TES Skyrim

[Pfuscher]

Like kontrapunkt says... bigger is not always better.
In most cases you wont even see the 4k mipmap, but the lower resolution ones. The only time you really see the big one is on large models, and up close. Otherwise it will be the 2k and 1k or lower you see anyways. However you still load in everything.

For me 4k is mainly reserved for characters and armors, and stuff you want to see up close. Also 4k on characters does help reduce artifacts. I prefer 4k with compression over 2k without for example.

Another issue with 4k is the amount of detail you can put into the texture. It just makes so that it does not fit at all. It is really difficult to actually create consistent textures at higher resolution that does not overdo it. Especially with landscape.
One thing that really annoys me with some of the 4k ones is that they do not tile very well at all. This is not an issue if you have grass covering up the majority of your gameworld.. but I do not and hence I do see the tiling and it is just not pretty.
in that case even a 1k will actually look overall better.. as long as you do not stare directly down into the ground and look at only one pebble.

Actually the landscape tiles are a pretty big "object" in skyrim, it's right after rocks in the terms of profiting from a 4k.
4k tiles exactly the same as 2k or 1k. I think you just downloaded a 4k that's actually a 4 x 2K texture (I have done that, too)
Of course the texture needs not only to be seamless but to have nearly the same brightness/color at the edge (I have made that mistake, too)
Or otherwise the tiling will be more visible.

4k with compression is always better than 2k without, as long the object isn't too small. Or if we are talking about normal maps, then it's roughly the same, but the 2k is easier to change afterwards and faster to save.


@Kontrapunkt: Real Girls are fantastic textures. But it's simple math. Face textures use ~90% of the 4096x4096. If you have a closeup of the face you look at everything but the back.
Let's say that's ~70%. Now you are still at 25850x2580 and your monitor only displays 1920x1080. And with stuff as pixel density and human's having small pores, you can see barely a difference between compressed and uncompressed, because the monitor only displays 2/3 of wrong pixels because of the compression and also because it's hard to see a wrong one which is a slightly darker pink than it should be.
If you have a 4k monitor, which are getting cheaper and cheaper, now that's a whole different story.

Working on roads again, still a wip as it needs quite a bit polishing. Parallax, normals and specular isn't good enough yet.

[Nazgren]

I certainly don't doubt that someone like Frozenswaidon could make a better 256 texture then any 4K texture I could ever make, but his 4K textures undoubtedly look better then his 1/2K textures. Assuming a good modder, the difference in quality each time you go up a res tier decreases, to the point where I don't think it would be noticeable above 8K, but the increase in quality is there. It's our eyes that prevent us from being able to appreciate any further increase. Until we get some form of virtual reality which can feed uncompressed images directly into our visual cortex and bypass our eyes Geordie from Star Trek next gen style, there won't be any point in going further then 8K textures imho. But yeah, we're going massively off topic, unfortunately I'm on my iPad fitting a bathroom sink so can't post any screenshots atm.

Edit:
That road looks great! Parallax looks good to my eye but then as I said, iPad screen, 2048 x 1536 it may be, but will still look different on PC. Can't wait to see it when it's done.

[Unreal]

All good modders like Hein (Vivid Landscapes) and Cabal recommend 1k to 2k textures because you won't see any difference.

That's funny and... wrong.

[klotim]

Like kontrapunkt says... bigger is not always better.
In most cases you wont even see the 4k mipmap, but the lower resolution ones. The only time you really see the big one is on large models, and up close. Otherwise it will be the 2k and 1k or lower you see anyways. However you still load in everything.

For me 4k is mainly reserved for characters and armors, and stuff you want to see up close. Also 4k on characters does help reduce artifacts. I prefer 4k with compression over 2k without for example.

Another issue with 4k is the amount of detail you can put into the texture. It just makes so that it does not fit at all. It is really difficult to actually create consistent textures at higher resolution that does not overdo it. Especially with landscape.
One thing that really annoys me with some of the 4k ones is that they do not tile very well at all. This is not an issue if you have grass covering up the majority of your gameworld.. but I do not and hence I do see the tiling and it is just not pretty.
in that case even a 1k will actually look overall better.. as long as you do not stare directly down into the ground and look at only one pebble.

I certainly don't doubt that someone like Frozenswaidon could make a better 256 texture then any 4K texture I could ever make, but his 4K textures undoubtedly look better then his 1/2K textures. Assuming a good modder, the difference in quality each time you go up a res tier decreases, to the point where I don't think it would be noticeable above 8K, but the increase in quality is there. It's our eyes that prevent us from being able to appreciate any further increase. Until we get some form of virtual reality which can feed uncompressed images directly into our visual cortex and bypass our eyes Geordie from Star Trek next gen style, there won't be any point in going further then 8K textures imho. But yeah, we're going massively off topic, unfortunately I'm on my iPad fitting a bathroom sink so can't post any screenshots atm.

The reason why some 4K textures works better than 2K is not that complicated to understand.
4K textures is easier to work on when texturing as you can see the details really up close, making it easier for you to make the small details stand out. Ultimately a 2K texture with small details wont have the sharp scratches or whatever you have on your diffuse while a 4K does. BUT a 2K texture works excellent when you don't have a lot of small details, like woodplanks and flat surfaces with less details.
As of my textures, Some don't even need 4K textures but I always do anyway because some people wants the 4K textures while others want 2K/1K textures. I let the people choose.
Your eyes is not really limiting what you see unless your vision is damaged. It all depends on how big monitor you got and how good it is, the bigger monitor you got, the bigger textures is required. The same with models, the bigger the models, the bigger textures is required.
My 22' monitor looked really sharp with 2K textures but the 27' IPS monitor I have now really shows how much sharper the 4K textures is compared to the 2K textures.

[Aiyen]

Oh yeah I would always do 4k in photoshop or gimp... just because it is much easier and nicer to work with it there. And downscale normally does not ruin anything.. if it does one is really really going pixel hunting.

As for the landscape tiling... it is not anything technical that is an issue for me.. it is purely artistical. If you have too many details on those you will start to notice patterns much sooner. Since the individual texture area is not really that huge ingame, repetition become an issue really quickly. It is like I said not really a huge problem if you can afford larger grass densities.... but if you just look at the bare textures it looks bad.

@klotim: Now that you mention scrapes etc.. I would like to suggest that you try to make more emphasis for your scrapes etc. in your normal map. Most of the detail you currently have in your textures are really flat looking. To me it is really visible almost which brush you used to create them with in most cases! I do love the idea and think they add something lovely, but the normal map should help make them stand out a bit more. Perhaps a bit of specular highlight would help as well.

On that note... I do think it would be awesome if you could move the actual diffuse highlights into the specular instead. Would make the material look much more authentic.. but I know how massive a time invenstment that is to get right! But a man can dream!

[Unreal]

[klotim]

Pic taken with FOV 50 to show the details
JPG Compression ruins some. Better to see ingame when released.

SRTO Draugr 8K/4K/2K/1K, You decide.
And As I said before, 8K isn't necessary, 4K is enough but some people may want the 8K and will therefore be available.

[Nazgren]

OFC 8K on something like a Draugur is pointless, but on a Dragon? A Giant? Other large objects? 4K is plenty for human or smaller. Till you get to say cutlery, buckets etc, then 4k would be pointless.

Why not set steam to take PNG screenshots?

[winjer]

Those screeshots by Unreal look amazingly, almost realistic.
That's a very nice ENB you got there.

[klotim]

OFC 8K on something like a Draugur is pointless, but on a Dragon? A Giant? Other large objects? 4K is plenty for human or smaller. Till you get to say cutlery, buckets etc, then 4k would be pointless.

Why not set steam to take PNG screenshots?

Yes on a dragon, 8K is required. 4K-8K to be precise.
Anything big as a dragon would be recommended at 8K to see sharp details on close up.
Cutlery 2K yeah, some 4K depending on how much detail you need.

My uncompressed pics is on 8mb BMP, and all PNG pics is above the 2mb limit for nexus...