[REQ] Optimized meshes : V

» Sat May 19, 2012 6:11 pm

In oblivion, there was this guy that basically took every mesh, and ran them into a little program called PyFII (http://pyffi.sourceforge.net/).

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23178

This resulted in MAJOR FPS gain, especially on lower end system, at zero visual quality loss.

1) Is something like this possibly with Skyrim?
2) If so, could someone batch-process the Skyrim meshes? It would be quite the popular mod.

Cross-posted from the Nexus forums (http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/478747-optimized-meshes/).

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:36 am

See also http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Nif_Optimization

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:24 am

oh yes it would! i heartily endorse this request. as well optimized as skyrim is now (running MUCH better than OB on my rig), I foresee a need for even more optimization when the mods specially texture packs roll in.

» Sat May 19, 2012 6:32 am

It is possible to import and export skyrim models using Nifskope with the XML fix into 3ds or .obj formats. The method isn't perfect but it works. However I must stress again that this is far from perfect and I know that third party meshes for Skyrim have imported rather badly in my tests. But there is still much work and testing to do and often times, I don't feel like messing around with it or have as much time at it as I would like. I have not personally tried any PyFII conversions. I might add that to my things to try.

» Sat May 19, 2012 11:18 am

El Bumpo.

» Sat May 19, 2012 6:25 am

I would imagine a PyFFI update for the Skyrim meshes is forthcoming, but it isn't anywhere near as critical an issue as it was for Oblivion so it's best to wait for proper tools.

» Sat May 19, 2012 7:55 pm

I would imagine a PyFFI update for the Skyrim meshes is forthcoming, but it isn't anywhere near as critical an issue as it was for Oblivion so it's best to wait for proper tools.

Not critical? o.o It's just as critical for those of us on low-end systems as ever. It's only not critical for those who have medium to high-end systems.

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:56 am

Anyone has an update on this?

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:27 pm

Not critical? o.o It's just as critical for those of us on low-end systems as ever. It's only not critical for those who have medium to high-end systems.

Oblivion's meshes were completely unoptimised, so it was important to get them done. Skyrim's on the other hand seem okay, you won't get anywhere near the boost from Skyrim as you did in Oblivion.

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:27 pm

In oblivion, there was this guy that basically took every mesh, and ran them into a little program called PyFII (http://pyffi.sourceforge.net/).

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23178

This resulted in MAJOR FPS gain, especially on lower end system, at zero visual quality loss.

1) Is something like this possibly with Skyrim?
2) If so, could someone batch-process the Skyrim meshes? It would be quite the popular mod.

Cross-posted from the Nexus forums (http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/478747-optimized-meshes/).

I've had fps drop with Pyffied meshes on low-end system back then. So not sure if they really optimizing something for low-end systems, or maybe these optimization bugs are fixed already? But don't care anyway. Hope this time pyffied meshes will be not included in unofficial skyrim patch.

» Sat May 19, 2012 5:46 am

Oblivion's meshes were completely unoptimised, so it was important to get them done. Skyrim's on the other hand seem okay, you won't get anywhere near the boost from Skyrim as you did in Oblivion.

No, but you would probably still get a boost. Even a gain of 4-5 FPS is something everyone would be happy about (in comparison to the 20+ FPS gain you'd get in Oblivion).

» Sat May 19, 2012 12:33 pm

4-5fps would put me quite in the playable range. Since I play with ~15fps.. even a couple gained would be dramatic. Been trying to optimize the game as much as possible, but there's little in the way of graphics optimization I can do.

» Sat May 19, 2012 2:15 pm

Well there's SkyBoost that gives pretty damned nice performance improvements (18% on my setup). See http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1325462-skyboost-topic-2/.

But optimized meshes would just give another performance boost.

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:57 pm

Oscape. Check the thread http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320917-wip-preview-oscape-landscape-lod-generator/ And taken from the http://obge.paradice-insight.us/wiki/Oscape_%28GUI%29 direct quote;

"Generate meshes of the landscape which are of higher quality than vanilla meshes and the corresponding color- and normal-maps. It can take your load-order into account, is fast, and allows the calculation of meshes in multiple resolutions (number of points) which fit together at the borders."

I do believe that'll do what you're looking for.

» Sat May 19, 2012 5:10 pm

Oscape. Check the thread http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320917-wip-preview-oscape-landscape-lod-generator/ And taken from the http://obge.paradice-insight.us/wiki/Oscape_%28GUI%29 direct quote;

"Generate meshes of the landscape which are of higher quality than vanilla meshes and the corresponding color- and normal-maps. It can take your load-order into account, is fast, and allows the calculation of meshes in multiple resolutions (number of points) which fit together at the borders."

I do believe that'll do what you're looking for. :smile:

While optimizing distantLOD meshes will help, it's not the same. Thanks for sharing though.

» Sat May 19, 2012 9:23 am

While optimizing distantLOD meshes will help, it's not the same. Thanks for sharing though. :smile:

Not being a mesh/texture/moderl person I didn't fully understand what the OP was asking for... being a techie however, reading the couple of links supplied, while I still don't understand all the fine distinctions, I now (quasi) understand...

But to paraphrase Monty Python.... "Every FPS is Sacred, Every FPS is Great! If an FPS is wasted, the Player gets quite Irate!" :tongue:

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:51 pm

Not being a mesh/texture/moderl person I didn't fully understand what the OP was asking for... being a techie however, reading the couple of links supplied, while I still don't understand all the fine distinctions, I now (quasi) understand...

But to paraphrase Monty Python.... "Every FPS is Sacred, Every FPS is Great! If an FPS is wasted, the Player gets quite Irate!" :tongue:

Haha. Quite true! I'm gonna look into optimizing my LOD right now. Will report back FPS gains (hopefully)

Well nevermind about that. I have absolutely no idea how to use it (and yes I know it has documentation, I'll look at it later)

» Sat May 19, 2012 12:46 pm

Skyboost/TESVAL will only optimize CPU. Helps in some areas, but most not. My computer is ENTIRELY graphically bounded. Being graphics bounded means I'll need to optimize meshes and textures - I'm already not running everything that affects graphics performance.

» Sat May 19, 2012 3:23 pm

Look for NifOpt. (Don't use NifOpt's save as bsa feature, it doesn't work with Skyrim unless it's been updated since I last tried it.)

» Sat May 19, 2012 10:13 am

The feature list says it can handle saving as a BSA. Is it fully compatible with Skyrim Nif's? Or, at least compatible in that it won't throw out data that the Skyrim Nif's need?

Edit: Nope. Ran it through, it threw out all of the skyrim nif's.

» Sat May 19, 2012 3:27 pm

I'll return to NIFopt once Oscape isn't eating all my time. And anyway Oscape is a good entry-work in decyphering the NIFs of Skyrim, we already started figuring out some structures through it, just because I had to write BTRs (NIFs in disguise).
All my programs use the same libraries I developed over time, so NIFopt already has Skyrim BSA-support since the day I added it to BSAopt, as Oscape has. Only selecting Game->Skyrim will make NIFopt skip all meshes, because niflib is in a .... chaotic state currently and it's no use pass that into the app. You can use all else though (DDS, WAV and BSA optimizations).

» Sat May 19, 2012 4:20 am

4-5fps would put me quite in the playable range. Since I play with ~15fps.. even a couple gained would be dramatic. Been trying to optimize the game as much as possible, but there's little in the way of graphics optimization I can do.

Pluto give this one a try:
http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html

I turned my in-game based AA off completely, and put SMAA files in the game folder, my FPS jumped from 30 to 60...

» Sat May 19, 2012 6:41 am

Pluto give this one a try:
http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html

I turned my in-game based AA off completely, and put SMAA files in the game folder, my FPS jumped from 30 to 60...

I have had similar results.

» Sat May 19, 2012 6:49 am

I would.. but I can't play with any AA at all. I only have 256mb of VRAM. <_<

NifOpt will optimize dds files? Interesting.

» Sat May 19, 2012 10:12 am

Pluto give this one a try:
http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html

I turned my in-game based AA off completely, and put SMAA files in the game folder, my FPS jumped from 30 to 60...

Seems great... do you think it works better than FXAA?