SoS - Better Khajiit Normal and Specular 1.1

SoS - Better Khajiit Normal map and Specular map

This is an attempt to improve the "default" look of the khajiit when using the SoS mod. It just replaces the SoS normal map and specular map for Khajiit characters.

• Quick Usage:
  • Select either the 2K Uncompressed ( "2kUnc" ) Normal map, 4K Normal map ( "4K" ), or 2K Normal map (No name at the end). All versions use a 2K specular map.
    2K Uncompressed - 16MB - I find this is the best result, more than the 4K compressed. Might not be true for every system, read notes. High memory use.
    4K Compressed - 10MB - Compressed, but higher resolution, so less 'blockyness' in the light reflection. Higher memory use
    2K Compressed - ~3MB - Compressed, smaller memory use
  • Import the file into NMM or Mod Organizer (or copy files into place if using loose files)
  • This must be placed after SoS in a load order.
    

  [*]Removing

  • Simply remove the mod from your list (or delete files if loose files)
    

  [*]More Notes

  • Why 2k vs. 4k vs. 2kUnc? -- The "size" impact isn't the size on your hard drive, it's the amount of video memory taken up while the game is running. One 4k or uncompressed texture will be unnoticeable, but having alot of high-quality textures will start to eat up memory.
    There is nothing higher quality about the 4k texture in its creation. Rather, the compression step just loses less quality. There is still pixelation, regardless, because the source material had pixelation already.
  • Why might the 2K uncompressed texture be better than the 4K? On my computer, the mip-maps are loaded at a fairly close distance from the viewed object. That means that the game swaps to a pre-generated 2K texture which is based off of the 4K texture when the camera is not that far from the figure. The benefit of the 4K resolution is then lost. The 2K texture stays at its 2K resolution for a greater camera-view distance for me, so having a high-quality version of the 2K texture ends up looking better than using a 4K texture that gets shifted down to a mixed 2K texture.
    This might not be true for every system.. The determination of when mip-map levels are used can be adjustable by graphics driver (I think) and is different depending on a number of settings. Just try and look. Diference might be hard to see, anyway, heh.
  • No scripts or .esp, just data file replacer
  • This includes two files, an _msn normal map and an _s specular map, that replace those that came with SoS.
  • This incidentally also fixes a lighting problem on the khajiit tail. The problem existed in the vanilla game and was fixed recently in a new USLEEP patch. This mod includes the tail lighting fix for the SOS version of the texture as part of the _msn file (any other mod that has a khajiit normal map would need to update the map to fix the tail as well).
  • There is no change in the actual diffuse texture (The actual coloring texture)
  • This is not some huge improved texture. The point was to just make some of the little glitchy looking spots go away and try to fix some of the odd light reflection. I'm also not really an "artist".. I did my best to make the look match the original vanilla 'wrinkle fur' style. This was harder to do than the little amount of change suggests >.> I'm not good at the 2D texturing stuff
  • The light reflects more correctly around the waist and the back. Ironically, this then reveals a few more problems, like the end of the tail needing to be darker. You can also just use racemenu or something to push the tail bone inward slightly to cover the lighter colored area.
  • I tried to fix the feet a bit as well. The hands look like they had a seam even in the vanilla setup. They need alot more work to fix, the tiny amount of visual improvement isn't worth it.
    

  
  

Anyone who wants to comment, point out bad practice or make this better themselves, go ahead and please do. All the permission stuff is just bureaucracy to me, so don't bother asking! Attribution is nice but not needed.
If you want to mod stuff and have questions about how I came up with numbers or something, feel free to ask.
If you want things like the Blender or ZBrush files or notes, feel free to ask

Requirements:

• SoS (Full or Light)
• Place after SoS in a load order
  

Conflicts:

• Any other mod that alters the khajiit body textures.
• Strictly speaking, the two _MSN and _S files could be merged with another mod. You'd just have the vanilla light reflection and highlight map with a different diffuse texture. Still might look okay, might not.