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)

[stoppingby4now]

The post was marked as spam. I unmarked it and deleted it when it re-added to the forum since the information is in the paste bin.

[phazer11]

Ah so I can use those without the High Res DLC? I did click the link in the footnote but was confused when I saw it used with the other overhauls and wasn't sure what to make of it.

[z929669]

Ah so I can use those without the High Res DLC? I did click the link in the footnote but was confused when I saw it used with the other overhauls and wasn't sure what to make of it.

There is no reason NOT to use the HRDLC if you use Vano89's solutions. You want to first install DDSopt-ed HRDLC, then DDSopt-ed Vano89-Optimized DLC, then your chosen DDSopt-ed texture overhaul. You should use the latest DDSopt 8.0 pre release 3 and settings I recommend on this thread. Note that some textures from overhaul mods may not be properly treated by DDSopt, so you should either filter those out or overwrite the output woth originals in those cases.

[phazer11]

Which pre-release? I'm only seeing v.0.7.3 bugfixed. Also is there a list of textures? I followed the S.T.E.P. v2.1.1b guide and downloaded most of the texture mods.

[frihyland]

Which pre-release? I'm only seeing v.0.7.3 bugfixed.

Its linked in a previous post.

[phazer11]

Oh wow I guess it must be hidden because I checked github... and also feel silly it was relinked above my first post lol.

Anyways what about:

Note that some textures from overhaul mods may not be properly treated by DDSopt, so you should either filter those out or overwrite the output woth originals in those cases.

I'm only using the texture overhauls and packs from the S.T.E.P. v2.1.1b guide.

[frihyland]

Oh wow I guess it must be hidden because I checked github... and also feel silly it was relinked above my first post lol.

Anyways what about:

Note that some textures from overhaul mods may not be properly treated by DDSopt, so you should either filter those out or overwrite the output woth originals in those cases.

I'm only using the texture overhauls and packs from the S.T.E.P. v2.1.1b guide.

I think only WATER from STEP needs to be avoided, their might be 1 or 2 more, I defer to Z.

[z929669]

Oh wow I guess it must be hidden because I checked github... and also feel silly it was relinked above my first post lol.

Anyways what about:

Note that some textures from overhaul mods may not be properly treated by DDSopt, so you should either filter those out or overwrite the output woth originals in those cases.

I'm only using the texture overhauls and packs from the S.T.E.P. v2.1.1b guide.

most of the answers you want are already on this thread. begin reading around pp 13 on this thread ;)

[phazer11]

So it should be fine on SRO, Skyrim 2k Textures, Riften HQ Textures, etc, but not Skyrim Flora Overhaul or WATER?

Also from my readings it looked like this part of the guide is outdated (except for filtering the png) when using the pre-release for version 8?

 

4. IMPORTANT Texture filters - textures\interface\books\ of the STD vanilla textures contains many PNG files that do not need to be processed. Use the filter in the center of the Browser Tab to type in a "*.png" wildcard, then click the [Apply] button, unselect the files, remove the "*.png" wildcard filter, and click [Apply] again. This will ensure that the PNG files will not be processed into DDS file type. Also filter the following textures, as they are mysteriously corrupted by DDSopt:

 

landscape\trees\treepineforestbranchcomp.dds

landscape\trees\treepineforestbranchcompsnow.dds

landscape\trees\treepineforestbranchcompsnowl.dds

textures\clutter\common\hotiron01.dds

textures\black.dds

textures\brightyellow.dds

textures\default_n.dds

textures\defaultdiffuse.dds

textures\defaultwithspec_n.dds

textures\gray.dds

textures\green.dds

textures\greynoise.dds

textures\lightblue.dds

textures\white.dds

textures\white_em.dds

[ShadowPaladin]

Out of curiosity, besides the texture overhauls, what do you guys find uses the most VRAM in Skyrim? I'm building a basic install up right now and have the standard, hd dlc, optimized dlc + vanilla normals all DDSOpt optimized and am sitting at about 775-800mb VRAM use in the middle of Markarth (which tends to be on the high end). All the other settings are Ultra, 1920x1080 res, 4x AA 16x AF. From what I've read on the subject, that seems about average, but the DDSOpt guide shows the VRAM use to be quite a bit lower (662mb); so I'm curious if I'm missing something or maybe I have some settings turned on/up that the guide doesn't?

[blacksol]

what is your field of view and ugrids as both impact significantly on vram usage

 

EDIT - oh and AA uses fair bit of vram in my setup (hence using 2x)

[ShadowPaladin]

Still playing with the setting, but FOV is set to 78 and ugrids are default at 5. I remember Oblivion having serious problems with ugrids and stability so I'm probably not going to mess with those at all. Now that I look at the .ini again, I see AA was turned off for some reason, so with that turned back to 4x, VRAM use is about 1k-1020mb.

 

This being the case, I may end up using the 1k Skyrim HD textures for STEP instead of the 2k since there doesn't appear to be a significant difference in image quality that's noticeable while playing (i.e. not standing still and looking for it). Even when using DDSOpt, the 2k version skyrockets my VRAM to 1500mb, which would be capping out my card.

[z929669]

Ultra shadows is one of the biggest VRAm killers, so that will cost.

 

Test high up on the steps in WR in middle of the day as well as inside front gate of Windhelm (as in the screens of the DDSopt guide). These are high VRAM areas.

[ShadowPaladin]

Yeah, not sure I'm willing to sacrifice the shadow quality unless I absolutely have to. I ran an earlier version of STEP with everything on Ultra and didn't have too many problems, so with enough tweaking I can probably get it there again. I seem to recall RCRN's FXAA implementation being very good as well as cheap, so I might turn off the regular MSAA and do that.

 

And it looks like Whiterun is about 1050 and Windhelm is around 1100, which seems fairly normal for Ultra settings with the HD DLC. I'm running a GTX 580 with 1.5gb of VRAM and am allowing Skyrim to use 4gb of system RAM via the .ini so as long as I can keep it around 1500-1600 I don't think I should have much stutter.

 

EDIT - After comparing some screenshots of optimized SkyrimHD 2k and 1k textures, there's almost no discernible quality difference between the two. The 2k textures are a tiny bit sharper in some places, but not really enough to be noticeable while doing anything other than comparing still screenshots. Also, the new DDSOpt prerelease is amazing, it lowered the total texture size of the 1k set by 177mb.

[MadWizard25]

Allowing skyrim to use 4gb of RAM? Via ini tweak? Do tell :)

 

As far as im aware, the LAA issue was fixed in patch 1.3, and letting skyrim use up to 4gb is not possible via ini tweaks. You sure yu know what you did? Maybe you changed iPrelaodSizeLimit or iMaxAllocateBytes? Because those are not really RAM tweak :P

 

In any case, bleh, another heavy work week. Su much for summer holidays :( I think this weekend i will be able to pintpoint which textures are causing the odd looking trees. It will just be a process of elimination.

 

Some other things i have noticed, tree LOD popping has changed. Now trees pop from LOD texture to full much more frequently at a shorter distance. I have traced it to the set of DDSopted tree textures again.

 

On another note if Cloaks of Skyrim is installed, do not DDSopt those textures either. It will make the cloaks look like reflective plastic.