A new velothi-ish tileset

[Candlemaster]

Hey all,

I'm working on a new interior tileset. It's intended to be velothi tomb architecture, but I've effectively abandoned the look used in Morrowind in favor of a more original, concept-art inspired look. So far I've only done some minor stuff in Blender, but just for the heck of it I whipped up a floor texture in ZBrush, and there are some issues with it, but it's a start. Here's a screen of my floor, with an ayleid floor for comparison:

You can't tell from this pic, but I think the normals might be messed up a tad.


Here's a rough base mesh for a hallway piece. I'm going for a more tall arch-ey look, with a "spine" at the top to give it some flavor.

There are holes in the archway, meant to hang charms/talismans/etc from.

I think, aside from the fact that it doesn't look like vanilla morrowind's, it would make a great velothi tomb tileset. And, one must remember, most of why morrowind looked like it did is technical limitations. Inspiration-wise, I'm going more from the concept art (such as This lovely image) than what was actually in TES3.

If you guys think you can use this tileset somewhere, as a replacement for/addition to your current velothi set, or even something completely different, let me know and I'll start working faster on it

[sandor]

Nice!

I don't think it will be used in our final TESIV release (October 1 st).
It's the time frame that limits the implementation.

However I am quite sure we can port it over to TESV, so a new tileset is more than welcome.

[Candlemaster]

Awesome, that's great to hear. I'll get working then lol, got quite a lot to do

Where's the easiest place I could get a list of every velothi piece? Besides the morrowind CS that is.

Also, would you know anything about porting normal maps from ZBrush to Oblivion? I think I may have gotten something wrong, though tbh it's just a hunch <.<

Here's the original, as exported from ZBrush (I scaled everything down to 1024 in-game, though 512 would probably be a lot better. Original size is 1200):

[Koniption]

Can you describe, visually, what is wrong with the floor's normal map? How does it look wrong?
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Oblivion normal maps need to be in "dds" format, and must match the name of the regular diffuse color texture exactly, except the normal map texture must have a "_n.dds" at the end of its name:

FloorTexture.dds = diffuse texture
FloorTexture_n.dds = the normal map for the diffuse texture.

(FYI, I don't know about Photoshop, because I personally use GIMP. So my info below is based on GIMP)

1024 or 512 dimensions are ok - you got that part done right.

But you need to export your floor in one of two ways:

Export your normal map as follows from GIMP: mipmaps enabled, DXT1, RGB8

Or, if you want to be able to control the "glossiness" (wet or slimy look) of the floor using the Glossiness field of the NiMaterialProperty in Nifskope (increase value for more gloss, less for less gloss), export as follows: mipmaps enabled, DXT5, RGBA8

It might be that you are seeing the "mountains & valleys" of the normal map inverted wrong?? If so, in GIMP, load the normal map, and go to "Filters -> Map -> Normal Map"...choose "Invert X" then "Invert Y". Hopefully, that will reverse what parts stick out and what parts recess in the texture, visually.

My last bit of advice for now: go to Nifksope, and go to "Spells --> Batch --> Update All Tangent Spaces". This fixes normals, usually, if your issue is a normals problem.

Koniption

EDIT: if you get GIMP, you 'll need to download the dds plugin, and the normal map plugin. So that's two different plugins you'll need to get, besides GIMP program.

[Candlemaster]

The normal maps show up properly in the CS, the problem is that compared to existing meshes it looks... weird, I guess? It may just be a style thing though. I'll have to take a look at the normal maps they used...

btw I use photoshop for most of my texture work. I do have and use Gimp, but there's really only one feature it has that I need it for (color to alpha).

If you want I can send you the nif's and textures for the floor and an alternate, more-damaged one I made. I made them inter-tile flawlessly, so you can mix and match when making dungeon floors.

EDIT: Hmm, I took a look at some of oblivion's normal maps, and I'm pretty sure that there's somethign wrong with mine. I inverted the R and G channels and it looks a lot closer, in structure. I'll load it up into the CS and see...

Hm, well, that seemed to have fixed it I think. Surface may be a little rough for my tastes, but other than that it looks great. This isn't a final draft anyway, so no worries.

[sandor]

Originally posted by candlemaster
Where's the easiest place I could get a list of every velothi piece? Besides the Morrowind CS that is.

I'll send you a PM with a link for the assets.

[Ghogiel]

Oblivion uses max tangent basis. Normal map orientation is +x -y +z.

you only need to invert the G channel with that normal map.