Hlaalu House Project

[jonrd463]

Woohoo! I was waiting to see Oblivion developments with this. Oom did all the legwork and credit for the tileset goes completely to him, but I still consider myself sort of a distant grandpa to this project. I can't wait to see a fully realized Hlaalu exterior set amidst Speedtree trees, and all the other bells and whistles the Oblivion engine has to offer.

-Jon

[Razorwing]

[GALLY]SilgradCityAlpha_scr1.jpg[/GALLY] [GALLY]SilgradCityAlpha_scr2.jpg[/GALLY] [GALLY]SilgradCityAlpha_scr3.jpg[/GALLY]

I've now brought in the majority of the pieces from the Hlaalu exterior tileset, which Oom Foyat modelled and Quentin Fortune textured throughout the latter half of 2005. It turned out really well, and I couldn't help but post these images of building configurations I tested out. They'll be needed, as it's a very complex tileset to mod with; I would have had a hard time making heads or tails of them if I hadn't been able to check out Oom's original display he made for the Morrowind version of the set. The complexity goes hand in hand with the versatility and creative freedom it offers, and I don't think there'll be many problems once you can see how the display I assembled fits together.

Besides showing the incredible level of variety one can achieve with the set, I figured the screenshots would also be a handy conversation starter on how we should make Silgrad City happen on the Oblivion platform.

We would need to have an interior tileset for them, but that's not as big of a problem as it might seem and I have every reason to believe that part of the equation will work itself out. If all else fails I bet I could put together one, though I'll be the first to admit there are more capable modellers both within and outside the team who would most likely do a better job.

No the bigger question is, who will turn out to be the next mayor of Silgrad City? It would be an exciting project, I'm sure, but at the same time I don't think I would exaggerate if I said it would surely take months, perhaps even half a year, to put together the city (depending on the mayor's free time). The city will have at least 150 buildings, maybe 200 or more. The mayor would have to be a person who loves details, fine-tuning and perfection, because putting together a house exterior like this takes work. (But note that all the pieces work on the snap-to-grid system; You never have to finetune the alignment by hand)

Again, at the same time, it offers almost limitless creative possibilities. The earth the city would rest on could be made pretty much anyway you like it and the tileset would still allow you to mod an intertwined, continous layout as the height bobbed up and down, theoretically including ten-story buildings, walkways in the air going back and forth, two levels of walkways on top of each other... you name it!

The exterior tileset doesn't have collision detection nor normal maps, which is something I would personally be more than happy to delegate to the mayor to sort out (or delegate to someone else).

So... would anyone happen to be interested?
I can send over the tileset if someone who's interested in the job wants to check out how the tileset works first.

( oh, and the core will vote before a decision can be established =) )

[HeIsTheDarkness]

I guess such person should first be tested on lesser cities like Steadhelm or Ebbedin

[jonrd463]

I just gotta...

:banana: :bananarock: :banana:

By the way, what happened to Oom and Quentin?

-Jon

[Axen]

Hmm... maybe. I am a perfectionist (which is probably a bitch for everyone else here), haha.
(Someone should get rid of all the nasty texture tiling. )

I was thinking about the windows... the glass is green. Like the volcanic Glass in Morrowind. Windows don't really seem to be more than decorations in Dunmeri architecture. Maybe they're a symbol of wealth (being able to afford windows made out of Glass)?

[Lady Nerevar]

hm, it dosent make sence to have the darker part of the texture at the top... rotate the texture so that the dark part is on the bottom (to silimilate dirt of something). also, can the texture be made more yellowish (like htey were in MW)?

looking good other then that.

[X23]

Maybe you should just release a beta version of the exterior tileset here. Any team that would make use of Hlaalu buildings would find that useful. We could start on some Hlaalu Vvardenfell cities.

[Axen]

Originally posted by X23
Maybe you should just release a beta version of the exterior tileset here. Any team that would make use of Hlaalu buildings would find that useful. We could start on some Hlaalu Vvardenfell cities.

We really shouldn't do any of that until the landmass is there.

[Razorwing]

jonrd463: I spoke to Oom the other day and my impression is he's involved in another project at the moment, not related to Elder Scrolls. I have no idea what happened to Quentin Fortune though, he disappeared without a word almost two months ago. It's not impossible... that he has died. I sent him half a dozen emails, even saying that I feared he'd gone to greener pastures, but he hasn't replied to any of them or given any indication he's alive but away from this place for some other reason.

Axen, Lady Nerevar: I respect your critique but I don't take any responsibility for the textures or meshes or plan to change them in any way. That's not to say I'm 100% happy with the textures. They look nice, but they have a repetetive effect when tiled and viewed from a distance, i.e., one can make out a repeating pattern.

X23: I bet KuKulzA would tell me if there was anything I could do to aid the Vvardenfell project. Besides, it's not done yet, and I don't want to share something that doesn't work as intended (yet).

[X23]

I might be able to do something like this later on, when I'm more experienced, and there is land to build on. But I'll check out the location in TES 3 anyway.