» Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:55 pm http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20801
1) WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES
2) WHAT IT ISN'T
3) BUT WHY?
4) HOW DOES IT DO IT?
5) WHAT ABOUT COMPATIBILITY?
6) SO HOW EXACTLY WERE TEXTURES SELECTED?
7) INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
8) THOUGHTS BEHIND A FEW TEXTURE CHOICES
9) FINAL WORDS
1) WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES
The Texture Pack Combiner will merge the three popular texture packs:
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures by NebuLa
Serious HD Retexture Skyrim by Z4G4
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul by Starac
In doing so, what you'll end up with is the best of three worlds! It's not just some cheap copy+paste merge. There is substantial work behind it. Every single texture has been hand picked after extensive testing with different texture combinations, and each texture has been measured against certain key points. More on that later. The bottom line is that this is the result of a rather gruesome, time consuming process that has required over 2500 screenshots, 700 saved games and 100 hours of work. The other result was personal brain damage in the sense that I could not go outside for several days without seeing textures and transitions on the ground (yes, IRL). Even when I slept I dreamt about textures. Basically, this file right here lets you do in 10 minutes what I did in 100 hours.
2) WHAT IT ISN'T
The Texture Pack Combiner is not a texture pack in itself. There are no textures supplied with it. I had nothing to do with the making of any textures, as they are the work of NebuLa, Z4G4 and Starac. You will have to download the three texture packs yourself, but once you've done that, that's when the Texture Pack Combiner gets into work. Just remember to endorse their great work!
3) BUT WHY?
Previously, if you wanted to install more than one texture pack, you would basically install them in a particular order in order to have a main texture pack installed last. Any subsequent texture installations would risk overwriting anything installed prior to it. In addition to this, there would be no control over the fact that better textures could get overwritten by worse ones. Neither were there any control over different texture combinations. Some textures might look great individually, but when put together would create a totality that just looked unfitting or outright terrible. The only way to work around this would be to manually look up which texture is used on which surface, what its name is and then find a better replacement. If you'd do it properly, you'd even go as far as to try out each and every texture in different combinations to see which is most appealing. The downside to this is that it'd require a lot of time and work. A lot of it. Luckily enough, that is exactly what the Texture Pack Combiner will do. Automatically. For you.
4) HOW DOES IT DO IT?
Besides all the hard work behind testing and selecting all of the textures for maximum quality and realism already completed for you, what it will do now is to copy every chosen texture from each texture pack and merge them into a new customized texture collection. Since no textures can be supplied without permission from their creators without being considered theft, this file will simply copy textures from those texture packs according to a scripted list. It's all done through a simple batch file. The only thing you have to make sure, after downloading and extracting the three texture packs, is to make sure that you put them in the right place for the script to recognize them. More on that under the installation instructions.
5) WHAT ABOUT COMPATIBILITY?
Since the only thing you will be doing here is replacing textures, this will be compatible with pretty much any mod out there. The only two things you need to keep in mind is if you're overwriting any of the same textures with other texture replacers, as well as making sure you have enough memory on your video card (VRAM) to handle them. I recommend 1 GB of VRAM, but it's definitely possible to run with less depending on the speed of your other computer parts, as well as if you perform any texture tweaks, such as using lower quality options, or other available performance tweaks.
6) SO HOW EXACTLY WERE TEXTURES SELECTED?
Textures were selected based on their qualities in several different key areas. Let me explain each of these in a little more detail:
- Texture quality
Let me begin with the obvious. A texture's resolution, detail, sharpness, depth, colors and light reflection are all important areas in themselves. The overall quality of a texture is very important.
- Repetition
A texture might look completely perfect when viewed by itself, but as soon as you use them at a larger scale, obvious patterns may appear that will catch your eye and look very unrealistic. For example, if I use a grass texture with one big, shiny rock in it and then repeat this texture over a large surface, you will see this rock repeated on the ground at regular squarish intervals. This is really bad for immersion and is generally something any texture creator struggles to avoid.
- Transitions
A lot of hard work has been going into different texture transitions. If you have grass over here, some dirt over there, and a road down there, you will want all of these textures to agree with each other where they meet. If they don't, you'll end up with very apparent borders, smudges and loss of detail where different terrain and objects meet.
- Blending
Again, a texture that looks superb by itself may look completely terrible when mixed in with others. It has taken a lot of effort in finding the right combinations of textures. For example, if you're in an area where all textures follow a certain kind of theme, and then suddenly you throw in an amazing looking texture that is completely different from said theme, then that texture might have to make way for something else for the sake of the big picture.
- Distance
Distance can be subcategorized into three basic parts: close, midrange and distant. Textures often have the tendency to look great in one or two of these and then really bad in the third. For example, a smudgy, low-res texture might look awful when viewed right at your feet, but as you put some distance to it, it can suddenly begin to look wonderful. Move away even further and eventually it might lose detail and look bad again. There are a million examples of this and why it happens, but without delving further into it, this is the basic principle.
- Realism
Generally speaking, if there was a choice between two great textures, and one looked great in an artificial way while the other looked great in a realistic way, then the one with a more realistic look would be preferable.
- Errors
When dealing with over a thousand unique textures you're bound to come across anomalies and errors. These have been avoided to the greatest extent possible and many, many textures have been replaced for different reasons. Unfortunately, however, there will be occasions where things will look a little strange. This is usually not the fault of the textures per-se, but rather due to how the game world itself is built. Textures can only do so much.
- VRAM
Ah yes, the limits of video card memory. Rest assured that visual quality has never been compromized due to VRAM usage. At the end of the day, though, I can tell you the good news that the best visual combination is NOT using the most VRAM. Thus, what you'll end up with is relatively efficient VRAM wise while still enjoying the best textures. Win-win right there!
7) INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Don't worry! The installation is super easy. I just have a tendency to overexplain things so that they sound more complicated than they actually are. The bottom line is that you simply need to extract the texture packs into specific folders prior to running the TexturePackCombiner.bat file. After that, all you need to do is to move the files into the right place in your Skyrim folder!
Make sure that you have already installed Bethesda's Hi-Res DLC prior to installing these textures. It is not required, but it is strongly recommended. Alternatively, you can use the Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized by Vano89. More information on that can be found at: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9080
BRIEF VERSION:
Here are the brief installation instructions for those already used to working in Windows and modding their Skyrim. If you need more help, the detailed installation instructions are found further down.
1:
Download, extract (and endorse!):
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures by NebuLa: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607
Serious HD Retexture Skyrim by Z4G4: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2146
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul by Starac: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5400
Get all the latest versions (as of 2012-07-19), and I recommend the highest resolution options.
I have not tested any of the low-res alternatives, but they should work just fine if you prefer them.
PLEASE NOTE: You do NOT need the v1.2.3 update for Serious HD Retexture Skyrim because we won't use any of the textures supplied in that update. Also remember to extract the SRO 1.3 update LAST out of the SRO files!
2:
Move the "textures" folders from each texture pack into their respective folders that I have already created for you:
HD2K is for Skyrim HD - 2K Textures.
SHD is for Serious HD Retexture Skyrim.
SRO is for Skyrim Realistic Overhaul.
3:
The TexturePackCombiner.bat file requires a certain predetermined folder structure for it to work.
Like this: "TexturePackCombiner\HD2K\textures\" and then the same for the other two texture packs.
You should be fine with extracing HD2K and SHD directly into the proper folders, but SRO extracts with additional folders unless you select to extract the "textures" folder directly. The batch file uses its own relative location to locate these folders, so you might as well use the ones I have provided.
4:
Run the TexturePackCombiner.bat. You may have to right-click it and select "Run as administrator" depending on your Windows user privileges. The batch will create a new folder named "TPC" with the merged textures.
5:
Right-click the new "TPC" folder and select "Properties". Ensure that it contains 1330 files. If it doesn't, then something went wrong somewhere and you're missing textures.
6:
Move the "textures" folder located in the new "TPC" folder into your Skyrim\Data\ folder and overwrite anything it asks to. Remember to backup your textures first if you wish!
DETAILED VERSION:
1:
Download the required texture packs from their respective authors. Endorse them afterwards (it's the least you can do for their great work!).
a)
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures by NebuLa: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607
Download the 4 files: Skyrim HD v1.5 FULL Dungeons, Landscape, Misc and Towns. LITE may work for those that prefer it, but I haven't tested it personally.
b)
Serious HD Retexture Skyrim by Z4G4: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2146
Download Serious HD Retexture LANDSCAPE 2048px. The 1024px version may work for those that prefer it, but I haven't tested them personally.
NOTE: You do NOT need the v1.2.3 update because we won't use any of the textures supplied in that update.
c)
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul by Starac: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5400
Download the 4 files: Skyrim Realistic Overhaul v1.1 Part 1, 2 and 3 as well as the v1.3 update.
2:
Extract all files to any folder of your choice. If you know how to extract them to the right place directly, that is even better. Just make sure to keep track of which is which and that you don't merge their texture folders unless they belong to the same texture pack.
When this is done, we will move them to the correct folders in the next few steps, if you haven't already done so.
PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you extract/move the SRO 1.3 update folder LAST and agree to overwrite any file it asks about. If you don't move the update folder last, you might overwrite its files with older versions.
a)
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures: Move the "textures" folder(s) into the "HD2K" folder supplied by the Texture Pack Combiner.
b)
Serious HD Retexture Skyrim: Move the "textures" folder(s) into the "SHD" folder supplied by the Texture Pack Combiner.
c)
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul: Depending on how you extracted these files, you may have ended up with several "SRO1.1-part#" folders as well as a "SRO1_3 Update" folder from the 1.3 update. What you need to do is to grab all the "textures" folders and put them into the "SRO" folder supplied by the Texture Pack Combiner. Just remember to extract or move the update folder last! The update folder in turn also contains a 1024 and a 2048 folder. You only need one of these, so grab the textures folder from the 2048 folder unless you prefer the lower quality textures.
3:
If you've done everything right so far you will now have the "TexturePackCombiner.bat" file in a folder with three other folders named HD2K, SHD and SRO. Inside each of these three folders you should also have a "textures" folder containing all textures from each individual texture pack.
Now it is time to run the "TexturePackCombiner.bat" file. It will proceed to copy all the best textures from each texture pack into a new folder called "TPC".
PLEASE NOTE: You may have to right-click the file and select "Run as administrator" depending on your Windows user privileges.
4:
Right-click the new "TPC" folder and select "Properties". Ensure that it contains 1330 files. If it doesn't, then something went wrong somewhere and you're missing textures.
5:
Before proceeding with step 4, I want to warn you that unless you have made a backup of your Skyrim\Data\Textures folder, you will lose all original textures and be unable to get them back unless you reinstall the game. Texture wise there should be little reason to ever want them back, however, future game updates may require them to update properly.
To finish the installation, simply move the "textures" folder that is found inside the new "TPC" folder into the "Skyrim\Data" folder. It will ask if you want to merge folders and overwrite files. Say yes to all of them.
6:
Done! Go ahead and enjoy the new and much prettier Skyrim!
8) THOUGHTS BEHIND A FEW TEXTURE CHOICES
Generally, each texture file is accompanied by a so called "normal map" file. I.e. the texture "dirtpath01" would be accompanied by a second file named "dirtpath01_n". This second file does not always exist, but in most cases they do. The normal map tells the game how to treat any light reaching that texture. So do keep in mind that whenever you replace a texture you must also replace its corresponding normal map file, or you might get some strange looking textures in game. For the sake of simplicity, I will not list these additional files here.
If you're starved on VRAM, you will also find a few suggestions here on certain textures.
Also, please note that these are merely a few textures that I wanted to comment on. The merged folder will contain over 1300 textures, including the normal maps. There was even a substantially higher quantity of textures before the merge.
* architecture\farmhouse\thatch02, thatch03 -- (farmhouse roofing) -- SRO in use.
HD2K has a higher resolution and looks better up close, however, how often do you look at a roof up close? The main reason it didn't get selected despite these advantages is because it also suffers from a very noticeable transition problem between thatch02 and thatch03. The SRO version follows the vanilla style roofing and does look flatter, but it also tends to look more natural, especially when viewed from afar. Repetitions aren't as distinguishable as with the HD2K version either. In addition to this, the SRO version only uses 4.7 MB of VRAM compared to 19.1 MB for the HD2k version. That's a substantial difference!
* architecture\farmhouse\thatchinterior01 -- (interior farmhouse roofing) -- SRO in use.
All SRO provides here really is a new normal map. HD2K provides a new, improved texture that looks both sharper and more detailed. However, as with most plank textures from HD2K, they don't follow the vanilla measurements, leading to strange cuts and transitions. Also, even though the texture in itself is more detailed, it looks less natural and fitting than the vanilla texture with the SRO normal map. In addition to this, the SRO version will save you about 5 MB of VRAM.
* architecture\farmhouse\woodwalkway01 -- (floorboards outside farmhouses) -- SRO in use.
HD2K has a sharper, more detailed texture, however, it has two huge drawbacks: The first one is that there's some white coloring between the planks which almost looks as if they were graphical glitches. Secondly, as with most of HD2K's wood textures, it doesn't follow the vanilla measurements of width for the individual planks. This makes places such as walkways look very strangely built, and some damaged planks look very oddly cut.
* architecture\farmhouse\wovenfence01 -- (woven fences outside farmhouses) -- HD2K in use.
This texture gives some very strange looking edges between each woven fence object. Again, this is because HD2K doesn't follow the measurements of vanilla textures. However, this texture will still be used, because there is no other available texture and it is still a considerable improvement to the vanilla one.
* architecture\solitude\sdirt02, sgrass01, smoss01, sstonefloor01 -- (ground in Solitude) -- HD2K in use.
This was a very tough call and I spent about 2 hours contemplating which ones to use before making my decision. While the SRO often transitions between grass and stone tiles better in the midrange distance, the reason I went with HD2K was because it blends together better with pretty much everything else (especially dirt and rocks) which is partly due to its slightly darker color tone. HD2K also has much better close up quality, less noticeable repetition and takes up 4 MB less of VRAM. When viewed right down at your feet, the SRO looks very grainy and has some very noticeable disparity between the grass texture and the grass between the stone tiles. In addition, SRO will have grass growing between the stone tiles on top of the city walls (while not physically impossible, it doesn't look or feel right). Should you prefer the SRO version anyway, don't forget to copy the "sstonefloortrim01" and "sstonefloortrim01_n" files as well. The HD2K version doesn't have a corresponding file (and I honestly haven't been able to localize where in game this texture is used).
* architecture\solitude\stonewall02, strims02 -- (large stone walls in Solitude) -- SRO in use.
Oh boy. This was a tough one. HD2K has a darker, nicer tone that shines more naturally in the sun. HD2K also looks better when viewed from far away, and melds better with the cloves lingering the walls. Still, the SRO version looks sharper when viewed up close and in the midrange, and it fits in better with other textures in the city. This was one of the tougher texture choices I had to make, but when looking at the big picture, the SRO felt like the better choice.
* architecture\whiterun\wrroofint01, wrroofintdecal -- (interior roofing) -- SRO in use.
HD2K looks marginally better, which you can tell only by staring at the texture for quite a while up close while being able to switch rapidly between identical screenshots. The difference between these two is not something you will notice while playing. I went with the SRO version because it saves you 3.5 MB of VRAM.
* architecture\whiterun\wrfloorboards01 -- (wooden floor in Dragonreach) -- SRO in use.
Yet again, the different measurements used for planks in the HD2K version makes it unusable unless you would accept strange cuts. It's otherwise sharper and better looking in many ways. The SRO version does fit better with the other textures however and gives an overall better look without having to deal with the strange cuts.
* architecture\whiterun\wrslate02 -- (second version of stone stairs) -- SRO in use.
If you prefer the rougher look of stone, use the HD2K version instead. I found the SRO version a little more fitting with the other textures. You opinion may vary.
* architecture\whiterun\wrslatefloor01 -- (stone floor in Dragonreach) -- HD2K in use.
The SRO version has some additional detail and a nicer tone. It certainly looks better at a couple of meters distance, however, the texture when viewed up close is not a pretty sight. The HD2K version is a sharper, better choice.
* architecture\whiterun\wrstockade01 -- (stockades) -- HD2K in use.
Occasional glitches may occur in rare places where the texture gets stretched. This is Bethesda's fault and not the texture. When you do come across them they're slightly more noticeable on HD2K than with SRO. However, the HD2K version is a lot sharper and more detailed. If you're short on VRAM, then this is one of the first textures you should replace and use the SRO version instead. It will save you 6MB of VRAM and still only make a very small visual difference.
* dungeons\caves\cavebaseground02 -- (snow cave floor) -- SRO in use.
SHD's version looks more realistic and has more depth, but did not get selected over the SRO version because it doesn't blend in very well with the other textures supplied from SRO.
* dungeons\dwemerruins\* -- (Dwemer Ruins textures found all over Skyrim) -- A mix of HD2K and SRO in use.
Another really tough choice that I spent a considerable amount of time on before finding the right mix of textures. Now, the main difference between HD2K and SRO here is that HD2K has rougher looking stone that looks more suiting for old and decaying ruins and fortresses. It looks more natural, while the SRO version has a smoother, cleaner look that has tendencies to appear much sharper and better. This is not always the case, however. To make things more complex, the same texture that might be used for a tiny little stone or a small drawing someplace might also be used as a main building block for a huge building. Make one look better and the other might suffer instead. Add to this that these textures are used in many different places throughout Skyrim, and you might begin to understand why these were so difficult to get right. In the end, though, the result is a complete mixture of textures from both texture packs that I feel will create the right look and immersion in as many places as possible. You may want to copy all wall and floor stone textures from SRO if you prefer the cleaner and somewhat sharper look of stone. I use mostly SRO in Markath, which shares many of the same stone textures, but since those are stored in the Markath folder they are entirely separate. It seemed more fitting with the cleaner, smoother look of SRO stone there since it's a maintained city and not an old ruin or abandoned fortress in the middle of nowhere.
* dungeons\dwemerruins\dwestonefloor03 -- (one of the stone floors in Dwemer Ruins) -- HD2K in use.
The HD2K seems to lack a proper corresponding dwestonefloor03_n (normal map) file. While it does have one, it appears to be created as a hybrid texture of SRO's and HD2K's. However, it's not really something you will notice in game.
* landscape\coastoceanfloor01 -- (used along coasts above and under the surface) -- SRO in use.
HD2K vs SRO. Tough choice. Couldn't really make up my mind on this one. I went with the SRO because of the additional contrast to other textures. Your preference may vary.
* landscape\dirtpath01 -- (dirt roads) -- SRO in use.
While the HD2K version has some more depth and detail, it also suffers greatly from noticeable repetition. The SRO version has basically no visible repetition at all, and looks slightly sharper when viewed at your feet. The SRO version also takes nearly 3 MB less of VRAM. All in all it felt like the SRO version was the better choice.
* landscape\fieldgrass01 -- (one of the main grass textures) -- HD2K in use.
I really like the SRO version and would have gone for it if it wasn't for one big problem: when viewed from afar, it becomes overly bright in relation to other textures, making it stick out far too much from everything around it. The HD2K was a good replacement because the texture is almost as good and doesn't have this problem.
* landscape\fielddirtgrass01 -- (one of the main grass textures) -- HD2K in use.
Another tough choice where I went with the HD2K version simply because it looks more realistic when viewed right at your feet, and it has a better tone when viewed from far away. However, the SRO version has a better midrange and tends to blend in more nicely with certain small rocks. You may want to use the SRO version depending on your preferences.
* landscape\icefloes -- (ice floes used in certain rivers and coastlines in wintry areas) -- HD2K in use.
SHD gives the most realistic look out of the three and is the texture I would have chosen if it wasn't for the "buggy" black lines that often appear in areas between texture transitions. Because of this, I went with the HD2K version instead.
* landscape\pineforest03 -- (one of the main grass textures) -- SRO in use.
I went with the SRO version because it's sharper and looks better in the distance, and has less visible repetition than the SHD. SHD is still a great choice however, because it has a very natural look and blends in nicely with other textures. The SHD also tends to have slightly better transitions. Where the SHD version falls short is on the sharpness level, though.
* landscape\rocks01, rocksedgetrim01 -- (tiny rocks used around larger rocks around Skyrim) -- HD2K in use.
These two textures are probably the greatest troublemakers of them all. There's not really any way for these textures to display at an acceptable level, but HD2K does it the best.
* landscape\volcanictundradirt01 -- (one of the main volcanic tundra ground textures) -- SRO in use.
The SHD texture is by far the most realistic and best looking texture out of the three, but unfortunately, it has extremely noticeable repetition. Because of this reason alone, I went with the
SRO version instead.
* landscape\volcanictundragravel01 -- (areas with tiny rocks in volcanic tundra) -- HD2K in use.
The SHD texture looked very promising at first, but unfortunately it seems to lack a proper normal map, making it look really strange depth-wise (as if rocks were flying in the air).
* landscape\mountains\mountainslab01, mountainslab02 -- (mountains and rocks) -- HD2K in use.
These are the most used textures in the game. They cover all mountains and most rocks you will see in the game. SHD doesn't supply any mountain textures, so we have the SRO and HD2K versions to choose from. I went with the HD2K version mainly because it has what I perceive to be a more natural dark gray color tone. The SRO version has a much brighter tone to it with a slight tint towards brown. Both color tones work really well in game however, and you will be happy with any of them. Also, even though the SRO version is only half the resolution of the HD2K, it still manages to look more detailed when viewed up close and in the midrange in most situations. The SRO version also looks slightly better in certain areas where snow covers a mountain floor. All in all, however, and for the most realistic look, I went with the HD2K. If you're memory starved, by all means use the SRO version instead as it'll save you a whopping 16 MB of VRAM!
Regarding the high-res SRO mountains that are offered as a separate download: They do look sharper and more crisp compared to the 2048x2048 version, but at a distance of 20 meters or so, it becomes hard to tell the difference between the two versions. I also find it a little too heavy on VRAM usage. Take a look at this VRAM comparison:
HD2K 4096x4096: 32 MB
SRO 2048x2048: 16.8 MB
SRO 4096x4096: 64 MB (!!)
* landscape\roads\roaddetails01 -- (edges of certain dirt bridges) -- SRO in use.
This one made me cringe. This texture has two pieces baked into it. One piece is the stones on the edges of certain bridges, and the other is the dirt edges on the ground. So basically I had to choose between the better looking dirt from HD2K or the better looking stone from SRO. The decision fell on the SRO because it felt more important to have fitting stones all along the bridge edges than to have better looking dirt that isn't quite as visible.
9) FINAL WORDS
You may disagree with some of my choices, but at the very least this tool will give you a great foundation to build your texture customized Skyrim upon.
Included is also a buggfix for the "tundrarocks01" texture from the HD2K texture pack. It actually requires a normal map from SRO to look proper, which is not included with the HD2K texture pack. This fix will be made automatically by the Texture Pack Combiner.
Huge thanks to Starac, NebuLa and Z4G4 for their truly amazing texture packs! No Skyrim should ever be played without them! Also big thanks goes out to coffee; I couldn't have done this without you!
Finally, I hope you'll enjoy the new look of Skyrim! Have fun!
Best regards,
Mortac
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20801
