CodeX Potato Mode 1K – Lower VRAM Usage for CodeX (1K Texture Version)
The following content is machine-translated from Chinese, and the Chinese version shall prevail.
CodeX Potato Mode 2K – Lower VRAM Usage for CodeX (2K Texture Version)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3690028780
1、This mod is a low-effort creation
2、All DDS files are sourced from CodeX. Therefore, the copyright of the compressed DDS files belongs to the original author of CodeX, @千年最強伝説と光の勇者天童アリスです.
TL;DR: Only FXAA is enabled, MSAA is off, Shadows and Water Quality are only set to High. Otherwise, even if VRAM is sufficient, GPU usage will stay at 100% and cause frame drops. I forgot which map I used for testing.
1、Use a shader mod-compatible launcher to manage, load and sort the mods: 81, CodeX, and this mod;
2、Place this mod below CodeX in the load order. In theory, this mod is compatible with any mod that does not modify the DDS files of CodeX itself.
Q: How does this work?
A: A script is used to downscale all DDS files of 2K resolution or higher to 1K level. This mod has compressed the original 25.6GB of 4K and 2K textures down to 4.26GB.
Q: Why am I still running out of VRAM after installing your mod?
A: This mod can only reduce the VRAM usage of CodeX, and cannot guarantee that you will never run out of VRAM (there is really nothing I can do about this). The author uses two monitors, which take up more than 1GB of VRAM just on system boot. Please lower your graphics settings.
Q: Why do some units look blurry in-game?
A: This mod downscales all DDS texture files of 2K resolution or higher to 1K level. Therefore, units that originally used 2K or 4K textures will inevitably look blurry.
Q: What’s the difference between this and just lowering the texture settings in the game options?
A: There is a difference. The total VRAM usage of a 4K texture’s full mip chain is 4/3 that of a single 4K texture (far larger than the mip chain of a 1K texture). The game’s built-in texture quality reduction cannot remove the mip chain from the source files, so the VRAM is still occupied by the full mip chain. By manually replacing the source files with 1K versions, the total size of the mip chain is drastically reduced, resulting in a real, tangible drop in VRAM usage.
Q: Why is there texture misalignment?
A: Compressing DDS files can sometimes cause issues. If you confirm that the problem is caused by this mod (e.g. the issue does not occur when only using CodeX), please leave a comment in the comment section. Thank you.
Q: Will this mod be updated?
A: If CodeX only adds new DDS textures without modifying existing ones, the compatibility of this mod will not be affected, though VRAM usage may increase. If there is a severe compatibility issue, please leave a comment in the comment section. Thank you.
