Big confuse about textures

[103Sakamoto]

So recently I'm doing some modding work, patching all modded textures(Like vivid fallout all in one) into the original texture packs(Fallout 4 - texture1~9.ba2), because i thought that either using extra loose files or ba2 files would slow down the game, as there maybe two same files compared or loaded together, so why not just overwrite them?

After these works using tools like BEA & Archive 2, I load the game, but didn't see any fps differences.

Firstly I thought this might because my computer is too old to handle this game, or I'm using higher texture resolution that is higher than original in some parts. But today, I suddenly noticed that Fallout 4 use different weapon models for NPC and player, NPC use a low poly models while player get the detailed one, which is a very good way to enhance the performance. And I wonder if textures do the trick?

So I looked into the original texture files, take Mini gun for example:

Original one has diiferent resolutions

And next is the modded one from Nexus:

Modded one has only one resolution

So here comes the tricky part:

1.Does Fallout 4 use same method as they treat models: High resolutions for player and lower one for NPC?

2.Or does Fallout 4 show higher texture resolution near the player and lower one for distance?(I know there is LOD but I wonder if normal textures would also do this trick), so if I replaced these original textures with modded ones, it will slow down the game as it force further objects to use the same 2k textures as the closer one.

3.Or these original different resolutions are only for different settings in the launcher? So if I replace them with the modded one, nothing strange happens as I selected extra texture option in the first place.

Hoping for some answers, thanks!

[jones177]

One of the things that I have noticed is that Fallout 4 uses the same amount of vram at 4k as it does at 1080p. I was the same for Skyrim.

 

Unlike a lot of games at 4k, Fallout 4 near distant objects are very sharp so I know there is no texture trickery going on.

 

Fallout 4 at the time of its release was also the only game that I played that didn't need retexturing to look good at 4k. For example Witcher 3 looks about the same at 4k and 1440p because of its textures but Fallout 4 looks a lot better at 4k. The only revolution that comes close is 1600.

Also Fallout 4 interpretation of textures is not good so as close as you can get to 1 to 1 the better. It is one of the reasons the game doesn't look good a 1080p and looks beyond belief good at 4k.

 

Doing retexturing is a great way to start modding. I did it for MS Train Simulator back in 2001. That led to rewrapping objects in 3D Max and in the process learning a new program. I ended up using 3D max for a living and my edge was the texture work I did in games and sims.

[AGreatWeight]

@103Sakamoto,

 

1) No, texture resolution doesn't really vary between the player character and human npc's. What you will find is that there can be a large discrepancy with the resolution of numerous other textures; for example,feral ghouls have a variety of 2048x2048 textures for the entire body, and a seperate variety of 2048x2048 textures for the heads. However, there are four different heads in the head texture, so ostensibly they're actually 512x512 resolution (this, combined with somewhat bland texture work, and a low-poly mesh, means the vanilla ferals don't look that good)

2) Most textures come with mipmaps (smaller scale textures of the same objects, for example, a 2048x2048 texture will have mipmaps that are 1024x1024, 512x512,256x256, and 128x128) included. The mipmaps are used for objects/npc's that are a certain distance away from the player/camera, and that require less detail. In the case of terrain/buildings/trees etc, they also act as a go-between between the full-size texture and LOD textures. Mipmaps are loaded at the same time as the default texture, into vram, so there's little/if any overhead/additional consumption of system resources. When creating retextures, always ensure that you save your .dds files with mipmaps.

Also, when you load vanilla textures into PS/Gimp, you don't need to load the mipmaps as well, as you don't need them for that. You only need to make sure that you re-generate them when you save your output file (whether you're using the Nvidia or Intel .DDS plugin, you'll get this option when saving.

[103Sakamoto]

Thanks a lot! I really learned something new from you. Could use these knowledge you taught for some basic modding work.