What is the point of this mod and why should I use it?
Unlike many mods which provide you with everything you need, this mod is a tool which should be used correctly to get best results.
This mod will increase your texture resolution on all edited objects by changing the way your textures are applied to a particular mesh. Unlike installation of higher resolution textures, this mod does not have any effect on performance and it's not limited to only one texture and it will be applied to any textures you install for all edited objects AND unlike simple texture installation, this mod makes a better use of texture image space, so where before you found even 4k textures being slightly smudged, on the meshes which are provided by this mod these same 4k textures will look much crisper and more detailed AND this mod will fix a lot of bad UVs which caused stretching on original meshes and which couldn't be fixed by any quality of texture.
But since everything good in life comes at a price, there are some drawbacks to this method (which are listed in the description) and because of these drawbacks while being compatible with absolutely all the textures, it might make some of the textures look bad/wrong/ugly, so it can be a tricky tool to use.
Given all that, i think i'd categorize the main users for this mods as:
1) People with Vram deficiencies, as it allows them to get their 1k-2k textures to look like 4k-8k equivalents without destroying performance.
2) People who like original Bethesda textures more than any modded textures and just want to have a bit more resolution on them.
3) People who like to tinker with their setups and who have quite a bit of modding experience, as it allows them to upscale their 2k-4k textures to 8k-16k equivalents, which just aren't possible without this mod.
4) People who just aren't happy with the upclose quality of their textures and don't mind experimenting to fix it.
People with high end hardware and very little modding experience, who are already pretty happy with their 4k texture packs should probably stay away, although because this mod is extremely harmless and can be uninstalled and installed freely without any consequences, it might be worth checking out anyway, but that's up to you.
Can I use this mod with xxxxx Texture pack ?
There is no single texture pack that benefits from this mod for all its textures straight out of the box, there will always be some textures that you won't like the look of. But do you ever like absolutely all the textures from a texture pack ? This mod adds a new kind of unpredictability in texture selection: Some textures that looked terrible before, might actually look pretty darn nice with this mod installed, but at the same time the textures that you liked before, could actually look much worse.
So this mod will complicate the process of texture selection because it adds another layer of unpredictability, not only do you have to like how the author drawn the texture, but with ETD installed it should also look good when it's scaled. If you are the kind of person who simply enjoys premade stuff and doesn't have any desire to experiment, then this mod might not be worth the trouble for you.
The idea behind this mod is to increase resolution without any performance cost, not to make all your textures beautiful. This method is not flawless, but it does what it says on the tin: i.e increase your texture resolution and not cost you any performance and it allows people with low-end rigs to have have their 1k textures upscaled to ~4k textures with no performance issues. And if you don't care about nonsense such as Vram usage (lucky sob), you might still benefit from this mod, because this mod reduces stretching on objects with terrible UV-maps and where even 4k textures weren't enough, with this mod those 4k textures can be of comparable quality to 8k/16k/32k depending on the object and the amount of stretch reduced/repetition introduced and you simply can't have this kid of texture quality without this mod. But then the question becomes this - is this increase in close-up quality really worth all the extra time that you'll have to spend on looking for perfect textures ?
It's worth it for me, and that's why I made this mod and that's why I use it, but it really isn't for everyone. Although there is absolutely no harm in trying it anyway, even if picking textures out isn't your thing, there's still a chance that you'll like how this mod makes your existing textures look without any extra steps and if it doesn't look good then all you have to do is uninstall it with no ill-effects.
How are my textures affected by this mod ?
Take a look at these images to help you visualise it
The image is repeated and the pattern is made smaller, but you gain precious resolution and close-up texture quality with absolutely no performance cost. In the example above, one texture is applied 4 times for the same image space, so if you started with a 1024x1024 resolution image, your end result on these walls will be 4096x4096, and because your Vram doesn't increase at all due to this manipulation, you can enjoy this 4k resolution on your laptop. The image is also slightly relocated to try and hide the repeated pattern.
Keep in mind that It's not how this mod works for all objects. There are many objects edited where we don't repeat the image at all, but simply correct how the mesh use it's assigned texture as original mesh was simply using too little of that texture.
We didn't change the texture or texture resolution (which would barely have any impact on this problem), we simply tweaked the UV-map to use a larger area of the texture and it turns this ugly blob into a proper image. On a lot of objects, the problem is less extreme than it is on the above example, but the UV-maps are simply not allowing the texture to be used optimally and by tweaking the UV-map of that mesh we can increase texture quality.
How do I find which texture is used on an object so I can change it ?
When in game and you are at the object that you want to hunt down, press ~ to open console, then click on this object with your mouse. Your console will show you a number, write this number down
Download and open SSEdit, load Skyrim.esm and Update.esm and when SSEedit loads, enter this number in FORMID field in the top left corner and press enter.
After your Nifskope has been set up, you can now locate your mesh in skyrim/data/meshes folder and open it. Now just follow this picture guide to find the name of the texture:
*A single mesh can have multiple parts which use different textures, you can click on different parts in preview window and view texture paths for each NiTriShape.
There you go, now you can easily find which objects use which textures and this will allow you to change the exact textures that you don't like. Keep in mind that this one texture is likely going to be used across multiple different objects. Finding out how many objects use a particular texture is not possible.
Can I use this mod with SMIM and how does it compare ?
Both SMIM and ETD edit a lot of meshes, so you will be asked for quite a few overwrite requests when installing both mods and even though it may seem like a lot, ETD conflicts with SMIM on only about 100 meshes out of 1100, which is about 10%.
The first thing you need to know is that there are NO problems if you overwrite one file and don't overwrite another both mods will still work perfectly fine if you mix them together.
The second thing you need to know is ETD and SMIM are trying to do different things, even though sometimes our paths do cross.
ETD is a very performance oriented mod, the aim of which is to increase texture resolution and have close to 0 performance impact.
SMIM is aimed at increasing mesh quality (less edges on, better shape) by increasing mesh complexity which comes with a performance cost. Brumbek (Author of SMIM) is aware of UV-editing, but his use of this tool is extremely limited and the only one object in all conflicting files that ETD and SMIM both UV-scale, are the woodposts on Farmhouses.
Can you convert your meshes to the new .nif format ?
No, I wont be doing that, because this conversion has no effect on performance, the reduction in archive size is only 40mb which is negligible and there are no other benefits that have conclusively been observed by doing this conversion.
My mod uses 95% unmodified Bethesda meshes from original game that haven't been imported and exported from any 3d software, that means that all their original mesh data is intact and they have proven to work perfectly. There is no reason to introduce a new unknown into this equation by letting a 3rd party program unscramble and scramble all the data in these meshes, especially considering there is no observable benefit to doing so.
In the end, it's going to be me, who is going to get blamed for and left dealing with any potential problems that arise from this process and I do not need this. If you feel the need to convert your meshes, feel free to do so, the conversion tool is extremely easy to use, but if something goes wrong, do not expect any help from me.
Some textures that I personally use and like:
Spoiler:
Show
Mountains and rocks (set by mountainslab01 and mountainslab02 textures):
I've also been using AmidianBorn landscapes, which overall is a very good landscape mod, has amazing groundcovers and road textures and mountain textures that work semi-ok. In any case, if you want to use AMB Landscapes, you'll need to install the mod first and then overwrite it with this patch to get them to work in SSE.
Forts:
AmidianBorn Forts - 2k is more than enough with ETD, unless you have a 4k monitor. I also prefer his optional vanilla forts exterior. Fully compatible with SSE.
Noble Skyrim - 2k textures, work well, but his stairs textures have a small pattern so they are prone to tiling: textures\dungeons\imperial\ImpWall05.dds can be replaced to fix this.
Bethesda textures are more than adequate here and it's hard to find flaws with them.
If you want something different - 2k textures from Noble Skyrim works pretty good.
Ratways:
Still using Original Bethesda textures for everything, can't really fault them. ETD scales Ratways pretty aggressively, so Bethesda 1k textures are going to be scaled to comparable quality of 6-8k textures without ETD, so you shouldn't really find yourself lacking any texture quality even with 1k textures.
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Don't take any of these textures as a gospel, feel free to look for and use your own. Keep in mind that original Bethesda textures were used as a measuring stick for scaling during development of this mod, so If something doesn't look right, you can just reset back to original textures, scaling that this mod provides is more than enough to make even 1k original textures extremely adequate.
Although, there are a few known issues with Bethesda textures that you should known about:
Hi, I know this is probably a "me" issue, but I am having some trouble with getting my dyndolod output to match your meshes.
I especially struggle with the imperial exterior stuff (like whiterun tower). In this comparison shot of yours, my lod would be the before version: https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/992-0-1480236005.gif
Can you give me any tips on what I might be doing wrong?
"THIS IS NOT A RETEXTURE MOD AND IT WILL USE YOUR EXISTING TEXTURES!" - why do you put this in mod description when the installer even say it adds textures and replaces and conflicts with SIMM?
It was put in the description because this mod is not a retexture mod and it does use your existing textures. If you ever decide to read the fomod or even the installation instructions, you'll discover that all textures are optional and are meant to fix errors with vanilla textures. The reason it conflicts with SMIM is because it uses vanilla meshes, it says it in the description. There's even an option for meshes touched by SMIM to be ignored, it's in the fomod.
Hello there i really like this mod but i don't have SMIM simply because it a bit heavy for my pc, so how do i install this what option do i select give me all of them from the main files second page SMIM compatible installer or all of them and what option do i select from that, also on the page 3 there an other option, optional files SMIM what do i do i don't want to ruin my game
SMIM has a 1k option(or half size in the fomod) if I am not mistaken... I use it and I select only the things I am going to see... the candle thing o the roof fornexample I do not use... I run the game in 900p in a vega 7...I do not even have a gpu
I like to have these installed in a folder to use to compare to vanilla and modded nifs because sometimes you can't find the perfect high res texture, so just making it tile more is a good answer -- it's the easiest thing in the world to crack open a nif in nifskope and change uv texture tiling, but sometimes it's nice to have a reference for what someone else thought would be a good value to use. They're just nifs, so don't take up much space. Another way to use them is as simply a list of models that you should pay more attention to because they probably look like poop with vanilla textures. Thanks for the mod!
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519 comments
What is the point of this mod and why should I use it?
Can I use this mod with xxxxx Texture pack ?
How are my textures affected by this mod ?
How do I find which texture is used on an object so I can change it ?
Can I use this mod with SMIM and how does it compare ?
Can you convert your meshes to the new .nif format ?
Some textures that I personally use and like:
Mountains and rocks (set by mountainslab01 and mountainslab02 textures):
Real Mountains
Northfires mountains for SSE
I've also been using AmidianBorn landscapes, which overall is a very good landscape mod, has amazing groundcovers and road textures and mountain textures that work semi-ok. In any case, if you want to use AMB Landscapes, you'll need to install the mod first and then overwrite it with this patch to get them to work in SSE.
Forts:
AmidianBorn Forts - 2k is more than enough with ETD, unless you have a 4k monitor. I also prefer his optional vanilla forts exterior. Fully compatible with SSE.
Noble Skyrim - 2k textures, work well, but his stairs textures have a small pattern so they are prone to tiling: textures\dungeons\imperial\ImpWall05.dds can be replaced to fix this.
Farmhouses:
AmidianBorn farmhouses together with AmidianBorn Stonewall textures
Windhelm:
Bethesda textures are more than adequate here and it's hard to find flaws with them.
If you want something different - 2k textures from Noble Skyrim works pretty good.
Ratways:
Still using Original Bethesda textures for everything, can't really fault them. ETD scales Ratways pretty aggressively, so Bethesda 1k textures are going to be scaled to comparable quality of 6-8k textures without ETD, so you shouldn't really find yourself lacking any texture quality even with 1k textures.
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Don't take any of these textures as a gospel, feel free to look for and use your own. Keep in mind that original Bethesda textures were used as a measuring stick for scaling during development of this mod, so If something doesn't look right, you can just reset back to original textures, scaling that this mod provides is more than enough to make even 1k original textures extremely adequate.
Although, there are a few known issues with Bethesda textures that you should known about:
Dirtcliffs01.dds (has a noticeable seam, I personally use AMB dirtcliffs texture as it's pretty much seamless)
Stonewall01.dds (has a very slight seam, AmidianBorn to the rescue,again)
Recommended settings:
I highly recommend you disable the snow shader option.
This is the reason why:
Rocks with snow shader ticked
Rocks with snow shader unticked
Snow on all the mountains is also affected by this setting:
Ticked
Unticked
3D stones in walls addon is now a separate mod
I especially struggle with the imperial exterior stuff (like whiterun tower). In this comparison shot of yours, my lod would be the before version:
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/992-0-1480236005.gif
Can you give me any tips on what I might be doing wrong?