Aiyen Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Okay finally just got time to give em a full whirl about ingame! However my initial conclusions have not changed... In fact I think the general thing is that like with any of your landscape textures Cabal... then you just really start to notice what you have not made! This will hopefully get sorted over time... but I think I will let it stay in for now, since it is better then the HDDLC which I am currently using. Keep up the good work!
EssArrBee Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Okay the last set of screens now that I found that spot. Also, a couple ash pictures since I didn't post any yet, silly me, to much booze this weekend. All photos are HRDLC->AMB->SRTO Tundra Type 1 (all around Bloodskal Barrow on the eastern coast) Ash Ripples (Various places that ash exists over southern Solsthiem, may have mixed up AMB and HRDLC :facepalm:Â ) Ash Closeup (just for s**ts and giggles) Okay we have enough screens to make a choice for Core STEP and then I'll look over Serious HD for Extended. The thing about these mods is that SRTO is going for photorealism in a lot of textures and that doesn't come across as well with 1k textures on my laptop screen at 1366x768. It looks a lot better in full 1080 or higher with 2k textures to really get that photorealism across. Just load up the 2k version to see what I mean. Anyways, for 1k textures, the AMB ones seem to blend a bit better over all. Both fit quite nicely into with the rest of STEP Core on Solsthiem with the few Skyrim textures that DB borrows. The quality of both mods is apparent when going from HRDLC to either Cabal's or Frozunswaidon's work and you can't go wrong with either replacer. Maybe when we do a STEP Extreme we can put the 2k versions with their fancy pants uncompressed normal maps to the test. Hopefully, I'll have my main rig operational by then.
EssArrBee Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 Okay last one. I promise. These are all the same compares but I added Serious HD to the compare at the end and annotated the rest. Serious doesn't cover every texture. HRDLC->AMB->SRTO->Serious HDStones & Ash Rocks & Ash (volcanic_ash_rocks_01_d.dds I think)Whole bunch more stuff:All are HRDLC->AMB->SRTO->Serious HDAsh Cliff (near craters just east of Telvanni Tower) Ash Tundra type 4 (all around Solsthiem, mostly in front of Telvanni Tower and used for some paths) Ash Tundra type 4 Alternate angle (not on a slope like last shot) Ash Road Tundra type 3 (used in some places around Solsthiem, mostly western coast area before the snowy regions)All photos are HRDLC->AMB->SRTO-Serious HD Tundra Type 1 (all around Bloodskal Barrow on the eastern coast)https://i.imgur.com/34dVCYQ.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/eU7yKOi.jpg Ash Ripples (Various places that ash exists over southern Solsthiem, may have mixed up AMB and HRDLC :facepalm:Â ;)https://i.imgur.com/R4tX6LY.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/3sdjdMC.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/W6FmpXA.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/X5daTgc.jpg Ash Closeup (just for s**ts and giggles)https://i.imgur.com/5aVad57.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/iH2Lpnp.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/op3pDEd.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/HTOUGwI.jpgSorry mobile users.
DoYouEvenModBro Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 Unfortunately (and I guess also fortunately for the modders?), each mod has it's strengths and weaknesses in different areas. I feel like a bit of a mix and match will be needed to get the best effect. This might just come down to a matter of preference. Idk. What do you guys think after seeing all 4 side by side?
z929669 Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 Landscape textures are really tough to compare in screens (thanks SRB!). These are so big, that they really must be seen within the context of the larger environment. That said, I don't think that SRTO will work in most situations (a few seem quite applicable though). I like Serious and AMB in most situations and even one or two HRDLC win for me. I'll need to see in game before I say for sure though.
torminater Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 AMB: Less density of the rocks for ground texture in Rocks and Ash, otherwise spot on. SRTO: Like the idea of roots in the ground visible, since rain washed down the ash layer from the crater surface. Otherwise 2nd in line. Tundra type 3: what is it supposed to be? grass/moss? Cannot really define :( Serious HD: Most of it's textures can't keep up with the other mods' quality. Basalt pillars: Looks pretty bad in all of the texture sets. Am I the only one thinking that? That said, I favor AMB over all others if we're going to go for a one-shot solution. If not, it'll be a ton of work before we've picked all our faves... it'ld need a TPC-like bat file to make that simple for our users.
DoubleYou Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 I really like some of the SeriousHD textures, now that they've been added to the mix. AMB is mostly the best, then SeriousHD, and even some of the HRDLC textures look pretty good.
z929669 Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 Serious does the best job with the road texture ... better blending and resolution. A couple of other gems from that one, but that mod also does some strange things here and there.
EssArrBee Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 We need some more testers to load up Core + Serious HD or AMB. You have to see it with your own eyes. Even try SRTO and go to Tel Mithryn and the area just west where the craters are. Those are the best areas for the ash textures. Go to Raven Rock for the road, Bloodskal Barrow for tundra type 1, and eastern coast right before the snowy areas for tundra type 3. In Raven Rock look at areas where ash piles are on top of tile and you can get an idea of the way the ash is done. Serious HD seemed the most ashy, while all the others were almost like gray pebbles. I'll do as many screens as I can, but you gotta see some of these in game so you know how lighting in game will hit these things. Each one bounces light off of it differently, it is subtle but still different.
z929669 Posted January 22, 2014 Posted January 22, 2014 No need to rush this either. A fair decision can only be made with plenty of in-game review of each overhaul. This takes hours. If we don't make a decision now, we can always accumulate data for a future release. Need testers and their input and reviews!
Vrugdush Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 I didn't see Langley's Wood Metal and Stone Textures Workshop mentioned yet in this thread. It also contains Dragonborn landscape textures, among many other things. I know it's been up for testing before, and that it's a tricky one because its sprawling nature makes it conflict with many S.T.E.P. mods. However, the Dragonborn textures are a separate download, so maybe they can be considered on their own? Since you're doing a comprehensive comparison, I didn't want this mod to be overlooked, even if it unfortunately means an increase in your already considerable workload.
EssArrBee Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Okay, I'll look at them, but this is the last mod for DB until the next STEP release. I think comparing four mods is plenty for now. Langely's does architecture too, so I'll have to look the whole thing over.
EssArrBee Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 I'm going to hold off on the Langley's landscape textures because they are 2K and STEP is trying to stay in the 1K territory for outdoors. I did take screens, but I will hold on to them until I get 2k shots of every mod that offers them like AMB, SRTO, and Serious HD. It has some interior stuff though and 2K is fine indoors, so I will do shots of that stuff to compare with a couple other mods and I'll post those in the Langley's thread. EDIT: Why do I always think of something to say right after I hit send?!?! I'm probably going to do another MT thread for a blend of Solsthiem stuff that will be up later and do three or four combos of stuff. People can give feedback on what jives together and I'll make a recommendation for STEP based on that.
z929669 Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Okay' date=' I'll look at them, but this is the last mod for DB until the next STEP release. I think comparing four mods is plenty for now. Langely's does architecture too, so I'll have to look the whole thing over.[/quote']Langley's textures are almost always out of scope for STEP in my XP. They are not bad, but stylistically deviant in many cases. Not sure if this applies to landscape, but that and the sheer scope and generalized (scattered) approach to coverage prevents me from wanting to look further at those mods. There is a great deal to be said for focusing one's work and packaging mods by those categories of focus. Part of what we are trying to do in STEP is to enhance (and improve) graphics to achieve a stylistically consistent result. One or two high-quality textures of one style amongst a sea of HQ textures of a different style doesn't help towards this. We also want to avoid using only a small percentage of assets from many different mods in favor of a larger proportion of assets from fewer mods.snip/ I'm probably going to do another MT thread for a blend of Solsthiem stuff that will be up later and do three or four combos of stuff. People can give feedback on what jives together and I'll make a recommendation for STEP based on that.That would be awesome. The best critics are those that actually are looking at the textures in game and producing screens. Too bad we don't have at least two or three people doing this
EssArrBee Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Can someone mark as accepted? I forgot to do it and am on a phone at the moment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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