[RELz]Farm Resources : IV

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:05 am

Download and screenies at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29014.

These are my first serious attempts at creating high-quality meshes (the Shrieker doesn't count--he was too easy to model

) so I would appreciate any constructive feedback you could give me. Especially about poly use, both for the visible mesh and collision, and about the textures, which are custom for the shed. (Base textures from CGTextures.)

The meshes are being created for my world mod, http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1062969&hl=, but I thought I would share them as I go. Full details are in the ReadMe below.

Farm Resources v1.01
==============

Farm Resources are architectural meshes you can use to add immersion to your farms: a chicken coop, and a small shed. Both come in two varieties: version one uses stock textures and version two uses custom textures. Both versions of both models include *_far.nifs for VWD purposes (so they show up in the distance).

I created the chicken coop mesh specifically for use in conjunction with Mr. Siikas' chickens (from Farm Animals of Cyrodiil). The full-size hens and roosters have no difficulty getting up and down the planks, but the chicks do because they are so small. I find that using extra path nodes on the planks helps. I also recommend you dress it up a bit with the DUNhay static.

Note that these meshes do not block weather or lighting. That is an engine limitation, not a problem with the meshes.

I appreciate any and all feedback, especially if you can suggest better or more efficient ways of constructing meshes or textures. There's still a lot left for me to learn!

Enjoy!

Future Plans
------------
Add animated doors. (Something I still need to learn how to do.)
Outhouses.

Install
-------
Extract the meshes and textures to your data directory. To use the meshes, you will have to create new static objects in the Construction Set and then add them to your mod. The *_far.nifs don't need to have objects created, but you will have to tick the Visible When Distant flag on your object reference in the CS and generate LOD objects to get them to appear. (Or use some alternate means of generating LOD objects.)

Uninstall
---------
Delete the offending nifs and textures from your data\meshes\Magician and data\textures\Magician directories.

Tools Used
----------
Blender
NifSkope
The Gimp
GenerateFar

Credits
-------
Mr. Siika for his wonderful creations. You are a constant inspiration!
Vince Bly for his excellent Blender tutorials, without which (and Mr. Siikas' tutorial!) I would not have been able to create this resource.
CGTextures for supplying the base textures and one pre-tiled texture.
All of the other talented and helpful modders I have received assistance from on the forums for various reasons over the last couple of years.
The players, for whom all resources are ultimately created. Enjoy, and never stop demanding more from your game!

Licensing\Legal
---------------
This is a modders' resource, so feel free to use any portion of it in your mods or just to spice up your Vanilla landscape. You may alter the meshes and textures to suit your own needs and preferences, but please mod responsibly: Give credit where credit is due. You may not sell these resources under any circumstances!

Changelog
---------
v1.01 Added a second coop using custom textures; added a second shed using stock textures; created custom _far nifs for all four models
v1.00 Initial release

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:35 pm

Ah, excellent. Where were you when Faregyl was first released?

As far as I can see, poly use is very good. You packed a lot of detail into something that looks to have a nice low poly count, which is always a bonus. My chickens in Faregyl also fit nicely inside the coop, so they'll start their AI there from now on. Building proportions seem about right as well, so all in all, very nicely done.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:00 pm

Looks great, will suggest it in our forums, i think one or more of the teams will find it usefull :-)

Hope there will be more things to come :-)

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:28 am

...all in all, very nicely done.

Thank you for the feedback; and glad to have provided some shelter for your homeless chickens.

Hope there will be more things to come :-)

Yes, but they may come in fits and starts. I have a list of about a hundred assets I would like to include, and the coop was one of the easiest. I tend to switch off between my various tasks, and I needed a bit of a break from landscaping. There will be more down the road, count on it.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:48 pm

I've added a second mesh to the set, a small shed. This one uses four custom textures. Again, feedback is appreciated.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:47 pm

Haven't looked at the shed, but one other thing on your chicken coop. The _far.nif you included should probably have the texture changed. The structure's dominant texture is the smooth one on the roof, but it seems whatever method you used chose the texture for the ramps instead and it makes the _far.nif look weird.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:18 pm

Haven't looked at the shed, but one other thing on your chicken coop. The _far.nif you included should probably have the texture changed. The structure's dominant texture is the smooth one on the roof, but it seems whatever method you used chose the texture for the ramps instead and it makes the _far.nif look weird.

Yes, it needs to be redone. I used GenerateFar to save myself some time and that was the only thing it would produce. I plan on creating _far.nifs by hand for both structures but probably not for a few days or weeks. I'm just swamped with work and don't want to burn out too much. If you test out the shed let me know what you think, especially the textures, which are custom. I don't have a lot of experience with those, either. Thanks for the feedback.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:45 pm

I've updated the package by adding a custom texture variant of the chicken coop to match the shed from the previous release and a Vanilla texture variant of the shed to match the chicken coop. Now you can have matching models.

More importantly, I've created *_far.nifs for all four models which are completely done from scratch...er, well, from the base models, in any case. I recommend deleting the old models and using the new ones, as I've made a couple of very minor changes to the original meshes as well. The original far nif for the chicken coop was completely redone, so don't use the old one.

Again, any feedback is appreciated.

I'd also be interested in hearing any requests people might have for farm-related meshes. I can't promise I'll make them (I made these for my own mod, after all) but I just might, so don't hesitate to give me a shout-out.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:00 pm

I'll have to check out the updates you've made when I'm done fiddling with my blog code.

Some better feeding troughs might be nice. Perhaps a hitching post for horses?

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:50 pm

Hello.

Thanks for making this. I used your chicken coop in my house mod along with Mr Silkas chickens. It's very nice. They're set up to sleep inside it at night.

One minor problem though. My baby chicks have trouble walking up the ramps, they're too steep. (chicks are set to 0.17 scale if i recall) The fullsize chickens handle them ok.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:03 pm

...One minor problem though. My baby chicks have trouble walking up the ramps, they're too steep....

Yeah, they're not quite big enough to get up and down the ramps comfortably. They can do it (I've seen them do it in-game) but it doesn't happen very often. I find that adding extra path nodes on the ramps helps a little. At least it seems to. I mentioned this in the readme.

Short of greatly expanding the length of the ramps, there's not much I can do about it, though, so it's a bit of a trade off. Longer ramps or chicks that have trouble getting up and down? If everybody agrees, I can change the slope on the ramps in my next release, but they'll stick out more. Not so much of a problem under the overhang, but it might be annoying to have a long ramp out front.

Let me know what you think. And I'm still taking suggestions for more meshes.

Some better feeding troughs might be nice. Perhaps a hitching post for horses?

I've already started working on the feed troughs. They'll be a couple of varieties: low troughs for short animals like pigs, raised troughs (on frames) for larger animals like horses. There will also be water troughs. The only tricky part is coming up with textures for the water and feed. A hitching post shouldn't be hard to do.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, guys.

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:10 am

Perhaps the steep grade of the chicken coop ramps (as concerns the chicks) could be dealt with by lowering the height of the chicken coop. This would not only decrease the ramps grade but also its length slightly. Or am I missing some obvious reason this wouldn't fix the issue?

Oh, and thanks so much for your work, TheMagician. I'm a big fan of quality resource providers such as yourself .

» Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:00 am

Perhaps the steep grade of the chicken coop ramps (as concerns the chicks) could be dealt with by lowering the height of the chicken coop. This would not only decrease the ramps grade but also its length slightly. Or am I missing some obvious reason this wouldn't fix the issue?

Oh, and thanks so much for your work, TheMagician. I'm a big fan of quality resource providers such as yourself .

It's easier to see: http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk146/TheMagicianFromOblivion/coop.jpg.

The stilts and planks are long to give you some leeway when placing them. That way, you don't have to worry about things like whether or not the ground is level and gives the birds some room for walking around underneath. Raising the planks means either lengthening them to preserve height flexibility or keeping them short and losing flexibility. It's not a big deal either way, since the excess plank and post length will just disappear underground. I'll probably change it for the next release.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! It's stuff like that that keeps us modders modding!