If this is your first experience with RPGs or you're looking for more good stuff to play, here are some suggestions. (Not that I need an excuse, of course.) Knights of the Old Republic Both the first game by BioWare and very different sequel by Obsidian. Not a Star Wars fan, but this is, by far, the best thing to come out of the whole franchise. True gems of a sadly uncompleted trilogy that was later butchered by the MMO. Baldur's Gate II The standard to which all RPGs are held, even 20+ years later. Sure, it's a bit dated and it'll take a while to get your head around the old aD&D ruleset, but the sheer depth and level of quality is insane.
Also check out the original, to import your save and experience the full story. This put BioWare on the map and for good reason. Fallout Another old one, but a true classic. Whatever you think of the games that came later, this is where it peaked. The end of the world is not a joke and the atmosphere is unrivalled.
It did for the post-apocalypse what Baldur's Gate did for fantasy. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Buggy, unfinished and barely playable without a patch, Bloodlines is saved by its amazing, character-focused writing and high replay value with each clan. Drops off a cliff towards the end due to being rushed out the door, but it's a cult classic.
Also a good pick if you're not into sprawling, 100+ hour RPGs and want something more focused. Just make sure you get the Unofficial Patch. System Shock 2 RPG hybrid and the spiritual predecessor to the BioShock series. Much like Thief, Looking Glass Studios pioneered many things that the industry now takes for granted.
A genuine landmark that few can compare to, featuring Terri Brosius as the legendary SHODAN. It also has the funniest ending ever. Except maybe Silent Hill 2. Divinity: Original Sin II An enormous, beautiful journey that brought Larian's long-running series out of obscurity to sit among the greats. While the story is quite simple with little choice or impact, where it really shines is in sandbox-style freedom.
Perfect if you prefer gameplay (or tabletop shenanigans) over long-winded narrative. Great modding community as well and features 4 player co-op. Shadowrun: Hong Kong A criminally underrated gem that barely gets talked about, despite nailing things that no other RPG has. The best of the trilogy with great characters, quests and amazing atmosphere.
It's also modern and much easier to get into than some of the others. Make sure to get the Extended Edition for the epilogue campaign. Disco Elysium The most unconventional of these and, hot take, a better game than Planescape Torment in every way. Weird, charming and emotionally sincere, its reputation is well deserved.
Persona 5 Royal Bit of a break compared to the other games, but like the golden age of BioWare, its strength lies in its characters. (Not to mention that kickass art style and soundtrack.)
I only played this for the first time recently, going in completely blind, and it blew me away. Also coming to PC very soon.
(each one has _0d.dds, _0n.dds and a _0s.dds files)
Gotta check out if those files can be fixed somehow.
Edit: Well, I come to the conclusion that Old Gods upscales too many textures. I have removed all "cn_*" files, because they are the biggest offenders. If it causes any major issues along the line, I'll have to switch back to JB3 instead of Old Gods + Retexturing DAO.
I experienced frequent texture flickering with this mod which was definitely distracting. I also experienced constant crashing after I'd played through the origin section, though I'm not sure if it was this mod or something else that was causing it. I was running only like 4 mods though, and this was easily the biggest one, so make of that what you will.
Or it can be that the flickering textures are the ones with missing mipmaps. Use Ordenador on them and simply flag the option "Mipmaps". Unflag the other options (to leave the textures as they are, only generate mipmaps if missing).
This mod is the culprit for texture flickering. I had nothing else installed and the NPC clothing texture flickered like crazy, then i removed the mod and it was ok. The game cannot be played with this mod, at least for me
SOLUTION: There is a wrong alpha channel in the texture (which is mixed to the RGB channels, creating the black spots). hf_arm_nuda_0d.dds should have no alpha (not needed) and so it must be saved as BC1 (or DXT1c) after the alpha channel is removed. Here (under Miscellaneous files) the corrected texture, with the side advantage of a reduced file size at the same resolution.
As for the questions in the above posts: BC3 is called DXT5 in Nvidia plugin for Photoshop. It assumes an interpolated alpha channel (i.e. with grey levels from 0 to 255).
What about an even lighter version? 2k for big creatures (dragons, broodmother, ogres, etc.) when vanilla is not already at 2k. 1k for humanoid size creatures (instead of 2k) when vanilla is not already at 1k. (... but maybe keep the desire demon at 2k because we all zoom on her). what do you think?
another question: did you do some recoloring or just upscaling?
btw. I consider Catachrism HD ogre and desire demon superior (sorry, just my opinion, but I downscale them at 2k for better performance), probably he made some adjustements by hand, so I would opt for them in a mod update (if he allows to include them of course). It would be nice to converge to a single common mod package for a whole HD retextures of all creatures.
Mod works perfectly fine, the game itself is lacking. You will get the similar crashes if you install as many textures to your game. To fix it, follow this guide: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/large-address-aware.112556/
TL;DR: If you're having consistent crashes trying to leave the Chantry in Lothering, this mod is possibly the culprit. Removing it in Lothering and putting it back when I left stopped crashes for me 100% of the time.
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FYI for anyone adding this and a bunch of other mods in 2022+. I followed the recommendations of a combination of many mods (think I'm up to about 111 now). Everything went great up until I got to the Chantry in Lothering. Once I did, I was able to enter the Chantry but it crashed every single time I tried to leave. I tried everything I could find to fix it - lowered graphics settings to the minimum, made sure I had the LAA patched executable, set the processor affinity, etc. Nothing worked. I spent a whole day troubleshooting to try to figure out the problem, and the closest I got was finding that if I disabled Slink's S3 Ravage (a pretty great random item & improved combat mod) then I could leave the Chantry. Trouble is, turning off that mode *deletes all of the gear it gave you up to that point*, and turning it back on once you leave the Chantry doesn't get your gear back. It's gone forever.
I was about ready to just bite the bullet and leave that mod disabled, when I remembered that people had problems with JB3 Textures in the past (which, similar to this mod, rescales texture size & hence memory usage - this one just isn't as dramatic of a size change). So even though I thought Slink's mod was the culprit, I tried leaving it enabled and instead disabled all my texture mods. Sure enough, that took care of it. I'm able to leave the Chantry every time without crashing. I stepped through the mods one by one, and I figured out that this mod is the only one that actually caused me problems. All the others I had loaded (DA Redesigned, Retexturing DAO, Theta HD, few smaller ones) caused zero problems in Lothering even with graphics settings cranked to max. And unlike disabling Slink's mod, there's no penalty to simply removing The Old Gods while you are in Lothering and then turning it back on once you leave.
Unfortunately memory issues are a pain to troubleshoot and the outcomes are different depending on your available memory, OS version, OS patches, other programs running, etc. So this may or may not solve crashes in Lothering for you, but it's at least something to try.
yep, i've got AP Neural Enhanced Textures and Old Gods on, apparently the former already causes you to crash when leaving the Chantry but Old Gods had to be removed for me to go back in. I could go in the first time with both. Very strange
Nothing strange about it, Ostagar, Lothering and Denerim are some of the most resource intensive areas. I would get CTDs even without mods when I first played DAO on a potato PC.
Thank you for this. I could figure out why I was constantly crashing at the Lothering chantry even when I used the 4gb patch and on the lowest settings.
If you are using this mod and having trouble with black spots on the human body, open hf_arm_nuda_0d.dds in photoshop (or a similar program, the free paint.net works just as well for this) and "save as", changing nothing except the format to BC3 (Linear, DXT5). This worked for me, but always keep backups of the original file.
I GOT IT RUNNING! My game kept crashing for some reasons when Old Gods was on, I sorted everything into files (FX,Decals,Clothing,Armor,Etc) and placed one folder into the game at a time, playing it until I found what crashed. For some reason, the armor was causing my game to crash. (But only indoors, such as any chantry (lothering being the first crash point) n orzammar) so whenever indoors I remove the Armor folder from Old Gods, and whenever outdoors I will put it back. For some reason it's working for me. It could be due to some mod conflicts on my end, but hopefully setting this info here could help someone else. (I also removed hf/hm body textures bc it conflicted n was causing the bodies to look weird) also, if another texture pack isn't working, you could have conflicting mods. I had mods to retex the lady of the forest and desire demon, but they weren't working because this mod retexs them too. :) Just remove any duplicates! Amazing mod! I had to sort through it because I loved it too much to uninstall, tweaking was so worth it <3 !!!
I'm not a game designer but as a modder I have some basics and I agree with you, it's a shame that the files are not well organized and are in a catch-all, "all in one"I would like to be able to choose what changes I want to make to my game, I don't want to waste time looking for which file I need to delete one by one.I wish they were organized in subfolders, for example, creatures, environments, weapons, etc.
40 comments
here are some suggestions. (Not that I need an excuse, of course.)
Knights of the Old Republic
Both the first game by BioWare and very different sequel by Obsidian. Not a Star Wars fan, but this is, by far, the best thing
to come out of the whole franchise. True gems of a sadly uncompleted trilogy that was later butchered by the MMO.
Baldur's Gate II
The standard to which all RPGs are held, even 20+ years later. Sure, it's a bit dated and it'll take a while
to get your head around the old aD&D ruleset, but the sheer depth and level of quality is insane.
Also check out the original, to import your save and experience the full story.
This put BioWare on the map and for good reason.
Fallout
Another old one, but a true classic. Whatever you think of the games that came later,
this is where it peaked. The end of the world is not a joke and the atmosphere is unrivalled.
It did for the post-apocalypse what Baldur's Gate did for fantasy.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Buggy, unfinished and barely playable without a patch, Bloodlines is saved by its amazing, character-focused writing and
high replay value with each clan. Drops off a cliff towards the end due to being rushed out the door, but it's a cult classic.
Also a good pick if you're not into sprawling, 100+ hour RPGs and want something
more focused. Just make sure you get the Unofficial Patch.
System Shock 2
RPG hybrid and the spiritual predecessor to the BioShock series. Much like Thief,
Looking Glass Studios pioneered many things that the industry now takes for granted.
A genuine landmark that few can compare to, featuring Terri Brosius as the legendary SHODAN.
It also has the funniest ending ever. Except maybe Silent Hill 2.
Divinity: Original Sin II
An enormous, beautiful journey that brought Larian's long-running series out of obscurity to sit among the greats.
While the story is quite simple with little choice or impact, where it really shines is in sandbox-style freedom.
Perfect if you prefer gameplay (or tabletop shenanigans) over long-winded narrative.
Great modding community as well and features 4 player co-op.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
A criminally underrated gem that barely gets talked about, despite nailing things that
no other RPG has. The best of the trilogy with great characters, quests and amazing atmosphere.
It's also modern and much easier to get into than some of the others.
Make sure to get the Extended Edition for the epilogue campaign.
Disco Elysium
The most unconventional of these and, hot take, a better game than Planescape Torment
in every way. Weird, charming and emotionally sincere, its reputation is well deserved.
Persona 5 Royal
Bit of a break compared to the other games, but like the golden age of BioWare,
its strength lies in its characters. (Not to mention that kickass art style and soundtrack.)
I only played this for the first time recently, going in completely blind, and it blew me away.
Also coming to PC very soon.
- cn_bdy_glka ...
- cn_bdy_hlka ...
- cn_bdy_hlkb ...
- cn_bdy_graa ...
(each one has _0d.dds, _0n.dds and a _0s.dds files)Gotta check out if those files can be fixed somehow.
Edit: Well, I come to the conclusion that Old Gods upscales too many textures. I have removed all "cn_*" files, because they are the biggest offenders. If it causes any major issues along the line, I'll have to switch back to JB3 instead of Old Gods + Retexturing DAO.
- Manually Optimized Textures
- YAHD
- The Deck of Many Mods (specifically the bestiary)
as the base of my texture setup.Because of memory leak there can still be crashes in Denerim regardless, but that combination worked relatively well.
EDIT: Actually, I fixed it by resaving it in Photoshop in BC3 format. You can download it here: https://easyupload.io/xvuig5
As for the questions in the above posts: BC3 is called DXT5 in Nvidia plugin for Photoshop. It assumes an interpolated alpha channel (i.e. with grey levels from 0 to 255).
What about an even lighter version?
2k for big creatures (dragons, broodmother, ogres, etc.) when vanilla is not already at 2k.
1k for humanoid size creatures (instead of 2k) when vanilla is not already at 1k.
(... but maybe keep the desire demon at 2k because we all zoom on her).
what do you think?
another question: did you do some recoloring or just upscaling?
btw. I consider Catachrism HD ogre and desire demon superior (sorry, just my opinion, but I downscale them at 2k for better performance), probably he made some adjustements by hand, so I would opt for them in a mod update (if he allows to include them of course).
It would be nice to converge to a single common mod package for a whole HD retextures of all creatures.
-----
FYI for anyone adding this and a bunch of other mods in 2022+. I followed the recommendations of a combination of many mods (think I'm up to about 111 now). Everything went great up until I got to the Chantry in Lothering. Once I did, I was able to enter the Chantry but it crashed every single time I tried to leave. I tried everything I could find to fix it - lowered graphics settings to the minimum, made sure I had the LAA patched executable, set the processor affinity, etc. Nothing worked. I spent a whole day troubleshooting to try to figure out the problem, and the closest I got was finding that if I disabled Slink's S3 Ravage (a pretty great random item & improved combat mod) then I could leave the Chantry. Trouble is, turning off that mode *deletes all of the gear it gave you up to that point*, and turning it back on once you leave the Chantry doesn't get your gear back. It's gone forever.
I was about ready to just bite the bullet and leave that mod disabled, when I remembered that people had problems with JB3 Textures in the past (which, similar to this mod, rescales texture size & hence memory usage - this one just isn't as dramatic of a size change). So even though I thought Slink's mod was the culprit, I tried leaving it enabled and instead disabled all my texture mods. Sure enough, that took care of it. I'm able to leave the Chantry every time without crashing. I stepped through the mods one by one, and I figured out that this mod is the only one that actually caused me problems. All the others I had loaded (DA Redesigned, Retexturing DAO, Theta HD, few smaller ones) caused zero problems in Lothering even with graphics settings cranked to max. And unlike disabling Slink's mod, there's no penalty to simply removing The Old Gods while you are in Lothering and then turning it back on once you leave.
Unfortunately memory issues are a pain to troubleshoot and the outcomes are different depending on your available memory, OS version, OS patches, other programs running, etc. So this may or may not solve crashes in Lothering for you, but it's at least something to try.