img tags still don't work on the forums; it's better to just post the URL (better yet to post a direct link to the image, instead of the imageshack ad-ridden page)

I noticed, and it's kind of irksome - but I suppose we can live without it. At any rate, I've upgraded my freezer...

http://img155.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood352.jpg/

I modified one of the steam emitters to emit snowflakes, and attached it to the ac unit. I've even got a sound effect generator running on it. Makes the ice house nice and cool!

I don't mean to nitpick, I'm just trying to point out details in case they need ironing. It's my way of helping. Now, if the area is fairly new, how would they have advanced tech this far. Judging from the dwemer ruins on MW, not even the dwemer were quite at this level of advancement, and it took them a very long time to get to where they did. If this necromancer that they joined up with in the beginning was a vampire, and thus ageless to a degree, he/she could have helped them a great deal with some knowledge and guidance in study.. but that still would not explain the speed of which they got the tech they process.

Also, although they are liberation like (I am too so I get it), such advancement would easily allow them to lord over the empire with only a little refinement. Even among the politics of the factions on the island, some upstart could break away and teach others these secrets as part of a revolt for their own gain. So what really causes them to hide away in this place? The mind set would not be enough by itself, and what the area being newish, even tradition which usually comes with a society would not be enough as it's not completely solid yet.

Therefore, something more than their disdain of the empire and it's ways would have to be in play. Perhaps this necromancer is black mailing them behind the scenes or something. :shrug:

If it's thought out already and a part you can't reveal yet, that's okay. Just thought I better point it out.

Maholix has a point there, the tech here does seem rather advanced, even for the Dwemer.

Yes, it is; isn't it.

Like I said, the rabbit hole goes deep...

Believe me, by the time you get to the end, it will all make sense. I will say this. Percius is a geek. He's not interested in taking over the empire, he's interested in learning new things, and making cool stuff. It's up to his apprentice to make useful things out of that cool stuff. Simply put, his head is so far up his own [censored] that he sometimes fails to realize what he has created, or how potentially useful or dangerous it can be. It's not that he is necessarily reckless, he simply doesn't understand the ramifications of his discoveries, and he is encouraged in this by another kindred spirit. There is a particularly unique accident site that demonstrates this. (You guys will love this one, I believe there's a screenshot of the site on imageshack)

Most of the people on Ravenwood who use the technology don't get it either, they simply use it to simplify their lives. The owner of the meat company just understands that the machines keep his meats cold. The owner of the sweet shop just believes it makes her shop brighter, and lets people see the baked goods more clearly. So on, and so on.

There are a few in Ravenwood who recognize the potential of this technology, and their reactions differ strongly. How this conflict plays out is central to the story. In fact, you could argue that this is the story.

Also, Yagrum didn't get wiped out like the rest of the Dwemer because he wasn't on Nirn at the time of the cataclysm.

Argh. I've been slowly climbing up the hill of Blender's learning curve. I've just about got the bits necessary to complete the underground facility, but I've been running into problems with MW not correctly rendering stuff.

I think I can work around the problem, but I wish I understood what was causing certain things to happen. The giant containment sphere, for example, slowly disappears as you approach it - and the collision is spotty at best. Under water, and it appears to have no collision. Out of water, and it has collision until the engine decides to stop rendering it - at which point you plummet. Strange.

Fortunately, I think I can work around that problem by simply avoiding allowing the player in the outer containment chamber. I hope to have screenshots soon, as this should be one of the more impressive interiors.

Argh. I thought I had blender at least somewhat figured out, but it appears that something is still amiss.

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5588/ravenwood356.jpg

This is a control room that I put together in blender. I cut out the port hole windows using a union of the windows and the frame - and then manually deleted the triangles from where the windows should be transparent. That seemed to work, but now I get this odd lighting effect.

I have tried everything. I even completely unwrapped the UV map and started over. Properties are copied from a working mesh. I'm not sure what's left.

Any ideas?

I can't be sure only from this screenshot but you might try this:
In Blender put the model in Edit Mode
Select all vertices (A)
Then go Mesh ---> Vertices ---> Remove doubles

Hope this helps!

I did remove doubles prior to exporting, but I forgot to check the normals. I forgot to reface them all. Once I reset and smoothed them, the crazy lighting effects mostly went away. I can still tell they are there in bright light, but I think I'm on the right track.

The story seems cool and you obviously put some thought to it. I love the model of the freezer particularly hehe I must admit some pics look weird tho, everything made of stone and wood, and then there is a plastic laptop made of bunch of chips and whatnot, how come they discovered such a complex technology but not how to plaster and concrete walls?
Do you plan to continue work on some of the areas you posted? I ask because most of your exterior pics look very bare and undetailed..

Oh and for platforms on those high trees, are the big platforms a single model or you cobbled many planks together? If it's the latter you might wanna try the FPS in game. I'm doing something similar, platforms on the same tree model and too many of those planks are causing quite a hit to my fps without any retextures or MGE, so you should probably check that up.

I'm using platform models, that combine a number of planks into one mesh. I've also optimized the meshes in the area to reduce exactly that problem. Even with my old 7600GT, I still got very high frame rates (60+) pretty much everywhere in Arbor Glen. Ironically, it's Bree that svcks frame rate right now. There is a decently sized forest right above it, and if you look in that direction during foggy weather, it can get down into the 30's, even on a 9800GTX+. I may have to look into that at some point...

As for the technology, lets say that some of it dropped in unexpectedly. I really don't want to reveal too much of the story, but not everything on the island was necessarily 'invented' by the locals. While it will stretch lore as far as possible, I don't believe it will break it. At least not outright. The idea actually came to me from thinking about Yagrum Bagarn, and how he managed to be the lone survivor, as well as Radac Stungnthumz.

Ah I see, I'm not going to poke my nose any further I'm aware that one cannot keep few parts of the story secret without letting others think those are holes in the story, when they aren't.

Anyway, nice work so far.

Well, I'm finally getting the hang of blender - and am pretty close to finishing two new interior sets. The pressure gallery, and the boiler room. The pressure gallery is the closest:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9969/ravenwood359.jpg
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7052/ravenwood360.jpg

I pulled in a short segment from Darknut's GDR collection, and created door frames that allow connections to his tube tunnels. That, combined with a pressure door, makes for the perfect subterranean, submerged, secret facility!

I still have a little work left to do, though. The door frames aren't quite deep enough (or the junk at the end of the meshes is too long) You can kind of see some trash in the second picture due to this. I'm still working out the meshes, so these aren't final yet. I also need to finish up the color scheme. This facility will be much more rusted than a normal Dwemer facility.

Note, I'm trying to simulate being underwater in this area - which is why the lighting is so funky. (and why there are bubble generators under the windows...)

This is awesome beyond belief!

You should be commended.

Love this: http://img684.imageshack.us/f/ravenwood276.jpg/

Seriously, this place rules: http://img692.imageshack.us/f/ravenwood292.jpg/

Thanks!

It's hard to believe I'm on year two of this project...

While I'm posting, how about some closer to final shots of the new facility meshes.

http://img28.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood365.jpg/
http://img31.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood364.jpg/
http://img6.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood363.jpg/

These are just about complete. All I have left to do is vertex shading along the ceilings. I practiced a bit on the pipe in the pressure gallery, but I'm aiming for subtle. So far, though, I'm exited about these new meshes. They are fitting my vision of Percius' underground facility to a 't'. I can't wait to start laying out the facility with them.

I think I've just about set the right tone for the cavern facility. It's Dwemer-ish, without actually being Dwemer. Very rusty and corroded. I still have some tweaking to do, as some walls are still way too bright (I need to finish the vertex coloring) but I think I'm getting close to capturing the feel of the place. I want the player to feel the need to get a tetanus shot just walking around in the place!

http://img149.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood370.jpg/
http://img149.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood369.jpg/
http://img149.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood368.jpg/
http://img149.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood367.jpg/
http://img149.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood366.jpg/

I'm aiming for something that is both contemporary, and old. Contemporary in the sense that it was built long after the Dwemer. Old in the sense that it was built decades ago, and has already begun to fall into disrepair. It's actually a hard balance, but once I get the pieces done, I can get started on the facility layout.

dup'd

Update:
A lot of modeling. I've been tweaking or creating a lot of the stuff I will need for the underground facility

http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood372.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood371.jpg/

These are going to be the standard indicator lamps. I will end up having to make at least one more set for the airlocks, but these will cover most of the player-controllable machines.

The current facility is going to be scrapped - I'm just putting together ideas, and seeing how things work together, at the moment. (I finally settled on a 'rust scheme, for example)

OOHHHH AHHH. cant wait to play this mod looks great!

The WIP screenshots of this mod project seem very interesting and different of the others mods, with a nice mix of the Dwemer technology and our modern technology, without breaking the atmosphere of the game.
Also, the level of details is well perfect. A very nice project! :goodjob:

Good luck for the development! ^___^

I finally figured out how to get rid of the lighting problems in the southern caverns! I still don't know exactly why it was screwing up, and I've only gotten one cavern piece done, but I was able to solve the problem by carving the meshes up into smaller pieces.

Essentially, the lower entrance and walkway are now one piece, the upper platform and alcove are another, the upper entrances are split into two meshes, and the cavern pool & room are the last piece - 5 total. A bit of a pain to split up and UV map, but the payoff was tremendous. Lighting is now working properly in the entire room. The first time I walked through the lower tunnel into the room was great - I now have an ominous blue glue instead of pure, pitch blackness - with blue points of light on the wall. Freaking awesome!

I still need to carve up a couple more cavern meshes, but at least I have a workflow now. Blender to do the cutting and UV map work, nifskope to straighten up the normals and adjust the material properties. (since I don't know how to do that in blender yet)

I have been worried about having to restart the southern caverns for a while, but now I am hopeful that I can fix the whole area. This is great, because I had just about completed the area when I found the lighting issue.

Update:
Blew a whole night dinking with MGE instead of modding...

Ok, that's not entirely true. I've been working on the lore for Ravenwood Island. I believe it's important to understand what is going on before jumping in, which is why I'm still not very far along with the Ravenwood Facility area. However, the more I think on it, the more clear things are becoming - what happened in the past, what is happening now, and what may happen in the future. I really need a sounding board, though. Sometimes, ideas seem great when I come up with them, but end up going flat when I implement them.

The history part will be explained in books, and journals. Essentially, there were two camps of Dwemer in the very beginning. Those who preferred to explain the world with reason and science, and those who preferred to explain it with gods and magic. The first camp are the agnostics or atheists that represent most folk's view of the Dwemer. They gave little credence to ancient myths about the formation of Nirn, beyond what they could teach regarding the laws of nature; and saw the 'gods' as little more than powerful creatures to be respected, but hardly worshiped. The second camp, however; was intimately familiar with the creation myths, believed them intently, and sought to use that information for their own gain. They also believed in the gods, and hated their guts - feeling they could do better.

In the beginning, this wasn't an issue. The first camp set about building the various steam and electrical gadgets that power the tunnels. They became the traditional architects, engineers, and alchemists. The other group focused on enchanting items with magical energy, and studied the basic principles of magical energy and its conversion. They became the tonal architects, mages, and enchanted smithies, etc. The calling bound both groups together, preventing a major schism, and allowed the Dwemer, as a race, to fuse the two concepts into a unified whole. For a very long time, concepts from each camp found there way into the other, and all was well.

Eventually, though, events transpired that caused a fundamental split between the two groups. A split that would reverberate thousands of years later, even as the race was seemingly wiped from existence. Little evidence remains of the events that preceded the schism, as the leaders sought to wipe the knowledge of the would-be usurpers from history, but not all was lost to the ravages of time. Buried deep under the mountains is a machine, hopelessly destroyed, but which its very existence could change everything.

I carved up another couple of caverns for the southern cavern system. This has dramatically improved the lighting situation - to the point where I am going to have to cut the lights back. It's now too bright! I'm using the same crystal lanterns as in Arbor Glen (the ones that look like stars at night), so I need to cut the radius back for the fixed meshes. I'm exited, though; because now I can finally get the caverns looking good.

http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood373.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood374.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood375.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood376.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood377.jpg/

I still have three more meshes to go, though. The next two don't look too bad - I see obvious places to cut them - but the last could be a challenge. It is a much more complex shape, with tunnels that cross over each other. However, fixing them will resolve the last of the lighting foul-ups in the caverns - at least these caverns. The northern cavern system is still on paper only - and I haven't even finished sketching out the quest areas there yet.

At least I'll have a nice set of cavern meshes after this, though. They could stand a bit of uv-mapping cleanup (unfortunately, I managed to hose up the original mapping in the cutting process) but they look decent enough as-is. I may also need to do some vertex coloring as well, if I can't cut the light enough. I need some dark chasms here!

I really like that second shot, has a nice atmosphere to it :goodjob:

Cool new cavern set! Very well done, can't wait to see some more!