GUIDE [WIP] DDSopt & Texture Overhauls

[z929669]

Discussion thread:
DDSopt Guide by STEP
Wiki Link

---

 

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

[Aiyen]

After the big texture packs SRO, HD Skyrim etc etc. then AV ín its raw form is the single most demanding texture mod.

You have to remember that the mod depends entirely on how many actors are spawning ingame!

Each of the packs individually do not amount to much when you just look at it. But for a wood scene then if you have 5 foxes spawning, 5 rabbits, 5 deer, and then some wolves and perhaps a bear or two. etc. then you very quickly get a very large amount of memory used. And most of the time for something you do not even notice.... like the foxes etc.

 

I have already reduced it to 1k on both normal and diffuse on all smaller animals and also most of the larger since the visual difference is very VERY small. Only on skeletons and dragurs etc. I can see a clear visual difference so those I have allowed to remain at 2k. But again this goes for armor mods as well. Since you most of the time see them close up and the normal maps are really vital for the detail then degradations are noticeable.

[mokuro89]

Thanks guys for showing up! i'll keep my instalation now and will only use ddospt on landscape/architeture for now

[mokuro89]

have anyone tried Skyrim Mods Complex Optimizer - SMCO?

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13529//?

[torminater]

Hey guys, have you ever gotten 132 bytes big files when optimizing vanilla skyrim textures? Almost all of the terrain section is reduced by DDSopt from 43 kbyte to 132 bytes, and consists of only a black fence on a white ground... I think that's a form of texture corruption by ddsopt, and we should put those files into the exclusion list!!!

 

 

Edit: I have 8982 files in my MO folder with only 132 bytes size. None of those files (the ones I compared) were "empty" in the original, but all of the empty (132 bytes) in the optimized versions...

There are NO *.dds files in any of the vanilla unoptimized directories with 132 bytes size.

[z929669]

Yep, these look corrupt and shold be added to the alpha portion of the ini. Thanks ... never notice them.

 

If you feel like making a list of all affected, we can add them. Otherwise, it may be best to exclude all terrain unless there is an advantage to processing them. We'll need to check.

[Neovalen]

You would think you'd notice all terrain being corrupt the second you entered the game no?

[torminater]

You would think you'd notice all terrain being corrupt the second you entered the game no?

Perhaps the game recognizes the textures are corrupt and automatically uses the files from the bsa?

[Neovalen]

You would think you'd notice all terrain being corrupt the second you entered the game no?

Perhaps the game recognizes the textures are corrupt and automatically uses the files from the bsa?

I wouldn't think so based upon my experience with other corruption in the game, normally it puts big exclamation points or black where it should have been.

[torminater]

At least they don't get overwritten by anything else in the load order...

 

OK, so I've fixed everything by deleting all files in vanilla optimized folders with the size of 132 bytes and then copying over all files from the extracted archives without overwriting any files.

Interestingly enough there remains one 132 bytes file in my MO directory: textures/armor/iron/shield_em.dds of Hvergelmir's shield retexture. It is a broken file as well, but has been uploaded by hvergelmir this way, since in the original archive it's also a 132 bytes file. I'll inform the author.

[Phyrre56]

Disregarding the time investment -- is there any reason to NOT run all .dds files through DDSopt?

 

They can't be made worse, right?

[torminater]

Of course they can get worse. If you want to do it right, you have to optimize the mods One by One AND check all the optimized textures for unwanted quality loss or corruption. If not just optimize all AND replace textures you find ingame that didn't become well.

[Kelmych]

I looked in my optimized Skyrim Data\textures\terrain folder and found many cases where DDSopt took 43 kb files and created 132 byte files. It happened roughly 20-25% of the time on the 43 kb files. I looked in the DDSopt logs and in all cases it said  "Planar image detected, collapsing to size 1x1." There was a recent mention of similar problems with some face textures being detected as planar.

 

Ethatron discussed this briefly in Q2 of the technical discussions a while ago. He said that this texture collapse is actually correct in many cases but there can be an issue where video cards do not always handle these planar textures properly. Is there someway to disable this DDSopt feature in the INI file (vs. listing every individual texture) for video cards that don't handle it correctly?

[z929669]

Where I compared my terrain textures, I found only that the original 152 b textures were converted to 132 b, and the alphas were messed up. I did not find any of my own 43 Kb converted to 132 b.

 

Look at the non-HD vanilla files and compare in the DDSopt preview.

 

Some of this corruption may not be that noticeable in game if they are rarely used or if they are not obvious.

[Aiyen]

All automatic processes can make something worse, since they cannot take in all possible variations of texture settings etc.

Some textures require that a given pixel is at a given location on the texture. If they are not you will get something that looks awkard ingame.

Some textures get stretched too much in one dimension. Some get their alpha channel messed up which in turn causes all sorts of weird looking effects.

The list can go on.

[Kelmych]

Where I compared my terrain textures, I found only that the original 152 b textures were converted to 132 b, and the alphas were messed up. I did not find any of my own 43 Kb converted to 132 b.

 

Look at the non-HD vanilla files and compare in the DDSopt preview.

 

 

 

I found many 43kb textures replaced, and I reran DDSopt on the vanilla textures to make sure. Here is one log entry as an example:

 # blackreach.16.-23.7.dds #####################################################

 Skyrim\Wkg folder\Vanilla  Extracted\STD\textures\terrain\blackreach\blackreach.16.-23.7.dds

 processing:

 Format           : DXT1 to A8R8G8B8

 Dimensions       : 256x256 to 1x1 - 9 to 1 levels

 

 notes:

 Planar image detected, collapsing to size 1x1.

 Texture was compressed.

 delta:            43700 bytes less

 

This particular texture is 256x256 and all cells are the same color, so ideally it should be able to be collapsed to a single cell. There is no alpha channel in the original texture. The preview display for the optimized texture doesn't look like the original but it isn't the display of a planar image at all; of course, I previously noticed that the DDSopt preview display isn't always correct when the image dimensions change. The Compressonator view of the optimized image is also strange, but the parameters are correct. Again, I'm not sure how Compressonator can display a 1x1 image.