Optimized HRDLC/Vanilla

[raidenfreeman]

After completing the guide of optimizing the vanilla textures with DDSOpt, when I imported HRDLC3 with MO, I got an error saying: "Data Error" and the installation failed. As I understand the compression to .7z went wrong, since I have the correct number of files in the folders "Optimized" and "Extracted" as designated by the guide. The produced log.txt and HRDLC_Clean_ERROR.log are both empty. I used the provided DDSOpt ini, and not the one I got from nexus, even though the one from nexus is newer (late Dec 2013@nexus Sept2013@STEP).

 

1)I also have set MO to auto extract BSAs, should I NOT extract those?

 

2)What can I do to archive HRDLC3 on my own, if the problem is the compression?

 

3)Do I have to optimize STEP Mods? And if so is there somewhere a list of those? (My VRAM atm is at ~1.7/2 in Windhelm and other places)

 

 

 

 

 

I am using STEP (mostly 1K res, and some 2K packs, never higher), CoT and Realistic Lighting Overhaul, as well as RealVision ENB (2 body replacement mods and some others from GEMS, not affecting textures/lighting/meshes).

 

PC Specs:

i7 2600k @ 3.4GHz

4GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz

GTX 770 2GB (ASUS DCUII)

ASUS P8P67

1080p

 

 

I want to say that you should really underline that texture optimization is necessary and VERY important in the STEP guide. As of now you do not recommend the HRDLC Optimized to people with 2GB VRAM+, directing them to Bethesda's assets. Using those my game was unplayable as my VRAM was capped at all times (with the full step + ENB + 16x AF + Edge AA + CoT + RLO), getting ~60 fps and when turning fast my fps would drop to 0-5...

 

PS Can someone also explain to me how to set AA properly now that I'm using ENB? I have read that I shouldn't force it through the GPU's driver, and have it OFF in the game's settings, and instead should enable it from the ENB. My problem is that I can't find anywhere the AA setting, I can only find the mode of AA (Edge, Temporal, Subpixel, Transparency), and not x8 Subpixel AA for example. Also, I have found the settings for SSAO, but not where to enable/disable it.

 

Also I'm seeing jagged lines on some textures under angles. Even though I have Subpixel AA enabled, is that normal? Everything is so beautiful in this game that the smallest detail bugs me while I have no prob playing PlayStation 1 games xD I'll try SMAA...

[Aiyen]

There is no MSAA for ENB, you have to decide if you want the special effects of ENB or hardware AA. You cannot have both.

You can still get the colors etc. of ENB I should add.

 

What you can do is either get a larger playing resolution, which will reduce jagged egdes in itself, but also consume more VRAM, and reduce performance. Or try out SMAA injectors. Alternatively you can disable the ENB features that disable hardware AA and use that.

 

There are always going to be small things and bugs with textures and meshes... that is most likely not going to change anytime soon.

[Glanzer]

When I optimized the vanilla textures I used Neovalen's guide exactly as his instructions told me to. So yes, set MO to extract all BSAs. And yes, you should use the ddsopt.ini file that he says to use (he links to the one here: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls/DDSoptINI).

 

btw, if you decide to zip or 7z any textures for import into MO, be sure you choose to just STORE them in the compressed file, DO NOT compress because that's where errors could get introduced.

[Kelmych]

After completing the guide of optimizing the vanilla textures with DDSOpt, when I imported HRDLC3 with MO, I got an error saying: "Data Error" and the installation failed. As I understand the compression to .7z went wrong, since I have the correct number of files in the folders "Optimized" and "Extracted" as designated by the guide. The produced log.txt and HRDLC_Clean_ERROR.log are both empty. I used the provided DDSOpt ini, and not the one I got from nexus, even though the one from nexus is newer (late Dec 2013@nexus Sept2013@STEP).

The most recent update of DDSopt on nexus is pre-release Update 4. The .ini file in this is dated 1/30/2013. The one on STEP is 9/13/2013, and if you open the files you will see many additions in the one on STEP that are not in the one included on Nexus.

 

2)What can I do to archive HRDLC3 on my own, if the problem is the compression?

You can try recompressing it manually with 7-zip or another compression program; if that doesn't work you can always reoptimize it in case a file got corrupted. You can do the optimization using an individual folder such as HRDLC3.

 

3)Do I have to optimize STEP Mods? And if so is there somewhere a list of those? (My VRAM atm is at ~1.7/2 in Windhelm and other places)

Windhelm is one the places with especially high VRAM use. The DDSopt guide discusses optimizing STEP mods. For controlling VRAM use the most useful mods to optimize are the ones with exterior textures such as several of the mods in the Conflicting Graphics section (but not SRO since it has already been optimized). You might want to use 1Kx1K textures for the exterior color maps and normal maps to reduce VRAM.

 

I am using STEP (mostly 1K res, and some 2K packs, never higher), CoT and Realistic Lighting Overhaul, as well as RealVision ENB (2 body replacement mods and some others from GEMS, not affecting textures/lighting/meshes).

 

I want to say that you should really underline that texture optimization is necessary and VERY important in the STEP guide. As of now you do not recommend the HRDLC Optimized to people with 2GB VRAM+, directing them to Bethesda's assets. Using those my game was unplayable as my VRAM was capped at all times (with the full step + ENB + 16x AF + Edge AA + CoT + RLO), getting ~60 fps and when turning fast my fps would drop to 0-5...

 

If you find VRAM use too high can go back to using HRDLC Optimized. I found that when I optimized the mods with exterior textures and reduced the tangent space normal maps to 1kx1K that my VRAM use dropped to where I could use the HRDLC. Currently I have also reduced the size of exterior color maps to 1Kx1K during optimization. I also reduced the size of textures in effects mods as these also caused high peak VRAM use.