ACCEPTED Skyrim Realistic Overhaul (by Starac)

[MagnusMcMullet]

Here's another qupte from the DDSOpt guide:

 

 

 

Don't put in any mods that are already sufficiently well optimized or for other reasons don't benefit from texture optimization. Any mod in the STEP Mod Texture Properties table in this tab with No in column 2 should not be further optimized unless there is need to reduce texture sizes; even then it may be better to avoid additional optimization if possible.

 

I don't understand that sentence "even then it may be better to avoid additional optimization if possible." So how do I reduce texture size without additional optimizing?

[TechAngel85]

Here's another qupte from the DDSOpt guide:

 

 

 

 

I don't understand that sentence "even then it may be better to avoid additional optimization if possible." So how do I reduce texture size without additional optimizing?

Just set the size constraints and no other options.

[kcinlober]

I've recently ran into my first Out-Of-memory message from the CrashFixes Plugin on this machine and this is after I added SRO 1.7 to my game. This is especially disappointing since I own a relatively new, powerful rig and I only play in 1080p. I can only blame Microsoft and their very needless memory limitation for DX9 in Windows 10.  (Yes, I have ExpandSystemMemory set to TRUE in enblocal.ini and OSAllocators=1 in crashfixes.ini). I can't play a ten year old game with full 2K textures on a i5 7600K @4.5GHz with a 6GB GTX 1060 @2Ghz and 16GB 3200Mhz DDR4 and the only reason is Windows 10. I can't however go Windows 7 on this machine because it won't run on Kaby Lake!  And I thought now I get to really mod the hell out of Skyrim which was barely possible on my old potato. Not only that there's no way you can get Old Skyrim to not have annoying lag spikes and landscape popping on cell transitions even in vanilla state, no I have to go 1k with everything to have enough headspace for modding and enb... /rant

 

Anyway, in the STEP guide it is mentioned that this mod should be reduced using DDSOpt by users with average performance (sigh). I have found the DDSOpt guide but I'm still pretty at loss on how to go about reducing the SRO textures, specifically which ones and with which settings. Especially since the guide mentions this:

 

 

Well, in the Table it says no. I realize it is for an older version.

 

But then here in this thread I find two other red flags...

 

Sooo... even the mod author himself doesn't recommend downscaling with DDSOpt.  And I run out of memory with SRO textures installed. My VRAM usage with STEP Core and Hires textures outside of Whiterun is already ~3.5GB without enb enhanced graphics. Does this mean STEP 2.10.0 isn't playable in 2k on Windows 10 at all? I'm not limited by hardware here... I'll try going 1k with everything but SRO, but it does have a highest impact on my VRAM usuage, so a reduced version would be greatly appreciated. I kow it's a shame, I'd love to fully experience these gorgeous textures without having  to fear to run out of memory when fighting multiple foes or dragons...

I am the user Starac was responding to. I did use photoshop to resize a lot of the textures, and it still looks pretty good. I could tell with the larger meshes (like mountainslab) that the reduced size was lower quality, but it was barely noticeable and still way better than vanilla. I think I reduced all the '4k' textures to '2k' and some of the 2k ones and it gave me a couple hundred mb of VRAM back. I would first try using DDSOpt to reduce the normals by half. I followed the STEP DDSOpt guide for that and it worked out to give some VRAM back with basically no noticeable drop in quality.

[MagnusMcMullet]

Speaking of SRO, I think there's a little alpha issue going on with the ratway walls... This is still the original unreduced SRO. No problem with the vanilla textures. Hopefully Starac will take notice.

 

https://postimg.org/image/kt0ff51p1/

https://postimg.org/image/eqssond91/

https://postimg.org/image/s6fte3lqt/

Edited October 7, 2017 by MagnusMcMullet

[Starac]

Speaking of SRO, I think there's a little alpha issue going on with the ratway walls... This is still the original unreduced SRO. No problem with the vanilla textures. Hopefully Starac will take notice.

 

https://postimg.org/image/kt0ff51p1/

https://postimg.org/image/eqssond91/

https://postimg.org/image/s6fte3lqt/

What do you think is problem here?

[FuzzyDuck]

So, a thing i'm confused to be honest, for reducing the SRO, as per the SRO page from STEP Guide 2.10.00 ( https://wiki.step-project.com/Skyrim_Realistic_Overhaul#Recommendations ) , i can follow this guide ( https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt/Skyrim ) ? 

But, the SRO folder, doesn't seem to have a folder structure for DDSopt.
So, can i just set DDSopt as per the Guide page, then select SRO mod folder and make it Optimize the textures? Or will it break the mod? 

 

If not, would it be a big problem to just drop SRO at all and go with another overhaul, easier on my VRAM?
 

[Kelmych]

DDSopt can be used to reduce the size of the textures in SRO. The highest level folder is "textures" which is what DDSopt expects. The bigger issue is whether you actually need to reduce the texture sizes, or at least reduce very many of them. (e.g., only reduce the 4K textures). A lot depends on what other mods you are using with 2K landscape and architecture textures.

[user12980]

Good day.

 

I want to reduce the size of the SRO textures using DDSopt, but without optimizing them (since the author said already are.) Which are the minimal options I should enable in the DDSopt GUI if I only want to resize the textures? I've read the DDSopt guide, but it's focused on optimizing.

 

Thank you!

[Kelmych]

The only way to reduce the size of the textures with DDSopt (or other related programs) is to use the optimization process with the configuration parameters set to reduce texture sizes. That's why we recommend doing as little texture size reduction as possible with high quality texture mods.

[user12980]

Did it, now the fps are higher. Thank you. ^o^ 

[onem4nb4nd]

There are 3 erroneous files in the downloads suggested by STEP only 1 appears to be any real problem. The files probably originated from accidental renames through replication as their names use the Windows: "... - copy.ext" format and the properly named files are still included so there are no gaps in the installation. The only issue is the files are slightly different from their copies.

The 3 files happen to each be in the separate download packages (pt 1,2,3) in the order listed:

...architecture/whiterun/wrplasterint01 - Copy.dds
The "copy" version has an older last-modified date and is 2k res while the non-copy is 4k, yet they are slightly different texture images.
I deleted the copy

...architecture/winterhold/whroughgroundwet_n - Copy.dds
The copy is older again but the non-copy has a strange blur in areas of the image.   
I deleted the properly named one and renamed the copy to fit.

...dlc02/landscape/volcanic_ash_04_n - Copy.dds
The copy is the newer one this time. They actually seem identical in appearance when opened and they have the same resolution but the copy is twice the data size
I deleted the copy

I apologize if I'm not properly troubleshooting this. I summarize the differences in the files as far as I can tell with my amateur knowledge of textures. I don't know what I'd do with a dedicated program for viewing/editing textures so I'm just using Win Media Player (it finally serves a purpose!) to see what they look like.
Again, the only problem worth any action is the texture that is blurry for some reason; you just swap it out for the copy.

[Starac]

These are copies, backups, that i forget to delete. I always make backups of my previous textures, and then later delete them. But engine doesn't use them.

 

And do not rename anything. The only thing that you should do is to delete these copies. Although this is not necessary because like i said the engine doesn't use them. 

Edited June 29, 2018 by Starac

[onem4nb4nd]

Good to hear. As mentioned, they are different in minor ways so I just wanted to make sure it wasn't the copies that were supposed to take precedence.

I genuinely wouldn't know any better so I assume the odd looking blur must be intentional on whroughgroundwet_n.dds for some reason, because the backup/copy version doesn't have it.

Edited June 29, 2018 by onem4nb4nd

[Starac]

That blur is intentional. 

 

It's a normal map, and sometimes in some places it must be blurry. It governs the look of those icy small ground areas. They look more convincing with blurry normal map.  

[Starac]

SRO 1.8 update!

 

https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-realistic-overhaul/downloads

 

I was bored and then decided to improve some textures    Majority are new, and mostly 4k.