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)

[Kelmych]

UAC didn't do the trick for me' date=' but running DDSopt as admin does :)[/quote']

 

This may be a little off topic' date=' but, I don't think turning off UAC works right. People are better off running everything as admin. by right clicking the exe. I have UAC turned off in the control panel and still have gotten the re-run as admin. warning thing

 

Just my$.02[/quote']

My observations are similar. I have set DDSopt and BSAopt configured to run as adminstrator and I have UAC disabled.

[peppergomez]

Howdy all,

 

I am following the STEP install procedure and just came across DDS as a recommended utility (though it's not clean in the STEP instructions that using it is mandatory)

 

Anyway, I've been reading about DDS in the guide and have a basic overview question:

 

Is DDS designed more for mod maker to optimize the textures in their mods, or for everyone, mod maker and mod user alike, to optimize textures? Just curious if I should install it and then use it to optimize the textures of any (all?) appropriate STEP mods I install. If DDS will improve performance, then I will likely want to use it.

 

As for the HOW to use it, well, I guess I've got a lot of reading to do. :-)

Though it'd be helpful to know if I should be using it every time I install a mod, or if I can use it at the end of the STEP install.

 

Thanks!

[Kelmych]

DDSopt is for both mod makers and users; a few mod makers use it on their textures before releasing them. It does provide some reduction in VRAM use and improved game performance. We recommend using it on all of the vanilla Skyrim textures but we don't recommend using it on all STEP mods since many of them, particularly the mods with large sets of textures, are already optimized. The QuickStart tab in the guide, and the table in the DDSopt and Texture Overhaul guide, have some guidance on this. It is preferable to use it on individual mods before installing them. If you use it at the end of installation you will be using it on the textures from all mods, and you will find many textures that look better before optimization than after.

[peppergomez]

Thanks. So if it's used on vanilla Skyrim textures, I guess it makes sense to follow the procedure BEFORE installing a bunch of STEP mods then, right? In other words, run DDSopt quite early in the STEP process, to optimize vanilla Skyrim textures, before moving forwards?

[peppergomez]

Edit--- Nevermind my question that I origianly posted in this reply (labelled "***orignal post***" below)...found the answer on Nexus...I needed C++ x64. Be a good idea to mention this in the guide, I think.

 

 

I do have this question still, however:

 

I just pointed DDSopt at my main Skyrim folder. DDSopt ran for a bit, and then popped up this notification

:

 

"DDSOpt

 

Sanity-check of the directory-names results negative! Youi likely identify names in bad shape in the listing and have to unselect them. Continue to salvage parts?"

 

So I guess I've already done something wrong, lol.

 

Note that I have a vanilla install of Skyrim (well, I do have SKSE installed) and that I have been following STEP in the correct order. Also, I installed Skyrim in my C: drive location, not in Program Files x86.

 

 

***original post****

Installed DDS and ran the x64exe in Admin mode. Got this error:

 

DDSopt x64.exe System Error

 

The program can't start because MSVCP110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the progrma to fix this problem. Didn't see any mention of this .dll file on these forums or in the DDSopt guide. Checked the DDS related files and don't see anything like it.

 

BTW I installed DDSopt .7.3, then installed/overwrited DDS pre-release update 4 over that, then created the DDSopt.ini file as per the guide's instructions.

 

Anyone able to help? Thanks!

[bitdman]

Edit--- Nevermind my question that I origianly posted in this reply (labelled "***orignal post***" below)...found the answer on Nexus...I needed C++ x64. Be a good idea to mention this in the guide, I think.

 

 

I do have this question still, however:

 

I just pointed DDSopt at my main Skyrim folder. DDSopt ran for a bit, and then popped up this notification

:

 

"DDSOpt

 

Sanity-check of the directory-names results negative! Youi likely identify names in bad shape in the listing and have to unselect them. Continue to salvage parts?"

 

So I guess I've already done something wrong, lol.

 

Note that I have a vanilla install of Skyrim (well, I do have SKSE installed) and that I have been following STEP in the correct order. Also, I installed Skyrim in my C: drive location, not in Program Files x86.

 

 

***original post****

Installed DDS and ran the x64exe in Admin mode. Got this error:

 

DDSopt x64.exe System Error

 

The program can't start because MSVCP110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the progrma to fix this problem. Didn't see any mention of this .dll file on these forums or in the DDSopt guide. Checked the DDS related files and don't see anything like it.

 

BTW I installed DDSopt .7.3, then installed/overwrited DDS pre-release update 4 over that, then created the DDSopt.ini file as per the guide's instructions.

 

Anyone able to help? Thanks!

@peppergomez.

It looks like you've done a good job at getting your feet wet with DDSopt. It's kinda complex in the beginning but will become easier to use as you learn more about it, which can only happen by practice. You will have many more questions as time goes on and the answers will reveal themselves the more you reread the guide. "Practice makes perfect" and has great rewards if you play not only Skyrim, but all other Elder Srolls and Fallout games. 

[peppergomez]

Thanks. I think my current question got hidden away in m post- that about the sanity check of directory names results bring negative. (see my post quoted by bitdman)

 

 

Could someone take a shot at answering this? Thanks!

[Kelmych]

If you are planning on optimizing the entire Skyrim textures folder (not the recommended approach which is to optimize a selected set of mods only and to optimize before installing them) then in the DDSopt Browse window you would need to select Skyrim\Data\Textures. As an output you would need to select a new folder somewhere else and create optimized versions of the textures in the new folder. The you would need to replace the old Skyrim\Data\Textures folder with the one that has been optimized. If you optimize the entire textures folder it will take a long time in DDSopt. I've never done this so I don't know if there are any problems in doing this.

[EssArrBee]

I bet you would end re-optimizing a bunch of files since a bunch of the mods STEP uses have already been optimized. I probably would skip all the armor/weapons from Cabal and also the water and nature stuff from sparrow and vurt. In the end all the stuff you'd tell DDSopt to skip would take an hour.

[peppergomez]

I now realize I misunderstood the directions. I thought I had to point DDSopt to my main Skyrim folder directory in the Browse field under the Browser tab. That is what I did, and why I got this message:

 

"Sanity-check of the directory-names results negative! You likely identify names in bad shape in the listing and have to unselect them. Continue to salvage parts?"

 

I know realize that I simply need to select Skyrim under the Game heading at the top left of the DDSopt window. D'oh.

 

Problem is, now whenever I run DDSopt, it is skiming that main Skyrim location and giving me that error message, and pulling up .bsa results from the Data folder. I assume that I don't want to be occuring.

 

I even uninstalled and reinstalled DDSopt but it's doing the same thing. I guess I need to I get it stop scanning that main folder, but I don't know how to do so. I looked on youtube in the hopes there would be a video tutorial, but no luck.

 

Could someone explain how I can accomplish this?

 

I have to admit that the instructions on the DDSopt guide are fairly complex, at least upon one or two briief reads without using the DDSopt at each step.

 

Also, to clarify something basic:

 

Is it best practice to use DDSopt to optimize vanilla Skyrim textures before installing the STEP mods? I had thought it might be, but Kelmych your reply suggests not.

 

So I guess my question is- when should I use DDSopt?

 

I am at step 2.B in the STEP process--- installing utilities. So no modes installed yet.

 

Also, another STEP-recommended utility is Optimizer Textures...which seems like it would accomplish much the same as DDSopt. Is this correct? If so, does one only need to use one or the other?

 

 

 

Thanks for bearing with me. I'll get the hang of it.

[Kelmych]

I now realize I misunderstood the directions. I thought I had to point DDSopt to my main Skyrim folder directory in the Browse field under the Browser tab. That is what I did, and why I got this message:

 

"Sanity-check of the directory-names results negative! You likely identify names in bad shape in the listing and have to unselect them. Continue to salvage parts?"

 

I know realize that I simply need to select Skyrim under the Game heading at the top left of the DDSopt window. D'oh.

 

Problem is, now whenever I run DDSopt, it is skiming that main Skyrim location and giving me that error message, and pulling up .bsa results from the Data folder. I assume that I don't want to be occuring.

 

I even uninstalled and reinstalled DDSopt but it's doing the same thing. I guess I need to I get it stop scanning that main folder, but I don't know how to do so. I looked on youtube in the hopes there would be a video tutorial, but no luck.

 

Could someone explain how I can accomplish this?

 

I have to admit that the instructions on the DDSopt guide are fairly complex, at least upon one or two briief reads without using the DDSopt at each step.

 

Also, to clarify something basic:

 

Is it best practice to use DDSopt to optimize vanilla Skyrim textures before installing the STEP mods? I had thought it might be, but Kelmych your reply suggests not.

 

So I guess my question is- when should I use DDSopt?

 

I am at step 2.B in the STEP process--- installing utilities. So no modes installed yet.

 

Also, another STEP-recommended utility is Optimizer Textures...which seems like it would accomplish much the same as DDSopt. Is this correct? If so, does one only need to use one or the other?

 

 

 

Thanks for bearing with me. I'll get the hang of it.

 

DDSopt remembers the last directory you pointed it at. When the error message finishes you should be able to open the Browse window and enter the correct directory. After you use it on a proper directory it won't give the error message any longer.

 

 

It is best but not necessary to optimize vanilla textures first. You can come back later and do it if you prefer. If this is the first time installing STEP you might want to skip this until you have had a chance to use Skyrim a little with the STEP mods. If you want to optimize the vanilla textures you can do it anytime. When you create an optimized texture archive file of vanilla textures you add it to the installation order using WB or MO (whichever you use) and then remove the associated vanilla BSA as mentioned in the DDSopt guide.

 

DDSopt is more comprehensive than Optimizer Textures and is the one most people using STEP choose. We are not as familiar with the details of Optimizer Textures.

[peppergomez]

Thanks. I have begun optimizing the HRDLC and STD files using DDSopt.

 

I am confused by what is meant by "working directory" in the instruction below (taken from the guide).

 

 

"Before optimizing the High Res DLC files several additional steps are required to prepare them. The "HRDLC1", "HRDLC2", and "HRDLC3" folders will be moved into the working directory and cleaned, then moved back to the "Vanilla Extracted" directory. If dthe optional steps to eliminate duplicates are used then proceed with the steps below, otherwise skip these five steps.

Repair the HRDLC Textures

 

Move the "HRDLC1", "HRDLC2", and "HRDLC3" folders from the "Vanilla Extracted" directory to the working directory.

Create batch files according to these instructions to remove redundancies among the HRDLCs.

Extract the customized BAT files (created in the previous step) into the same working directory as was used for the rest of the folders from previous steps (i.e., not into a sub-folder though). This directory will then include folders named "HRDLC1", "HRDLC2", "HRDLC3", as well as the two batch files. "

 

 

 

PS- Step 6 (optional) in the Extracting Textures portion of the guide didn't seem relevant to me. I typed *txt into the middle field and pressed Apply, but no files appeared. For the 3 HRDLC instances I didn't ahve "Show Recursive" checked, but I did check it for STD. Didn't see any .txt files appear though. So I followed the Extracting Textures procedure witout removing any workflow files from the BSAs, in case that matters.

 

The Step 6 instructions:

" (optional) Type "*.txt" into the filter field in the center of the Browser Tab and click [Apply]. Untick all of the "placeholder.txt" files, remove the filter text, and click on [Apply] again (these are workflow files that should not have been included in the BSAs)."

[bitdman]

The "working directory" is just a folder with subfolders where you put the optimized textures before you put them back into the game, or the

"Skyrim directory" You can have the working directory on any drive or partition you like. I wouldn't use a SSD drive though. You might want to consider making a backup of these folders so you won't have to run them through DDSopt again. If you haven't read the guide about BSAopt and unpacking BSA's It has some good information also.

[peppergomez]

Thanks, bitdman. I realize I've typed a lot of text below, so I've numbered my questions to help folks see them.

 

A few questions:

 

1)Why wouldn't you use an SSD?

 

2) Can I create a "Working Directory" folder in "My Documents" on the same drive I have the "Skyrim Vanilla Extracted" folder?

 

3) Am I making a backup of the HRDLC1-3 folders before or after I finish the Repair the HRDLC Textures steps?

 

I am reading the DDSopt guide and following the steps as I go along. Currently on DDSopt Optimization section. https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=DDSopt_Optimization

 

I will also read about BSAopt soon, I am sure. (well, isn't that also done through DDSopt, since this application also works with BSAs- and in fact I just selected the HRDLCs 1-3 and the Skyrim Texture BSAs using DDSopt in the preceding steps).

 

 

Also, another question:

 

4) Do I need to have already installed the Unofficial High Resolution Texture Patch by the time I complete the Repair the HRDLC Textures steps on the DDSopt Guide? (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=DDSopt_Optimization). The instructions that step 2 (pasted below) of the Repair the HRDLC Textures mention the Unofficial High Res Texture Patch, which I haven't yet installed b/c I am not to the point of installing mods yet. (I only wish to optimize the official Bethesda textures)

 

I'm referring to these instructions:

 

"These batch files are updated versions of the ones that were originally provided in the Skyrim Nexus mod file HighResTexturePack DLC Cleaner v2_2-14719-v2-2. They have been updated to accommodate the new Hi-Res DLC (HRDLC) that includes three separate BSA files and the fixes provided in the Unofficial High Resolution Patch (UHRP). The purpose of this updated batch file is to delete extraneous files, a 'fix' which cannot be incorporated into the UHRP. It does not add any files to the HRDLC. "

 

 

I want to make sure I do everything in the correct order here, and my present focus is on optimizing vanilla textures using DDSopt before I proceed with installing the mods in the STEP process.

 

 

Thanks.

 

5) I don't suppose there are any tutorial videos for this are there? Would be really helpful. Typing DDSopt into Youtube only pulled up a few unrelated entries.

 

 

 

Yet another question (Christ, I feel like I need an Engineering degree for some of these procedures, haha).

This time concerning virtual drives as referenced in below instructions.

 

I have no idea what a virtual drive is, or how to create one (though I am googling it). I have the three HRDLC folders in a folder in Documents called "DDSopt Working Directory" and wonder if that is okay, and if so, how I would assign a virtual drive path to each HRDLC folder.

 

6) How do I create the "q:\" "r:\" and "w:\" virtual drive paths to the respective HRDLC folder?

 

"IMPORTANT: These batch files should be placed into the working directory alongside of the HRDLC folders. They are configured to use drive substitution with 3 virtual drives, each representing the relative path to the corresponding HRDLC. The virtual drives used in this example are q:\, r:\, and w:\. The BAT will not execute properly unless these file paths exist. Either create them or change the paths to reflect the folder locations existing in the working environment."

 

 

 

PS- I hesitate to say that these steps are "too" difficult, since that of course is relative. But damn...these are a lot of hoops to jump through!! :-)

[mishmash]

1)I presume Birdman is talking about the lifespan of read/writes on an SSD, which is more limited than a conventional drive so if you can avoid using your SSD for things like this then do so.

2) You can create it wherever you like but see above.3

3) Keep backups of the vanilla HRDLC BSAs in case you ever have to do a re-install, then you can copy these drives back into your skyrim/data folder so that you avoid the need for a 4GB steam download. I'm not sure where exactly it says to make backups and don't have time to scour the guide now but the extraction and repair steps don't take that long, but optimising does so make backups again after that.

4) No. The optimisation is about preparing this stuff before you install anything (in your case anyway, you could go back and repair/optimise if you hadn't).

5) Not sure, if you follow the guide you'll be familiar, once you've finished ;)

6) From memory I think I ignored that actually presuming the batch files did that themselves. Someone else can answer this hopefully.