SKYRIMLE True Circlet Gems (Madcat221)

[rootsrat]

#7 is my favorite' date=' but we still seem to be no closer to a dcision on this or related mods. kryptopyr's previous not hints at how we must approach the testing. All combinations and much closer-up screens needed I think.[/quote']

 

On it.

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STEP Extended profile was used, no ENB. I placed the character so that the sun shines in his face, so that the reflections can be seen. 

 

The mods:

• True Circlet Gems (meshes) [spoiler=Conflicts]

Better Circlets (textures) [spoiler=Conflicts]

New Jewels for Circlets (textures) [spoiler=Conflicts]

The scenarios:

• A - Vanilla 
• B - Vanilla + True Circlet Gems (meshes)
• C - Vanilla + Better Circlets (textures)
• D - Better Circlets (textures) + True Circlet Gems (meshes)
• E - Better Circlets (textures) + New Jewels for Circlets (textures)
• F - Better Circlets (textures) + New Jewels for Circlets (textures) + True Circlet Gems (meshes)

The compares

 

Sorry, I really cannot be bothered to upload all of those to forums... Instead, please visit this album on Photobucket . The screens are in the above order, and the naming convention is: 01-A-VAN. You can see the names in the address bar.

 

Where:

• 01 is a circlet type, I compared 10 different circlets
• A is scenario, as per above
• VAN is combination of mods. VAN=Vanilla, BC=Better Circlets, TCG = True Circlet Gems, NJFC = New Jewels for Circlets. Sadly, Photobucket removed the '+' symbol from the filenames so they look like this now, for example: 06_B_VANTCG, which means, circlet 6, scenario B, which is Vanilla + TCG. 06_C_VANBC is the same circlet in Scenario C, which is Vanilla + Better Circlets.

I hope this makes sense. If you want, I can upload them here, but it's really a tedious task (a bulk upload and screenshot sorting would be great!).

[rootsrat]

Bump, as I only made post edits above and they wouldn't show in any New Posts etc.

[kryptopyr]

Here are my choices from the latest comparisons:

- Moonstone: Vanilla (best detail and nicest color) BC looks like an unpolished lump of rock, NJ looks nice when viewing the texture in the CK or photoshop, but the detail ends up getting completely washed out in game.

- Onyx: New Jewels is easily the best (though it bothers me a bit that the highlights are upside down)

- Ruby: True Gems (followed by vanilla actually) I don't care for the 'fractured' look of the gems from BC. To me, this texture does not look like facets reflecting lights as much as it looks like the gem has been chewed up. The ruby from NJ looks even more opaque.

- Sapphire: True Gems, I think. For some reason, though, the color bothers me. I'm not sure why, as the color is certainly a better sapphire blue than any of the others. In game, though, the blue comes off a bit too bright and too uniform.

- Emerald: New Jewels, based on the screenshots. I did like True Gems in game, but New Jewels also looked pretty good in game.

 

Overall my preference is: True Gems combined with New Jewels (for the onyx). I'd probably just lean towards vanilla otherwise, though New Jewels on it's own does have some improvements (namely the emerald and onyx), but also things I don't care for (flat ruby, sapphire appears to have a divot for the center facet, and too-bright moonstone). The only stone from BC that actually seems like an improvement over vanilla is the sapphire (the emerald looks decent in the screenshots, but imo not so good in game).

[kryptopyr]

Forgive me if this is inappropriate, but since I posted shots of these textures in my own comparison photo, I figured I would at least make the files available to anyone who was interested. They aren't available on Nexus yet, but they will be soon I think. You guys may want to wait to decide if they are worthy of inclusion in the comparison testing until after they are released, but since STEP is currently testing the different gem mods, I figured I'd at least provide the option.

 

Moonstone #5: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kryptopyr/Moonstone5.zip

Moonstone #7: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kryptopyr/Moonstone7.zip

 

These do include retextures of the gems as well as the moonstone and onyx. The moonstone is the only difference between the two files; the other gemstones are the same. Five is probably the closer of the two to a straight forward vanilla replacement (with the blue moonstone). I can upload #6 as well, but it's pretty similar to #7 (and my bias is towards 7).

[z929669]

It seems that the TCG meshes dictate look of gems far more than do the textures, so if using this mod, the faceted gems don't care what textures they get (and neither do I). Also TCG does not replace all of the meshes, but only 7. the non-faceted 'gems' (i.e., stones) don't seem to be affected, and this is corroborated by the fact that there are only 7 mesh overwrites and 10 meshes (I think).

 

BC is an improvement for circlets themselves, and NJ textures (for gems only) are better textures than vanilla and BC; however, TCG pretty much kills anything that any of the gem textures do. SO ... although I don't particularly like some of the overly-saturated colors that the TCG meshes impose, it does make faceted stones look like clear gems, which is preferable. I would vote that some of the parameters controlling colors in the meshes be revised, but I think hat we should be using BC (due to circlet textures) + TCG (due to gem meshes), and I have no preference for any of the gem textures.

 

I also prefer krypto's moonstone 7 textures (wherever they are from)

[WilliamImm]

We've accepted Gemling Queen Jewlery over this, and that serves as an effective replacement and refinement of this mod.

 

Unmarked for Testing.