ACCEPTED Majestic Mountains (by T4gtr34um3r)

[z929669]

7 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

Oh, that was like way back when the page was created, my dear.  It's just never been caught until now.

ahh, ok. Carry on!

[Mousetick]

I stumbled upon this by accident: Shiny Surface Fix for Skyrim Realistic Overhaul.

The good: it works. It's the SRO normal with alpha added, like Tech did previously.

The bad: it's not compressed. 21.3 MB for a single 2K texture...

SRO normal > Vanilla normal > Shiny Surface Fix

[z929669]

29 minutes ago, Mousetick said:

I stumbled upon this by accident: Shiny Surface Fix for Skyrim Realistic Overhaul.

The good: it works. It's the SRO normal with alpha added, like Tech did previously.

The bad: it's not compressed. 21.3 MB for a single 2K texture...

SRO normal > Vanilla normal > Shiny Surface Fix

If it's DDS, it's almost always compressed. I suppose it can be uncompressed, but that's just odd. BC7 is expected. Maybe it's not a square texture?

I like this mod as a solution to these issues. I would question its permissions/validity were it not nearly two years old now, so I assume starac has given at least tacit permissions to the MA.

[Mousetick]

54 minutes ago, z929669 said:

If it's DDS, it's almost always compressed. I suppose it can be uncompressed, but that's just odd. BC7 is expected. Maybe it's not a square texture?

It's 2048x2048 square. A DDS file can contain compressed or uncompressed textures. Indeed it's unusual to provide uncompressed textures, but it's a valid DDS configuration. This one is using A8R8G8B8 + mipmaps format, and that is uncompressed.

This can be seen here in Paint.net for example, when saving a blank 2K x 2K square:

Linear > Compressed

Edit: Maybe it was a conscious choice from the 'MA' to provide it uncompressed, rather than an oversight. If I'm not mistaken, DDS compression is lossy? Since the 'MA' didn't have the original material, uncompressing the SRO texture and then recompressing it may produce undesirable results (artifacts or significant loss of detail).

[z929669]

15 minutes ago, Mousetick said:

It's 2048x2048 square. A DDS file can contain compressed or uncompressed textures. Indeed it's unusual to provide uncompressed textures, but it's a valid DDS configuration. This one is using A8R8G8B8 + mipmaps format, and that is uncompressed.

This can be seen here in Paint.net for example, when saving a blank 2K x 2K square:

Linear > Compressed

Yes, it's just odd that this MA would choose that format and place into the DDS container ... unless this is considered a modder's resource. Maybe the MA didn't want to risk degrading the source texture (or the source is also uncompressed, but I doubt that). Either way, this doesn't bother me or anyone with plenty of VRAM and drivers that manage it efficiently .... but I think it's bad practice, particularly for landscape textures.

[TechAngel85]

I would not use this fix unless it's validated that Starac is okay with it.

Yes, it's just an uncompressed DDS and, yes, it's an odd choice. BC7 would have compressed it without adding any additional artifacts. Whatever they used likely didn't/doesn't support BC7.

[TechAngel85]

I heard back from Starac. Posting here as confirmation that we can include a fix, if need be:

[TechAngel85]

Updated instructions for latest version of the mod.

[Kattmandu]

22 hours ago, TechAngel85 said:

Updated instructions for latest version of the mod.

The mod author just uploaded a LOD pack for DynDoLod V 3.0.  So now there are two LOD packs.

[DoubleYou]

4 hours ago, Kattmandu said:

The mod author just uploaded a LOD pack for DynDoLod V 3.0.  So now there are two LOD packs.

I don't think it is new. I think the author accidentally forgot what it did and took it down temporarily and then re-uploaded by the sound of the comments.

Edit:

Actually, it appears that Majestic Mountains has received a major update. It sounds like our Majestic Mountains Creation Club Landscape Patch may no longer be needed.

[TechAngel85]

7 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

Actually, it appears that Majestic Mountains has received a major update. It sounds like our Majestic Mountains Creation Club Landscape Patch may no longer be needed.

Yeah. One user reported that one of the places was good. I haven't had time to check the other.

[ButchDiavolo]

Majestic Mountains AND the DynDOLOD v3 pack have been updated to version 4.01.