Great to hear that your getting help on this, I can't wait for the blade!

So, uh, any word on the progress of this?

Plangkye, you do know you're a genius right? So many of the blades were/are lackluster, and this just shows that the modding community is hell bent on fixing that! Have you ever thought of doing a Goldbrand replacer or a Hopesfire that matches your elegant work?

Wow.

R.D.: I'm jsut waiting for Phijama to send me the fixed sword. I've sent him the .nif and all the textures, so as soon as he gets back to me with some properly animated fire, this can be released.

Greendogo: Hopesfire is my next order of business. Chrysamere is not a priority because Oriphier has already released an amazing replacer for it, and so has Jayson, using a VagabondAngel mesh (I use the latter).

It must be said that Hopesfire did always look slightly less silly than Trueflame; and Crysamere looked non-naff from the beginning

Also, this looks brilliant!

Really, you actually thought vanilla Chrysamere was okay? I always thought it was one of the most hideous weapons in the game, up there with Mehrunes' Razor. Agreed oh Hopesfire, though; my changes to that one will not be nearly so extensive; it'll mostly be some nicer textures, some bump/normal mapping, and some reflection to go with it, plus an upgrade to the particles to fix them so they don't shoot of in weird directions when you're not a Dark Elf.

Is there any chance you can make it fancier, though? It's really just an ebony scimitar with the guard removed (or rather, I guess you could say the ebony scimitar is just Hopesfire with a guard added), and I'd love if it looked a little more unique. I think a basket hilt would look kind of cool... Maybe even just switch the models for Her Hands' weaponry and Almalexia's?

Vanilla Chrysamere worked.

... for Lilarcor's +7.3 Work in Progress form. =X

I was thinking about that. It always bugged me that the normal Ebony Scimitar seemed less ornate than the one wielded by a goddess.

I'm sorry but is everyone having some kind of senior moment? Greendogo did not even mention Chrysamere he/she said GoldBrand which as far as I recall has only been replaced by maybe two or three people? Where did Chrysamere even come into it? Unless it was mentioned via PM to which I'm not privy to. Also don't you mean that the normal Ebony Scimitar was more ornate? As it has the guard which Almelexia's Hopesfire does not? Of course don't pay any attention to me as no-one does. All i can say is whatever you come up with is a definate improvement over the stock Bethesda meshes.

Sy

Wait. Crap. You're right. How the hell did I read Goldbrand as Chrysamere? O_o

lol it's all good Plank, everyone has their days...but on the bright side, we did manage to get a lil further in discussion on Chrysamere...

Yea Chrysamere did work. It looks big and swordy, like a big sword - not all ugly and purple like umbra for instance.

I'm not an especial fan of the huge red thing in the hilt but otherwise it looks quite non-fugly in my opinion. And what's wrong with Goldbrand? Maybe I'm too used to playing with mostly Vanilla textures but it looks pretty okay surely?

Not wanting to hijack this thread but maybe it fits into discussion: yesterday connary announced the release of his compendium texture replacer (at least everything he has finished yet) hopefully including his vanilla weapon retextures.

Having a look at connary's retextures of some of the unique weapons could be of some interest here (WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS)

http://img516.imageshack.us/i/goldbrandza8.jpg/
http://img526.imageshack.us/i/eltonbrandaj3.jpg/
http://img518.imageshack.us/i/chrysameresy9.jpg/
http://img509.imageshack.us/i/merrazorhv6.jpg/
(click images to enlarge)

Those are quite old screenshots and hence could look completely different in the upcoming release, but nervertheless they are absolutely awesome (imho).

This is going to be incredible. Especially after receiving the blessings of Phijama and Plangkye.

As its been said before, this is amazing. The textures are so sharp! The only thing I suggest you do is add some sort of Moon-and-Star to it, partly because it'll please those people who are sticklers for that kind of thing, and because I find the motif darn cool.

But don't forget! It looks amazing! I am mos def looking forward to this.

So uh ... what about Goldbrand ? :icecream:

Been really busy recently and I have had to try and re acquaint myslef with 3dsmax - been a while since I've worked in the program. I can animate the sequence so it plays continuously but in adding the animated true bool in max I seem to have lost the billboard property!

You may be able to edit the nif post export and add either add the animated true bool or reassign the billboard property.

Something I did notice is that one of your original billboards is set incorrectly and aligns to the wrong axis.

I'll set up two nifs for you to play with, one with refined billboards that give better coverage and the other with the animated, repeating textures. I cannot do this right now as I have my children with me and I'm taking them to archery practice.

Regards,

Phil

The vanilla meshes are so bad and outdated that even Connary's textures won't save them. As Plangkye said, Chrysamere was already released by Oriphier with (excellent) new mesh and textures - the old one truly resembles one of the wooden swords I was making when I was 5, it's blocky and awfully composed, a stick with a cross, not a sword in the least. Plangkye also released a couple of very nice daggers (namely Mehrunes' Razor and Dagger of Symmachus) - if people like them are working on new meshes to update the outdated visuals of the game, please don't try to hinder, but rather encourage and motivate them.

So, Plangkye, thank you for your work so far and I'm sure the final result (especially when mixed in with Phijama's art) will be outstanding!

I really love Plangkye's work and use some of her great replacers myself. So I didn't intend to hinder her in any way. I just wanted to mention that there is an upcoming alternative for those searching for nice unique weapons.

But i'm absolutely sure that a subtly enhanced weapon mesh (making it less blocky - adding some small details) in combination with connary's great textures would make a perfect combination with only a small amount of work (at least compared to redoing a mesh from scratch). So, gifted moddelers out there (winks to Plangkye): face the challenge! :hehe:

Edit: fixed some typos

I lose the billboarding whenever I export it from Blender too. I'll add it back in with Nifskope.

As for Goldbrand, so far I've basically just been drooling over Connary's texture for it - it's just amazing. If I release a mesh replacer it'll take the original textures, just so Connary's textures will work on it, though I'd certainly have to release a "Connary patch" so the normal maps would look right with his textures

It's not exactly worth fixing the old meshes - the work spent in smoothing the clunky parts, redoing the awful UV-mapping, etc. is nearly the same as redoing them from scratch. I also love Connary's textures, but honestly i.m.h.o. he shouldn't waste his time on all the vanilla items, but rather stick with the landscape, architecture, artifacts, etc. There are many mesh replacers for items, things which are improving MW visuals to a much higher level than retextures.

Just my 2 septims...

Cheers,
PKR.
EDIT: add to my answer what Plangkye just said above about Goldbrand...

*Doesn't think Connary is wasting his time at all*

I'm afraid you simply took it out of the general context - what I said, in other words, was that although Connary's textures are excellent (I use everything he released so far), they lose some of their value when applied on a vanilla mesh. To demonstrate this in an inverted way, see http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/fms/Image.php?id=67119 what can be done with a vanilla texture when applied on an updated mesh (no personal advertisemant intended, just couldn't think of a more appropriate example). That is to say, I personally believe that some of the stock meshes cannot be saved from their blockiness/ugliness by any kind of texture, made it by Connary or anyone else.

Plangkye, sorry for detouring a bit the thread - I'm rather trying to advocate and support your wonderful work, while being a bit cranky due to bad weather...