Questions about parallax

[Nicbloub]

Whats up!
So i have a few questions about parallax. I understand the basics of it and how to enable with ENB or community shaders.
That being said, there are still a few things im not sure.
Parallax meshes, do they need to be loaded before or after textures ?
Some (a lot) of mods tell you they only provide parallax textures and then you gotta have your own meshes. Where do i get these meshes ? Most of these mods dont mention wich meshes to use. I find it very confusing. Is there a set of meshes i can install wich will allow parallax on any supported textures i choose ? Or does a texture requires its own parallax meshes ? If thats the case, we are back to the question: wich meshes to choose ?

Some clarity would be very helpful. Also, if you use any good combination or meshes/textures with parallax that you like, feel free to share, ill definitely try it out !
Thx

[Nicbloub]

damn, nobody ?

[smr1957]

Hi, Nicbloub! I posted in the Coffee House thread asking for someone to take a moment to explain it. Hopefully, someone will respond, so just be patient a while longer.

Good luck!

[Avrie]

Originally posted by Nicbloub:

Whats up!
So i have a few questions about parallax. I understand the basics of it ... snip

Some clarity would be very helpful. Also, if you use any good combination or meshes/textures with parallax that you like, feel free to share, ill definitely try it out !
Thx

Hi Nicbloub, Remember the forums are global. When you post in the 'wee hours' You have to be a little patient. ;-)

"I understand the basics" to a point, but evidently not really. Meshes are the framework textures are hung on and provide the basic shape of the 'thing' whether it's a rock, tree, or just the ground. Remove the concept of parallax from the mesh, it's just a shape.

Textures can be parallax enabled, which simply put is a different type of UV map that allows the tessellation algorithm to provide 'depth' which is them passed on to the lighting mod for instance to generate appropriate shadows based on those improved height maps. You don't need to get deep in the technical as an end user, just be aware that textures get mapped not meshes.

You already know how to enable them in your ENB or using the community shaders complex parallax options, so basically your questions all boil down 'what do I do with the textures that are not parallax enabled, in a parallax build' And of course, the answer is mods LOL.

Auto Parallax by doodlum
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/79473
"SKSE plugin which automatically disables parallax on meshes which have missing height textures or conflict with single-pass shaders."

That mod has been the godsend of parallax, and allows you to add parallax textures as individual mods as well as full on texture sets.

As to recommendations... Everyone's taste is different which is how it should be viewed. There are a lot of high end texture sets by some of the top modders in Skyrim. Pfuscher, Wizkid, Doodllum, Skyking2020, Mysterious Dawn... Unfortunately there's also a lot of crap out there to wade through by new modders that don't understand the subtleties of a well blended height map.

I personally love Wizkid's take on the world...
https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/wizkid34/mods?gameId=1704

Atlantean Landscape -Complete- Complex Terrain Parallax
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/89542
"This is the "all in one" version of my Atlantean series. Includes mountain and road textures."

Start there...

[Corinze]

I would try doing a search on these forums.
https://stepmodifications.org/forum/forum/151-skyrim-special-edition-se/

Personally I love the effects but parallax so dang annoying. Try to stay with better know authors like Pfusher, Wizkid, Tomatoe, and read everything. I hope I spelled their names correctly.

Parallax should load after texture mods. You really need to just download a lot and see what you personally like. If I had a better glue, I'd offer more but I'm struggling through this too - gl

Edit - Listen to Avrie, he is way smarter than me lol