Soul Gems retexture comparison

[rootsrat]

Being a little bored with Soul Gems Differ mod, I did some research one day to find out what other soul gem re-textures are out there. 2 mods caught my attention. I've done a quick comparison for my own benefit and I want to share the results here, maybe it will come handy for someone.

 

Note it was a quickly done test, in single, interior lighting conditions (QA Smoke cell), no ENB, STEP Extended installed.

 

Mods:

• Immersive Soulgems by Harodath
• Magic Soulgems HD by HXP
• Soul Gems Differ - Full and Empty by Utopolyst (currently STEP, STEP recommended options installed)

Notes:

• Some gems in Soul Gems Differ mod (currently in STEP) are transparent. I don't know if this is on purpose
• Azura's Stars (both) are not covered by any of the mods

Compares:

 

Immersive Soulgems  >>  Magic Soulgems HD  >>  Soul Gems Differ  >>  Vanilla

 

 

 

 

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  >>    >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/13sgd_zps85a1ae56.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/13v_zps208c3a03.jpg

 

https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/14isg_zps58cf5f8e.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/14msg_zps6c9b85cd.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/14sgd_zps3b25cbda.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/14v_zpsf6672a9d.jpg

 

https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/16isg_zps04cf071e.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/16msg_zps37644a01.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/16sgd_zps72e55921.jpg  >>  https://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r591/rootsrat/STEP%20-%20SoulGems/16v_zpsd71d98fb.jpg

 

 

 

 

Personally, I'm torn between ISG and SGD, with a slight advantage to ISG (mainly due to transparency, but I've never noticed that before to be honest).

 

Hopefully this will be helpful to some of you! :)

[z929669]

SGD offers many other options though. you can attribute a great many texture and mesh combinations to achieve almost any result. I don't think that you have the STEP options implemented correctly for that one though. Check out the mod page on the wiki. This has several good combinations that I put together myself. I may even have the savegame I used.

 

I actually maintain that mod now, so we can create some ideal combinations and upload a simpler (and more relevant) version.

[rootsrat]

Hmm... I used this combination for SGD. I will need to do some more testing in game, but I just got a little bored with SGD and wanted to check what else is out there, since it's quite an aged mod (in terms of first upload date).

[z929669]

Hmm... I used this combination for SGD. I will need to do some more testing in game' date=' but I just got a little bored with SGD and wanted to check what else is out there, since it's quite an aged mod (in terms of first upload date).[/quote']

It is old, but not sure that it can be improved upon ... it has just about every texture under the sun (maybe 30 different ones) and 8 different mesh types per gem I think :P

 

The only improvements I can see would be with the plugins and isolating the best variants.

[Redferne]

There is also this one HD Soul Gems which is just a retexture of the vanilla gems.

It's the one I'm using.

[z929669]

There is also this one HD Soul Gems which is just a retexture of the vanilla gems.

It's the one I'm using.

Hmmm ... those look a bit painted. Perhaps it is because they are attempting to show wear on the angles ... crystals (i.e. gems) don't behave this way. They should keep the same sheen across all surfaces and refract light according to the facets.

 

These are more like "soul stones" IMO :P