problems with flickering shadows; can't find a fix that works

[ruvuk]

Hey . . . what a great post . . . I really appreciate your taking the time to spell some of that stuff out for me, and it'll all help because it's all pretty much new ground for me . . . I understand some of the basics, but I've never approached modding from the tech side of things . . . I usually start out fiddling with a texture file--just wanting to fix something that's distracting me during the game. That always leads to more stuff, and I pick up some of the tech stuff as I go along. I like doing mods--getting things just the way I like them--but I never start a game thinking, "OK, lots of great mod work ahead!" <lol> Or w/e.

 

I'm going to do the changes you suggested in about 30 minutes, and I'm hoping to report back later that your suggestions worked great. But I'll post a note here whatever happens, just so you'll know.

 

As for my machine, . . . it's not really a serious gaming rig at all . . . One of my brothers heard me talking about how I needed a better PC if I wanted to keep playing games, and he put together the machine I'm using now using spare parts he had lying around. (Last time I asked, he had 8 machines at home, most networked with a couple of servers. <lol>) The new machine worked much better than my old one, but the components might be an odd mix. So let's not worry about that. The good news is that I'm getting a new machine as soon as I can figure out what I want. There's a company called Maingear that I like; you should look at their site if you're interested (maingear.com). If you have suggestions for a machine that'll do a really good job with Skyrim (but not blinkingly top-of-the-line), I'm all ears. <lol> But no worries; I know everybody's busy.

 

Will be back for sure.

 

:o)

\

[LamboMan]

Haha! And I thought retexturing was for the professional modders! Not that i'm saying you're not good, just that it's funny how both of us (and i'm sure a lot of other people too) have such a different idea of modding and have started out with such varying approaches. Btw, i'd love to know whether you've put up any mods on the nexus or elsewhere.

 

I don't mean to advertise but I made two texture mods recently, my first ventures into real modding (which you've been doing already, lol). They're here if you want to check them out>>

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/38236/

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/38389/

 

Great to have a brother who can conjure up a PC when you like, lol! :smile:

 

About my suggestions, well for whatever my 2 cents is worth, don't ever go for a pre-assembled rig. There are a lot of advantages of building one on your own such as much cheaper prices, full customization and you'll learn a lot in the process.

With a pre-built rig you'll be paying a moderate to heavy premium for the brand name, services etc.

 

I've built the last two PC's i've owned myself and can safely say it's the best method. A little effort and everything will be great later. You've even got a techie to help you!

 

About that site maingear.com, it looks great but i doubt it will be cheap, can't say much else since i don't live in the US.

 

Here, take a look at this. It's a great way to learn how to build your own rig>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFb3TNePIg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-XINXaLdrE

http://www.google.co.in/search?client=opera&q=youtube+build+your+own+gaming+pc+under+1500&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

 

So, how did the changes i suggest go? And you're welcome, this is what we are all here for, on the nexus. :smile:

Edited July 20, 2013 by LamboMan

[ruvuk]

Hey, Lambo.

Perfect to find that Belethor's finally getting to add some Relatives to his stock. :o)

And you did a mod just for the pickaxe?! <lol> Really nice work, but please tell me that you did the mod to get your feet wet and not because you're fixated on pickaxes! <lol>

Anyway, . . . ahem, . . . I have to admit that, as soon as I saw your pickaxe mod, I realized that I'd never liked the original tool. In fact, I'm now expecting that you will learn how to mod the mesh files (if you don't already know) and get rid of that dumb irregular bump on the pickaxe head near where it attaches to the handle. Let me know when you've fixed that bit, OK?

I downloaded both of your mods and will install them for sure. The pickaxe mod I'll keep, no question, as I actually like spending a little time working in the mines occasionally. But the ledger mod might only be a temp for me, just because I'll probably never see it after I have a chance to admire it a little.

Here's the thing: I used to like staying at the Winking Skeever and a couple of the other inns), but my luck with the inns is running maybe 50:50. Seems like sleeping in an inn would be a non-event, but there are things that sort of spoil it for me. . . . I don't like how the Brotherhood can get us out of our beds. I'm guessing that there aren't any other nighttime raids at the inns, but the one experience with the DB was so off-putting that it sort of soured me on the inns.

For a while, I was still happy staying at the Skeever (maybe it was just luck that the DB didn't pull me out of the Skeever?). But then one of the twits from downstairs came up and made herself at home in my room at the Skeever. She wanted to talk. And complain about something. Whatever. I couldn't see any way to get rid of her. So I just left. I haven't stayed at any of the inns since. Seems nuts to me, but I have this problem with uninvited visitors at the Bannered Mare, too--I bet I've have uninvited people in my room at the Mare more than 50% of the time. There are probably mods to fix many if not all of these inn problems, but I don't want to take the time to fool with them right now. Basically, I'd rather play the game than spend that much time finding and installing more mods; just not enough time for everything now.

As much as I like your Ledger mod, it might wind up as one of the mods I keep (because I liked it and might want to use it again later) but don't leave in the game. Also, . . . don't know if you'll like this, but I like the appearance of your ledger so much that I may use it for a book in my player home. :o) I have a "modder's resource" that has some great things in it--including books lying open--and I like your open ledger work lots more than the samples in the open-book mod.

(The dumb problem I have right now is that I have no idea how to get one of the open books into my own mod. The modder's resource gives us the meshes and the textures, but that's all. Apparently, I'm supposed to already know how to get the books into my mod. <lol> So I need to learn some things.)

As for mods of my own, . . . I've never uploaded anything. I usually work on things 'til they're good enough for me to use--better than what I had before, anyway. But the work on these mods sometimes seems never-ending. I'd *like* to upload a couple of things I've done for Skyrim, but I'm still pretty new to Skyrim and the Creation Kit, and there are a number of technical things that I need to learn how to do before my mods will be workable for the community.

I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of patience anymore with mods that are too "delicate"--you know, mods with lots of special limitations and workarounds and all of that. I'm not faulting the people doing these mods; I've just reached my limit on how much hassle I can handle before a mod starts feeling more like a chore than something fun. So, when I upload a mod, I'm hoping to offer my best effort, both for the artwork and for the tech parts. The game isn't hurting for more mods, but there is always a demand for mods that really work well.

Here's an example of one of my own mod projects: Awhile back, I happened across a funny little player home mod called the Inkwell Home. At the time, only a handful of people had downloaded it, but I was curious. It turned out that there was a LOT of wit in how the mod had been done, and I liked that. And I really liked the basic concept of the Inkwell Home--it's like a genie's bottle, but the bottle is replaced with the stone inkwell in the game. The author set it up so that the Inkwell Home is listed with your Potions, so you carry the inkwell around just like you would anything else.

I wound up using the Inkwell for quite a while. (I hadn't finished a home for my guy, so I really liked having a place to put all of my stuff.) After I'd been spoiled by the utter convenience of the I.H., I decided that I wanted to try a few changes so that the Inkwell would suit me better. Well, those few changes led to a few more changes, and then a few more, and I wound up changing pretty much everything! <lol> But I stuck with the basic concept of a little house in an inkwell, and I stuck with the original modder's use of Dwemer stuff. I guess what I have now might what might be called a new version of the Inkwell Home, and I'm eager to show it to the original modder.

BUT . . . I've used a few custom-textured items that are Replacers rather than stand-alone items, and w/o those few textures, my version would be a mess. So I need to learn how to do that. Also, the original modder included a working button in his mod, but I managed to break it when doing my own mod. <head bang> I want to learn how to fix it. And I still don't understand why my lighting is behaving the way it is. The lighting I have now is fine for me, but no way would I upload the mod w/o putting in good lighting. More stuff to learn.

Here's the link for the present version of the original mod, MegaKurt's Inkwell Home: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35142

And here are a couple of pix from my version:
http://i.imgur.com/5Fimhua.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3ZRs32V.jpg

But there's another reason for the delay. . . . I decided that the proportions of the game's inkwell could accommodate 2 levels. Instead of a single round room, there could be 2 of them. So I wound up adding a lower level. I didn't plan on anything all that different from the upper room, but I got to having fun with this "extra" room, and it wound up looking sort of like a home spa . . . <lol> . . . I know that sounds ridiculous, but it actually worked out pretty well.

The lower level has been a real bear to work on . . . it's a round room, and I needed to position and angle 8 panels for the walls I wanted . . . I figured an octagonal arrangement wouldn't be hard, and it wasn't. . . . But then there are the structural sections between the 8 panels, so I had to work with a 16-sided polygon. That still isn't all that hard. (I like simple geometry.) But then I decided that the support beams needed to angle inward a little to look right. At that point, the geometry got really tedious. It still wasn't really hard--just tedious, tedious, tedious.

I built the lower level room several times because, after each build, when I was able to really see how it looked in 3 dimensions, it always needed some changes. So I'd build the room all over. I finally wised-up and quit doing the whole room every time I wanted to try a change. I decided that I'd just do the changes like mock-ups (w/o so much precision) until I was satisfied with the overall result, and then I'd do a single precise build. The room went through some pretty big changes, but I thougt it was getting better, and I was excited about how it might finally turn out. But I hadn't played the darn game for a week, and I was getting sick of the Creation Kit, so I wound up putting the lower room aside.

There are actually other things I need to learn to do before this mod is ever done, but you get the idea. I recently looked at the nexus listing for the original mod, and there have been a bunch of changes. The style changes weren't for me, but I saw that the modder had set up the storage chests so that the crafting stations would automatically use the materials in the chests. I would *love* to have my own chests do that! <lol> But that sounds like it'd involve a bunch of new things for me to learn. Sometimes I can take a mod apart and figure out how it works, but it all takes time.

Earlier, I worked on some other player home mods for my guy, but I never finished any of those. I've also spent some time trying to merge some of the male body mods to get a guy who looks right to me, and that turned out a lot more complicated and tedious that I guessed. At this point, I'm kind of concerned about how I wind up SO burnt out on these little mod projects. <lol>

So . . . that's how modding goes for me.

As for the shadow suggestions you had for me, . . . they really helped. But I had to pull back on them because I was having problems with overload. I think that level of resolution was pushing my machine beyond what it could comfortably do, and I was getting these constant little jerks in the image. My brother meant well when he put this machine together for me, but neither he nor I had any idea then how much processing power could be eaten up by a game like Skyrim. I wound up setting all of the shadow values at 2048, and the blur at 3.

As for the Maingear guys, . . . yes, I know I could do a LOT more if I built the machine myself, but I don't begin to have the time for that. Just finding the time to play the game is hard sometimes. (And maybe now you're getting a sense of why it sometimes takes me 2 weeks to reply to a post.)

I'll send you a note when I have a mod uploaded. (I might even ask you to test drive the mod a little b4 I upload it, just to check for bugs and things that could be improved.)