ACCEPTED Book Covers Skyrim (by DanielCoffey and doccdr)

[kryptopyr]

I'm a bit torn on whether I like the changes. I do like the added variation, but I prefer the feel of the vanilla covers (at least in the shots of the shelving). The vanilla books look richer or heavier or something (more leather bound covers and covers with dark, rich colors, gold accents, etc). As for the individual comparisons: some of the new versions I like a lot, some not so much. I have not played with this mod in-game, though, and I will take the advice of others and reserve judgement until after I've tried it.

 

However, I wanted to weigh in on the Core vs Extended aspect of the decision... I don't think this should be in Core, as it would severely contradict judgements that have been made for other mods that strayed too far from vanilla. This is definitely not a simple vanilla retext, and furthermore it's adding up to four additional plugins (4!) to the load order, which is the primary reason I've been hesitant to try it. If accepted for STEP, consistency would argue for putting it in Extended.

[z929669]

I'm a bit torn on whether I like the changes. I do like the added variation, but I prefer the feel of the vanilla covers (at least in the shots of the shelving). The vanilla books look richer or heavier or something (more leather bound covers and covers with dark, rich colors, gold accents, etc). As for the individual comparisons: some of the new versions I like a lot, some not so much. I have not played with this mod in-game, though, and I will take the advice of others and reserve judgement until after I've tried it.

 

However, I wanted to weigh in on the Core vs Extended aspect of the decision... I don't think this should be in Core, as it would severely contradict judgements that have been made for other mods that strayed too far from vanilla. This is definitely not a simple vanilla retext, and furthermore it's adding up to four additional plugins (4!) to the load order, which is the primary reason I've been hesitant to try it. If accepted for STEP, consistency would argue for putting it in Extended.

I tend to agree ... I know almost nothing about this mod, so I just wanted to throw the idea out there.

[TechAngel85]

Snip...

 

However, I wanted to weigh in on the Core vs Extended aspect of the decision... I don't think this should be in Core, as it would severely contradict judgements that have been made for other mods that strayed too far from vanilla. This is definitely not a simple vanilla retext, and furthermore it's adding up to four additional plugins (4!) to the load order, which is the primary reason I've been hesitant to try it. If accepted for STEP, consistency would argue for putting it in Extended.

 

+1

[Smile44]

Also agree - it has to go in Extended if it goes anywhere. It's a good mod but potentially too problematic (patches etc..) to be a CORE mod. Besides I thought we were only adding textures to CORE where they are needed for fixes etc., not to make Skyrim more pretty. That is a job for... STEP EXTENDED (said in old fashioned Superman announcer voice).

 

:)

[DanielCoffey]

Hello folks - I am the current owner of the Book Covers Skyrim mod and I thought I could clear up a few queries or comments that have been raised here.

 

Firstly the big push of updates to the mod is now complete. Every book cover has had its second pass finished and there are now covers for SK, DG, HF and DB. There will now be a prolonged  period of stability while I work on new covers for the Journals. I will be saving up all the Journals into one combined update.

 

The mod provides more than just new covers. The Books (and soon the Journals) have optimised and UV-Mapped meshes too. The Books in the world have about 15% fewer triangles to them and the Journals will have 38% fewer without any apparent loss of quality (that tiny button had over a hundred triangles culled from it). You can see the meshes they use in Better Book Mesh and Better Journal Mesh.

 

The reason the mod uses four ESP files instead of one at the moment is that the BSA version needs to be split by DLC. Unlike Oblivion, we can't reference multiple BSAs from one ESP. The Loose Files version of the mod did have a Merged ESP until recently but in an attempt to cut down on the sheer number of variants I had to support I dropped it and posted instructions on how to recreate it on an individual basis. It was not used by more than 10% of the mod's users anyway. In the long term I do intend to produce a grand merged BSA/ESP pair when I have finished all planned updates to the mod.

 

The mod is localized into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. I have also just been sent Russian Strings files to inspect and incorporate into the mod.

 

As for Compatibility Patches, the mod of course is affected by Better Sorting style mods as well as Even Better Quest Objectives. The author of EBQO has created an English Compatibility Patch which autodetects the presence of Book Covers Skyrim. I have created a Compatibility Patch for Better Skill and Quest Book Names.

 

The Better Sorting / Enhanced Better Sorting issue is something I feel I should point out as it will certainly mean that Book Covers Skyrim would not be appropriate for STEP CORE at the moment. In an attempt to further reduce the number of ESP versions I had to support, I took the decision a while back to make the "Better Sorting style" Book and Journal names the default for the Book Covers Skyrim mod in English. If I turned my back on the Better Sorting users, then every single one of them would have had to stop using the Book Covers mod. After asking for feedback on the mod's forum (which was not forthcoming) I went ahead and made the Better Sorting names standard in my mod. In retrospect that was probably not the best decisions in the long term. It was expedient but perhaps I should have thought about it more. Now the mod is settling down more, I could perhaps look at this again. Only two players have commented on the issue after the fact.

 

I have not yet got as far as dealing with the Notes but when I do, I will still be giving the choice to have the Notes retextured or not. I am planning much more subtle textures on the Notes and will of course be doing a Better Notes Mesh so that I can improve the UV Mapping.

 

Once I have completely finished all the textures I plan to talk about a Half Sized Normals performance version but will wait till that time before discussing it.

 

I certainly agree that Book Covers Skyrim should be in STEP EXTENDED rather than STEP CORE. The feel of the books is significantly altered from Vanilla. Personally I think it is a great improvement but it is still a departure from Vanilla and I understand what STEP CORE is intended to represent.

 

If you have a list of objectives for me to work on to help influence which STEP category the mod should be in or if you have any issues with the mod, I am happy to discuss them.

 

Daniel.

[z929669]

Thanks for the detail, Daniel.

 

I like the concept of the mod and agree that a version that stays true to vanilla in terms of book names and style would be required to add this to core (not sure that a half-sized textures version would be worth it, as ?almost all? books exist within interiors, and they are pretty small).

 

I would be wonderful if you were ever to create a version of the mod that incorporates the diversity along with the vanilla cover styles. This would turn the mod into a 'correction' IMO, and appropriate for STEP Core (and hence a standard Skyrim improvement).

 

Either way, thanks for working on this ;)

[DanielCoffey]

I have recently uploaded version 2.2 of Book Covers Skyrim which fully localises the mod into all languages except Japanese and brings the Better Journal Mesh optimisations and brand new covers to every Journal in vanilla Skyrim and every DLC.

 

An example of the new Journal covers is this...

 

 

In addition I have now completed the Better Notes Mesh resource and will be using it on all the game's Notes and letters. It completely overhauls the UV mapping on the Notes and brings double-sided Notes to Skyrim for the first time. While I am just at the prototype stage with the Notes textures at the moment, they should be very exciting and possibly even collectible from now on. The Bookshelves Script SKSE mod will be most useful for Note hoarders...

 

 

 

I will keep updating the mod's page with progress on the Notes as I hit milestones.

[Neovalen]

Very nice... thanks for the post and glad to see another unreal user :)

[DanielCoffey]

I can't use it on play-throughs because of the heat and noise of the fans but it makes a great tool for screenshots. I always feel it is fair to players to say which ENB was used on a screenshot since they will just ask otherwise.

 

I am keenly awaiting the next batch of mods to make it into SR:LE but am occupying myself with the Notes textures in the mean time.

[erik1988]

Great mod. I actually finding myself reading more books now since they look more appealing. :)

[DanielCoffey]

I have released a 2_2_2 Cumulative Hotfix for the Book Covers mod. A small naming mistake was spotted on "Kyr's Log" from Frostmere Crypt. It is needed for all users of 2_2 and 2_2_1.

[DanielCoffey]

Version 2_3 is now up. It adds new textures for all twelve of vanilla Skyrim's Treasure Maps as well as multiple Note styles for some of the major factions. So far the Imperials, Stormcloaks and Thalmor have their own new Notes as do Maven Black-Briar and her minions.

 

For those of you who use the Book Covers mod without the Notes, I will shortly be releasing a new mod called "Treasure Maps of Skyrim" which will sit alongside the Book Covers Skyrim - No Notes ESP to bring just the new Maps to you. If you already use Book Covers with the Notes then you automatically have the new Treasure Maps from this release.

[mothergoose729]

Awesome stuff sir! Thanks a lot, been using the mod and its great. I don't notice its there most of the time... which is how it should be. I think I used the less saturated textures or something.

 

Do want to note that I was able to optimize some of the textures in the skyrim BSA further with DDSOPT. I used BSAOPT I managed to get the 100mb BSA for skyrim down to a little over 30mb. Just wanted to make you aware of the tool, the secret seems to be in what it does to meshes.

 

Again, great work. Love each update. Thanks again.

[DanielCoffey]

If you are compressing the BSA be aware that it may mess up the STRINGS files. McGuffin (author of TESVTranslator) informed me that a compressed BSA can contain data that resembles the STRINGS values and then you get Reference Not Found errors in the books.

 

With the textures, the textures are already DXT1 and the normals are DXT5 which is what I would expect them to be. I am open to suggestions of how to improve them but i can't use DXT3 for the normals since I need the soft gradients that DXT5 allows.

 

I did tick the Meshes checkbox in BSAopt when I created it so I would be interested in knowing if there is a way to compress it further without using the Compress option which will screw up the STRINGS.

[mothergoose729]

I wasn't aware of the string problem. I haven't notice any issues yet but that doesn't mean they aren't there. I just found it interesting how much the tool could pack it in. If you can reduce the file even by 10 more megbytes than that helps folks with their download. I assume you know what you are doing though :p.