SKYRIMLE aMidianborn Imperial Forts (by CaBaL)

[Neovalen]

VL is my favorite for exteriors, obviously it does not include interiors atm. That being said... interior AMB might be a decent fit to go with it.

[EssArrBee]

And of course after I finally installed the mod, Aron goes and updates it with a bunch of UV fixes right after I take these shots.

[torminater]

It's always like that.

Our MT make the MA get up from their lazy behinds and back to work ;D

[statmonster]

I wonder if it might not be a good idea to let mod authors know ahead of time that STEP is considering doing a comparison test of their mod at time X, and so prompt the authors to let the mod testers know if there is an update in the works or any other pertinent information.

[Nearox]

VL is my favorite as well. Especially think that the parallax effect is very nicely done on the exterior walls. Makes it look like they are thick and solid, just like I would imagine such walls to be for the Skyrim setting. In addition I also like it that it gives forts a distinct look compared to cities, which all (except some aprts of riften) have more "organized" bricks in the walls whereas VL sets forts apart by a less organized, 'cheaper' and chaotic brick layering style that I think fits better to the type of enemies that usually inhabit these structures.

[statmonster]

What's the lore on who built these and when? Or is it just not clear and consistent?

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Hey Cabal, just wanted to say that I started using this and it looks great! I know I give you some crap about some of your retextures but you did well with this one :-P. Keep going!

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VL is my favorite as well. Especially think that the parallax effect is very nicely done on the exterior walls. Makes it look like they are thick and solid just like I would imagine such walls to be for the Skyrim setting. In addition I also like it that it gives forts a distinct look compared to cities, which all (except some aprts of riften) have more "organized" bricks in the walls whereas VL sets forts apart by a less organized, 'cheaper' and chaotic brick layering style that I think fits better to the type of enemies that usually inhabit these structures.

I just started using Vivid Landscapes all-in-one and all I can say is WOW. I use it with ENB with the parallax enabled and all of those textures look incredible. I am still using this mod instead of Imperial Forts because I like what Cabal did with it. 

[DoYouEvenModBro]

So Vivid Landscapes only covers exterior imperial forts? In that case, I can just have it overwrite Cabal's, right?

[WilliamImm]

This has been in testing for quite a few months, along with the Vivid Landscapes mod that covers the same imperial forts. Any comments on this one?

[phryxolydian]

I was just looking for mod's marked for testing literally seconds before you posted and was thinking of doing one between these and Vivid's. I know VL will win everytime for me though. :)

 

Just wait a bit.

[TechAngel85]

I was just looking for mod's marked for testing literally seconds before you posted and was thinking of doing one between these and Vivid's. I know VL will win everytime for me though. :)

 

Just wait a bit.

Click on the "testing" tag next to the thread title to get a list of all the mods marked for testing.

[phryxolydian]

Here goes.

 

I've just created an album with 50 comparison shots between Cabal's and SRO, which let's face it, it's just a step beyond HRDLC. I used vanilla lightning and no ENB preset. I'm posting a few preview shots in the hope that more of you will check out the album and share your opinions. 

 

 

Oh and if you thought that Vivid Landscapes Imperial Forts didn't affect interiors well, let's just say you were a bit off in your assumptions.

 

SRO > SRO+VL > AMB > AMB +VL

 

 

In view of such horrific results I don't see how VL can be accepted for STEP and so I decided to put off my exteriors comparison until I'm proven otherwise. 

[Aiyen]

Comparing VL without ENB and parallax fixing enabled with anything else will most certainly make it look subpar. I know it says it is not strictly required but vanilla implementation is just too buggy to be worth it. 

[EssArrBee]

In the big album, it is AMB for me all the way. The only thing I saw where SRO was better is the wood frames that can go around doorways in a couple places. The walls with the green moss are blended so much better, though I did kinda like the darker green color SRO has. The problem was that the SRO walls with moss had this speckled noise around the moss that annoys me.

 

The big block walls were better from AMB as well, they fit in with the floors and ceilings so much better than the ones SRO has. I just think that Beth might have messed up the walls a bit and they have this fake look to them, they are also kinda shiny which drives me nuts because there shouldn't be anything in that type of mineral that is reflective in that way unless the walls are greasy.

 

The floors are smoother as well in AMB, which I like since these forts are old and ground would probably get worn and be smooth after years of boots walking on them. Stairs meshed better with walls as well, SRO suffers from using Beth's stuff as a base and there is just some weird lines in their stuff that has always bothered me in forts. AMB really did a good job with most of the lines and blending floors and walls together.

 

This is one of the texture packs where Cabal definitely didn't go for the newer look. In some places it actually seems more worn than the stuff in vanilla game.

Comparing VL without ENB and parallax fixing enabled with anything else will most certainly make it look subpar. I know it says it is not strictly required but vanilla implementation is just too buggy to be worth it. 

Is it possible to do an ENB profile with just shadows and parallax so it only has a 5-10 FPS hit at most? Like strip everything else out of the .fx files so none of the shaders load.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I still like vivid for exteriors and amd for interiors.