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

[Sigurd44]

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.

 

This. Loose files EVER have priority. I remember how annoying it was in the beginning as it wasn't that way until Bethesda changed it. The official HD DLCs just fill the few "holes" the usual Skyrim texture mods leave out and any other .esp in load order after the HD DLCs will override them again. The issue about the HD DLCs isn't the quality (for the few spots left they do the job, not brilliant but they do it), the problem is the RAM load they cause (as far as I remember they add even uncompressed textures) in times of virtual 3.1 GB RAM limitations due to the x32 character of the Skyrim engine.