Scharesoft
05.06.2006, 23:39
Original Post von Razorwing:
-=DOWNLOAD ALPHA 05.7 HERE=- (http://www.blacklightcity.com/reichparkeep/Reich_Parkeep_Alpha05.7.7z)
(55 mb 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) file)
Released: June 4th, 2006.
CHECK OUT THE NEW VIDEO! (http://rapidshare.de/files/22160298/ReichParkeepAlpha05.7promo_06-06-04_www.silgrad.com.avi.html) :D (7 mins long, 38mb)
Index
1. The Dunmer warrior statue in Kali Gulas Square (the area is being reworked)
2. Closeup of the Redoran lightpost, then going down towards the beginning of the Redoran district of the city
3. A small cargo depot under the bridge, then flying vertically up along the gargantuan bridge's side and up along the statue (darn I wish we had a normal map for that marble texture)
4. Starting at the top of the Velothi Temple, zooming down past the statue of Almalexia and down to the second floor
5. Starting at the bottom of the same Temple, flying up
6. Entering the outdoors weapon shop
7. Zooming in through the hollow window of the weapons shop
8. Flyby of the statue of Azura. The texture error on the leaves is Bethesda's error :rofl: Guess I should retexture that little sucker, ey ^_^
9. Running across the handmade bridge, assembled from various parts and encased in collision boxes (I live for being able to mod those kinds of things), then swinging around to strafe the Redoran Barracks
10. The bamboo armor (by Dyn_sol) and spears (by Jannix Quinn) give a unique touch to the Redoran guards. Also continuing to do a flyby over the Barracks and seeing the Dunmer Temple in the distance.
11. Running on top of the "Council Club" building, meticuously encased in collision boxes, then coming down to see the patio and dinner table. Save for the grass and Weeping Willow trees, it's all custom-made.
12. Emperor parasols growing beneath the mammoth bridge.
13. Running up the hill from the Redoran district towards the South Imperial District.
14. A flyby through the Redoran Interior Tileset cell. Amazing footage! :D
15. The Dunmer Scrollshelf furniture piece, modelled by xchaosdragon666x, then Dunmer containers modelled by me, then Dunmer furniture modelled by gundalf.
16. Garden in the South Imperial District, showing many of our custom flora
17. From left to right, hackle-lo, scrib cabbage, ash yam and comberry. All modelled by me.
18. Entering "Nirtunus Rulucian's Home" in town, modded by sandor. He's voice acted, courtesy of Opaqe.
19. Entering "Ra'Viir's House", modded by X23.
20. Entering the Gatehouse interior, where a homeless person has a humble abode.
21. Exiting to the bridge, flying over the statue, modelled by Prometheus.
22. The painter, Sosia Saccus.
23. Approaching the Castle, currently being modded by HeIsTheDarkness. Strafe shot of the cool noticeboard.
24. Oogling the noticeboard then leaping through a back garden to find Petra Artorius - a lovestricken woman with a quest. Kindly voice acted by Opaqe's mother.
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CHANGES FROM ALPHA 05.6
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- The mod now comes both as an esm and esp. It's easy to confuse them because they're named alike, but you mustn't do that, because the esm only works for modding plugins and the esp only works for playing. It's now possible to mod plugins dependant on the main esm and take advantage of all the assets, as well as modding in places already added to the main esm. But you can't *play* with the esm because that will cause bugs to appear, derived from the annoying problem that master files can't affect master files. Esp's can though - that's why you can make your plugin dependant on Reich_Parkeep.esm and affect things in the world.
- Due to popular demand, I caved ;) and modelled a new Velothi entrance. The old one will be used for an Indoril embassy, which has yet to be modded/modelled in.
- gundalf created a collection of really awesome Dunmer furniture, which can be seen both in the test cell near the portal and on the patio outside the Council Building. He also modelled an impressive collection of Velothi columns, which we hope to see in-game soon as Velothi interior set pieces become available through his expert hands. One Velothi model from him, the brazier, is already in use and replaced the Indoril-style lampposts, which will be used in the embassy instead. Welcome to the team gundalf, I hope to see you stay in the team forever!
- I modelled two new Redoran storyblock models in conjunction with two new custom tile textures created by Zarf, which allows a modder to mod smoother edges and corners.
- The remainder of the old texturebaked models have been changed to proper ones.
- The Council Building can now be entered, but it's bare.
- The CS lists have been reorganized for more clarity.
- I fixed the opacity on the stoneflowers.
- I retextured the corkbulb and ash yam, and now they look much better. The ash yam has leaves now, like it's supposed to.
- I modelled a number of ingredient placement meshes.
- I fixed some stuff on other models too, particularly the flora, and made changes which I think are better in the long run. Unfortunately those changes displaced some of the already placed flora, so if you see floating black roses and such, I'm aware of them and will fix them all in due time.
- Redoran guards are now clad in bamboo armor, courtesy of Dyn_Sol : http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=804 The bamboo armor is intended as a placeholder until we got hold of custom bonemold armor, which is the default armor for Dunmer guards.
- Imperial and Redoran guards now wield spears and polearms, borrowed from the mod by Jannix Quinn. The other weapons from his mods are on display in an outdoors shop near the Temple. No-one's guarding them, so you can thieve them if you like :P
- Reich Parkeep has a symbol now - an eagle. It's only seen on banners so far, but hopefully we can make it appear on other stuff too.
- I fixed the pathspear set, so now it can tile on the snap-to-grid as well as the rope lining up properly.
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CHANGES FROM ALPHA 05 TO ALPHA 05.6
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There are two major updates to our mod in this release.
The first update is a complete Redoran interior tileset, which for the most part is normalmapped.
The other is that a majority of the existing models have been updated (through NifSkope) and now have normal maps in many places.
I trust my briefness doesn't lessen your impression of just how much work went into this - try it out for yourself and you'll see how I mean. :D
This time, just after you enter Reich Parkeep through the gate in Cheydinhal, you'll see a strange door to your front and left. Go through it, and you'll find yourself in the test cell which was created when the tileset was developed. The walls are for the most part encased in collision boxes, but I would still suggest keeping a safe enough distance from them since they might be "dangerous" in places.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the town as well - for the most part it's looking a lot better, thanks to NifSkope :D
I also remodelled the Council Club (the one next to the Temple that isn't the Guardtower), and it's looking a lot better now. I also did some misc enhancements to other models 'while I was at it' so to speak. NifSkope is totally awesome, but fixing textures can be tedious sometimes... especially when we're now looking at a collection of 297 models :D Truly, in some places, only the ground texture would give away that you're looking at an Oblivion mod. And the sensation of strolling through the familiar yet different Redoran halls once more is personally quite breathtaking. I keep thinking about what the Dunmer around the corner might say to me, had he been there. It's my sincerest hope that many more modders will join our team and help build the greatest Redoran city this side of Ald'ruhn :D
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SCREENSHOTS
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A Screenshots folder is included in this package.
Please also see the Reich Parkeep gallery album (but mind the dates, since there are outdated images there as well):
http://gallery.silgrad.com/thumbnails.php?album=50
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DESCRIPTION
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To make a long story short, our team modded a huge part of the Morrowind Province's mainland for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and our goal is to recreate that area on the new platform. From early 2005 to early 2006 we were been engaged in pre-work for our upcoming Oblivion mod - and now, as work has come a bit on the way, the pre-work we did has really paid off in the vast number of custom models we've brought in. Many more already finished models are waiting in the wings.
Our area is divided into three regions, called Blacklight, Reich Parkeep and Silgrad Tower. Each region represents a portion of the mainland, stretching from the border to Skyrim in the west to the coast of the Inner Sea to the east. It may sound strange to some, but as we modded for TES3 for 3½ years us "oldies" in the team know exactly what we want to do, and hopefully how to go about it.
So, our mod is being built from three different directions, and one of these directions originate in a town called Reich Parkeep - which I'm in charge of developing. In the near future there'll be releases of the other two regions as well, but those are administrated by others in the team so I can't speak too much about them. If you have any questions you are more than welcome to post a new thread on our forum, found at http://forum.silgrad.com/ .
Did you know that Reich Parkeep is a town based in lore, and that you could actually visit it in The Elder Scrolls I: Arena? It's true, and thanks to fellow team member Rodan we have lists of locations from all the towns in Arena. Characters hidden in the deepest recesses of lore, like Vaniken R'i, stores like the 'Village Accouterments' and 'Elite Gear', bars like the Screaming Helm and Golden Gryffin - we're bringing them all back in our take on Reich Parkeep, which I hope will be a hoot for real veterans of the series. I'm overjoyed to see that several settlers have begun moving into the town - not that there isn't several good ones left though. For more info on that, please check out the following thread:
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=1499
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HELP WANTED
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Everyone is welcome to join our team, and joining is as easy as signing up on our forum (http://forum.silgrad.com/) and diving head-first into the many discussions we have going on. Apart from picking up a claim (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=1499), there are several other areas where we need help as well, if you are inclined to join us.
1.
If you are able to record voice work, we have several finished characters with written dialogue which needs to be voiced. Partly to keep our mod on par with Bethesda's work, but also because written dialogue flips by so fast when there's no speech. To help out on that, please check the esp in this package and see if there are any characters you would like to take on. Then kindly make a post on our forum and supply a sample or two of your voice, so we can check it out. If it get's the A-OK then please go ahead and create the lip- and mp3 files for the lines the character has. If you can't provide lip- and mp3 file pairs, it's unlikely to work out, sorry. If you can, woohoo, let's get to work my friend. :D
2.
Do you know NifSkope through and through? Because we're in need of collaborating with someone who has that skill. Specifically, a person who can set up collision boxes on our NIFs. Even doing it on one model would be a step forward, so if you can help with that, please don't hesitate to contact the team!
3.
If you're a modeller, we're always in need of services in that area to bring in more references that allures to the Morrowind Province. A lot has been done, but a lot also remains to be done. Rather than write a lengthy list, perhaps I could impose on you to browse these sources;
A. The Reich Parkeep Alpha mod as downloadable above
B. Our old model showcase (http://www.silgrad.com/cpo/st_oblivion_items/)
C. The Visual Development (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=12) board
If it's not mentioned there, it's a pretty safe bet that it hasn't been modelled yet. :P
Some of the bigger jobs I can mention off the top of my hat is:
- Bare signposts of varying length + a threedimensional alphabet, allowing us to mod consistant signposts without the need for making new textures every time.
- Everything Dwemer. Dwemer interior tileset, dwemer furniture, dwemer items, dwemer junk.
- An interior and exterior set for Daedric Shrines, á la TES3
- An interior and exterior set for Strongholds; the gargantuan military-esque forts that were strewn across Vvardenfell.
- Rocks that remind of the ones found in TES3, both in shape and in texture.
- Trees (unanimated) that stirs memories of Morrowind; a complex job, I'm sure, since they would need to be detailed enough to look good compared to TES4's animated sprite-trees but not be polydense enough to cause FPS issues (max 4000 polys per tree)
- Everything creature-related - although I understand it isn't possible to import animation with the current tools at our disposal, which is why we haven't looked at this category much yet.
4. Are you a texture artist capable of creating normal/specular maps? If so, we desperately need your help in creating normal maps for all the color maps we're currently using. If so, after you've extracted the mod, kindly check out Data\textures\ST-Razorwing\ to see what's there. As I'm sure you know, if you name your normal map like the color map you made it for, but let the normal map end in "[mapname]_n.dds", then the normal map will kick in immediately and you could playtest the mod again to see how it looks in-game.
We might also be interested in replacement textures for the ones currently in use, especially if those have normal-map counterparts.
Also, there is a request thread (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=2063) on our forum for designing a symbol for Reich Parkeep - might be fun.
5. Are you good at drawing concept art sketches? Our modellers are sometimes strapped for inspiration - at least I know I am, since I can't keep an idea in my head long enough to model it, and couldn't draw for the life of me. Sketches would be most valuable to us, and would be a chance for you to see your ideas be realized as well. I should emphasize *concept art* and *sketches* because a modeller can't do much with a painting; one needs clearly defined lines and thought-out angles to be able to model it, and preferrably size references too, like a drawn-in NPC. And if your sketch turns out well from an artistic viewpoint we'd love to also use it as bookart and/or a painting.
6. The TES3 community created a wealth of cool models during the heyday of Morrowind, and thanks to the wondrous NifSkope program those models can be accessed without the need for 3D Studio Max or other modelling programs, or for that matter any knowledge of 3d modelling. It would be really cool if someone would consider searching through old TES3 mods for models you think would be cool to see live on, by being included in our mod. If that someone could then open them in NifSkope, export the X number of .obj files, include the textures, and supply them to us in the form of an archive that would be superb. If you're able to do more than that, i.e. bring them into a modelling program and edit them further for Oblivion compatibility, so much the better. It would really help out a lot because there's like ten thousand old mods out there and well, frankly, the modellers on our team are quite busy modelling custom stuff.
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INSTALLATION
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To install the mod, simply extract the contents to your Oblivion\Data directory.
PLAYER
The next time you start Oblivion, tick the "Reich_Parkeep.esp". Then travel to Cheydinhal and find the road leading up to the castle. You should see a portal standing freely just west of the road up to the castle. Go through it to come to the worldspace the town is located in. For some reason you can't go back through the portal, but you should be able to fast-travel back to Cheydinhal in case you don't want to revert to an earlier save game.
MODDER
To install the mod, simply extract the contents to your Oblivion\Data directory.
If you don't plan to play the Reich Parkeep Alpha, toss away the .esp because you must only use the Reich_Parkeep.esm when modding. To mod a new plugin, start a fresh one dependant on both Oblivion.esm and Reich_Parkeep.esm and then you're off, and can use every asset and mod in every location in the main alpha. You can't playtest your plugin together with alpha though. You can try, but your plugin material won't show up. You could probably still coc to your interior, if you modded an interior, but you could do that without loading Reich_Parkeep.esm too. Your plugin saves a copy of everything you use from the alpha, so it should still work to playtest it with just using Oblivion.esm.
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CREDITS
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-internal credit-
I would like to thank sandor, whom is the mod's interior reviewer and a highly talented modder to boot, for his aid in extensively testing the merge-to-master function of TES4 Plugin Utility, and cooberating that the method works for us. Without his trials, it's very doubtful that we would have moved forward to using the plugins-dependant-on-esm method so quickly. Thankyou very much sandor!
-texture credits'
'Morrowind Visual Pack', by Ayse, Lord Gabryael, Qarl, Raptre & Zuldazug
'Mixed Textures 1.1' - regretfully I don't know who created them other than the fact that they were in that compilation of textures.
'Vibrant Morrowind', by skydye and Headlesswonder
'Textures Carnajo' by Carnajo a.k.a. Petro.
Khalazza Productions
To be on the safe side I'll also credit Faylynn and Korana since I might already have used textures from them, or if not, will sooner or later.
-mesh credits-
~ Parts of the bridge meshes used in Reich Parkeep, and the 1 blue-stonewall-texture, is based on the work of Jean C Célène (http://jlejolly.free.fr/cephalene/telechargement4.htm).
~ The toolbox (MiscToolbox01.nif) was released as a Morrowind modders resource on ESF some time during 2005 but afaik wasn't accompanied by a readme, and I'm afraid I've forgotten the modeller's name. I know the textures are FTS though, as I replaced the original textures, which used assets from TES3.
~ The pinetrees were modelled by scooterpb from the Neverwinter Nights mod scene.
~ Apart from that I've sometimes borrowed from freeware 3ds sites on the net. I don't keep track of those.
Special credit mention goes out to:
- ScripterRon, creator of the TES4 Plugin Utility
- The NifTools group, creators of NifSkope.
- The guys who created the Civ4 Nif Exporter.
- Also, thankyou goes out to Neela for tipping me about Laurent Antonini's site.
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Scharesoft: You're right, it is indeed. Another guy on our team, Rodan, is developing the area north of where Reich Parkeep will be situated, and I hope we'll find someone who would like to mod Silgrad city as well as time goes on. In the end it'll be somewhat like my cartoonish iconisized 3d map:
http://www.silgrad.com/cpo/_content/show_index.php?nr=1960&directory=main_pages
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Unfortunately I don't speak German, so the following has been translated with the use of Babelfish. That's why I wrote it so simplistically.
Reich Parkeep ist ein Oblivion Umb.. Es ist ein Teil des Silgrad Aufsatz-Projektes. Es ist, ein Stadtprojekt aber wird schließlich auf landmass aufgestellt werden. Der SpielerIST in der Lage, von Cyrodiil zu unserem Teil der Morrowind Provinz zu gehen. Es ist nicht eine Gesamtumwandlung, aber es scheint, wie es ist, weil wir so viele neue Modelle benutzen.
Thread, wo Razorwing auch antwortet bzw. sich in der Diskussion beteiligt: Hier Klicken (http://scharesoft.de/portal/viewtopic.php?t=1828)
-=DOWNLOAD ALPHA 05.7 HERE=- (http://www.blacklightcity.com/reichparkeep/Reich_Parkeep_Alpha05.7.7z)
(55 mb 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) file)
Released: June 4th, 2006.
CHECK OUT THE NEW VIDEO! (http://rapidshare.de/files/22160298/ReichParkeepAlpha05.7promo_06-06-04_www.silgrad.com.avi.html) :D (7 mins long, 38mb)
Index
1. The Dunmer warrior statue in Kali Gulas Square (the area is being reworked)
2. Closeup of the Redoran lightpost, then going down towards the beginning of the Redoran district of the city
3. A small cargo depot under the bridge, then flying vertically up along the gargantuan bridge's side and up along the statue (darn I wish we had a normal map for that marble texture)
4. Starting at the top of the Velothi Temple, zooming down past the statue of Almalexia and down to the second floor
5. Starting at the bottom of the same Temple, flying up
6. Entering the outdoors weapon shop
7. Zooming in through the hollow window of the weapons shop
8. Flyby of the statue of Azura. The texture error on the leaves is Bethesda's error :rofl: Guess I should retexture that little sucker, ey ^_^
9. Running across the handmade bridge, assembled from various parts and encased in collision boxes (I live for being able to mod those kinds of things), then swinging around to strafe the Redoran Barracks
10. The bamboo armor (by Dyn_sol) and spears (by Jannix Quinn) give a unique touch to the Redoran guards. Also continuing to do a flyby over the Barracks and seeing the Dunmer Temple in the distance.
11. Running on top of the "Council Club" building, meticuously encased in collision boxes, then coming down to see the patio and dinner table. Save for the grass and Weeping Willow trees, it's all custom-made.
12. Emperor parasols growing beneath the mammoth bridge.
13. Running up the hill from the Redoran district towards the South Imperial District.
14. A flyby through the Redoran Interior Tileset cell. Amazing footage! :D
15. The Dunmer Scrollshelf furniture piece, modelled by xchaosdragon666x, then Dunmer containers modelled by me, then Dunmer furniture modelled by gundalf.
16. Garden in the South Imperial District, showing many of our custom flora
17. From left to right, hackle-lo, scrib cabbage, ash yam and comberry. All modelled by me.
18. Entering "Nirtunus Rulucian's Home" in town, modded by sandor. He's voice acted, courtesy of Opaqe.
19. Entering "Ra'Viir's House", modded by X23.
20. Entering the Gatehouse interior, where a homeless person has a humble abode.
21. Exiting to the bridge, flying over the statue, modelled by Prometheus.
22. The painter, Sosia Saccus.
23. Approaching the Castle, currently being modded by HeIsTheDarkness. Strafe shot of the cool noticeboard.
24. Oogling the noticeboard then leaping through a back garden to find Petra Artorius - a lovestricken woman with a quest. Kindly voice acted by Opaqe's mother.
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CHANGES FROM ALPHA 05.6
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- The mod now comes both as an esm and esp. It's easy to confuse them because they're named alike, but you mustn't do that, because the esm only works for modding plugins and the esp only works for playing. It's now possible to mod plugins dependant on the main esm and take advantage of all the assets, as well as modding in places already added to the main esm. But you can't *play* with the esm because that will cause bugs to appear, derived from the annoying problem that master files can't affect master files. Esp's can though - that's why you can make your plugin dependant on Reich_Parkeep.esm and affect things in the world.
- Due to popular demand, I caved ;) and modelled a new Velothi entrance. The old one will be used for an Indoril embassy, which has yet to be modded/modelled in.
- gundalf created a collection of really awesome Dunmer furniture, which can be seen both in the test cell near the portal and on the patio outside the Council Building. He also modelled an impressive collection of Velothi columns, which we hope to see in-game soon as Velothi interior set pieces become available through his expert hands. One Velothi model from him, the brazier, is already in use and replaced the Indoril-style lampposts, which will be used in the embassy instead. Welcome to the team gundalf, I hope to see you stay in the team forever!
- I modelled two new Redoran storyblock models in conjunction with two new custom tile textures created by Zarf, which allows a modder to mod smoother edges and corners.
- The remainder of the old texturebaked models have been changed to proper ones.
- The Council Building can now be entered, but it's bare.
- The CS lists have been reorganized for more clarity.
- I fixed the opacity on the stoneflowers.
- I retextured the corkbulb and ash yam, and now they look much better. The ash yam has leaves now, like it's supposed to.
- I modelled a number of ingredient placement meshes.
- I fixed some stuff on other models too, particularly the flora, and made changes which I think are better in the long run. Unfortunately those changes displaced some of the already placed flora, so if you see floating black roses and such, I'm aware of them and will fix them all in due time.
- Redoran guards are now clad in bamboo armor, courtesy of Dyn_Sol : http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=804 The bamboo armor is intended as a placeholder until we got hold of custom bonemold armor, which is the default armor for Dunmer guards.
- Imperial and Redoran guards now wield spears and polearms, borrowed from the mod by Jannix Quinn. The other weapons from his mods are on display in an outdoors shop near the Temple. No-one's guarding them, so you can thieve them if you like :P
- Reich Parkeep has a symbol now - an eagle. It's only seen on banners so far, but hopefully we can make it appear on other stuff too.
- I fixed the pathspear set, so now it can tile on the snap-to-grid as well as the rope lining up properly.
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CHANGES FROM ALPHA 05 TO ALPHA 05.6
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There are two major updates to our mod in this release.
The first update is a complete Redoran interior tileset, which for the most part is normalmapped.
The other is that a majority of the existing models have been updated (through NifSkope) and now have normal maps in many places.
I trust my briefness doesn't lessen your impression of just how much work went into this - try it out for yourself and you'll see how I mean. :D
This time, just after you enter Reich Parkeep through the gate in Cheydinhal, you'll see a strange door to your front and left. Go through it, and you'll find yourself in the test cell which was created when the tileset was developed. The walls are for the most part encased in collision boxes, but I would still suggest keeping a safe enough distance from them since they might be "dangerous" in places.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the town as well - for the most part it's looking a lot better, thanks to NifSkope :D
I also remodelled the Council Club (the one next to the Temple that isn't the Guardtower), and it's looking a lot better now. I also did some misc enhancements to other models 'while I was at it' so to speak. NifSkope is totally awesome, but fixing textures can be tedious sometimes... especially when we're now looking at a collection of 297 models :D Truly, in some places, only the ground texture would give away that you're looking at an Oblivion mod. And the sensation of strolling through the familiar yet different Redoran halls once more is personally quite breathtaking. I keep thinking about what the Dunmer around the corner might say to me, had he been there. It's my sincerest hope that many more modders will join our team and help build the greatest Redoran city this side of Ald'ruhn :D
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SCREENSHOTS
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A Screenshots folder is included in this package.
Please also see the Reich Parkeep gallery album (but mind the dates, since there are outdated images there as well):
http://gallery.silgrad.com/thumbnails.php?album=50
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DESCRIPTION
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To make a long story short, our team modded a huge part of the Morrowind Province's mainland for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and our goal is to recreate that area on the new platform. From early 2005 to early 2006 we were been engaged in pre-work for our upcoming Oblivion mod - and now, as work has come a bit on the way, the pre-work we did has really paid off in the vast number of custom models we've brought in. Many more already finished models are waiting in the wings.
Our area is divided into three regions, called Blacklight, Reich Parkeep and Silgrad Tower. Each region represents a portion of the mainland, stretching from the border to Skyrim in the west to the coast of the Inner Sea to the east. It may sound strange to some, but as we modded for TES3 for 3½ years us "oldies" in the team know exactly what we want to do, and hopefully how to go about it.
So, our mod is being built from three different directions, and one of these directions originate in a town called Reich Parkeep - which I'm in charge of developing. In the near future there'll be releases of the other two regions as well, but those are administrated by others in the team so I can't speak too much about them. If you have any questions you are more than welcome to post a new thread on our forum, found at http://forum.silgrad.com/ .
Did you know that Reich Parkeep is a town based in lore, and that you could actually visit it in The Elder Scrolls I: Arena? It's true, and thanks to fellow team member Rodan we have lists of locations from all the towns in Arena. Characters hidden in the deepest recesses of lore, like Vaniken R'i, stores like the 'Village Accouterments' and 'Elite Gear', bars like the Screaming Helm and Golden Gryffin - we're bringing them all back in our take on Reich Parkeep, which I hope will be a hoot for real veterans of the series. I'm overjoyed to see that several settlers have begun moving into the town - not that there isn't several good ones left though. For more info on that, please check out the following thread:
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=1499
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HELP WANTED
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Everyone is welcome to join our team, and joining is as easy as signing up on our forum (http://forum.silgrad.com/) and diving head-first into the many discussions we have going on. Apart from picking up a claim (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=1499), there are several other areas where we need help as well, if you are inclined to join us.
1.
If you are able to record voice work, we have several finished characters with written dialogue which needs to be voiced. Partly to keep our mod on par with Bethesda's work, but also because written dialogue flips by so fast when there's no speech. To help out on that, please check the esp in this package and see if there are any characters you would like to take on. Then kindly make a post on our forum and supply a sample or two of your voice, so we can check it out. If it get's the A-OK then please go ahead and create the lip- and mp3 files for the lines the character has. If you can't provide lip- and mp3 file pairs, it's unlikely to work out, sorry. If you can, woohoo, let's get to work my friend. :D
2.
Do you know NifSkope through and through? Because we're in need of collaborating with someone who has that skill. Specifically, a person who can set up collision boxes on our NIFs. Even doing it on one model would be a step forward, so if you can help with that, please don't hesitate to contact the team!
3.
If you're a modeller, we're always in need of services in that area to bring in more references that allures to the Morrowind Province. A lot has been done, but a lot also remains to be done. Rather than write a lengthy list, perhaps I could impose on you to browse these sources;
A. The Reich Parkeep Alpha mod as downloadable above
B. Our old model showcase (http://www.silgrad.com/cpo/st_oblivion_items/)
C. The Visual Development (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/board.php?boardid=12) board
If it's not mentioned there, it's a pretty safe bet that it hasn't been modelled yet. :P
Some of the bigger jobs I can mention off the top of my hat is:
- Bare signposts of varying length + a threedimensional alphabet, allowing us to mod consistant signposts without the need for making new textures every time.
- Everything Dwemer. Dwemer interior tileset, dwemer furniture, dwemer items, dwemer junk.
- An interior and exterior set for Daedric Shrines, á la TES3
- An interior and exterior set for Strongholds; the gargantuan military-esque forts that were strewn across Vvardenfell.
- Rocks that remind of the ones found in TES3, both in shape and in texture.
- Trees (unanimated) that stirs memories of Morrowind; a complex job, I'm sure, since they would need to be detailed enough to look good compared to TES4's animated sprite-trees but not be polydense enough to cause FPS issues (max 4000 polys per tree)
- Everything creature-related - although I understand it isn't possible to import animation with the current tools at our disposal, which is why we haven't looked at this category much yet.
4. Are you a texture artist capable of creating normal/specular maps? If so, we desperately need your help in creating normal maps for all the color maps we're currently using. If so, after you've extracted the mod, kindly check out Data\textures\ST-Razorwing\ to see what's there. As I'm sure you know, if you name your normal map like the color map you made it for, but let the normal map end in "[mapname]_n.dds", then the normal map will kick in immediately and you could playtest the mod again to see how it looks in-game.
We might also be interested in replacement textures for the ones currently in use, especially if those have normal-map counterparts.
Also, there is a request thread (http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=2063) on our forum for designing a symbol for Reich Parkeep - might be fun.
5. Are you good at drawing concept art sketches? Our modellers are sometimes strapped for inspiration - at least I know I am, since I can't keep an idea in my head long enough to model it, and couldn't draw for the life of me. Sketches would be most valuable to us, and would be a chance for you to see your ideas be realized as well. I should emphasize *concept art* and *sketches* because a modeller can't do much with a painting; one needs clearly defined lines and thought-out angles to be able to model it, and preferrably size references too, like a drawn-in NPC. And if your sketch turns out well from an artistic viewpoint we'd love to also use it as bookart and/or a painting.
6. The TES3 community created a wealth of cool models during the heyday of Morrowind, and thanks to the wondrous NifSkope program those models can be accessed without the need for 3D Studio Max or other modelling programs, or for that matter any knowledge of 3d modelling. It would be really cool if someone would consider searching through old TES3 mods for models you think would be cool to see live on, by being included in our mod. If that someone could then open them in NifSkope, export the X number of .obj files, include the textures, and supply them to us in the form of an archive that would be superb. If you're able to do more than that, i.e. bring them into a modelling program and edit them further for Oblivion compatibility, so much the better. It would really help out a lot because there's like ten thousand old mods out there and well, frankly, the modellers on our team are quite busy modelling custom stuff.
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INSTALLATION
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To install the mod, simply extract the contents to your Oblivion\Data directory.
PLAYER
The next time you start Oblivion, tick the "Reich_Parkeep.esp". Then travel to Cheydinhal and find the road leading up to the castle. You should see a portal standing freely just west of the road up to the castle. Go through it to come to the worldspace the town is located in. For some reason you can't go back through the portal, but you should be able to fast-travel back to Cheydinhal in case you don't want to revert to an earlier save game.
MODDER
To install the mod, simply extract the contents to your Oblivion\Data directory.
If you don't plan to play the Reich Parkeep Alpha, toss away the .esp because you must only use the Reich_Parkeep.esm when modding. To mod a new plugin, start a fresh one dependant on both Oblivion.esm and Reich_Parkeep.esm and then you're off, and can use every asset and mod in every location in the main alpha. You can't playtest your plugin together with alpha though. You can try, but your plugin material won't show up. You could probably still coc to your interior, if you modded an interior, but you could do that without loading Reich_Parkeep.esm too. Your plugin saves a copy of everything you use from the alpha, so it should still work to playtest it with just using Oblivion.esm.
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CREDITS
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-internal credit-
I would like to thank sandor, whom is the mod's interior reviewer and a highly talented modder to boot, for his aid in extensively testing the merge-to-master function of TES4 Plugin Utility, and cooberating that the method works for us. Without his trials, it's very doubtful that we would have moved forward to using the plugins-dependant-on-esm method so quickly. Thankyou very much sandor!
-texture credits'
'Morrowind Visual Pack', by Ayse, Lord Gabryael, Qarl, Raptre & Zuldazug
'Mixed Textures 1.1' - regretfully I don't know who created them other than the fact that they were in that compilation of textures.
'Vibrant Morrowind', by skydye and Headlesswonder
'Textures Carnajo' by Carnajo a.k.a. Petro.
Khalazza Productions
To be on the safe side I'll also credit Faylynn and Korana since I might already have used textures from them, or if not, will sooner or later.
-mesh credits-
~ Parts of the bridge meshes used in Reich Parkeep, and the 1 blue-stonewall-texture, is based on the work of Jean C Célène (http://jlejolly.free.fr/cephalene/telechargement4.htm).
~ The toolbox (MiscToolbox01.nif) was released as a Morrowind modders resource on ESF some time during 2005 but afaik wasn't accompanied by a readme, and I'm afraid I've forgotten the modeller's name. I know the textures are FTS though, as I replaced the original textures, which used assets from TES3.
~ The pinetrees were modelled by scooterpb from the Neverwinter Nights mod scene.
~ Apart from that I've sometimes borrowed from freeware 3ds sites on the net. I don't keep track of those.
Special credit mention goes out to:
- ScripterRon, creator of the TES4 Plugin Utility
- The NifTools group, creators of NifSkope.
- The guys who created the Civ4 Nif Exporter.
- Also, thankyou goes out to Neela for tipping me about Laurent Antonini's site.
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Scharesoft: You're right, it is indeed. Another guy on our team, Rodan, is developing the area north of where Reich Parkeep will be situated, and I hope we'll find someone who would like to mod Silgrad city as well as time goes on. In the end it'll be somewhat like my cartoonish iconisized 3d map:
http://www.silgrad.com/cpo/_content/show_index.php?nr=1960&directory=main_pages
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Unfortunately I don't speak German, so the following has been translated with the use of Babelfish. That's why I wrote it so simplistically.
Reich Parkeep ist ein Oblivion Umb.. Es ist ein Teil des Silgrad Aufsatz-Projektes. Es ist, ein Stadtprojekt aber wird schließlich auf landmass aufgestellt werden. Der SpielerIST in der Lage, von Cyrodiil zu unserem Teil der Morrowind Provinz zu gehen. Es ist nicht eine Gesamtumwandlung, aber es scheint, wie es ist, weil wir so viele neue Modelle benutzen.
Thread, wo Razorwing auch antwortet bzw. sich in der Diskussion beteiligt: Hier Klicken (http://scharesoft.de/portal/viewtopic.php?t=1828)