elder scrolls mod development thread

[BossDaddy]

I hope you like it and it's useful to you. Sure, I'll work on converting a Thalmor model. Are you wanting the Thalmor robes or the Elven armor set? I could provide the model unrigged to you as well. If there is something you would like to work on I could upload it to you. Also, do you have the White Gold tower for the imperial city? I converted that a while ago and I thought it looked very nice in game.

 

[ramzay1945]

It was the robes of the Thalmor that were meant.
There are no questions about the architecture yet, I still need to check everything. In any case, all the important buildings of the imperial city (the White Gold Tower, the University of Arcanum, and many others) have long been included in the game.
However, there is something else that I did not include. For example, the Blue Palace of Solitude. Also, I don't like the models I have of the Sky Forge and the Bard College. Also, I can't get around to reducing the size of Vivec Palace and Mournhold's Temple.
You can download the current version on my discord channel and see what's there. If you do not like any of the available models, I am always happy to find a replacement for them. I have a link to the channel in my signature.

 

[BossDaddy]

I'll download the mod, but I won't have much time to look through it until the weekend. I'll see about grabbing the Blue Palace tonight and also the Sky Forge and Bard's college. Are you using Vivec's Palace and Mournhold's Temple from Morrowind? If you need those reduced and they're already in you mod, I should be able to help with that. I think I remember that there are nice models for ordinators that were done for Oblivion and Skyrim. Since you have been working on the Dunmer, would you like me to check on those? There are a lot of models associated with the Dunmer in Skyrim's DLC.

 

[ramzay1945]

It is these models of Ordinators that I have already used. They are in the game. I've already taken a lot from Skyrim and Oblivion, but not everything looks pretty enough On the other hand, there are also examples of successful works, as in the picture below.

Spoiler :

The Palace of Vivec and the Temple of Mournhold are indeed taken from Morrowind. I can upload them separately, if it's more convenient.

 

[BossDaddy]

Those look fantastic. Very, very nice work and really immersive. If could could upload Vivec's Palace and Mournhold's Temple, I would appreciate it. I can't wait to look through the mod. This feels very Elder Scrolls.

 

[ramzay1945]

Here they are. I also remembered about the Ministry of Truth.
All of these buildings are simply copied from Morrowind without much improvement. The problem with such models is the use of a large number of materials for individual segments. To put everything in one texture is sometimes not enough desire

 

[BossDaddy]

Looks like the Blue Palace and the Bard's College already had LOD meshes so I only needed to convert them. I don't think the detailed mesh and texture would really make a difference, but that's your call. Did you want them as buildings/wonders? I threw them in as improvements so they could be seen a little easier in game. Here's a screen shot and a video:

https://gyazo.com/c776115915840db37d217d3f2e9ad57a

The Ministry, Shrine, and Vivec Palace look great, but those are a lot of texture files. I've never looked at Morrowind files, but I knew that Oblivion and Skyrim buildings do that and I hate it. How much is devoted to loading all the textures in the nif? We could always combine the meshes into one and then reduce the polycount of that. If accessing multiple textures isn't that intensive, that could be something.

 

[BossDaddy]

I didn't have time to rig this, but I did want to provide it to you in case you wanted to get started. I added an Altmer head to this too. The head really only needs the MaleHead.dds files. The robes can lose the _n.dds files also. I left everything in case you wanted it all. First screenshot is the low poly and the second is the full poly. There not a difference that I can tell so the low poly would be best.

 

[ramzay1945]

Oh, yeah. I used approximately the same LOD models. You can see them when you download the mod, they are not much different. The problem is that it's these three lod models (blue palace, bard college, sky forge) that I don't like. That's why I asked about these models. For example, I use lod models for Yorrvaskr and Thirsk Mead Hall. And these models are quite beautiful.

Many of the textures used are similar and interchangeable. There are always less than 10 of them in each building. The problem is that not everything can be combined into one, since some meshes crawl far beyond the central grid of coordinates in UV sets. Therefore, reducing the models of Morrowind buildings is a problem that I have not yet solved due to laziness and lack of desire.

I can't start on my own. I'm too busy with some interesting mechanics that I want to include in the next release. I plan to finish by mid-May, so that I can fully publish everything. So I will be happy if you can add the skeletons of the longbowman and the horsearcher to them.

In any case - thank you! I am happy for any help with the development of the mod.

P.s. The idea you mentioned earlier about worshipping individual deities or daedra is possible. Thanks to LPlate2. It remains to do it so that it looks comfortable.

 

[keldath]

mistake,
ignore

 

[BossDaddy]

I'll work on rigging the Thalmor to a longbowmen and horsearcher. Hopefully I can get something to you soon. I'll also try to see about using the full models of buildings. I was thinking that it might be possible to remove some of the pieces completely. A lot of the buildings use meshes that are very difficult to see. I was working on a shrine a while ago and was able to remove quite a bit that had no real loss of visual quality. I also saw what you mentioned about the UV maps. I looked at some and they wouldn't be possible to combine as is. I haven't tried baking new UV maps yet, but if I understand the process correctly, then this might be a possibility.

There is also this:https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76931?tab=files

I may have already downloaded this. If not, I will. I checked and the .dds files we're talking about are included in this.

 

[ramzay1945]

Still, textures will not fix the quality of the model itself.
These buildings do not break the atmosphere of the game, but in the future I would like to replace the models with more interesting ones.

 

[BossDaddy]

Joined your discord. Perusing nexus and I've found some other possibilities. A few that have new meshes as well. I'll peruse and share what I find.

 

[BossDaddy]

Looking for new meshes, but these textures are significantly better.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here's the mounted Thalmor. I put him on Ars Morendi's horse from FFH to test it. We can swap it to whatever you like. I've been thinking about doing a new horse anyway,

 

[ramzay1945]

Well, it's not a bad model. There were errors with the weight of the vertexes. And a couple of bones are incorrectly assigned. But it was all easy to fix, thanks

As for the textures, I've already said that I don't like the models themselves. They are very rough and primitive, and the textures will hardly fix it.

 

[BossDaddy]

Dude, that looks awesome. Very, very cool. Thanks for tweaking it. I'm still learning weight painting. I can get about 90% of a model, but that last little bit always gives me trouble. I'll keep looking for some meshes for the Blue Palace and Bard's College. I haven't been able to find a new mesh yet so the option might be to attempt to rework the full model.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here's the full poly vanilla Skyrim dragon. I can provide a lower poly version, but I thought you might like to see the entire model before I do.

 

[ramzay1945]

A little progress.
A Thalmor sorcerer. The original model - BossDaddy. I just finished it.

A new religious adviser. Now, if a player has accepted the worship of 8 divines or a daedra, they can choose who they want to worship. Thanks to LPlate2 for making this possible.
Perhaps I will refine the other religions or improve them in some other way.

Spoiler :

 

[BossDaddy]

How is this? It's different pieces from vanilla and modded Skyrim put together. It's a little hefty so I can reduce the poly count some more if you like it. The _n.dds aren't really needed I don't think. I'm not sure how much Civ 4 actually uses bump maps. I keep the file in the nif, but it's simple to remove.