RUSTIC FARMHOUSES

This Skyrim mod replaces the farmhouse textures with enhanced versions of the Bethesda textures as well as new textures of my own. The aim was to remain true to the original design, but to offer greater detail and variety to the textures. Keeping the textures performance friendly was a high priority. All textures in the farmhouse folder are covered.

There are two versions of this mod. The Regular version has 1024x1024 diffuse (color) and normal map textures (of the main architecture), while the Reduced version has 512x512 normal maps for better performance.

I originally created this mod for myself, since I only have 1GB of VRAM available in my rather unorthodox setup (running on a Mac via a virtual machine). My philosophy regarding textures, is that they should be sized appropriately to the actual size of the object in the game. Therefore, small objects don't get hi-res textures, because the extra detail is largely wasted in normal gameplay, and they impact performance. But with architectural textures, there is a point where reducing size has a real negative impact on the visual quality. Therefore, I use 1K diffuse (color) textures for most architectural textures. For best results, a matching 1K normal map is used. However, when performance becomes an issue, more VRAM can be saved by reducing the normal maps to 512x512. This is recommended for people who have lower-end computers.

The original design of the farmhouses was perfectly fine in my view. They looked appropriate for Skyrim's people and landscape. There were only two glaring issues that I saw:

1. The windows were flat out AWFUL!. Opaque and ugly. There really is no excuse for how bad they are... none. 2. The fur pelts looked too bland and generic. It's hard to tell exactly what animal they were meant to depict in the first place.

In both cases, I designed completely new textures. The high placement of the windows made it clear that they were intended to let in light, not be something to look through. Therefore, I decide a thick glass block design would offer the best insulation for the harsh Skyrim climate. The pelts were taken from my Pelts of Skyrim mod, but were further enhanced to bring out more detail. The pelt diffuse textures are the largest textures in the mod. It was necessary to make these the same size as the hi-res packs, since they are scaled up in the game to cover large areas of the floors. Making them 1K would've sacrificed too much detail. The normal maps are half-size though, so that saves a bit of resources. The Reduced version does offer a 1K version of the pelts for further performance gain.

The remaining textures are modified from the originals, with enhanced detail, definition, and variety. My aim was to preserve as much of the original design as possible, only to make them better.

Now, who is this mod re