GUIDE [WIP] DDSopt & Texture Overhauls

[z929669]

Discussion thread:
DDSopt Guide by STEP
Wiki Link

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GET DDSopt:
Github Pre-release versions
Official Nexus versions (select pre-release update 4)

[EssArrBee]

I thought it was with the HRDLC too, but then I extracted them with BSAopt and and copied them over to my vanilla extracted and there was still ~10K files and ~200 folders missing. I think the problem is in the LODs, somehow many of them get skipped. Also, MO is way faster than BSAopt at extraction, but a couple minutes on the bigger BSAs.

[DoubleYou]

Well then, I'm not sure. Maybe it is the Skyrim - Textures.bsa? I thought I used MO on that one, but I'm not entirely certain. I know I used it at least on the DLC files.

[Kelmych]

How would I use MO to extract a vanilla BSA and then access the resulting files? I don't see the vanilla BSAs in the Mods folder.

 

Does MO skip extracting files from the vanilla BSAs that are going to be overwritten by resources from other mods?

[EssArrBee]

MO allows you to choose the directory to extract to. If you do it to your mod folder then hit the refresh button next to the profile bar to bring up the new mod. Then right click->open with explorer.

[EssArrBee]

I'm missing the Mod Exterior Textures folder after running the 4_Mod_Sorting_Pre-optimization_2.73.bat, but I did include Skyrim HD. Is that supposed to happed?

[Kelmych]

I'm not at my computer so I can't check right now. I ran the batch file on some other mods yesterday and the two exterior folders were created. I'll check later today with Skyrim HD.

 

EDIT: I ran Skyrim HD with 4_Mod_Sorting_Pre-optimization_2.73.bat and the exterior textures are sorted to separate folders. Is it possible you didn't enter a "Y" at the prompt when asked about whether exterior textures should be sorted into separate folders?

[phazer11]

How do the mod batch files work? I was trying to figure out how it determined which mod it was processing yesterday; but didn't feel like opening them up to look at the nitty gritty. I'm just going through them manually right now.

[EssArrBee]

I'm not at my computer so I can't check right now. I ran the batch file on some other mods yesterday and the two exterior folders were created. I'll check later today with Skyrim HD.

 

EDIT: I ran Skyrim HD with 4_Mod_Sorting_Pre-optimization_2.73.bat and the exterior textures are sorted to separate folders. Is it possible you didn't enter a "Y" at the prompt when asked about whether exterior textures should be sorted into separate folders?

Actually, what I meant is that I left out Skyrim HD so there were no Exterior folders created. I was thinking that maybe Serious HD would have a few exterior textures, but when I repacked everything, it was completely overwritten, so I guess it worked right.

[Kelmych]

Serious HD and Skyrim HD both have a lot of exterior textures. Skyrim HD textures are overwritten primarily by SRO and Terrain Bump. Serious HD does not have any textures that overwrite textures in the 3 archive files we have been using from Skyrim HD.

[varrgas]

this step is really important ? cause the chapter for the texture seems to be really hard (and nerd a lot, no offense)

[Kelmych]

How do the mod batch files work? I was trying to figure out how it determined which mod it was processing yesterday; but didn't feel like opening them up to look at the nitty gritty. I'm just going through them manually right now.

Mods are extracted to a single folder by the user' date=' and the batch file sorts the textures in the folder into 3 or 5 categories (the 2 additional ones are for exterior textures); each of these categories can potentially use different DDSopt settings. The batch file for mods doesn't use any information about which mod is being processed, unlike the sorting used for the vanilla textures where the details of the vanilla textures were used in the batch file. The full paths are preserved so when the optimization is complete the mods are reassembled in the "Mod Optimized" folder. It uses the "robocopy" system program internally. Some steps may seem to be done in a less direct manner to accommodate the capabilities of robocopy (it has more flexibility when excluding vs. including multiple directories and file types for copying).

 

There are some suggested constraint tab settings in the guide; I plan to add another tab with a little more detail (a few figures with specific alternative suggestions) on this capable of being used across a wide range of mods including STEP mods, pack mods, SR:LE mods, and other mods that people use like quest mods. DDSopt can handle optimizing uncompressed textures at the same time as compressed, and getting the settings right can be a little tricky but is usually not too hard. The hardest part for settings is recommending these for body-related textures. Some mods can include both large body textures and some small face tint and other facial textures with a mix of compressed and uncompressed textures in both sets. Ideally the large uncompressed textures get changed to R5G6B5 to save VRAM, but I'm not sure this is best with the small size textures; there hasn't been much discussion of body textures on these forums since STEP doesn't handle many of these.

 

Does this answer your question or did you have some other questions?[hr']

this step is really important ? cause the chapter for the texture seems to be really hard (and nerd a lot' date=' no offense)[/quote']

I'm not sure what you mean by "this step". Do you mean texture optimization in general or some particular portion of it? I suggest starting with the QuickStart guide. It has more step-by-step instructions and less details about texture optimization itself.

 

This recent post describes the value of optimizing the vanilla Skyrim textures.

[Luisangre]

Just a little something I noticed while checking out the new batch files and guide layout.

The DDSopt Optimization tab shows that after running the 2_pre-optimization batch file you will only end up with the folder "STD" in Vanilla Optimized but I also get a HRDLC3 folder with msn.dds head files for all races.

Also, an emptry HRDLC3 folder comes up in Vanilla Uncompressed Textures folder.

Phenomenal job on the guide and thank you.

[Kelmych]

Thanks for catching this. In a recent change to eliminate problems when the large male model space normal map in HRDLC3 was optimized to 1Kx1K, some small model space normal maps and this large one were added to to the Mod Optimization folder by the batch file so they wouldn't be changed during optimization. We'll change the text and figure to show this.

[Kelmych]

An updated batch file v2.74 was uploaded for the DDSopt guide that eliminates the empty "HRDLC3" folder in "Vanilla Uncompressed Textures". The updated file does not change the optimized output of vanilla textures or mod textures.

 

In addition, some summary installation instructions for the optimized texture archive files for both Mod Organizer and Wrye Bash were added to the DDSopt guide today. If there are questions or comments please let us know. Hopefully these additions reduce some of the confusion that resulted from not having any installation instructions or pointers to such instructions.

[Kelmych]

A new sidebox note was added to the guide about archiving mods when using Mod Organizer for installing and managing mods. Some mods use Fomods to provide a menu for installation, and many of these package their resources as a BSA. An example is the "Expanded Towns and Cities" mod in the "A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim" pack which has a BSA in the "00 Core" folder. When optimizing textures the BSA contents are extracted and the textures are then optimized. For mods that have both a Fomod folder and a BSA, when the textures are optimized the resources including the optimized textures should be repacked into a BSA. This allows the Fomod scripts to function properly. When MO is used to install the BSA should be extracted; since the BSA is unpacked by MO vs. the Skyrim executable there aren't any problems with the BSAs created by BSAopt or DDSopt.