SSE Skyrim SE texture formats question

[Gamwich]

I've been getting a lot of requests to port my Skyrim mods to SSE, but I'm unsure of which of the new compression formats are used. Many people say my original textures have worked fine for them in SSE, but I hear of certain people having an issue. It seems that normal maps are more likely to have a problem than diffuse textures.

 

My question is what compression is Bethesda using for they normal maps in SSE? They look identical to the originals, both in appearance and file size, so I was unsure what compression format they used. It's not the new BC5 compression, because that uses on the red and green channels, and lacks a spectral layer. It's the only compression I see listed explicitly as being for normal maps. Would the BC3 compression work for normal maps as well as diffuse textures?

 

Obviously, I'm a bit unsure about these new formats. Any help would be appreciated. ;)

[ZeroKing]

All normal maps need specular (including landscape textures), since the updated engine make use of the alpha channel now. The texture format seems to be the same (it's not the BC3 or BC5 compression, that's for sure).

[Gamwich]

All normal maps need specular (including landscape textures), since the updated engine make use of the alpha channel now. The texture format seems to be the same (it's not the BC3 or BC5 compression, that's for sure).

 

I don't have any landscape retexture mods, so that shouldn't be an issue (lacking spectral layers). My understanding was that Skyrim SE was DirectX11, therefore people would experience occasional crashes with textures that weren't formatted for DirectX11. It would be good to now precisely what texture compression that Bethesda used for SSE textures. They really should've let mod authors know these things when they're promoting mods themselves.

[zilav]

All uncompessed 16bpp formats (5:6:5, 4:4:4:4, etc) are not supported by DirectX 11.0 used by Windows 7 and crash the game. You can drop NifScan into the folder with textures and it will report them if found.

Use DTX5 if you unsure. The best approach is to use the new DX11 formats like BC7, but Beth itself doesn't use it for some reason, however they do work in SSE.

Edited November 19, 2016 by zilav

[Gamwich]

All uncompessed 16bpp formats (5:6:5, 4:4:4:4, etc) are not supported by DirectX 11.0 used by Windows 7 and crash the game. You can drop NifScan into the folder with textures and it will report them if found.

Use DTX5 if you unsure. The best approach is to use the new DX11 formats like BC7, but Beth itself doesn't use it for some reason, however they do work in SSE.

I've always used DXT1 for single layer diffuse textures, and DXT5 for dual layer diffuse textures and normal maps. I don't use uncompressed textures in my mods, so that shouldn't be an issue. I do, however, occasionally use DXT1A with the 1-bit alpha layer to reduce file size. Do you know if that compression would cause a problem for SSE?

[zilav]

No, only 16bpp formats.

[Tarshana]

When I moved my furniture and art over to SkyrimSE , my diffs are DXT3 or 5, but my normals are 1 or 3, depending on if they are using an alpha layer (only a few pieces with the glass components). If you want I can send you a couple of my working files so you can pick them apart :)

[mikeprichard]

(deleted)

Edited November 29, 2016 by mikeprichard

[dsp2003]

Sorry to resurrect the old topic, but there's a couple more things to add:

 

* Aside the well-known 5:6:5 16-bit format causing crashes on Windows 7, SSE also hates...

 

* Textures that don't have enough levels of mipmaps (or some of them skipped - my personal thanks to ENBoris for helping to figuring it out)

 

* Textures that aren't of proper square sizes (I ran across a normal map that would crash the game no matter the compression/mipmap combo, because it was 2048x2049)