Ever since the release of MGE, the static waters have looked far too different from that of the rivers and oceans around Vvardenfell, so I decided to attempt to make the most obvious one around the Vivec temple look at least a little better to help keep immersion from breaking while playing.

http://img99.imageshack.us/i/nifskope201005140509544.png/ is what I have come up with so far(pic is from nifskope).

EDIT: This version is a non bump mapped version, it is still, imo, better than the original, but if you use the MCP, read on to the next Edit for the bump/reflect mapped version!http://www.4shared.com/file/gZzp567O/Temple_Waterway.html includes mesh and textures, I have removed the second NiTriShape that was causing the animations to stop when you were too close their z axis, as well as added a static and very dull reflection map and normal map, the water is clearer with the second shape removed from the static so I would make sure to back up your textures\water folder prior to installation as well as your original mesh, just in case you don't like it!

EDIT FINAL: :woot: http://www.4shared.com/file/-HPU0MIN/Temple_Waterway2.html Thats right, this link takes you to an all new mesh featuring an animated BUMP MAPPED Temple waterway with 100% custom textures done by me. :rock:

WARNING: This version will only work if you have the latest official release or an even newer SVN version of the MCP! IT WILL CRASH YOUR GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT!

I'm currently uploading a new video, and it should be up within the next hour or so, but you are more than welcome to try this one out now, I am done with this static because I am thoroughly happy with it!

I have also checked and rechecked that the texture paths are all correct, and I'll go ahead and warn you now that this is a 25 mb download so it may take a few minutes. The colors still don't match the oceans, but to be honest I dont' think they should since its a very shallow waterway, hope you all enjoy! :wavey:

/bump


http://img408.imageshack.us/i/mgescreenshot8.jpg/is what it looks like in game now, its not perfect, but I think its looking pretty good, I may try to upload a video of it at some point, for now though I'm back to work trying to update all of the water statics to be a bit more realistic.

I think the idea is good , sadly I am too much a NIFskope noob to help.
I have tried tinkering with the Vivec waterflow mesh, I think the right hints are in Dongle's pack, but I keep having a flashing at the end of the Vivec waterflow animation, and the result is too blueish... :brokencomputer:
If you did not have a look at http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1789 already, maybe it could help?

Thank you, I will give it a look!

Gave it a try, and for some reason it won't show up in my game - only an untextured flat mesh is shown, though it looks fine in Nifscope. Odd.

Thats odd, I have reuploaded the mesh, and have improved the lighting as best I can, and if you give me a minute I will update the OP with the new DL link. I have reduced the blue hue from the mesh using the ambient/diffuse properties, and it looks far better in game imo, its still tinted blue, but at least its a bit more natural and blends better with the Phal's excelent water....if only I could give it mini 3d waves............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCcAl4DroiQ is the promised Video, I had to increased my morrowind's gamma for the video because Frap's was making everything dark on playback...............hope you enjoy.

Looking good. Any other areas you're working on? (Not sure which would need them)

This was my main area of Focus, but I will be scouring over all of the water statics I can find that need an update, I think I'll be going over the TR maps next, as I know they use some water statics......Though I don't know if they are as jarringly ugly as the Vivec Waterway was, I'll be looking into it regardless.

any news ? :bowdown:

This looks pretty nice.

Just wondering, what is stopping people from creating water meshes with reflect maps?

I noticed that in the meshe you have badly write the paths of textures and that thus with the loading of the game that marks me that Morrowind does not manage to find textures for water.
“water\ water01.tga” must thus be marked in nif “Textures\water\water01.tga”.
I tested by modifying the paths of textures and that works very well. :foodndrink:

Aha! I will have to change that and give this another try.

Yea I'm reuploading as I write this, in a few minutes the file will be updated with some slightly different textures in use, if I have time later I'll upload another video, I have also played around with the animations a bit more, and have decided to remove the "scrolling" effect from the original mesh all together.

It just doesn't really make sense for the water to constantly flow in one general direction, so now it merely has minor waves that flow back and forth within the canton walls, which I feel is much more natural looking, anyways, not thinking, I completely scrapped my original mesh, and completely redid everything over the past ~5 hours or so, I did do a quick in game test though, and I feel that this new version is better.

Anyways, I hope everyone likes this, also, @ Enzo, I tried adding a reflect map to the mesh, and while, it technically works, it doesn't look right since the map reflects based on position in the environment, and the reflection doesn't animate with the waters animations.

I may play around some more at some point to try to get animated bump mapped and reflect mapped water, but I can't promise I'll ever be able to get it to work right, sadly you can only have one texture per animation node, so I don't know how I could combine an animated normal map node with the base node.......I might need to go read some tuturials!

Edit: Updated link added at end of OP! And this time I made sure the texture paths were correct!

BUMP for Breakthrough's!!! Read on in the OP for details!

Amazing improvement !! :foodndrink:
Maybe the water waves are too fast/many.

It looks really great Though, I would agree that the animation could stand to be slowed down somewhat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MuYiad_oQo of the new waves, I'll see if I can adjust the wave speed, though I'm not making any promises, sadly, slowing them down can cause errors in the animation and cause the whole static to flash, i'll see what I can do though.

Can't wait to see this in my bumpmapped vivec. What a coincidence, I'm working at the temple right now (saved that bloody thing for the end)

edit: 25,2 mb zipped? wow, this is...big

http://www.4shared.com/file/9MGkBYzH/Temple_Waterway_2_slowaves.html mesh, this is merely a replacement for the mesh itself, if you want some slightly slower waves for the bump mapped version listed in the OP, it does not contain the textures. Hope you all enjoy!


Also, thank you kindly for the support, this has been one heck of a trial and error thing to do, nifskope doesn't display the animating bump maps, so I had to load the game, make sure things were working, if not, back out, make adjustments, reload the game, ect.....it was not easy, but it was worth it, I am now much better at working with nifskope if nothing else!

It looks great, now only if someone could do this to dongles meshes, so they could be modernized as well.

I should be able to do that without too much trouble, though I would have to seek his permission first. :wink_smile:

I just realized that you said you think there are too many waves......hhhmmm, I could probably shrink the size of the UV map on the texture to decrease the number of waves, though that would also increase the size of the waves, which may not look right....i'll play around with it some more later, for now I need to get some sleep.

Thanks again everyone for the support, I really appreciate it, and hope everyone enjoys it!

Edit: sorry for the double post

That would be splendid, and very useful.

Ok, I lied......................http://www.4shared.com/file/8frPjDXm/Temple_Waterway_2_fewerslower_.html version of the mesh, the waves in this version are large, but there are fewer of them and they are as slow as I can make them without the animation getting choppy.....................ok, I'm really done for now, good night/day all!