Retexture - Part 2 : Mines

RETEXTURE - PART 2

Mines

Hi,
Today, the second volume of my new serie "retexture". And we are speaking about mines.
The first volume about the terrain https://skyrimscandal.blogspot.com/2017/10/retexture-part-1-terrain.html?zx=1c1ed7303c0b3992 had a very decent feedback and appreciation, so i continue.
For your own comfort, i'm going to create an easy shortcut about "Retexture articles" in the sidebar of my blog. An easy navigation is important. So, you'll be able to find easily any subjects about retexture on the main page.
All shots are 4K.

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Mines are very easy to retexture. Why? Because mines only need a few textures. The process is fast. It's better to start with easy parts (the time to understand the structure of the game). Nordic ruins or cities are a little bit longer to improve.
For this article, My character Kissmiax will follow you during this article. She will tell you important informations. Orcs and mines are linked...definitly.

Precision : the article is about MINES...not caves. that's different.

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Pfuscher's woods

Pfuscher's walls and woods

Parallax

Mines textures can be found in folder Data/textures/dungeons/mines

You will not meet any difficulties to improve your mines. 

We are speaking about interiors. 

That's means you can use very heavy textures (mainly 2K or 4K or both). Ultra high definition textures will not have a lot of impact on your fps.

For GPU with less than 2GB memory, 2K is a good choice.

For GPU with more than 2GB memory, you can use easily 2K or 4K textures. You should have a very solid 60fps (in 1920*1080).

Mines are fps friendly. Try and experiment.

As usual, a lot of mods are available to retex your game. However, somes are better compare to others.

I tried a lot of possibilities and my final choice is always the same.

So, for mines, here are my suggestions.

- Parallax mines 4K by Pfuscher https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58242/?

- AmidianBorn Mines 2K or 1K by Cabal https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39190/?

- Skyland by Johnrose81 (2K) https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/80157/? I use it only for a specific texture.

I haven't selected Noble skyrim (2K/1K) https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/45807/? and i haven't selected The Beauty of Skyrim - caves and mines https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30631/?

Noble and Beauty miss something...not enough precise, weak n.dds and sometimes pixelated.

Skyrim HD don't retex mines (why???)  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/?

I haven't found mines textures in VIVID landscapes.

Maybe i missed others good mods...feel free to tell me that.

To have insane mines, you must retex walls, grounds, woods and ores.

The easiest way to retex rapidly your mines is to use AmidianBorn mines 2K. For lazy users, that's the best choice quality/result/time.

However, you can go further.

I strongly recommend you to use Pfuscher's mines as a base. These are superb 4K and with great relief. The best in my opinion. Lights (torches and lanterns) react very well to textures.

Pfuscher provides meshes with parallax and it works perfectly. He provides the best wood quality (4K) and a very clean ground (4K). That's the best in my opinion. It's a recommendation, however, you are free to use and to try what you want. Textures are a personnal choice.

Pfuscher's work is great...except maybe his ore veins and i wanted something different. For ore veins, i found recently some very nice textures in Skyland (link above). To change your veins, just pick mineore01.dds, mineore01_n.dds and mineore01_p.dds in Skyland and put them in your mines folder (replace Pfuscher's ore).

These veins fit very good with Pfuscher.

Skyland : Mineore

For mine roots, just take mineroots01.dds from Pfuscher's textures and put it in your mines folder.

With this solution, your mines will be complete and clean.

But you can go further...again 😆 and you can add some diversity to your walls.

You probably know Renthal. this modder retexes a lot of things in Skyrim. He removed all his old work unfortunatly. So, do some researches to find it. You will find important and usefull contents.

And he did some mines textures......incredible! the mod name : renthal RHDS

Overview in Gimp: (not bad, isn't it!)

Renthal's rare mines textures

 I can't upload the mod here. I don't own his work....it's not my job. If you don't find it or if you really need it, just write me on my nexus account.

So, i only use one of Renthal's textures to have varied mines walls...and in 4K. I just take Renthal's minerockwall04.dds and minerockwall04_n.dds, and i put them in my mines folder.

A very nice mix with Pfuscher and Skyland.

Some examples:

Pfuscher + Renthal + Skyland

So, like in my "terrain article", you can see i like to mix textures to obtain a personal result. Feel free to do the same or not. You can mix all you want to build your own game.

Of course, in mines you will find clutters, objects, plants. Just use what you want for now. This will be another article.

Just some examples: Sometimes, in mines you can find dirtcliffsroots, pickaxes, mushrooms, ores and ingots.

Pfuscher's dirtcliffsroots

Some suggestions : 

                                Dirtcliffsroots https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59716/?

                                Ores and ingots https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/84597/?

                                Pickaxes https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68186/?

                                Mushrooms https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/61289/?

That's all for mines :) I hope you like the article. That's easy and short as usual...but , maybe some of you have found new textures. Do it!! really! retex your mines! Doesn't cost any FPS, it's free and your game experience will be better. I hope Kissmiax convinced you with that.

Now , you're a true miner.

MARMOTTE