Texture Replacement for SMIM Mine Wood

[Mousetick]

SMIM uses its own separate set of meshes and associated textures for wood in mines, not overwriting the vanilla ones. This makes using vanilla texture replacers a bit more difficult.

IMHO the SMIM textures don't look good. What are all these stains supposed to represent? Mold? They're not consistent with the other wooden objects and structures present in mines.

I found a texture replacer that works with SMIM meshes and looks better: CleverCharff's Mines (by CleverCharff). Below are some comparison screenshots, using the 2K version of CleverCharff's Mines:

 

 

Notice the jarring inconsistency below between the SMIM planks and the wooden drawbridge. The CleverCharff textures blend better:

 

 

To install with STEP:

• Download 1K/2K/4K version as desired. Install with MO.
• Put anywhere in the '06-Models & Textures' modgroup.
• Hide the textures/dungeons folder within the mod.

 

There is an alternative approach, but it's not as good I think: SMIM - Noble Skyrim Patch. It edits the SMIM meshes to use a mishmash of vanilla textures from various wooden objects, which can then be replaced by vanilla texture replacers. If used with STEP, textures from SRO will be used.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Mousetick

[z929669]

The only issue I have with these is that they will make the wood lighter and greener. Algae needs light.

EDIT: this must be a rare example. I don't see the algae on the mod page screens. Or the meshes are doing more.

[Mousetick]

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

The only issue I have with these is that they will make the wood lighter and greener. Algae needs light.

EDIT: this must be a rare example. I don't see the algae on the mod page screens. Or the meshes are doing more.

I'm not quite following. Which algae are you talking about? If you're talking about the greenish stains, they're on the SMIM textures! Hence my desire to swap them for something better-looking. In my screenshots, SMIM textures are on the left, and Clevercharff's textures are on the right.

[Mercury71]

The green "stains" comes from "Dungeons 3D Ropes and Glorious Scafolding" in SMIM. I just dont choose that  in the FOMOD and it looks good enough.

[TechAngel85]

Mercury71 is correct as to what options those are coming from in SMIM.

The green is licen/mold/moss from the wet environment of the mines. This would indicate the wood has been in there for a while and is rotting. The one thing I hate doing is switching out something because we don't like the aesthetics of it...in this case (and many mods do this) it's been switched out from old to new wood. Completely changes the intended look and purpose, enough of these changes also affect the "ambiance" of the environment. It would also be against this in the Mandate: "texture mods that significantly deviate from the game's original visual style"

"Significantly" being the key word here. There are mods in the Guide that change in visual style from vanilla, but rarely to the extent of what is suggested. If this is changed out, it would still have to represent old, rotting wood; not something fresh from the mill.

[z929669]

OK, so we shouldn't be using those particular SMIM textures in Step (we are now). Algae CANNOT grow without light, and last I checked, mines have no photosynthesis-worthy light. If the green is not algae, then it's just dumb to have green stains on wood in mine buttressing. At the very least, we should change this SMIM option. These would be good textures for pylons underwater at the entrance of a mine from a body of water or something.

Side note: When making screen compares it's most helpful to install Step and show the difference in that context. It's always good to include a vanilla as well:

vanilla > Step > mod-in-question

Also, much better to show the in-game screens rather than the textures rendered in a viewer for these sorts of compares. The mesh and lighting in game can drastically impact the look of the texture.

[Mercury71]

This is vanilla. Not even SRO, does SRO have wood textures? (sry for the darkness, forgot to bring a torch)

[TechAngel85]

26 minutes ago, z929669 said:

OK, so we shouldn't be using those particular SMIM textures in Step (we are now). Algae CANNOT grow without light, and last I checked, mines have no photosynthesis-worthy light. If the green is not algae, then it's just dumb to have green stains on wood in mine buttressing. At the very least, we should change this SMIM option. These would be good textures for pylons underwater at the entrance of a mine from a body of water or something.

How'd you come to that conclusion? This is not SMIM's fault. The vanilla texture has the green too so SMIM is correct. Clean wood is not. I don't care what is "real" in this situation. This are placed in places with and without light. You're not going to get the both clean and rotting wood together (one in lighted areas and one in dark areas) unless you make a mod. Stick to vanilla style, which has this green on it. SMIM just makes it much more prominent on their texture.

[z929669]

11 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

How'd you come to that conclusion? This is not SMIM's fault. The vanilla texture has the green too so SMIM is correct. Clean wood is not. I don't care what is "real" in this situation. This are placed in places with and without light. You're not going to get the both clean and rotting wood together (one in lighted areas and one in dark areas) unless you make a mod. Stick to vanilla style, which has this green on it. SMIM just makes it much more prominent on their texture.

I didn't know vanilla had green stains on it. that's why.

This is also why I suggest that we always have the vanilla context in screen compares. And using in-game screens rather than raw-texture screens. Otherwise, I will always draw from reality for context (and risk being totally incorrect).

[Greg]

The screenshot on the left is from a pure vanilla game with no mods installed and the lighting is bad. The screenshot in the center is with the Step SE 2.0 guide installed. The screenshot on the right is Static Mesh Improvement Mod with Ropes 3D - Dungeons selecting Dungeon 3D Ropes (so it doesn't have Glorious Scafolding).

       

[DoubleYou]

16 minutes ago, Greg said:

The screenshot on the left is from a pure vanilla game with no mods installed and the lighting is bad. The screenshot on the right is with the Step SE 2.0 guide installed.

   

Hmmm... is it wrong of me to prefer the vanilla wood texture?

[TechAngel85]

17 minutes ago, Greg said:

The screenshot on the left is from a pure vanilla game with no mods installed and the lighting is bad. The screenshot on the right is with the Step SE 2.0 guide installed.

   

Vanilla textures look better at distance but that left corner is the normal blurry mess up closer. SMIM is surprisingly just not very good in this case. The textures are usually not bad...not sure where Brumbek was going with this one. We could do with a better texture, but most are going to be clean textures rather than vanilla-like.

I just looked and the SMIM textures is actually SRO, but customized for his meshes (like baked in highlights/shadows on the planks).

[DoubleYou]

7 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

Vanilla textures look better at distance but that left corner is the normal blurry mess up closer. SMIM is surprisingly just not very good in this case. The textures are usually not bad...not sure where Brumbek was going with this one. We could do with a better texture, but most are going to be clean textures rather than vanilla-like.

I just looked and the SMIM textures is actually SRO, but customized for his meshes (like baked in highlights/shadows on the planks).

Oh yeah, I remember that god-awful blur.

[Greg]

I just edited my post to include a third screenshot using the Step 2.0 guide, but this one uses Static Mesh Improvement Mod without the Glorious Scaffolding option. It's pretty much the same as the vanilla screenshot with better lighting.

[DoubleYou]

39 minutes ago, Greg said:

I just edited my post to include a third screenshot using the Step 2.0 guide, but this one uses Static Mesh Improvement Mod without the Glorious Scaffolding option. It's pretty much the same as the vanilla screenshot with better lighting.

Actually, no. It looks like he re-uv'ed it so it might not be blurry anymore.