Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

This doesn't really have much to do with Silgrad Tower per se, but I'm so freaking ecstatic, I had to share, and this forum seemed the most relevant. I have finally, after hours of gnashing teeth, rending garments, and almost becoming an alcoholic, managed to get a custom model into Oblivion complete with custom textures and normal map, and it actually looks good!

I made a video showing the progression. It opens with me panning to a simple cube that I first practiced mapping. It's got the diffuse and normal maps, but it looks like garbage. Too plasticky and not at all resembling old decrepit stone. Next it pans to a stucco wall with two timbers on either end. The idea here was to teach myself how to make a NIF comprised of more than one mesh object. I thought it came out well, so I moved on to something having to do with a pet project I hope to see completed someday (my learning this basic stuff is a MAJOR stepping stone towards that end!). It's a tower in the style of Spanish colonial fortresses seen in the Caribbean. When I first saw it in-engine, I nearly cried. Yeah, there's some texture seams and mapping anomalies to get worked out, but other than that, it came out perfect!

I know those of you who are already doing this might think this isn't such a big deal, but for me, it's a huge step and I feel like celebrating. Hope you all don't mind. :bananarock: :bananarock:

Jon's new object in Oblivion. Woo!

EDIT- YouTube's compression kinda kills the details of the normal maps, so here's a closeup of the tower. Nice and rough. The way I like it.... nice... and rough.

-Jon

Good job jonrd. :goodjob: Keep it up and you could make some awesome stuff.

Moved to General ES Modding

Congratulations mate,
I still haven't been able to actually getting my model to work...been trying for a few days now to no luck.
The tutorials just don't do it for me, what program are you using?
I know it's much to ask, but if anyone would actually walk me through the steps when they have time I would be forever indebted.

Grats :goodjob: ... all that needs done now is to learn how to import animations

Quote:Originally posted by Amunds
Congratulations mate,
I still haven't been able to actually getting my model to work...been trying for a few days now to no luck.
The tutorials just don't do it for me, what program are you using?
I know it's much to ask, but if anyone would actually walk me through the steps when they have time I would be forever indebted.

Don't know how much help this would be for you, but here's how I did it.

1. Model the object. I do my initial building in Rhinoceros 3D, then export to OBJ format.

2. Import the OBJ into 3D Studio 8. I use 3DS's Mesh optimize modifier, as it's much more efficient and lowering the polygon count while retaining the model's shape than Rhino's optimization tools. I confirm that there are no other problems, such as reversed normals or anything like that, then re-export the model as OBJ. Re-exporting is probably unnecessary if you know how to work with 3DS's UV mapping features.

3. I like to use a seperate utility called UV Mapper, found here, to make my UV Maps. Which style you choose is dependant on the general shape of the model. For example, I picked Cylindrical for the tower. Save the model and map, picking a high enough resolution to work with. I generally use 2048 x 2048.

4. Open the map in Photoshop and go to Image --> Mode and select RGB color. Create your texture. You're on your own on this step. There are several texturing and normal mapping tutorials around, and creating them just depends on your skill with Photoshop. Make sure the texture and normal map are saved in the Data\Texture\whatever folder under Oblivion.

5. Import the model back into Max and apply the texture. The normal map will automatically be referenced by the CS. Make sure it's the same name as the texture, with a _n at the end. Use Gundalf's tutorial on how to use the NIF exporter.

6. Export the NIF to your Data\Meshes\Whatever folder from Max.

All that's left is to add the model as an object within the CS, and you're set. If you're not sure how to do that, the Wiki (accessed easily via the CS help menu) is a good start. I'd type out the directions, but I'm running a little short on time right now. I hope this helps you out a little, though.

-Jon

Nice movie

Those wall models look so real you can see the surface texture

Wil thier be a sequel

Haha.... no. I just wanted to show a progression of the steps I took to get to that point. Of course, when I finish my... no... can't even hint at it. Any time I publically state that I and developing a mod, fate intervenes and I never finish.

So... I wish to categorically state that I am not developing a colonial era Caribbean-style settlement reminiscent of Port Royal as seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Nope.

-Jon

Nice work Jon! The normalmapped texture looks mighty fine indeed

Hope to see you around Visual Dev soon, if you know how I mean he he So much to do, so little time...

Thank you for the reply, Jon.
I have tried this, I've gotten as far as opening the model in nifskope to view the result of the exported .nif.
I've followed all the steps in the tutorial on this site.
While I'm fairly new to working with oblivion files but I think I've narrowed the problem down to the mesh not getting exported correctly and therefor not showing.

I've included a screenshot from nifskope, hopefully some of the talented people will understand what my problem is, since I'm quite in the dark.

@Razorwing- We shall see. The creative part of my mind works in interesting ways. When I have a muse, I am totally wrapped up in something to almost obsessive compulsive levels, but then it can suddenly turn on a dime. Because of this, I don't like taking on things where people are depending on me. That's sort of why I got cold feet on the whole Hlaalu house thing, on top of my getting married, etc. I can't make any commitments right now, but who knows what the future holds.

@ Amunds- I'm sorry, but I haven't dealt with Nifskope, so I can't really help you there. Perhaps Razorwing can offer some advice?

-Jon