Waiting for the Pandora? mod to get fully started, I decided to do a small side project. As I was often asked to release my 3D-models as a resource to the community, I plan on making a small series of custom environments now, featuring some new landmeshes, exterior caves and other fancy stuff. I won't make any quest and I won't care for lore, conflicts with other mods and whatever. I could have released the models only, but I like to spread some ideas, what can be made with it and so I will decorate a bit here and there, lol!!!

You may use this as a plugin, if you like the changes to the landscape or else just take the new meshes and make something of your own. I have just started yesterday, but I plan to release the first resource in about 2-3 weeks.


Some screenies showcasing an exterior cave, which can be placed in a large hole in the ground in CS, so that you can enter it through gaps from the surface. I have textured it with small size vanilla textures linking to the environment where I have placed it, you may retexture it with some high resolution ones as you like lateron:

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/3271/29325696.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2734/99054051.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5466/56182937.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/213/30008396.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4646/71599766.jpg


TheDaywalker :rock:

looks great :goodjob:
very treacherous!
too bad there's no quests

edit: btw I heard that being surrounded by concave shapes in an exterior environment made it bug out...

WOW! I'm speechless.

These look amazing!

I have figured out no bugs so far and I'm using such meshes since a long time. If there should be some, I'll sure find a way to fix it!!!

This mod is for all those people, who like to do quests, but can not do 3D-models themselves. You may fill these environments with some story if you like, but me is not much of a quester and I'm yet involved in too much other projects!!!

What I'll do next:

- Flying isles: No more flipping rocks 180 degrees. I will make a small set of flying isles/rocks of different size!!!
- Walkable stone bridges
- Cliffs and other unique addon meshes to make landscaping more various


TheDaywalker :rock:

Fantastic work, TDW :goodjob: !
I look forward to seeing more (for sure) :twirl: .

Are these resources from the Faerie Realms? Or are they newer meshes you just had sitting around?
Anyways, they look great so far.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G-! I can't wait until I can get my hands on some of these, I want to put them in the Azurian Isles. These would fit perfectly... waiting patiently to see what else you have!

-Melchior Dahrk

Incredible job DayWalker. Those scenes look amazing, really impressive.

@Pluto: The meshes are completely new ones, this cave was actually made yesterday afternoon. Faerie Realms meshes won't get touched and also Pandora? meshes won't be released this way. I like to keep the WIPs I'm involved in unique.

Maybe later today I can yet show you the next model, we'll see!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

I love it. Must have models

This will be next model. A custom rock with some water pool on top and animated waterfalls. Sadly I wasn't able yet to get the animations work. I have done it long ago several times, but it seems not to work now. Either me is making a mistake, or the newest nifscripts do not work correct!!! If someone familiar with this technique in Blender could give me a hint please, lol!!!

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1435/76351395.jpg


TheDaywalker :rock:

:drool:

That is AWESOME!

Here is a preview of the next model. It's a magic rock, which functions as a neverending water resource and on top of the rock thre is a little watchpost, with a firepit and a chair, which is set up to function as a bed!!! . It was placed inmid the Gracelands. I still have to work on the water, cause animation didn't work yet plus Morrowind seems to render 3dimensional models with tansparency in a very ugly way. But I'll fix that till release.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1897/55983220.jpg
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2707/63863532.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8092/23397716.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/7966/91770393.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7047/99262450.jpg


TheDaywalker :rock:

Looks good so far! I like the first mesh.

Atm though, with your newest mesh, I think the waterfall could be improved on a bit. The water seems to be coloured a bright violet. Is it going to stay that colour?
If so could you try it with a different colour? If you want to keep it that colour, it's fine, but it gives it a more fantasy-like feel that just doesn't seem right in Morrowind.

Looking forward to seeing it animated. Perhaps you could have a transparent white animated texture on the waterfalls themselves, with larger cloudier particles at the bottom?
It also looks like you're using too many particles in too large a radius for those waterfalls, you could try shrinking them down a little.

I could be wrong about this though, cause it isn't finished, and I haven't seen it in motion yet. They're just some suggestions for you to think about.
What type of animation are you trying to get working?

The textures of the waterfall are not final, I just dragged and dropped a normal map on the mesh, lol!!! Problem with transparency is, my water is 3dimensional, like tubes and when I turn down alpha, the mesh reveals its edgeloops, instead of being just a clear shape. I hope I can fix that with an alpha texture and a fine gradient and not turning the slider down in NifSkope at all.

The animation I'm trying to get work is a NiUVController animation, where texture slides across the mesh, like with water meshes. I've done it several times yet, but it is long ago now.

IIRC you just set two keyframes for texture offset and then export as nif, xnif, kf. Altering in nifskope wasn't needed. It did work all the time , but now I get an error saying:

"My model wasn't found in NiAnimation."

My suspicion is, that newest nifscripts don't contain a certain bugfix, which had been made especially for this error. But I may be wrong though!!! I already asked for help at NifTools. If I can't get it done with blender again, I will do it with max!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

Made you guys some new concept flying Dwemer-city with animated wings. Will add a small tileset for decoration too, featuring animated vents, steam-outlets, balconies, turrets, windows and other stuff and some floating isles of course!!! Hope you like the design!!!

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5899/flyingcity01.jpg
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/6153/flyingcity02.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/1708/flyingcity03.jpg


TheDaywalker :rock:

looks AWESOME!
i love the view from the second shot

Here is the main complex of the flying Dwemer-City ingame. I will tweak the animations a bit and replace wings with a nicer model lateron. Now I will make a whole bunch of additions to this, so that you can create your own flying city. Interiors will be added later too. I placed the City near Seyda Neen just for testing. We may discuss a better place though or for those who are modders, place it where ever you like to!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpNv6ybO7Y4

PS: If anyone has some special wishes concerning the additional tiles to this main complex, now would be the right time to let me know!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

OMG, that is Awesome!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the great work Daywalker!

You have one heck of the imagination!
Keep it up,
Cheers.

THX, glad you like it!!! Here is another video at night time. I dedcided to make two versions of the city DAY and NIGHT. NIGHT will be glowmapped and shall be exchanged with dusk comming by script. So the city can easier be found at night and with MGE and distant view it's some nice eyecandy!!!

Actual video doesn't show this yet, just added a flying garden and some other stuff!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoFsPatK2kI

EDIT: Video is still worked on, quality should improve a bit soon hopefully!!!


TheDaywalker:rock:

Outstanding Daywalker! :clap:

One minor hiccup to point out - the large animated wings have a jump to the animation loop on the upstroke.

I already mentioned that I will have to overwork the animation. The jumping of the wings is because position of start and stop frame don't match exactly, but this will be easy to fix and it will be done till release!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

that city looks... AWESOME!
can't wait to see the inside
where is it going to fly around?