 We have a Height Map! |
Smokindan
Chieftain of Skyrim
Registration Date: 2006.06.13
Posts: 827
Location: Western Australia, Australia
 |
|
ROFL. That was indeed fast. Congratulations 
__________________
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
->Sir Winston Churchill
|
|
2007.04.10 08:13 |
|
|
Sanpicture
ST Modder
Registration Date: 2007.02.25
Posts: 210
Location: The Netherlands
|
|
| RE: We have a Height Map! |
      |
Wonderful to hear this! Congratulations! 
__________________
You're a prisoner about to set free...
... And away we go.
|
|
|
2007.04.10 13:25 |
|
|
KuKulzA
King
Registration Date: 2005.09.07
Posts: 7,878
Location: USA / Taiwan
|
|
congrats man!
out of curiousity... proportional to Cyrodiil's scale? smaller? bigger? realistic?
|
|
|
2007.04.10 19:52 |
|
|
IAMTHEEMPEROR
Archduke
Registration Date: 2006.07.04
Posts: 2,075
Location: New England
|
|
This is probably going to be smaller than the Provinces here for BC,
but we are definately going really fast from the start. 
__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.
|
|
|
2007.04.10 20:18 |
|
|
Alasdair
Jarl of Skyrim
Registration Date: 2006.08.29
Posts: 1,012
Location: Somerset, UK
|
|
|
|
2007.04.10 20:29 |
|
|
The Old Ye Bard
Prince
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,351
Location: CHIM
|
|
|
|
2007.04.10 21:25 |
|
|
Moryal
First Knight
Registration Date: 2007.03.02
Posts: 117
|
|
| RE: We have a Height Map! |
|
Yeah, I don't Know, I've seen lightwaves 'magic' programs and you name
it, they can make a good heightmap out of it. I don't quite remember
where (It was a ways back in time.) but he once turned a logo for TES
IV Vvardenfell into a textured heightmap (and made it look like child's
play to boot). I wouldn't be surprised if TOYB is as close as he says. 
|
|
|
2007.04.11 23:09 |
|
|
The Old Ye Bard
Prince
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,351
Location: CHIM
|
|
|
|
2007.04.11 23:47 |
|
|
KuKulzA
King
Registration Date: 2005.09.07
Posts: 7,878
Location: USA / Taiwan
|
|
it's light magic that Lightwave uses, not black magic
but anyhow, these are coral isles right? so I magine they'd actually
not be very tall because they are build up of coral not undersea
mountains... but gradual slopes to be covered in coral and rock models
with niches and coral homes for the sload, somewhere close to the
waterline (so they don't scrape off their blubbers trying to walk on
coral)
|
|
|
2007.04.12 02:05 |
|
|
TheImperialDragon
Councilor
Registration Date: 2006.06.21
Posts: 5,906
Location: Ontario, Canada
|
|
| quote: |
Originally posted by KuKulzA
it's light magic that Lightwave uses, not black magic
|
I thought maybe it might have been Blacklight magic. 
__________________
"Where were you when the Dragon Broke?"
|
|
|
2007.04.12 02:29 |
|
|
KuKulzA
King
Registration Date: 2005.09.07
Posts: 7,878
Location: USA / Taiwan
|
|
| quote: |
Originally posted by TheImperialDragon
| quote: |
Originally posted by KuKulzA
it's light magic that Lightwave uses, not black magic
|
I thought maybe it might have been Blacklight magic.
|
nice
so anyways, is my assumption about the coral/height/etc. right?
|
|
|
2007.04.12 02:43 |
|
|
The Old Ye Bard
Prince
Registration Date: 2006.05.25
Posts: 3,351
Location: CHIM
|
|
|
|
2007.04.12 03:17 |
|
|
Lightwave
First Knight
Registration Date: 2006.11.18
Posts: 145
Location: Cymru [Wales]
|
|
Hi folks. I've only just started looking at these forums, so I've been out of the discussion.
The problems with such small islands is they don't leave a lot of room
to make much height, though this makes the job easier in other ways
(there's less to do!
)
To start with, I've put two heightmaps up for testing, including the LOD files. These are two ESPs that can be loaded in the game together; Thras1.esp and Thras2.esp. You can COW using the in-game console to either landmass; the worldspace name for each is Thras1 and Thras2
respectively. They're of different sizes so those interested can decide
which they'd like to mod with, or indeed if you'd like an in-between,
smaller or larger still, it's easy enough for me to resize.
1. Thras1 is generated from a 1024x1024 heightmap image
(expanded from a b/w outline TOYB sent me which was much lower res).
This size was originally chosen so that the western-most island was the
same size as the IC Waterfront in Bethesda's TES4 Cyrodiil. The entire
map is the size of 1 LOD quad - for those that don't know - 32x32
cells, though much of it is underwater.
2. Thras2 is from an expanded 1536x1536 heightmap image
(i.e. 50% longer in each dimension), with 2.25 times as much building
area. The enlarged map gives more space to do something with (both in
terms of statics and to some extent more height), but it would
obviously take more time to finish a mod of this size. This map is
48x48 cells, though of course much is still underwater.
I've applied a dark texture (TerrainBWLichenMud.dds) but didn't realize it's a grass texture. Still, it'll do for the moment.
Are these islands going to be of a colourful soft coral or sinister
dark hard coral reef? I assumed the later judging by what little of the
dark stories I read. Most my own experience is with hard corals (quite
a bit with the Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia and a little bit of
the great Barrier). Whilst they were intricately shaped corals, there
was nothing smooth there at all, the overall profile everywhere is very
'blocky'. To get smoothness you need sediment, like sand or turf does
on other terrains. Coral tends to grow underwater too, so what the
reason for so much of it being above ground is I don't know (since the
lore states the island's profile is often changing), maybe the
underwater plates are rising, I wouldn't think the actual sea level is
changing that quickly otherwise (or we could do the Great Flood of
Cyrodiil .
) Or I'll just assume this coral is very different to Earth's coral ...
The TES engine land standard isn't going to give you much chance for
finely chisseled coral, but a kind of coral grass texture could help
hide the blockiness of the landscape.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts about the current 2D sizes.
Lightwave
p.s. * edit * Thinking about organic rock formations, in Western
Australia there's some other interesting stuff. The oldest living
organisms known in the world, Stromatolites (which are over 3,000 years
old) look like this:
And there's also the Pinnacles, not quite organic rock, but limestone
that has grown up through the soil and effectively petrified a forest:
[My car is to the far left but don't be entirely fooled, I was laying on ground level for that pic].
Whilst in New Zealand there's stuff like this -almost as big as me when
out of the ground (though admittedly not organic, but hey):
No screenshots of Thras in LOD - you can get those yerself from the download.
Lightwave
* edit * New link to 4 heightmaps.
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by Lightwave: 2007.04.21 21:08.
|
|
|
2007.04.17 22:22 |
|
|
Lightwave
First Knight
Registration Date: 2006.11.18
Posts: 145
Location: Cymru [Wales]
|
|
| quote: |
| The Old Ye Bard These formations will be handled with statics, and the landscape texture itself will be the "Ordered" set from SI. |
Good idea to use SI textures; there's a far better range of sinister
and colourful textures. I was thinking of using one of them on this
heightmap test, but I didn't want to restrict it to the SI owners club.
It's useful now that I know.
Lightwave
|
|
|
2007.04.17 23:09 |
|
|
|
|
|
  |
|
We have a Height Map!
He's just working out the scale at the moment, then he will be giving
it height (It's just flat at the moment, with rasied areas indicating
land).
