the results. I haven't every had time to check every mod in the SR list, but I'd guess that at most 20-30 might be useful to optimize. It also depends of course on how much VRAM reduction you need. If you do everything it will take a long time and you will likely optimize many textures that don't need it.
• Make sure to configure DDSopt as shown in the main or QuckStart guides. The default settings are not adequate.

 

Sorry for the delayed reply, RL getting in the way of what's important again ;-) Thanks for the above info, it was cool of you to spend the time to go into so much detail - it has been helpful. Cheers!