RUSTIC DRAGON CORPSE

A mode that adds the difference between freshly killed dragons and old dragon remains. Available in 4K and 2K texture versions.

RUSTIC DRAGON CORPSE adds GORY and CLEAN versions of dragon skeletons, which provide separate textures for freshly killed dragons and old dragon skeletons. Fresh Kills is gory and gory, while the Long Death Skull (or mounted skull) is a clean version without the fleshy sinews. After Dovahkiin absorbs the dragon's soul, a bloody recreation of the dragon's skeleton is revealed.

The skeleton is quite bulky, so the vanilla texture looks rather blurry in the game. The extreme protrusion of the vertebrae makes matters worse, as they stretch the texture a considerable amount. For SSE, I've saved the normal maps in BC7 compression to help minimize the loss of detail due to the mesh stretching the texture.

In order to get any reasonable detail in the game, you need a very large dragon skeleton mesh texture. Even at 4K you'll have some blur, but that's the size needed to make the dragon corpse blend in with the other detailed textures. There's just one problem, 4K uses a lot of VRAM, and the dual-layer textures come in at 21.3MB... There are two of the dragon skeletons. The normal map is naturally a two-layer texture, but so is the diffuse as it has an alpha mask applied to the tendons of the bones. That's a whopping 42.6MB for a dragon corpse.

Fortunately, there is a way to reduce VRAM load. Because the diffuse mask is a simple "knockout" type (no transparency involved), it can be adjusted to 1-bit alpha. Doing this saves the double layer color texture so that it is only as large as the single layer texture. Therefore, the diffuse reflection is now 10.6MB. This equates to VRAM savings. The trade-off is that you don't get the smooth edges of the tendons, but the 1-bit "stepped" edges are not noticeable in the 4K textures. In my opinion, the VRAM savings are well worth the visual sacrifice.

Because the dragon skeleton had been buried for centuries, I tried to give the bones a more rugged and weathered look. As bones age, they dry out and develop cracks and fissures. Although the keel bones are very strong, I still feel that after being buried for so long, they should show real signs of age.

Due to the size of these textures, and the fact that people play at different resolutions and have different VRAM limits, I made two versions to accommodate as many people as possible. There is no 1K version because it doesn't make sense. The dragon skeleton is one of the largest objects in the game, so the 1K texture is just a blurry mess. Available is a full 4K version and a 2K version.

As always, choose the size that works for your specific setup. I hope people enjoy this new addition to my series of Rustic remakes.

cheers,

Gamwich

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RUSTIC DRAGON CORPSE adds GORY and CLEAN versions of the dragon skeleton which have separate textures for freshly killed dragons, and old dragon skeletons. Fresh kills are bloody and gory, while the long dead skeletons (or mounted skulls) are the clean version without the fleshy tendons. The gory retexture of the dragon skeleton is revealed after the Dovahkiin absorbs the dragon's soul.

The skeleton is quite huge, so the vanilla texture looks quite blurry in game. The extreme protrusions of the vertebrae make things worse, since they stretch the texture a fair amount. For SSE, I've saved the normal maps in BC7 compression to help minimize the loss of detail due to the mesh stretching the textures.

To get any kind of reasonable detail in the game, you need a very large texture for the dragon skeleton mesh. Even at 4K, you'll have some blurring, but that's the size necessary to make the dragon corpse fit in with other detailed textures. There's only one problem, 4K uses a good chunk of VRAM, with a double layer texture coming in at 21.3MB... and the dragon skeleton has two. The normal map naturally is a dual layer text …