Did you try to ask him via PM?

While we all hold our breath waiting for the return of AmpolX, here are http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34410 I don't think I saw any links for.

Oh, hadn't seen those candle textures before. Thanks for the link.

Yeah, I"ve been using Improved Bruma and Improved Skingrad for a while now. Excellent city textures! Bruma is particularly impressive. Here's http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/BrumaMorning1.jpg with these. What's more, the cobblestones, rock and ground snow are by the ever elusive AmpolX. They complement each other well.

There are also "improved" http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4047, if you consider applying a Photoshop filter to make them actually look painted "improved."

This is why I need to finish my damn website that has all of this stuff listed together in one place.

One part has been available from Tesa, as of a couple of weeks ago, it seems.

Hopefully, the rest will follow...

Vibrant textures are meant to be good (currently installing them) but are ampols textures better or not?

Well, they're twice the resolution, so they would look better in that sense. Whether they're "better" or not depends on your own preferences, I guess. For example, I was impressed with QTP3 because its textures mostly matched the colors of the vanilla ones, maintaining the color "balance" of any given scene. But the normal maps can be extreme sometimes, and some textures look too sharp. Some landscape textures have really obvious tiling. Also, I really dislike the main road texture. So while higher resolution is generally a good thing, I think there's a lot of stuff to take into account. That being said, I've really enjoyed Ampol's cave textures, and it'd be nice to try out all the textures in full. Also I wish the screenshots on planetelderscrolls didn't have that color filter.

Double Post deleted. Sorry all!

This having turned into a general discussion on graphics enhancement, I'll repost a somewhat modified version of my recent contribution to the forum screenshot thread, listing many of the visual enhancements I currently use. Screenshots and links are provided when available.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/ImpIslePanorama1.jpg. - and - http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/ElderlyKnightEscort1.jpg.
One of the more obvious modifications here might be http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18497. I consider it a mixed blessing. When everything works, as it does here, the effect can be stunning. But at times “gray areas”, where near and far landscapes transition, can be pug-ugly. Plus, the difference between these and smoother standard-resolution LODs provided by certain other mods can be jarring. Still, for me pluses outweigh minuses. I'll continue to use it until something better comes along.

I complement it with http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18677 from his Vibrant Textures collection, replacing the more peppery http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9952.

Another recent addition is http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14342. It is not my ideal grass, looking a bit too pristine and manicured, like a well tended park lawn. That said, it's not bad at all, and the near total absence of tiling more than compensates.

Also on display are http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20053, road textures from AmpolX Makeover, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32261, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7694, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9531, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22828, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22751, and even a bit from http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21856 (the watch tower seen atop a distant mountain peak).

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/ImpIsleSoutnBridgeStation1.jpg.
Tower and bridge courtesy of Arthmoor's http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20218 with, again, DarkerRegal_IC textures.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/ICElvenGardens1.jpg.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19589 combined with http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15500.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/BlueNebulaLeyawinn1.jpg.
Besides http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19628, this shows something of yet another recent addition, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26700, which I use in conjunction with that old standby http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4135. Nebula provides quite dramatic night skies! Something of an immersionist, my avatar normally spends his evenings abed. Yet the first crystal clear night after installing Nebula Vilja and he ended up riding until dawn, doing little but drinking in the many glorious views.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/WeyeVillageScenic1.jpg.
Again featuring road textures by AmpolX roads and ReallyBetterTilingGrass in addition to the usual suspects.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/FortAkotoshfromImpIsle1_captioned.jpg.
Roadwork again by AmpolX.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/BrumaMorning1.jpg.
Features http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8954 and ground textures by AmpolX, as well as hi-res mountains in the background. My favorite city retexture. (I also use the same author's Improved Skingrad and am considering his Improved Bravil.)

Two installed texture mods I do not yet have screen captures with.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9498.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25429. (overwriting the above as needed)
I do not consider either of these essential simply because one encounters signs at close distance so rarely, or takes time to ponder them. I even went so far as to uninstall Improved Signs to conserve resources. Only its hard to revert to the blurrier originals once one is used to these. So back in they went. I ran a different Road Sign mod for a while. Nice as that one was, it proved a bit too shiny for me, as if the Council payed someone to coat signs with Lemon Oil every few days.

I've left stuff out, but can always amend this or do a followup.

AmpolX, I'm sure there are many players who have your mods archived who could easily upload them with your permission.
Would you be okay with this? I've been trying to re-download your work for months but can't find it anywhere.
Obviously we're all big fans of your work!

Thanks

I agree too.
:thumbsup:

Someone needs to put together an overhaul for Oblivion like the guys behind the Morrowind Sound and Graphics overhaul that combines all the best graphics/sound mods that are lore friendly...

Any opinions on Detailed Terrain? It doesn't seem to get much hype these days, but comments at the download sites are generally quite favorable. The few screenshots I've seen aren't overly impressive, but then maybe its benefits are best appreciated in-game rather than viewing static images. I don't like that, due to shaders, it requires OMOD installation, but it's easy enough to create an OMOD of just the shader portion and a separate BAIN package with everything else.

Also, how well does it blend with overrides? I'd use DT as a base enhancer, then add stuff like parts of AmpolX ATP2 and Makeover on top of it.

Hey!

As far as I know they work well together. Unless I'm mistaken, what DT does is fade the edges of the textures so that they blend in together. I've been using in on every install ever since I found out about it.

Cheers!

cc

Detailed Terrain is incredible. What it does is really subtle but makes the terrain in the game look way better. Some corrections, though:

It doesn't fade the edges of textures, that's what the vanilla game does--textures fade into oneanother. What DT does is make use of an alpha channel (transparency) on each terrain texture and a custom shader to "layer" them on top of one another. What you end up with is a more realistic combination of textures that blend between the "cracks" of one another instead of simply fading out into eachother. There's still a fade of course, but it's less prominent.

http://i52.tinypic.com/aw93fb.jpg Notice the grass in the cracks between the rocks in the road. And the way the grass and dirt terrain mix together instead of simply fading into eachother.

Just keep in mind that the textures it uses are based on the QTP3 ones. You could make DT-compatible versions of other ones if you like, and honestly if you know how to use Gimp and don't have too many textures to work with it's definitely doable. For example the road texture in that screenshot is a custom one I made that has an alpha channel. But the point is that if you're going to use Detailed Terrain, and I high recommend it, only use it with QTP3 terrain textures unless you've edited the texture yourself and know it has an alpha channel.

I am seriously a huge fan of Detailed Terrain, it's such a small change but so clever and awesome.

I think you are wrong in that it only works with QTP3 for two reasons...first i do not use QTP3 and i use Detailed Terrain. Two, this is a small quote from the description on the tesnexus page for Detailed terrain.



I think you where trying to say that it works best with QTP3 since it is based on textures from QTP3.

Well, installing DT will replace your terrain textures with QTP3's terrain textures. If you were to then install terrain textures from another overhaul, they would not be Detailed Terrain compatible and would not take advantage of its features (and might clash with any still-existing QTP3 textures anyway). Or if you install Bomret's normal maps after installing DT you'd end up with funny-looking terrain the same as if you installed the normal maps on a QTP3 setup.

Maybe I should have been more specific, but my point is that Detailed Terrain is implemented using the QTP3 terrain textures, so keep that in mind when using any texture replacements. Of course if you want to replace the QTP3 terrain textures provided with DT with other terrain textures you can always edit them and give them alpha channels.

Anyway, I edited my original post to remove the "requirement" part because you're right that it makes it confusing. It doesn't require QTP3, but whether you use QTP3 or not, if you want to use Detailed Terrain, you're going to end up with QTP3's terrain textures.

Yeah it is indeed best to install DT as the last replacer so you get to see the textures.



True enough.

I had PM'ed AmpolX in December to remind him, and he said that the pack was coming along. I resent him another PM in Feb after 2 months, but he hasn't read that yet. Hopefully he sees it.