Textures loading slowly from custom .BSA

[LargeStyle]

Today I've been experimenting with an idea of creating an unofficial medium resolution texture pack for Skyrim, however after quite a few hours of resizing textures and making a temporary .BSA mod out of it I've now found that the textures seem to load up far too slow.

For example, I've resized the skill perk tree interface background (intfullnebulapanarama.dds for example) - the original textures are 2048 x 512, the official HD pack version is 4096 x 1024, my version is the exact imbetween resolution of 3072 x 768.

However, in game when you attempt to bring up the perk tree interface with my texture set I get a black screen for 3 to 4 seconds while it's loading it all up. The standard res version and bizarrely even the official HD version loads up instantly, so somethings obviously not working well. I tried using the modded interface textures in loose (non .BSA) format and it still loaded just as slow as before.

I'm not fully experienced with texture modding but I believe to know the basics. All non-Alpha channeled textures have been saved in DXT1 RGB 4 bpp No Alpha (in Photoshop) and all Alpha channeled textures have been saved in DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp Interpolated Alpha.

 

So other than the possibility of Skyrim not liking custom sized textures (even though the aspect ratios are fully retained) what is going wrong here?

 

I'm stopping texture resizing until I know more as I don't want to potentially waste a lot of my time.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 28, 2013 by LargeStyle

[LargeStyle]

Right, I think people might need "convincing" of the potential importance of what I'm trying to achieve, so to demonstrate my point...

 

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6090/resdiffwithtext.jpg

 

This is a full HD image of the difference in texture resolution for the clothing. Notice that my medium res experiment provides 4 times more pixels / clarity over standard res texture and in my eyes looks like a significant improvement, all while running at just 25% pixel count of the official HD texture.

 

I therefore think that there's a MASSIVE opportunity for optimisation here, and I don't mind doing all the hard work behind it all, I just would like / need to know why these resized textures load a lot slower than the official low and high res versions!!

 

I can re-confirm that the problem is not due to the textures being in a .BSA as I changed the "interface" textures that I was having a problem with, with the standard low res version and the skill perk tree interface in-game loaded up instantly.

 

I've even taken a punt and resaved the DXT5 textures into DXT3 but this didn't improve load times at all.

 

I've also noticed that Gimp 2.8 seems to have different / more DXT options / formats, but I don't know which one is the right one.

 

Can anyone please help - I'd seriously appreciate any kind of input :biggrin:

[jackowonderful]

i don't know anything about this, but seems cool. have you tried posting on the beth. board?

[jet4571]

If there is no alpha channel then use dxt1. But to keep the most details of the original texture you would use DXT3 or 5 depending on the alpha. If you have an alpa thats not just black and white, go with DXT5, black and white alpha use DXT3.

 

Heres a guide that pop us on a google search that explains how DXT compression works, and is in plain english so its easy to understand. http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=DXT_compression_explained

 

After you make the .bsa you could use http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13529 SMCO to optimize it and the textures.

[ghosu]

You could try to save one of your textures in a common size like the original one to see if something is wrong with your .dds save settings...if this new texture loads correctly i might really be the uncommon size of your edited ones.

[jet4571]

You could try to save one of your textures in a common size like the original one to see if something is wrong with your .dds save settings...if this new texture loads correctly i might really be the uncommon size of your edited ones.

 

Thats what I was thinking. most games want sizes using a combo of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 etc etc. though some games you could use anything like 1368x635 and they load it just fine. I suspect Skyrim is setup for conventional dimensions and will have to work harder with unconventional sizes to make it fit properly.

[FiftyTifty]

Get BSAOPT. Chances are your BSA is too heavily compressed.

[RGMage2]

3072 x 768 I'm pretty sure is an invalid file size. The only file sizes I have ever seen used in Skyrim or Oblivion are those mentioned in jet4571's post. Any combination of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096. I'm not saying that this is an absolute fact, but my instincts are saying not to waste your time with that odd file size.

[steve40]

There's one little problem here: it will be illegal to upload this mod to Nexus if it is based on the textures from the Official HD texture DLC.

[jet4571]

It would be perfectly legal to upload it, the files are modified to be between the vanilla and the HD pack. It is the same exact thing as uploading a vanilla reduced textures mod, and there is one of those on the Nexus right now.