Best way to make better textures?

[luceid]

Hi folks,

 

although it may be a bit late, I'd like to ask this question.

I'm comparatively new to DA:O. To be honest I wouldn't have bought it, if it weren't a tip from friend after he saw me playing Drakensang 2 (River of Time) over and over and over.

DA:O is all in all even a lil bit better than River of Time (hard to compare, but it is), but one thing annoys me: Some textures are swampy/fuzzy as hell, especially when zoomed while talking to someone.

 

So, I guess many people still know Quarls textures for TES4: Oblivion. They were just great. They were sharp, but not "over-sharpend" (although some were at the limit, so to speak) . They had all a nice transition/blending into their neighboring textures, a.s.o.

 

I know, that there are JB textures for DA:O. But they don't satisfy me to be honest. They look way to sharp, don't blend in as nicely as the vanilla textures and for most: Many people are reporting crashes since using these textures.

 

 

So, there are currently no other alternative available. This means, one must bring the afford on his on.

And this brings us to the question: What is the best way to enhance a texture without destroying it?

 

The basics are well known and pretty simple:

- resize it (mostly double the size)

- sharpen it (because stretching makes the texture, surprise surprise, blurry)

 

But there are several issues as well as many things to refine things.

- Using the clone stamp to "paint out" the new texture size, instead of stretching the image

- Using the sharpen brush instead of auto-sharpen everything to death

- Using things like auto-contrast, auto-color, a.s.o. to let shine the colors more stalwart

- Using a separate semi-transparent color-layer to give several textures an equally tone

- Using the good ol' S-Spline for resizing (after all the years, still the best option to stretch an image at minimal attrition)

 

 

So, does anyone has made first attempts/experience with the environment textures of DA:O?

Are there things one must know, like deadlocks, etc.?

Maybe some texture-modders could share their experience so far?

 

Well, I hope you'll get the point of this thread :mellow:

 

PS: Excuse my english, I'm german :yucky: