optimization best practices?

[SmegmusMagnus]

THIS IS AN EDIT: Before posting my question, I ought to have given thanks where it is due; I apologize for my self-centered oversight. To He What Compiles this Stuff all Goodly for Us-thank you very much for all your astute compulsivity, tempered by altruism. Additionally, thank you to all who help us to understand, and utilize, that boon.

 

Now; the original post-

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Wow; first question after the drop of 2.1!...and when I woke up this morning I had no idea such glory awaited me.

 

Anyhoo: I have decided that I would like to be as efficiently anal as possible regarding my upgrade to 2.1; therefore, I have purged my system of all remnants of Skyrim, STEP, and Wrye Bash (which, BTW, I have a question about, too-why after I uninstalled and reinstalled Bash last time did it 'know' it had been installed previously [evidenced by its query as to an 'alternative' location path]); therefore, I want to optimize the textures as part of the process. However, while reading through various posts on this board and STEPNexus, I realize that there are some alternative methods/tools towards this end. I had decided to follow the DDSopt method, per the guide provided from the link given in the STEP 2.1 release placeholder thread on this board, until I read through the 2.1 guide; the method prescribed by He What Compiles this Stuff all Goodly for Us seems much easier and less cognitively-intensive, but I wonder if there are opinions as to its efficacy vs. DDSopt, or other tools.

 

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. If it helps, my card is an nVidia GeForce GTX 560 ti 1G DDR5; I have 4G RAM (DDR3, I think), an Aesus motherboard w/ an AMD Athlon II X4 635 Processor 2.90 GHz, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I was able to run full STEP 2.0.1a w/ approx. 20-30 additional mods, and having replaced RWT 2.1 w/ WATER (invisible waterfalls be damned!), and also replacing RL w/ RCRN; I did this w/ low-medium res. packs where provided and the result was a very fluid, smooth game w/ lag only in instance transitions, and very rare CTDs. I also use IObit GameBooster (though I have reduced my page-file size back to recommended [by Windows] levels).

 

I hope all the tangential information didn't obscure my actual question; what's the best route for texture optimization?

 

 

Thank you

[Vond]

Using DDSOPT is definitely the best if you want to lower VRAM usage. Simply following the wikipost is your best bet. Optimizer Textures does pretty much the same thing but you have less control over it.

[SmegmusMagnus]

Thank for your response; I figured that there was a strong likelihood that any response might take a while, as people would probably be busy downloading/installing.

 

I am going to explore your advice; I like the idea of control, but I am enough of a philistine that even though I have been using mods extensively since Oblivion, I still experience serious trauma when dealing with learning new tools/utilities-even after the eureka moment when it all clicks, I feel a physical dread when the next utility I should probably learn comes along for the new result I should probably benefit from. I'm still experiencing Bash as a wary outsider, and I successfully ran 2.0.1a using it!

 

Thanks again.

 

BTW: When coming here to see if there were any responses yet, I realized that I should have begun my original post by thanking He What Compiles this Stuff all Goodly for Us, as well as all who, like you, provide so much help; I am going to edit that first post momentarily. In the meantime-thank you for all your work, all of you that have helped my game along so much.

 

 

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Magnus Pantocrator

[Vond]

I understand where you're coming from, but look at this way: you only need to learn how to use each tool once, then you can use them whenever you want. :) Using DDSOPT as in the guide is actually a lot easier than it might look (since the guide is rather long), and I don't think you'll regret following it! ;)

[SmegmusMagnus]

I know that your first observation is correct; Bash no longer actively intimidates me, it just makes my sphincter instinctively tighten. Regarding your second observation; regret is a moot point, as I feel compelled to plunge in head first, in the knowledge that I will ultimately emerge both more knowledgeably and playing my beautiful game triumphantly.

[frihyland]

The Skyrim Installation Guide takes you through every best practice to have accomplished before beginning the STEP process. The wiki is full of other complimentary guides as well.

[SmegmusMagnus]

Thank you for this. Since these are essentially early days, yet, I at times am unsure whether I am looking at an opinion of best practices, or the consensus of best practices. Hell, often it seems figuring out the guides and processes is at least as much a hurdle as implementing the steps (if you will) is.

 

Not that I'm complaining, though; whatever doesn't kill my brain (-s remaining cells) only makes it smarter...or something.

 

 

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[z929669]

The guides are all written for clarity, so you should be able to follow along step-by-step without having to wrack your brain too much. Let us know if something is not clear, as that is how they get improved.

[Neovalen]

Argh, frustrating. Followed the wiki guide for DDSOpt and apparently it blue screened while I let it run for the last 3 hours. Ah well, starting it over again and hopefully with better luck this time.

[frihyland]

Make sure you have cleaned out the broken files from the DLC or that will happen every time. Also turn off your antivirus program while its running.

[Neovalen]

I followed the guide to the letter. (which includes getting rid of the png and txt files)

 

I'm not sure what happened but it seems to have gotten farther this time.

I made sure to exclude the files explicitly marked as corrupted by DDSOpt in the instructions.

 

Now I'm going to go to bed so maybe I can actually install STEP tomorrow after this run is done. :)