need further DDS OPT understanding...

[Quahogs]

I'm confused.  For example I've ddsopt SIC textures 8192x8192 normal maps 8192x8192.  Same goes for Amidian Book of Silence.   However it's noted that I ddsopt Starx auto variants textures at 2048x2048 amd normal maps at 1024x1024.   

 

In laymen's terms why is there a difference ? Am I increasing the original size or quality 4 TIMEs greater than the 2048 option ??   I'm trying not to be a lemming when I follow SR but I just don't understand why some textures are optimized using 8192 or 2048 and some not at all.  

 

Immersive armors and weapons for example...  plenty of textures there, how should I optimize them if at all ?   

 

thanks all...

[EssArrBee]

No those are the limits of the texture sizes. It is good practice to reduce some of the sizes of certain textures, like the normal maps, to save VRAM without a huge difference in quality.

 

For powerful systems that do not have many crashes you could try the color maps or files that end in .dds to 2k and the normal maps or files that end in _n.dds to 1k. Weaker systems might try 1k color maps and 512 normal maps.

 

Those 8192x8192 limits are good for a first pass to just optimize the textures without any resizing of the textures. You could also just reduce the size of a texture on the first pass or do it on a second pass to save VRAM.

[johnnyboy88]

Well, the title of this thread just lends itself to eveyone asking questions. So I hope you don't mind if I throw one in here.

 

What happens if you run this on textures that authors have said have already been optimized? Or on decal type textures that need alpha maps? I think I remember reading on some mods not to optimize them as it will screw them up; Is that right?

[EssArrBee]

Well, you need to use the current ddsopt.ini or you will not force DDSopt to skip certain textures. Any type of monochromatic texture gets messed up too, they are usually 128x128 or smaller, but get reduced by DDSopt to 1x1. Also, water textures and some uncompressed normals that are really noisy get messed up.

 

If an author has said not to optimize the textures it is because they might have already done it. If you need a smaller size of texture ask the author or you can reduce the size with DDSopt, but it's a trial and error type thing to see if it works correctly. Not every texture will be okay with what DDSopt does, nor does reducing every texture in size work out properly. You should be safe to so with about 99% of textures, so don't worry to much about it.

[Quahogs]

So as I understand the 8192 DEFAULT just optimizes the textures and maps and doesn't change the size ? So If I'm installing a HD 2048 texture it will remain that way. If I choose 1024x1024 then I'm cutting it to that size ALONG with optimizing it ?

 

Is anyone aware of what kind of textures are in immersive armors and weapons and whether they should be optimized or not ?

 

also has the current ddsopt.ini been updated recently ?

 

sorry but it's tough for me to research some of this stuff from work... a lot of skryim stuff is blocked ! :-P

[EssArrBee]

The ddsopt.ini that is linked on the DDSopt Guide is up to date. I wouldn't change the size of the IA or IW textures, but optimizing them wouldn't hurt anything. I think they are mostly vanilla textures assigned to the new armors/weapons for most pieces.

 

You are correct about the way those limits work. Does not resize anything at or below the limit, only things that are bigger, and also never use a rectangular size limit on textures, like 2048x1024.

 

I see lots of people on the forums while at work, hmm... Are you guys teachers that make the TAs do everything too?

[Quahogs]

LOL, no way teachers have the time to screw with this stuff on the job at least none that I know. Just a restless soul in the commodity biz that probably wishes he majored in computer science 30 years ago ;-) I'm just glad you aren't blocked by the firewall...

 

Just optimizing the W and A won't hurt true but it WILL take up hard drive space if I don't want to override the original textures with the new ones correct ?

[EssArrBee]

Well, as a part time teacher with two TAs and two peer leaders for two classes, I'm pretty much just a guy that talks to students for 3 hours a week. I even check out reddit and STEP forums while giving quizzes or group work.

 

Anyways, yes, you will be taking up more space with the second copy if you decide to keep the older ones around. When I was first learning all the optimization stuff I had a working folder of at least 200GB with all the crap I testing. If I was you I would start with the big landscape stuff like Skyrim HD and Serious HD, plus the HRDLC. Those take up the most VRAM while in outdoor areas. Interiors usually don't need as much optimization due less cells being loaded and generally less VRAM usage.

[Quahogs]

Rank has its privileges !

 

I followed NEO's SR by rote so I have everything optimized as per those instructions. But I'm a lemming. Now I have to think for myself and ...hence my question. I didn't have the foresight to test everything I did so I hope I hit most correctly. I'm not too fussy i.e. subtle imperfections but I do want the best game I can possibly put together. thanks SRB.

[Kelmych]

By the way, whenever I see comments and questions about DDSopt I look at the DDSopt guide to determine changes to make the guide clearer about the question being asked. If other users find parts that are incomplete or confusing they can also make changes to the guide on the Wiki.

 

The SR mods haven't been added yet to the table in the guide with DDSopt recommendations for mods since the old SR guide is frozen and Neovalen hasn't finished the initial version of the new SR guide.

 

Since this thread is about DDSopt it should be moved to the DDSopt guide thread.

[dem1an]

No those are the limits of the texture sizes. It is good practice to reduce some of the sizes of certain textures, like the normal maps, to save VRAM without a huge difference in quality.

 

For powerful systems that do not have many crashes you could try the color maps or files that end in .dds to 2k and the normal maps or files that end in _n.dds to 1k. Weaker systems might try 1k color maps and 512 normal maps.

 

Those 8192x8192 limits are good for a first pass to just optimize the textures without any resizing of the textures. You could also just reduce the size of a texture on the first pass or do it on a second pass to save VRAM.

Is there any harm in optimizing down to lower resolutions in steps...or is it best practice to go straight to the resolution your looking for?  8K to 2K to 1K ...or better just to straight to 1K. I'm wondering if I can experiment with higher resolutions and then go farther on another pass.

[EssArrBee]

Well, you should always use the source for doing the down res. The originals aren't going anywhere unless you delete them afterwards, which you shouldn't so unless you are sure you don't need them anymore, not the case while testing. There usually isn't harm done to textures that run through DDSopt many times, but it's probably better timewise to just keep the originals in a working directory to reduce and optimize over and over.

 

If you go from say 4k to 2k and decide you want to 1k then delete the 2k and run the 4k through again with 1k limits.

[Kelmych]

It's best to redo the optimization from the original texture if you want to use a different resolution or make any other change in optimization parameters. You can just create multiple sets, each at a different resolution, and then swap them in and out fairly quickly using a mod manager. Not that for most textures that are 2Kx2K or less there isn't any difference in what DDSopt does with 8K, 4K, or 2K resolution limits.