Water is SEAM-ingly Bad!

[bchick1]

Hello !   I am being plagued by awful 'seams' in the water graphics. This is noticeable just about everywhere but especially viewed from height. A view of the bay from Solitude had three seams of different water 'types'. I can't seam (!) to get a handle on what is the cause or remedy for this. Any ideas?    Thank you!

Edited January 31, 2024 by bchick1
added picture file

[TechAngel85]

  On 2/1/2024 at 5:14 PM, bchick1 said:

I have basically started from scratch as I just had too much stuff in my load order; it had gotten out of hand.  I realize there may be some things that cannot be fixed by LOD or otherwise. I discarded all water mods and went with only one, "TB's Improved Water - A Complete Water Overhaul" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41069).  

My question:  is there ANY way to correct water seams by using LOD or otherwise?

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As one of the authors of Realistic Water Two, I have a fair bit of knowledge regarding water in Skyrim. There is only one LOD for all water in the entire game. If the author hasn't matched up the loaded water to blend with the LOD water, then there will always be a seam at the point where the loaded cells turn into LOD water. In the specific area at the mouth of Solitude, there are 3 water types that merge together; river, ocean, and one in between these that is specifically meant to blend river (flowing water) and ocean water (static water) together. If the author has not designed their water properly, again, there will always be a seam in that area. It two a lot of development for the RWT team to make this area at Solitude and LOD water blend nicely.

I'm bias, but if your water mod is leaving you with issues, I would recommend trying Realistic Water Two. Full disclosure; the only place you should see some not-so-smooth transitions between the loaded water and LOD water with RWT is in rivers. This is strictly a game limitation and nothing can be done about it so we decided to simply live with it. It's only seen in some areas where you can see rivers at a distance (like around Windhelm).

[TechAngel85]

  On 1/31/2024 at 2:52 PM, bchick1 said:

Hello !   I am being plagued by awful 'seams' in the water graphics. This is noticeable just about everywhere but especially viewed from height. A view of the bay from Solitude had three seams of different water 'types'. I can't seam (!) to get a handle on what is the cause or remedy for this. Any ideas?    Thank you!

Expand  

That is a notorious area for seams and you have to patch the water records correctly. It looks like you don't have them patched at all, or you mixed and matched your water mods to create...this.

[bchick1]

OK!  Thank you!   If there is no other way, I will have to learn how to 'patch' ... somehow.

 

[bchick1]

I have basically started from scratch as I just had too much stuff in my load order; it had gotten out of hand.  I realize there may be some things that cannot be fixed by LOD or otherwise. I discarded all water mods and went with only one, "TB's Improved Water - A Complete Water Overhaul" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41069).  

My question:  is there ANY way to correct water seams by using LOD or otherwise?

[z929669]

  On 2/1/2024 at 5:14 PM, bchick1 said:

I have basically started from scratch as I just had too much stuff in my load order; it had gotten out of hand.  I realize there may be some things that cannot be fixed by LOD or otherwise. I discarded all water mods and went with only one, "TB's Improved Water - A Complete Water Overhaul" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41069).  

My question:  is there ANY way to correct water seams by using LOD or otherwise?

Expand  

The seams you show in the OP seem like loaded cells. To verify if it's LOD or not toggle LOD on/off with " tll " via the console. If you see the seams in loaded cells, then test your water mod by disabling all mods that touch landscapes, leaving only your water mod enabled. Test with a new game, and travel to the affected location.

Then reenable your other mods and test again wiht a new game. If the seams come back, then you have a mod that conflicts with your water mod. Post for help on your water mod's Nexus page. Alternatively, use xEdit to view potential conflicts and resolve them ... or find the incompatible mod using the binary testing approach (enable half of your mods, test, enable the other half, test. In the half that causes the issue, disable half, test, so on and so on.

[bchick1]

THANKS to all who have helped here. It so does help to have been given some technical savvy about this water issue.

I am trying all water mods and adjustments mentioned above. I feel that I perhaps had too many of the wrong things that conflicted.

I have been playing Skyrim AE since it came out but this is my first focused effort to improve the graphics.

BTW, I HAD lots of issues with upgraded graphics but found that when I added another 16GB of ram (making a total of 32GB) it solved A LOT of issues. Also, measurements indicated that the game is now using 13GB of ram and almost all 12GB of VRAM.  (Nvidia 3060)

But it all runs nicely now.

 

Edited May 6, 2024 by bchick1
clarifications