DDSopt necessary for these mods?

[Dark_wizzie]

Hi,

 

I am going through all the textures of Tamriel Reloaded HD, Skyrim 2k Textures, and all of the Amidianborn textures (for landscapes). Does anybody know if these mods need DDSopt optimization? I tried reading about DDSopt with the guide on the STEP wiki but it's really... too complicated for me.

 

Thanks :)

[Kelmych]

The Skyrim DDSopt Quickstart guide has a section on optimizing STEP mods that includes a list of mods in STEP Core/Extended and the REGS and SR:LE packs that seem to be useful to optimize. The list was updated fairly recently. The recommendations are based on the looking at the logs created by DDSopt when it processes the mods. These are mods that are useful to optimize even if the texture resolution isn't changed.

 

Mods like the aMidianborn textures from authors who are expert texture creators are not recommended for optimization.

 

Tamriel Reloaded HD hasn't been tested.

[Halde]

I am fairly certain that it is a good idea to optimize Skyrim HD. In the older versions of STEP (2.2.7 I think) when Skyrim HD was used before SRO, it was suggested for optimization by the, now outdated, DDSopt-guide.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Halde

[Kelmych]

It is quite common to use DDSopt with Skyrim HD to change resolution, and many mods benefit from the improvements in the mipmaps that DDSopt provides whenever it is used. There haven't been any reports of problems with Skyrim HD textures being optimized with DDSopt. The recommendation to optimize a mod in the DDSopt guide is based primarily on whether the mod:

• has any textures with missing mipmaps, or
• has enough textures that are using the wrong compression (based on the DDSopt internal algorithms); and
• has no reported problems with optimized textures.

There are some mods that we recommend not be optimized. These are mods where we feel that the mod author has already done a sufficient job of optimizing the mods, or where there are known problems if the mod is optimized.

 

Skyrim HD falls in a middle category. DDSopt will replace the mipmaps with better quality ones, but it doesn't make any other significant changes.

[TeflonBilly]

Are there any general guidelines on what types of textures are likely to have problems being optimized by DDSOpt?

 

I've got many, many weapons and armor mods that owing to what I've seen in the ESPs in TES5Edit are probably not in any way shape or form optimized (it's clear many authors, while wonderful artists, don't have a clue about making properly optimized and efficient game files.)

 

Just from looking at your list, the only risk in just defaulting to "always optimize" is the risk of faulty textures after optimization.

 

Also, has anyone made a list, or is there at least an off the top of your head list, of what mods are already known to have issues with being optimized?

 

And again, is there in general known types of textures that lead to problems (body textures, weapon textures, etc...)

 

Thanks,

 

TB

[Kelmych]

If body textures are optimized we usually look at the result in the game. Occasionally there are problems. Face textures are more problematic. Textures with abrupt changes cause problems. Other than that you have to optimize and then look at some sampling of the resulting textures.