Texture Modding and Performance for Starters

[Nightfrost]

Hello Nexus Community,

 

I'm currently still playing Oblivion but I'm soon going to check out Skyrim. I hope that this subforum is the right place to ask and I'm aware that to some extent there are already similar questions by other user yet I haven't found all answers I'm looking for.

I've read dozens of guides for boosting your performance in the game so far and I'm quite sure that my system won't encounter big problems with vanilla skyrim (my system listed below).

To cut short, I plan to enhance Skyrim with graphic improvement/texture mods and I finally found the STEP-guide. So here are my questions:

 

1. Expecially some HD-Texture-Packs have a negative effect on the performance of the game. Apart from fps drops, there are often comments on prolongated loading screens. How long would that be? (estimated, I mean I don't wanna wait 2 minutes every time I step into a house.)

2. Doesn't it look some kind of strange if you use too many different texture mods? And if you use e.g. Deteiled Whiterun and HD-textures isn't there a sudden change between the hd-textures of the original game and the added "normal" textures of the added content of Whiterun?

3. If you use more than one texture mod that let's just say covers 90 % of the game and another to cover the other 10 %, does the running of these two mods cause a significant performance drop in comparison to running just the one covering 90 %?

I ask this because the list in the STEP guide is quite long...

4. Do you think that all suggested graphic mods in the STEP-guide are worthy or that some are missing?(I haven't found the Superl3 or the ENB HD textures)? And why do you even need the mods that are overwritten by others?

5. Final questsion for the evening: Do you think my system can manage the mods from the STEP-guide? :D

 

My System:

Windows 7 64bit

Mainboard Asus P8Z68-V Pro

Intel i7- 2600k

GeForce GTX580 DirectCU2 with 1,5gb (updated drivers)

16 gb RAM

Western Digitals WD500 Caviar Black 500gb

Corsair GS600

LG Super Multi Blue

Creative Soundcard

 

Thanks a lot already,

Nightfrost

[Sunnie]

First and foremost, you have a pretty powerful rig, I wouldn't worry much about that, just don't go overboard use every hd texture mod out there.

Secondly, I would just get the HD Texture pack DLC from Bethesda and see how you like ti to begin with.

It's rather dumb to go bonkers modding textures you have never seen to begin with. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Install the game, get the HD DLC (which is free), look at the game and then decide on if you need any further texture mods.

[Nightfrost]

Ok, thanks for the quick answer.

[jet4571]

If you do go with texture packs, many that are not on the STEP guide are not real high definition or high-rez textures. just scaled to a larger format and sharpened, you get no real gain but you do get the performance hit.

 

With some texture mods, 1 might not have a normal map and the other does and the 2 together work good would be one reason to have them overwrite, others are some mods have x amount of textures in both packs and many that are not so you use both and the last one installed will have the shared files used and you get all the ones that were not shared.

 

With any texture pack that changes one specific item or group like an armor set then overwriting would only be done if you like the new one better. If Step lists multiples of armor and weapons then those are what they felt are good choices and not resized sharpened garbage and you would pick the one you prefer and leave the rest.

[Staind716]

STEP is a really good guide which I use as a base myself. I think they do a great job with the texture mods and the game looks great after installing them. I don't think they include the ENB mods because of the performance hit. I personally use the Superl3 ENB with STEP (just don't install the realistic lighting mod since it is included with Superl3) and it looks fantastic. If there are any mods you are not crazy about or others you want to add STEP is still a good starting point.