ACCEPTED Majestic Mountains (by T4gtr34um3r)

[DoubleYou]

T4 seems to think it is a problem with the grass we're using and that the specular is the same as vanilla. Not sure why USSEP patch and SMIM would fix the issue with the texture... needs investigation. 

[z929669]

Well, hiding MM textures resolves, so the issue must be with the MM textures, no?

[DoubleYou]

So I guess he is technically correct that if architecture\whiterun\wrfieldgrass01_n.dds had a proper specular, it wouldn't be an issue, and that mod (Skyrim Realistic Overhaul) should fix that. However, I doubt we're going to get a proper specular for SRO, so it is an issue with compatibility for us. Both SMIM and USSEP remove the specular flag from the mesh, because it appears they are using meshes based off original Skyrim which did not include the specular flag for these meshes. I can't say that I've seen any such issues since hiding the MM meshes, just a slightly different rock texture, which seems okay to me since not all rocks look the same anyhow. I tested with hiding just the normal map and hiding both the diffuse and normal maps for wrfieldgrass01. Vanilla texture is awful. Hiding the normal map is mostly okay.

Vanilla texture with MM meshes --> SRO texture with hidden normal map and MM meshes --> SRO textures with hidden MM mesh

  

Honestly, I prefer the look of hiding the MM meshes more, as it seems to fix the bad shadowing towards the edges of the mesh. We may want to test alternate textures for wrfieldgrass01 at some point, however, that have a proper specular. 

[TechAngel85]

I agree just hiding the MM meshes will work for our Guide. It's just something that we'll have to deal with since it is our setup issue. I'm surprised Cathedral didn't cover this texture.

[z929669]

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I vote that we move to MM Darkside. It just blends much better with landscape in latest dev guide setup

[TechAngel85]

37 minutes ago, z929669 said:

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I vote that we move to MM Darkside. It just blends much better with landscape in latest dev guide setup

Need compares. I think I still use Lightside.

[z929669]

Compares are in OP.

I slightly prefer MM over MM Lightside. It just blends with Cathedral Landscapes a tad better, IMO. Lightside looks pretty good and is arguably closer to vanilla, but not the best fit with CL. Darkside is clearly too dark, IMO.

[DoubleYou]

You have in the OP that you vote for Darkside. You should probably change that

Hmmm... I don't think I can judge solely from the compares. Probably need to just load it up in game to be sure on that one. I agree that Darkside appears too dark, however.

[z929669]

2 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

You have in the OP that you vote for Darkside. You should probably change that

Hmmm... I don't think I can judge solely from the compares. Probably need to just load it up in game to be sure on that one. I agree that Darkside appears too dark, however.

Doh! Corrected

[TechAngel85]

12 hours ago, z929669 said:

Compares are in OP.

I slightly prefer MM over MM Lightside. It just blends with Cathedral Landscapes a tad better, IMO. Lightside looks pretty good and is arguably closer to vanilla, but not the best fit with CL. Darkside is clearly too dark, IMO.

Wow...aren't you the one that asked that I shrink my image sizes for this stuff? 

Don't know why you didn't just use the forum like normal. I was going to walk away to allow it to load but have to click through all 16 pages and wait for each to load...don't have time for this right now. I'll have to look later.

EDIT: There is also no labeling on the images so what is what? I think it should be okay to tell in this case, but I wouldn't use this service again. 

[z929669]

32 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

Wow...aren't you the one that asked that I shrink my image sizes for this stuff? 

Don't know why you didn't just use the forum like normal. I was going to walk away to allow it to load but have to click through all 16 pages and wait for each to load...don't have time for this right now. I'll have to look later.

EDIT: There is also no labeling on the images so what is what? I think it should be okay to tell in this case, but I wouldn't use this service again. 

They are jpg, so relatively fast to load.

They are on an external service.

They are in a spoiler.

I was able to use this service with no issues. Took less than a minute to click through them all.

They load of the forums quickly (checked from multiple networks).

The order is exactly as described in the post. 4 sets of 4 images.

I don't get the complaints ...

[TechAngel85]

16 hours ago, z929669 said:

Compares are in OP.

I slightly prefer MM over MM Lightside. It just blends with Cathedral Landscapes a tad better, IMO. Lightside looks pretty good and is arguably closer to vanilla, but not the best fit with CL. Darkside is clearly too dark, IMO.

15 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

Hmmm... I don't think I can judge solely from the compares. Probably need to just load it up in game to be sure on that one. I agree that Darkside appears too dark, however.

From the compares there is hardly a difference between MM and Lightside, however, Darkside is definitely too dark. I will likely need to load up the game for the other two, but from what I can see (that site is not good for comparing) MM blends too much. Things are getting too brown. One thing everyone always forgets are the structures made of the stone from the land. If the stone on the forts and whatnot doesn't match the rocks on the land, then it's a no vote from me every time. That mismatch is too big an oddity for me to look over. It always surprising me how many don't even see that detail.

[Greg]

When I expanded the spoiler just now, I got an empty spoiler box for about 30 seconds ago and was wondering if someone had deleted the images. I was just about to come back here to post about it when the images suddenly started loading, but it took a while for the images to slowly load. The images are also difficult to compare given the need to scroll up and down. The images from DoubleYou (third post from the top of page 3) are somewhat smaller but highchart/whatever makes them easier to compare with the left/right arrows.

[TechAngel85]

@DoubleYou, @Greg, @z929669
I fixed the compares in the OP.

I can see them much better now and since it's easier to switch between them, I can say I'm still for Lightside. For the reasons it's closer to vanilla, it's doesn't wash the Tundra in too much brown, and it matches the stone in structures better.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, TechAngel85 said:

@DoubleYou, @Greg, @z929669
I fixed the compares in the OP.

I can see them much better now and since it's easier to switch between them, I can say I'm still for Lightside. For the reasons it's closer to vanilla, it's doesn't wash the Tundra in too much brown, and it matches the stone in structures better.

Yeah, the diff between Lightside and default is very subtle, so staying with lightside is probably best if for no other reason than staying closer to vanilla..

PS: And I agree that sticking with the local/highslide image posting format is better. I forgot that we had reduced the thumbnail size. As I mentioned, I mainly did it via external service so as not to lag this topic, but the spoiler takes care of that nicely, so it was redundant to do it the way I did.