» Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:21 pm MORROWIND:
Texture Fix 2.0
By Slartibartfast
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IN A NUTSHELL
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1. Texture Fix is a land replacer for Morrowind.
2. Fixes 3 - 5000 (guestimated) landscape texture seams.
3. Repaints many areas with textures of a more appropriate type.
4. Removes/changes coloured vertex shading to grey/black
5. Makes a few minorimprovements to the shape of the land
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Index:
1. Description
2. Installation
3. Known Issues
4. Version History
5. Credits
6. Permissions
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1. DESCRIPTION
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The Morrowind game engine is incapable of seamlessly blending more than
2 adjoining landscape textures simultaneously which results in large numbers
of unsightly immersion busting texture seams appearing across the whole of
Vvardenfell.The problem is most profound when using the high detailed
textures contained within the majority of texture replacer mods.
(see enclosed screenshots for examples)
Texture Fix is a land replacer for Morrowind that contains a copy of the
original land but the layout of the landscape textures has been reworked
in such a way that the game engine doesn't have to deal with trying to
seamlessly blend more than 2 adjoining texture types.During the creation of this
mod i estimated that on average i fixed between 3 and 5 texture seams per
exterior cell, as there is landscape data for almost 1,000 exterior cells
contained within that suggests a figure between 3,000 amd 5,000 seams removed.
Shadows are only ever black in colour , never blue, green, brown or any other colour
only the density varies.Therefore, when using vertex shading to create the illusion
of shadow it stands to reason that only shades of grey or black be used, nevertheless
coloured vertex shading was used extensively on Morrowind, whilst this does not matter
particularly with the original textures, the use of coloured vertex shading
can look quite hideous with photograhic textures because of the diversity of
colour and clarity of a photo image , to give them a deep green or brown hue
via the use of vertex shading never looks good imo. So i tend to remove or redo
vertex shading in grey tones to better suit everyone regardless of choice of textures used.
Some of the games original textures do not look like the surfaces they are
supposed to represent which leads to some unsightly texture work when using
photograhic texture replacers, For example the scrub texture used outside the
council club, lucky lock up , pawnbrokers and outfitters in Balmora, looks fine
if using the original textures which would pass as a type of hard surface, but not
when using photographic texture replacers as scrub textures show far too much
vegetation to be growing on the doorsteps of busy bars and shops. Areas where the
wrong sort of textures had been placed , have been reworked using textures of an
appropriate type thus helping make the landscape look less patchy and improving the
general appearance of the land in many places.
Land reshaping has been kept to a minimum and limited to just a few tiny areas
( just a few square yards worth) where the landscaping was bad enough to break immersion,
these are typically in wilderness areas where the games playtesters , (nor anyone else)
had little reason to go. These reshapings are unlikely to conflict with anything due to
minor nature of the reworkings and the way that landscape data overwrites old data.
Texture Fix effectively eradicates seams contained in the original Morrowind
but cannot fix texture seams that are contained in the many mods that have
landscape data in them.This is because landscape data contained in subsequent mods
overwrites that in previous mods according to load order. To ensure compatibility
with all mods, Texture Fix needs to load first this is because the shape of the land
contained (except for a few minor reworkings) is identical to that in Morrowind.
If Texture Fix loads before mods that alter the land than landscape changes will
be applied to the Texture Fix landscape just as they would to the original Morrowind
land. If Texture fix were to load after then it would overwrite land alterations with
the games' default shape effectively undoing the changes resulting in models floating
in the air and/or submerged into the land.
Texture Fix addresses the cause of texture seams and will weave its magic
regardless of which texture replacers you choose to use.
TIP OF THE DAY
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If you make a mod that alters the land in any way and however small the change
then the landscape data for an entire exterior cell will be imported into your
mod complete with all the texture seams contained in the original game.
If you load up Texture Fix in the construction set when you make a mod that alters the
land in the original game then it will be the seamless landscape data from Texture Fix
that gets imported into your mod.Once finished you can remove the dependancy on Texture
Fix using a utility such as Wrye Mash as the relevent landscape data will be in your
mod and therefore Texture Fix will not be required for your mod to work.
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2. INSTALLING THE PLUGIN
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1. Copy the Texture Fix 2.0.esm into the 'Morrowind/Data' files directory'
2. From the Morrowind Launcher, select Data Files and enable
'Texture Fix 2.0.esm'.
3. Start playing!
NB. Texture Fix is dependant on load order to work correctly as it needs to
load BEFORE any mod that changes the shape of the land of Vvardenfell so that
the changes be applied to the land in Texture Fix as they would to the original.
For this reason Texture Fix is supplied in .esm format and had the datestamp
adjusted to help ensure that it does load first and load order shouldn't be a
concern with this mod.
As landscape data is not stored in savegames, installing or uninstalling
this mod should not invalidate savegames.
If upgrading from an earlier version of Texture Fix there will be an
error message when you attempt to play a save game but this will disappear
once you have saved your game with a new version installed or
if you decide not to use this mod anymore then the error message will
disappear once you have saved without any version installed.
Version 2.0 supersedes earlier versions , all fixes to date are included and
older versions are not required and may be discarded.
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3. KNOWN ISSUES
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Minimap - areas previously marked as explored no longer are.
This happens when you install mods that change the land because Morrowind
does not automatically update the minimap with the new landscape data,
instead it resets the map in the affected areas which appear as unexplored.
It is a nuisance perhaps , but harmless as your map will show as being
explored again once you have revisited the affected areas.
If you use the 'Update Map' option in Wrye Mash, on your save game this may
restore your minimap to its previous ''explored' status.
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4. VERSION HISTORY
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1.0 Cleared a few thousand seams from across the whole of Vvardenfell
removing the majority of the most obvious seams from the game. All
areas had received a great deal of repair work and considerable checking
using the construction set as well as many hours of playtesting, though
nowhere could be considered finalised and completely seam free.
1.1 The esm file is simply an enhanced version of the 1.0 esm, eliminating
approximately 70 additional seams overlooked in version 1.0, Most of the
repair work in version 1.1 was done along the western coastal areas as i
am in the process of finalising each region with the Bitter Coast being
the first region to have been rechecked and the first to offer something
like completely seam free adventuring.In addition there have been many
subtle alterations mostly to improve the diversity of textures used and
also to improve the overall appearance in the general area of Balmora and
East of Seyda Neen.Gnisis has also had a significant repaint with most of
the scrub textures in town being replaced by dirt road textures which i felt
were more appropriate for a frontier town.
1.2 Version 1.2 completely supersedes earlier versions of this mod,altering
a few hundred land tiles and eliminating around 60 additional seams
mostly in the Ascadian Islands region and some in the Bitter Coast as well
as a few elsewhere as i attempt to finalise the mod, region by region.
Both the Bitter Coast and the Ascadian Islands regions should now offer
something very close to seam-free adventuring, whilst in all other regions
this mod drastically reduces the number of seams that you will encounter
on your travels.
1.3 Version 1.3 takes up where 1.2 left off. Another 50 seams (approx) were
removed from the West Gash region which means that you should now be
able to enjoy near/total seam free adventuring in the Ascadian Islands,
Bitter Coast and West Gash regions. In addition another 50 seams or so were
removed from the mountain regions in the general vicinity of Ghostgate
(more work there required) and a few seams were removed from the
Ashlands,mostly along the border with West Gash.
1.4 Around 50 seams were removed from the Ashlands to add it to The
Bitter Coast, Ascadian Islands and West Gash as regions that offer
something very close to completely seam free adventuring. In addition, more than
100 seams were removed from the Molag Amur region in preparation for
playtesting and finalisation.Approximately a dozen seams were removed from the
Caldera mine area and a similar amount removed from the border areas of
the Grazelands,Azuran Coast and Sheogorad which i noticed whilst working
on the Ashlands and Molag Amur.
1.5 Version 1.5 incorporates my attempt to finalise the 5 outstanding
regions not completed by version 1.4 which should mean that with this
mod installed you should now be able to enjoy near seam free adventuring
across the whole of Vvardenfell.
In excess of 200 additional seams were located and removed, primarily
from the Molag Amur,Azura Coast, Sheogorad and Grazelands regions, in
addition 20 more were removed from the Red Mountain region as
well as a few in other regions, some i found whilst re-checking previously
completed areas and some were brought to my attention by Xenomorph.net
which i subsequently repaired.
1.6 Just a small update in my quest for perfection.Version 1.6 gets rid
of a few seams, mostly in the Ascadian Islands Region. There has been
a minor reworking of landscape textures just south of the bandit cave in
Seyda Neen to rid the area of a seam reported by Telesphoros, a large
seam beneath the bridge from the mainland to Vivec's foreign quarter has
gone, two prominant seams a short distance SW of Pelagiad have been fixed,
two seams North of pelagiad (one on the lake shore and one underwater) have
been repaired.A seam at the side of the southernmost building in the Dren
Plantation, and another on the shorebank slightly NE of Dren have both gone,
and a seam in the sea due west of Hlorramoren has also gone.
1.7 Tweaks and Fixes by region.
Bitter Coast; Texture fix now fixes seams in muck ponds that occur because
the scum meshes were never correctly aligned, even if using seamless
scum textures,seams were still visible due to the misalignment. 6 ponds in
the region have so far been found with this problem though the majority were ok.
In the Seyda Neen area a seam has been fixed on the island due north of the
lighthouse and another on the road heading east towards Vivec. A seam concealed
beneath a scum mesh, causing the neighbouring land tiles to appear discoloured
has been fixed(thanks to Telesphoros for pointing it out), and a seam in the most
northern point of the region has also gone.
Ascadian Islands; Several alterations to the area near Pelagiad. To the south of
the town the diversity of textures used was improved by introducing another sand
texture in and on shores of the lake there and a seam also removed,
several coastal rock textures were replaced by grass to help make the area
around the lake look a little more natural.
West gash; A seam that was mostly concealed by rocks was fixed by the East wall
of Fort Moonmouth and another in the mountains dividing the West Gash and Bitter
Coast Regions. A couple of seams actually on the road heading north, due west of
Ald Ruhn were repaired and there has been a minor repaint on a small hill there
to get the road running around it rather than up the side. There have been many
alterations in the area north of Gnisis this was to improve diversity and
appearance by replacing some of the rock textures with scrub type textures and
improving the layout and appearance of the roads in that area.
Ashlands; Some of the textures inside the walls of Ald'ruhn and Maar Gan have been
changed to road textures help the towns look a little more urbanized, and the road
between Aldruhn and Fort Buckmoth has been restored to run very similarly to unfixed
Morrowind as it had temporarily been obscured due to the large amount of seam fixing
and repainting in earlier versions of Texture Fix. Quite a few Red Mountain Textures
around Fort Buckmoth have been replaced by Ashland textures to help the area blend in
better and a seam in the ash wilderness has also gone.
grazelands; A couple of seams in the Ahemmusa camp have been fixed.
1.8 Another 15 of Vvardenfells last remaining seams have been found
and removed and several areas of land have been repainted to improve the general appearance.
3 seams were removed from the main road in west gash heading north and
due west of Ald Ruhn, 4 seams were removed from the Ascadian islands NE ofVivec
2 seams were removed from within the boundaries of Dagon Fell,1 was removed
from beneath the tower at Vos, and a seam removed from under the courtyard
of Tel Vos that was discolouring the ground nearby, and a few seams were
removed from under the sea around the islands NW of Sadrith Mora,and a
couple of seams were removed from Molag Amur a short distance west of Arkhtand.
Several areas in the south of the Molag Amur region were repainted mostly to
reintroduce sulphur rock textures that can be found mostly around steam vents.
The area around Suran has been improved slightly particularly around the shores of
the lake with grass replacing some of the coastal rock, and the road heading southwards
into Molag Amur has had a small makeover. Finally the hillside behind the bandit
cave in Seyda Neen has been repainted so that it matches the rocks that are prominent
in the bitter coast region.
1.9. An incompatibility issue with Vality's Bitter Coast add on which caused an unsightly
but harmless tear in the landscape at the mouth of the Odai river has been fixed.
A few seams in the areas of the Caldera mine , sheogorad and West Gash have been fixed.
Areas in West Gash that had Morrowinds default earth texture applied have been painted
over so that better textures can be utilised.
The pond scum fix previously incorporated in Texture Fix has been seperated, so that this
mod is solely a land replacer for Morrowind, whilst correcting the alignment of scum meshes
rightly belongs in something like the 'Morrowind patch project' IMO.
2.0 The pond scum fix that was previously included in the last few releases has now been
removed completely and can be found in my 'Poorly placed Object Fix' that is currently available
on Planet Elderscrolls.
A minor conflict with some mods affecting the Seyda Neen area possibly causing a slight tear in the
land near the bandit cave has been fixed.
There has been quite a substantial repaint particularly in the mountains around Pelagiad,Seyda Neen
and South of Balmora, red mountains and Molag Amur, this was to improve the general appearance by
making the texture work less patchy, all being well you shouldn't notice anything radically different
than before.
About a dozen additional seams were located and removed, some were underwater as i did another sweep
around the entire coast of VVardenfell, a couple of which were in the area of Ebonheart whilst the
majority of seams were located in West Gash and the Ashlands.
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5. CREDITS
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Bethesda for making an excellent game.
The modding community for taking the game beyond excellent, and for suggestions
and reporting seams to make this mod better.
Ghostwheel for Testool used to remove GMST's
Wrye for Mash used to convert the ESP file to ESM format,add description and statistics
The Secret Masters for the Enchanted Editor used for removing junk I'd accidentally picked up.
Yours truly for being sufficiently obsessed to do this mod.
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6. PERMISSIONS
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Feel free to use any of my mods in your Morrowind projects, no need to ask
for permission, if you do use anything then a mention in your credits would be nice.
Slartibartfast
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3843
