» Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:20 pm version 5.1.5
By XMarksTheSpot, Brumbek & Ismelda
File of the Month April 2009 on TESNexus with 205 Votes!!!
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=961765
This mod has 2 functions:
-Acting as a simple meshes replacer for all the construction with windows in Oblivion and offering a lit version of the windows and, optionally a smoking version of the chimneys (no plugin needed).
-Allowing to lit and Unlit the windows as well as heavy, light or non smoking chimneysn depending on the plugin you are using (OBSE Required).
We extended the concept of Texian's Window Lighting System to Illumination within, the principle being that we give the meshes 3 states: Lit, Dimly Lit and Unlit. Once this is done we used a quest to allow day and night cycle to toggle on and off the windows. As a replacer of all the meshes, this mod allow you to have all the windows around Cyrodiil to react to day and night without having to place anything in the world. It is then absolutely compatible with everything and offer the same services as Illumination Within.
After more research we managed to also add Smoke to the Chimneys and delivered and option to have or not the smoke on. Based on the same principle of the windows, there are 3 states to the smoke: Large, Small and None. The default state is a heavy smoke but the plugins used to control the windows also are used to control the smoke making it seasonal and weather dependent in the advanced plugin.
About the performances:
- The window's animation add a whole 1kb to the current meshes so you can't even notice it, even less with all the meshes having been optimized with PyFFI.
- The smoke animation add around 10Kb to the meshes but this is still inferior to the vanilla meshes when they are not optimized.
- The Plugins range from Basic (the less intensive) to Advanced (the most intensive) but they have no impact at all on my machine.
As far we can tell, there is no impact (or a very minimal one) from AWLS to your machine. The fact that the building meshe contains its own animations seems to put less strain on the Oblivion engine than adding items in the worldspace to do the same effect.
About the Installation:
- The folders named Chimney Only are containing the same meshes as those in the folders named Windows Only. The difference being that the windows only meshes are only animating the windows while the chimneys only are animating the windows and the smoke.
About IllumAnimation Tool
For those who downloaded the tool I just wanted to make sure you knew 3 things:
-The Material for your window must be different from any other material in the meshe (all windows can share the same material though). The animation has for effect to modify the Emissive Color property of the window material to make it glow and in a nif every part that share the same material will know the exact same modification. You will notice that a lof of meshes share the same material for walls and windows which is very upsetting when you are working on the windows
-The material initial Emissive Color on your windows must not be too bright (preferably black R:0 G:0 B:0) or you will have the windows glowing by day too (and if they have a texture with a glow map they will even glow brighter)
-You can make your new constructions (or simple retextures) AWLS ready with a simple trick. Instead of making 2 nif files, one for vanilla and one for AWLS in your new projects, you can use the very same nif file you are using for AWLS but with the unlit state as default. For this you just have to Open the Controller Sequence of you NiControllerSequence and invert the order of the 2 property there. In my files the "Stagger" sequence (Lit state) comes first and is Number 4 and the "Unequip" sequence (Unlit state) comes in 2nd and is number 17. Edit the 4 and replace by 17 and edit the 17 to replace by 4. On saving your nif "Unequip" sequence will use the number previously attributed to the "Stagger" sequence and will come first in the order of the Controller Sequence of the NiControllerSequence meaning that its state will be displayed by default. This will allow people to use you new buildings without AWLS and see them as any other unlit buildings or to have them sharing the same state of animation of the other windows if they are using the plugins from AWLS.
I hope you will enjoy this as much as we do.
Mode Recommendation
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=983713 to have your LOD lit too!!!
Keep up the great work everybody. I'll get a patch out that includes some improvements plus SI support eventually here. Working full time on All Natural at the moment... 
