I've always preferred to use vanilla MW parts when modding - not because I can't appreciate the excellent work of others (which I do), but just a personal preference. Your trees, however, may cause me to make an exception, as they are so well done and beautiful. Truly works of art. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the Grazelands, as a mod I am working on rellies heavily upon the flora from that region (and there's lots of it!). Again, a fantastic job. :trophy:

Hey, how did you get the new environmental shadows in MW. I know that Hrnchamd was working on this but I've been absent for 5 months in the forums so i lost track of this new graphical upgrade.

vtastek: nice, some creative input, thanks. However i don't think i want even more coverage, with Vality's trees there's just too much, all you see is leaves! I was so surprised when i uninstalled it of how much you could suddenly see of the surroundings. I forced myself from going there - to not make it into a jungle. You seem to like the claustrophobic feel - i dont Sure, it's nice for a while but it's just tiring in the long-run (as with Vality's trees). Also, from screens i've seen of Bald Cypress (even your screens), they're far from as "full" as mine, they're usually quite bare at least in swampy areas..

With the colors i've tried to make them varied enough so that not everything blends into a single mess, which is exactly what happens when you use mostly darker colors. I might change the ambient light (material properties) on the trunks, for some reason that often looks better than just darkening the texture itself i've noticed.

I also don't think the bottoms should be even wider, they're over-the-top as it is, already getting complatints about that While you do, occasionally, see a bald cypress with an extremely large/wide trunk i don't think it's common practice that they looks like that. It's also problematic with clipping making them even wider + i would have to hand place every single tree fungi container..

Gloss maps to make the lower parts looks wet, yeah that could be nice, might try that.

Covering the lower parts with some plants, yeah i have that with some of my ashland trees and it's very problematic to say the least. It clips through rocks (ugly and unrealstic) in slopes it looks bad too.. the trees arent arranged with the lower parts in mind, so sometimes just the top of the plant will be visible, and sometimes the full plant/grass since it's so random.

Moss yeah, might improve on that and rearrange the trees (they're just random, with no thought of how the default tree looks).

The missing mipmaps.. That' really, really odd, my settings are to save with all mip maps and i must have edited every single texture within this mod. I have to take a look what's up with that, probably need to reinstall PS or the Nvidia plugin. Thanks for letting me know - i did think i saw some aliasing, that kind of explains it

The UV mappings isnt perfect, like i've said earlier, i could spend weeks getting it 100% right, but it'd also most probably kill my interest in doing mods altogether after that. I'm actually searching for a program that does it better than Blender. Tweaking it manually there is just way too time consuming to be justifiable, and none of the presets works for tree trunks.

The mod will probably have an .esp in the end, i'd like to add some http://www.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mangrove.jpg in the water.

:twirl: Yaaaaay!!

This is looking so good. I've never felt that the Bitter Coast was sufficiently swampy, even with mods, but these trees are very swampy. I live in a swampy area, so if you're looking for information, I'd be happy to help.

:thumbsup: Instant download for me! (when I have the ability to)

was it you who wanted those in the first place i think it'll look good, the water is just too empty!


skaeps.mp3, cool, i love swamps. I hate Oblivion because it didnt have a proper swampy area all rpg's should have one.

Oh God yes!

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1114956-shelter-from-magnus-blaze-2/
He likes to use code names.


I have to admit, I like what vality did with the place. I was imagining the place same way before with vanilla. A psychological thing. It was like a maze and I was always getting lost. In vanilla.


Hmm, I can see the trees are dense in photos. I don't think photographers like to go inside so they shot from outside or they like the bald alone ones. In my screens, I tried to get certain angles so it looks dense. Or it looks too... simple.


Natural looks is hard to get without a true specular lighting. The white specular of trees won't show. Mimicking this without realistic lighting causing losing natural look. You are the expert though.


It is a suggestion to achieve dense look without increasing the number of trees. I think it is about the water level. If the water level is low, all trunks look wide. If it is high then they look thinner because bottom parts will be covered. You can guess the sinking rate by checking the ground level. It looks like the ground is leveled uniformly in those real life shots. But in game there are many bumps. Putting wide ones on high spots(I mean levitate them to show roots) would work I guess.


Try to get a noisy look with the specular map. If you make the canceling map noisy, I think it can work. Notice how the tenth one looks too flat.


It is common. I can live with that. But for improving, the addition would be nice. I wonder if there is simple way to fix those issues. Crysis is probably doing something to fix the issue. They are probably using some random generation algorithms.


Your work is awesome. Don't get underwhelmed by my suggestions. I wouldn't really bad or something if you don't listen to me. I hope you can figure out some easy way to fix those mapping problems. Maybe the solution can be something easier than you think. The stretched parts don't look good but my concern is more like the parts that shrink.

Keep up the good work. Let your imagination go wild! :foodndrink:

PS. I tried to use DDS converter but it didn't work. I guess a x64 problem. I ended up using http://www.getpaint.net/ in the end. It doesn't batch convert but it was easier than PS.

I really like your input, it's quite rare that people care to this degree, so i'm absolutely not underwhelmed by your constructive ideas

I think the reason why it looks dense in the photos is because of the sheer number of trees, if you look at the lower parts they're usually bare.. they're not very "full" trees.

For Crysis and similar games with much vegitation they must be using kind of the same algoritms that are in Yacoby's Mesh Generator utility.. I really wish that he would work more on that software, some stunning things could be done if it was a just a little more advanced.

I'll try adding plants to the base of the trunk's and see how it looks.

Thank you again Vurt :foodndrink:
http://www.confrerie-des-traducteurs.fr/morrowind/mods/graphisme/visuels/amelioration_de_la_cote_de_la_melancolie.php

No problem, i hope the french community will enjoy it! But it would've been better if you had waited for the update with the fixed collision just remember to give them the update once it's available.

I made my own trunk for your trees. :whistling:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/AnOldFriend/Concepts/NewBCTrunk.jpg

Just something I did quickly last night. I am not certain about the texture, I think it might be a bit to dark and doesn't show off the lower root details to well. The texture is just something I had for personal use for my BC region, I just slapped over an AO bake from a tree I sculpted.

Also not to sure if it will play nice with the umm, mushroom containers that are suppose to be on some of the trees. :shrug:

EDIT: The poly count is about 950, I think, for the trunk. I think your trunks were around 500-600?

If you like, you are welcome to use.

ohhh, that's really wonderful! I've basicly copied the default lower tree trunks so that the tree fungi would fit, this one looks so much better though, so good that i must try using it Maybe i can scale your trunk a bit and the fungi will still fit.. could you send it to vurt72 at gmail.com and i'll have a look Thanks!!

I will send you the models as soon as I am finished replacing, I think one more of your trunk models. I am just trying to pull some verts around to add some variety. I might also try to find a different texture, if I cant come up with one I will just send you the AO map and you can just multiply it over whatever texture you like.

EDIT: Just wanted to say that I haven't and don't plan to replace all of your trees trunks. So far I have only replaced 3 of the models trunks, and like I said I will probably only do one more unless i find something I think should be replaced.

I HEART mangroves! Also, is it possible to put in some diffferent-than-Bethesda's seaweed variety...fairly close to the coast?

Edit...

I was thinking of perhaps a variety of thinner stalks or perhaps a variety that is floating horizontally near the surface of the water.

Edit 2...

As you know...variety is the spice of the Bitter Coast.

I think I am satisfied enough for the time being.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/AnOldFriend/Concepts/Bitter%20Coast/VBC_Trees_01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/AnOldFriend/Concepts/Bitter%20Coast/VBC_Trees_02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/AnOldFriend/Concepts/Bitter%20Coast/VBC_Trees_03.jpg


I ended up replacing 2 more of the tree trunks and I changed the texture to something I think looks a lot better.

I will pack all this stuff up and send over in a bit. :foodndrink:

Awesome, looks superb!!

OOOOOooooTheseeeeTreeeeeeees :bowdown: :bowdown:

Vurt...

I am using your groundcover mod, the BC, AI, etc. version. I noticed that the grasses are solidified...hard to travel through. Anyway around this maybe? Can you work it out for a future version so that players can walk right through without being stopped?

There's instructions on the PES site, in the readme, there's even a provided screenshot for those who refuse to read instructions - both on PES and i even put it in the rar file so i wouldnt need to explain how to sort that out.

10-4 good buddy!

Edito....

It is just too much for my non-computer-educated brain. I am just going to not use that mod...

Thanks for the link. As far as I can see in the thread the shadow seem too buggy and has some compromises plus a laundry list of manual edits that you have to make in order to make it work, if at all. I'm going to wait until it's better developed. Great development this is indeed. The MW modders are in my opinion the most creative because they're doing so much with so little.

Looks like these trees stay close to the original ones and the Bitter Coast is still a swamp as intended.
Well done. These ones are a good replacer.

I like! :trophy:

The new trunk from AOF is really great, the texture is very good to i think, i might try some variations with it for the next release.

It svcks that i have to leave my apartment/computer for a while, they're gonna put in new floors here (don't fall asleep drunk while you have the water running, kids :whistling: not that i know anything about that....) i'll take my laptop with me though so i still can do a bit of modding