Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

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Porticulis:



OK, not good enough for Oblivion ...

[Edit]
Ops to late

Stilgar, what the heck is that? Those bricks look fantastic.

@Zarf:
Hmm, I don't what "heck" is, but this is a tile from a NWN-Tileset I've made:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hak...il&id=5236

Ah, ok. Did you make the brick textures yourself then? I might need to call on your brickmaking talents if I end up not being able to make them myself.

Quote:Originally posted by Zarf
Ah, ok. Did you make the brick textures yourself then? I might need to call on your brickmaking talents if I end up not being able to make them myself.

Yes, I've made all textures by myself. Just ask me if you need one.

Stilgar: It's very tempting for me to continue the NWN discussion following the screenshot you posted. I've been a fan for a long time, not of the game itself but of the community around it. I've checked out tons of things via the 3D Studio Max importer, but the models are almost always extremely low-poly. The only thing I kept was a pinetree by scooterpb. It's heartbreaking at times because I can tell how much effort went into those models, and it would be a shame to see them die out I think. Perhaps especially the city tileset seen in the screenshots of the download you linked to. Do you suppose there is any chance that sometime in the future you would be willing to touch it up for use in Oblivion mods?

@Razorwing : I can try it when my work on the Hlaalu interior is ready. But this takes time because the complette modells are all in gmax format and I can export it from there only as md3 and then convert it to an an other 3D-format, so I would lost all UVW-parameters ... . The next "problem" is: In this tileset I've made no different interior and exterior tiles, so you can walk into every building without loading or something. Look here:



And there are more then 200 tiles
But before I made a complete rebuild for Oblivion here are more pictures from the tileset:
http://stilgarnwn.st.funpic.de/readme/ccs_history2.html
http://mitglied.lycos.de/thorstenwillert/nwn/sonstiges/
http://stilgarnwn.st.funpic.de/demo/

And I must made a complette retexturing because of the real-time shadows in NWN there was no need for textures with "build in" shadows.

Now the topic has it's own thread =)


I downloaded your CCS mod and unpacked it with the hakedit utility, then I used the MDL Suite plugin to import .mdl files into 3D Studio Max 4.0. I would have liked to do more tests before posting about my findings, but I couldn't because I ran into difficulties with some of your texture files. 3D Studio Max reported them as having "Invalid Image File Header". Not sure why, I've never seen that error before. It's possible they were corrupted when extracted through hakedit. Would it be possible for me to get a copy of the textures as stand-alone files to continue my testing?

There was also some missing texture files, like the one for the water, but I assumed those textures were stock game textures and players would already have had them. Naturally this particular case doesn't matter much since Oblivion has dynamic water and wouldn't be using that kind of water mesh.

Although my tests aren't complete, I think it looks very promising so far. From what I can tell, the uvw mapping is kept intact. I'm especially excited about the fact that the MDL Suite allows me to import the collision mesh from your model, which I think NWM calls "walkmesh". Model by model it might not be a big deal but when looking at importing and converting a hundred models then being able to get the original collision mesh would save countless of hours. I wouldn't dare make any promises this early on, but I would be most interested in continuing the tests and see if your models can be converted this way. =)

I'm not sure how you mean with built-in shadows. When Oblivion models have normal maps they react to dynamic light much like I think was the case with Neverwinter Nights. Sometimes models look better with fake shadow detail, perhaps especially in cases where rocks and trees meet the ground. But it's by no means a requirement for models to look good, and Oblivion uses it quite sparingly on man-made type of models.

It's true that models like the one in your screenshot might need a bit of work, but not much more than deleting the inside on an exterior version and deleting the outside on an interior and putting a load-door inbetween (so to speak).

OK, loading the mdl's is not the problem. But I can load the original files only in gmax

The DDS-format from Bioware is different to the DDS-format from Microsoft and the missing textures are in the original game resources.

Yes, sure the uvw mapping doesn't change when you loading the models but building a new one with the same mapping-parameters is not easy

Yes, I think the walkmesh in NWN is the same thing like the collision mesh, too.

I mean with build in shadows these fake shadows in textures. NWN has no bump or normalmaps. But you can make every single mesh in the modell casting shadows.

Before I deleting the inside or outside from an modell and made new textures on them I think it's easier to build a new version of them

I understand. I guess I have an unhealthy obsession when it comes to models, and browsing the NWN Vault site sure stirs up my greed. Like I've snucked into the supermarket at night and can feast on all its delicacies without cost or consequence :brew:

But yeah, as sad as I find it to be... I guess models from that era have had their time, and for the most part it's just easier to make something anew than bring those models up to Oblivion's polycount level. hrug: That, and the fact that there isn't a clear-cut use for most of the models from that scene in our mod, but still.