The Exterior of Dumac

[Seniosh]

Ok, so I've finally gotten all the awesome exterior dwemer pieces RideWithTheWind created, and i now the question is, should i do the exterior of dumac? I'm perfectly willing to try.

And can anyone direct me to somewhere that gives advice on large-scale landscape editing? Cause the terrain we've got is a huge mountain, that presently can't be walked up or built on...


Don't want to touch the heightmap though..

[bob196045]

Howdy


I wouldn't know what to say :dunce: with reference to the landscaping of the region

Dumac is set on a Mesa, with large rocks to the south and West, The main entry faces Northeast, on the north east side their is a bridge which connects to another mesa where their is an observatory and a few towers, the road from the brides winds north and east and then south to the coast

As far as building it I have no doubt that you can do it, have you decided on a layout yet, will we use one of the samples I sent or try something different

If you dont mind posting a few screen shots of the pieces you have


Thanks

Enjoy
Bob

[Seniosh]

well if you've got any pictures of the exterior layout from TES3, i'll use that as a rough basis, but the problem is the sheer amount of land. I don't know how much land the TES3 CS could render at one time, but i can't really tell where the Mesa is.

I know that immediately to the northeast there is an insanely tall and steep mountain, i'm just not sure what any of the surrounding terrain is, cause i can only see one cell at a time.

So i guess my question is thus: Anyone got a map? Like a really detailed map that preferably has a cell grid. Cause i'll need a map to find my way around the terrain.


The most unfortunate part is that my copy of oblivion has gone on strike, so i can't find the cell in-game and view everything outside the CS (which isn't very friendly when viewing large distances)

[edit] Got oblivion working again, i'll check out the landscape in-game, should give me a much better grasp of the landscape

[Seniosh]

Ok. I got oblivion working, took some pictures. It's like turning on a light. Here's pictures of the top of the entire formation, the east side, the north side, and the west side. Out of all of them, i'm most inclined to put the ruins on the east side.


Unfortunately, there's still nowhere to put the ruins themselves! It's MUCH too steep and tall, with no plateau-type structure for a ruin. I'll have to ask razorwing or somebody to heightmap it down, it's just too big a job for the landscape editor alone.

Here are the shots: Top, East, North, and West.

And anyone who has screenshots, whether in the cs or ingame, of the layout of TES3 Dumac, don't be afraid to post

[sandor]

I just finished the outer mountain ranges so if I had known this before....

I am going to finish the two region presets for Soluthis and the seamless transition before I have time for this.
It will take a day because I have to alter the HM, fix the seams for the surrounding quads and then export / import the quad to reduce the size of the esm.

I need to know (exactly where to put the plateaus) and how large it should be.

So provide me with the coordinates and the number of cells for the size.
Also tell me where the road should be.

Draw it on the attached HM overview.

[Seniosh]

Actually, after much cursing last night at 2:00AM, i proved myself wrong, as i figured the trick to large-scale landmass editing without the heightmapper.

The trick is to put an object near where you want to edit, select it, and then without deselecting it, go to the landmass editor. Having an object to focus on makes the CS much more stable, as it renders a larger area, and doesn't keep flicking 20 cells in and out of existance.


And once i figured that out, i found just how large the ridge was, compared with the dwemer ruins and the plateau i would have to build. So i actually shouldn't need the heightmap edited.

The only thing is the road. In TES3, obviously there was a road traveling along the river that led through dumac. As of yet there is no road, but Dumac really shouldn't affect the placement of it. It'll just need to be connected.


So in synopsis, thanks for the offer of heightmapping, but i've figured out how to do it more effectively. And you can make the road wherever, just hook it up to dumac (i'll make a path that starts just outside the plateau, and leads into dumac).

[sandor]

Originally posted by Seniosh
So in synopsis, thanks for the offer of heightmapping, but i've figured out how to do it more effectively. And you can make the road wherever, just hook it up to dumac (i'll make a path that starts just outside the plateau, and leads into dumac).

Ok, glad to hear you found a solution.

[Seniosh]

One more question- is there a specific ground texture, and set of rocks and stuff that i should use? Not sure what region Dumac would be considered or what to use for it

[sandor]

Dumac is lying (roughly) between the Steadhelm region and the Silgrad city region.
I use West Gash rocks for both of the regions, so I would say use WG rocks.

The Steadhelm region has a climate which is similar to the the Bitter Coast (humid). The Silgrad city region has climate which is similar to the Ascadian isles (lush and green). Depending on the climate, you should choose your textures.


@bob196045
What do you think?

[Seniosh]

The west gash rocks are very light-colored, and i can't find a ground texture that would suit them. Are there other rocks i could use (seeing as it's on a mountain plateau, i think different rocks makes some sense) that would better fit a darker ground?

Also, are there any land textures close to the one used for TES3 Dumac? it's more of a brownish color, and i can't find anything like it in the landscape editor. There's just the dark greys of the bruma rock, and some of the strange colors that Silgrad has, which don't quite fit dwemer ruins IMO.


I'll keep looking if nobody's got a suggestion for texture.