DROPPED Dust Effects (by HHaley/Darkjesusmn)

[TechAngel85]

Discussion topic:
Dust Effects by HHaley/Darkjesusmn
Wiki Link

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[kabepo]

I think there are a few issues with using this mod.

 

1.  It increases the dust textures from 128px(vanilla) to 3 x 1024px, and the mod description reports this does have an impact on FPS on low end PCs.

This IMHO violates the STEP mandate that "STEP Core Builds are NOT about ... ... mods that have a high performance penalty."

Whereas the latest version of the LE mod (that this mod was ported from) uses 512 x 512 textures.

 

2. The mod is only 3 texture files, yet it archives the files into a .bsa and adds an empty .esp to load the .bsa.

The mod could simply install loose files without needing an empty .esp plugin - like most other STEP texture replacer mods.

[TechAngel85]

1. The Guide has system requirements that aren't much different from the game's recommended system requirements...so if a dust texture is slowing your system down, sorry, but you shouldn't be running the Guide. So no, this mod doesn't break the Mandate.

 

2. How the mod is packaged has no bearing whether or not it should be included in the Guide, unless it's packaged incorrectly, which it is not.

 

If you have an alternative you'd like STEP to look into, feel free to suggest and post compares.

[z929669]

Agree with Tech .. also, SE is higher res and 64-bit compliant, so naturally, performance requirements are bumped as well. The mandate is all relative to the game, and the 3.0 guide has a different base game.

[Mousetick]

I was doing some minor visual mod maintenance in my load order when I noticed something peculiar about this mod, to which I paid no attention until now.

When used with Particles Patch for ENB - Loose Files + Custom Textures, this mod is completely useless: all of its 3 BSA-packed textures are overwritten. It's actually worse than useless, it's a waste of a plugin slot.

I agree with the previous comment by kapebo: this mod using a BSA for just 3 textures, a dummy plugin to load the BSA, and a full plugin at that, not even an ESL, is the epitome of silliness.

The STEP team can decide what they want to do with this mod, considering that:

• As things stand in the guide, it's useless and a waste.
• Particles Patch for ENB provides 2K textures vs. this one's 1K.
• The original version 1.0 of this mod for LE is still available, and comes as loose 1K files.
• DUST By Ramccoid may be a good alternative. It's a mesh + textures replacer that seems to be highly rated. Textures come in several resolutions: 256, 512, 1K and 2K. The meshes can be used with other textures. I have no personal experience with that mod but I may be giving it a try.

I'd strongly recommend that MO's BSA-parsing feature be turned on, particularly for STEP maintainers and curators. You'll be surprised by how many conflicts you discover and didn't know existed before. It slows down MO to some degree, depending on how many mods and BSA there are, but it's absolutely worth it IMHO.

MO > Settings > Workarounds > Options > Enable archive parsing (experimental)

[TechAngel85]

4 hours ago, Mousetick said:

I was doing some minor visual mod maintenance in my load order when I noticed something peculiar about this mod, to which I paid no attention until now.

When used with Particles Patch for ENB - Loose Files + Custom Textures, this mod is completely useless: all of its 3 BSA-packed textures are overwritten. It's actually worse than useless, it's a waste of a plugin slot.

I agree with the previous comment by kapebo: this mod using a BSA for just 3 textures, a dummy plugin to load the BSA, and a full plugin at that, not even an ESL, is the epitome of silliness.

The STEP team can decide what they want to do with this mod, considering that:

• As things stand in the guide, it's useless and a waste.
• Particles Patch for ENB provides 2K textures vs. this one's 1K.
• The original version 1.0 of this mod for LE is still available, and comes as loose 1K files.
• DUST By Ramccoid may be a good alternative. It's a mesh + textures replacer that seems to be highly rated. Textures come in several resolutions: 256, 512, 1K and 2K. The meshes can be used with other textures. I have no personal experience with that mod but I may be giving it a try.

I'd strongly recommend that MO's BSA-parsing feature be turned on, particularly for STEP maintainers and curators. You'll be surprised by how many conflicts you discover and didn't know existed before. It slows down MO to some degree, depending on how many mods and BSA there are, but it's absolutely worth it IMHO.

MO > Settings > Workarounds > Options > Enable archive parsing (experimental)

Some comparing will need to be done. This mod is an old one that may predate the Particle Patch being in the Guide. It's likely no one has bothered looking in a long time. I seem to remember DUST by Ramccoid being replaced by this mod due to Ramccoid's being more grainy/larger particles. We used to have several of Ramccoid's mods in the Guide, but they're all been replaced by other mods. I think only DROPS is left.

Thanks for the reminder about the archive parsing. I normally have it on, but forgot to turn it back on when I redid my setup. It's on now! 

[z929669]

4 hours ago, Mousetick said:

I was doing some minor visual mod maintenance in my load order when I noticed something peculiar about this mod, to which I paid no attention until now.

When used with Particles Patch for ENB - Loose Files + Custom Textures, this mod is completely useless: all of its 3 BSA-packed textures are overwritten. It's actually worse than useless, it's a waste of a plugin slot.

I agree with the previous comment by kapebo: this mod using a BSA for just 3 textures, a dummy plugin to load the BSA, and a full plugin at that, not even an ESL, is the epitome of silliness.

The STEP team can decide what they want to do with this mod, considering that:

• As things stand in the guide, it's useless and a waste.
• Particles Patch for ENB provides 2K textures vs. this one's 1K.
• The original version 1.0 of this mod for LE is still available, and comes as loose 1K files.
• DUST By Ramccoid may be a good alternative. It's a mesh + textures replacer that seems to be highly rated. Textures come in several resolutions: 256, 512, 1K and 2K. The meshes can be used with other textures. I have no personal experience with that mod but I may be giving it a try.

I'd strongly recommend that MO's BSA-parsing feature be turned on, particularly for STEP maintainers and curators. You'll be surprised by how many conflicts you discover and didn't know existed before. It slows down MO to some degree, depending on how many mods and BSA there are, but it's absolutely worth it IMHO.

MO > Settings > Workarounds > Options > Enable archive parsing (experimental)

I use parsing by defualt and never notice this. I agree with the assessment in principle an will look at it.

[CorneliusC]

After reading this last week i immediately switched back to DUST by Ramccoid (which i also had done in LE some time ago). I'm using DUST in 512 resolution with BethIni high and particles set to 3000 (Step 2.0.0 with Lighting & Weather, no ENB), and to me it looks very nice with 'more' accentuated dust effects. One texture is overwritten by Elsopa Hd - Dirt Blast.

Edited August 15, 2022 by CorneliusC

[z929669]

So to the compares ...

Step (this mod w/Particle Patch meshes)  >>  Particle Patch  >>  Ramccoid DUST  >>  Ramccoid DUST w/Particle Patch meshes

ENB

No ENB

First, Particle Patch and Ramccoids versions are far more comprehensive than this version , which only provides the three dust textures and uses a non-ESL plugin to load it's textures The textures are similar between the two (very small dust particles ... resolution really doesn't matter for this once you are at 512 or greater, IMO:

Step (this mod)  >>  Particle Patch  >>  Ramccoid DUST

Second, ENB doesn't appear to have any obvious issues with Ramccoid's meshes, but Particle Patch meshes do seem to make dust more apparent in terms of the number of particles present, so ENB compatibility may be at play here.

My assessment: I prefer the Particle Patch. Dust should vary in size/shape as evidenced by my own life XP. Dust from falling rock or windblown dust may be more uniform with smaller particles, but ambient dust comes in all shapes and sizes (to a point anyway). Ramccoid's version does include loose files with 19 having no conflict with the Particle Patch (and other Step mods), so I would tend to go with Ramccoids version, hiding the dust textures and conflicting meshes (all but the 19).  From these shots and the meshes used (fxambbeamdust02.nif & fxambbeamdust03.nif), I can't see any major difference in game, but the PP meshes seem to make particles more evident, regardless of the preferred dust textures.

This makes me wonder if some of our other mods need rethinking for ENB support (DROPS, Webs, etc).

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EDIT: I vote to drop this mod for 2.1.0 either way.

[CorneliusC]

Thank you so much. I'll try this tonight as per your suggestion, with the combination of Particle patch and DUST, hiding the overlapping meshes and textures.

[TechAngel85]

2 hours ago, z929669 said:

EDIT: I vote to drop this mod for 2.1.0 either way.

 

I've fine any way this goes. It's just dust and nothing I really pay much attention to.

[z929669]

NOTE: Dust modding overall seems pretty complex with respect to the meshes in particular. DUST by Ramccoid may be something to evaluate again. We used to use it and dropped it in favor of this mod.

The only way to really evaluate DUST vs Particle Patch is to experience the differences in game at some length, as I cannot assess looking at the meshes alone.

That said, simply dropping this mod and letting Particle Patch take over is a good solution, but it may not be as good as mixing and matching with DUST. I just don't have the time to look more closely.

Tagged Dropped for 2.1.0

[Greg]

I agree with your assessment that Particle Patch (either with or without Ramcoid DUST) seems to be the better option based on the screenshots.