I have heard of the Open Cities Mod that lets you enter all cities execpt the Imperial one (why is this??).

But I want to know if anyone can answer this question: is there a way to make ALL doors open in regular houses? Say I want to go inside my Shack on the ICWaterfront, is there a way of opening the door so I can enter and still see the outside world from inside? I really don't like the fact the cells are held differently and am looking to make a mod that let's you enter a property more reaslistically.

Can anyone help or give me some pointers as to what I should be doing in the construction set?

Yes, a house like you describe can be created. You can build a house where, when you click on the door, the door swings open and you just walk in. You can see out of and in through the windows, hear the wind blowing through the trees, and so forth.

There is a price to be paid for a house like this, which is why none of the vanilla Oblivion homes are like that. First, there's the weather. A home like you described (called an "exterior" home) exists in the exterior cell. Since no objects in Oblivion stop the rain, you need to create scripts to keep it from raining or snowing "inside" your house. Second, there is the frame rate hit. The graphics processor not only has to process the trees, bushes, sky, animals, etc., but also the lights, clutter, and other things inside the house. The practical result is you can only create a reasonably small exterior home if you want it playable by most people's graphics cards.

The most complete exterior home at present is the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22846. This should give you a reasonably good idea of what is possible.

Thanks for the info, and is the Abandoned Mountain Shack the only mod of it's type? I think you've got a good point about the wheather, do you know of ANY way around this? You mentioned scripts, have you got any samples that I could experiment with?

Sorry for all the questions but you seem to know more than I do about this problem so I'm hoping you can give me some tips.

Thanks again

You can find other exterior homes at http://oblivionsrealestate.com/Find_A_Home/Exterior_Homes/exterior_homes.html. You could study the weather scripts for the Abandoned Mountain Shack or somewhat simpler ones for the Top of the World. A few of the other exterior homes have weather scripts derived from mine, with permission. Some exterior homes, including Exilehunter's excellent Amaterasu No Yume, solve the weather problem by placing their home in a separate world space with it's own weather.

Hey Vince, thanks again for your feedback. Please can you go to this new thread I have just created and address my points? I have also sent you a pm at tesnexus.

Here is my new thread:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1092300-exterior-houses-suggestions-where-you-can-see-cyrodiil-through-the-windowsdoorways/

Thanks