Texture Replacers, Which ones?

[legit1337]

In an effort to try to get my game to look better, I've been downloading texture replacers for the past few days. Where they conflicted I just overwrote with my favorite of the two.

 

My game does look better now, but the good new textures look kinda weird next to the bad vanilla ones. Specifically the imperial fort walls in helgen, the hay bales in helgen, and some of the bushes, logs, and trees in the winter wilderness (I have flora overhaul installed and it only seems to improve select stuff).

 

What texture replacers do people use/recommend? Specifically for the stuff mentioned above.

[trex]

Beware ram issues. TPC essentials plus a few others might be good (easy using the auto-batcher), I used TPC because I too wanted a more complete replacement. I also run ETAC & NPC adding mods but stripped out some of the script heavy mods.

 

But I have had ram problems and have scaled down the TPC to only the required mods + those that had esp's (save game compatability, so WATER, SMIM + a few others). I was thinking of reducing it to just the core/required but then it'd lose SMIM, SFO, WATER ect which I actually do want in my game anyway. All I can do now is switch to LITE/lower res textures if those mods I have kept have that option. Not many do, but I'm going to do it anyway.

 

If you don't have ram concerns on your rig (I have a 2gb card + 8GB ram + ENBBOOST) then go nuts. I've read some people have had issues adding all the mods the auto-batcher has on its list, but they're ok using the mods from the TPC description (what I used) so if you're interested in TPC, maybe try doing that first.

[Rayblue]

The only textures you could keep to 1k or 2k are those skin textures on your character. Everything else -- from armor to landscapes -- will have to be 512x512 or 1k in DXT1 textures (instead of DXT5, only in cases when alpha layering is needed).

 

Some mods that are packed in BSAs (such as Troublemaker's bikini set), could CTD the system and the author recommends to edit the ESP to remove the previews.

[legit1337]

I have a 1GB VRAM card, and haven't run into any issues so far. I downloaded most of the mods off of the TPC list, although I was careful to use the 1024 textures whenever given the option.

 

I'll try running it again with EVERYTHING and see what I come up with.

[legit1337]

OK!

 

Everything loaded up and my game looks great! The only issue I'm having is that because the textures I'm loading are so large, I'm getting microstuttering when the textures load as I'm traveling through the wilderness.

 

Is there any fix for this? I recall for Fallout:New Vegas there was a mod that stopped this kind of freezing by making your FPS drop a little for a few seconds instead of the game freezing entirely for a microsecond.

[trex]

Are you using third party optimizers (hialgo <-use enboost instead, cleanmem, system monitors)? I know cleanmem stutters when it does its thing (although I don't use it after reading different opinions).

[legit1337]

No, no third party optimizers. Just microstuttering when I'm moving between wilderness areas due to texture loading.

[FallenWarrior]

I have a 1GB VRAM card, and haven't run into any issues so far. I downloaded most of the mods off of the TPC list, although I was careful to use the 1024 textures whenever given the option.

 

I'll try running it again with EVERYTHING and see what I come up with.

 

Going by that list as well, kinda lost on which one to choose amongst the  Detailed Chests though. Which one did you decide on?

[trex]

Whichever you prefer. I think the TPB description recommends something and I went with it after having a look at it, but whichever is ok.

[legit1337]

I chose washed out dirty. It recommends it in the TPC.

[trex]

I'm about to start my game with all lite textures from the TPC and only a few others (such as SMIM, SFO, Dynamic Snow, some clutter mods, Better Fire & Signs) and see how it goes. Much smaller than the original and reduced versions I've tried.

 

 

For newcomers to improving the look of the game, while HD Textures are great, a good ENB that performs well on your machine & you like is probably the first stop for graphics modifications on a vanilla game. I'd recommend getting any ENB and starting with the balanced version (or performance, depending on what options that ENB has) and see how it goes. Setting it up right is important, and plan out what you want. Not all ENBS are compatible with popular mods like CoT (Climates of Tamriel) or lighting mods, so take care with that, and take the time to understand and set up your ENB properly. They really make a vast difference, even without and HD textures.

 

HD Textures & ENB settings are of course very different. ENB is good for any card that can perform decently, HD textures are limited by your VRAM (also consider other aspects that will be competing for that VRAM!).