UPDATE VERSION 5.0 AVAILABLE: This version is a dramatic retexturing, to break up that bland feeling that the default mountain and rock formations have. I decided it was time to go back to the drawing board and revamp the mountain textures. I wanted to see if I could go beyond the limitation of the meshes, and create a real sense of depth into the rocks. Not just cracks, but crevices and fissures. My goal was to give the mountains and rocks a real weathered and eroded appearance. The centuries of snow and rain have taken their toll on the Skyrim landscape. I added more variation to the textures, so stones will look more individual from one another. This version features improved diffuse and normal map detail. The color blending between the two mountain textures and the normal maps is also improved. The enhanced 2K Rockset normal map has been updated as well. This texture gives shape and definition to the large rock formations (it's 2K, because the formations are quite large in game).

There are two versions, a Vanilla version that's tailored for the default lighting, and an ENB version, that's adjusted for ENB lighting. The main difference is in the spectral layer of the normal map, and how the texture reacts to the game lighting.

MOUNTAIN OR MOLEHILL is a performance friendly retexture of the Skyrim mountain/rock textures. There are quite a few retextures of the lackluster vanilla Bethesda grey putty that passes as a rock texture. Some of these textures are very detailed and quite decent, but none of them satisfied me.

I don't think there's a single texture in Skyrim as important to the overall appearance of the game as the mountain/rock texture. There are actually two textures, but it's really one "photo" texture, since they have to blend together. They have to appear very similar, or the seams will be extremely obvious. W're talking about essentially one image to represent everything from a small stone on the ground, to the side of a mountain. That's asking an awful lot of one texture. That's why I call this mod MOUNTAIN OR MOLEHILL..... this rock texture is a small thing, and also a very big thing at the same time. So, excuse me, if I make a mountain out of a molehill.

Despite the other authors' fine efforts, I still found the other retexture mods lacking. Regardless of the impressive detail of some, they all tended to look too similar overall. Little rocks looked just like big mountain slabs. My aim was to create a texture that had enough variation of color and detail, that rocks and mountains would not look too bland and repetitive. It needed to be a texture that looked good under different lighting conditions (at different times of the day).

I also wanted a texture that would blend well with the existing stonework of the cities and ruins of Skyrim. And, I wanted the rocks to blend well with the landscape itself, and not stick out like a sore thumb. In a climate as cold as Skyrim, the rocks and mountainsides would be exposed to constant freezing and thawing, so the rocks should show cracks and crevices that would be caused by such extreme weather. I'm a big fan of the MOSS ROCKS mod by SparrowPrince, so I wanted a texture that would show off the moss texture, and not obscure it.

Lastly, I wanted to create a texture that anyone could use, and not just be for the "I don't run anything but 4K textures on my rig" crowd. So, I did my best to optimize the quality and sharpness of my 2K textures. The normal map is 1K, because I've found that the "shape" texture isn't nearly as important in the overall appearance as the "photo" texture. Why use up extra resources for something that doesn't really add much? Again, my aim was to create a rock texture mod that anyone could run on their setup. I also retextured (and or) recolored all the mountain LOD files. So, the appearance of the mountains should blend well, whether in the distance, or up close. I also revised the large rock set normal map texture that is responsible for the shape of the large rock formations in Skyrim.

Whether I was successful in achieving my goals is for the Nexus community to judge. I put a lot of work into this mod, so I hope people enjoy it as much as I did creating it.

Installation: Use NMM, or to do manually, merely unzip the files and install them into your Data folder in your Skyrim game folder.

The file path is [C]Windows > Programs Files or Program Files (x86) > Steam > SteamApps > Common > Skyrim > Data > Textures > Landscape > Mountains

Uninstall: Deactivate with NMM, or just manually delete (or overwrite) the mountainslab01_n.dds, mountainslab01.dds, mountainslab02_n.dds, and mountainslab02.dds files.

For the mountain LOD files, the file path is The file path is [C]Windows > Programs Files or Program Files (x86) > Steam > SteamApps > Common > Skyrim > Data > Textures > Lod

Uninstall: Deactivate with NMM, or just manually delete (or overwrite) the mountainpeak01lod_n.dds, and mountainpeak01lod.dds, mountainslablod_n.dds, mountainslablod.dds, mountaintrimalphalod_n.dds, mountaintrimalphalod.dds, mtncliff01lod.dds, mtncliff02lod.dds, mtncliff03lod.dds, mtncliff04lod.dds, mtncliffsm01lod.dds, mtnpeak02lod.dds, mtnridge01lod.dds, mtnridge02lod.dds, mtnridge03lod.dds, mtnrtrimslabod.dds files, and rockset_n.dds.

Enjoy!
Gamwich