this mod includes a normal map with directional information for the eye mesh and this influences smoothness and the amount of detail of reflected objects and shadows of the eye bulb surface depending to some extend on the cubemap used. it does not influence or change directly the color information of the eye texture and it is never responsible for color-, mesh- or script-related problems with the eyes or other mods. in these cases don't blame my mod or ask for support! i can not help you.
march 19 added a customized eyebrown_sk normal map combi pack for even more realistic eye appearance. subsurface iris glow/reflection effect is slightly reduced. this helps also while using some subsurface skin enb effects. test it if you encounter unnatural subsurface iris glow or reflection or glow in the inner part of the eyebulb. feedback apprechiated! some custom race mods with own file structure may need a manual update! i updated the optional pack including some follower and npc mods. the result may vary depending on the brightness of the used eye textures and shader settings. thank you all for endorsements and feedback! Feel free to ask or leave suggestions.
the mod "Skyrim's Ultimate Eye Meshes Ruhmastered" is definitely a perfect addition for my mod. it does not interfere with my mod since it changes the meshes not the textures! both mods could be used simultaneously and deliver an incredibly realistic result!
may 18: i addeed an optional all in one package including werewolf and argonian eye normal map
This mod contributes to a high quality visual impression but this depends on a reasonable resolution and quality of the eye and eye reflection texture. all what i can say after research is that most eye related mods fullfill the prerequisites while using the substandard, low res, compressed vanilla normal map or substandard customized normal maps. this is exactly what this mod heals.
Tons of followers head mesh facegeom don't have eyebrown_sk in it, or it's in t he wrong spot. If you add that line where it goes using the eyebrown_sk from this it'll look a ton better. And I'm pretty sure this is the only good eye normal map.
Personally, I think it looks great! Both in legacy and in SE, though the effect in legacy is a little better. Even with all the newer mods out there for SE, it's hard to get the lighting and shading right to make characters look good - at least, not as easy as it is in legacy. Who's the character in picture #8? Custom character, or a follower/NPC from the Nexus?
thanks for your feedback! i thougt first as many others that rendering works also with the low quality vanilla map but found the reason for eye bulb shadow artifacts exactly in the compression artifacts of it. happy closeup screen arching!
thanks for feedback! this mod should mainly prevent eye bulb shadow artifacts using fhd or higher resolutions. i'm glad it works for you and eyes look better now.
I am not familiar with eye textures, what u recommend (they seam all brown)? I have a Nikon shoot with their most expensive macro lens on an eye made by some fanboy/expert, maybe I'll use it somewhat, I can see u left the upper part transparent, brows are separated 2.
best
EDIT now I see comparison pictures it's a must have mod imo!
my mod only changes the eye normal map, the other parts of the eye (eye texture itself including iris colour, cubemap and reflection texture) is left untouched. the eye normal map manipulates eyebulb glossiness and 3d effect of the eyebulb, eyebulb shadow appearance and the reflection effects of iris and eyebulb. the better the quality of the normal map is the lesser the distortions are and the crisper and more vivid are most eye related reflection and shadow effects. most of the newer eye mods have good quality except normal map. just pick what you like best. i used screenshots from my preset katarina ningheim and ningheim related eye mods.
For those wondering, this is a vanilla normal map that has been doubled in size with the alpha channel blurred. It will not yield any difference from the vanilla normal map, save for using more resources to render. Sorry.
thank you for mentioning that but you are definitely wrong! theoretically and within some quality limits you may be right with the rendering. but this is no plain texture but a normal map. as the evidence i added a screenshot showing the differences clearly. the result is reproducable for everybody. normal map 128x128p resolution combined with dxt5 compression produces crap. vanilla normal maps are no exception. at least low res compressed character skin textures and normals including eyes are a no go if you play in a hd environment and you like natural character appearance.
my map is not double but quad sized and uncompressed, because this is the minimum necessary to prevent visible artifacts (tested) playing in fullHD and yes it is mainly a smoothed high res version of the blocky, with compression artifacts downgraded vanilla texture, itself so bad that the rendering result still produces visible artifacts like a checkerboard in close up screenshots and in high res environment. this quad sized hq blurred solution simply produced imho the best visible result including eye reflection after testing a bunch of different approaches including yours. most of the work was the testing and comparing not the creation of the final result, which is indeed quite simple but who knows before ? using my version leads to quite a visible difference compared to vanilla. no visible artifacts and checkerboard at all and that is what counts in my opinion. i compared it and the difference is definitely visible in fullhd and even more in higher res environment. i tested your normal map quite for a long time. it was my favourite normal map but i found no solution for the annoying lens seam effect introduced by the normal map iris lens. it's like the npc are wearing thick contact lenses. maybe good for argonians or elf eyes but at least a matter of taste watching human eyes. so i did some research and after testing and comparing the visble results this mod here is now my favourite solution and i just want to share it with you and the community
the user should decide by themselves the priority: saving a neglectible amount of memory/VRAM in relation to hundreds of 2k and 4k flower textures loaded, while having a visible negative impact how npc and main character eyes appear or spending 1mb vram for one 0,5 k normal map for a smooth and vivid eye experience even watching close ups. my close up screenshots are the result and everyone who likes this result with smooth eye shadows may try my mod and compare with others ;)
24 comments
it does not influence or change directly the color information of the eye texture and it is never responsible for color-, mesh- or script-related problems with the eyes or other mods. in these cases don't blame my mod or ask for support! i can not help you.
march 19
added a customized eyebrown_sk normal map combi pack for even more realistic eye appearance. subsurface iris glow/reflection effect is slightly reduced. this helps also while using some subsurface skin enb effects. test it if you encounter unnatural subsurface iris glow or reflection or glow in the inner part of the eyebulb. feedback apprechiated! some custom race mods with own file structure may need a manual update! i updated the optional pack including some follower and npc mods. the result may vary depending on the brightness of the used eye textures and shader settings.
thank you all for endorsements and feedback! Feel free to ask or leave suggestions.
the mod "Skyrim's Ultimate Eye Meshes Ruhmastered" is definitely a perfect addition for my mod. it does not interfere with my mod since it changes the meshes not the textures! both mods could be used simultaneously and deliver an incredibly realistic result!
may 18: i addeed an optional all in one package including werewolf and argonian eye normal map
This mod contributes to a high quality visual impression but this depends on a reasonable resolution and quality of the eye and eye reflection texture. all what i can say after research is that most eye related mods fullfill the prerequisites while using the substandard, low res, compressed vanilla normal map or substandard customized normal maps. this is exactly what this mod heals.
Who's the character in picture #8? Custom character, or a follower/NPC from the Nexus?
I am not familiar with eye textures, what u recommend (they seam all brown)? I have a Nikon shoot with their most expensive macro lens on an eye made by some fanboy/expert, maybe I'll use it somewhat, I can see u left the upper part transparent, brows are separated 2.
best
EDIT now I see comparison pictures it's a must have mod imo!
my map is not double but quad sized and uncompressed, because this is the minimum necessary to prevent visible artifacts (tested) playing in fullHD and yes it is mainly a smoothed high res version of the blocky, with compression artifacts downgraded vanilla texture, itself so bad that the rendering result still produces visible artifacts like a checkerboard in close up screenshots and in high res environment. this quad sized hq blurred solution simply produced imho the best visible result including eye reflection after testing a bunch of different approaches including yours. most of the work was the testing and comparing not the creation of the final result, which is indeed quite simple but who knows before ?
using my version leads to quite a visible difference compared to vanilla. no visible artifacts and checkerboard at all and that is what counts in my opinion.
i compared it and the difference is definitely visible in fullhd and even more in higher res environment.
i tested your normal map quite for a long time. it was my favourite normal map but i found no solution for the annoying lens seam effect introduced by the normal map iris lens. it's like the npc are wearing thick contact lenses. maybe good for argonians or elf eyes but at least a matter of taste watching human eyes. so i did some research and after testing and comparing the visble results this mod here is now my favourite solution and i just want to share it with you and the community
the user should decide by themselves the priority: saving a neglectible amount of memory/VRAM in relation to hundreds of 2k and 4k flower textures loaded, while having a visible negative impact how npc and main character eyes appear or spending 1mb vram for one 0,5 k normal map for a smooth and vivid eye experience even watching close ups. my close up screenshots are the result and everyone who likes this result with smooth eye shadows may try my mod and compare with others ;)