SKYRIMLE Optimized Vanilla Textures (by tony971)

[z929669]

@alt3rn1ty

I appended my PM with the additional request, so we'll see. It may be quite awhile before he/she/they stumble(s) upon my PM though.

[DoubleYou]

What I will say is your instructions for installing in Mod Organizer are incredibly misguided. Indeed, in your way, it is likely that the optimized textures will not be used at all! And, you are doing a terrible disfavor by bundling the vanilla and DLC textures together. Installation for Mod Organizer should be as follows:1. Download Optimized Vanilla Textures.2. Install the mod four different times, using only the Skyrim - Textures.bsa for one, Dawnguard - Textures.bsa for one, HearthFires - Textures.bsa for one, and Dragonborn - Textures.bsa for one as follows:Vanilla OptimizedDawnguard OptimizedHearthfire OptimizedDragonborn Optimized3. Place Vanilla Optimized at the top of your modlist in priority.4. Place Dawnguard Optimized directly after Dawnguard non-MO mod.5. Place Hearthfire Optimized directly after HearthFires non-MO mod.6. Place Dragonborn Optimized directly after Dragonborn non-MO mod.7. Download Optimized High Res DLC.8. Install mod like any other mod, but place it after the HiResTexturePack non-MO mods.9. In the archives tab, make sure MO is managing mods and tick the BSAs.10. Do NOT do ini edits. MO manages the BSA ini edits automatically.Indeed, I think MO will totally wipe out any custom ini edits to the archivelist when it manages mods, even if you include it as an ini tweak. Indeed, using an ini tweak for this might break Mod Organizer functionality.

[tony971]

I don't have MO users making ini tweaks. I just have them rename their original archives and manage both sets through MO. They get loaded in the correct order that way. Take a look for yourself.

[DoubleYou]

That is true. You don't have them making ini tweaks. I merely mention that as a potential problem.

 

BUT you have MO users installing these to the data folder. If you do that, all DLC optimized textures will be overwritten by the DLC BSAs. And there is potential if for whatever reason the BSAs are sorted to the top of the list in the Archives tab, that it will be rendered completely placebo.

[d3v]

So how do we install these over a STEP core/extended installation?

[tony971]

That is true. You don't have them making ini tweaks. I merely mention that as a potential problem.BUT you have MO users installing these to the data folder. If you do that, all DLC optimized textures will be overwritten by the DLC BSAs. And there is potential if for whatever reason the BSAs are sorted to the top of the <data> list in the Archives tab, that it will be rendered completely placebo.

They shouldn't be overwritten. Skyrim archives don't get loaded with their plugins unless it's an exact name match. It's not like Oblivion with the Plugin - Whatever.bsa system. Renaming the originals to DLC - Original.bsa will make them stop being loaded with their ESM files. So the archives tab of MO will handle them entirely.I can have the MO users stop moving the textures to the real Data folder. I just didn't want to deal with "where should I put these in my load order?" questions 

Edited August 26, 2014 by tony971

[cybexgames]

I am mainly using Skyrim Revisited as the base for modding Skyrim.Here is what I did:  Downloaded all of Tony971 files.  Extracted to folders.  Renamed the BSA's by placing Optimized at the end of the file name.  Create a new compressed file of each BSA.  Started MO, and add each of the compressed files.  MO extraced the BSAs to folders.  Moved the newly add mod to the locations giving in Skyrim Revisited. 

Does anyone see a problem using this method?

[DoubleYou]

They shouldn't be overwritten. Skyrim archives don't get loaded with their plugins unless it's an exact name match. It's not like Oblivion with the Plugin - Whatever.bsa system. Renaming the originals to DLC - Original.bsa will make them stop being loaded with their ESM files. So the archives tab of MO will handle them entirely.I can have the MO users stop moving the textures to the real Data folder. I just didn't want to deal with "where should I put these in my load order?" questions :P

Incorrect. The MO BSAs are loaded exactly as the order indicated by the archives tab, because they are loaded as registered BSAs (in practice). Therefore, your Dawnguard - Optimized.bsa shall be overwritten by Dawnguard.bsa. You have to place it as a mod in MO in order to load it after Dawnguard so that it provides the optimized textures (Dawnguard is merely the example here).

[tony971]

Incorrect. The MO BSAs are loaded exactly as the order indicated by the archives tab, because they are loaded as registered BSAs (in practice). Therefore, your Dawnguard - Optimized.bsa shall be overwritten by Dawnguard.bsa. You have to place it as a mod in MO in order to load it after Dawnguard so that it provides the optimized textures (Dawnguard is merely the example here).

Not if you rename Dawnguard.bsa to Dawnguard - Original.bsa but installing and placing between Dawnguard and the Unofficial Dawnguard Patch works too. I'll update my instructions and just tell them to do that. It'll stop Wrye Bash from throwing missing string localization warnings about the DLC.

Edited August 26, 2014 by tony971

[DoubleYou]

If you rename Dawnguard.bsa to Dawnguard - Original.bsa, etc., you break MO non-MO mod functionality, which breaks the Unofficial Patches in MO.

[tony971]

If you rename Dawnguard.bsa to Dawnguard - Original.bsa, etc., you break MO non-MO mod functionality, which breaks the Unofficial Patches in MO.

It works fine for me. The archive handler registers both archives as non-MO Dawnguard files and orders them as such.

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by tony971

[Aiyen]

Guess this might sound a bit over the top so I apologize in advance! 

 

Man who would have thought the day would come when texture load order would even be a thing! 

Load the textures you want to use last! It amazes me how overly complicated this can be made out to be.

This aftermath of bsa vs loose, and the annoying way the USKP works it just a never ending cycle of issues it would seem.

 

[alt3rn1ty]

@ Tony - And S.T.E.P community ( For Attention of whoever does the DDSOpt guide here )

 

I have not had a look at your DDSOpt everything routine which Tony has applied to these, so you may have something similar already ..

 

I have a bunch of batch files which may be helpful, I made them for separating the Terrain Diffuse textures from the Terrain Normal maps

 

 

Have a look at them with a text editor first, but if you have all the necessary files in a copied folder of all the terrain textures where these batch files expect them to be, then just double click one of the batch files to perform the deletion operation for either diffuse or normal files, you end up with a folder with just the desired textures

 

Repeat on another copy of the same textures with the opposite batch file to delete the other set of textures

 

If you use something like Notepad++ you can use its advanced search and rename options to edit the location in these batch files to where you want to put the working folder on your system ( Auto-Repeat procedure of changing D: to E: for example if you have a different drive partition setup, or even remove that part and just drop the batch file inside the folder it will work on .. I'm sure you will get the picture )

 

 

 

 

Here are the batch files https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86040572/Terrain%20Textures%20separation%20Batch%20scripts.7z

 

There are two batch files for Skyrim textures, two for Dawnguard and two for Dragonborn

 

Feel free to include them somewhere on STEP if they have not been made before, and Tony use as required

 

Every single file you would expect to find in vanilla terrain textures are included ( But does not include further sub folders of Objects and Trees .. This is just for the LOD and Map textures ).

 

 

I primarily made them because I needed to make a set of everything for people with only 256mb VRAM ( like my laptop used to be ), and a set for people with minimum spec 512mb VRAM

 

So because I did not wish to reduce the Diffuse maps too much, but could afford to reduce the normals a little more for these textures for my 256 options .. Separating them for different batch scripted filtering in GIMP became essential.

 

 

Its also useful for those diffuse textures in Terrain folders which DDSOpt has a habit of collapsing to 1x1 pixel textures, there are some which are already that size in vanilla textures which shouldn't be, all you need to reproduce what should have been the original is the colour value from that one pixel and then just resize them with GIMP to the same size as the rest and remipmap, separately from the rest, then paste them back in after other processing is done on these.

 

 

Anyway : TL;DR .. Anyone can use the linked batch files as they wish ;)

 

 

 

 

Edit : @ EssArrBee - I like your comment response on Nexus reference textures going out of date :), didn't you know they get moldy and dusty, and if the computer screen is left in the sun too long the colours of the textures fade to blue and white like old packets of cornflakes in a corner shop window 

Edited August 26, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[EssArrBee]

@ Tony - And S.T.E.P community ( For Attention of whoever does the DDSOpt guide here )

 

I have not had a look at your DDSOpt everything routine which Tony has applied to these, so you may have something similar already ..

 

I have a bunch of batch files which may be helpful, I made them for separating the Terrain Diffuse textures from the Terrain Normal maps

Kelmych made the DDSopt Guide's batch files and they separate files by Uncompressed, Diffuse, and Normal Maps. I think he also separates Exterior DIffuse and Exterior Normals into their own folders, but I haven't done skyrim optimization in a long time.

 

 

Have a look at them with a text editor first, but if you have all the necessary files in a copied folder of all the terrain textures where these batch files expect them to be, then just double click one of the batch files to perform the deletion operation for either diffuse or normal files, you end up with a folder with just the desired textures

 

Repeat on another copy of the same textures with the opposite batch file to delete the other set of textures

 

If you use something like Notepad++ you can use its advanced search and rename options to edit the location in these batch files to where you want to put the working folder on your system ( Auto-Repeat procedure of changing D: to E: for example if you have a different drive partition setup, or even remove that part and just drop the batch file inside the folder it will work on .. I'm sure you will get the picture )

 

 

 

 

Here are the batch files https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86040572/Terrain%20Textures%20separation%20Batch%20scripts.7z

 

There are two batch files for Skyrim textures, two for Dawnguard and two for Dragonborn

 

Feel free to include them somewhere on STEP if they have not been made before, and Tony use as required

 

Every single file you would expect to find in vanilla terrain textures are included ( But does not include further sub folders of Objects and Trees .. This is just for the LOD and Map textures ).

 

 

I primarily made them because I needed to make a set of everything for people with only 256mb VRAM ( like my laptop used to be ), and a set for people with minimum spec 512mb VRAM

 

So because I did not wish to reduce the Diffuse maps too much, but could afford to reduce the normals a little more for these textures for my 256 options .. Separating them for different batch scripted filtering in GIMP became essential.

We kinda follow the rule that normals are supposed to be half the size of the diffuse. The is really supposed to be an industry standard because dxt compression of normals is so bad. Make your normals uncompressed and half the size of the diffuse and it will look better than a full size compressed. Sparrow Prince is a big advocate for this practice. Not sure how that translates to 256 MB of VRAM, that's just brutal. Kinda reminds me of my first discrete GPU, only had 30MB of VRAM. That Duke Nukem zero gravity multiplayer was awesome.

 

 

Its also useful for those diffuse textures in Terrain folders which DDSOpt has a habit of collapsing to 1x1 pixel textures, there are some which are already that size in vanilla textures which shouldn't be, all you need to reproduce what should have been the original is the colour value from that one pixel and then just resize them with GIMP to the same size as the rest and remipmap, separately from the rest, then paste them back in after other processing is done on these.

It's really any monochromatic texture that gets reduced to 1x1. Get our ddsopt.ini form the guide and it flags a lot of textures that DDSopt should skip. It even has some fallout textures too.

 

Anyway : TL;DR .. Anyone can use the linked batch files as they wish ;)

 

 

 

 

Edit : @ EssArrBee - I like your comment response on Nexus reference textures going out of date :), didn't you know they get moldy and dusty, and if the computer screen is left in the sun too long the colours of the textures fade to blue and white like old packets of cornflakes in a corner shop window 

That guy must work for Comcast customer service, "Steam is a virus". I do what I can to combat stupidity and ignorance, one nexus user at a time.

[tony971]

Thanks alt3rn1ty! I was actually looking for help with a batch file. I've simplified the process for MO users. Everyone should be happy with it now. However, everyone else still has a semi-involved process. I'm trying to get it down to downloading and running a batch. Here are the defines for the batch. If a batch isn't powerful enough, a vbs will work. I'll just turn it into an exe file that asks for admin privileges. If anyone's feeling charitable, it would be greatly appreciated.