SKYRIMLE Vivid Landscapes - Imperial Forts by Aron

[Octopuss]

Ha I found it.

"It adds high quality textures combined with UV improved, parallax enhanced meshes."

That's what I don't undestand at all. Of course, I don't know jack about computer graphics, and all these terms and abbreviations confuse the hell out of me (I wish there was some sort of glossary and explanation of stuff like LOD, mesh, etc. etc.)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Ha I found it.

"It adds high quality textures combined with UV improved, parallax enhanced meshes."

That's what I don't undestand at all. Of course, I don't know jack about computer graphics, and all these terms and abbreviations confuse the hell out of me (I wish there was some sort of glossary and explanation of stuff like LOD, mesh, etc. etc.)

This is what I understand...I also am not a programmer or computer modeler so this could be wrong...but basically in a nutshell...

 

Parallax - Makes 2D objects look more 3D. Think of CobbleStones on a road. Without Parallax, they might look flat with a shadow effect that might 'look' like they're popping out but you can tell that they really just look flat. With Parallax, they actually "pop" out. If you have ever tried to stress test or benchmark your GPU with 'Heaven' Benchmark', this uses a ton of Parallax. I think you can actually turn Parallax off and on so you can see the difference immediately, if you want to go check it out. Just google heaven benchmark. Current version is 3.0 or 4.0 or something.

 

Mesh - Basically the 'shape' of an object. So each mesh is paired with a texture. The texture is like the paint on the shape and the mesh is the shape itself. That's why the SMIM makes things look less jagged and makes rounded edges more round and basically just makes things look better in terms of 'shapes.'

 

LoD - I assume it stands from long distance or long something distance. Basically, these are objects in the distance. Trees in skyrim have LoDs and that is what you see when you are too far from the Tree for it to render everything. Have you ever seen someone complain that their trees are messed up in game (either purple or like floating/clipped). This is because the game is missing or has an incorrect Tree LoD File.

 

Hope that helps! 

[Octopuss]

Ah, that helps. Thanks.

[z929669]

LOD = level of detail (pertains to only objects painted in distance --these are not the actual models ... think of them like the background paintings often used in movies where the landscape looks real on screen, but all of the shots are in the studio with tweaked lighting).

 

Meshes are the 3D 'wire' structure that hold the 2D texture 'tapestries' (they do much more as well, but this is their most obvious function)

[WilliamImm]

This has been in testing for several months. By now, the author released a compilation version of his Vivid Landscapes mods. I'd like for this to get out of testing somehow before the 2.2.9 release.

 

Any comments?

[TechAngel85]

The Vivid mods tend to be a stylistic preference which I simply don't care for. This mod is no different. It changes a lot from vanilla, the snowy wall is way too noisy and shines too brightly at night in torch light, there are seams and there there where the textures don't "mesh" correctly... it's just not for me.

[EssArrBee]

This mod is excellent, but not sure it does interiors. May have been updated since I did my compares. AMB is really good except for one texture, so we could hide it. Other than that VL is tricky because it is done with parallax and kinda done for ENB. SRO forts are just tweaked vanilla in my opinion so it was always between this and AMB. I'd have to say AMB though because it does such a good job with exteriors.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I use this mod for exteriors amd amb for interiors

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I dont think this mod is uodated anymore. Pretty sure he only updates the all in one file.

[Octopuss]

It is, just like the rest.

He is currently busy working on an update to Rocking Stones, and I think the Dungeons one as well (plus he recently released the Castle Volkihar retextures).

Edited June 1, 2014 by Octopuss

[TechAngel85]

I don't really understand why this is even in testing. The mod without ENB with the NON-ENB patch simply looks horrible! Turning on ENB, it looks better but these textures are obviously not for STEP. They are a very far cry await from vanilla and have weird "pits" all over the place (I assume to enhance the parallax). What is up with all the pit glory? It's everywhere from the walls to the stones to the ground. It looks like it rained acid and ate away at the stone or something...

 

 

Needless to say, this mod is not for STEP. Honestly, none of the VL mods should be considered for STEP because, afaik, they all require parallax and the NON-ENB versions look terrible.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Those are the non enb screenshots?

 

I do think those "holes" are meant to enhance the Parallax. They look very good in game. I wouldn't even bother taking shots with the non-ENB version. 

Edited June 2, 2014 by DoYouEvenModBro

[TechAngel85]

That's the only version that would be added to STEP so it's the only version that matters.

 

I'm voting this be dropped from Testing.

[Aiyen]

It makes no sense to even test parallax mods as long as we do not also say that people ought to use ENB parallax... Simple as that. 

[TechAngel85]

It makes no sense to even test parallax mods as long as we do not also say that people ought to use ENB parallax... Simple as that.

Exactly.For those that are curious, I enabled the ENB parallax from ENBoost and didn't receive any FPS lose (yes I set UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false). Of course I have a fairly modern system so your mileage may vary.