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1. 

   somerandomguy83

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   07 November 2016, 3:10PM

   Q&A:
   
   

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   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
   
   Original mesh
   ETD mesh
   
   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.
   
   Take a look at this very obvious example here:
   
   Before
   After
   
   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
   
   Example
   
   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.
   
   Example
   
   Now enter the STAT number that is show in NAME-Base field into the FORMID field again and press enter
   
   Example
   
   There you go, the model name is shown in the Model filename field, write it down.
   
   The next step requires you to download and install Nifskope to actually open this mesh.
   
   After installing Nifskope, you will need to set it up to show textures which are used on the models.
   Its easy, just follow this picture guide.
   
   Setting up NifSkope to show textures
   
   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:
   
   Finding texture paths for each object
   
   *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:
   
   

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   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.
   
   -----------------------------
   
   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:
   
   

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   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
   
2. 

   khazhak

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   05 July 2023, 8:20AM

   i use this with skyrim upscaler and all my 1k textures look like 8k
3. 

   Stormer234

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   17 June 2023, 1:28PM

   doesnt show up the in plug ins
   1. 

      deleted142470008

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      17 June 2023, 7:22PM

      No plugins, just loose files.
4. 

   Conjurad

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   06 June 2023, 2:43PM

   What about compatibility with Vanilla POM?
5. 

   Jdseese

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   15 September 2022, 3:24PM

   Anyone out there using this mod in 2022?  I like how it scales vanilla textures in some places - ex. farmhouse architecture - in others it just doesn't make sense, like the bricks outside Candlehearth Inn the textures are specifically meant to fit their shape. 
   
   Overall I feel like most retexture artists out there are basing their work on vanilla UV scaling though
   
   Just wondering if anyone has already figured out a magic combination to get the best results...
   1. 

      gforgregarious

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      15 September 2022, 7:35PM

      I use it for dirt cliffs. The mod Better Dirt Cliffs and Alpha also improves them, but doesn't do as much as this mod to reduce the eyesore of the flat ugly roots. For mountains and rocks it looks worse than smoother high-poly models like those of MM. For other meshes it tends to just make the textures look weirdly small. For things like imperial forts it also undoes parallax because those require their own meshes, and parallax is a better graphics effect. With 4K mods the resolution is high enough already.
   2. 

      Jdseese

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      16 September 2022, 2:17PM

      What if you took these meshes and flipped the parallax flag on?  Would they work with parallax textures?  
      I haven't gotten to that point yet.  I assume that the scaling done on the diffuse maps is applied to the normals, parallax, etc. the same.  So you would get parallax, just... smaller.
   3. 

      gforgregarious

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      16 September 2022, 5:19PM

      It's a great question. Try it out and report back to us to let us know if it works. Personally I still don't think I'd like the style, but that's more a matter of finding the right mod to combine with the UV tweaks so that it still looks appropriate. And it's also up to personal taste.
   4. 

      mooit

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      07 October 2022, 5:42AM

      I have 340 mods, and this is at #15 in my Load Order in MO2, and I can see a lot of mods I use, which are common, are overwriting a lot of it.
      
      So I really don't know how much of it I can tell in game.
      
      If you use a lot of the big texture mods out there, SRO, Noble, etc., I say, just put this high up, low priority in your load order, and if there's anything, more active mods still being developed, isn't overwriting something, then hopefully you might see some benefit.
      
      For now, it's hard to tell on setups with mods in the hundreds.
      
      I don't rely on older outdated mods like this, there's still a lot of recent development going on. But hey, doesn't hurt to stick it in. If you want to go around and spend countless time, trying to figure out what this might do with hundreds of mods, go for it... LOL
      
      This is like one of those mods, that it doesn't seem to hurt at low priority in a setup, I've never give it high priority.
   5. 

      Sceptrum20

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      12 May 2023, 8:02PM

      I completely agree with mooit. ETD is the first mod in my MESHES group and I let anything overwrite it. Still, half of the files have no conflicts. It's old, has a ton of meshes and I believe it was made in a sense of being a foundation if you are not planning to go very deep. What it does is black magic though and should have a place in any LO.
6. 

   Bauer165

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   08 April 2020, 11:18AM

   I always get the message no valid game data
   
   1. 

      axz2

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      08 April 2020, 8:50PM

      How are you trying to install the mod? Manually? Using a mod organizer? Which one?
   2. 

      gloomfrost

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      03 May 2023, 9:28AM

      I'm getting the same problem , using MO2 on a fresh install of Skyrim Anniversary Edition from GOG. Any help would be great appreciated!
      I install the mod, go through the whole setup, core files are installed, i install nothing else, then MO2 says "No valid game data" and its just in grey. I've seen some suggestion that this means the packaging isn't compatible with MO2 but i have 341 plug ins so far and this is the ONLY mod that is giving me this error.
   3. 

      MotoSxorpio

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      03 May 2023, 6:02PM

      From Steam troubleshooting:
      

      "most of the time you can simply right-click the data folder, select Set data directory and install"
7. 

   NeWFnlou

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   21 March 2023, 8:51PM

   Holy Guacamole! I've tried everything under the sun to make my game look crisp and detailed, and THIS MOD is just absolutely incredible. It's like a whole new game! Night and day. I don't know a damn thing about modding or what you did, but installing your MOD has improved the look of my Skyrim 100X more than anything else. And, it truly makes my other texture mods really pop with zero performance drop. Thanks, and AWESOME work!
8. 

   Blinxys

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   17 March 2023, 5:41PM

   Really nice, looking forward to it after a dozen other texture/mesh fixes you all should get together sometime and hash out the differences for a truly spectacular view in the end. SMIM is a foundation for all it seems, Many others reach beyond the intended scope or have none. Material fixes is essential though, so in the end overwrite after overwrite, whose mesh is that anyway is always the case. But even worse than that its giving up one right answer for another right answer, yet alone neither solves the problem completely. Material Fixes comes to mind, which this is overwriting. Or, we can't know if it does. This would be a fine target for AI optimization. You all have put in your homework time.
   
   At any rate, this is the last over-writer of all that came before it (I think). Thanks for doing this, was just thinking UV's and Bump Mapping had to be where it [detail] was hiding.
9. 

   Giantjay

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   16 March 2023, 8:47PM

   Anyone know why I get a constant vortex warning with this mod installed
   
   Error 1392 ? only happens with this mod
10. 

    Tenz81

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    01 March 2023, 5:06PM

    really really cool. Even if I have 202X parallax with 4k textures, I enjoy the changing a lot. It really makes a big CHANGE!
11. 

    baixarnonexusmod100

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    20 January 2023, 2:53PM

    what option removes the fence with thick trunks?