DDSopt and overwriting Vanilla

[CacklingIdiot]

Hello,

 

I have optimised and archived the textures as described in the ddsopt guide and also used bsaopt to optimise the other resources mentioned in that guide - Animation, Interface, Meshes, Misc, Shader, VoicesExtra. I have replaced these bsas in the Data Folder but am not quite sure about the Texture only archives. I have tried deactivating the content in MO and installing my optimised archives, but do not see any change in the Data folder (no loose files only vanilla esm files)

 

 

 

 

Can I remove the Bethesda high res dlc and replace them with my optimised ones (and get rid of the esps)*

What do I do with the STD, Dawnguard, Hearthfires, and Dragonborn vanilla esms? Do I move these vanilla files out of the Data folder and replace them with the new ddsopt ones?

 

Thank you for any help,

Ned

 

*I already removed the esps for these hrdlc files hence them not appearing in the image, but the original bsas are still present in Data

[Aiyen]

Actually nope that is wrong (sorry)

_n.dds is tangent space normal maps

_msn.dds is object space normal maps

 

They can both be compressed or uncompressed as you see fit. The difference is that they are used for different things. In skyim the main difference is that _msn.dds are used for bodies.

[CacklingIdiot]

When processing normal maps in DDSOpt do I filter both _n.dds and _msn.dds, also, how do you filter uncompressed maps in the browser window?

[Aiyen]

In general I would never suggest that you touch the _msn.dds files (Or any of the skin textures for that matter) with any sort of automated programs. Or at all unless you know what you are doing.

 

You can think of the _msn.dds file as the one that is allowed to be 21Mb in size if it so pleases... all skin textures are made to be used in unison, and altering them will upset the rather delicate balance that skin color and detail require.

 

You may have noticed the neck seam which is just one example of what can happen when you start having non optimal skin textures.

[CacklingIdiot]

If you are manually optimizing STEP mods with DDSopt, you can do as you suggest using S2 constraints for normal maps (then hit process). When that finishes, you can select everything (use *.* in filter) and use S1 constraints. DDSopt won't write over textures it has already optimized.

 

Few STEP mods have any uncompressed textures. If you want to separately optimize the uncompressed textures (for mods that have them) you will need to deselect all textures, find the uncompressed ones and check them, then process with the uncompressed settings. It is preferable to do this before the step using S1 constraints above.

 

Post the number of files/folders in the Dawnguard directory in the temporary folders if you still have them.

Sorry, here is the correct information - last one was incomplete

 

 

Please ignore the Finished Archives, Other and Optimised BSAs folders as I added them myself

[CacklingIdiot]

Well did everything from scratch and the file/folders count are correct for every folder in Vanilla Optimised except Dawguard again - 3,121 files 106 folders. Everything worked without errors.

[Kelmych]

I'm not sure exactly what is missing; I have one additional file in the Dawnguard folder in Vanilla Textures. Until you find a problem I suggest ignoring the missing file.

[CacklingIdiot]

My Dawnguard folder in Vanilla Extracted has 14,704 Files, 758 Folders. If you still have yours, any chance you could tell me if they are the same?

 

Ned

[Kelmych]

I have the same number of files/folders in Vanilla Extracted\Dawnguard .

[CacklingIdiot]

After, preoptimisation bat

 

Dawnguard Vanilla Normal Maps Folder: 5 Files, 6 Folders

Dawnguard Vanilla Textures Folder: 3,116 Files, 106 Folders

 

Adds to 3,121 files

 

Do you think it is in this step that something goes missing?

[Kelmych]

Dawnguard Files:

 

Vanilla Textures: 3117 files, 106 folders Size: 417,101,952 bytes

Vanilla Normal Maps: 5 files/6 folders

Vanilla Uncompressed Textures: none

Vanilla Optimized: 3122 files, 106 folders

 

I also added a new figure to the DDSopt guide that shows the number of files/folders in all the subdirectories used in vanilla texture optimization.

[CacklingIdiot]

Thanks for the response! I started the process on another pc and its looking better so far. The only thing i'm wondering about is if I can safely ignore an error in the HRDLC-clean error log. It just says on the first line : "The directory is not empty". Other than that, there is the correct number of files and folders after running the bat. I had the bat files located alongside the Vanilla Extracted folder which contains the HRDLC1,2,3 etc.

 

Also, the optimised Textures.bsa isn't added to MO, its placed directly in the data folder, right?