Cleaned Skyrim SE Textures (by Kartoffels)

[TechAngel85]

Discussion topic:
Cleaned Skyrim SE Textures by Kartoffels
Wiki Link

STEP SE Notes:

Confirmed that some new artifacts are introduced due to batch processing and that the mod is packaged in a way that utilizes base game files in a non-standard way for modding.

 

There is probably little reason not to include this mod. It should probably be tested against SE vanilla textures, though. For example, the plants and grass aren't very good because the mix of LE shadowing on the texture with SE lighting isn't good. I'm sure that is why Bethesda removed the shadows from these textures for SE. For that reason some more testing should be done. This mod is associated with the following and should be tested independently but with those other mods in consideration:

• Skyrim Special Edition Upscaled Textures (SSEUT)
• High Quality Tintmasks for Vanilla NPCs
• Quality CubeMaps - HD Cube Maps

I am placing this and all dependencies noted above in my MO mod list as:

 

---

 

Vanilla  >  CSSET




Upon closer inspection, it's a hard sell whether or not to include the mod. Some textures are improved by removing artifacts from the BC1 compression and a bit of sharpness increase. It also looks like some of the grass shadowing has been fixed. However, on the other hand some issues are introduced such as: lost detail in tree mipmaps without any noticeable improved in closeup detail, shadowing on plants, and jaggies in some of the landscape textures. Then there are other textures that there is no noticeable difference until you really get down to the (still blurry) details.

 

 

[z929669]

I'm placing this under "Foundation" just after USSEP in the MO load order.

[TechAngel85]

I'm placing this under "Foundation" just after USSEP in the MO load order.

It's loose files so it's going to overwrite USSEP anywhere you put it.

[z929669]

Just saying that's where it seems to fit best logically if it were included.

[Mercury71]

This introduced a bug known from LE where the banners in Markath goes bananas (photo).

 

Solved by hiding: Textures/Clutter/citybannermarkarth01.dds

 

[DoubleYou]

This mod should be repackaged into a bsa and loaded before USSEP. This will fix problems such as the above, and probably even improve performance.

[z929669]

This mod should be repackaged into a bsa and loaded before USSEP. This will fix problems such as the above, and probably even improve performance.

The mod provides a BSA version: "kart_CSSET_BC7_BSA" + "kart_CSSET_BSA_ESM" + hotfix

 

EDIT: Updated OP with install instructions.

[DoubleYou]

Cool. It must have updated.

[DoubleYou]

Looking at the way this mod is packaged via BSAs, I see that we have one esp file:

 

kart_CSSET.esp

 

And 4 BSA files:

 

kart_CSSET.bsa

kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa

kart_CSSET0 - Textures.bsa

kart_CSSET01 - Textures.bsa

 

As I understand the way that SSE loads BSA files, I was under the impression that only the following BSA file names could be loaded by an esp file named kart_CSSET.esp:

 

kart_CSSET.bsa

kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa

 

This would mean that, as currently packaged, the game would never load the following BSAs:

 

kart_CSSET0 - Textures.bsa

kart_CSSET01 - Textures.bsa

 

This, of course, could be fixed by duplicating kart_CSSET.esp as kart_CSSET1.esp and renaming the problematic BSAs as:

 

kart_CSSET1.bsa

kart_CSSET1 - Textures.bsa

 

However, testing would probably be needed to confirm this behavior.

[Greg]

It looks as if you may be right based on the behavior I'm seeing in ProcMon with the BSA version of this mod. I see Skyrim Special Edition calls QueryOpen for kart_CSSET.bsa, calls CreateFile to open the BSA, and reads the header and directory entries in the BSA. A little later I see QueryOpen for kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, CreateFile to opens the file, and reads the header and directory entries in the BSA. I then see it loading a lot of assets from both BSA files.

 

All I see are QueryDirectory calls (basically just a directory listing) that reference kart_CSSET0 - Textures.bsa and kart_CSET01 - Textures.bsa so the game knows these two files exists, but game is not doing anything with these files at all. If the game uses these two files, I expect to see some evidence that it's at least reading the header and directory entries in the BSA to determine which assets are stored in these two archives.

 

I also see that LOOT is sorting kart_CSSET.esp after Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp and I think we'd want it to load before so the assets from USSEP override.

[TechAngel85]

Yeah, this is probably an issue. The CK should have packed the mod correctly for use. It will split large BSAs, I think, automatically.

[z929669]

Agree it's pretty unclear. There are also redundant plugins, and no reason clarified. I posted on the Nexus asking the author to fix or provide clarification. Ther is also a load order discussion out there now.

 

IMO, this is too much of a PITA to use ATM ... unless we have clear answers and instructions for use (which is too much unnecessary work, IMO ... if we manage to figure it out and provide instructions and then it get's fixed later, our instructions will need to be fixed ).

 

I think the textures BSAs are mostly redundant and differ with just a few options (see packed file sizes) that don't seem to be mentioned.

[TechAngel85]

I messaged the author on Discord. They'll have it fixed for the next update. No ETA. We can just wait for the update, imo.

The other option is to use BethINI to add the texture archives to the INI and ignore the plugin. That will ensure they are always loaded were they should be; directly after the game files.

[DoubleYou]

I do not advise altering the sResourceArchiveList INI settings unless the user knows what they are doing, and 99% of users will not even have a clue. The sResourceArchiveList INI settings are treated extra special by BethINI simply because of how important they are to be correct, and because they are used for various forms of Archive Invalidation, not to mention total conversion mods such as Enderal and Nehrim, and probably in the future, SkyWind.

 

I repackaged this mod on my end by doing the following:

 

kart_CSSET1.esp (dummy esp flagged as esl/esm)

kart_CSSET1.bsa

• actors
• architecture

kart_CSSET1 - Textures.bsa

• armor
• blood
• clothes

kart_CSSET2.esp (dummy esp flagged as esl/esm)

kart_CSSET2.bsa

• clutter
• creationclub
• critters
• dungeons
• effects
• furniture
• impactdecals
• interface
• landscape
• lod
• plants
• puddle
• shadertests
• sky
• terrain
• test
• trap
• water
• weapons
• the other loose files

kart_CSSET2 - Textures.bsa

• _byoh
• dlc01
• dlc02

Per Tech's comments here and on Discord, I unchecked any of the plant, tree, or grass textures to the archives. Grouping these directories together made the most sense to me, plus kept each bsa under 2gb (I read there is a limit near 2gb but I haven't tested that). I then ensured that I loaded the plugins immediately after Dragonborn.esm

Edited August 9, 2020 by DoubleYou

[DarkladyLexy]

I raise this exactly concern of the plugins and BSAs are actaully loaded last week