[RELz] Vurt's Solstheim Trees & Bushes Replacer : III - Morrowind

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:50 am

btw is there any difference between using the mod as an .esp or a replacer? As in, do you add new tree placements or anything in the .esp? I like my replacers to be as plugin-free as possible.

I was about to ask the same

The reason for the esp is specifically to allow additional tree and bush placements. If you don't want or don't mind forgoing the additional placements and just want to replace the stock trees and bushes as placed in the original game, use the pure replacer method (no esp needed).

I like the idea of climbable trees, although being able to do so if the tree is a static should require a bit more effort than just walking into the model, like having to jump up into the lower branches or using a one-second levitate. The activator idea is good too, but I'd like the option to be able to physically climb a tree as well. :sleep:

[edit] forgot an important word in that first bit.

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:13 am

Excellent release as always Vurt.
One issue though, it seems you cant walk through Holly Bushes.
Aside from that I'm a very happy customer. :foodndrink:
Now my favorite place in MW is even more enjoyable!

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:30 am

Good job Vurt, your stuff become better, and better.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:33 am

Wait, vurt is Swedish? Fantastiskt jobb du har gjort vurt

He is? Hold on a sec, why am I asking you, I should just ask him. ..............are you Swedish, Vurt?

» Fri May 13, 2011 2:57 pm

since he lives in sweden as stated in his profile i would say yes... he's swedish.

the swedish sentence is so close to german that even i understand it

this trees are great. i use them as pluginless replacer and it's just amazing

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:16 am

piinyouri; thanks for noticing, i'll remove the collision for the next version.

...and yep im from sweden

thanks for your lovely comments.

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:23 pm

Thanks vurt, Awesome release! :goodjob:

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:53 pm

Good work Vurt, I'm liking the reds and blues.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:18 pm

I just wanted to say that I love your work. These trees are beautiful! I'm downloading the rest of your replacers as well. Thanks so much for releasing all of them! I'll be keeping an eye out for any of your future projects as well.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:53 am

@vurt
Finally checked this out, and have a couple recommendations:

* The difference in tree line height between the really tall snowy tree model (vurt_bm_snow_05.nif) and the next tallest trees is too obvious - I modified the scale of each of the NiTriShape nodes to be 1.7500 for vurt_bm_snow_01.nif except for the trunk (plant_pmat1) which I scaled to 1.6250 so that the tip didn't over extend the top of the tree banches. This really helped to break up the obvious gap between heights and give the snowy forest in the distance a more dense appearance.

* vurt_bm_snow_05.nif looks like it's using the wrong texture for the branches - I changed the NiSourceTexture to be the same as the trunk texture with good results.

* Similarly, vurt_tree_bm_04.nif looked to be using the wrong branch texture - changed it to match the trunk texture.

* The branch texture for vurt_shrub1.nif and vurt_shrub2.nif is rather plain compared to the other textures (has the appearance that there's no texture and vertex coloring was used instead) - I used instead vurt_treebark11.dds; color is a bit darker, but looks better close up due to more detail in the texture.

Fantastic job with the rest of these trees and bushes! The built in branch swaying animations look good on pines and conifers. :thumbsup:

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:31 pm

:wub:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot15-5.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot14-3.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot13-7.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot11-5.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot10-5.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot9-5.jpg :shocking:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot8-4.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot6-3.jpg

'Distant static' trees look fine too:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot5-5.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/iamerik/MW%20and%20Oblivion/MGEScreenshot4-5.jpg

I agree with Tetchy about the tree line height though.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:06 pm

@vurt
Finally checked this out, and have a couple recommendations:

* The difference in tree line height between the really tall snowy tree model (vurt_bm_snow_05.nif) and the next tallest trees is too obvious - I modified the scale of each of the NiTriShape nodes to be 1.7500 for vurt_bm_snow_01.nif except for the trunk (plant_pmat1) which I scaled to 1.6250 so that the tip didn't over extend the top of the tree banches. This really helped to break up the obvious gap between heights and give the snowy forest in the distance a more dense appearance.

* vurt_bm_snow_05.nif looks like it's using the wrong texture for the branches - I changed the NiSourceTexture to be the same as the trunk texture with good results.

* Similarly, vurt_tree_bm_04.nif looked to be using the wrong branch texture - changed it to match the trunk texture.

* The branch texture for vurt_shrub1.nif and vurt_shrub2.nif is rather plain compared to the other textures (has the appearance that there's no texture and vertex coloring was used instead) - I used instead vurt_treebark11.dds; color is a bit darker, but looks better close up due to more detail in the texture.

Fantastic job with the rest of these trees and bushes! The built in branch swaying animations look good on pines and conifers. :thumbsup:

The one I've noticed the most is your first point. I use a lot of the snowy trees on an island I mod in my free time as a personal project of sorts. The tallest tree is like double the height of every other snowy tree ( I use the trees as a straight replacer for several reasons). It looks kind of odd. The trees height could probably use some adjustment...or maybe some more covered branches going down the trunk.

For the most part though awesome work vurt.

Edit: http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc24/Syrcanus/snowyvillage00.png of what I mean by the tree being either too tall or not covered enough. I had the vanilla tree scaled up to 1.50, but even set at 1.00 this tree is still double the size of the others. Some of the other trees in that screen are also scaled at like 1.80 and 1.40 yet they are still noticably smaller than the 1.00 scaled version of the vurt_bm_snow_05 tree.

» Fri May 13, 2011 2:53 pm

These are really amazing trees, but you really need to remove the collision on the branches! Do you people actually play the game, or do you just wander around taking screenshots of mods?

Right now it's nearly impossible to have companions with you or do escort quests, as they'll constantly get stuck in the trees, forcing you to either reload or move them with the console. If you use a jump spell for fast travel it's also very easy to get stuck so that you have to use tcl to get out. And you wander around a bit you'll soon see (twf helps) bears and bristlebacks being stuck up in the trees everywhere. By the way, it's actually all the trees that are affected by this, though it's much more apparent on one of them as the branches are lower.

Sorry if this sounds too negative, but your trees look really amazing and I'd really like to be able to use them without it being such a pain.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:03 am

Yeah sorry for taking so long to fix that issue

I've updated to 1.01 which fixes that and adds 1 new tree + some other various tweaks. http://piclair.com/data/f0ufm.jpg.

Edit:

Sorry for not responding to the other posts, i've forgotten to check this thread.

The tallest pine trees are very tall, yes. It's just how those trees looks (basicly i was recreating the trees that we have around where i live). They're usually much taller than most fir trees, but there are also other reasons for this. If i make every tree almost the same height you cant distinguish their individual shapes, it also blocks the view a lot more, so you will see very little of the landscape itself ("you cant see the forest because of all the trees"

). Those trees also dont have many side branches, the lower branches wither away, so i don't agree that they need to be more covered than what they are, if i made a lot of side branches it would also almost completely block the view. There's almost always a reason why i make things the way they are. I always test numerous different heights and sizes for the trees too, this is just what worked and looked best, imo.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:52 pm

Hi Vurt

downloading it and the screenshot picture looks very nice, as allways.

I have noticed the beatuy of your screenshots for a long time.

thought make paint and place them ingame before.

» Fri May 13, 2011 2:54 pm

These trees look so amazing! I mean they all match Solstheim perfectly. However I noticed that with the newest version the oak trees and holly bushes still have collision on their leaves. Are you planning on removing the collision from those as well, because me and my companions tend to get stuck on them quite often?

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:41 am

I have run into this strange error

Spoiler

TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf01.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf02.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf03.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf04.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf05.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf051.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf052.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf0053.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf06.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf07.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf08.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf09.dds"!
TES3Stream Warning: Model "Meshes\f\vurt_tree_bm_05.nif" tex not found "textures\vurt_yleaf091.dds"!

this wasent a problem in you previous version nor was there ever any yleaf textures in them yet I get strange yellow boxes from where the texture should be whats up with this ?

on a side note beautiful work as always, really love it

» Fri May 13, 2011 12:47 pm

Yeah sorry, wouldnt be a vurt-release if there wasnt yet another release within a day or so, right?

I'm uploading 1.02 in an hour or so.

Fixes:

* Most of the trees are now ~30% smaller to be more compatible with mods and to not block the view of the landscape too much.
* Most textures are darkened and desaturated a bit (to appear more natural looking and to blend in better)
* Added retextures for the default snowy pine trees since these trees still shows up at a few places
* Added missing falling leaves textures
* Collision removed on Holly bushes
* Collision removed on Oak tree
* New leaves texture for the Oak tree
* New leaves for some of the Holly Bushes

Screens of v1.02

http://piclair.com/data/2pymq.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/sdlys.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/cgkr5.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/5hkmv.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/0iwqr.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/q7log.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/ggzk1.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/xgvut.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/3ymlr.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/b7ws4.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/hpnj2.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/97pdo.jpg

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:27 am

Yeah sorry, wouldnt be a vurt-release if there wasnt yet a another release within a day or so, right?

I'm uploading 1.03 in an hour or so.

Fixes:

* Most of the trees are now ~30% smaller to be more compatible with mods and to not block the view of the landscape too much.
* Most textures are darkened and desaturated a bit (to appear more natural looking and to blend in better)
* Added retextures for the default snowy pine trees since these trees still shows up at a few places
* Added missing falling leaves textures
* Collision removed on Holly bushes
* Collision removed on Oak tree
* New leaves texture for the Oak tree
* New leaves for some of the Holly Bushes

Screens of v1.03

http://piclair.com/data/cgkr5.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/q7log.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/3ymlr.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/hpnj2.jpg
http://piclair.com/data/97pdo.jpg

eh no worries
awesome ! gotta push my laptops capabilities to its limit !

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:15 pm

Most of the trees as of the v1.02 release need scaled back up some. I was using this as a base replacer, so after all the renaming and replacing was done I opened the CS to look at the new trees to find that 30% smaller was a LOT smaller. They are so much smaller in fact that when I removed them to look at the vanilla trees the vanilla trees turned out to be noticeably larger now.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:23 am

30% smaller linear scale implies more like 51% smaller visual area and 65% less total volume. Human scale perception is somewhere in between those two. I would suggest 0.85 scale to be closer to what you might want.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:05 pm

If i remember correctly the size was reduced from a 1.0 scale to 0.7 in Nifskope for most trees.

Here's a comparison pic from the exact same spot: http://piclair.com/data/dz0y4.jpg

As you can see my trees are still bigger. One or two might be smaller yes, to make up for the ones that are bigger and blocks the view more

The point wasnt really to make them exactly the same size as the default trees but to make the landscape a bit more visible (the "can't see the forest because of all the trees"-effect

)

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:56 am

Hello Vurt, this is very needed addition to the Solstheim's landscape ! Thanks for Your hard work

I have two minor problems with this , one I described in this thread :

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1158333-annoying-issue/

And the second one is that the texture "vurt_hollybush4" is missing - I don't see it in any of 3 releases on PES, and I'm seeing white bushs occasionally. The meshes and textures are placed correctly for sure. I will appreciate any help

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:09 pm

Hmm I downloaded and checked, it's there: http://piclair.com/data/1wvrj.jpg

are you sure you downloaded the latest version? I updated it like 5-6 hours ago..

edit: if you're having problems with the .esp you can make a pluginless version yourself very easy, the first post explains it.

» Fri May 13, 2011 1:58 pm

Oh, I must have missed that update - I've downloaded 1.02, but it was named "Vurts_Solstheim_Trees__Bushes_102a" =) Now everything is fine.

As for the pluginless, will do

Thanks for the answer!