SKYRIMLE ONE MOUNTAIN - To Rule Them All (by Gamwich)

[alt3rn1ty]

Download from Nexus - ONE MOUNTAIN - To Rule Them All

 

In short, a lot of meshes for mountains and rocks use combinations of mountainslab01 and mountainslab02, two large textures which in a lot of cases do not quite blend well together.

 

Gamwich has edited the meshes to replace all instances of mountainslab01 texture, and use mountainslab02 texture instead for everything ( the 02 texture was already used for the majority of them )

 

This means a bit less VRAM is used, because for any given area you are only using one of those large textures repeatedly.

 

 

Gamwich has also done his own texture, and custom LOD textures for the same. But you do not need to use it, you can run the mod just by installing the meshes.

 

Personally I am using Gamwich Mountain or Molehill textures, with this mods meshes.

 

There is a selection of Texture sizes too for more choice.

 

And lots of mesh patches for popular mods such as SMIM, Realistic Water Two, USKP etc.

[TechAngel85]

I seen Hodilton's video of this several days ago. I thought they looked a bit "cartoonish" and didn't really fit in. But that was only my impression from the video. Never actually tried it in-game.

[alt3rn1ty]

The provided textures up close are really nicely done, personally for middle and far distance I prefer his MoM textures .. But as it says in the description you dont need to use the dedicated textures, just the meshes if you wish.

 

Here's a couple of comparison screens I did in the user uploaded images ( on my laptop so they are low res )

 

 

Edited October 7, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

And a couple more screens with my Vanilla Reduced Textures :

 

 

[keithinhanoi]

I'd like to repeat the point that Gamwich's mountainslab02 texture is completely optional, and the main feature of this mod is the modified meshes to remove almost all mountainslab01 references from the game.

 

From that perspective, it's worth trying the meshes with whatever textures you are currently using.

 

Just be warned, there are quite a few patches with various meshes to work with other mods that have edited version of them.

 

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to make a FOMOD installer (hopefully BAIN-friendly, al3tern1ty, if you're wondering!) for Gamwich, to simplify things from the user perspective.

[hishutup]

If there is going to be an installer then I'll give it a peak.

There were soo many optional that I didn't even bother to try it because I was short on time and preoccupied...

[alt3rn1ty]

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to make a FOMOD installer (hopefully BAIN-friendly, al3tern1ty, if you're wondering!) for Gamwich, to simplify things from the user perspective.

Yep I saw your post where you offered to do one, and guessed it would probably also include BAIN wizard.

 

But personally ( and unusually for me ) I am preferring them as individual BAIN installers ..

 

Reason for that is if I were to use one with a set order of folders which was designed logically for the best sequence of folder overwrites, for my own preference it would install the wrong files.

 

 

For instance I prefer carrying through USKP files with ONE MOUNTAIN tweaks to the meshes ..

 

( To see the following image in better detail, right click and open in its own tab, then you can zoom in )

 

 

 

( For anyone not familiar with Wrye Bash BAINs, they install in order and last installed wins where there are file conflicts - Similar to Load Order and record conflicts on the stack )

 

Whereas the most logical sequence out of just these patches will probably end up being :

 

USKP overwritten by

SMIM overwritten by

Realistic Water Two

 

Which for my preference of carried through fixes per patch mesh would be wrong, because for example an individual RWT mesh will probably only have RWT fix qualities plus ONE MOUNTAIN qualities, and not have the changes from USKP ..

 

I just cannot imagine that Gamwich will have gone into such detail of every mesh to ensure that all qualities of all sets are included in each mesh, so would rather ensure that the winning combination of fixes I would prefer actually end up in game. For me thats USKP plus ONE MOUNTAIN in this case. SMIM and RWT changes can be lost in preference, and more than likely the USKP meshes will probably include similar changes to those two mods, where the reverse may not be true.

 

There are a huge amount of settings in just one mesh, and the order of them within the mesh can be important too .. I have seen Hana from the UPP team reconstructing meshes in more optimal node setups, aswell as adding the actual fix needed ( Here is one of her tutorials on the subject Dissecting Skyrim Meshes, which will give anyone who is not familiar an idea of the amount of work that goes into these for the Unofficial Patch Project - Hana has also done a few excellent Blender tutorials such as Skyrim meshes and Importing/exporting and Blender Basics Add materials and textures to NIFs ).

 

 

Another example, ENB Particle patch meshes, in the list Gamwich has in his sticky post, overwrites SMIM and USKP, which does not make sense because SMIM in the latest incarnation includes all of the ENB Particle Patch meshes changes plus SMIM changes, and the reverse is not true, whether either of those also carry forward USKP changes .. I dont know. I would think if anyone would, Brumbek would, but whether he has gone into the same amount of care with each mesh that Hana does I also dont know.

 

I think this is going to need a fair amount of study before a final order of folders within the BAIN is set in stone, because Wrye BAsh installs folders within a BAIN in numerical and then alphabetical order, so last folders contents win if there are file conflicts with previous folders also ticked to install within the BAIN.

 

 

I know one thing though, the task will be mountainous .. Hence another reason I did not offer to do an installer for this :). To ensure you carry through everything would entail studying each conflicting mesh, and carrying forward all changes into all copies of the same mesh throughout the different packages .. Which would probably need nif expertise at the same level as Hana, and would take literally months to complete.

I think the best you will achieve by just arranging overwrites will be a case of damage limitation as to which fixes end up in game, and which are lost.

 

When Gamwich described this as a can of worms, he was under stating I think.

 

In an ideal world, all mods with meshes would use ( and keep up to date with ) all USKP mesh essential game fixes, as a base for their changes .. But if they haven't then this gets a whole lot more complicated.

( And if anyone has not noticed, the beta for USKP 2.0.7 is currently being tested ( as of 28th Sep ) )

Edited October 7, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[Aiyen]

The main issue with mesh "fixes" is that they are often quite minute and most tend to not notice them.. also they would have to have the meshes installed and use those as a base when doing edits to them. With that comes the issues of "Am I allowed to use these meshes that way?". 

 

When I did my rocks for the blackreach type areas then I first did them using just the default.. then a user told me that SMIM had those meshes as well... I was all "dammit" and did it all again using those meshes as a base and then reuploaded... giving brumbek the credit for the UV fixes he had done etc... but it still felt like a bit of a "permission grey area" since I had made rather massive changes to the mesh but so had brumbek.... oh well all this semi legal stuff is just annoying. 

 

As for the particle patch.. then yeah SMIM have included them these days. However many ENB installation instructions still have not been updated to include this fact. And again ingame you only really notice the difference of the shader flags, you do not notice a small change to an UV unless you know what to look for. 

 

But yeah in general mesh edits are always going to be problematic... in part because of the amount of time it takes to do them! God knows that nif is just a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE format to convert too! Especially from blender! And even from 3dmax and maya... since it does not always set the correct flags at the correct values! Hence you end up with cases of normal maps not working etc... and the solution is non trivial and should be something the converter should do from the start but does not! 

One really have to wonder how the hell the bethesda crew managed to do it, since they obviously had to have some more specialized tools for the job.. cant imagine them doing the entire game using the 3dsmax converter and a tool similar to nifskope... that would just be inefficient to say the least. 

 

 

ANYWAYS! about the mod. 

The general premise of the mod I feel just trades one problem for another. Yes you get a bit better blending in some locations, but again you get worse in others. Also the using mainly one texture gets really repetitive after a while I think. In general what mountains and rocks need is the opposite.. but ofc. that would be a MASSIVE undertaking... since... well I just outlined why above! 

 

When you then add on the installation issues that are there due to being a mesh replacement on a rather large scale then I just feel it becomes a bit too much. The main scenario I see this mod being used in is for low performance mod lists.. since it does reduce the load a little bit.. so for people where every bit counts then there is always that. 

[alt3rn1ty]

The main scenario I see this mod being used in is for low performance mod lists.. since it does reduce the load a little bit.. so for people where every bit counts then there is always that. 

Yep, I am linking it in Vanilla Reduced Textures description because of that advantage it gives to low end systems, especially if they are using my textures ( which are actually reduced versions of Mountain or Molehill textures v3 Gamwich gave me permission to include ) and these meshes.

 

Everything you said about meshes .. massive +1 - If you have a read of the comments in the Dissecting Skyrim Meshes tutorial, you will find a post I made when I was keen to carry on the work Exeter left behind reference UNP Armour and Clothing sets of meshes .. I was doing well, but that enthusiasm faded pretty fast :). Not enough life time left I want to donate to the project. And considering none of it carried forward USKP meshes, and the forthcoming USKP fixes Didact is working on which Hana is going to approve all of them individually eventually, whatever you complete from such a large project would have to be redone when that lot goes live one day ... Aaaagh :)

[Mandalay]

Updated today

 

UPDATE 3/18/16:This update is two fold. First, I added a fix for the meshes in the previous update, the Mindflux ENB patch. There was a problem with the one mesh corrupting when it was saved. I also updated this mesh in the main mesh file, so this update applies to all users. Thanks to Burpy for bringing this to my attention, and generously providing screenshots for the next part of the update.

Second, I've added a new set of textures for ONE MOUNTAIN. These are a combination of my work, and 32cm's lovely Tamriel Reloaded mountain textures. Therefore, I'm calling them ONE MOUNTAIN RELOADED  I was always a fan of all the tiny details he worked into his textures, but I wanted to bring a more rugged and craggy feel to them. My aim was to impart the weathering of centuries of freezing and thawing in Skyrim. The textures are available in 2k and 4K sizes (for the main mountain textures). The matching LOD textures and the 7000 steps textures are as included.