ACCEPTED Skyrim Realistic Overhaul (by Starac)

[kcinlober]

Snow on the rocks is a shader, and has nothing to do with my textures. Try "better dynamic snow".

 

Also 4k textures are more detailed and much more sharper, especially on big meshes.

I never use tools like DDSopt to resize textures, and i don't recommend it either. I do it with Photoshop using "bicubic sharper" method. 

 

 

Cool, thanks a lot! Ill try resizing some of them with photoshop.

[darkside]

 

 

Snow on the rocks is a shader, and has nothing to do with my textures. Try "better dynamic snow".

 

Also 4k textures are more detailed and much more sharper, especially on big meshes.

I never use tools like DDSopt to resize textures, and i don't recommend it either. I do it with Photoshop using "bicubic sharper" method.

The question is how good is DDSopt for resizing?

 

Here is Solitude example.

 

4k

 

2k

That is noticeable. I know that you don't recommend resizing your textures. If user really need to batch resize textures due to VRAM limitation, do you have any suggestions? Tools?

[alt3rn1ty]

@Darkside

 

I just did a test for people without Photoshop who cant afford it or are not students :

 

 

I like Starac prefer Photoshop for any scaling of textures ( I used to swear by G.I.M.P but now know that PS does a bit of a finer job ) ..

 

.. However, there is one exception where DDSOpt does shine ( if you get the settings right )

 

It can do a brilliant job on just Normal maps ( its especially good on redoing the mipmaps )

 

 

Here's a before and after comparison, right click and open each in their own tab to flick between the two and compare

 

( Try to ignore the tiny randomly placed rocks jumping around between loads :) )

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

The before is with SRO 1.7 no changes

 

The after is with SRO 1.7 Normals reduced half size with DDSOpt

 

For my machine, just doing that has brought it into a comfortable range of VRAM use on my 3gb Laptop NVidia 970M card

 

See previous testing

 

I dont really need to do any reduction, but wanted to get the average down a little bit more - Reducing just the normals gets me down to an average VRAM use around the game 2.2gb ( without reducing normals I am averaging just under 2.6gb VRAM use )

And for comparison with vanilla, heres another screenshot recently testing the new Skyrim Performance Monitor, just with SSE Vanilla textures, averaging just under 1.7gb VRAM

 

 

So for anyone desperate with a need to do any tailoring of the set for their own machines needs with less than 4gb .. I would say the best bet short of buying Photoshop is just to use DDSOpt on only the normal maps, so as not to degrade the diffuse textures

 

Use the settings in the screenshots here

But for constraints dont use R5G6B5 ( not compatible with SSE, see this topic ), just use all the lossless options for best results, and 50% them all.

 

If you have difficulty separating normals from diffuse with filtering, just use a command line, xcopy ..

 

xcopy /S "drive:\pathtofolder\*_n.dds" "drive:\pathtodestinationfolder\"

 

( The /S makes it go into and copy directories and sub-directories except empty ones )

( The *_n.dds makes it look for any file (* is a wildcard) ending in _n.dds )

 

Your destination folder will then have all of the normal map textures only to work on.

 

 

Starac will probably given time come out with his own quality reduced option set including much better reduced diffuse textures done with PS ( and save reducing some of the lower res normal maps ) to overwrite the full installation with .. If we ask nicely :)

Edited February 4, 2017 by alt3rn1ty

[darkside]

@Darkside

 

I just did a test for people without Photoshop who cant afford it or are not students :

 

 

I like Starac prefer Photoshop for any scaling of textures ( I used to swear by G.I.M.P but now know that PS does a bit of a finer job ) ..

 

.. However, there is one exception where DDSOpt does shine ( if you get the settings right )

 

It can do a brilliant job on just Normal maps ( its especially good on redoing the mipmaps )

 

 

Here's a before and after comparison, right click and open each in their own tab to flick between the two and compare

 

( Try to ignore the tiny randomly placed rocks jumping around between loads :) )

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

The before is with SRO 1.7 no changes

 

The after is with SRO 1.7 Normals reduced half size with DDSOpt

 

For my machine, just doing that has brought it into a comfortable range of VRAM use on my 3gb Laptop NVidia 970M card

 

See previous testing

 

I dont really need to do any reduction, but wanted to get the average down a little bit more - Reducing just the normals gets me down to an average VRAM use around the game 2.2gb ( without reducing normals I am averaging just under 2.6gb VRAM use )

And for comparison with vanilla, heres another screenshot recently testing the new Skyrim Performance Monitor, just with SSE Vanilla textures, averaging just under 1.7gb VRAM

 

 

So for anyone desperate with a need to do any tailoring of the set for their own machines needs with less than 4gb .. I would say the best bet short of buying Photoshop is just to use DDSOpt on only the normal maps, so as not to degrade the diffuse textures

 

Use the settings in the screenshots here

But for constraints dont use R5G6B5 ( not compatible with SSE, see this topic ), just use all the lossless options for best results, and 50% them all.

 

If you have difficulty separating normals from diffuse with filtering, just use a command line, xcopy ..

 

xcopy /S "drive:\pathtofolder\*_n.dds" "drive:\pathtodestinationfolder\"

 

( The /S makes it go into and copy directories and sub-directories except empty ones )

( The *_n.dds makes it look for any file (* is a wildcard) ending in _n.dds )

 

Your destination folder will then have all of the normal map textures only to work on.

 

 

Starac will probably given time come out with his own quality reduced option set including much better reduced diffuse textures done with PS ( and save reducing some of the lower res normal maps ) to overwrite the full installation with .. If we ask nicely :)

Thanks for a suggestion. 

[Starac]

That is noticeable. I know that you don't recommend resizing your textures. If user really need to batch resize textures due to VRAM limitation, do you have any suggestions? Tools?

Photoshop is the best. 

 

How much vram do you have?

[Starac]

@Darkside

 

I just did a test for people without Photoshop who cant afford it or are not students :

 

 

I like Starac prefer Photoshop for any scaling of textures ( I used to swear by G.I.M.P but now know that PS does a bit of a finer job ) ..

 

.. However, there is one exception where DDSOpt does shine ( if you get the settings right )

 

It can do a brilliant job on just Normal maps ( its especially good on redoing the mipmaps )

 

 

Here's a before and after comparison, right click and open each in their own tab to flick between the two and compare

 

( Try to ignore the tiny randomly placed rocks jumping around between loads :) )

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

The before is with SRO 1.7 no changes

 

The after is with SRO 1.7 Normals reduced half size with DDSOpt

 

For my machine, just doing that has brought it into a comfortable range of VRAM use on my 3gb Laptop NVidia 970M card

 

See previous testing

 

I dont really need to do any reduction, but wanted to get the average down a little bit more - Reducing just the normals gets me down to an average VRAM use around the game 2.2gb ( without reducing normals I am averaging just under 2.6gb VRAM use )

And for comparison with vanilla, heres another screenshot recently testing the new Skyrim Performance Monitor, just with SSE Vanilla textures, averaging just under 1.7gb VRAM

 

 

So for anyone desperate with a need to do any tailoring of the set for their own machines needs with less than 4gb .. I would say the best bet short of buying Photoshop is just to use DDSOpt on only the normal maps, so as not to degrade the diffuse textures

 

Use the settings in the screenshots here

But for constraints dont use R5G6B5 ( not compatible with SSE, see this topic ), just use all the lossless options for best results, and 50% them all.

 

If you have difficulty separating normals from diffuse with filtering, just use a command line, xcopy ..

 

xcopy /S "drive:\pathtofolder\*_n.dds" "drive:\pathtodestinationfolder\"

 

( The /S makes it go into and copy directories and sub-directories except empty ones )

( The *_n.dds makes it look for any file (* is a wildcard) ending in _n.dds )

 

Your destination folder will then have all of the normal map textures only to work on.

 

 

Starac will probably given time come out with his own quality reduced option set including much better reduced diffuse textures done with PS ( and save reducing some of the lower res normal maps ) to overwrite the full installation with .. If we ask nicely :)

I doubt that DDSopt does better job with normal maps at all?

The thing is that if you only resize normal map, and don't touch diffuse, quality loss will be minimal. Especially if 4k textures are in question. It also is important how good 4k texture is, how detailed, how much skill and effort is involved in creation of textures, etc. 

 

DDSopt is excellent if you want quick solution. I would compare normal map resized with DDSopt and Photoshop. And if difference is small then why not use DDSopt? 

[darkside]

Photoshop is the best.

 

How much vram do you have?

6 GB, but on Win 10. Classic Skyrim has 4 GB limit on Win 10 as you know. I followed SRLE LotD Extended guide, which add a lot of stuff to the game. I am trying to add SRO to this setup. I hit 4 GB limit with full SRO. I resized only normal maps with DDSopt, now using about 3.5 GB. Thanks.

[Starac]

6 GB, but on Win 10. Classic Skyrim has 4 GB limit on Win 10 as you know. I followed SRLE LotD Extended guide, which add a lot of stuff to the game. I am trying to add SRO to this setup. I hit 4 GB limit with full SRO. I resized only normal maps with DDSopt, now using about 3.5 GB. Thanks.

Well you don't need to resize them all.

If you use now 3.5gb, then you have room to leave some 4k normal maps?

What is important is that game doesn't stutter.

Also i have noticed that win 10 does better job with vram. With the same setup my game has stuttered on win 7, but on win 10 it does not stutter. Has anyone had similar experience?

[darkside]

Well you don't need to resize them all.

If you use now 3.5gb, then you have room to leave some 4k normal maps?

What is important is that game doesn't stutter.

Also i have noticed that win 10 does better job with vram. With the same setup my game has stuttered on win 7, but on win 10 it does not stutter. Has anyone had similar experience?

Need to test more. Thanks for the advice.

[Starac]

Did anyone with 2gb card tried to run this? And how does it work? 

[phazer11]

What is important is that game doesn't stutter.

Also i have noticed that win 10 does better job with vram. With the same setup my game has stuttered on win 7, but on win 10 it does not stutter. Has anyone had similar experience?

Win 10 is more efficient overall, much smoother experience on my end. Windows 8.1 is better than 7 in that regard as well but Win 10 is even more so. Only gripe with Win 10 is having to strip down the windows .iso image and remove all the telemetry BS and reinstall all the time.

[Starac]

Win 10 is more efficient overall, much smoother experience on my end. Windows 8.1 is better than 7 in that regard as well but Win 10 is even more so. Only gripe with Win 10 is having to strip down the windows .iso image and remove all the telemetry BS and reinstall all the time.

Sure i know it is more efficient, but i didn't expect this with VRAM? 

SE version with my mod completely use my VRAM in some places, but it does not stutter at all with win 10?? 

I have 3gb card. 

[phazer11]

Yeah, haven't had an issue so far with my 3GB card in Desktop or 4GB card in laptop. Haven't done EXTENSIVE testing though been waiting for SSE to mature more.

[dalibut]

Hey guys, need some advice.

 

First, in Oldrim will old SRO paralax work with new SRO textures ?

 

I just cant decide what to start playing, I have AMD 480 8GB card, I want to go with Skyrim SSE but Oldrim has so much cool mods but from what I saw AMD sucks bigtime in DX9, any advice go Oldrim or SSE ?

[TechAngel85]

Hey guys, need some advice.

 

First, in Oldrim will old SRO paralax work with new SRO textures ?

 

I just cant decide what to start playing, I have AMD 480 8GB card, I want to go with Skyrim SSE but Oldrim has so much cool mods but from what I saw AMD sucks bigtime in DX9, any advice go Oldrim or SSE ?

I don't know about the parallax, but about the only difference between classic Skyrim and SSE is the distance you can go with modding atm. Since SKSE64 isn't released for SSE yet, you'll miss out on some of the amazing mods available on classic. However, it's only a matter of time before SSE catches up to classic in terms of modding. I personally use a small set for mods for SSE and am lightly playing it from time to time. It's still a good experience.