mothergoose729

The differences between TPC and MGT are technical ones. Essentially they serve they same purposes. Functionally, my pack just includes more mods and in my opinion is more complete and a better selection of content. That is subjective though, and of course I would think that I selected them after all. Also, MGT doesn't include the content of any mod author in its download. It directs the user to download the content from the author themselves. Its the same way with TPC, STEP, and other similar compilation projects. As for the purpose of the tool, you cannot get the same file state that MGT offers using a mod manager (at least not without manually deleting and moving files). The idea was to save people time and provide a better quality of game then what is available with any one texture mod, or any one linear combination of texture mods. It seems I have done a poor job explaining what the program does and why anybody should care. I am running up against a bit of paradox here. It would take some time to explain the program and the project in technical terms, but it seems that if I post a wall of text I can expect people to lose interest and not read it. I am thinking it might be a good idea to put together a video, because people will spend a few minutes watching a video but seem to be allergic to reading even a small quantity of text :/. Any one have any other thoughts? Thanks a lot for the feedback.

In what way could it be made easier to use? I wanted to keep the utility, AMP, separate from the package itself because I was hoping other people might someday use it to make their own mods. Was that a mistake? djjohnjarvis. all you do is download the user version of AMP, which is a folder called "user - put mods here". You put the mods in user folder in addition to the source folder from MGT, and run the utility. Its actually simpler to user than TPC in that regard, which requires you to put specific mods in specific folders and extract them before hand. If you were writing the descripting, who would you word it? Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I posted my first two mods a few days ago on the nexus. The description is in the mod pages I will link below, essentially the first is a utility that creates custom mod packages, using a sort of pseudo scripting. I wrote the program in C, it unpacks mod archives and unites the files in a specific way. Its a bit technical, I didn't expect it to get a lot of attention because its way over the heads of most people and its only really useful to mod authors who want to build mod packages like STEP, SR, ect. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49367/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D49367%26preview%3D&pUp=1 The second mod I uploaded is essentially a replacement for the TPC. It uses the tool I created to make a super texture pack that covers pretty much everything in skyrim. The user downloads the mods from the mod authors pages, and then puts them in a folder, runs the tool, and it assembles everything into one archive. A better description is on the mod page: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49352/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D49352%26preview%3D&pUp=1 When I wrote this mod I expected I would probably get a moderate response, because tools like TPC already exist and because the skyrim modding scene has slowed down some over the last six months. After about five days I have one endorsement and only couple hundred Dls though, which seems pretty low. Perhaps this is a bit arrogant but I thought I made something pretty cool that folks would really like. I was hoping to get some feedback on my mods. Does anybody have any ideas on how I could improve the mod? Is there a problem with the description, the screenshots, ect that I could to help people find it and use it? In short, why do you think my mod is getting so little attention. Feel free to be honest, I won't get my feelings hurt. Thanks for any help.

I have been driving myself crazy the last couple of weeks trying to solve my VRAM bursting problem. For those that are not aware, there seems to be a hard limit on just how much stuff you can shove in skyrim before it explodes. I have been running different configurations of texture mods with texture optimizing and ENB Booster and the whole bit trying to find the magic balance between awesome visuals and my game not crashing. Today I was messing with my settings, and I ended up trying out setting all my in game view distances to the maximum. So the actor draw distance, and grass, ect I upped as high as they would go and ran about for a while. I set my speed mult to 1500 and toggled collisions and god mode and ran about the map and warp speed to try and push my machine over the edge and produce a CTD. Nothing happened after about 15 minutes so I shut down, installed more mods, and ran the game again. Inbetween the test runs my view distances were reset to their default by skyrim. So i load up again, run about for a while, and the game quickly crashes. I uninstalled some mods, tried again, the game crashed again. I loaded up the game another time and remember to set my draw distance to the max, just to really be sure it was a VRAM problem. Rather then my game crashing even more quickly... it never crashed at all. Not once. I ran about the whole map, my graphics quality improved, and could not make the game quit. It was like taking a tired, old, broken man, and slapping a pair of resistance bands to his ankles and weight around his neck, and then watching him run an iron man contest. It makes absolutely no sense, but my game is rock solid stable with a higher view distance then with a lower one. I have a theory. I think the problem with skyrims engine might have something to do with loading textures form memory rather than rendering them on screen. So you move about into a new area, a bunch of new stuff loads into the game buffer and has to be drawn to the screen because you can literally see it, and then skyrim sucks big time so it crashes. With the higher view distance, my only theory, is that items are loaded into main VRAM and rendered to the screen before you player character can see them, at least as more than specs. This difference in operations seems to be much preferred by the game engine. Going to play around with thing some more, but for me at least, I seemed to have found a really neat answer to my problems.

I don't see that often in the most popular texture mods, although I don't know much about it. I would agree though that this doesn't create high quality textures. The truly good texture artists out there really stand out when you look at their work subjectively.

bump

First off I just want to give a massive thank you to all the great modders out there who work so hard to make this game better. Seriously you guys are awesome and what you give back to the community makes skyrim by far the best gaming experience out there. However, as a long time member of the ES gaming scene and a user of texture mods for years now, I got a bit of an axe to grind with texture artists out there. With all due respect and appreciation for all your hardwork, I want to make the distinction now between detail and quality when it comes to textures. So many textures, by the best texture artists out there, just simply use to much black and grey in their art. "More detailed" often means busy, grainy, super stenciled textures that create myriads of dark patterns and lines. It makes the game visually confusing, and personally, sometimes it can even give me a headache. This was true of texture packages by in the morrowind days and it is true of some of the best texture packages in skyrim. So much so that I often choose not to play with textures at all, or I choose which textures I install very selectively. Bethesda textures by contrast tend to be washed out, lacking in detailed, with poorly edges and bland homogeneous colors. Some sharper edging, some more micro details, ect can be a great way to add visual depth to the world. For example, Anarin's "HQ Towns and Villages Mod", in my opinion, are some of most well done textures on skyrim nexus. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3467 Notice his approach to hay thatched roofs in from villages like riverwood. In this case the straw texture pattern is too sharp, to defined, and he softens it wonderfully by making the straw thinner and finer. Instead of making the individual hay pieces stand out even more, he choose to go for a visual effect where they numerous hay pieces seem almost to blend together. The result is that the roofs look thicker, denser, and more straw like. Visually the image is softer and easier to look at.. From a distance and up close the texture is both more detailed and easy on the eyes, it not visually distracting. He also replaces the wooden steps in some of the scaffolding. He adds a lot of grate detail in the form of knots and woodgrain, but he doesn't use only black and grey to create the effect, he uses more subtle darkining and of existing colors so that the wood grains are less visually jarring, and fit more naturally in the existing textures. He has a texture for the sides of homes with wood grain too; most of the detail is in white and lighter gray rather than darker colors, which is both more realistic and much easier on the eyes to look at. One of my favorite textures on all the nexus is some of chris2012's work in "Chris2012s Whiterun HQ Texture Pack" http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/114 The way he added detail to many of the interior walls through the image of peeling paint. He didn't need to use sharp lines to create the effect, because the colors of the paint naturally contrasted with the colors of the wall underneath creating well defined lines and great consistency, adding a lot of detail without making the texture noisy or busy. A big mistake (I feel) that many textures artists make is to add too many cracks, or dents, or unevenness to surfaces. This is almost always down with black or charcoal colors, and while it might look great in photoshop, it doesn't always look great in game. Adding more detail to the world should make the game feel more natural and immersive, but instead it is often the case that a particularly grainy texture can make the world visually painful and distracting. My message to the modding community is this; when you are adding detail to a texture consider its visual impact from afar. Try and use softer, lighter colors and try and make edge details that are closer to the overall color pallet of the texture. With textures I feel less is often times more. Nailing a specific visual effect is often better than adding a lot of small micro details in an attempt to try and give a texture "texture". Flat washed bethesda textures are no good, but sometimes super grainy and busy ones are not much better. Again a massive thank you to the skyrim modding community for everything you do. My hope here is that by discussing this I can inspire texture artists to make better textures and give people some ideas about what makes good textures good.

Hello, I made a post in the mod thread, but I want to make a post here. I would like to make this mod more compatible with ashirnaniirs' "First-Person Messages" mod for a mod compilation project. It would require a very small edit to the player messages your mod gives to bring them in line with a first person message as apposed to a third person message as they are now. Would you be willing to make these changes and release a compatibility patch as an update? If not would it be possible for me to get a copy of your source files to make the changes myself? Thank you, Michael

Ok. I I think I might need to ask around the STEP forums to get a better answer there. Do you know what the file path is for the faulty texture? Thanks again.

It does yes. I looked over my mod list and realized I was using two different compatibility mods for the same thing. Oop! I was unaware of the foresworn foot texture problem for better males... are you certain this is still an issue? Seems like a simple thing to fix really... once I get used to references list on the new ck this is something I am definitely capable of providing some kind of fix for. Is there a method for finding faulty/game crashing textures other than stumbling upon them? Do you know of any others associated with popular mods? Also, what exactly is a dirty edit? STEP mentions "conflicts" in their description of mods, specifically better quest objectives and AIMPZ. What is problems is this referring too? Thanks again for you help. I am getting a better idea of how to go about this.

Hello nexus. I am thinknig about starting a project like S.T.E.P., but one that has a broader and more inclusive mod package. I have a huge list of mods I have experimented with and tried and I have more or less settled on all the ones I think are worthwhile. I want to go about making sure all of them are 110% compatible and stable. I am aware of several utility programs that could help me do it, but I am not aware of all the problems to look for or what are the best tools to use to solve these problems. Specifically I have occasional problems with CTDs. I expect this is due to VRAM bursting which is bound to happen from time to time, but I can't be sure. How could I go about determining what causes these occasional crashes in my game? Is there a logging utility I could use? I need to merge some leveled lists and some smithing lists. I understand wyre base is good for this. Might it be better to use the CK editor for this instead though? In general, I am curious to know which problems wyre bash is best used for solving, and which problems it would be better to go in by hand and fix. At some point I need to edit scipted messages to the player, at the very least. I have heard about TES5 edit. It is good at finding mod conflicts and bad references, from what I understand. I have a fairly weak CS understanding though so I would appreciate a link to a guide or an explanation so I can better understand what that means. In addition, just any tips, simple instruction, or otherwise good information on what problems a mod project brings up and possible suggestions on how to go about fixing them would be really awesome and much appreciated. At this point I know a lot about what mods are on the nexus and what they do, but I don't know much about the technical side yet and want to learn as much as I can. Thank you for any help with any and all questions :) :)

I am looking for an ENB that will have little if any performance impact on my system, that just makes the bright things a little brighter and the dark things contrast a little better. I don't much care for DOF, lense flare, film grain, or other effects, and SSAO is not well suited for my system. Running the game without an ENB I get acceptable levels of performance but in some places the framerates are a little close, so I can't afford to take any real performance hit. I am using realistic lighting with customization, and I have bloom effect enabled. The only thing I really want from an ENB is something that can make my nights a little brighter (especially in clear weather, don't know if that is possible) and make my days a litttle brighter to, also darker and more contrasting shadows would be quite nice. I have tried a number of ENBs on the nexus but haven't found the right one yet. I have had trouble with some of them causing game crashes too, which is a little unnerving. Any help with this would be great. For reference, I am running the game at the "high" preset, with 2xAA, 4xAF, radial blur/shadws/decails all set to medium. FPS range is between 27-35 at the low end, 30-45 otherwise. Thank you for any help.

up

Up

Great idea. Updating the OP now.

I play male characters. Every hair pack for male characters out their gives them ultra fine, super feathered metro sexual hairstyles that look like they came out of either an anime cartoon or a male model catalogue. I don't want my male characters too look like a ken doll, but I do want to have more than the handful of styles to choose from included with the game. I think if someone created hair styles, for both men and women, that didn't have ultra fine and sylized hair and fit into the lore of the world that this mod would be a hit. I would endorse it anyway. Beard styles would be cool to. There is exactly zero mods that give male characters more beards on TESNexus. Not sure why that is really. If there are some texture artists and modelers out there, I would really appreciate some of your effort in this area. Thank you! Dedicating the rest of this post to pictures of what rugged hair models might look like. Please anybody feel free to post pictures of hairs and beards you would like to see for men and I will add it to the OP. Male hair can be pretty. It can have braids and feathers in it and whatever. It can be long and flowing and nice. It just doesn't neccessarily have to be ultra fine and feathered. Thicker hair, coarser look and somewhat darker cooolers. Legolas style, pirate style, king arthur and the round table kind of stuff. Variety is the spice of life really. Please and thank you :) !