[WIPz/RELz] Drake's Anthro-Dragon Race (#5)

Post » Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:34 pm

Now that's some really cool pics, Gadar. Thanks very much for posting them!

I was close to this shinyness myself a long time ago, but mine was looking horrible when a membrane shader was playing (e.g. you cast something on self).
Then I was reminded dragons are no amphibians and reptiles aren't wet at all... so I reduced the shinyness a lot in my normalmaps.
Your's could really be useful though for those metallic or crystalline types of dragons. It's like the perfect fit!

I noticed you're still using the old wings and claws... may I point you towards the mesh- and texture updates I released on TES Nexus?... just in case you're interested (link is found in the opening post as usual). :whistle:

The webpage you stumbled across was one of my references in deciding on the final shape of my dragons.
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Darren
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:02 am

Just wondering/musing, and I'm certain this has been asked a >9000 times by now, but how soon can we expect to take flight? I mean with your mod. I'm going crazy waiting for the flight aspect of this mod, even if it's going to be limited as to how long we can fly(which would suit me well, but still, I'm going crazy waiting). I remember that you're waiting on a computer fix/upgrade, but I could have swore you're still working on this, so maybe you've snuck in some scripting for it or something.
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Gracie Dugdale
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:27 am

I have little experience in modding and modifying scripts- so I was wondering if someone would be willing to oblige to this request:

I would like a companion dragon, a red female dragon, named "Indara". It can use any kind of companion script out there, I just want her to follow my PC around and help kill stuff. :P Is it possible to make companion dragons?

Also, I just tested out Equinox, and he works great. The wings are kind of stiff though, so I take it they aren't really animated yet. I haven't seen him splay them out yet.
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Aaron Clark
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:46 am

I have little experience in modding and modifying scripts- so I was wondering if someone would be willing to oblige to this request:

I would like a companion dragon, a red female dragon, named "Indara". It can use any kind of companion script out there, I just want her to follow my PC around and help kill stuff. :P Is it possible to make companion dragons?

Also, I just tested out Equinox, and he works great. The wings are kind of stiff though, so I take it they aren't really animated yet. I haven't seen him splay them out yet.

It would totally be possible. I've tinkered around and am using the meshes to replace the Dremora. (Can't stand their prune faces). Part of that being (at least for me) the dragon race slowing my save/loading speeds down. Only thing different is no custom feet/legs.

Anyways you could use TalkyToaster's Companion Share and Recruit, Recruit Master, or CM. Totally up to you. The first two need not add any scripts to your npc follower. If you want I'll make a companion for you. Do you have a request on what class she is? BTW when Drake updates the mod you most likely will have to start a new game or whatnot. I'll get right on that. :)
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emma sweeney
 
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Post » Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:59 pm

Unfortunately I didn't get around to do much as of late. Way too much business work was coming along and I didn't get much free time.
I could create animations, that's right, but I won't even be able to test them out, nor could I implement any scripts, tweak any timing etc. ...unless I finally get my lazy (ahem, no, rather busy) ass off the ground to buy this damn new PC of mine.
The system for flight I envision is a rather complex one. I honestly deem it impossible to create without the game or the CS.

You're right, Equinox, there's not much movement in the current wings. There are no animations to begin with, so that's obviously why. The little moving they do comes from their arm bones being connected to the shoulder bones... so when you shrug -> so do your wings... and things like that.
A proper animation control system is supposedly closely similar in complexity to my planned flight approach, so here's the same problem at the moment.

As for dragon companions, yes, they are possible. The only requirement is their race has to be one of mine, my scripts will do the whole rest.
Just out of curiosity, while I was still able to play, I once changed the race of Sulteric Drums' Viconia De'Vir into a red-gold dragon and gave her the name "Kaira"... almost perfect match with my imagination of Drake's fionce. I didn't even need to alter her face or anything, it was just looking purrrfect already on my dragon head mesh! :hubbahubba:

And yes, once the real beta will be released, upgrading from a save played with a pre-beta release will be rather difficult at least. Some complex tasks have to be performed to not break anything during the script update.
That's why I always keep saying "not meant for serious long-time gameplay yet!"... though it's not "impossible" to upgrade either of course.
And of course after the beta these steps will no longer be necessary anyways, because I fixed the weaknesses which are requiring this already a long time ago (refer to my code-update instructions post for details)... unfortunately though only "after" my laptop died. Else I would have been able to implement and release it already.
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Yama Pi
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:45 pm

It would totally be possible. I've tinkered around and am using the meshes to replace the Dremora. (Can't stand their prune faces). Part of that being (at least for me) the dragon race slowing my save/loading speeds down. Only thing different is no custom feet/legs.

Anyways you could use TalkyToaster's Companion Share and Recruit, Recruit Master, or CM. Totally up to you. The first two need not add any scripts to your npc follower. If you want I'll make a companion for you. Do you have a request on what class she is? BTW when Drake updates the mod you most likely will have to start a new game or whatnot. I'll get right on that. :)


It would be awesome if you could do that for me, considering my poor experience in the construction set. She's just a combat specialist.

Also I am planning to use TalkyToaster's body morph thing to make her fat- I want to see what that would do to the Dragon race. (Indara is a character of mine, she is a fat red dragon- so when I figured out about TalkyToaster's modders resource that enables you to make NPCs fat, I thought I might try using it with a Dragon companion and see what happens.)

Anyway- as for the wings, Drake, I was just making sure so I didn't install something wrong. They look excellent so far. I'm just wondering how the animating would look when you get around to it.

I also noticed that it is a bit glitchy when I start it up, it tells me I can't unequip anything because I am "currently attacking". In order to get myself out of this I had to reset the current animation. Anyway. Probably a fault on my part and a conflict with a mod I have. Either way, I got it to work just fine.
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stevie trent
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:42 am

I've got a pic for ya. I just added regular iron gear to her. I know it really does not look great, just did it so she had something. :)

I'm gona fix the face and then upload. *Imperial market cough cough*

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/lordsoulstrike/Drake%20Dragon/Indara.gif

As usual it is uploaded on my 4shared. Tell me what ya think.
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Silencio
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:08 am

Thank you very much! So you already made her "fat" then? If not I can figure out how to do that.

Thanks so much for doing this!
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Isabell Hoffmann
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:24 am

Now that's some really cool pics, Gadar. Thanks very much for posting them!

I was close to this shinyness myself a long time ago, but mine was looking horrible when a membrane shader was playing (e.g. you cast something on self).
Then I was reminded dragons are no amphibians and reptiles aren't wet at all... so I reduced the shinyness a lot in my normalmaps.
Your's could really be useful though for those metallic or crystalline types of dragons. It's like the perfect fit!

I noticed you're still using the old wings and claws... may I point you towards the mesh- and texture updates I released on TES Nexus?... just in case you're interested (link is found in the opening post as usual). :whistle:

The webpage you stumbled across was one of my references in deciding on the final shape of my dragons.

I was aiming for a metallic look, it is just a simple brightness adjustment but I think some more work and it'll look pretty good.

Tesnexus doesn't want to work with me atm so I couldn't get the updates.

I had a small feeling you probably seen the site. :P
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Brandi Norton
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:27 am

Thank you very much! So you already made her "fat" then? If not I can figure out how to do that.

Thanks so much for doing this!

Just open up the CS and navigate your way to her ID and double click on it to open it up. If you look down you will see something called skeletonbeast.nif. Change that to the different skeleton to change that. I must warn however that a new skeleton mesh might not work well due to the fact that its those modified meshes of Drake's that allow the wings in the first place. If this ends up crashing your game please let me know. I can make a special race if it comes to it, however if this is done then most likely she won't have the digraded feet. So hopefully it works out for ya. :)

@Gadar
Remember that My sig links to 4shared which has all the recent updates Drake has done. Just an extra place to have his stuff as fate seems to like to deny people access to his works.

Update 1:
I tried and as I suspected. El crasho to the desktopo. If you do not mind not having the feet I'll gladly make a quick custom race for her. The only things that you may notice is the wing mesh at the shoulder might not blend flawlessly to her back and of course the foot issue. I can always make a pair of boots/shoes if you want. :)

Update 2:
I keep forgetting that I have to reset the secondary master to Drake's race so it does not crash. The problem now is that without the special skeleton mesh the wings will not work. I'm going to have to make her wingless. Sorry. :(
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Scarlet Devil
 
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Post » Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:16 pm

Yeah, I tried to modify her in the CS and put her where I wanted her, because of Better Cities or something I couldn't find her in the market. I also gave her the "fat" skeleton and she seemed fine in the render window... But when I did the changes I wanted in the CS and tried to "save" the new plugin, the editor crashed. O.o I must be doing something wrong.

It would be great if you could do that- I'm really lost now as to why the CS crashed after I had her modified the way I wanted her.
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Sophh
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:30 am

I don't use better cities. I'm going to have to make a custom race for her. It won't take too long to do. I'm gona have a mesh included so you can get a tail included on her. Wings I could not get to work. They require the regular skeletonbeast.nif. Do you have the modified skeletons from TheTalkyToaster. If not, http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29853

As for your CS you need to have OBSE loaded with it. If you don't it tends to crash with mods that use OBSE.

Update:

I cannot use the modified skeleton. On top of that the new esp I made today I cannot find her in game where I placed her. So I really have no idea. I guess youre going to have to forgo the overweight companion. I really do not know what to say. I'll look at the old esp and put her somewhere else. After that, I don't know.

As for the CS crashing you need to make a shortcut of obse launcher and right click properties > add the text -editor after the quotes and a space and it will launch the CS enabled with OBSE. After that if you save you must have wyre bash (or something similar) and manually set Drake's Dragon Race as a secondary master or you will get a crash.

Update 2:

She is now outside Chestnut Handy Stables. I could not make her anymore like you would have wanted. Make sure to have OBSE loaded as well or there will be complications. Go ahead an modify her if you wish. Anyways, enjoy.
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Allison C
 
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Post » Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:27 pm

Thanks for trying anyway. The overweight really isn't that big of a deal, I just wanted to try the modified skeletons and the only character I have that is overweight is a red dragon. So I thought it might be a good idea to try.

Thanks for your help though. I'll enjoy it.
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Taylrea Teodor
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:47 am

Thanks for trying anyway. The overweight really isn't that big of a deal, I just wanted to try the modified skeletons and the only character I have that is overweight is a red dragon. So I thought it might be a good idea to try.

Thanks for your help though. I'll enjoy it.

No problem. I hope you can find her. I didn't think the stables were part of Open Cities. :)
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Dawn Farrell
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:48 am

Hmm, it should be easy enough to simply add-in my custom bones into TheTalkieToaster's skeleton file, just like I did with Loup Sombre's and all others I ever used. I just need some time to actually get around to doing it. ...or somebody else gives it a try, it's only copy&paste of node branches after all.

If you want to use my race in any other plugin, you simply have to before you open it with the CS ESMify it via Wrye Bash and ESPify again before starting the game. Then the CS should not crash, miss content after loading, deny saving or anything else.

Does anybody have an .obse file of and a savegame that takes incredibly long to load/save, preferably with as few other mods used as possible, which I could pass on to scruggsywuggsy for investigation of the cause for those incredible elongations of loading/saving time?
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Phillip Brunyee
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:29 am

At first I located her at the stables. She didn't have a companion script though, so I loaded the editor (this time with OBSE working with it) and added a "CM Partner" script to her. Now when I try to go to the cel where she is located, the game crashes. O.o Sheesh. I'm really bad at this.
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Harry Leon
 
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Post » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:29 pm

I found a compativility problem, in this directory: C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\meshes\Characters\_Male you use a file named skeletonbeast.nif, there is another mod that changes it (i dont remember what one) so you could change the name.

Also in the next release try putting all in one rar file (updates included) cuz i feel unconfortable overwriting once and once again because i have bad memory.
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Sophie Morrell
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:46 am

At first I located her at the stables. She didn't have a companion script though, so I loaded the editor (this time with OBSE working with it) and added a "CM Partner" script to her. Now when I try to go to the cel where she is located, the game crashes. O.o Sheesh. I'm really bad at this.

I thought you were going to use Companion Share and Recruit or Companion Master. That is the reason why she does not have any scripts. If you really want to use CM Partner I can try and get that to work. CM Partner is not a bad mod, however I really do not like having it as a master just for a simple companion. I guess I'm just particular on which companion mod I like. :) So anyways let me know and I'll try and do that.

@Bleizk

skeletonbeast.nif is what Drake's race initially uses. The skeleton and skeletonbeast.nif in his mod must be used. Any other mod that alters either of those will conflict with the dragon race. As for the packaging, I was just trying to be nice and fulfill a simple request for someone.
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Assumptah George
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:40 am

Oh- I forgot! I'll try that instead. Thanks!
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Roanne Bardsley
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:08 am

this seems very complicated..... i have no idea about anything ur talking about.

now on a completely unrelated subject
thanks for the help lordsoulstrike, i may begin to make mods after i finish my current animation
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Nikki Hype
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:30 am

Oh- I forgot! I'll try that instead. Thanks!

No problem. Companion Share and Recruit is nice because virtually any NPC can be your companion, unlike CM where they have to have a script attached to em to work. :)

No offense intended to those who do use CM. :)
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Kelli Wolfe
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:44 am

I found a compativility problem, in this directory: C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\meshes\Characters\_Male you use a file named skeletonbeast.nif, there is another mod that changes it (i dont remember what one) so you could change the name.

Also in the next release try putting all in one rar file (updates included) cuz i feel unconfortable overwriting once and once again because i have bad memory.

That's not only a compatibillity problem, it's a full-blown incompatibility, just as mentioned in the readme.
But the problem lies not within my choice of filename at all. There's not only another mod that changes it, there are literally dozens.

@Bleizk

skeletonbeast.nif is what Drake's race initially uses. The skeleton and skeletonbeast.nif in his mod must be used. Any other mod that alters either of those will conflict with the dragon race. As for the packaging, I was just trying to be nice and fulfill a simple request for someone.

To further emphasize on this, the two skeleton files are the ONLY ones the player or NPCs will ever use (well, there are ways to change that, but it's nothing too commonly used). Even if I would rename them, there would be "no" way (no sane one at least) to tell the game to use these instead of its own.
I "have" to use these files or I can't have custom bones in my skeletons at all to begin with.

As for all contents being spread into that many seperate download archives, that would be me to blame rather.
But please keep in mind, the "next" release you're talking of (whenever it will be) will actually be the "first" one. I haven't yet released anything really officially. The project is still not even in beta testing stage. I just uploaded those packages "as is" because I had no other choice.

I'm still without a PC, can't install the game (not on the netbook I'm stuck with) and can't even run the CS (it won't run without the game). So there's no creating or modifying of plugins, there's no testing of my stuff myself before uploading it anywhere, heck, there's not even debugging!
All I can do is mess around with Blender, NifSkope and Paint.NET to create new meshes, textures, animations and the like, only resources, nothing else.

But even then those downloads are seperate, also because they're "optional upgrades" after all. The main 0.0.7 package plus the Cloth Wraps Complete to fix the mesh issues is everything needed to get a working dragon race already. Not everybody might like the new wings, not everybody might like the new claws, and especially not everybody might want to clutter his drive with that many unused "scaly" textures (they aren't really small in filesize after all).
Well, actually the very first real beta release will most likely contain all this, so then they wouldn't have a different choice. But until then why should I "force" anybody to use something he just might not like?


On a different topic, scruggs figured out where those elongated loading and saving times some people encountered are coming from.
Nasty little string_vars need cleaning up in some other scripts as well! Now, that's savegame bloating!

Anyways, now that I know what I have to do to get rid of it, the beta shouldn't have this issue anymore. I'll simply clean up everything OBSE-datatype-related, regardless of the script it's created in, for maximum cleanlyness. It's just the same procedure I already did in those user-functions in the latest yet-not-released scripts. Unfortunately this could very well mean these saves will keep taking that long to load and save unless the stuff in their .obse files is got rid of. Unfortunately that would mean the array data would be lost as well and that's literally the same as doing a clean save without my mod activated anyways. Then you will still have savegame bloating, but I guess a few cloneFormed item records never-to-be-accessable anymore won't hurt as much as those literally billions of string_vars (after some hours of game play) each cast of the token-provider area spell creates and doesn't dispose of afterwards. :banghead:
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Elisha KIng
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:50 am

that seems like a slight problem.... lol.....

that could defenetly cause the bloating. great to see you found it though

(on a side note, i manadged to re-find this thread, i'm kinda tired so i cant think straight..... lol..... :blink:)
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Trent Theriot
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:25 am


On a different topic, scruggs figured out where those elongated loading and saving times some people encountered are coming from.
Nasty little string_vars need cleaning up in some other scripts as well! Now, that's savegame bloating!

Anyways, now that I know what I have to do to get rid of it, the beta shouldn't have this issue anymore. I'll simply clean up everything OBSE-datatype-related, regardless of the script it's created in, for maximum cleanlyness. It's just the same procedure I already did in those user-functions in the latest yet-not-released scripts. Unfortunately this could very well mean these saves will keep taking that long to load and save unless the stuff in their .obse files is got rid of. Unfortunately that would mean the array data would be lost as well and that's literally the same as doing a clean save without my mod activated anyways. Then you will still have savegame bloating, but I guess a few cloneFormed item records never-to-be-accessable anymore won't hurt as much as those literally billions of string_vars (after some hours of game play) each cast of the token-provider area spell creates and doesn't dispose of afterwards. :banghead:


So basicly, even after I had already spent a good 156 hours on one savefile, ran the mod and experienced the savefile bloating issue, there's nothing I can do to restore the old save/loading times before I ran the mod? AGH. That's a royal pain in the backside. I don't understand a lot of the technical jagen you guys speak, but any simple answers on how I can restore my save/load time back to normal would be a great help.
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Guy Pearce
 
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Post » Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:09 am

So basicly, even after I had already spent a good 156 hours on one savefile, ran the mod and experienced the savefile bloating issue, there's nothing I can do to restore the old save/loading times before I ran the mod? AGH. That's a royal pain in the backside. I don't understand a lot of the technical jagen you guys speak, but any simple answers on how I can restore my save/load time back to normal would be a great help.

You could try disabling the mod and trying to load without the mod, however if that's your saved character then I'd suggest switching to another race and then disabling the mod and hope it does not crash. If it doesn't then just make a new save and delete the other ones. If however it does crash, I'd suggest going however far back it was before you started to use the mod to correct this. If not then unfortunately you are out of luck as far as I know.
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Kieren Thomson
 
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