If there is one thing about modded Oblivion that is giving me headache, then it all the things that has to do with landscape graphics replacers.
I will probably use Bomrets Detailed Normal Maps (or perhaps I'll try CorePC's Vibrant Textures) as a basis, but with Qarl3 for Ayleid Ruins interiors and Koldorn's for Caves and Sewers. So far, so good.
But which Distant LOD, Noise Effect Filters, Colour Maps and Normal Maps to use? I'm using the rather outdated http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/totoworld.html as a guide, but I still don't know where to start.
I have an ATI 4670 1GB card and I will not be using AA, Bloom or HDR, but will run the game in 1440x900, or hopefully, 1680x1050 which is the max my system can handle.

Any good advice, or any novelties lately?

Oh, man. I'm with you. On my current install, I just put off all texture replacement installation until the very end. In the meantime, I'm playing with pure Vanilla textures for the first time... ever, maybe. Not so bad, really.

gothemasticator

This topic was discussed last week in http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1076640&hl=

Basically I'm a big fan of Corepc's Vibrant Textures, which include distant stuff for both Cyrodiil and Shivering Isles. On top of this I put QTP Redimized for Cyrodiil and Bomret's SI Textures for SI. Also RAEVWD for both. It all works very well together.

Corepc recommends using Bomret's Detailed Normal Maps alongside Vibrant Textures, but only do this if you're not going to use QTP.

Other options are given to you in this thread (hope you like mine ^_^ ):

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1037287&hl=

AND on top of that I could give you another option if you want:

http://tesnexus.com/imageshare/image.php?id=50570

Could finish those in about 1-2 hours, but as I got no feedback I didn't bother at least until now.
As you can see their file size is identical to the compressed 2048 Qarls normals (~2.7MB).

If you want a full recommendation by one user, here comes:


1. Everything you can download from http://www.tesnexus.com/modules/members/index.php?id=1394013.


2. Install the LOD and any parts Ampol?s textures wont cover from CorePC?s http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18677 pack.


3. See the section about "Improved trees and flora" http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/totoworld.html and get everything related to it.



Maybe download some other ruins/dungeon/town packs from TOTO?


In any CASE, make the Ampol?s textures into an OMOD you activate last, if you want all those in any case, like I do. You can, for example, activate all the Vibrant packs before that, to have a base install of good looking textures that wont destroy your performance. Note that Ampol?s textures are also a very nice compromise in size, "only" 1024x1024, so you can throw those in pretty much without worries as well.

Activate all those "trees and flora" etc after vibrant textures (or QTP3, should you consider that as the base install? But note that it requires a lot of vram and wont give you LOD...), and see if you handle it, some of the textures are very high res. But very good looking as well. Then throw in Ampol?s stuff last, to have all the goodness from it.

Interesting. I stayed clear of AmpolX's textures because they look so gritty in the screenshots that I thought that they would look odd against all the Vibrant stuff. Do you run this yourself, (Vibrant base with AmpolX stuff on top)? Do they look good together?

Well actually I?m running a mix of QTP3 and Ampol?s at the moment, cause I have 1Gb video memory and I wanted to put it to good use.


But I don?t think it?s a problem, very shortly I had them mixed, and in the end the Vibrant stuff isn?t BRIGHT vibrant, but like with more contrast, which actually falls in line pretty well with Ampol?s grittier look. I guess it?s a matter of preference though, someone else would probably say they wont go well together.

QTP3 probably DOES blend in better though, cause many textures are a bit darker.


But then again I did run a mix of Vibrant and QTP3 which looked good IMO, and now I?m happy with QTP3 and Ampol?s, so I figured that if both Vibrant and Ampol?s go well with QTP3, it?s just as well to run Vibrant and Ampol?s together, which is more video memory friendly and thus recommendable for most people.

I have a 1GB card too, but even then The Waterfront turned into a slideshow with QTP3 installed, so I'm avoiding QTP3 in this, except probably in Aylied Ruins. Still haven't seen any ruins bette than Qarl's, while Koldorn's Caves and Sewers are still a favourite.
I'll give Ampol a chance, even though i hate the vaselin smeared screenshots. I did try some of his stuff in my previous game, and except for the too bright silverware it was a clear improvement.

Depending on how much hassle it is, I will make an effort to try these out, but since Vibrant Textures include LODs I'll use them for now.

Which is bananas to do. utter insanity to compress a normal map at that size. Thats one thing I never liked- all the artifacting in the normal maps of most replacers, massive file sizes but with a ton messy little squares. :S
with normal maps at those detail levels it is always better to use a uncompressed 1024 map instead of a 2048. been saying for years- prove me wrong!

I installed Bomrets, Vibrant Textures and RAEVWD (without the city options) and ran TES4LOD. No HRD, Bloom or AA, but otherwise all video options cranked up to max and playing in 1650x1080. I was astounded at the modest VRAM usage of only about 225 MB and an average FPS of about 40 on the Bruma - Bravil run. Shall be interesting to see if there is any noticeable difference after Pyffi'ing the vanilla Meshes.
More testing, and more getting used to BAIN, tomorrow.

Sounds about right to me, for a Bomret, Vibrant, RAEVWD, vram usage and fps ..You could probably use the Vibrant 2048 LOD Replacer for a little more detail on color maps since you have 1 gig..The most I have seen Bomret+Vibrant+RAEVWD come to vram usage is around 450mb..Around Kvatch, but, I have not tested vram usage with 1.7 RAEVWD installed..

Are you referring to my first landscape release or my newer ATP 2.0 (link in sig)

This is a good thread, guys. Thanks for all your contributions and suggestions. You're leading me to options I didn't know about.

I was referring to *side project-Cups and Bowls, which is currently down on Nexus. Haven't tried your other texture replacers yet, but I have downloaded them.

One thing I'm not entirely happy with is how the snow and ice looks. I think this is the weakest part of Bomret's and the strongest part of Qarls. How feasible it is to use Qarls textures for this region, and how do I know which Mesh and Textures files to use? And how will this affect Distant Lods?
When I used QTP3R I always got the best FPS in the desolate snow and ice areas anyway, so I'm not worried about the FPS getting too low.

Ampol, I tried your landscape retextures and all I can say is :tops:
But I wish you'd pack the archives as 7z instead of RAR, so that BAIN can read them, thus making it easier to install and to have complete controll over conflicts with other texture packs.
Correction: BAIN can read RARS, but gets confused by "exotic" folder names.

:blink: BAIN supports reading RAR files, it just doesn't support writing RAR files. I don't remember if it was supported prior to v265, but I know I added in extra support for it then.

Hmm...I was not able to Install the RAR files. BAIN listed the amount of files within the RARs but that was all, but it's grey and no files are listed under Configured Files.

Man, I love AmpolX's textures, but I had a terrible tiling effect with much of the textures. Not sure if I installed something wrong or what? Was a shame though, because it looked sweet! Back to QTP3 and Improved Trees and Flora for now.

For LOD, if your rig can handle them, I don't there are any better than these two combined...

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2246#Files
Qarl's LOD normals 4096 compressed

and

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2734
QTP3 high detail LOD

If you look on the General pane with the RAR selected, I bet it says: "Structure: Unrecognized". Probably has an extra top-level folder, or some such.

I just tested it with a RAR file, and it worked :shrug:

Edit:
Just remembered I had his texture packs laying around and checked. It does have an extra top-level folder. It would have to be repackaged to be BAIN compliant out of the box.

Made a quick BCF for ATP_Gold_Coast_v2-28383 as an example. Instructions, along with download at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30292.

The only bad tiling package was Gold Coast. Arthmoor pointed out that the grass textures had tiling squares at the seams where I cloned the base image. Thats the only bad tiling package really. Great Grass tiled wonderfully and if there were a few problems, all that landscape grass over it hides it all. Blackwood was also mostly perfect except for one texture. My colovian Highlands pack was also pretty good or so I thought (and did a ton of people on nexus.) Anyways version 3 fixed all issues and add way better textures.

And whats funny man is that in my screens for Cups and Bowls, im not using that blur thing or any other graphical enhancer.

But aren't these supposed to be used in conjuction with QTP3? The only QTP3 files I'll use is some snow/ice textures, Aylied Ruins interior and perhaps Fort exteriors.

Yup, the only textures I got a chance to really check out were the Anvil Gold Coast. So that is where I saw the tiling. I still use your roads and cobblestone textures So you're saying there is a version 3 of your textures now? That's awesome! I'll have to check them out! Thanks man! Oh and your enb series settings kick [censored]!

@PetrusOctavianus - Well, they go best with QTP3. I suppose you might see some different coloring for your roads between loaded textures and LOD since QTP3 roads are different from Vanilla. They don't clash to bad with AmpolX's Roads and Cobblestone though. Guess it depends on what you use. QTP3 has been optimized so much now that it almost seems like a no brainer to use it.

EDIT - I personally also really like CorePC's Vibrant Grain Filter

Hmm I was bored so I made a test 2048 uncompressed normal. Here some comparison shots between 2048 uncompressed and 4096 compressed.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh122/deathb0rnwc3/Oblivion%20Screens/ScreenShot14-2.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh122/deathb0rnwc3/Oblivion%20Screens/ScreenShot16.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh122/deathb0rnwc3/Oblivion%20Screens/ScreenShot15.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh122/deathb0rnwc3/Oblivion%20Screens/ScreenShot17-1.jpg

What do you think? The filesize is equal.

Personally I don't think it's worth it as the compression artifacts arent that visible with 4096 but... :shrug:

EDIT: Yeah I know I use a pretty noobish approach at making them but hey