DROPPED High Quality 3D Map (by Ethatron)

[Octopuss]

I've noticed (actually I did several months ago already, but I've remembered it today) something that might be of some importance. It always puzzled me what the heck was wrong with the textures.

This is how it looks straight from the archive:

 

Then I thought to run them through DDSOpt.

Whoa...

 

That's a HUGE difference. I briefly checked ingame, and the map indeed looks a bit better.

 

Feel free to try as well.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Octopuss

[EssArrBee]

So the mod made by the guy who also made DDSopt wasn't run through his own program to optimize textures? Go figure...

[Octopuss]

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Since I mostly use highest resolution textures available, at first I thought perhaps the 2k version was an upscale, but no, even the 1k (pictured above) was blocky as hell.

The difference ingame is not as drastic as comparing the raw textures, but it surely is there.

[oqhansoloqo]

I can't figure out what you did to run those textures through DDSOpt and have it correct the textures, because I ran them through at 2048x2048 and they didn't change at all (the ones that were originally 2K textures).  I thought maybe it would fix the mipmaps or something.  Was it the 2K textures that had an issue or just the 1K?

[Octopuss]

All of them.

I simply started DDSOpt with the alternate constraints settings from the Wiki here (but I think it doesn't matter at all), selected the appropriate folders and clicked process.

[Kelmych]

I looked at the 1kx1k version of the normal map textures, and I ran them through DDSopt just to see what would happen. You can use the Preview tab in DDSopt to look at the results. The originals I looked at are not "blocky", and processing them through DDSopt yielded very little difference. The DDSopt Preview tab has a difference display that can be used for this; alternatively Compressonator can also look at the differences.

 

Obviously, just because there are differences doesn't mean that the "optimized" versions are necessarily the better version, especially with normal maps.

[Octopuss]

Like I said, the difference ingame is not that big, but it's still obvious enough.

 

The preview feature doesn't work for me, because it's all stretched and I don't know what I'm looking at (when you enlarge the window, because the default one is so small you surely will not notice any blockiness).

If you open the textures in normal viewer capable of working with DDS format, you will instantly see what I'm talking about.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Octopuss

[Octopuss]

I took two screenshots, both using the 2k version.

original:

 

optimized:

 

The forum probably doesn't like Mediafire, so full size images: original - optimized.

 

Bottom line is - take it or leave it. I just posted my observations. The differences are not huge, but I like my game perfect, so it's nobrainer for me. Everyone is free to do (or don't) whatever he likes with his game.

[DoubleYou]

Detail is definitely better in the optimized version.

[DanimalTwo]

The optimized version says something about different enblocal.ini settings. Could that be the change?

[Octopuss]

That has nothing to do with the textures. It's just a message ENB gives you under certain circumstances after you load a save.

[oqhansoloqo]

Interesting - definitely a difference (your pics).  I use the regular constraints settings (lossless) and with those settings when it ran the process the resulting files were not modified at all - same file sizes and everything as the originals.

Edited March 2, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[Octopuss]

Oh the file sizes ARE the same, but th blockiness disappears.

I used the alternative constraints (DXT compression).

[crime_syndicate]

This is coming from some cryptic advanced stuff that DDSopt is doing because recompressing the default files with the Nvidia DDS plugin (default settings) as DXT1 does nothing and with DDSopt as DXTx (so DXT1 too) it indeed comes out smoothed. All the default files are seemingly DXT1 as well, and they're all blocky, more or less, when viewed at 100% in PS.

[keithinhanoi]

Bizzare.

I use the DDS plugin with GIMP instead of Photoshop, and the preview for the 1024 res map normals in GIMP looks terrible compared to when viewed in DDSopt, as seen here:



However, after processing / optimizing in DDSopt, then it displays the same in GIMP as in DDSOpt.

I then did a compare in Compressionator (v1.50) and surprisingly, it also displays the original 1024 texture in the same way I see in GIMP, but the DDSopt processed copy looks fine. Here's the comparison with the same file as the above screenshot:



But here's the punchline: Although the file info shows up the same for the original and processed normals in Compressionator, I see some different stats for them in DDSopt:

Original normal - "Infos" in DDSopt

• Type: Planar texture
• Primary use: World-space normal-map for terrain
• Alpha use: none
• Dimensions: 1024; 1024; 11
• Format: DirectX texture; DXT1

Processed normal - "Infos" in DDSopt

• Type: Planar texture
• Primary use: Tangent-space normal-map
• Alpha use: Specularity-map
• Dimensions: 1024; 1024; 11
• Format: DirectX texture; DXT1
• Settings - Steepen 1.777778

The addition of a specularity-map and the steepen adjust are, of course, a result of my current DDSopt settings, but if I had to guess, what I'm seeing in Compressionator / GIMP with the originals is a result of the normal map levels not being rendered properly. Or another possibility is that the primary use tag of "World-space normal-map for terrain" isn't recognized by Compressionator, and some kind of default normal map rendering state is used which results in the "blocky" effect.

However, if Octopuss also had the Steepen setting turned on when he processed the normals in DDSopt, that would explain the apparent quality difference when the map is viewed in-game.

I'm no expert, but I think the blocky preview in Compressionator / GIMP / Photoshop is just the normal map being incorrectly rendered, and it does not negatively affect the appearance in-game.

This theory is mainly based on the fact that the DDSopt preview looks correct, and DDSopt was specifically designed for working with TES / FO textures, whereas Compressionator / the NVidia plugins were designed for general use. "World-space normal-map for terrain" sounds very specific to TES / FO games to me.

 

That said, for some people increasing the "steepness" of the terrain map normals may be more visually appealing.