Under the sign of the dragon - Tamriel heightmaps -

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


Cell Grid Maps for the different provinces, created by igerup are avaible here:

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

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

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



This mod will try to create lore based/ friendly heightmaps of all provinces of Tamriel in the Tamriel worldspace . These 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 and Summerset Isles 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 of course 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..

Note ! Every province will have just 1 or 2 basic regions...more detailed regions, architecture , creatures etc etc will hopefully be added by other teams.....or not

The heightmaps are fully compatible with Ilianas Deserts of Anequina and TR The island of Stirk....

Note ! Ilianas mod will be required for the Valenwood heightmap but not work as a master anymore...instead a patch is provided

Hammerfell, High Rock and Skyrim will come next...

Morrowind will be the last as I have just started to learn how to use TesAnnwyn which will help me to place a rescaled Vardenfall heightmap more lorefriendly than it is possible with the CS.

Note ! I am using atm ( for testing) the Vardefall heightmap taken from the Solstheim-Vardenfall-Mournhold project made by the postal-dude..this height map is a rescaled version of the original

Morrowind heightmap ...this SOVAMo project was discussed officially so I don't see any problems for my own project using such a map.....

But if this should be a problem..I will leave the Morrowind heightmap out of this thread ....


have fun

onra

Excellent! Very nice of you to create all of this for other modders to use. When everythingis finished, are you intending to create 1 complete esp/esm with all the height maps included?

thx

no there will be no merged version....it is not possible to use an esm ingame which edits the tamriel worldspace in any way....a merged esp would be simply too big...as well I always prefer to have things

modular...this way everybody is free to use for example some of my heightmaps together with other province mods taking place in there own worldspaces....not to forget people who want to mod a single

province don't have to load all other heightmaps as well as a master this way....

however some of the provinces will come together as one heightmap/esp anyway....

the heightmap/esp's will be :

1. Blackmarsh

2.Valenwood/Elsweyr

3. Summerset

4. Hammerfell/High Rock/ Skyrim

5. Morrowind ?

This sounds cool, I can't wait for the Valenwood, and Summerset Isles ones.

I really like the idea of making it modular, but how come you're putting Hammerfell, High Rock, and Skyrim together?

So, am I right in getting very exited about this or am I missing something?

Ashven's post no. 40 on http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1072969&st=20 describes a journey from Anvil to Leyawiin via Dunciri (spelling?) walk (In ELseweyr) travelling in real time all the way, using Side's Sailing Ships. However the first post in this thread suggests thast there are still compatibility problems with Elseweyr.

So, is it currently the case that loading the Valenwood/Elseweyr height map creates a seamless playable arrea in cluding the whole of Cyrodiil, Elseweyr and Valenwood?

If this is the case, is it correct that Iliana's Elsewyr mod can be loaded on top of this height map to populate etc the majority of Elseweyr province (the exceptions being the extreme west of the province and the southern penninsula)?

Presumably Ashven used the heightmap currently available on Tesnexus. If there are compatibility probelems betwen Elseweyr and the heightmap itcan't be that severe because Ashven describes stopping at Duncciri walk and making a visit to Corinth. Perhaps the incompatibility problems are at the borders of the Elsewyr mod.

So... (some compatibility problems aside) is it the case that a character could travel overland from, say Bravil, right through the populated part of Elseweyr, then continue through Valenwood (with no content) to arrive at Anvil, all without encountering loading screens.

And finally, (sorry), is the current Valenwood and unpopulated bit of Elseweyr just bare surface, or does it have grass, rocks and trees.

Apologies for asking for these clarifications, but if these seemless journeys are now possible, or very close to being possible, this may possibly make me sing little happy songs and skip around like a little girl.

I found no good functioning and good looking solution to seperate these provinces so that they could be played as stand alone mods and as well all together...these provinces share really long frontiers on land...

cheers

why is it required? for the landscape textures and trees? EDIT: i got the answer from the anequina thread...

i like the modular concept...

thank you for this!

Ok so say when these are done and one were to load them together - would it be possible for a character to swim from valenwood to Summerset - or better yet take a boat.

Just because they are seperate esp - does that mean that there will be ... messiness with regard to them loading together?

I was just thinking because of other province mods and compatibility issues. Like if someone has the Skyrim improved mod or whatever, and they want to run around in Hammerfell or High Rock, but I guess that's what patches are for.

would it be possible to (i.e. would you like to) add just the landscape of the missing cells from anequina to your mod? i mean... you don't have to download the whole thing only, you have to activate the esp to just add a house located in the south west of valenwood on your map. this may be a no go for people who don't like to use anequina but at least it is not really economical?

as i understood we would have the same compatibility issues here as with valenwood improved and anequina...

may be all the mod teams from that province mods should agree on ONE standard heightmap. otherwise we are about to have to make some really hard choices in the future. like if we had to choose between OOO OR MMM...

for the sailing freaks...

you will be able to sail from Anvil to Leawyiin...along the coast lines of Valenwood and Elsweyr..you will be able to sail around Summerstet and even sail the channel between the two Summerset isles...you will be able to sail around the Blackmarsh coast and even (with a small boat) be able to sail the channels and lakes of blackmarsh which are all connected with the sea...


for people who want to mod these heightmaps...

all you have to do is to use the heightmap of your choice as a masterfile (very easy using wrye bash)....clean your choosen location ( remove trees , flatten terrain etc etc) build your stuff and save it in a seperate esp..that's it...

for compatibility...

very important...if you want to use the Valenwood / Elsweyr heightmap you also need to have Ilianas Elsweyr mod installed !! It will not work properly without Ilianas mod !!!

Load order MUST BE : 1. Valenwood heightmap 2. Elsweyr Deserts of Anequina 3. Patch..then your mod(s)...

If you want to use Ilianas resources for your mod..for example for creating the south of Elsweyr..you have to use Ilianas mod as a master as well...


other mods :

all mods based on the total tamriel heightmap ( can be found on the german sharesoft forums) like skyrim or Valenwood improved will be not compatible...they are using a complete different heightmap...!!!

but as most oif my stuff will be modular you can choose what province mods or heightmaps you will use

have fun


onra

Good news. And I like the modular approach.

Wait a minute. Shouldn't load order be Elsweyr first, then Valenwood? Because the Valenwood.esp relies on elsweyreanequina.esp as a master so shouldn't the master be loaded first?? I've always been of the impression that a master must be loaded before the plugin that relies on it...

...

Ah yes, I was thinking about the version that's on tesnexus. Confusion occurs sometimes.

just to let you know....

the first Tamriel heightmap which is "Blackmarsh" will be released tomorrow...it will come with basic regions for the complete landmass and the surrounding sea....this means landscape textures , trees, large rocks, map data, weather and sounds...

I changed my mind and did not generate pathgrids as I think it will be better for compatibility reasons to add them later on ....

landscape meshes and basic landscape textures ( 1024x1024) will also be provided with the heightmap

as soon as Blackmarsh has been released I will finish Valenwood/Elsweyr and Summerset....as it seems this will be defenetely this month as well

have fun

onra

Wooo, good news.

Can't wait for this! It would be awesome if there would be proven that the game engine can handle the entire Tamriel, without breaking down

:drool: I like the sound of that! I've been using your Valenwood/Elsweyr heightmap (is that a different mod to this?), and it's been great going around the coast of Valenwood and Elsweyr en route to Leyawiin. But going around Summerset Isles and Black Marsh as well?
One question: although it is cool sailing around Valenwood, most of the time, you appear to be sailing on thin air. Is this going to be changed at all with your new heightmaps? Either way, it sounds very good.


Awesome. I'll be downloading it as soon as it comes out (unless I'm not there at the time.)

How long did it take you to sail from Anvil to Leyawiin?

...ok

I am currently creating the landscape lod textures...when finished I will pack everything and upload on Nexus later on this evening.


@ Riveon...

the heightmap you are using is the same mod just an early version...the new Valenwood / Elsweyr heightmap will released soon as well..probably together with the Summerset Isles...

all heightmaps will get basic region...map data, landscape textures, tress, rocks, weather data and sounds...this means the surrounding seas will have at least map, weather and sound data....so sailing around will be more fun I think...

in this case...wouldn't it be cool to have a mod focused only on the surrounding seas...creating a real underwater landscape with under water canyons, ship wrecks and deep sea monster...maybe having dwemer submarine bases...as far as I remember Mr_siika was talking some time ago about dwemer submarines beeing the next part of his dwemer technologie series....


thoughts ?

That would be awesome stuff ... shipwrecks, floating merchants, small islets.

Further, there are two races (one vanilla, argonian) and another a common modded race (maromer) that breathe underwater. It would be great to have underwater civilization.

If we take lore maps into account then Argonia and the shores off of there would be one area of that and the other would be the area between Summerset,Valenwood, and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore%3a%50yandonea. Pyandonea would also be great to have in there.

I haven't reached Leyawiin yet, and it's difficult to say. I could probably get there fairly quickly, but I've been taking my time and not even bothering to go at the maximum speed most of the time.


Awesome! I was already impressed with the current heightmap, and had no idea you were going to put trees, weather data, etc. in as well. Sailing will definitely be improved.

hey @ all


I am really sorry...but as it is again not possible for me to upload my files on Tes Nexus...I am now uploading the files ( Blackmarsh heightmap) to my 4 shared account and only updating the Nexus

thread ( new screenshots info etc).....

cheers