I have AN running in my current mod list, and have been hoping for something like this for some time, so I'd love to help beta test

This is awesome. Keep up the great work SomeWelshguy :goodjob:

Thanks for all the awesome comments guys

I'm going to buck the trend a bit and release a public beta. Anyone is welcome to download it and test it ingame as long as you'd make a post answering the following questions:

How was the quality? Does it look good?
Found any bugs?
What are your computer stats? (mainly looking for CPU, Graphics Card and RAM)
Did this mod effect your interior cell performance? If so, by how much?
Any suggestions?

In the beta the interiors west of and including the Anvil Mages Guild have been done. They're not 100% optimised, the mod is not cleaned or anything so I wouldn't suggest you keep it permanently enabled, but I just want to see how you all react to them ingame, and by how much, if at all, it effects your performance. Load order is irrelevant at the moment

EDIT: Fixed package uploaded. Extract the Meshes and Textures folder to your data folder along with the esp.

http://www.mediafire.com/?44w0wzy3oqssdu5
Thanks guys

Wow, this mod is amazing!

Absolutely fantastic!

I downloaded the Beta and tried several houses and it looks really good.

Performance wise I do not see any decrease (E8400, HD4890).

What do you recommend: Window reflections on or off?

In my opinion both options are not perfect. Too reflective.

That was just a quick test. Tomorrow I will test systematically all houses.

Thanks for this wonderful mod!

Just gave this a test, and so far works as advertised. I don't yet have the specs to run BC But I am using http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21945. Basically a massive replacement of the night sky + moons, and was completely unaffected by your mod. Unless you really study the exteriors, the immersion gained far outweighs any inconsistencies. I was walking around the Mages Guild to sell some loot and nap. On my way up the stairs I happened to glance out a window, and I did a triple-take :shocking: Afterwards I made a point to stare out of every single window, lol. Keep up the good work m8.

Nice to see the WiP thread up

Don't know how crazy you want to get about modifying meshes, but if performance is a major issue, one way to eliminate much of the problem would be to use collisionless statics for the stuff you're placing outside. There's obviously no need to worry about bumping into walls or falling through the floor if you're never going to put NPCs outside the windows. It's only something to consider if it turns out that the extra stuff harms performance too much because it takes a lot of time to manually go through the meshes to strip the collision info.

Thanks so much

I agree that neither option is perfect. However I would recommend window reflections on. My personal experience has been that it makes it just a bit easier to see out the windows.


Again, thanks a lot for the wonderful comment

Yes, you've got the idea. It's not meant to be 100% accurate. In fact, because you can't actually have proper ground like grass or stone in interiors, and that the interior meshes are usually inconsistent with the size of the exterior meshes, it is impossible to be completely accurate. It's just, like you said, that you can just look out the windows and see something, something that hopefully closely resembles the real version of the city.

Thanks for the reply Arthmoor

That is indeed something to consider. I was thinking about doing that at the beginning, but like you said, the time it takes to go through the meshes is a real disadvantage. However it seems that people aren't reporting performance issues, so fingers crossed that won't be necessary

I'm still looking for beta feedback, so if you want to give it a go feel free, and report back here.

I was wondering if this would affect animated windows lighting system at all?

Completely compatible. It doesn't change the meshes in any way

I can't see how it would consider AWLS affects exterior meshes and texture not inside as this mod does.

edit: ninja'd :ninja:

Will this work with Open Cities?

It's compatible with Open Cities

Wow, just tested the beta and I have to say keep doing what you're doing because it's working quite well. That said am I supposed to be seeing a bunch of missing mesh markers? I assumed it was simply due to it being a beta and therefore incomplete. So yeah good job and keep up the good work :foodndrink:

edit: forgot to say I experienced no noticable drop in fps I'm using an intel core i5-750 + radeon hd 4650.

Haha, it would help if I did include the meshes with the download *facepalm*

I'll upload them now for you. Sorry about that guys.

EDIT: Fixed package uploaded. Extract the Meshes and Textures folder to your data folder along with the esp.

http://www.mediafire.com/?44w0wzy3oqssdu5

Ok retested with the meshes and texture and now it looks awesome and with no hit to performance even though there are meshes you don't necessarily see. I found a rogue table and chair in the counts arms that when sat in by NPCs caused them to clip through the building and wander around outside it actually pretty cool seeing NPCs walk around in an interiors exterior . The effect on atmosphere really draws you in when there's a thunderstorm and you can look out the window and see lightning and all the houses plus AWLS works on the houses meshes so they light up after dark the chimneys work too. Great job man this is truly incredible

Awesome!

Thanks a lot br0sk1, your support is appreciated
Thanks for finding that rather humorous bug too Like I said it's only a beta so I haven't bug tested anything, and it's not entirely optimised so there will be some unnecessary meshes used, they will be fine-tuned as the mod matures

I'm really glad you like it

Haha you're welcome and I eagerly await for more updates :ahhh:

I am surprised no one has offered to help you work on this yet. Its seems like a wonderful idea, and once I get my oblivion to a stable point, > of topic: updating mods always seems to add an hour or 2 trying to get my load order stable again. < I cant wait to look out the windows, and start drooling in amazement. I would offer my help, but work and college is going to start drainging me next week, so I stopped everything I was working on.

Good luck, and like I said, cant wait to test the public beta.

Surprisingly even with better cities installed I'm too busy admiring the fact I can look out the window and see buildings that I never notice the otherwise obvious discrepancies between the vanilla town design and BC, can't say it will be the same for other BC cities that change alot more in terms of building placement.

I haven't read the whole thread, so if this has been answered, forgive me.

Would it help performance if you remove the collision data from the meshes outside the windows, and perhaps reduce the texture resolution of all the meshes outside as well to give as little performance impact possible?

That was mentioned beforehand but I see no reason to reduce texture quality as there is no discernible loss in performance (perhaps if you have a really low end PC) though collision data would of course be unnecessary.

Yeah, it'll depend on the city. For example Anvil isn't changed a huge amount in BC, while the IC is a teeny bit different haha


Yeah, I did think of that. The issues are though that:

1. People who have beta tested have shown that the performance loss is minimal anyway.
2. Editing the meshes required would take a while to do
3. As it uses existing meshes, it is compatible with all mods, which makes it a heck of a lot easier for me. For example, if I used my own collision-less versions, then animated window and lighting system wouldn't work from within interiors, taking away alot of realism.

That was a big selling point for me since it created a more believable atmosphere when looking out the windows at night and seeing other houses lit up (or not) so I would hate to see that go.