hey @ all

this will be the thread for all mods and projects around or based on the " Under the sign of the dragon Tamriel heightmaps" .



Under the sign of the dragon - Tamriel heightmaps -


Download : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27235


description
==============================================

This mod will try to provide lore friendly heightmaps of all provinces of Tamriel in the Tamriel worldspace .

Official lore maps and/or other lore based maps ( like TR team maps) have been used to create lore correct or at least lore friendly shapes and basic geographic data of all provinces.

Note ! For compatibility reasons and to get a more realistic gameplay, all provinces around cyrodiil have been enlarged (mainly in north/south direction).
This means you will find the different provinces larger compared to cyrodiil than on the lore maps.

The heightmaps will be provided as modders resources, so that everyone is free to place his own mods in the different provinces using the heightmaps as a master.

This could be a complete region, a city, a playerhome...placing creatures or whatever...the idea is to have the provinces playable right from the start and getting them more and more interesting by new content added by new created mods.

So far heightmaps of Black Marsh, Valenwood/Elsweyr , Summerset Isles, Hammerfell and High Rock have been released.

All provinces (heightmaps) will be provided modular and get basic lorefriendly regions including trees, large rocks,landscape textures, map data, weather, sounds and generated pathgrids..lod textures and meshes will be provided as well.

This way the provinces will be fully playable right from the start and it will be more fun to explore them....also if somebody creates new locations using the heightmaps it will not look like being placed in the middle of nowhere..

Every province will have just 1 or 2 basic regions for the moment...more detailed regions, architecture , creatures etc etc will hopefully be added by other modders / teams.


Note ! Ilianas mod will be required for the Valenwood/Elsweyr heightmap but not work as a master anymore...instead a patch is provided ( somes with the Valenwood heightmap download) which also contains all the region data for Valenwood and southern Elsweyr.


requirements
=============================================

Shivering isles, OBMM or Wrye Bash, Tes4LodGen

The Valenwood-Elsweyr Heightmap requires Ilianas Elsweyr Deserts of Anequina mod and the provided patch to work properly !!

grab Ilianas mod here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25023




additions
==============================================

Igerup has created Cell Grid Maps for the different heightmaps. This should be a great help for people start modding on the Tamriel heightmaps.

Summerset_gridmap : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30050


Valenwood_gridmap : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30063



Blackmarsh_gridmap : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30064


Igerup has also released his (wip) complete tamriel ingame map which works cool with the so far released heightmaps.

grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30824



Kiwi-hawk is working on a complete tamriel ingame map as well

get it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30875




compatible province mods using the tamriel worldspace
=============================================================

Stirk made by the Tamriel Rebuilt team

Stirk is an idyllic isle located west of Anvil. The isle is currently home to a resort town for Cyrodiil's wealthy and an imperial fort that once protected Cyrodiil from the Aldmeri Dominion. However, beneath the stucco facade lie secrets yet undisturbed by the island's mining operation.

grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22401


Note ! Stirk has to be loaded before the Tamriel heightmaps. The Stirk Lod meshes and textures have to installed after the Tamriel heightmaps LOD Resources (overwrite them).


WIPz Elsweyrs Kingdom of Rimmen made by grzesiog1 Auryga Aussie_In_Oblivion googlepox johnn123 norinvaux


The lore background this work is based on:

"Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st Edition
Rimmen

Though ostensibly its own kingdom, Rimmen still pays tribute to the Mane of Elsweyr, from whose realm it seceded
in CE812 during the Interregnum. Earlier, Akaviri refugees had fled persecution
when the warlord Attrebus briefly aspired to the Imperial Throne. Attrebus, though
he lasted no longer than most of the pretender kings of that period, thought he
might rid Cyrodiil of the foreigners who had ruled it for the first half of the
Common Era, and he drove the Akaviris past the Empire's borders into Elsweyr. The
khajiit granted them asylum in the hills and steppes of northwestern Elsweyr, where
they dwelt in relative seclusion until remnants of the Dir-Kamal resurfaced in Cyrodiil,
seizing the Throne from Attrebus' successors. The Rimmen (literally, the Rim Men,
as the khajiit called them) joined their brothers to try to rebuild the Empire.
This effort was doomed to failure, but not before the khajiit attempted to reclaim
their lands in a series of bloody border wars. Currently, since the ascension of
Tiber Septim, the hapless Rimmen have once again submitted to the protection of
the Mane, with a renewed tribute paying for the Cat Lord's guarantee of their independence,
a truly weak reed upon which to lean."


grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31203



Nordinkarst -Nordic Meadhall-

Wandering around the high Jeralls is both strenuous and disheartening. The mountains and weather are formidable, and bleak. Nothing about a journey along those high mountains is friendly. Except for the Nords. Just across the border in skyrim, in the high Jeralls, is a mead hall, run by a Nord Smith. He set up his inn for travelers and hunters to lodge in. Over time, people have set up permanent residences around the mead hall, and some in it. The fires always crackle, the mead is always light and cool, and the beds are always made. Everybody is welcome there.

Grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13735


Lost chapel by Floydian1

Just over the border of Blackwood stands a ruined chapel forgotten by time. This is a simple edit to the chapel location used in the Chapel Shop mod, I've stripped out the vendor and the clothing/weapon part of the mod and simply added a bedroll and some player safe storage sacks. This is for folks who like the location but didn't want the weapons and clothing therefore, since this uses just vanilla items the download is very small in size and easy to install.

grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29580


Unique Landscapes Brena River Ravine by Arthmoor, Chucky21, IamtheEmporer

Description
===========

Brena River Ravine stretches from BoC:Lost Coast to the headwaters of both forks of the Brena River. At the river's fork, the area is divided by a system of ancient Ayleid dams which serve to create 3 distinct regions in the area.

The north fork of the river stretches back into a thick forest lined with many rocks, trees, and old Ayleid fortifications. One dam here creates a reservoir of deep water. A group of bandits has made the area its home and headquarters of their smuggling operations.

The east fork is marked by a pair of large and ancient Ayleid dams, the purpose of which has been lost to the ages. The twin dams stand as a testament to the engineering skills of the Ayleids. The waters here are very deep and the ravine is lined by massive cliffs. A giant waterfall marks the headwaters of the east fork, rising thousands of feet up the wall to a small lake in the Colovian Highlands.

Below the dams the Brena River's waters are shallow. It lazily winds through the Colovian Highlands on its way to the Abecean Sea. Here, amongst the greenery lie the humble old remains of a once great Ayleid city, interspersed with clusters of rocks and flowers.

Get it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23573



mods and wip projects using the tamriel heightmaps as master files
==================================================================


Under the sign of the dragon -Tamriel Landscapes- made by onra and firesparks

Based on the Tamriel heightmaps this mod series will provide plugins for all provinces of Tamriel containing different things like cities, settlements, trading outposts, imperial legion forts, new quests or simply some nice landscapes.
These plugins are also planned to interact later on with our legion mods Fort Akatosh Redux and Guards of Cyrodiil Redux.

released : Summerset Landscapes Beta version

The first plugin Summerset Landscapes adds the city and region of Firsthold to the game. Firsthold is located at the north of the smaller island of the Summerset Isles. it is divided into 3 parts...Port Firsthold including a small imperial trading outpost...Firsthold Markets and the city of Firsthold. The city itself and the markets are not accessable in this version (exteriors only), but the imperial outpost will be a nice destination for some nice sailing trips to Summerset.
The Census Inspector at the Census and Excise Office will provide some usefull lore background about Summerset as well...

grab it here : http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30429




WIP Elsweyr -The city of Senchal- made by StarX


will create the city and area of Senchal located at the end of the Quin'rawl pensula ( South Elsweyr)


screenshots can be found here : http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/gallery/album/114/64-starx-album/


more infos about Senchal will be posted by StarX :foodndrink:



WIP RAVENSGATE by Omegacron

This mod adds the town of Ravenholme to the valley just west of the Hermaeus Mora shrine. Ravenholme is a trading town that represents the last outpost of Cyrodiil before crossing over into Hammerfell or Skyrim, and is protected by the fortress of Ravensgate along with a nearby Imperial garrison along the border. Due to the recent passing of its previous owner with no heirs, Ravensgate is now being offered as a home to those who can prove themselves worthy of leading the town and its people. Be warned, however - ownership of the castle will not come easily, and once purchased it has a few secrets to offer up to those willing to search.


have alook here : http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1091737-wipz-ravensgate/



WIP Elinhir by AlitheLord

will create the Redguard town Elinhir in Hammerfell

for more infos look here : http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1091726-wipz-elinhir-an-open-town-in-hammerfell/

Kia Ora

Is there away to generate a world map is CS based on the Tamriel worldspace that loads if I load the highmaps that are out at present?

I based my map on a Nirn-Karte Version that sems to be lore based so it's going to be near impossible to scale this to fit the world as
the highmaps do now, even if I resize the province maps I have they will not be accurate as the land shape is not the same.

If I'm to map a map that puts the player boat at the same point in game as he is on the map I need a land shape that plots the highmap
edges to scale then I have something colour

the easiest ways are, to create a texture map ( this is what Iggey has done) using TESQLod or to create a bmp of the Tamriel ws using TESAnnwyn...
to make things easier I would recommend to use Iggeys map and maybe try to make it elven stylish ( as you have done with the Nirn map) .

for cyrodiil and Ilianas elswyer you can use any avaible map ( there are a lot of elven compilations out there)...for the rest of tamriel I would recommend to create maps without cities and roads etc as the location maybe will be somewhat different later on..

regards and thx for all your hard work

onra

To be honest Kiwi, I like the style of your map, but I had to take 2 or 3 hours and scale it down, cause it wasn't really working. Oh and the Eleweyr and Valenwood coastline is waaaaaaaayy above the player marker. On a side note, does anybody know anything about Summerset architecture? Or their city layouts?

for official stuff, check out the http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/aldmeridominion.shtml. for interpritations of that, check out the posts http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1080354-wipz-summerset-land-of-the-altmer/page__st__20__p__15735178 and http://www.imperial-library.info/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1267221905 (this thread originally started in this here forum, but i can't find it).

Lady N's Standard Summurset Disclaimer: I hold to the belief that unless you can write a 3 page paper on drahoccryesis, you shouldn't be building summurset cities. /end Disclaimer.

Dangit... now I have to go look up "drahoccryesis".

If you had seen my earlier posts I had stated I was concerned about that, the fact I made it before I learned the highmaps of the outer provences had been
enlarged and chamged in shape

I started with what I believe to be a lore correct map,.. I now need to change the size shape and scale, this was the reason for my questions earlier in this
and earlier posts about not having a start point, even Worms wonderful psd for sacling ar not much help as theyer for Cyrodill not the whole of Tamriel.

I did also say many time that I jumped in the deep end here and I'm not totaly sure what I'm doing so I'm sorry the 10 hours plus I've spend didn't work for you

I don't think he meant any insult by it, Kiwi. Your work is stellar and we all know how much time and effort goes into modding.

Lady N - Do I submit my essay via PM or email?

Amazing work Gents. I'm looking at delving into this project headfirst as soon as possible. I'd like to have a go at some dungeons and small cities before tackling anything extremely large. This is a huge accomplishment already and I can't wait for the Morrowind heightmap.

Basically, here's a quick paraphrased summary of Summerset architecture styles for anyone modding that province:

Aldmer cities are elegant, clean, and mystical. They appear from a distance to be made of glass or gossamer and the individual buildings are tall and slender, with an almost organic feel to them. Definitely use a lot of curves and smooth lines, avoiding angles as much as possible. The buildings are not transparent, however, it's more like they're iridescent (think of a beetle's shell or dragonfly wings), reflecting many colors at once. It's not uncommon for the more important Aldmer buildings to incorporate magic into their structures, often using magical light sources, floating buttresses, portals instead of stairs, etc. Think Tar Valon from Wheel of Time, or Dalaran from Warcraft, or pretty much any other mystical city from any fantasy series lol.

If it helps, I would imagine many of the arabic and desert-style towers and meshes used in Elsweyr or Senchal could be retextured for use in Summerset. They already have that rounded, smooth look.

Hey, I'm having an issue. I think its a conflict between Kiwi's map and the map for Stirk, so I figured to post it here would be better.
With Stirk Enabled, and Kiwi's map, the map is both A) The same size it was beforehand and B) Now a jumbled mess of three or so colours in bands across the screen. No features, roads, or anything. Still mapmarkers, though.

I'm wondering how to fix this, since this is actually a harsh detriment to my game?

@Chaos - sounds like a problem with the mips on the map texture. Try changing your texture size to Large in video options and see if that fixes it. If it does, the problem is that the map DDS doesn't have mips when it should (or vice versa - I forget which atm).

@ Onra - You can also add Falkreath to the WIP list. That will be my next one after Ravensgate (even tho I might take a brief vacation between the two).

@Kiwi - No disrespect there. I frankly have no idea what it is that I do with oblivion most of the time. I think you did an awesome job with your maps, they just didn't work well for me
@ Lady N: I think I won't build any cities then. But due to some cultural diffusion, wouldn't small port towns be a mixture of older, traditional Summerset architecture and Imperial architecture?
@Omegacron: I like the way you describe the Summerset architecture.

In short: I can add one more thing to my ToDo list: Texturing...


EDIT: I don't think that I could do the Summerset Isles. The modeling and the texturing look to be way out of my league.

you were doing so well until this. Whats the point of doing something thats already been done? I don't know about you, but i've never encountered a culture (real world or otherwise) that is like the altmer. they are such a mystical mix of magic, darwinism (social and otherwise), and mythopoeia that ripping architecture form the middle east or from warcraft does not suit them. the fantasy examples are rather generic "omg magic city lol" and the real world examples would be recognizable as such, especially if they've already been used in game in other provinces. You can get away with a certain amount of reuse for the mainland, as cultural dispersion is a factor there, but the summursets are so isolated from the world (both by distance and by the altmer's policies) that imperial architecture does not touch their shores. they see the imperials as primitive beasts spawned from the devil, and would never make use of their ways. Newer, more progressive settlements (of which there may be one or two in the province, knowing the altmer)may make use of some imperial engineering, but not so far as transplanting whole architecture styles. anyone doing that would be kicked out and sent to live with the animals they so admire in a heartbeat.

Well, the cold hard fact remains that unless someone is willing to complete a full "Altmer stylish" tileset, people are probably stuck with the Ayleid tileset, the Imperial City tileset (at least some of them could probably be used) and some of the desert style stuff. Of course it would be nice if someone would create something that looks like them elegant, organic and glasslike buildings, but it may take years or it may just never happen as this seems pretty complcated stuff to design, model and texture.

It's alright to keep up high standards, but sometimes you just have to do with what you got and make the best of it.

When talking about high standards, would love to see mr_siika`s vision of Summerset Isles. Everything he makes is way beyond high standards, it's magic

Alright then. Does anyone know a modeler? I can make up some concept art, but mine may not be the best.

I'm learning blender. :banghead: If you want, I can try my hand at some models although they may need to be cleaned up by someone better afterwards. I'd still like to try. :brokencomputer:

Go for it! I'll have to make up some concepts, but I was going with something close to what is shown http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1080354-wipz-summerset-land-of-the-altmer/, but making it a little more curvy with almost a spiral going up at the top of the red extension on the front, and without the spike parts at the top. I've attempted to learn Blender before, but it never really worked out for me. :banghead:

So.... I just took a little look-see on the Nexus and it looks like someone beat me to the Isles.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28908 Some of those pics. are pretty awesome.

Kia Ora

I have a bmp of tamriel made from the Blackmarsh, Hammerfell, Summerset, Stirk and Valnewood esp's. This means working
from pixcil 0 and recolouring it all and there seems to be no way to match the original map around the Skyrim/Morrowind
area and Morrowind/Blackmarsh in with the new map, when I line the coastline up they make Blackmash, Morrowind and
Skyrim much bigger and in truth I have no idea if my guess is close or I'll end up having to do it all over when the last of the
Highmaps is relested. Elsweyr looks totaly weird with that horseshoe cape almost cutting it in half, the boundry between
Valenwood and Elsweyr will need to be dropped to make it look normal I think. changing the province size's is maybe going
to make the map look all inbalanced and weird, Highrock looks like it's going to tip the whole thing over, I guess in time
looking at this will block out the memory of the orignil map and it will start to look normal.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't wait and do the whole map as one at same time when I have all the highmaps, then maybe merge
them into a tamriel.esp and make a bmp from that which would have everthing matching up as it will be in game, I'm not sure
I want to do the whole maps over a third time it take hours to paint never mind the trying to match stuff setting the esp for it, I think
also as I don't know the scaling thing well I wil do one default map cause I don't know what size to make a menu50 and menu80
maybe I should leave those alone. I could use Worms temples inlarged by about 35% as he suggsted.

The use of Ayleid architecture here is unique and pretty creative, but it definitely needs a different texture - perhaps the paradise version where everything is pristine and white. Even then, I would think a mixture of Ayleid whites and multi-color reflective surfaces would be better. The link above is really good work, and the use of Ayleid structures is even lore-friendly, but I still think it needs more. By all means, Mathalter, if you want to try it go ahead. There's still room to do it better according to lore.

The guy did a super awesome job just using vanilla materials, but you're right that it seems to lack that special Summerset something. :banghead: Now I need to decide if I could even do it justice. IMO I think that no job is better than a bad job.

Why not port some of those towns over to Onra's map?

Couple of reasons:
1. There's no disclaimer for using it in another mod.
2. The mod is in German. I am American.
3. Not quite true to lore, but I like some of the things that he or she has done with the towers and spires.

Ok so...

I'm going to take a look at the worldspace and see if there's anything I'd like to claim. Unless I'm mistaken the process for modding this puppy is go into Wrye Bash and ESMify the heightmap I'm working on, load it in the CS, do my thing, and then ESPify it back before testing in-game?