Quality CubeMaps - HD Cube Maps Optimized (by Kartoffels, Kulharin)

[CorneliusC]

Discussion topic:
Quality CubeMaps - HD Cube Maps Optimized by Kulharin
Wiki Link

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A more recent, possible improvement to 'Quality CubeMaps - HD Cube Maps'.

'Same mod, but ran through Cathedral Asset Optimizer with necessary optimization, compression and generate mipmaps.
Fixed some issues and inconsistencies with the Dawnguard DLC cube maps by using the ones from Cleaned Skyrim SE Textures. The ones included in Quality CubeMaps were lower res from Skyrim LE HD.' (Author's description)

[z929669]

Something like this would need to be evaluated and compared to the original. Running assets in batch through an optimizer (particularly CAO) can cause new issues aside from 'fixing' old ones. So we would need to have several examples of vanilla, HD Cube Maps (showing an improvement/fix), and then this mod (showing further improvement/fix), which is not easy to do. Compression and mipmap issues are often not obvious outside of particular situations and are often conflated with other sources like DynDOLOD or a mod or INI settings, etc.

Just want to avoid creating new problems or 'resolving' non-issues, so we should probably specify the need/resolution with examples (something that we failed to do with the original mod before accepting, BTW).

[CorneliusC]

True, standardized optimization and compression is not always best. Just wanted to point this out as an alternative, because i read about some issues on the original mod's page. So with the lack of any detailed compares and seemingly no one having any issues with the original so far, we should stay with the original mod?

[TechAngel85]

The original mod had nothing to compare it to at the time so it was a simple add without needing anything to compare.

Keep in mind that several of the mods were accepted during the time when I was the only one doing anything, and I wasn't going to post compares for myself. I just did it on my own so that will be true for most of the mods accepted during that time period.

[CorneliusC]

Perfectly all right with me. I hope you didn't misconstrue my last sentence as an entitled request to do anything. The fact that the original mod worked for everyone so far without obvious errors is a good thing.

[z929669]

2 hours ago, TechAngel85 said:

The original mod had nothing to compare it to at the time so it was a simple add without needing anything to compare.

Keep in mind that several of the mods were accepted during the time when I was the only one doing anything, and I wasn't going to post compares for myself. I just did it on my own so that will be true for most of the mods accepted during that time period.

Yeah, I get it. I actually posted the original and figured if there were issues, they would come out eventually. We don't seem to have found any issues with it though, but I honestly have no idea if anything was improved or fixed by adding it.

[TechAngel85]

Honestly, it would be rather difficult to get good compares of these as they're mainly used in reflections.

As for the one we're using having some issues, I don't know. I can say from my own experience if they're just upscales, then they likely have some issues here and there. A lot of users don't bother to find the best model to use for each of their textures and simply batch upscale everything. This is crazy to me because not all textures are the same so just running them all through the same models is going to provide various results (not consistent results). They specially call out the BC1.Smooth model was used, which is for removing BC compression artifacts. However, I know from experience it's not always the best one to use. It often causes heavier smoothing that results in a loss of some finer details. It's great for smoother or more simple textures, but not really for detailed ones.

I think my main concern would be the fact that these should connect seamlessly along the edges. AI processing changes pixel properties to achieve the results (altering color, tint, brightness, etc). If those seams don't match up after processing, there will be seams in-game. Now how much this can be seen or would affect the game is another matter. As mentioned these are used mainly for reflections so unless it's a big reflection, seams will not likely be easily noticed.