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Ethatron

Uploaded by

Ethatron

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About this mod

This is a replacer for the LOD files which are responsible for the 3D-Map. Texture resolution has been quadruppled and mesh resolution increased 20 fold.

Permissions and credits
This is a replacer for the LOD files which are responsible for the 3D-Map. Texture resolution has been quadruppled and mesh resolution increased 20 fold. Just drop the files into your data folder. There are screens and links in the "Docs"-folder.

There are now multiple versions of meshes and textures. As no current hardware I know of is triangle-setup limited the effect of the med. resolution meshes is purely psychological. I made textures for each of the major landscape-texture replacers, the archives contain multiple resolutions each (256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024 and 2048x2048). The textures at 256x256 are really tiny and is the vanilla resolution. At 2048x2048 you start to have graphics memory contention, and is only recommended for cards with more than 1.5GB of memory and big screens beyond 2.5k as you won't see any improvment on smaller screens anyway.

Installation

A complete set of LOD-files consists of
- 1x mesh package
- 1x normal-map package
- 1x color-map package

In the download-area are multiple version of the packages. All downloads named "Original" are files related to a vanilla Skyrim install, without any replacers and landscape-mods. These are the base-line packages. All the other downloads indicate from which mod they stem from (Skyrim HD etc.) and if you have a landscape replacer or mod installed take a look if you find the corresponding package.

Example:

I have "Serious HD" installed, so what I have to look is, is there a mesh package for "Serious HD", is there a normal-map package for "Serious HD", is there a color-map package for "Serious HD"? This yields this
- 1x original mesh package (I have a fat graphics-card so I choose the "high resolution" package)
- 1x normal-map package (there is just that one)
- 1x color-map package (I use "Serious HD" so I choose that one, but I have only 1GB so I do not choose the 4k²)

After the download:

Now every package may have a couple of resolutions to offer, if there is choice you'll find folders with numbers and descriptions like "01 - 1024" and so forth. Right after the download you unpack the folder to some place and then you take a look. The mesh package has no choices, the only folder is "meshes" and you drop that into the Skyrim's data-folder. The normal-map package has a few resolutions to offer, make your choice and drop the files from the sub-folder (whose only content is a "textures"-folder) into the Skyrim's data-folder. And you repeat that for the color-maps.

The packages are perfectly installable with BAIN, no worries in that case.

Related projects

The sibling meshes and textures for the exterior-LOD:
High Quality LODs by Ethatron

A modder's resource adding cell-IDs and -raster:
SK-TamrielWordspaceModdersMaps by Worm

The map with added roads:
A Quality World Map - With Roads by IcePenguin

All kinds of settings to make the map a bit different:
Map Overhaul by xAtomz

Related projects (compatible with the "Landscape Pack" textures)

A texture replacer for landscape textures:
Landscape Texture Pack WIP by xclear - gorefest2011

Related projects (compatible with the "Insanity Pack" textures)

A texture replacer for all textures:
Insanity's Texture Pack by Insanity

Related projects (compatible with the "Serious HD" textures)

A texture replacer for landscape textures:
Serious HD Retexture Landscape Skyrim by Z4G4

Related projects (compatible with the "Skyrim HD" textures)

A texture replacer for all textures:
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures by NebuLa

Related projects (compatible with the "Skyrim Realistic" textures)

A texture replacer for landscape textures:
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul by Starac

Related projects (compatible with the "BLS REDUX" textures)

A texture replacer for landscape textures:
Better Landscape Skyrim REDUX by dirkduggler

INI-Settings (Skyrim.ini)

; This are just some values you could use, no blur and more zoom
[MapMenu]
fMapWorldMaxHeight=150000.0000
fMapWorldMinHeight=7000.0000
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0
fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.3700
fMapWorldMaxPitch=400.0000
fMapWorldYawRange=400.0000

Background-information

Skyrim has 4 LODs, the most coarse one is for the 3D-Map, the meshes are these:

Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-64.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.0.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-64.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.0.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-64.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.0.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-32.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-64.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.0.btr
Meshes/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.32.btr

and the respective textures are these:

Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-64.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.-64_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.0.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.0_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-32.32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-64.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.-64_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.0.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.0_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.-64.32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-64.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.-64_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.0.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.0_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.0.32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-32_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-64.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.-64_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.0.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.0_n.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.32.dds
Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.32_n.dds

The code for the name is:

Textures/Terrain/<worldspace>/<worldspace>.<resolution>.<posx>.<posy>.<ext><br><br>Meshes have the suffix ".btr" and are regular NIFs.<br>Normal-maps have the suffix "_n.dds" and are swizzled XZY DXT1s.<br>Color-maps have the suffix ".dds" and are RGB DXT1s.<br><br>The available resolutions are 4x4 cells per tile (quad), 8x8, 16x16, and 32x32<br>like this:<br><br> Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.4.32.32.dds<br> Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.8.32.32.dds<br> Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.16.32.32.dds<br> Textures/Terrain/Tamriel/tamriel.32.32.32.dds<br><br>Skyrim comes with 256x256 pixel maps and 1000 face meshes per tile. So you have decreasing texture-resolution and faces per increasing LOD. The replacer delivers 1024x1024 pixel textures and on average 20000 face meshes per tile.<br><br>The files have been generated with <a href="http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4727" rel="nofollow">Oscape</a> from the original ESM. The covered area is slightly smaller than the original files, because the ESM only contains a reduced amount of terrain-information.<br><br>Have fun!<br> Ethatron<br></ext></posy></posx></resolution></worldspace></worldspace>