How to fix this ugly glossy textures...

[Uno]

So I went ahead and loaded an extinct Aceeq mod onto SE (Fertile solstheim), just to find that lanscapes looks a lot glossy (illustrative example) due the old normal maps. The common suggestions I stumbled upon were to delete the normals and nothing elese, but it seems like a brute workaround and not a real solution so I'm considering this:

 

1. work with the original normals, but...what format/compression should I use?

2. Create new normals.

3. Just delete the normals, they're not needed anyway.

 

Of course, the main concern here is to fix the issue in the easiest way, if it's just matter of tweak the original files just let me know.

Thanks for your time.

[Akzyra]

I remember reading something that said it was the alpha channel.

Try saving without alpha.

Edit: thanks for an explanation
 

[ZeroKing]

Normal maps for landscape need an alpha channel now. Previously, landscape didn't make use of specular rendering, so no alpha channel in the normal maps. Since there's no alpha channel in the normal maps, Skyrim SE assumes total white for specularity, hence the overly glossy look. Just create a darker greyscale of the diffuse map and add it in the normal map's alpha channel (via Photoshop or GIMP).

[Uno]

Thanks for the input, I'm testing right now.

 

EDIT: What's the best compression I should be using? in and old thread someone recommended 8.8.8 for (_n), is that correct?

 

EDIT 2: Ok Zero, testing this asap.

[ZeroKing]

It's the same format as Skyrim: DXT5 (relatively high compression), A8R8G8B8 (little-to-no compression). For normal maps, I find it's better to avoid as much compression as possible, but that means more VRAM usage with higher texture resolution than when compressed.

[Uno]

Problem solved thanks to ZeroKing instructions.

For the record (and thanks to the key words used here) I found this sweet guide (navigate to "textures too brigth in game", at the bottom), if someone need it: https://www.darkcreations.org/hoddminir/custom-landscape-textures