To me, Akulakhan has never looked imposing, like soon-to-be-a-god should. I hope that new shiny textures and normal maps give it (him?) a divine and magical aura that it was certainly lacking before.

I also included the retexture of the Heart of Lorkhan which makes it more "fleshy" looking.

http://static2.nexusmods.com/100/mods/100/images/42855-3-1384290556.jpg

http://static2.nexusmods.com/100/mods/100/images/42855-2-1384290556.jpg

http://static2.nexusmods.com/100/mods/100/images/42855-1-1384290556.jpg

http://morrowind.nexusmods.com/mods/42855//?.

Beautiful! I wish I'd had this a few weeks ago.

Wow, very nice. Definitely one of the areas in my mind that needed attention. Great job!

Very pretty indeed! Thanks For sharing.

I don't think anyone has done this before. Great idea.
thanks!

Nice! It looks great now.

Just in case you're interested, Fritz mentioned this in an old topic:

I found cool activator in CS - akhul_steam. That thing looks like giant tornado, which should be activated after destroying Heart and Akulakhan in Akulakhan's Chamber.
This is script for activator:

Begin akhul_steam
short doonce

if ( doonce == 1 )
Return
endif

if ( GetJournalIndex C3_DestroyDagoth < 20 )
if ( GetDisabled == 0 )
Disable
Return
endif
endif
if ( GetJournalIndex C3_DestroyDagoth >= 20 )
if ( GetDisabled == 1 )
Enable
set doonce to 1
Return
endif
endif
End akhul_steam

Once again your timing is simply amazing. I am now at the point in the GHD quest where the player is about to go into Akulakhan's cavern for the first time. I'm so glad I saw this. I love your Heartwight and Sixth House creature replacer so much that I will certainly be adding this.

Man that looks fantastic! Great job!!

Oh, wow! Again, just as with the recently released ash vampire replacer, I wish I would not have completed the main quest a few weeks ago already. Well, I guess there will always be a next playthrough.

edit: ok, I just tested it with my savegame immediately before fighting Dagoth Ur, and it looks great, however, it doesn't collapse as it should after destroying the heart. Anyone else got this problem?

I must admit I didn't test how Akulakhan's animation plays in game. In nifscope animation worked fine so I presumed that in game it will also be ok.

I had to modify nif structure in order to assign reflection and bump maps only to specific parts of the model. If this is indeed what caused this animation problem, I'll have to release completely metallic variant.

Edit: if someone knows what I should type in console to skip to Akulakhan destruction moment, could you please post it here? I'm gonna try another approach to editing the model but this time I'd like to test animation in game myself, and I don't have any saves close to the MQ end.

Go to Akulakhan's chamber and type in console

"in_akulakhan00"->PlayGroup, Death1

Thats how the 'EndGame' script starts akulakhan collapse.

Thanks, hollaajith!

I noticed a strange thing in CS: if I make some changes to Akulakhan model, even as simple as changing texture path, then rename it and assign to in_akulakhan00 activator in CS, then "Animation" button in the activator properties becomes inactive. Even if I simply rename the old unmodified model and assign it in CS - the "Animation" button still becomes inactive! So the reason is not my modification to the nif structure but smth else. I have absolutely no clue what.

I think it would be easier to use script as workaround: after the Heart is destroyed the new shiny-bumpy model will disappear, the old unmodded model will appear and start crashing.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but I'm pretty sure the animation files are linked to the models they're animating by name (stored inside the animation file itself). If you modify the mesh and then rename it, the name stored in the animation file no longer corresponds to the model. So while the change to the nif structure might not be causing the problem, renaming the mesh might be.

I ran into a similar problem once when trying to create an albino slaughterfish. By changing the mesh name so as to not conflict with the normal slaughterfish, the animation files were no longer linked even when I renamed them to match the new mesh name - the name stored INSIDE the animation file didn't match, and I had to change it with a hex-editor before the fish would be animated.

[edit] To be more specific. The name of the mesh (in_akulakhan00.NIF) is stored in Xin_akulakhan00.nif starting at decimal position 62 (hex position 3E)

Toccatta, thank you very much! You are my savior! And I was just being stupid - I thought that this X"model name".nif system isn't applied to activators! Why did I thought that???

Btw, I've already made version with scripts and two models - old and new - and tested it! Perhaps I'll still release it as an optional version: as if after the Heart destruction its magic left Akulakhan.

The animation issue is fixed and the download is updated.

The replacer is pluginless now. I also included optional esp with blight cloud (Elterin, thanks for the suggestion and for the script!)

This looks like quite an improvement. It's hard to believe that something so integral to the plot hasn't received any attention before now. Thank you very much for sharing.

I think you'd be surprised by the number of players who have actually made it to the Heart Chamber.

Thanks for sharing, PSJJJ.