TO ANYONE USING W.A.T.E.R!

[ArtMurder]

 

I dislike the HD textures DLC, for all the reasons ArtMurder said, so have never used it. I do use Skyrim 2K (Lite) and WATER (Full res) together without issues, though. I also install manually.

 

There is no conflict between them, other than if you install the Skyrim 2K - Misc file, in which case you install WATER after to replace all the water files 2K has. Installing the medium res version of WATER is optional; you only need to do so if you want a few extra FPS in areas where water exists. Otherwise, it's fine.

 

The thing is, I use the HiRes DLC despite many texture packs replacing textures because not all textures are replaced by unofficial texture packs. I mainly use the HiRes DLC to cover any textures that mods have not replaced. You'd really have to be crazy not to. Example: Start a new game and as soon as you enter the tower with Ralof and Ulfric (The place Ulfric says "Legends don't burn down villages") look at the wall.

With Skyrim HD FULL, SMIM, Project parallax, Vivid landscapes - Dungeons and ruins, and aMidianBorn landscape texture packs all installed the wall is still so bad you can literally SEE the pixels! After installing the HD DLC it is noticeably improved. Again, I only use it to cover the textures not covered by mods. :smile:

 

What actual real world performance increase have you noticed by not using the official High Res packs?

 

My fps has increased by at least 10 and is now an average of 35... which is quite significant to say the least considering I can hardly even tell the difference between lite and full!

Edit: I just realized I switched a few other packs to med or low-res in addition. So more accurately this has probably increased my fps by 5-10. (it was an average of 20 fps before I made the changes)

 

The HD DLC replaces ALL texture packs by default though, that's the main reason I uninstalled it, I like Book of Silence to much. It's a very annoying little thing it does =[

[myztikrice]

What no they don't. They're load order dependent just like any other mod.

[jordan7890]

 

The HD DLC replaces ALL texture packs by default though, that's the main reason I uninstalled it, I like Book of Silence to much. It's a very annoying little thing it does =[

 

True it does. But as long as you install your texture packs after the DLC has they will override all its files. I've been doing so manually for years :smile:

 

 

What no they don't. They're load order dependent just like any other mod.

 

I misread your post. I thought you said "what benefit do you get by using the low res rather than the high res mod" (I know, I'm not getting enough sleep) In truth, the difference in performance between using the high-res dlc and NOT using it is almost unnoticeable. At least it is for me, since I have a monsterous gaming rig. the VISUAL difference however, is quite noticible

Edited August 24, 2013 by jordan7890

[ArtMurder]

What no they don't. They're load order dependent just like any other mod.

You are poorly misinformed. Why? Well, like 4 different reasons. For one, because all other texture packs in existence don't have esp files, load order means NOTHING WHATSOEVER to textures. Secondly, the HD DLC pack will ALWAYS overwrite any other texture pack, because they have esps, unlike texture packs because they are DESIGNED DIFFERENTLY, and thirdly because the BSA's are listed in the skyrim inis, they are automatically loaded up and designed to replace the 'vanilla' textures indirectly, and all other texture mods directly replace the vanilla textures, therefor the HD DLC will replace ANY texture mod, because as far as it is concerned, it's a vanilla texture. Lastly, the game loads up the HD DLC texture BSAs instead of the default skyrim ones, effectively rendering anything that replaces a default Skyrim texture irrelevant and useless, because they replace files from the skyrim textures BSA, which is no longer even being used by Skyrim if you have the HD DLC installed.

 

The HD DLC will replace any other texture mod you have, even if the esps are deactivated, because they are written into the game differently then texture mods. I have proven this in game, by having tons of texture mods installed and seeing none of them with these BSAs listed in the ini files, but the second I remove them, all my texture files show back up.

 

This is simply how the HD DLC works, and the biggest reason why I hate it. ^_^

Edited August 24, 2013 by ArtMurder

[Maverick827]

 

 

The HD DLC will replace any other texture mod you have, even if the esps are deactivated, because they are written into the game differently then texture mods. I have proven this in game, by having tons of texture mods installed and seeing none of them with these BSAs listed in the ini files, but the second I remove them, all my texture files show back up.

 

 

I have the DLC installed, but deactivated, and I see aMidianBorn textures. I know this because I have the gold ebony armor version installed and the default ebony textures are definitely not gold.

[ArtMurder]

 

 

 

The HD DLC will replace any other texture mod you have, even if the esps are deactivated, because they are written into the game differently then texture mods. I have proven this in game, by having tons of texture mods installed and seeing none of them with these BSAs listed in the ini files, but the second I remove them, all my texture files show back up.

 

 

I have the DLC installed, but deactivated, and I see aMidianBorn textures. I know this because I have the gold ebony armor version installed and the default ebony textures are definitely not gold.

 

I've done the exact same test with the same textures (accept I was testing on orcish, but it was still an AMB texture) and the AMB texture was being replaced by the HD DLC one. This was with the ESPs turned off, and the BSAs left in the ini file. If you got a different result, then that is very confusing.

[jordan7890]

 

 

 

The HD DLC will replace any other texture mod you have, even if the esps are deactivated, because they are written into the game differently then texture mods. I have proven this in game, by having tons of texture mods installed and seeing none of them with these BSAs listed in the ini files, but the second I remove them, all my texture files show back up.

 

 

I have the DLC installed, but deactivated, and I see aMidianBorn textures. I know this because I have the gold ebony armor version installed and the default ebony textures are definitely not gold.

 

 

I have experimented with keeping the .esps active and using aMidianBorn landscape 1. It seems that it does indeed (somehow) override the road textures... don't ask how because now i'm just as confused as anyone else about this. Any texture mods I've downloaded have overridden the HD DLC but now everyone is telling me otherwise (for them) since it comes with esps. I mean It makes sense but... then why are my roads now aMidianBorn...?

 

EDIT: To be on the safe side, I'm deleting all HD DLC .esp and .bsas

EDIT2: BAD IDEA!!! deleting the .bsa caused distant objects to not load!

Edited August 25, 2013 by jordan7890

[ZeroKing]

Loose files like the Book of Silence by CaBaL120 always take precedent over .bsa files like the HD DLC textures, which also make use of .esp files (placeholders to activate the .bsa files); Bethesda designed them this way from the start and this was cemented since Skyrim patch 1.5 was released. I really don't know where you got that the HD DLC pack overwrites any loose file textures like the Book of Silence. This is false. I'm using the Book of Silence textures alongside the HD DLC textures, just as CaBaL himself is doing, and his textures are the ones being loaded on both of our machines, not the HD DLC textures...... as expected.

 

Reference by STEP guide: Mod file-types and directories.

Edited August 25, 2013 by ZeroKing

[thedovahkiin909]

 

 

I personally don't think '90%' of people use NMM, I personally can't stand the program, it's like having a tiny moody nazi in charge of my skyrim, it's very over controlling and doesn't work half the time. The only reason I do use it is it is to get around the nexus' auto-canceling downloads (Which I don't get, I've downloaded 5gb+ files from other sites all the time without them ever cancelling, and I can barely download a 50mb file from nexus without trying at least 3 times) Also, I use Skyrim Install Swapper, which doesn't really play nice with NMM, and is, at least in my opinion, a MUCH MUCH more useful program! ^_^

 

Also, I don't use the Skyrim HD DLC, as it is very low quality for the size of the files comparatively. I'm sure some people will find this information useful though.

One does not simply refer to Skyrim HD as "very low quality".

 

One does when it is. Besides, I said "for it's file size" that's the key phrase their. I use 1k textures that look WAAAY better then the 4k textures by bethesda (1k is EIGHT TIMES smaller then 4k!). They seem to think taking the same texture and scaling it up and increasing the contrast means higher quality. The HD texture pack creates really bad lag for half-decent graphic improvement, it is "very low quality" because of that. "Quality" doesn't JUST mean "prettiness" it means how good it looks compared to the performance hit, and the fact is, it's very high performance hit, for somewhat decent visual improvement. For example, 2k textures full version looks very noticeably better then the HD DLC, and is a FOURTH the size of the HD DLC, this means it is MUCH HIGHER QUALITY, even though the resolution is much lower. Even the 1k textures look as good if not better, and they are 1/8th the size of the HD DLC.

 

So, I stand by my point, I do not use the Skyrim HD DLC, as it is very low quality for the immense lag it creates on an already loaded-to-the-brim game. Maybe if you only use 20-50 mods and no other HD mod packs (like book of silence) Then it won't lag you to bad, but I use around 220 esps/esms plus about 20-30 high res texture packs (a lot of which are for Automatic Variants)

 

It does look a lot better then vanilla, but it also looks a lot worse then modder created texture packs 1/8th the size of it. Thus, "very low quality" ^_^

 

OH! When you said "Skyrim HD", I was thinking the mod, not the DLC.

[TheVampireDante]

If you want the HD DLC and other Texture mods running:

 

1. Get official HD DLC (Don't turn on)

2. Unpack the BSA files

3. Remove the BSA and esp files

4. Install the textures from your newly extracted folder

5. Overwrite with the mods you want.

 

Been doing it that way myself, no issues.