Retexture - Part 5 : The Soul Cairn

RETEXTURE PART 5

- The Soul Cairn -

Welcome in the Cairn!

1) INTRODUCTION
Hi,

The fifth article about retexture.
I was very exited to do it. But I wanted something unique and original.

Indeed, the Soul Cairn is a very special and unique place in the game. Only available with the Dawnguard DLC. So, I think this choice is interesting for those who want to work on details.

You have several good reasons to retex the Soul Cairn.
- The place is FPS friendly
- This quest is a little bit long (depends how many quests you accept), and a better place is welcome to watch details in the game.
- The place is dark in a vanilla Skyrim. This can become darker with an ENB. So, with better textures, you'll have finest finishing and better reflection. A better vision too. Well, an enjoyable journey :)....even in the Soul Cairn :)

Note : This article shows 4K images as usual. They are native resolution. For a better result I used the incredible Rebalance Light ENB.

Diana makes a visit to the reaper

Terrain textures

2) CREDIT

Before I start my article, I need to credit someone. Yes, this retex is not available on the Nexus and this file can be hard to find. This person shared with me some interesting links and we spoke about retexture. Then, I discovered rare textures of the Soul Cairn.

So, let me introduce you Dreamsteamer https://www.nexusmods.com/users/27124004
Thank you for the link and all discussions. 
The proof that sharing is the best solution to improve.

Altar

Lightning strike on the gravestone

Chests are perfect

3) WHAT IS THIS MOD?


This mod is "SKYRIM REALIST OVERHAUL", and this mod contains some amazing textures (2K and 4K).
This mod contains textures that you'll not find anywhere else.
Skyrim Realist Overhaul (SRO) is only textures. Easy to use.
As usual , on Skyrim Scandal, We will only pick up textures which have an interest for us.
I made several researches on the Nexus but I didn't find anything about the Soul Cairn and textures.
All famous mods don't provide textures for this unique place. Noble Skyrim, Skyrim HD, Pfuscher, Renthal, Amidian, Vivid Landscapes, etc......all these mods don't retex the Soul Cairn.
Of course, If I missed a mod, you are free to tell me what mod retex the Soul Cairn.

SRO has a content for the Soul Cairn. The spirit of SRO is very simple. It drastically increase quality while keeping artistic look of original textures.

Skyrim Realist Overhaul http://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-realistic-overhaul 
To download, you must register I believe. It's worth.

Download every parts in a seperate folder on your hard drive to have a global view of the content of SRO. The complete file is very huge (10GB).
I repeat, do not instal all the files in your data. We are going to take only specific textures.

Energy

Searching the chest

4) THE RETEX IS EASY

This time, we'll not need to mix textures between several mods, because we only use SRO. And Soul Cairn SRO textures will not overwrite anything I presume. I doubt a lot of you have a retex of the Soul Cairn.

An happy day!

Fissure

Athmosphere

5) TEXTURES LOCATION

Textures of the Soul Cairn are in:

- For the terrain:  data/textures/dlc01/landscape 

- For buildings and structures :  data/textures/dlc01/soulcairn

You can check your own actual folders or your Mod Organizer to see if you already have these textures.
If you haven't, then, this article is for you.
If you already have something in these folders, maybe it's time for a comparison :)

I didn't find a retex for black trees and black bushes. Mine are vanilla I believe. The result is fine.

Better gravestones

Architecture

Global view

6) APPLY TEXTURES

The process is easy.

STEP 1

In SRO, just go to "data/textures/dlc01/landscape", and select all textures with the word "soulcairn".

• soulcairnbones01

• soulcairndirt01/02/03/04/05/06

• soulcairnrock01

• Take all corresponding _n.dds too

Copy paste in your own skyrim/data/textures/dlc01/landscape

STEP 2

In SRO, just go to "data/textures/dlc01/soulcairn" and select all textures. All these textures are linked to the soul cairn.

• They are walls, alters, doors, chests, gravestone, craters, floor, stairs, trims.

Copy them all in your own skyrim/data/textures/dlc01/soulcairn

Personal Note : You can do it manualy like me or you can use Mod Organizer.
For MO, just create your own compressed  .rar or .7z file before, then instal them with MO.

Both solutions are good. Chose your favorite method

Diana has the power to change the weather

Shiny grounds

True Roofs

7) RESULT

The result is very good and the improvement is really important.
SRO keeps the original spirit of the game with finest textures. The cairn has much more details.
Walls are more vibrant and in my case, the reflection with lights and lightings is better.

Ground textures are clean and transitions are perfect too. They are 2K.

I really like gravestones now. they are very creepy :)
New chests and alters are much more detailed (2K) now and we want to loot more.
All craters are amazing.

Walls and windows

Graveyard

Entrance

Gravestones

8) DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE SKY?

This retex doesn't touch the sky. But, with ENBS, sometimes you can have strange results or straight line in the Soul Cairn sky. I had this problem.

Hopefuly, a fix exists. You just have to download this mod.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/22854/

It's a new mesh for the soul cairn sky.

• It's called " dlc01soulcairnsky01 "

Put it in your data/meshes/sky

Use this mod only if you have a problem between your ENB and the soul cairn sky color.

Crater

Jump in the Soul Cairn!!

Not a problem!

9) IT'S DONE

Yes, it's done. Nothing more, nothing less.
A small effort for a maximum result. 
This retex is interesting for the gameplay experience and for screenarchers too. Screenshots will be finest and much more detailled. 

I hope you liked this article. Simple and efficient as usual.
Better textures for a better game. And now you have discovered SRO....for those who don't know this mod. The proof you can find nice stuff outside Nexus. SRO has really some unique content and the resolution is really good.
As usual, a comparison is necessary with all existing mods. Chose textures according to your own taste and according to your ENB palette.
Select their resolution (1K, 2K, 4K) according to your GPU too.

So, do not hesitate to visit the Soul Cairn to watch the result. Maybe you missed some quests........
That's maybe the good moment to find the ten pages of Jiub's book spread across the Soul Cairn......Ahahahah

Regards

Marmotte