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)

[bpr5016]

Alright thanks for the insight! I will likely backup MO's "mods" folder before I start tweaking things just to be safe. Gonna start with my plan posted above and hopefully that will improve the stuttering issues.

[Aiyen]

Instead of actually starting a new game every single time you can just open the console in the main menu and type

 

coc

 

For example "coc riverwood" will put you just outside of Riverwood.

To get the ID´s just type

help and use pgup to scroll up to where the "CELL" entries are.

 

You can always switch out textures and meshes with no real issue because there are vanilla files for all things... except if you are using a mod that adds new weapons etc.

You should not need to rerun AV or Dual sheath either unless you delete something... as long as you replace a file the game does not care what is in the file, as long as the filename used is the same.

[bpr5016]

Oh okay, great that will help out a lot not having to rebuild everything each time. What about rebuilding the bashed patch? Is that a necessary step after changing out mods or is that just for ones that use leveled lists?

[statmonster]

You must rebuild it if you removed (or altered) any esp/esms that contributed to your leveled lists - they are masters to the bashed patch and it will crash without them. If you are just testing stability it's probably not necessary to rebuild it otherwise. If you want to play then you would want to rebuild it whenever you add or remove mods that alter your leveled lists, but not really otherwise. Still it doesn't take long so I usually do it before playing if I've made any changes just to be sure.  At least that's my understanding.

[Aiyen]

In general if you add or remove .esp/esm then redo all the patchers etc... since they all involve a list of active mods etc. If those lists are not correct then down the road you will properly run into some issues.

 

However if you just add a small esp to change the lights in say.. lanterns then you do not need to redo everything just for testing purposes. Since those esp only contain color information about stuff already implemented in the world.

However once you settle for something you like then you need to reupdate all the patchers.

[bpr5016]

Ah alright, very clearly explained thank you. I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes! Last question: VRAM usage and performance variables can all be monitored with the papyrus log, correct? I believe this is the "benchmark checking" as stated in the STEP guide. I've also read something about a VRAM monitor by Elys, anyone use?

[statmonster]

No idea. What I generally do is look at whether it crashes or stutters at various locations. That's what I will care about during play. Perhaps not the most sophisticated approach...

[Aiyen]

In general you only want to use the papyrus log to test if a CTD is due to script failure.

It stresses the game engine if you activate the log and it will make the game a bit more sluggish and unstable because it has to log everything.

 

For performance monitors get an external program and start it before you run the game. The one STEP uses is decent.

I personally use the EVGA precision X because I have an Nvidia card from EVGA But there are similar applications for AMD cards...It allows me to follow my VRAM usage on my keyboard LCD. I also have a RAM + CPU monitor so I can switch between them ingame if I test.

 

Just remember that it is not advised to do it while having an ENB or another postprocessing file activated since they might conflict (CTD at start), as they try to access the same resources. Also depending on which OS you have and settings there are some security issues since they try to access the resource manager in windows.

[Kelmych]

Ah alright' date=' very clearly explained thank you. I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes! Last question: VRAM usage and performance variables can all be monitored with the papyrus log, correct? I believe this is the "benchmark checking" as stated in the STEP guide. I've also read something about a VRAM monitor by Elys, anyone use?[/quote']

Papyrus is just a log of script events written by various mods. It can help determine when a problem is due to scripts, but it isn't always very easy to relate these logs to problems. Monitoring VRAM and GPU usage requires GPU-Z or some equivalent. Monitoring RAM and CPU, if you need to do this, can be done with Skyrim Performance monitor (which can also monitor GPU and VRAM). FRAPS can monitor frames per second.

[bpr5016]

Okay great, thanks guys I have GPU-Z and will use it to enhance my understanding of what my performance is looking like. Won't be using papyrus just yet. I found this relevant discussion elsewhere on this forum regarding stuttering and optimization using DDSOpt:

 

https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1776

 

After reading, I decided to go into MO and uncheck all the big 'foundation' texture overhaul mods (Skyrim HD 2k tex, SMIM specifically) as well as the 'More Farm Animals' mod. And voila! My stuttering has all but vanished. Walking around Whiterun and Solitide was very smooth (resembled vanilla performance), despite some residual "nuisance" stuttering. I am still having some issue walking in the Skyrim wilds, specifically when loading a big new cell. Could be due to the Flora Overhaul maybe? Just speculating. Also, some distant terrain isn't loading... But I don't really mind these things so long as I have decent performance overall. And it looks like quickly switching off those big VRAM intensive mods really helped!

 

Would using DDSOpt on these big texture files (namely Skyrim HD and some of the Automatic Variants textures) allow me to enable them and retain decent performance? I am thinking this will likely be the next thing I try out. Thanks all!

[Aiyen]

You would get a bit yes... but what you want to do after you have optiimzed them is to filter for all the _n.dds files and reduce their size to 1024x1024 (So long as it is possible.) This will reduce the amount of RAM required significantly.

The difference between a 1k and a 2k texture is roughly 4Mb... so you save roughly that for every texture that loads at any given time.

[bpr5016]

Alright cool, and this optimization and subsequent filtering can all be done using DDSOpt? Does the DDSOpt guide go over how to filter the _n.dds files?

[statmonster]

Yes, it does. I believe the even walk through an example on one of the tabs. Very useful.

[GuyFarting]

1.

I have a DDsopt questions I hope you can answer, couldn't find them anywhere else.  I have used DDsopt on all my skyrims textures but in the guide you use ddsopt on the official dlc's which include Meshes and scripts, sound files etc... and also have a guide to optimize all the vanilla bsa files.  My question can you use ddsopt on meshes and other resources from user made mods (would there be any benifit, could this corrupt a .nif file in some way etc...) and what types of files besides .png files should be avoid optimization (such as a script file or even an .esp).

 

2.

Second question refers to BSA files.  The guide says to put the three Skyrim DLC's back into BSA format after optimization because it has multiple kinds of resources besides textures (meshes, sounds, scripts etc...) should this procedure be followed for all user mods that have multiple resources.  Moonpath to Elswyer or Vilja in Skyrim as examples.

3.

Would there be consequences if you didn't repack these mods into BSA format and just put them in Wyre bash as loose files.

 

I'm sorry if these questions were in the guide and I just didn't understand it. Love STEP, thank you for the guides.

Thank you for your time.:D

[Aiyen]

But here it is really vital that you do not touch character or water or LOD etc... altering their normal maps will produce really visible effects! :)

So remember to have backups, before you overwrite any normals so you can always go back if there is a problem with a texture.

 

The general effect if you reduce the normals is that the texture will start to look more fuzzy/blurry when you get closer to it then it otherwise would... another reason not to do it to armor and weapons etc... since those are always close when you are in combat and in 3rd person. But the effect is mostly only really noticeable if you are standing close face up in a texture.. if you are playing and moving around then there is not really any issue.