Unlock the True Potential of Skyrim with Parallax Mapping

Are you tired of playing the same old Skyrim experience? Do you want to bring a new level of visual fidelity to the world of Tamriel? Look no further! Say goodbye to flat, 2D textures and hello to stunning, three-dimensional environments that pop with depth and visual detail. From the snow-capped mountains of the Rift to the lush forests of the Pale, every corner of the game world is transformed into a vibrant, immersive realm.

Imagine walking through the bustling streets of Whiterun, surrounded by vividly detailed buildings and NPCs that seem to leap off the screen. Picture yourself standing atop a snow-covered mountain, gazing out upon a breathtaking landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Ok, after all that marketing blurb you are probably ready to see Skyrim like you never had before. Or you simply came here looking for parallax textures by being redirected from other mods.

Either way, you'll find here:

• Collection of parallax maps (_p.dds) textures for base game (vanilla) and various mods.
• Nothing else
  

How do I use it?

First, you need to modify your Skyrim to support Parallax textures. I've recycled the description from ParallaxGen mod (which is also a requirement here) because I find it extra useful and cleanly written:

• Install ENBseries or Community Shaders to enable parallax shaders in Skyrim SE (I recommend community shaders, and pairing it with Complex Parallax Materials for complex material support)
• Install Auto Parallax, which prevents "blue meshes" in game for parallax-enabled meshes with no corresponding texture
• Install base parallax textures from this mod.
• Install Terrain Parallax Blending Fix mod
• Install the terrain parallax blending textures from this mod
• Pick what you need and install them in the same order as your load order. Some textures may (and will) overwrite the textures from base game
• Download ParallaxGen and run according to the usage instructions. Re-run ParallaxGen every time you add/remove meshes or you add/remove parallax textures.
  

I highly recommend option

--upgrade-shaders
 
Enabling this flag will upgrade all vanilla parallax to complex material before patching meshes - that means a lot things more will get parallax alongside dynamic cubemaps (think: real reflections). I do not recommend using --optimize-meshes though, in its current version it seems to break some meshes for me.

If you use Terrain Parallax Blending Fix mod - I've provided proper blending fixes according to the Terrain Parallax Blending Fix manual. The parallax pipeline also includes this fix generation as an separate script.

Technical note

This mod uses my own pipeline to generate the textures. It is not based on ParallaxR because I personally felt their approach to convert NormalToHeight.exe was giving a bit less detailed textures than I would like. But it is up to you which one you prefer. I suggest testing their work in practice too and deciding on your own which one looks better for you. The best part of modding community is having alternatives and options.

My textures are also scaled in the following way:

100% original size if texture was <512px
50% of original size if texture was <2048px
25% of original size if texture was >=2048px
12.5% of original size if texture was >=4096px

I've decided on scaling like that because parallax textures themselves need to be bit blurry to not to cause too sharp edges on the objects and there is not much reason to make those textures larger (based on my tests and my personal opinion)

You can of course run the pipeline on your own and change that if you prefer!

Technical explanation why is below.

Parallax mapping looks completely awesome in VR

I used to do textures with Adobe Substance designer.

But - luckily - I have been able to create my own algorithm. I've provided it in downloads, with whole pipeline for the technical people. I will update my textures once I run the pipeline with the tool on everything for everyone to download without waiting days for conversion to happen (it is a slow process)

If you want to get technical, I wrote a small article explaining the algorithm here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/7202

Here is the comparison of parallax texture generated using Adobe tool and my new algorithm:

Adobe

My algorithm using Poisson integration

My algorithm using FFT-based Poisson integration with Neumann boundary conditions (more than 10x faster, but bit less precise)

Are original mods still needed?
Of course. Those are just parallax textures made from the original mod normal maps. You need the original mods in all cases.

Credits section
Permission: You are allowed to modify my files and release bug fixes or improve on the features without permission from or credit to me

• blo0d1k - BD's Armor And Clothes Replacer - CBBE 3BA
  

Permission: You are allowed to modify my files and release bug fixes or improve on the features so long as you credit me as the original creator

• DanielCoffey - Books Covers Lost Library, Books Covers Skyrim
• EnaiSiaion - Summermyst, Wintersun
• IconicDeath - Alduin's Wall 16K, Project AIO
• LumenMystic - Bards Reborn Student of Song
• NorthWind69 - Bottles of Skyrim
• powerofthree - Security Overhaul
• T4gtr34um3r - Blended Roads, The Halls of the Greybeards, Underground
• TheRetroCarrot - Navigate VR
• wSkeever - Assorted Mesh Fixes, Simplicity of Snow
• XilaMonstrr - SMIM4k, Underground 4k8k
  

Permission: You're welcome to made additions or tweaks to this mod, if you create those files as dependent on this one.

• TwinCrows - Narrative Loot, Realm of Lorkhan
  

Permission: Unknown

• ClearanceClarence - CC's HQ Alduin's Wall
  

Permission: Unclear

• anamorfus - ELFX
  

Permission: in general you can do whatever

• jayserpa - The Gift of Saturnalia
  

Permission: https://github.com/chesko256/Campfire/blob/master/LICENSE

• Chesko - Campfire
  

Permission given by author

• Smartbluecat - Inigo. ENJOY THE DRAGON PIE
• Brumbek - SMIM
• jayserpa - Skyrim on Skooma
• Gamwich - Rustic mods, Peltapalooza and Rugnarok.
• CylonSurfer - Be Seated
• tarlazo - Convenient Carriages (textures themselves were made by mathy79 for this mod)
• Sthaagg - Keep it Clean
• icecreamassassin - Legacy of the Dragonborn
• raiserfx - Detailed Rugs SE, Dawnguard Fortress Improved SE, Major Cities Mesh Overhaul
  

Technical Explanation: Why I Chose Low-Resolution Textures, Despite the Desire for 2K, 4K, and Higher Resolutions
While higher resolution textures typically offer more detail for color and normal maps, this isn’t the case with parallax maps. Parallax textures represent height rather than color, effectively mapping the geometry of a surface. The issue lies in the fact that these textures are stored with 8-bit per pixel precision, allowing only 256 possible height values. However, in practice, parallax maps use around 50 of these height values, which inherently causes noticeable stepping.

You might think that the graphics card would smooth out these textures, right? It does, but there’s a catch—when the graphics card tries to adhere to the height values from a quantized texture map, which only offers about 50 steps, it leads to height aliasing, often manifesting as visible spikes.

Let’s break this down visually:
Imagine an ideal height map (with the map on the left and its 3D representation on the right):


Now, consider how this map looks when represented as a texture map with reduced possible height values (quantization):


Not so great anymore, right? But how would it look at a lower resolution?


Even worse? But wait—graphics cards do interpolate between the discrete texture pixels. So, let’s see how the high-resolution height map appears when rendered by the graphics card:

You can clearly see the "blobby" result caused by aliasing.

Now, this is how the low-resolution texture behaves when interpolated:


Although the lower-resolution parallax map has less detail in the X/Y direction, downscaling the texture reduces the aliasing caused by the very limited height map quantization in the vertical (height) resolution.

Texture compression exacerbates this issue even further.

If only we had floating-point grey maps for texture compression!