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[WIP] Redoran Building Exteriors, by Mooncactus and Plasmax

Submitted by mooncactus on

Right, let's get this thread rolling. Plasmax and I have been entrusted with recreating the buildings seen in Ald 'ruhn, a predominantly redoran town in Vvardenfell. We've been asked to produce something between what they look like in Morrowind and Dragonborn, and most importantly stick to the 'redoran' theme very closely. That being said, we and other developers have agreed that there is definitely room for more detail where these buildings are concerned. Not to say that we plan on going nuts; there is something nice about the simplicity of the redoran architecture, however we feel that we can emphasize the design and detail without going too mad. 

I was discussing this with Taj and Robbin yesterday and a lot of good ideas were created. One thing we all noticed was that the culture and history of House Redoran isn't shown much in their architecture, or in their surroundings in general. So, we came up with a bunch of things that us artists can bare in mind to create a richer redoran 'feel' to Ald 'ruhn, and possibly other redoran areas of Vvardenfell:

- bone and ceramic decoration (shells in particular, redoran loves armored creatures) - warrior culture - old warrior heirlooms, war trophies - historical prints, tie-dyes and mosaics of important historical events, glorifying ancestors - ceramic wall tiling - Redoran fine art being carved from glass formations taken from volcanic deposits - glass deposits around red mountain- ald'ruhn mass produces glass items for morrowind? -  a lot of their decoration would be geared towards honoring their ancestors or their  accomplishments as warriors, a lot of weapons and armors on stands. Rough, minimal art - redoran are a very functional, battle-ready house who like to stick to the old ways of their ancestors - they hold honor and heritage in very high regard -Remember key attribute for each house: Hiaalu=wealth, Telvanni=magic, Indoril=religion, Redoran=war.   As you can see these are rough notes but you get the idea.   I've started modelling the outer wall for Ald 'ruhn. People have been talking about making it a closed off town (which I think isn't a bad idea since you'd have thought the redoran council would've sorted better security after Morvayn manor got fucked), so I've modelled it so that it can be quite big if need be- but incase people change their minds it can also be scaled down a bit.    [External image]   I've stuck closely to reference from Morrowind, but incorporated a bit more of a 'reinforced' design to it. As said above, the redoran are into their shells and bone, so I thought a stacked shell look might be quite neat. If anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them, and I'm always on the lookout for more reference :) back to work!

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Last edited by grumpycat on 8 Dec 2014 - 18:00.

Thanks yours truly, I'll keep that in mind :)

Happy, I hope this is to your liking 

[External image]

 

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I don't know about Happy, but I think that's great!

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Damn, that last one looks amazing!

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Tajnarasha

Aye! Unfortunately right now the city is a CTD heaven so it will have to be closed off in order to make it into a playable state.



I'm pretty sure once some of the collision gets optimized, it'll stop crashing. I've actually gotten Ald'Ruhn to stop crashing by removing the urns and other containers.
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Quick update: Sorting out shaders and fixing textures etc. Update to the brick wall texture I'm trying to blend in between the daedric script and the clay wall:

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And a very rough screenshot I will be replacing with a nicer one soon:

[External image]

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I'm getting an odd issue in skyrim where a square is appearing in my texture when close, but disappears when I back up a bit. 

[External image]

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I may be thrown off by the angle that you used in your shots, but comparatively to the door your building model looks even smaller than the Morrowind equivalent. See here; 

 

http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131229104640/elderscrolls/images/5/5d/Ald'ruhn_Fighters_Guild.png

 

The overall dimensions need to be adjusted somehow because not only is it up to size, but Morrowind's inner/outer dimensions were already pretty skewered. Redoran buildings will each be like their own Tardis if they're not made bigger :P

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Yeah I can look into that. Proportions were taken directly from the morrowind model but I shored up the awning a bit and forgot to reduce door size.

In the meantime, if anybody has any working methods for multilayered transparency in nifskope I would love you forever. I've managed a partial solution by using a push modifier to create "shell" layers, which results in undesirable texture parallax. 

This is me after 3 days of trying to solve this.

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Edit: a good example is skyrim's meshes/architecture/solitude/scastlewall02.nif - which I've noticed has problems of its own. Is it only possible to get this working on flat faces?

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@Taj: It was my FOV in Skyrim that distorted the proportions of the building. I imported the morrowind nif of the same building, looking at it in green over the new one confirms the proportions of the original.

[External image]

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Perfect! I was just worried due to obvious proportion weirdness in ald'ruhn specifically ;)

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That turned out pretty good I think, hopefully people don't think its too over the top. The only thing is that the military strategist in me sees the better ways of constructing it to keep people out, but Morrowind has never been about practicality and always been about the beauty of the structures.

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Not quite as stunning as Plasmax's latest update, but completed another wall piece, this time a 90 degree wall piece, a less wide version :)

[External image]

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Lol, it actually looks like a sad bull

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The latest one is much better :)

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I don't know... I know the new one is closer to what it was in Morrowind, but now I kind of like the tall arch.  It looks proud.  Reminds me of a Pinta Island tortoise.

[External image]

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The tall arch shows off the low poly-ness of that area a lot more than the short arch.

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Update- I was asked to lengthen the bottom parts of the walls so that they could be sunk into the ground if they collide with uneven terrain, here's the result 

[External image]

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Hmm, if those walls get sunk they will also sink the base of the towers (unless those are separate) but maybe they need to be extended as well

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Random idea, make Ald'Ruhn more flat but on levels like Whiterun. I know that's pretty much what it is now but maybe expand on that idea.

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LA I'm not sure what you mean? If anything Whiterun isn't nearly as flat as Ald'ruhn in Morrowind. 

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I believe La is referring to how whiterun's district we're separated by flat plateaues.

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Shushine

I believe La is referring to how whiterun's district we're separated by flat plateaues.

 

I do enjoy the sound of that idea. Like Ald'ruhn would be a series of plateaus leading to Skar. Given that we're walling off the city that would allow us more control on how the place is laid out. Someone will have to come up with a bird's view of how Ald'ruhn should look ;)

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Heres the morrowind version 

[External image]

Its not my department so I currently don't really have a opinion. But having a lead up like Whiterun could be cool though im largely indifferent on the matter. 

 

 

 

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Well since Ald'Ruhn is being completely remade, it could pose a good opportunity for this undertaking. I believe it would actually be fairly simple, get a decent plan of where things should go and then edit the height map.

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The original concept gives a pretty good indication of terrain levels, definitely a starting point at least:

[External image]

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I agrizzle with all of this, and yeah Plas I'm gonna do that :) More maya adventures!

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Ok so I lengthened the bottoms of the pillars, and changed the shape of the platform canopies at eloth's request

[External image]

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Yeah, so as everyone can see from that original art, the premise is already there, we just have to build upon it, make the height between each level more distinct. With the new walls and buildings, this would turn out to be a masterpiece.

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Spent a lot of time messing with proportions. Doing anything to the outer arch makes the building look weird. I added a front extension to make the entrance smaller though.

 

[External image]

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It may seem like the changes are small but I can definitely notice this makes a massive difference in solving the weird interior/exterior proportions of the Fighter's Guild. This is far more along the lines of how big Ald'ruhn's buildings should be to compensate for their cells. 

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Not a building update but I was testing a new tiling texture I'm working on for this project. This one's a bit stylised but I enjoyed playing around with xoliul's cubemap shader in the 3ds viewport:

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Hey guys :) decided to take a break from the wall modeling and start actually making some textures! Here's a tileable cobblestone one I did in ZBrush which I'm going to try out on the walls (which will be underneath the clay, only showing through cracks and missing chunks) and when I start on the buildings I'll try it on them too. 

[External image]

edit: may want to open it in a new tab :P

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Working on a 2nd building based on Kirkbride's sketches. Looking at the layout again, I'm not sure this one is actually in Morrowind - maybe someone can tell me?

Model WIP

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Test Textures (the floor scale is way too big)

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I wanted to test out a brick arch at the front. Might keep as a blended texture layer.

[External image]

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Nice!

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Hey Plasmax, this looks amazing! The building you are making is actually in Ald'ruhn, in game. I believe The Rat in the Pot & the Ald Skar Inn both use the model. You should be able to find the equivalent in the files somewhere for comparison :)

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Plasmax: The Kirkbride building you are referring to was manipulated to some degree and placed in game. The "slots" were filled in. I took a screenshot of it and posted in below. This was found near the Skar in Ald-ruhn. I hope that helps!

[External image]

http://i.imgur.com/vHdkyff.png

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Awesome, I've been waiting for those :)

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Another tileable! Should work for the layer under the clay on some buildings, maybe the walls too. Still needs tiny seam fixes and maybe a bit more work on the diffuse but here it is for now. Bed time :)

[External image]

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I love the new model plasmax. My only suggestion- maybe make the front stretched out just a bit, I am not sure about the dimensions, but the interior seems like it take more space than the  exterior model gives (I am not including the lower levels, just the upper bar and such).

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Thank you all for the suggestions. Glad to know it's the Ald Skar Inn, I need to fire up Morrowind and run around Ald'Ruhn a bit.

Update: AldRuhn now has doors! Screenshot from maya:

[External image]

 

 

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plasmax

Thank you all for the suggestions. Glad to know it's the Ald Skar Inn, I need to fire up Morrowind and run around Ald'Ruhn a bit.

Update: AldRuhn now has doors! Screenshot from maya:

[External image]

 

 

Wow that looks amazing! Great job :)

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The Redoran symbol engraving in the door is a really nice touch! 

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OMG I love the doors, they have a great feel to them, and I love the scarab.  Will they all have the scarab insignia, possibly a few without for diversity? Amazing work!

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Wonderful design! Can you by any chance also texture in some rust marks on the wood next to the iron?

And a more crazy suggestion that is probably too late in the workflow - maybe the gaps between the planks could be filled with ash dust?

I like it as it is anyways :)

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I hope I am jumping ahead too much, I am in love with what I have seen thus far, just wondering if the platform for silt striders be done as a seamless part of the wall or a separate piece?  Inside the wall or outside?

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That door, oh my! You sir can do any door you want! Telvanni..hint, hint

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