https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-vPZEMxqHIBY/U4wqkitfV4I/AAAAAAAABe8/zeE0vMTJoO4/s0/cloudcleaver_unique.jpg

What do you think? Is this the right way to go? Is it too similar to the base weapon or not similar enough? I will possibly change the texture of the shaft, but I don't know if it becomes too nordic-looking, then, because I believe it should still look like a steel weapon. It still uses only vanilla textures, and only from the base game.

I really think that any difference is going to be enough here. I don't know what else I could recommend to do. I think it looks good. Sorry, not very helpful this time, but I had to give you some sort of response.

Somehow I knew the first response would be coming from you. I don't know, I'm not really satisfied yet, but it is difficult to change the appearance while only using vanilla textures. I will most likely try to improve the shape of the blades, as i don't like that the texture distortion is so noticeable - it just doesn't look right to me. Just wanted to know if I am on the right track with this.

I'd say you're on the right track. I just don't have anything to recommend, probably since I don't even know how I would make Cloudcleaver look. Well, it's called "cloud cleaver" maybe it would be a longer axe than most? A long handle? Though not to halberd length - so that "cloud cleaver" could refer to it's extended reach.

The only thing a cleaver rings in my mind is http://www.caribooblades.com/Saw_tooth_cleaver_700.jpg.

You are right, but the base item here is the steel battle axe, and that can certainly be used to cleave something... The idea is not to diverge too much from the base weapons, but still give them a distinct and unique look. Also, as long as I have not proceeded to create new textures for the base steel weapons, I am inclined to use only vanilla textures on these new unique meshes, which makes it a little difficult to really create something distinct and unique. But this is just a first draft, expect improvements in the future.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-PJLVavA_fOY/U4zZKNcBk6I/AAAAAAAABfM/SubBOfxCyE0/s0/rammekald_unique.jpg (Bloodmoon)

I am a lot happier about how this one turned out. Actually, when I think about it now, I like this almost more than the vanilla design. Now this is how I imagined the unique meshes to be like, and I will certainly have to work a little more on that Cloudcleaver.

Your weapons are out of control, everyone knows that!

That looks great! It oozes power

Something new: Improved armor parts.

This started as a side-project of the improved weapons meshes after I had realized that the "detailed" meshes from the Mod http://mw.modhistory.com/download-71-14289 were just subdivided versions of the vanilla meshes, and in the worst possible way. Looking at them in NifSkope, I discovered that they have literally thousands of extra polygons which do nothing but making some edges look smoother and adding some detail, but in exchange for lots and lots of unnecessary triangles and often even broken uv maps and mesh errors. So I began improving some of the vanilla meshes myself by carefully subdividing and editing certain parts of the original files, and I realized that I could get decent results quite quickly while ending up with only fractions of the polycounts and filesizes of the "detailed" meshes. I have been working on them quite irregularly in between other projects, so this is coming along rather slowly, but sometimes while playing I encounter one of the bad meshes in the game and spontaneously decide to do my own improved version of it. Although I don't think I will be getting anywhere near that any time soon, the long-term goal for this at the moment is to improve every part of armor that is not covered by http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42509/?, that means pauldrons, helmets and shields, basically.

So far I have done:

• Ebony Pauldron and https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b0MMm1UzezA/U6dDX6iAKVI/AAAAAAAABgw/JeKOBdgrkQU/s0/ebony_helm-comparison.jpg (tried to improve the shape, too, as I did not like the original pot-like look)
• https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q6oDxrv7pSE/U6dDYWRAlJI/AAAAAAAABgk/nzgPd6KcEdk/s0/imperial_helmet-comparison.jpg (Templar Helmet is in the making, too)
• Iron https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kpi9umSKCXo/U6dDYl4HB6I/AAAAAAAABgY/PJVZgsWNUAE/s0/iron_pauldron-comparison.jpg and https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-85YVfGcLX9M/U6dDZCJ5qjI/AAAAAAAABgo/zw09vN0Pc94/s0/iron_shield.jpg (with new improved textures based on the originals, as an alternative to Darknut's textures)
• https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ZQwW48rnZwc/U6dDXxSj9bI/AAAAAAAABg0/P9mHeJmCibc/s0/chitin_helm-comparison.jpg
• https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0D0yzbnkLQ8/U6dDZFfLGbI/AAAAAAAABgs/cwoSCne9Rsc/s0/netch_leather_helm-comparison.jpg
• https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-nd82M17-uNs/U6dDX0_65EI/AAAAAAAABgI/54oB-eRPs2E/s0/boiled_netch_leather_helm-comparison.jpg

Even more than the steel weapons before, these are stil WIP and it is more than likely that I will change most or all of them again before eventually releasing them officially, which could take some time, anyway. Also, I haven't tested all of them ingame, yet, so use them at your own risk at the moment. Though the ebony parts, iron pauldron and imperial helm work for sure. They can be downloaded from my WIP Dropbox Folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l1660o8fg664bii/w1oDErFG3-

As I already wrote above, these are not made from scratch like the Weapon meshes but they are modified versions of the original meshes. To show what difference these make in comparison to the originals and the meshes from the Detailed and Reflective Armor mod, I created a comparison of all three versions of the netch leather helm with visible polygons (this is an animated gif): https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mXLvwfVcXxY/U6dK03BYQRI/AAAAAAAABhE/kFVAkXELQ2k/s0/comparison.gif

As you can see, my version has less than ten percent of the file size of the Detailed Armor version, but with a similar level of detail. Also, you can see that the Detailed Armor variant has many polygons that do not contribute to a more detailed or even smoother look at all. I don't want to discredit the creator of the detailed meshes, but I would like to emphasize that his way of "improving" the meshes is highly inefficient and these meshes can really have a great impact on performance. On some meshes, the look is indeed improved, but this can and should be achieved with far fewer polygons. These meshes actually have polycounts that are more likely to be found in objects meant for pre-rendered images or videos and not for real-time rendering in games. And the Netch Leather helm is not even one of the largest files in this mod, some have more than 500kb file size and a few even more than 1Mb, which is just way too much, especially for an old game like Morrowind.

I try to provide an alternative for improved visuals while keeping the polycount at a reasonable level.

edit: Confirmed that all meshes work ingame!

It's awesome to see that an alternative to the detailed armor meshes is in the works! You've done a great job so far, Pherim. Though I feel like you could maybe go one step more in some areas; especially on the chitin helm. Love that ebony helm though! The bucket has always looked odd to me.

Yeah, the chitin helm is more or less a quick and dirty version at the moment, and you can expect that most if not all of these will be further improved and also get additional detail in the future.

I like te boiled helm, the mouthguard looks a lot better and I think it kind of enhances the original modles preception of 'other wordly', which is really awesome as sometimes mods that alter the meshes/textures of vanilla assets tend to make them lose their 'Morrowindy feel'. Good work, I'll be following the progress!

To all who were wondering which weapons category I will do next, https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xmN9up6zGr0/U7pipJaMPbI/AAAAAAAABmk/WSlPIboAhBc/s0/ebony_mace_1st.jpg. Here's the comparison to the original: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-na8fXwbVz7g/U7pipCkHiaI/AAAAAAAABmo/oqRRf3l9PzM/s0/ebony_mace_comparison.jpg

Well, I don't know whether I will work on this regularly again, but maybe now and then there will be a new mesh. Since there are a lot fewer ebony weapons than steel, it might even not take too long until I have done all. The mace can be downloaded as usual.

Very nice! Looking forward to the rest of them

That's looking pretty sweet, Pherim. I like the twisted shaft.

That's a massive improvement

Here's the templar helmet: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XpdzeSUQUkM/U8wjhOesjmI/AAAAAAAABoc/LhaTuPHKvrg/s0/Templar_helmet_comparison.jpg

And with a new alternative texture: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-WHQBzpEYIv4/U8wjhF3c3FI/AAAAAAAABoY/B-NY7Lwsn4I/s0/Templar_helmet_alternative_texture.jpg

Both files are ready to be downloaded and used. I modified the mesh slightly again after taking the pictures. See for yourself!

It's a shame this nice helmet can only be found once in the entire game!

Very nice, as always!

Thanks!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KK4obF6C5qU/U8wyZ7r3AKI/AAAAAAAABos/htHhQyEMOew/s0/Templar_helmet_normalmap.jpg

Nice! Are there some guard mods which add more Templars? Maybe nazo's? I don't know. It is a shame it's only used once!

Pumaman's Advanced Guards levels the guards based on the player's level. Eventually you see a lot of Imperials wandering around in Templar armour.

That new texture is great man! Can't belive how much better it looks. Thanks

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gdWtFyco5rw/U8zlol6ixcI/AAAAAAAABo8/OvAzBKmUOhQ/s0/Imperial_chain_coif_comparison.jpg

I used the newest Blender version (v2.71) for the first time to edit this, importing it back into v2.49b (so that I could export it as a .nif file) worked flawlessly with an intermediate .obj file.

Looks very nice!

I must admit, I lost my faith in any "mesh smoothing", "mesh detailing" etc. projects long ago: usually I downloaded them, saw the ridiculous number of polygons and instantly shift-deleted. That's why, unfortunately, I didn't check this thread until now. And I was pleasantly surprised, to put it mildly. Pherim, you've restored my faith in mesh improvements!

It's very exciting to see so many improvements to the original meshes! Please keep up the good work!