RUSTIC MAPS

RUSTIC MAPS is a lore-friendly retexture of the two battle maps in the game. The main battle map is the detailed map done by the cartographer Nataly Dravarol in 4E 182. It has all the cities, hamlets, roads, rivers and other notable features illustrated. What makes it a "battle map", is it has circles and squares added to mark the imperial and stormcloak strongholds. The second battle map is the simple hand-drawn map that marks the stormcloak and imperial encampments along with the joining roads. It's used as a reference for commanders in the field.

Version 2. 0 adds the Solstheim map textures. This simple map has 3 versions: Blank, single marker, and multiple markers. The original textures were only 1K and 512KB in size. Even though it's a rather crude map, it still deserved a little more detail to fit with the other maps in game.

Hodilton's video of the LE version clearly shows the difference in detail versus the vanilla maps.

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One may think it's overkill to use a 4K texture for something like a map, but, if you really want all the text and details to be sharp in game, then that's what's required. For the the cruder "field" map, that may not be necessary, since it's not very detailed to begin with. However, I'm offering it for those who want it.

The vanilla battle map textures are only 1K for SSE. Personally, I don't believe they really contain enough detail to make the text legible. 2K resolution seems like a necessity to get any meaningful detail into the maps. 4K is required to get the best appearance on the wall-sized maps. I'm offering a version with a half-sized normal map to help conserve resources, since a map doesn't have much relief anyway. Therefore, the normal map has secondary importance (and it's shared between the two textures). You won't see a big difference when using a reduced sized normal map.

I tried to maintain the original aged, worn, and dirty look, while still making the important details standout enough to be clearly legible. Choose the version which suits your particular setup.

Map textures are saved in BC7 compression to eliminate artifacts and give the best detail in game. SkyrimFantom was kind enough to make the German text translation for the main map for LE, so there's an "Auf Deutsch" version in the "optional" downloads section. Choose the appropriate size for your setup. These are also now available in BC7 compression for SSE.

"MAPS... They don't love you like I love you" - Karen O