Skyrim - Creation Kit and High Res Pack Texture Released

Hmmm, maybe I'll buy in too now...
 
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I had no crashes and my ini-settings make my game use settings beyond ultra. I thought I would have to tone the settings down but I guess not.

The most appreciated texture change for me is that basically all of the furniture now is in the same high res. It was a bit jarring with some furniture low res and others high res.

There are some complaints not all textures are high-res now. But I think people forget that unlike modders Bethesda still tries to service a large group and therefore made the recommended specs the minimum spec for the texture pack and seeing some crashes those with those rec specs have that was even too optimistic. If they had all textures high-res the rec spec would be even higher. (I think thats exactly the reason why they left LOD textures alone).
 
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I have installed the high res packs and experienced CTD's right of the top when entering big cells (with presumably a lot of the upped high res textures). I have browsed some discussion about why this happens and it seems the most likely reason is that if you have a 32 bit system, about max 3,5 GB of RAM can be used for texturing, regardless how much GB you have installed. I happen to have a RAM monitor on my Logitech G15 keyboard and I can confirm I go over that tipping point with the hi-res packs installed. I also read that some graphics settings like anti-aliasing may give a hit in the RAM also, although decreasing it didn't help me. Reducing resolution will offcourse help but that isn't an option for me, I like my 1080P too much :) Julius, do you perhaps have a 64 bit system with 4GB+? Again, it's one theory, and I have seen people reporting no problems on a 32-bit Win7 installation.
Slam23
 
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Anyone try this on a modest system? I'm quite happy with the graphics and the performance is pretty good but if the hit isn't too much...

Do I understand correctly that you can just disable this from the launcher if the performance hit is too high?
 
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Dhruin said:
Anyone try this on a modest system? I'm quite happy with the graphics and the performance is pretty good but if the hit isn't too much…

Do I understand correctly that you can just disable this from the launcher if the performance hit is too high?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's easy to disable.

The main thing about high-res textures is the memory use, so it depends on what your GPU has available more than anything else. Also, you need enough RAM for the game to work with - which is probably a minimum of 4GB for this kind of texture pack.
 
Launch the Launcher, go to options and just untick the boxes right to one or both of the highrespack files. I crashed repeatedly with both packs selected, but can run fine with one of them selected (sure to be a memory problem). Have yet to experiment with settings to reduce memory usage from other sources to try to get both packs working for me. I have a core i7 830, Win7 32 bits, 4GB RAM, HD Radeon 5770 with 1 GB. Not too shabby and can run ultra settings, but it took a lot of experimentation with the way Catalyst and Skyrim work and don't work together. Ultimately I reduced all Catalyst options (especially the Smooth HD "edge detect" seemed to be a major culprit) except mipmaps and texture quality, and upped all Skyrim options. Still on a limb about FXAA, doesn't seem to influence quality and performance either way. Hope this helps some people!
Slam23
 
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I'm not sure what's happening with my rig, but ever since the Steam Workshop went live, my game crashes my video card to where it shuts off and I have to reset my pc. I'm using Nvidia's WHQL certified drivers, not any of the beta drivers. I haven't installed the high-res pack either. I should be okay as far as GPU ram and 64-bit OS, but my card is a 240GTS and it's a cheapy Nvidia, though it has 1 gig of ram. Skyrim is pretty enough for my tastes.

I would try Steam in offline mode, but it resets the stupid # of hours played every time I do that and I'm nearing 500 hours since 1.3 :)
 
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I think they pushed the size of these texture mods a little to close to the edge. It's also probably the reason not every crummy texture has an increased resolution. They knew people would run out of memory. Too bad you can't easily pick and choose which textures individually to use to get your game crash free, yet improved. I need to figure out which textures are in which ESPs and just pick the one I care about the most.
 
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I got the high-res textures installed and played for a bit last night. Have had no crashes so far and it looks beautiful running on ultra settings. Makes me want to re-roll to experience everything in high-res now.

Running 64bit Windows 7, 9 gigs of RAM, 1 Gig VRAM ATI.
 
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I'm upgrading my RAM to 8GB very soon, and shifting to W7 64, so hopefully it will fix things for me. :)
It's well known that Windows 32-bit doesn't utilize all of 4GB, so it'd be a bit naff if that were the problem.

Honestly, I'd have been happy with a texture pack that just fixed the bizarrely low textures for certain items (e.g. snow, tables, certain animals...). I guess the mod scene will be my hero there.
 
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One has to remember that the devs don't know what other progs / OS /device drivers /etc are sucking up RAM while you're running Skyrim. It's a judgement call on how much to put in. I wouldn't call that naff, just maybe a little overly aggressive. It's just pushing the constraints as far as possble to maximize visual quality.
 
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Well my video card shot craps right after I installed Reckoning. I just ran up to the computer store and bought the cheapest Nvidia that was better than mine. It's a 550ti, which seems lightyears better than the GTS240. I haven't grabbed the high-res pack yet, but I guess I might as well now. I already had the 8 gigs of ram and the fast processor and Win7/64 so no other reason not to install it. I had held off because the GTS240 has a gig of ram, but it was a cheapy OEM card. Now it's a fried, cheapy, OEM card :)

I'm running it with the stock Dell PSU which is only 350 watts. I had bought a PSU to go with the card, but I don't like how the cables hog up all the space. I should have paid more attention and bought a modular PSU. It's ran Reckoning at high for a day and a half with no troubles. The card seems much cooler that the 240.
 
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After fighting with steam for a couple of hours I managed to buy it.... sometimes I wounder why I even bother..... still I was curious what it'd look like and it has been getting a lot of good reviews and nods even from here.

No crashes or anything. Still dissapointed with how the game looks on highest setting though. I can only imagine how bad it looked before the high-res texture pack.

Gameplay is pretty bad so far too. I don't have much of a motivation to go on playing after just a few hours. But I guess I shouldn't give up, it gets better right?
 
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Dhruin said:
Anyone try this on a modest system? I'm quite happy with the graphics and the performance is pretty good but if the hit isn't too much…

Do I understand correctly that you can just disable this from the launcher if the performance hit is too high?
Click to expand...

Yes, you simply uncheck the corresponding boxes in the Data Files options.

In my case, I'm playing on a laptop with a very modest GPU and so far I haven't experienced any noticeable reduction in fps from the texture pack.

GothicGothicness said:
After fighting with steam for a couple of hours I managed to buy it…. sometimes I wounder why I even bother….. still I was curious what it'd look like and it has been getting a lot of good reviews and nods even from here.

No crashes or anything. Still dissapointed with how the game looks on highest setting though. I can only imagine how bad it looked before the high-res texture pack.

Gameplay is pretty bad so far too. I don't have much of a motivation to go on playing after just a few hours. But I guess I shouldn't give up, it gets better right?
Click to expand...

If you dislike the graphics and gameplay that much that you want to quit after a few hours, you are probably not going to enjoy it more at higher level. IMO the best part of the game is the lower levels when every encounter is dangerous and you must scrounge for crappy armor and weapons.
 
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Wow...GG bought Skyrim! Why? If anyone was ever more predisposed to hate something, I'd be surprised. I guess she bought it so that she can bitch about it for the next 10 years, like she has the other games in the series. Oh well, guess I'll have to put her on ignore again. Does she ever say anything positive about anything that isn't Gothic or her piece of vaporware?

It'd be the equivalent of me going out and renting Brokeback Mountain :D
 
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slam23 said:
I have browsed some discussion about why this happens and it seems the most likely reason is that if you have a 32 bit system, about max 3,5 GB of RAM can be used for texturing, regardless how much GB you have installed.
Click to expand...

It baffles me why anyone on Win7 would chose to install the 32bit version. Come join the present with the rest of us! :p
 
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GothicGothicness said:
After fighting with steam for a couple of hours I managed to buy it…. sometimes I wounder why I even bother….. still I was curious what it'd look like and it has been getting a lot of good reviews and nods even from here.

No crashes or anything. Still dissapointed with how the game looks on highest setting though. I can only imagine how bad it looked before the high-res texture pack.

Gameplay is pretty bad so far too. I don't have much of a motivation to go on playing after just a few hours. But I guess I shouldn't give up, it gets better right?
Click to expand...

If you like open world, sandbox CRPGs that have no forced plot then it is a awesome game. If you need to be hand held in your CRPG then you are setting yourself up to be frustrated. Also use 3rd person for combat MUCH better experience.
 
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